Chaos Heir

Chapter 1602: Ascension

Khan was hardly in his right mind right now. Pure exhaustion afflicted his whole being, and the little awareness he clung to was submerged in anxiety, sorrow, and soul-crushing pain.

It was actually a miracle Khan was alive at all, but his brain still pushed everything aside before that meaningful scene, almost urging him to understand what it represented.

Thilku Lords wore crowns. Even Khan had owned a few of those, with his last one lost during the battle against the Maker.

Yet, the crown hovering in front of Khan was golden, unique in the entirety of the Thilku Empire, worn only by its leader. The Emperor had also ruled for a long time, making that item far older than Khan.

Nevertheless, the Emperor was dead now. The Empire’s throne had become empty, but the golden crown had survived. It had actually done more than that. In a way, it seemed as if the Emperor had passed it to Khan.

And Khan understood what that meant, leading to such intense fury that it cleansed his brain of anything that tried to pollute or diminish it.

No matter how much Khan hated it, the universe kept throwing the burden of leadership at him. He didn’t want it. He wished to have nothing to do with it, but his throne grew bigger and bigger, increasing the number of lives that depended on him.

Everything had started with the Scalqa, progressing to Khan’s family, the Great Old One’s species’ rightful claim for dominance, and ultimately culminating in that golden, oversized crown.

The universe truly didn’t want to stop, making Khan so livid that he abandoned any hesitation, wholly accepting his inherited birthright.

Since the universe was begging Khan to become a leader, he would conquer it and enforce his vision upon it. He would become the overlord that the ancient horrors in his genes wished him to be. He would accept total domination and stop questioning it for good.

And that pristine anger eventually drew Khan’s glowing gaze to the tinge of darkening True Chaos inside the crown. That was a strand of the half of divine energy the God had granted the Emperor to fuel his transformation, the half that Khan lacked.

Khan’s current state vouched for how overwhelming the True Chaos was. After all, flickering smoke had covered more than half of his body by then, rising through his abdomen to approach his chest.

However, Khan didn’t even consider the obvious danger. He didn’t think or care about what could happen to him when he urged his body to lean forward, bumping on the hovering crown, pushing it aside so that his blue scar could touch the obscuring True Chaos.

The second half of divine energy seamlessly entered Khan’s chest, fusing with it, aiding the melting transformation that was already afflicting his existence.

Khan didn’t oppose the transformation now. Fighting it was pointless, and he had no energy to delay it any further anyway, so he let it overtake him so that he could be born anew.

Flickering smoke instantly covered Khan. Obscuring flames took over his entire figure, wanting to reforge him, partially succeeding at it.

Khan felt as if his whole being was disappearing, but that defenseless acceptance made room for another process.

Previously, Khan’s cells had harnessed the True Chaos’ power to summon a spell that could defy the God’s no-mana rule, so they did it again, finalizing what had long since begged to be completed.

The attunement with mana Khan had carefully restrained filled its last tiny but bottomless gap. The core process he had delayed for so long was finally fulfilled, rekindling his vanishing existence, flooding it with a sense of powerful completeness.

Khan had defied the rules by evolving without completing his attunement. His element had also exceeded the mana’s plan, inheriting its power and knowledge. So, the process’ completion flung Khan toward a higher threshold of being, kickstarting his ascension.

That was a version of what the mana had planned for Khan. His existence strived for godhood, but there was more afflicting it now. The True Chaos was still melting it, creating a conflict that seemed to have no real winner.

Khan heard thundering cries inside his brain as his ascending element fought against the melting force, occasionally fending it off, only to retreat in the next second.

Those two conflicting energies tried to reach a stalemate, but something else occurred. Both sides lost something that didn’t disappear during those internal clashes, and that something ended up fusing.

Just like the clash between fire and water could create vapor, so did the internal conflict between mana and True Chaos, giving birth to something that carried the properties of both but was also entirely new.

That something had the shape of an obscuring but thundering core that wanted to become the new center of Khan’s existence. It was what he had initially planned to do, ascending as a being tainted by both mana and True Chaos to increase his chances of surpassing the God.

Nevertheless, a terrible realization that Khan hadn’t accounted for accompanied that apparent success.

As that new, hopefully superior version of Khan’s ascension solidified, he began to experience something similar to what he had gone through when he had absorbed the white-azure sphere.

Knowledge that went far beyond Khan’s concept of life began to flood his brain, expanding his mindset in ways that threatened to change him forever. He was becoming a God, and that transformed his entire perspective.

That wasn’t due to a foreign knowledge source. It wasn’t part of ancient, superior wisdom carried inside the mana or True Chaos. It was an awareness conveyed by Khan’s very senses.

As Khan’s existence ascended, so did his perception, altering his view of life and the universe. That was an inevitability of the superior state of being he was striving for, leaving no room for bargaining.

It turned out the Maker had been correct. Gods were indeed superior but specific beings. No existence at that level could value things like family, inferior individual lives, or even mere sex like Khan did now.

That was the price for the ascension. Khan would obtain the power he needed to give his universe a fighting chance, but he would lose his attachment to it in return, moving onto a grander version of life where those trivial aspects carried no meaning.

And that tradeoff felt acceptable. Khan would sacrifice himself and lose the very reason why he had struggled so hard and for so long. Yet, his loved ones would get the opportunity to live in a peaceful universe, which was a priceless outcome.

Still, seeing how the God treated his own sons, Khan worried that he might one day become like him if he came out on top of that conflict. After all, his whole personality was changing. Given enough time, he might turn into another universal threat, no inferior to the True Chaos.

Of course, there didn’t seem to be other options, but Khan instinctively opened his fuming eyes. Glowing smoke clouded his vision, but he could still somewhat see and focus on specific objects.

The first item that fell into Khan’s vision was the golden crown, which was spinning away due to the previous bump, unable to interrupt its momentum due to the lack of friction.

The second and last was Khan’s right arm. His limb was floating limply inside that absent atmosphere, and fiery True Chaos covered it, but he knew that blue tattoos stood behind that smoke.

And Khan’s fury returned stronger than ever. There was another path, the dead end the Maker had spoken about. He would probably give up on godhood forever if he decided to tread it, but his mind was beyond caring.

’Fuck the True Chaos!’ Khan cried in his mind. ’And fuck the damned mana! Can you hear me?! Eat it all!’

Khan’s existence looked trapped in a conflict between two irreconcilable forces, but a third party suddenly joined the fray, hissing with ancient might.