Chaos Heir

Chapter 1425: Canvas

A force the King did his best to oppose, but ultimately couldn’t, slammed on his head, flinging him down to the desert, where those flattening effects kept raging.

A vast, circular cavity that had the King at its center formed on the white sand, flattening everything inside that edge and pushing it further down. The giant hole deepened as that unstoppable force squashed the alien’s body.

Black, glowing smoke had never stopped flowing from the King’s back and injuries, and more was trying to rise in an attempt to fend off that ethereal but titanic stomp.

However, nothing seemed to work. Some injuries closed, only for more to open and spurt out black blood. Meanwhile, the rising smoke also fell prey to the ethereal stomp, flattening alongside the sand and its source.

The King could only endure and gather his strength, amassing enough power to deliver a proper counterattack. Yet, that fraction of a second made room for some genuine inspection, which brought worrisome answers.

Truth be told, the alien evolved warrior knew that Khan was an exception among the sons of the mana. That energy had brought him up to be a challenger to the True Chaos’ God, succeeding in some aspects.

Khan was immune to the True Chaos’ properties, or rather, the individual iteration of his mana stood on the same level, naturally resisting those annihilating features.

That was hard to achieve, but not impossible. Khan had evolved past the mana’s limits, partially achieving what that energy wanted him to become.

Theoretically, that would only put Khan on par with the Scarlet Eyes’ warriors, but his other individual skills enforced a starker superiority. His body was monstrous, and his chaos was free.

As an evolved warrior, Khan stood far above the average. He had every right to claim the title of King for himself, but a flaw existed in that seemingly undisputed superiority.

Khan was no evolved warrior, at least technically. As strong as he was, his existence still lacked something to complete his ascension to that higher state.

As for what that ascension would bring, the King didn’t know. He was only sure the True Chaos’ God was unreachable, so the sons of mana would be doomed even if they obtained an overwhelmingly strong King.

The thought put a smile on the King’s face, which was accompanied by a torrent of energy. He forcefully spread his arms, waving them upward to oppose the unbearable pressure squashing him down.

Two tides of True Chaos erupted from the gesture, rising through the sky to converge in Khan’s position. That blackness landed on him, expanding into a dark line that seemed to create a horizon in the air, only for that process to stop abruptly.

Something prevented the darker-than-black line from expanding any further. Actually, that same force squeezed it back to its landing spot, as if pushed from both extremities to condense at its center.

The already dense smoke grew even thicker and brightened under that forceful pressure, reaching its critical point when it became nothing more than a fist-sized lump of True Chaos held tightly in Khan’s tattooed hand.

Khan inspected the glowing darkness struggling and failing to escape his fingers. His surroundings had dimmed due to that energy’s influence, and even his eyes’ light almost failed to reach its blackness. Yet, its properties were in the open for him to study.

Nevertheless, whatever Khan saw, it didn’t satisfy him. He closed his hand, crushing that immensely dense lump of True Chaos, forcing it to disperse in the sky.

The King had begun to stand up in the meantime, still smiling and proud, only for his expression to freeze when Khan slashed the same hand he had used to crush the True Chaos at him.

Five giant, bright slashes flew down at the King, releasing a bloodthirsty humming noise and gaining maw-shaped cavities at their center.

The ethereal spell split halfway through its descent. Five slashes became ten, then twenty, then a hundred, shrinking but expanding their overall reach until the entire circular, flattened cavity was immersed in their purple-red light.

The rain of slashes cut off any possible escape path, but the King never considered that approach. Wing-like protuberances blew out of his back again and flapped upward, sending another barrage of all-devouring bullets against the incoming spell.

A few slashes exploded into spherical masses of sharp, destructive energy upon clashing with the black bullets, which halted their descent.

However, most of the purple-red rain cut through the counterattack, advancing deeper into the flattened cavity and even reaching its bottom, where explosions unfolded.

The flattened cavity erupted. The blinding purple-red light devoured the darker-than-black blackness, rising into the sky to create a single, massive pillar of destruction.

The King burned amidst that scorching energy. His cape, uniform, and flesh vanished piece by piece, but his overall figure endured the widespread destruction, partially aided by his True Chaos, which kept protecting and healing him.

The scorching pillar seemed to want to rage to no end, but eventually quieted down, its energy dispersing into the air. The King found himself in the middle of a scorched, destroyed, and glass-like cavity, both his figure and his surroundings releasing grey smoke.

The temperature down there was so unbearable that the very air twisted and altered the King’s inspection of his surroundings, adding sizzling noises to the apocalyptic scene. Yet, one detail remained unmistakably clear.

Khan calmly descended into the cavity, his red cape and blue hair fluttering through the warm gales rising toward the surface. His bare feet landed on the glass-like bottom, unaffected by its scorching temperature.

That sight would be terrifying for most beings in the universe. Khan was a herald of destruction, unleashing calamities as easily as he breathed and crossing them unscathed. He was a proper monster, but the King felt no fear. He couldn’t be scared when he had seen far higher peaks.

As for Khan, he focused on details George had already guessed earlier. The King looked hopeless against him, but not powerless. Despite the barrage of superior, apocalyptic attacks, the alien had always tried to fight back and had managed to, to some extent.

Moreover, it seemed that the King didn’t share the scouts’ limitations. His True Chaos wasn’t a finite resource. He produced that annihilating energy, meaning he could theoretically heal himself indefinitely.

The solution to that was simple. Khan just had to kill the King in one blow. Yet, that alien was unsurprisingly tough, and Khan didn’t know what would happen to the city if he went overboard.

Also, those horns were still intact. Chances were the King could grow stronger, and Khan sort of wanted to see that happen.

"I mean," Khan sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "I guess you’ll just die at this pace."

The King was a mess of burns, missing skin, and cracked flesh that leaked black smoke. He was healing, but the damage extended past his mere physical form, so the True Chaos took longer to fix the damage.

Still, a sudden change unfolded. A heavy, breathtaking pressure spread through the fuming cavity, making the King’s eyes go wide. He fell to his knees, spreading his arms in reverence as the True Chaos on his back rose to create a darker-than-black canvas.

Then, two even darker horizontal lines cut through the canvas, widening to reveal two huge scarlet eyes.