The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 33: Against a God

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BOOOM!

Primordial Essence was channeled alongside Photon energy; an explosion of blinding light consumed it all. The God of Deep Darkness was instantly blown up, his body disappearing and burning into ashes as he screamed in pain. The eternal light consumed everything; his castle was destroyed, vaporized, and quite literally deleted from existence, and everything within our surroundings was also destroyed.

What remained was only me, standing over a huge crater deep within the hard floor of the underworld. I looked around my surroundings and quickly noticed that, despite the attack, God wasn’t dead yet.

“Not dead yet, amazing. So you can take more than one hit.”

Darkness gathered from all my surroundings. I felt the Underworld itself twist its own laws. The God that governed it all was reformed from scratch, with shadows and darkness quickly gathering above me, forming the figure of a gigantic man made of pure obscurity, umbral darkness weaving itself into a robe, long skeletal claws, and sharp crimson eyes.

“You cannot kill me.” He spoke with a stern voice.

“Is that so?” I pointed my finger at him, and a beam of Photonic Essence erupted.

BOOOM!

His entire body was destroyed once more, and as the light consumed him completely, nothing was left behind. For a moment, there were a few seconds of total stillness.

Yet.

“I told you it’s impossible.”

He reappeared again, the same form, the same shape, altogether above me, looming like a gigantic being that I simply couldn’t fight and defeat. He died twice and came back. He’s like Joseph, then? There are some techniques that can reconstruct him completely.

“And what makes you believe so?”

He started to laugh at my question, his laughter reverberating across the entire underworld. Suddenly, all the Undead, all of the subjects I killed, came back as Undead skeletons around him—ghosts, zombies, whatever else there could be, it came back.

“As you can see, we Gods are eternal beings. Our subjects, as well, are eternal as long as they’re bound to our souls.” He laughed. “You might have been able to kill my weakest Avatars, but in my Divine Realm, I am supremely omnipotent!”

“Not really,” I spoke as I waved my scythe and my sword. Two waves of bright light and dark shadows engulfed the undead, killing them instantly. “I’ve been studying you, Gods, for a little while since I landed here. You are certainly different than any foe I’ve ever fought; your bodies and your existences work differently, yes. However, you can definitely die.”

“Yes, gods can die; I won’t deny it. But as of right now, I can’t die.” He laughed. “We Gods are made of the belief and faith of our followers! As long as there’s belief in my existence within the world of Eclipse, I will keep reappearing endlessly! I am an absolute existence, the embodiment of Eclipse’s mortals' fear of the unknown, their fear of darkness and death. I am the patron god of bandits, thieves, and the wicked! Psychopaths! I am the other side of the same coin, while the Mother of Brilliance is my complete opposite. She loves and cares for everybody and protects them. Meanwhile, I bring them chaos and challenges.”

“Is that so?” I asked. “So?”

“…So! You can’t kill me! You might be incredibly powerful for a mortal, perhaps even stronger than me. And because of that, I can’t even dare to harm you either.” He sighed. “However, if we can’t harm one another, then let’s simply live in harmony. I can become your ally if you desire. We can fight against the other gods; I might teach you a way to weaken them and force them to become your slaves.”

“How cute; you’re trying to become my ally now?” I laughed. “Well, at one point in my life, when I was much weaker, I would have accepted that offer. However, right now, nothing says you can’t truly die.”

“If you wanted me to die, you would need to first kill every person who ever believed in my existence. You would even need to wipe out the most intelligent life in the entirety of Eclipse! Do you understand? Your heart is one of a hero; I know it. Deep down, you would never do such a thing.” He smiled. “You may try to kill me as much as you want now, but you will simply not get any results! Now, either leave or simply stay by my side. The result will be the same.”

“I don’t think so,” I said, raising my hands into the empty air. “You Gods are not "absolute." Although you are fed by your believers through Faith, your existence can still die, regardless of whether your believers die or not. The way to do it, however, is not something most people would know.”

“What? W-What are you talking about?!” He muttered. “There is simply no way than- AH!”

His eyes widened as he saw my hands grasping something—something invisible, something not even he could clearly discern. It was the very fabric of his own Divine Domain; they resembled countless transparent threads of Divinity. I was able to easily grasp them by coating my own hands with Primordial Essence.

“Stop! Are you trying to destroy my Divine Realm?!”

“Suddenly you became scared, huh? I wonder why!”

“S-STOP!”

The God of Deep Darkness didn’t wait for another second, his endless shadows encompassing me entirely. As I saw countless jaws made of shadows attempting to tear me to shreds, such attacks, however, were nowhere as strong as the Techniques a Peak Immortal could unleash. Each of his blows released explosions of shadows, darkness, and even pure death essence. His abilities constantly attempt to reach my soul.

Yet…

“You can’t stop me.”

I closed my hands tightly as I tore apart his Divine Realm’s "threads," the very fabric of the Divine Realm formation he had created using his powers or skills. He certainly made them rely on a power he couldn’t quite understand. I believe even the Gods of the Tower are all subject to the System at the end, and therefore, it makes sense that there are certain things he isn’t aware of within the powers he uses seamlessly.

Crack, crack…!

“STOP!”

CRASH!

I didn’t stop; the Divine Realm was torn open like a piece of fabric. A crack in space opened, which kept expanding as I continued to tear it apart. I moved at lightning speed across the entire Underworld, tearing apart the entire Divine Realm that the God of Deep Darkness had forged for perhaps thousands of years, if not more.

“NOOO! STOP! I SAID STOP!”

He grew desperate, countless crimson eyes appearing all around me, firing beams of all-destructive Death Essence, capable of turning most living beings into piles of ashes in a mere instant by injecting them with pure Death Essence.

Yet.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

“Way too weak; you’re not even comparable to a Mid-Rank Immortal with such attacks! And you call yourself a God? You’re more like just a puppy to me.”

“RAAAARRGH!”

He roared with the utmost fury and frustration as his entire Divine Realm started to get, quite literally, folded. I was folding the fabric of his Realm by twisting the space itself; I made it smaller and smaller. While being completely unaffected by any of his attacks, I continued folding and, at the same time, refining the Divine Realm.

“Stop this at once! What do you think you’re doing?! I am a GOD! Give me some respect, at least! HEY! WHAT- UGH! WHAT IS THIS?!”

However, it was too late; he was now in the palm of my hands, made into a much smaller entity. My way of dealing with Gods was very simple. Because their existences depended on the Divine Realms they possessed, I simply had to fold their Divine Realm into a much smaller form, compact enough to hold them but no bigger than that.

“Although your existences indeed depend on the belief and faith of your subjects, it doesn’t mean you can simply regenerate endlessly. It works differently, is it not? You Gods gain this power as Faith Points, and you use it to grow your Divinity Trees, further improving the clarity of your existences.” I explained to him something he seemed unaware of. “You kept reviving after I killed you because you continued spending Faith Points to recover.”

“T-That’s…!” He quickly panicked. “E-ENOUGH! Even if my Faith Points reach zero, I will simply earn more and recover again; it won’t matter as long as- Ah!”

“Is that so? Then let’s give it a go!” I laughed, injecting my fingers into his “immortal body”, and draining him of his endless energy. “Thank you for the meal.”

FLUOSH!

“UGH…?! W-WAIT! STOP! STOP, I SAID!”

He kept screaming as I started absorbing his energy, and an endless source of Divinity started reaching my body. My Divinity, which had been growing slowly, started shining brighter than ever before, improving by the second.

“UAARRGH! NOOO!”

However, my meal was stopped midway through as the God of Deep Darkness mustered all the power he had. I felt like his stats increased drastically as he unleashed his strongest skills, barely managing to slip away from my hands. How? He became part void and part shadow, disappearing and then reappearing behind me, at least a kilometer away.

“Hahhh… Y-You monster! You’ve forced me to use my Secret Divinity, the one I’ve been forging for a millennium!” He screamed. His Divine Realm had been compacted into a single body, making him naturally stronger as well, as all his powers were compacted into a smaller form.

“Was that the element of Void?” I wondered. “The only Element I could not assimilate was the elusive Dao of Void!”

“Dao of Void?!” He asked. “You talk a bunch of words I don’t even understand, you insane woman…!” His body quickly shifted into that of a tall and muscular man made of darkness and void essence, with six arms and three heads. “I’ll end you.”

His hands opened crimson eyes, firing Void Beams against me. I felt as if each beam was able to traverse space by deleting it completely. This made it so that when a beam hit me, a huge crack in space was left, with the resulting energy fluctuations generating enormous and destructive explosions.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

He kept shooting and shooting; the impact force of his beams was much more powerful than any ability or attack he had ever unleashed before. For the first time ever, I felt slightly taken aback.

“Hahahah! You can’t escape the Element of Void, woman!” The God of Deep Darkness laughed. “And this power… I owe it to you for having gifted me with such immense strength! I never thought it was possible to refine my Divine Realm and my body together into such a compact form!”

As he laughed while drowning in his own fake glory, I continued walking towards him, his beams exploding and leaving holes in space, yet these holes and the distortions in the fabric of dimensions were unable to harm me. My Primordial Nine Heaven Protection gained a few little cracks, though, so it was quite commendable.

“Amusing indeed, the Element of Void; if I can assimilate it from you, it’ll be an incredible reward!” I smiled back at him. “Now, now, enough of playing around. Come and die, please.”

“E-Eh?!” He stepped back as he saw me appear from within the smoke left behind by the explosion. “C-Complete unscathed?! No… but that’s impossible!”

“Impossible? The only thing impossible here is you ever harming me.” I smiled. “However, I want to show you what I can do and the extent of my abilities. As a farewell gift. I will show you what you can’t become. True Darkness.”

“T-True… Darkness…?”

As he started to panic and fire more Void Beams, my entire body turned deep black in a second. I was enshrouded by black, storming clouds and black and crimson lightning surging endlessly, zapping my surroundings. The composition of my entire body changed in a mere split second.

“{Immemorial Nine Heaven Embodiment}: {Shadow Crowned Black Heaven’s Physique}”

“W-Wha…?!”

His crimson eyes opened wide as he saw my form change. Much like him, I had become a being of pure obscurity, of umbral, eternal darkness.

This was one of the special abilities within the {Immemorial Nine Heaven Embodiment} arts, which allowed me to assimilate Nine different Physiques, all forged using the Nine Heavens of Murim.

And the Black Heaven’s Physique embodied the endless darkness of the black skies.

“This is the power you will never be able to achieve,” I said. “Admire it; stay in awe of its greatness. This will be the first and last time you see it. Because your death is now approaching, God of Deep Darkness.”

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