Rider

Radical choice

Added 2023-03-18 12:00:04 +0000 UTC

Vayu and Dukbium turned to look at Seth when the strange being coming out of the tower addressed him without sparing them a single look.

In contrast to Krum’s smile, Seth’s face went black, and he asked, “Since when does the Tower get involved in issues between the gods? It would seem all that talk about it being an impartial observer was nothing but that, a simple talk.”

Seth knew that he was in trouble and that this was a plan against him long in the making, so his only hope was to gain the support of the others gods by denouncing the Tower.

Vayu and Dukbium seemed to take the bait, but Krum seemed to have already anticipated something like that.

“Tower?” asked Krum with a chuckle, turning to look back at the Tower behind him. The Tower’s doors closed, and a monotonous voice entered everyone’s ears. “Krum has renounced administration rights and is now removed from The Tower’s control room.”

Seth sighed, not expecting the move, even more so after his system informed him that the Tower’s words were most likely the truth. With a scowl, Seth asked, “So, your ass is still sore since I kicked it? So sore that you would renounce your rights just for another chance to go against me.”

Krum’s face twitched, and his smile became crooked, but he didn’t refute Seth’s claim. With Krum falling silent, Gaia spoke, “So, Seth, do you think you have a chance now? No matter how strong destruction was, even he wouldn’t have been able to fight three gods simultaneously, and with how things are right now, I doubt you’ll be able to take on even one of us.”

At the same time, her eyes darted to Maya, who was still holding onto Seth’s arm and looking up with a worried countenance.

Seth turned to look at Maya as well and heaved a long sigh, knowing he had fallen into a trap. If what Gaia said was the truth, the Tower didn’t allow her to come to his world, but now that he was out, she could intervene freely.

Not only that, but she also had Krum and Yggdrasil by her side, while Dukbium and Vayu would undoubtedly join hands with her if she asked. On the other hand, he had Razim, who might also switch sides if push came to shove, and Maya, who he had to protect.

Maya might have grown stronger, but she was nothing but a fly waiting to get swatted in a battle between gods. Thinking up to here, Seth whispered to Maya, “Absorb your energy into your source and enter my body.”

“Are you going to be alright?” asked Maya, to which Seth just shook his head and didn’t answer.

Biting her lip, Maya said, “You can leave me then. Maybe you can escape on your own.”

Seth smiled, his frown dissipating as he rubbed Maya’s silky hair, “Don’t be silly. There’s no running from this situation, and keeping you close doesn’t cost me anything. If you were to fight, then I would be worried.”

Maya lowered her head and grabbed tightly onto Seth’s shirt, understanding Seth was speaking the truth, “Don’t lose.”

Maya’s body slowly dissipated into water energy that entered her source, which Seth allowed to enter his body and housed close to his lust source, even using a layer of lust energy to surround it.

After Maya was safely inside his body, Seth turned to Razim and asked, “What about you?”

Gaia also raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Razim, as did the others gods gathered. Being put in the spotlight like that, Razim lowered her head and stepped back, “I’m sorry, Seth, but there are too many lives I’m responsible for. I can’t betray them all for you, but I won’t join them.”

After her apology, Razim turned to Gaia and asked, “I suppose you don’t have an issue with that, Goddess of Earth.”

Gaia’s smile widened, and she nodded, “That’s an honorable decision. Feel free to watch.”

Seth couldn’t say he was too happy about it, but he also understood where Razim was coming from. Gaia would undoubtedly wipe her world after being done with him if she chose to stand against her, “Don’t worry about it. Also, if I’m still around after this, know that my offer still stands.”

Razim’s cheeks reddened, and she lowered her head even more but didn’t say anything back.

Seth watched as Dukbium and Vayu slowly hovered to Gaia’s side, which was understandable, and heaved a long sigh, Lust returning to his source while Water joined Razim on the side.

As Seth was about to release his destruction energy, Gaia chuckled and asked, “Are you sure you don’t want just to surrender? After a small chat and me breaking those sources, you might get to live.”

Seth shook his head, “Cut the bullshit, Earth. We both know you don’t intend to leave me alive without restricting me one way or another. As long as I live, I’ll always threaten your reign. Also, since you’re with this idiot, I know you’re not after my life.”

Gaia shrugged and stepped back, “Think what you want. As we have discussed, you get the first taste, Administrator Krum.”

Seth raised an eyebrow when he noticed Krum starting to crack his knuckles as he stepped forward and asked sarcastically, “You want to beat me on your own?”

Krum chuckled, and six blood-red blades slowly exited the palms of his hands. Once the blades appeared, Krum grasped them, and an oppressive presence emanated from him, making even the undaunted Dukbium take a step back.

“When we fought the last time, I was going easy on you. It’s time for you to face the full power of the Asura race.” As Krum spoke, red and silver veins expanded from the swords, coving his whole body.

“As for letting you live, I’m sure his excellency will forgive me for a small mistake in the heat of battle,” said Krum, his eyes filled with a deep desire to kill.

Space broke around Krum’s body, allowing a slightly silvery substance to leak through the cracks into the universe.

Seth knew with a single look that the simple presence of those swords managed to break the space until it reached the void prison. His expression turned deadly serious, destruction energy gathering toward his body, flooding his source.

<Seth, you can’t store that much energy. Your source will crumble.>

‘I know, and I’m not storing it; I’m just gathering it. With no divinity, I’m too weak to fight something like that. I can only hope to delay enough. Lust, can you use the link with the others to send wills back home?’

‘I can, but we’re too far. Just sending a single will would take too long,’ replied Lust.

‘Can you send Maya’s soul back, along with her source?’ asked Seth.

‘Her whole soul?’ exclaimed Lust in surprise, but understanding her host’s thoughts, she quickly said, “I can, but it will take some time. Also, what do you plan on doing?’

‘I’m alright. I can’t die as long as my will controls destruction energy, and I don’t buy this guy’s words completely. Anyway, I need Maya to be safe.’

‘But perception and I... Also, Gaia might have a way to deal with that.’

‘Even so, a part of my will is outside her reach. Start forming the link to send Maya back.’

‘Alright. You must buy me at least two or three hours to form a link so far…’

Seth sighed as he felt his lust energy starting to revolve and allowed his body to dissolve into destruction energy. The five other sources were all enclosed in a layer of their power, and destruction started gathering around Seth’s source, forming a pure destruction energy body.

Noticing that Seth was ready, Krum charged forward, a space tear appearing in his path as he approached his target, swinging all his swords simultaneously.

Seth formed a giant shield from destruction energy before him, blocking Krum’s attack. Krum stopped, and Seth heaved in relief momentarily.

His relief was short-lived as Krum’s swords slowly consumed his destruction energy, the density of the energy forming his shield decreasing alarmingly.

‘What is that?’

‘Fuck.”

Seth used his space energy and teleported his sources away, discarding the destruction energy he had gathered.

With a tearing sound, Krum’s swords consumed all the destruction energy remaining, leaving behind nothing but a hole in space where the void barrier once more appeared.

“Damn,” exclaimed Seth, realizing once more how a lack of an active divinity restricted him.

He still had complete control over destruction, but it was not fused with his soul entirely due to his seventh shell cultivation, which meant he couldn’t risk moving his soul through it or even using its non-existence proprieties without injuring his soul and other sources.

Krum regained his stance and got ready to charge Seth once more when Seth raised a hand and asked, “Don’t you think it’s unfair? You know everything about my energy while I have no idea what those swords are.”

Krum just chuckled and dashed at Seth, not answering his question. He had already been burnt by Seth’s tricks once and would not allow that to happen again.

With his attempt proving fruitless, Seth used the energy he had managed to gather, which was not much, to delay the attack long enough to teleport back. Still, the lack of power was visible as he didn’t move away in time, losing a large chunk of his energy and even suffering some damage.

The other gods stood by the side, watching the show, Dukbium and Vayu laughing loudly at Seth’s misfortune. Razim, on the other hand, had a large frown, and her fists were tightly clenched, covered under the sleeves of her dress.

‘Mistress, we can still help….’

‘No,’ Razim’s answer came quick and sharp, with no trace of hesitation in her voice. ‘Even if we intervene, there’s no guarantee we can even stand against that thing. Those swords… they give me a bad feeling.’

Gaia was also staring unblinkingly at the battle, not doubting the outcome from the start.

While all the gods were preoccupied with their thoughts, Seth was doing all he could to run away from Krum’s attacks, but since he was not given any time to gather energy, more and more of his soul got injured with every hit.

The reports kept appearing in his vision, and only five minutes had passed since the fight had begun.

‘In this rhythm, I won’t hold ten minutes, not to mention two or three hours… Do you have any plan that might work?’ asked Seth, dodging another attack and noticing his damage increasing again.

<Negative. You have no chance of stalling Krum for that long.>

Seth’s heaved a long sigh, knowing his initial plan would not work.

“I’m not letting Maya die,” muttered Seth, his eyes darting toward the closest energy spring and teleporting toward it, gathering all the destruction energy in his source and fusing it with the energy in the universe to form another shield.

Krum followed with another attack, just as Seth expected him to, and Seth held firm against the attack, allowing space to crumble at the contact point before all of his sources started spinning in reverse.

‘I can only hope this will make a large enough hole to send her out...’

Krum immediately pushed himself back, and everyone stared in surprise at Seth while Razim’s face fell.

“He’s detonating his sources?!”