Chapter 413 - Injustice
When Yaan first entered the trap of Divine Heaven, finding himself within Chu Sun’s dream of Planet Solar Grace, all 21 surviving members of the Divine Curt were surrounding the eternal gate of Divine Heaven, this orb of blinding white light which held the entirety of the star system in its orbit.
There were various Divine Treasures in this world, all of varying degrees of power. It was widely accepted that Primordial Divine Treasures – Divine Treasures refined from Primordial Treasures – were vastly superior compared to normal Divine Treasures. That said, even amongst Primordial Divine Treasures, there were different levels, and Divine Heaven stood at the absolute peak. This wasn’t just a simple treasure, but a natural construct of the world that Law Empyrean had continuously refined for millions of years, ever since he first captured the Primordial Treasure Infinite Gold Cloud back then.
Since then, Law Empyrean had re-refined Divine Heaven and Infinite Gold Cloud countless times, even connecting a massive formation unknown to anyone but himself to this ultimate weapon of his.
Aside from Law Empyrean, nobody truly understood Divine Heaven.
The divinities surrounded Divine Heaven, all feeling uncertain and occasionally casting Law Empyrean wary gazes. Justice Deity in particular looked torn, confused and uncertain…
She had always held her master in such high esteem for being the founder of righteousness, law and order in this world. It was because of her master that she was able to enact her own justice!
But now…
More and more, she felt like she didn’t understand whom this master of hers was anymore.
Suddenly, Divine Heaven trembled. As the core of the star system trembled, so did the entire star system, all of its planets, moons and stars, and even the fabric of space itself. It didn’t last for long, but in those brief few seconds, caused by Yaan shattering the dream and awakening Chu Sun from his long slumber, billions of lives were lost to the disasters which arose from the shaking of the world.
This loss was nothing much compared to all the recent calamities that the world had endured, but even so, Justice looked at her master sharply.
“Master, what is going on? Did the World Demon escape?”
“The World Demon has escaped from the first layer of the trap, this is not an issue.” Law Empyrean relied calmly, without bothering to look at her. His gaze remained unfathomable, as if nothing could shake him, as if everything was in the palm of his hand.
“Not an issue?!” Justice Deity ground her teeth. “Billions of lives were lost, and you say that it’s not an issue?!”
“Before long, all lives in this world will be lost. Justice, you cannot attach yourself to these petty losses; remember that all lives will inevitably fall at the end of the Era. The most important duty of our Divine Court is to pursue the Origin Ascensions of the righteous, whilst suppressing those of the demonic. In the face of the Origin Fate, this is all we can do.”
Justice Deity clenched her fists silently.
What he said made sense, she knew that, but even so…
How could he be so callous about it? How could he not even care?!
In an attempt to break up this argument between master and disciple, Rainbow Empyrean, the only remaining Empyrean in the Divine Court aside from Law Empyrean, narrowed his eyes and squinted at Divine Heaven, before asking:
“Divine Court Lord, if the World Demon has escaped from the trap, then what now? I take it, there is another trap, and he cannot escape from Divine Heaven?”
“There is indeed another trap imprisoning the World Demon within Divine Heaven…” Law Empyrean replied, making the surrounding divinities feel relieved. Until he said…
“But this will not hold him. The World Demon will break through this second layer, and when he does so, you must all be prepared to suppress the destruction of Divine Heaven.”
“What?”
“The destruction of Divine Heaven…?”
“This…the damage this will cause…”
“Is this sacrifice truly worth it, for one World Demon…?”
After silently listening to his subordinates’ concerns, Law Empyrean’s gaze shone brilliantly.
“This trap is not only for the World Demon. With this trap…I shall remove the weak, and imprison the strong…and finally, I will be able to shed the shackles of this farce.”
His words caused shivers to fill their bodies and doubts to flood their minds, but before anyone could react, it happened.
A small crack opened in Divine Heaven, then an aura slipped through the crack and vanished into the distance. Before anyone could even think about chasing after the fleeing World Demon however, they all felt a premonition of danger like nothing they had ever experienced before.
Law Empyrean’s eyes shone brilliantly. He at first reached out towards Divine Heaven, as if to suppress the rising destruction. However, the very moment the other divinities caught on and did likewise…
Law Empyrean suddenly shot backwards, waving his hand and wrapping Justice Deity up in a cocoon of golden power. He retreated at an incredible speed that seemingly defied the laws of space and time, but in reality, this was not quite right…
Law Empyrean was indeed retreating rapidly, but Divine Heaven, and the entirety of the Divine Star System, was also moving in the opposite direction!
The Divine Court divinities were shocked, but they didn’t have time to think about the fact that their long time lord and leader had suddenly abandoned them for no conceivable reason. The destructive power spreading out from Divine Heaven was rapidly growing stronger, and if they didn’t give their all to suppress it, it would-
BANG!
The explosion was too sudden, it was completely impossible to avoid or control.
And yet, it was controlled, perfectly controlled, controlled by a terrifying formation that spread throughout the stars – no, throughout the entire starry sky!
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From Divine Heaven, the web of destruction seemed to follow a pathway through the stars, storming through every Solar Planet in the star system, before curving around, bending space-time itself, as it followed after Yaan’s path of escape!
Originally, Divine Star System was the furthest from the Neutral Star System, with the largest Primordial Star System laying between them as a blockade. It was for this reason that the Neutral Star System had been able to hold on for so long against the Divine Court’s path of conquest.
But now, all of a sudden, the Divine Star System was adjacent to the Neutral Star System! The storm of destruction exploded around the edges of these star systems, completely enveloping the star systems within!
At the same time, as the starry sky was distorted in a way that shocked all manner of life throughout the world, the web of destruction passed through the Primordial Star System, the Four Divine Star System, the Cosmic Ocean Star System, the Dark Star System, and the Desolate Star System. All seven star systems were wrapped up in a net of destruction, and in the centre of this spherical cosmic net, unknowingly, Divine Heaven had reached the centre of the Crimson Sun of the Blood Plane, fusing into the sun and becoming a force of absolute power which held this shocking formation in place.
Inside of the cosmic net, destruction swept throughout the stars. Every living being below the Immortal Step was instantly annihilated, and depending on where they had been positioned during the activation of the formation, many immortals, Transcendents, and even divinities were also slaughtered ruthlessly!
An aura of death enveloped the inside of the net.
At the border of the spherical destructive sphere, a wall of destruction, held in balance by some unknown power, held all of the destruction within, letting none leak out. Those who had managed to evade the trap and found themselves outside could only stare at the wall of destructive power fearfully, not understanding what was going on.
Those within the net were struggling to resist the ongoing power of destruction, which seemed to be rewriting all laws, replacing them with one thing only – destruction!
As Justice Deity stared down, watching with tears streaming down her face as 16 of her 21 comrades in the Divine Court were torn apart and slaughtered by the initial eruption of destruction, she trembled fiercely, before slowly turning to look up at her master.
Law Empyrean stood there calmly, just watching, until finally, he confirmed that the net of destruction had stabilised.
At this point, every divinity throughout the world, whether inside or outside of net, silently stared up, their gazes landing on Law Empyrean whose evil and imposing image seemed to be reflected all throughout the stars.
Even Yaan and Defiance, stood at the very bottom of the net, paused, not yet starting their battle and instead looking up.
A portal appeared behind Yaan and the Primordial Sage stepped out silently.
“Sage…are you also trapped?” Yaan asked slowly.
“I am.” She confirmed.
Yaan frowned.
The Sage, who could come and go as she pleased due to her Sea of Consciousness overlapping with the world itself, was trapped within this net…
Yaan could feel just how powerful the restrictive force of this net truly was, because he could not even sense the fate of those who stood outside of its bounds!
If the Sage was also trapped here, if she was telling the honest truth…it meant that the entire Sage Plane had also been wrapped up and restrained within this net of destruction!
Yaan was suddenly reminded of the God of Chaos’s prophecy…
‘When the world returns to a single plane…’
Suddenly, Yaan’s eyes narrowed, his gaze piercing through the world and landing on Law Empyrean.
For the first time since he stepped into the 2nd Origin Era, the stoic man…smirked.
Yaan finally understood his goal. His wasn’t just trying to slaughter the weaker divinities and trap the stronger ones, he was trying to facilitate the final sign, opening up the spatial tear and allowing the Paragon Wills to invade, but restricting them to invading the space within this cosmic net!
Outside of the cosmic net, standing at the peak of the world, above the destruction and far above the continent down below…
Justice Deity stood beside her master. As she looked around, she understood that aside from her master and herself, all other divinities had either been slaughtered, or dragged into the net of destruction.
The power of this hidden formation was too extreme, it even affected the Blood Plane’s continent, sun and moon. The sun had become the core of the net and the moon orbited around it. The continent was the sole celestial body to escape the net’s clutches, but it just so happened that in the moment of the formation’s activation, not a single divinity had been down on the continent below…
This was an extremely rare situation, and clearly, all part of Law Empyrean’s plan. He was an expert in divination, and apparently and expert in setting up grand formations too. The only formations in this world that were comparable to this one had already been destroyed; the cycle of reincarnation, and Yaan’s Karmic Annihilation Formation.
So many beings had lost their lives. The destructive force of this trap had also spread and swept through the continent, wiping out all mortal life from this world…
“What do you think, Justice?”
Hearing the question posed to her in a teasing tone, Justice looked up at her master, and suddenly felt like she didn’t recognise him at all.
The rest of the world felt similarly, as Law Empyrean’s ghastly visage was projected throughout all of space.
A mocking smile was spreading across his face, until eventually, he threw his head back and roared with laughter.
“Hahaha! Kakakakakaka! Finally! Fucking finally! Finally, an entire Era of planning, an entire Era of scheming, an entire Era of acting, has come to fruition!”
As Law Empyrean laughed, his aura rapidly changed, from that of law, order and righteousness, to a heinous, villainous evil. This evil spread throughout the world, causing Justice Deity to shiver in confusion. She couldn’t help but back away slowly from the man that she no longer recognised.
Law Empyrean cast her a glance and smirked.
“You, stay and watch. You will understand soon enough…’Justice’…kakakaka!”
Law Empyrean took a deep breath, before exhaling deeply, as if venting millions of years of frustrations. He then looked down into the cosmic net, facing the surviving divinities who were so familiar with his past self, yet didn’t recognise the current person before them at all.
Well, some individuals present recognised him…
“So you finally showed your true face, you Evil bastard.” Defiance Sovereign laughed darkly, folding his arms and looking straight up, as if unsurprised by this shocking turn of events. It seemed that no matter what happened in this world, nothing could surprise this man. Perhaps, after living through three Origin Eras, he had simply seen too much…
“How many times…?” Law Empyrean muttered to himself, before suddenly laughing like a lunatic and burying his face into one hand with a manic grin. “Do you have any idea how many times I nearly broke down laughing, as I acted the part of this world’s leader of righteousness?! Do you have any idea how difficult it was, to keep a straight face for the past two million years?! So many times I wanted to laugh at your idiocy, as you actually believed in the bullshit ‘morals’ that I made up as a joke! So many times I was tempted to slap your virtuous faces to death on a whim, just to see how you would all react! Haha…but in the end, I’m glad. I’m glad that I managed to hold on until the end, because this? What could possibly be better…than this?!”
Law Empyrean spread his arms wide opening, gesturing towards all of the destruction and carnage that he had created, towards the trap that he had led everyone into.
Justice Deity finally couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t even feel angry at this point, just confused and broken. But still, she had to know…
“Master…why?” Justice barely managed to choke out.
“Oh Justice, you still don’t understand?” The man whose face was growing more cruel and evil by the second turned to face his disciple and licked his lips eerily. “Law Empyrean? The Divine Court? Fucking righteousness?! It was all a sham, a sham that the whole damned world fell for like the suckers they are!”
“Then the truth?” Justice asked weakly, her voice filled with trepidation, even though she knew what was coming.
No, she only thought she knew, but the actual truth…was far worse.
“Of course, I am the Evil God.” The man replied as if it was obvious.
But then, he suddenly laughed.
“At least, that’s half of the truth.”
“What?”
The Evil God roared with laughter, causing the world to tremble as if in fear under the sheer cruelty that was innate to his tone of voice.
“I am the Core Origin Incarnation of the Evil God, and you, ‘Justice’, my dear beloved disciple…are the Evil God’s secondary Origin Incarnation!”
“Oh, how surprising.” Defiance rolled his eyes sarcastically.
To Justice Deity though, this was indeed a surprise…or rather, this revelation sounded so absurd that she simply refused to believe it.
“Me? The Evil God?” She asked with wide eyes, before gritting her teeth and releasing her aura of justice in all its golden glory. “Impossible! Master- no, you fiendish, deceptive demon! Do you really think that I would fall for such childish trickery?!”
“Why would I bother tricking you at this point?” The Evil God’s primary self laughed. “If you were truly just another useless divinity, I would have killed you along with the others. The only reason that you are standing outside, here, with me…is because you are me, Justice. Or should I say…Injustice! Hahahaha!”
Justice Deity’s heart trembled. Normally, she would never believe such ridiculous words, however…
Law Empyrean had shed his former identity, finally embracing the truth within his heart – that is, pure, unadulterated, evil.
As he spoke, his every word was imbued with the dao of evil, a dao that resonated with Justice Deity’s dao heart, causing cracks to appear one by one, as if it were the shell of an egg, just waiting to hatch.
Justice Deity could feel this change…and she could feel that beneath the exterior of her heart of justice, something else lay deeper within, something that she had never known, something that she had spent her entire life fighting against…
“No…no! Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up!” Justice Deity’s eyes turned blood shot and she gasped for breath. Her aura was thrown into chaos as two completely incompatible and opposite daos started to battle within her.
“You can feel it, can’t you, Injustice? The façade of your righteousness is breaking down, as the truth of the evil within your heart is awakening! You are no different than me, Injustice! I entered this Era and became ‘Law’, but this Law was just a front for an even greater Evil. What a great Evil this has been, using ‘Law’ and ‘Righteousness’ to inflict bloodshed and slaughter upon this world in my name! My Law is, and has always been, the Evil of Tyranny, for Tyranny is but Evil masquerading as law and righteousness!”
As Justice continued to tremble uncontrollably, her Evil master leaned in closer and whispered into her ear.
“You are the same, Injustice. You spent your life pursuing Justice, but you fought for the Justice of a tyrannical regime. That is not Justice…but Injustice! Pure, perfect, Injustice!”
“N-no! We’re not the same!” Justice Deity looked up, her eyes now crying streams of blood, but her gaze twisted and ferocious like never before. “Even if what you say is true…even if I was created by this ‘Evil God’…that is not who I am! I am Justice, my heart is filled with righteousness! Even if I did wrong by your deception before, I didn’t mean to! I- I didn’t inherit the memories of the Evil God, I’m not you!”
At this point, her Evil master’s smirk turned into a broad grin.
“It’s true, if there is one difference between you and I, it’s that I retained the memories of my true identity all along, whilst you were acting out of ignorance. But that’s the best part, Injustice, don’t you see? Because in this world, there is no greater Evil than ignorance.”
Crack!
These words were the final straw, causing Justice Deity’s dao heart to completely shatter. Her gaze became vacant, causing the man by her side to lick his lips in satisfaction.
“You have only just awoken, Injustice, you need time to truly comprehend your truth. Watch, stare down into the darkness of this abyss that I have created, and nourish the truth within your evil heart.”