The Cosmos.
The eternal and endless spiral of worlds dancing in the immeasurable void.
Countless worlds give birth to innumerable people. Among that seemingly endless sea of people, some stand out above the rest. Those people are the pillars of their worlds; bringers of change and revolution. Those who hold power to break the shackles of time and space to rise above the heavens.
Cultivators, those who walk the path of immortality, seek to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos, comprehend its laws, and control its forces for their own use.
Cultivators soon find that the boundaries of the worlds are mere specks of dust in a much larger cosmos, and with enough power and some luck, they start a journey beyond their homeworlds. Towards the unknown, getting rid of their mortal limits, to ascend to greater realms of existence. Becoming an Ascendant.
Each Ascendant walks a different path, meaning we wield different powers and cultivate energies in unique ways, we comprehend the cosmos and the “laws” that govern it in our own particular way, with our own perspective of them.
Not all Ascendants are Cultivators from Daoist Sects or old monks who sit in meditation all day.
There are Magi who have peered into the Source of Magic and wish to unravel its mysteries. Enlightened martial artists wishing to perfect their combat prowess. Inventors who have created machines and devices to push beyond their mortal limits. Shamans some have made pacts with entities in order to gain power. Conquerors who have achieved true sovereignty of their world thus being able to reach beyond their boundaries, in some cases even bonding and merging with their worlds.
And many, many more.
Some are pacifist people who understood some aspect of reality that made them immortal, while there are also mad freaks who massacre their way into ascension out of their greed for power and twist themselves into monsters.
But we all have some things in common. One such shared truth is the notion that “The Path is eternal, endless, and without a limit”. A simple yet infinitely profound truth, recognized by all, not by discussion and consensus, but by our own connection with it.
Now here’s the funny thing: why, if all have proved that the Path is endless, after a few ascensions into higher realms, we find a so-called “Peak of the Cosmos”, the Divine Realm above the heavens of all worlds, and we are told that there is nothing beyond it?
Utter Nonsense.
But very convincing nonsense, in some ways. Despite the certainty that there was a realm beyond the Divine Realm and that there was a way to ascend once again, no one had found such a way nor achieved Ascension even after eons of trying, it was indeed very hard to do so, as expected, the more one rises, the harder it is to keep rising, as each time it requires greater power and comprehension than before, sometimes an exponentially higher one.
Since at that level everyone got great achievements in many worlds and huge sets of skills, great enterprises appeared with institutions of many occupations.
Like that, a rich and vast multicultural environment was born in the Divine Realm.
Each of the beings who ascend to Divine level is different, some control worlds of their own, even ruling over other powerful beings. Many create marvels of technology and magic, while others dedicate themselves to teaching the new generations. A few eccentric ones live alone cultivating by themselves, while many established associations and communities.
There were some that decided to pass judgment upon the universes below, in their arrogance pretending to dictate the ways of other beings simply because they had acquired more power.
The different Powerhouses dedicated themselves to multiple activities, creating techniques, weapons, elixirs, and a vast multitude of inventions; but each was still yearning for a higher realm, always dreaming of advancing further. Or they should have.
Still, everyone failed to ascend despite all the time and effort invested, and the “truth” that this was the ultimate realm of existence, the Peak of the Cosmos, was spread and eventually accepted, and the newly ascended started joining the already existing groups in the Divine Realm, with a few deciding to form their own influences.
As it turned out, 'Ascension beyond this point is impossible' was a big lie, and the reason for that lie was that the ruling class of the Divine Realm, a group of beings from many races that called themselves the “True Gods” wanted to keep the status quo with them as the top dogs, no one really knew how or when, but they had managed to seal the path towards further Ascension for everybody.
To be precise, their leader had done it. The Sovereign of the Gods, the oldest and strongest Major God in existence, a being known by far too many names and titles, all signifying the mightiest of existences and authority over the Heavens.
Worshipped across countless worlds and in a myriad of different ways across numberless religions and cults. He sat on his throne above all Gods and reigned supreme and unchallenged by eons.
In the Divine Realm, he is often simply known as Deus, a name implying he was the first of all divinities and that he was the core of all the Gods.
True to that title-name, he embodied all that the Gods stood for: control, power, authority, a huge amalgamation of faith, and an equally large army of zealots and worshippers under command.
In short, an arrogant bastard.
And thus he reigned supreme for what could only be called an eternity, sitting in the throne above the cosmos with the splendor of the stars of the lesser worlds being a mere shadow of his glory, as he possessed absolute power over everything that existed.
Yes, that was the case… until a certain someone was born.
Someone whose very birth should have been an impossibility, a child whose dreamy eyes stared into the vast starry skies and wished to reach for them and beyond. A youth who performed miracles without following any faith, and practiced magic without obeying any dogma, cultivating energies in a system never before seen, breaking all paradigms. A man who refused to bend his knee to any other being, be it mortal, immortal or even gods, he would never yield.
A warrior who went against the Heavens and actually succeeded, walking a path of revolution, defying fate and forging his own destiny with his own hands, a Challenger of Divinity, with a brand new type of cultivation, unrestrained and unfettered, he lived and fought through countless battles, emerging always victorious.
This Cultivator whose strength defied logic and whose existence threatened the gods themselves, managed to ascend to the Divine Realm at record time.
And sure enough, his clash with the Powers That Be was inevitable, as he was not only unwilling to worship the gods and obey their rule, he killed them, and as a God Slayer he openly opposed them, as he would never allow his path of ascension to halt because of the arrogance of a tyrant, complacency, nor the fear of the unknown.
And all who were to stand in his path was an enemy, and he would meet them with deadly force.
I know that, because that man, is me.
My name is Navin Lakar, an Ascender, an immortal warrior who has transcended the limits of his original world and risen to higher planes of existence, I fought against the Gods to break the Seal of the Cosmos and be able to continue ascending to new worlds.
This wasn’t a simple fight or duel of honor, it was an all-out war across the Divine Realm, I was not alone in this war either, as there were many who had discomfort with Deus’ reign, and he was trying to asphyxiate our advancement, which is enough to gain the eternal hatred of any cultivator worth his Dao.
The Gods have died, many by my own hands, some by the hands of my comrades, but my allies have also died, and a conflict of such scale where the regents of the cosmos are staking everything fighting with their full powers is bound to cause astronomical devastation.
Right now, the Divine Realm is in ruins, majestic ageless mountains are now craters, forests of divine fruits now reduced to piles of ashes, vast seas are now an abyss of nothingness, the corpses of massive beasts and colossal fighters lie across the land in varying states of destruction.
And here I am, fighting with the strongest being known in the history of the cosmos: The Sovereign of the Gods, this guy has many titles and names across the universes, but here he is usually known as Deus, I just call him the same way he calls me: Enemy.
We clash against each other with eyes full of murderous intent, the waves generated shatter the land and the sky, and we clash many times in each fraction of second.
Each swing of his sword summons a storm of divine power against me, each one of his punches unleashes a myriad of meteors. My sword cleaves the storm, my fists turn his attacks into nothing.
Attacks rain down from every direction as we continue our dance to the death, trying to take each other’s life.
I am tired, I am wounded and at the brink of death, but at the same time I am stronger and feeling more alive than I have ever been. I am in a stage of enlightenment, allowing me to read my opponent and, slowly but surely, gain the upper hand, pressure him, and wound him, pushing him back, to take each chance to win, aiming to kill him.
Deus takes some distance away from me as I slash him across the chest, barely a few hundred meters, a distance any of us can travel in an instant, light flowing from his wounds as his essence leaks out of him, but he pays it no mind as he speaks, his voice resonating with the entire Divine Realm.
「All Judgement of Heavens falls upon you」
So he Declares, using his authority as the ruler of this world, he commands the “Divine Judgement” upon me, which translates into a grand display of Tribulation Lightning falling as a raging waterfall towards me.
it is quite a useful thing, this Declaration ability. Any being at our level of power is capable of manipulating the world around us to a certain level by sheer force of will, but this is a perk on a different level, this makes the heaven and earth his home ground, the whole cosmos is his domain where he exerts control of anything, be it the elements, time and space and even the minds and souls of less powerful individuals, everything can fall under its influence… well, almost everything.
Because I am not controlled by him, nor can he influence my cultivation or my energy with his Declaration, because I am “outside” and my path has always been one to “defy” things such as fate and the decrees of heaven.
Which makes me the only one with a decent chance to actually win a fight against him, but it is in no way an easy thing to do. I am currently separated from the energies of the cosmos, he can’t restrain my power, but he can restrict the Qi of the cosmos from being absorbed by me, effectively making replenishing my energy reserves an arduous task, especially in the middle of combat, so I am now running with my own tank, and however vast it is, it is not infinite, while he has an entire Divine Realm of energies to feed him and recharge his power, even tending to his wounds.
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I smile as the lightning descends upon me, and thrust my sword towards it.
“Heaven Executioner: Void Opener.”
I speak as a ray of power rushes forwards from the tip of my sword, cleaving the storm in two, any lightning that comes into contact with my Sword Qi gets turned into nothing while it rises unstoppable towards the origin of all those lightning, his Word manifest itself as a sigil, a materialization of the command given to the cosmos, and as my attack pierces it, it gets turned into nothing, nullifying Deus’ Declaration.
I slash downwards and a wave of Sword Aura rushes towards Deus; he reacts by thrusting with his own sword, a myriad forms manifesting themselves on his Aura.
Dragons, angels, demons, spirits, qilins, giants, phoenixes, tigers, many kinds of animals and fantastic creatures.
Mountains, clouds, rivers, lakes, forests, volcanos, storms, the waves of the ocean and silence of the caverns, millions of sceneries and natural phenomena.
Armies marching, people running, monks praying, teachers speaking, people hunting and people farming, all kinds of aspects of life show in the grand picture formed by Deus’ Sword Aura.
Myriad wills, thousands of paths interwoven as part of a whole, becoming one as if sharing a common source and place to return, they all unite in his sword and attack towards me.
And then our Sword Auras clash into each other.
It feels like I am marching into another world, entering his Sword Domain as it encompasses everything around me, manifesting all forms of Heaven and Earth, the beginning and the end of the world, the root of myriad paths and the place where myriad paths converge once again, truly an amazing technique, befitting the one who claimed the title of ruler of the cosmos.
He covers me, planning to overwhelm me with an attack that represents his own self, like a tsunami wishing to devour a single ship in the ocean.
However, he cannot drown me, I am more than a lonely ship facing the storm and riding the mighty waves, I am an unconquerable mountain withstanding it all. So I march onwards, piercing through his Domain and keep going forwards.
A million animals and mythical beasts are slain.
The myriad phenomena of the world are dispersed and destroyed.
A thousand Intents gathered into one are severed.
The cosmos manifested by his Sword Aura enters Extinction!
You claim to be the Alpha and the Omega, then I will destroy the Alpha and the Omega.
You summon a billion creatures to fight for you, I slaughter those billion creatures.
You press me with the vault of heaven, then I will pierce the heavens!
No matter what you throw at me, I will overcome it and reach you, and my sword will claim your life.
This is my Sword Intent, the sword that overcomes everything and transcends everything, even the cosmos itself may be extinguished. This is the sword that has taken the lives of many Gods and countless powerhouses.
Making all return to nothing, to that state without beginning and without end, without shape, matter, spirit, space nor time.
The True Sword of Nihility and Obliteration.
Deus’ eyes shake fiercely for a moment, I can tell he feels fear at this moment, coming into contact with the strongest manifestation of my attack directly, he is certain that this sword can kill him, this sword brings Absolute Destruction and True Death, one that even he cannot escape.
“Deus, this is the end, you cannot escape.”
I say as I shatter his Sword Aura.
A huge scar appears on his sword, to damage an Artifact of Divine Armament rank is like making a wound on the world, especially this one, that was created as a manifestation of Deus’ own Intent on being sovereign of the whole Cosmos. The sword lets out a deep wail-like sound as its energy leaks out of the crack like a mortal wound, and it is incapable of stopping the rest of the attack as it cuts deep into Deus severing his right arm still holding his blade.
Essence runs out of his open wound, running out of his control, and even his hold on the cosmos weakens. I plunge forwards ready to stab my sword into his core and end his existence. I breathe in deeply, absorbing the energies around us, including Deus’ own essence to recover my own energy reserves.
I pierce his chest with my sword and the whole Divine Realm shakes as if my sword was piercing it too on the deepest level.
“If I am to die, then the entire cosmos shall perish to pave my way to inexistence!!”
Deus roars full of fury and in his desperation does something only a madman without any care for anyone but himself would ever do.
「All Lights of the Heavens!」
He raises his remaining hand and I watch how in a fraction of a second every spot of light in the starry sky disappears.
The Divine Realm possesses stars, but those are not the usual balls of fire and light that shine and bring heat to countless worlds like in the lower planes, the stars of the Divine Realm are representations of the myriad worlds under it, they are the connection between realms, one of the keystones of the Seal of the Cosmos.
To erase those stars is to sever the link of that world to the Divine Realm, and those stars also carry on them extreme levels of energy of all kinds. This madman has isolated this plane from all others.
This shattered, dying Plane.... is now officially alone.
With only two beings still inside it, both determined to make it be only one.
The next instant all those stars appear on his hand, compressed completely into a single sphere with all light in the Divine Realm, blinded by rage Deus rips apart the Divine Realm with a Declaration that basically stole every source of heat and light in it, which means he has condemned any life that might have survived the war to die and also has made any life impossible to exist in this Realm anymore.
And all that light and energy became a deadly weapon, a majestic spear that is aimed at me.
My pupils contracted as I felt the power in the spear and the threat it represented, I cannot dodge it, we are at a point-blank range.
It is too close to dodge, too strong to block.
I am unsure of survival but I can do one thing: to attack and kill Deus once and for all.
I channel my power unto my sword and the attack maims Deus form the inside, his very core suffers the blast and shatters, I see and feel his soul cry in rage and pain as it begins to vanish, falling into oblivion.
As I feel the spear of Deus’ final Declaration pierce me, I open my mouth and speak, no, I Proclaim.
『I will not die』
Utter disbelief emanates from Deus as he feels the force behind my words, the realm shivers, and I feel the greatest pain I have ever felt, my soul burns with the flares of a billion stars as all kinds of energies ravage me from the inside.
“Hey Deus, has despair finally clouded your mind? I bet you didn’t expect this, eh? I have told you before, I own myself, no one controls me nor decides things for me.『I am my own world』Even in this realm controlled by your power, even at the core of your Declared Domain, I am not restrained by the laws of the worlds, and I do not bow to the Heavens. I do not need the world."
I laugh weakly as Deus is left speechless and drained of all power.
"And as my own cosmos of energies and maker of my own laws, only I make the rules that affect me, thus only the decrees I Declare upon myself can affect me.”
Deus’s body is now turning to ashes and as the ashes spread they further decompose, until becoming nothing. The grasp he had over the cosmos is now gone, and both he and this realm are too broken to pull any force.
I grab Deus by the head and squeeze, as my fingers dig in, I speak to him.
“It’s finally over, enemy of mine. Your path ends here, this is your punishment for trying to suffocate everyone else’s path. Now die, God of Stagnation. Be erased and never again blight this Universe with your wicked existence.”
I feel the terror in him, his despair as his empire crumbles and he realizes his impending death. I have realized something else as the only powerhouse left in this gray realm: I can Declare upon this world now. Deus's control has faltered, his hold on this realm has slippered. Without any laws, lives, or links on it, this is an ownerless world, one without even its own will left, and I have effectively conquered it. While the notion of now ruling over the ashes of the Divine Realm disgusts me, I plan on using this ability to edict a final judgment on Deus.
"This is your end. You shall be forgotten, and upon your death, nothing shall remain of you, not your memory nor your name. And through this last severing of Karma, this Cosmos will finally be free."
I watch as the lines of karma manifest themselves, countless threads representing his actions and influence, causes and effects, memories and the subtle machinations of Fate. So many of them, touching all known creation. The Karma of the being who had ruled it for Eons ingrained and intertwined with that of the Cosmos itself.
Not anymore.
All of them snap and are severed as I raise my sword and slash again and Deus, further strengthening the Declaration. A being as powerful and influential as him can’t be erased and forgotten just like that, even in this weakened state of his, so I combine the effect of the Declaration with my own Sword of Obliteration.
『True Death, Obliteration, and Oblivion』
And thus he is erased, forgotten by all but me, as the only Powerhouse left standing in the Divine Realm.
I exhale now that victory is mine, and feel my strength leave me. I stand alone in a fragmented realm, black skies, and gray land. The most flourishing plane of existence reduced to a barren land without life, the home of the top cultivators and divinities is now a bleak pile of dust without a future.
And yet amidst all this, I feel hope, as I close my eyes and feel that the chains have finally been broken. There is no longer a “peak” acting as a cover pressing down the other worlds. There is no longer a restraint on the paths of the cultivators, and all those involved in said act have been destroyed. As they are no longer alive and hold no influence anymore, the grasp upon the elements and forces of the cosmos is gone.
I can feel it all from here. The changes, the snapping of the bindings, and the freedom that comes forth.
I can feel… Chaos.
But amidst all the chaos there is an endless future, and new paths are opened for every world, new hopes bloom, fed by all those powers in action unfettered, now new powerhouses will rise, and new cultivators will walk on untrailed roads.
I smile and fall back as I feel my own self begin to collapse. My wounds are too grievous, a huge burning scar marks me from my chest to my navel. This is far more than a physical wound, this is a wound in the soul, in the very core of my being, my essence is burning by the combination of energies that were on that final spear. It hurts a lot and yet, I continue to smile.
I may die at any moment now, in the worst desolation to ever be caused by Divinities, to end my immortal life in this literal godforsaken place would have a certain irony to it.
But…
Should I accept this end?
Fuck no.
I truly do not know what may happen now or what events will happen in the future of this newly unrestrained cosmos, but I am sure of something: this Era has ended. A new age begins, one that does not belong to Old Monsters or Ancient Aspects. An Age that will not fear the Divinities.
New generations shall rise in place of the old ones and bring forth the change the cosmos needs. The greatest revolution has begun and I will be here to see it, alive.
I smirk fiercely as I force myself to sit in meditation, struggling to gain control over the ravaging forces inside me.
“This future of endless possibilities… and most of all…”
I softly whisper and raise my head to look at the infinite darkness above.
“The gate I searched for so long on my path to advance, and the stage that lies beyond it...”
I speak louder and my voice resounds in the silent world, echoes of my truest and deepest desires from my mind, heart, and soul.
“I will grasp that future, and I will reach beyond these fettered Heavens."
My sight is set beyond the plane where I am standing.
My goal is the Higher Realm Beyond Divine.
In isolation, I laugh as I stand grining. I Declare and Proclaim one last thing.
The final ambition of the last madman remaining in this shattered Heavens.
『I Will Transcend!!』