Chapter 337: God of War

Halius

Halius, Humanity’s God of War, knew he was missing something, likely multiple things.

Some of the United Federation of Planets’ goals were obvious.

First, they wanted the gods of the Prime Material to enter the side universes they’d taken over so whatever they planned would happen there, beyond the easy reach of the Elder Gods. This much was obvious given how prepared they had seemed for the invasion, their people nowhere to be found. But he wasn’t sure if they’d expected 73 gods to invade their universes at the same time, more gods up and active at one time than any since the great upheaval 45 trillion years ago. And he wasn’t sure if they’d known just how efficient the gods would be in their invasion, the Territory the mortals controlled down to only five universes before even 144 years had passed.

Second, given what he could tell of the race the Heavenly Spark Soul King and the Mistress of Oaths and Deception shared, their best choice for advancing said race to Supreme grade almost certainly involved, in at least some capacity, absorbing the powers of the devourer’s twelve little beetle gods. He didn’t know, however, if they knew just how obvious that was at the start of the conflict. Given how blatant his siblings and some of the other older gods had been in letting the beetles out as bait, however, they almost certainly knew by now.

Other than these relatively obvious desires, however, he was missing too much information to make good guesses.

The United Federation of Planets had made no moves since their force was declared a foreign enemy of the Prime Material, whatever they had planned likely delayed by the injuries he’d inflicted on the Heavenly Spark Soul King, and it was frustrating.

He had a few outlandish guesses, keeping to his promise to himself to not assume his enemies couldn’t gain abilities he’d never even heard of, but verifying any of them was near impossible or could possibly cause great tension between the Primordial Humans and their temporary allies.

When news of a divine residence appearing in one of the newest universes they had captured, however, changing things from the tedium of the last 72 years, he decided to take a risk.

Instead of traveling to that universe like Lacarmus, Gustavius, and Antonia, he moved back to one of the universes closer to the Prime Material and found Perival, the only one of the three merchant gods willing to risk entering the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s former Territory. And, without saying anything, and moving at a speed the much weaker god couldn’t hope to match, he grabbed the man by the neck and poured his power into him, sealing the other god’s soul completely.

Were the god really Perival, he’d be breaking multiple contracts his brother had made, contracts Antonia and Gustavius had cosigned, and his siblings souls would possibly be shackled for the rest of their lives. But, instantly upon touching the man’s throat, he could tell it wasn’t the merchant god. Most likely, Perival had been dead for a long time, and, somehow, the Mistress of Oaths and Deception, a lowly B rank, had been able to use one of her clones to take his place while the god’s divine power still existed.

“I’ve got you, mortal.”

Sealing the clone with his full power so it couldn’t self destruct, Halius prepared to use the clone as a curse medium to kill all the Mistress of Oaths and Deception’s other bodies as well.

***

Aalam

Aalam felt as Mila’s clone was captured, and then he felt as the God of War began to send energy over the clone’s bonds with her other bodies to kill her.

And he reacted immediately.

Without taking the time to consult with Mila, he teleported the divine residence he, his master, and Mila’s main body had been standing in—the body containing all of her soulstructures other than the three in her Perival clone and the 21 in her clone containing her divine powers back in the Twelve Element Spirit Universe—into his Personal Storage soulstructure, activating the divine residence’s isolation effects and forming shields around the residence with his own divine energy to isolate it even more.

At the same time, Mila cut off the connection her clones had with each other and lowered the power of her main body’s connection with her Perival clone, but she couldn’t sever it completely, not like she could with the bonds between her clones, even with multiple isolation formations working to help her.

Her clone was part of her, and the God of War, the most powerful god under the elder gods, had her.

It was equivalent to a leviathan grabbing a G-rank swimmer’s leg, and it was a testament to the power and capability of his wife that she wasn’t yet drowning.

The plan had been simple. Set a battleground. Move the God of War to the battleground along with his three most battle capable siblings. And then use everything they had to try and kill them.

Given Perival’s contracts with the Master of the Eternal Forge, the Lord of Twilight Flame, and the Lady of Hellwater, along with the results of their testing on Carina the Wise, Aalam’s aunt and younger uncles would almost immediately have their souls shackled, and then their presence would create a weakness in the God of War they could exploit.

But they hadn’t expected the God of War to attack Mila’s Perival Clone. It was such a big risk, and taking such risks was completely out of character for the man.

Things changed, however, when someone lost their loved ones, or when their loved ones were at risk.

Congratulations!

Your Law Dragon of Passion has advanced to peak grade.

As you are not connected to the System proper, you receive no bonus stats, though your soul is still affected by your understanding of Laws.

Without Aalam intending for it to happen, one of his Laws, one which was normally among the last to advance, jumped from having just reached the high grade Law Dragon level all the way to the peak grade, many aspects of the Law just falling into place in his mind.

Sure, it was stupid. He hadn’t yet reached the nineteenth level of the Twelve Element Primal Code, having just advanced his last Law Dragon to high grade only recently. And now he wouldn’t be able to until he raised all his Laws to peak grade. But it felt so right. And it would make him stronger in the short term, which was all that mattered.
 As he navigated the shortest paths between universes, avoiding any of the paths where he might meet other gods as he couldn’t afford to be slowed down, Aalam advanced the other Law Dragons he’d been holding back as well.

Congratulations!

Your Law Dragon of Multi-Dimensional Geometry has advanced to peak grade.

~~

Congratulations!

Your Law Dragon of Temporal Relativity has advanced to peak grade.

~~

Congratulations!

Your Law Dragon of Energy Transfer has advanced to peak grade.

~~

Congratulations!

Your Law Dragon of Energy Storage has advanced to peak grade.

~~

Congratulations!

Your Law Dragon of Matter/Antimatter has advanced to peak grade.

As you are not connected to the System proper, you receive no bonus stats, though your soul is still affected by your understanding of Laws.

Royal Soul Enhancement.

Natural energy gathered into Aalam's body to increase the amount of soul strain he could put himself under.

Royal Triforce Eruption.

Aalam’s qi, mana, and psyforce started to mix with the natural energy in his body and exploded with power.

Heavenly Spark Wings of the Emperor.

Multicolored metaphysical draconic wings extended from Aalam’s back, empowering his stats even further than their already high values using natural energy gathered from his Territory, reinforcing his skills with more natural energy to make it easier for him to merge multiple Laws into them at once, increasing his attunement to all Laws by increasing his connection to his own Territory, and boosting the power of all his noble category skills, i.e. all his combat skills, by six levels on top of their existing twenty-three level boost.

The amount of soul strain he could handle increased, his energy erupted even further, and all his combat skills, as well as supplementary skills like Ruler’s Domain, surpassed the Supreme grade, giving every one a huge qualitative improvement, to the point he could barely control them.

The Zone.

He entered into a flow state, his control over his energy and skills increasing and his mind slightly calming down, putting all his power firmly back under his control.

Divine Artifact Enhancement.

As he arrived at the universe where the God of War was trying to kill his wife, he summoned out his artifacts. The Left Hand of the Runescribe appeared on his left hand and then expanded to cover his whole body other than his head and fingers, its azure scales increasing his defensive strength and boosting his control over all types of energy. The Wings of Order appeared on his back, merging with his Heavenly Spark Wings of the Emperor skill to give the wings physical form and boosting the skill even further, raising its effects by a further eight levels and thereby raising all his other noble category skills by a further two. At the same time, his two artifacts worked together to empower his Ruler’s Domain skill, causing the area under his control to completely fill with the power of his Laws. Finally, Legacy of the Fallen appeared in his right hand, the large violet sword filled with both the power of karmic merit and karmic sin, a blade specialized for cutting, cursing, and blessing.

All three artifacts were only at the peak of A rank, but they were all Supreme grade, and, with the power of his skill, they were all strengthened to work with his divine level energy. Given his Laws had not yet advanced to the True Law level, he couldn’t advance the three to become true divine artifacts, but, under the divine, there were no better artifacts in the entire multiverse, and he was going to use them to slay the God of War.

Rushing directly toward the planet where the god was waiting for him, Aalam pushed Legacy of the Fallen forward and, right at the last second, activated the skills of his newest class as well, all four of them, only one of which the god had ever seen.