Chaos' Heir

Chapter 1564: Needles

The God’s right arm, leg, and side of his torso were floating away from the rest of his body, detached completely, leaking no blood or glowing smoke.

However, the grip on Khan’s chin remained firm. Actually, it was so solid that Khan couldn’t even attempt to move or escape from it. His cells had come alive as soon as his survival instincts had sounded the alarm, but that didn’t help at all.

Of all the fields where Khan could have been inferior to the God, physical prowess wasn’t the one he would have bet on. After all, literal planetary horrors had tainted him, granting inhuman advantages to his very cells.

Still, the God’s grip remained unshakable, stopping Khan’s very intention to struggle his way out of it.

Besides, Khan had heard the God’s statement, which fused with the previous scene to lead to a troubling conclusion.

A truth Khan couldn’t completely absorb from the white-azure sphere revealed the crumbs it had left in his mind. Physical shapes were unnecessary limits that superior existences didn’t have. They were actually a burden that the ascension to higher levels would remove.

Khan had rejected that type of ascension, but the True Chaos was an energy born from the mana. Its God, creator, and sole embodiment had obviously followed the more traditional, natural path, rejecting the need for a physical shape.

Therefore, that black body was a favor, something the God had done to make things easier for Khan and the Emperor. It was another test that their inferior state prevented them from overcoming.

Evolved warriors already existed past their physical limits. Their existences were vast and multilayered, often impossible to touch by inferior powers.

In the same way, Gods stood above evolved warriors, their existences occupying even higher, untouchable levels. Khan and the Emperor were indeed exceptions, but the True Chaos’ God remained unreachable.

In short, the God had no physical form, and Khan wouldn’t bet on the existence of a weakness like the mana’s heart. Even then, his state was beyond what Khan could affect at his current level. Chances were that the whole separate universe was part of the God, too.

So, Khan opted for the simplest and wisest approach. He would burn everything to the ground.

Sure, the God’s grip was insurmountable, but that would lose any meaning if the hand exerting it didn’t exist anymore.

Sparks flowed out from Khan’s body, but only a single thunder resounded in the spherical area before a purple-red flash took control of it.

Khan was physically exhausted, drowsy even, but his mana reserves had never been a problem. His element could also act on its own. His chaos actually preferred to do that, so he let it go wild.

As the flash dimmed, the spherical area’s new state revealed itself. A purple-red color had taken over its atmosphere, occasionally gathering into uneven, brighter masses of mana that released random attacks.

Obviously, the lightning bolts were the most common attacks, flashing and thundering from those uneven masses to explode into the harmless air.

Still, the masses also released other kinds of attacks. Angry flames shot out of those uneven clumps of energy while they fired beams left and right. A few even detonated, unleashing violent, all-devouring gales of mana.

The attacks never hit anything since there was nothing to hit, or rather, they landed exactly where Khan wanted them to land: everywhere.

One of the problems with fighting a God was the scope of his existence. Khan couldn’t even comprehend how big he was. He couldn’t even sense him.

However, that separated universe belonged to the God and was probably part of his existence, so Khan would raze it to the ground, starting from that relatively smaller spherical area.

Of course, Khan didn’t let his chaos do all the work. More mana escaped from his back, accumulating behind his figure to create a thick, horizontal array of stylized reptilian eyes, which quickly unleashed destructive beams.

Once again, the beams had no real target, or rather, it didn’t matter what they hit as long as they exploded somewhere.

The inability to sense the God was annoying and somewhat of a novelty for Khan. After all, he had relied on his perception for so much of his life, he almost felt blind now.

That issue extended to that separate dimension inside a separate dimension. In theory, that place was no different than ordinary space for Khan, but being aware of its true nature gave him confidence in his new strategy.

Khan had been able to break the fabric of space with the help of his scientists’ machines and the additional synthetic mana. He couldn’t exactly affect that realm on his own, but there had to be structural limits to that alternative dimension.

As long as Khan fired everything he had at full power, that separate dimension might crumble, and, hopefully, the event could hurt the God.

Also, even if slim, the chances of a sudden enlightenment were there. After all, the God had spoken the truth. Power had to be tested with adversity, and Khan couldn’t think of a bigger challenge that could force him to improve even further.

The vast and overwhelming display of power put an excited smirk on the Emperor’s face, who only lingered for a few seconds in his inspection of the assault before planning to join it.

However, something else preceded the Emperor. The initial blinding flash had freed Khan of whatever body path had been holding him, but a black figure suddenly reformed before him, his hand still clung to his chin.

The world wasn’t the same as before. The beams from the stylized reptilian eyes and a few sparks ended up hitting the just-reformed God, landing straight onto him, only to do no damage.

And Khan could only watch while blinding explosions filled his vision as the God calmly let go of his chin, diverting his scarlet gaze, and voicing his apparent disappointment. "[You are useless to me as you are]."

Khan was about to respond when a sharp pain spread from multiple areas of his body. He found himself unable to move, and lowering his gaze revealed a gory sight.

Ten fuming and long slabs of what resembled giant needles had stabbed Khan’s wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees, and ankles, virtually immobilizing him, shackling him to the sky he had painted purple-red.