Chapter 339: True Laws vs True Laws

Halius

The Mistress of Oaths and Deception’s skill with faith energy was at least at the same level as Halius’s own, but her Laws were weak and her energy, despite convincingly pretending to be a god, was only at the A rank level. So, given enough time, Halius was sure he’d be able to send his energy through the bonds of the clone he’d captured to her main body, enabling him to truly kill her.

Her husband, however, didn’t give him that time, showing up above him within only a few minutes and channeling what Halius could easily identify as a heavily enhanced Royal Law Blast skill through his sword, a black beam filled with the power of vengeful souls blasting through the roof of the temporary residence where he’d found the Perival clone and surprising him with its speed.

Unwilling to risk the Mistress of Oaths and Deception’s clone somehow escaping if he suddenly moved, Halius lifted his left hand and activated his defensive armor skill, summoning out his God rank personal armor at the same time—a full set of silvery plate covered in golden runes—and, even if the Heavenly Spark Soul King had somehow developed true God rank energy and activated every boosting skill Halius could think of, he knew his defenses would be more than enough.

The Heavenly Spark Soul King’s Laws were still at the Law Dragon level while four of Halius’s six True Laws, those representing the base elements of fire, water, earth, and wind, had advanced to middle grade.

This was not a difference stat boosts and enhanced energy could overcome. Laws were too important for divine level combat. And the difference between the Law Dragon and True Law stages was too great.

When the law blast hit him, however, it was filled with the power of six early grade True Laws, not Law Dragons, and it contained some kind of curse skill Halius had never heard of.

It attacked him through his shattered bonds with his three dead divine children. And it mostly bypassed his armor and defensive skill, neither designed to protect him from curses as gods, by their very nature and control over faith energy, were mostly immune.

“I won’t let you hurt my apprentice!”

Distracted by the words, another law blast aiming for his head, the runes forming around the planet created from empowered God rank energy, and the general impossibility of what was going on, Halius reacted a split second too late as a large bird appeared on his right, attacking the seal he had around the Mistress of Oaths and Deception’s clone.

With a twelve meter wingspan and looking like an eagle fused with a vulture that was then set on fire, the phoenix didn’t look as pretty as before, her flames of rebirth more apocalyptic, less pure, and she was only an A rank while her divine roles were gone, but, still, he could recognize Immortalia, the Undying Phoenix. And, as his seal broke and the Mistress of Oaths and Deception self destructed, breaking many oaths made to Perival in the process in such a way that the other side would be punished, he started to grow worried.

The runes forming around the planet then finished and Halius felt as the planet’s lord switched from his oldest younger brother, who had previously taken over the entire universe they were in, to the Heavenly Spark Soul King, Gustavius’s control over the universe quickly fading as well.

With good control over natural energy, taking over an unclaimed universe was easy, but a claimed one was difficult, usually requiring many years even if the original owner didn’t fight back, and, if the claiming process wasn’t done and the original owner’s control over natural energy was greater, while the one taking over the universe suddenly lost a majority of his stats, it was possible for the original owner to take back control of a universe quickly. And this was what seemed to be happening as Halius summoned out his spear and defended himself from the berserking Heavenly Spark Soul King and the phoenix goddess’s assault, the phoenix acting as an undying frontline while the Heavenly Spark Soul King uncharacteristically focused on mage style attacks.

Then, just as he realized what was actually happening, the Heavenly Spark Soul King somehow allowing the Yin Yang Sage to possess him, the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s body gained even more buffs, starting to exhibit about half the feeling of someone with the divine roles of the Ruler, the Tactician, the Guardian, and the Messenger, becoming faster and much more in control of the universe around him. And, at the same time, illusory clones of the man appeared all around the combat area, easy to see through but still mildly distracting, while subtle charm magic attempted to alter Halius’s emotions, trying to make him angry and impulsive.

So, of course, Halius slowed the fight, realizing he only had to wait for whatever buff magic the Heavenly Spark Soul King and the Undying Phoenix were using to fade.

After about a minute, however, after only managing to dodge 113 of 247 law blasts, Halius realized he’d been tricked.

He didn’t know how long the berserking skills the Heavenly Spark Soul King and the Undying Phoenix were using would last, but each law blast that hit his armor accumulated more curse energy inside his body, curse energy that was slowly eating at his own energy to empower itself, and he couldn’t fight it off while also defending himself from the attack of two monsters with six True Laws and stats not considerably below his own.

Right when he realized what was happening, however, and moved to start taking his offense more seriously, three things about the battle changed, all outside of his control.

First, the suppression runes the Heavenly Spark Soul King had been creating throughout the fight suddenly combined into a massive array, their power all flaring for a quarter of a second, using up all their energy at once to suppress him even further. Second, the illusory clones he’d been mostly ignoring moved into a formation and somehow broke his connection to his faithful, temporarily breaking all the boosts he gained from their faith for about a tenth of a second. Finally, third, the Undying Phoenix’s dark red flames changed to the color of blood as her core exploded, a process that she somehow controlled, unlike any self destructive last act of desperation he’d seen in his lifetime. Her body changed into pure elemental energy and slammed into his chest, eating through his armor and exploding through him and out his back, damaging his torso and somehow drastically increasing the power of the curse inside him while making his armor almost completely useless.

Then, having seemingly planned for this moment, the Heavenly Spark Soul King immediately summoned out several divine artifacts and set them against him.

An obviously poisoned knife appeared behind him and stabbed through his back into his heart. A small white pearly needle appeared in front of him and pierced directly into his lower dantian, disrupting the flow of qi throughout his body. And a large metallic warhammer appeared above him and slammed into his head, breaking his helmet and slowing his reaction time to the point he couldn’t defend against what came next.

The Heavenly Spark Soul King teleported past his spear, and the man’s large violet sword, covered in his black God rank energy and even more curse power, stabbed into Halius’s chest right below his ribs, the curse inside his body, seemingly created by burning the souls of his children, growing exponentially more powerful.

More and more curse energy flowed into him and he started to feel peaceful, both sleepy and patient, and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why he’d been so angry before.

Then his connection to his followers returned and he realized he’d almost fallen for the Mistress of Oaths and Deception’s charm powers, somehow used through her husband, and he grabbed his spear and poured all his energy into an attack.

The Heavenly Spark Soul King, however, just let go of his sword and moved back as fast as he could, powering up another royal law blast between his hands, and Halius’s spear missed.

The blast fired and he was hit. And then, over the next thirty seconds, he was hit again, and again, and again, all while the knife poured poison into his veins, the needle continued to disrupt his energy, and the hammer slammed into his head fifteen more times.

His faith energy was then disconnected again, this time for a full second, while a newly created suppression array activated, and the hammer slammed into his head even stronger, crushing his skull.
 He managed to recover, a broken brain not even enough to take out a D rank, but he was weakened, the curse energy had grown to the point he could barely contain it, and his mind was dazed.

But he was powerful. He was humanity’s God of War. He was one of the strongest gods in the entire multiverse. And he would not be denied.

Suddenly filled with arrogance, determination, and rage, he gathered up all his remaining energy into a single attack, a beam of four element power wrapped and controlled by spacetime, and launched it against the Heavenly Spark Soul King.

The real Heavenly Spark Soul King, however, not the illusion he’d stabbed, appeared behind him, placed both hands against his shoulder blades, and somehow activated the curse energy inside his body even further. Then the yin yang power left the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s aura, instantly replaced by the aura of thirty-six Laws.

“You shouldn’t have targeted me and mine. I probably still would have killed you, but your afterlife would have been better.

“I look forward to your everlasting worship.”

Halius then felt as his soul was ripped out of his body and the next thing he knew he was in a soulspace shaped like an old fashioned laboratory of some kind, strapped to a table, and a beautiful woman with a pair of glowing golden eyes was looking down at him.