System's POV

Chapter 1325: There Is Always A Heaven Beyond The Heavens [Part 2]

Thirteen casually reached out his arm and pulled out something from the crack of space in front of him.

When Irrudun’s dead body came into view, the Demigods and the rest of the infernal army’s faces turned pale from fright.

The teenage boy then casually tossed the corpse in Erasmus’ direction before shifting his gaze to the two remaining Demigods in front of him.

“I-I surrender!” Malgrux. “Make me your slave! Make me your subordinate—I don’t care. Just please, let me live!”

“Okay,” Thirteen replied. “I’ll let you live.”

Malgrux’s face relaxed, finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. But the next second, a scream erupted from his throat as Thirteen tore off one of his arms.

Blood spurted from the severed arm and fell down onto the ground like molten lava.

“Y-You promised to let me live,” Malgrux stuttered with a face filled with injustice.

“I did,” Thirteen replied coolly. “You will live. But I didn’t say that I’ll leave you intact, did I?”

Without another word, Thirteen tore off Malgrux’s other arm, eliciting another scream of pain.

The teenage boy did not stop there and sliced off the Demigod’s legs, making him fall from the sky.

But before the sorry figure could hit the ground, one of the tendril-like wings behind Thirteen’s back grabbed hold of his leg, preventing him from hitting the ground headfirst.

“P-Please, have mercy,” Malgrux pleaded, but the teenage boy remained indifferent.

“Don’t worry. You’ll live,” Thirteen repeated once more as he placed his hand on top of Malgrux’s head. “But I’ll make you wish that I killed you instead.”

Searing white flames covered the Demigod’s entire body, targeting not his flesh but his soul.

Malgrux’s scream made the hearts of all Infernals shudder and quieted the roar that had come from their Warlord, Kaelor.

“You have such a filthy soul,” Thirteen commented. “Aren’t you glad that I’m purifying it using the flames of heaven? With this, all of your sins will be forgiven. So, bear with the pain, okay? I’m doing this so you can at least reincarnate as a turtle in your next life.

“If you’re lucky to unlock cultivation, perhaps you can even gain human form. No need to thank me. Just promise you’ll be a good turtle in your next life, okay?”

A few minutes later, a pure white soul emerged from Malgrux’s body, then rose to the heavens.

Thirteen personally opened the cycle of reincarnation so the soul may once again enter the cycle of life, reborn as a turtle just as he had stated earlier.

“Y-You said that you will let him live,” the mace wielder, Zerathun, said hoarsely.

“Are your eyes blind?” Thirteen asked. “Look at this body. It’s very much alive.”

The Demigod then glanced at Malgrux, who was drooling like someone who had lost their ability to think.

It didn’t take long for Zerathun to understand that Thirteen’s version of letting them live was turning them into a soulless, empty vessel.

The body might still be alive, but it was merely functioning because the organs were still working perfectly.

Without a soul, what good was a body that could only be functional when run by a spirit?

This show of power unnerved everyone on the scene, including Thirteen’s ally, Rana, who secretly rejoiced that she had picked the winning side in this war.

Thirteen then casually tossed the Soulless Demigod to Erasmus, who received it happily.

“Metatron might have a use for that,” Thirteen said. “You can exchange it for something you can use.”

A Demigod was still a Demigod.

Only beings stronger than them would be able to put them to good use, and the God of the Apocalypse was one of those beings.

“Now, what should I do with you?” Thirteen rubbed his chin as if contemplating what to do with the last surviving Demigod.

After seeing what had happened to his comrades, Zerathun made a decision.

He forced all the energy into his heart and decided to self-destruct.

Thirteen watched with no reaction as a powerful explosion boomed across the sky.

A red mushroom cloud rose high in the air, and a soul that had lost its body tried to flee as fast as it could.

“I see. So you have this trick, huh?” Thirteen said with amusement as he grabbed the soul who had thought that it could escape using this method. “But you see, I am well-versed in handling souls. You can even call me an expert in taking good care of them.”

“Monster!” Zerathun screamed in horror. “Do you not fear the heavens?! Do you not fear the Gods?!”

“Fear the Heavens?” Thirteen arched an eyebrow.

Sun Wukong, who heard this, laughed out loud. If Thirteen feared the heavens, he wouldn’t have fought his own father, the System God, to the death.

“There will always be a heaven beyond the heavens,” Sun Wukong, who had seen such scenery, said softly. “But only those who have the will to defy it will be able to get to that place.”

Thirteen smiled faintly as he tightened his grip on the struggling soul in his hand.

“I do not fear the Heavens,” Thirteen declared. “They should be the ones fearing me.”

If anyone else had said those words, the Gods watching this battle from the Celestial Realm might have unleashed a divine punishment on Thirteen to curb his arrogance.

But the young man was admittedly worthy to say those words.

After all, they had witnessed his struggles, and frankly, they were now big fans of his.

Even Thirteen’s Patron God, the Skip God, smiled faintly at his newest Apostle, whom he believed would show him something that no one else had done in the entirety of the Multiverse.

“Let me go!” Zerathun shouted angrily. “Let me go, you monster!”

No matter how much he struggled, his fate had already been sealed the moment Thirteen had captured his soul.

Thirteen opened a purple portal by his side and tossed the soul inside of it.

Waiting on the other side, Metatron chuckled as he collected the soul of the Demigod, which ought to serve him well.

He had secretly talked to Thirteen via telepathy, asking him to trade Zerathun’s soul for a treasure inside the Treasury of the Apocalypse.

Thinking of it as a good deal, as well as a way to repay the God for his generosity, Thirteen agreed and gave Metatron what he wanted.

“Well, then. Time to clean up the filth.” Thirteen flicked the red spear that was now the size of a ruler to the bulk of the Infernal Army.

Soon, a one-sided slaughter followed, making Regulus despair as his powerful backers were put to death by the Thirteenth Son of Heaven.

The teenage boy then glanced at the sky, his gaze piercing through the Celestial Realm.

A few seconds later, he and his father, Deus Ex Machina, met eye to eye.

Thirteen held the God’s gaze for a few seconds before casually brushing off his own shoulder.

This was his blatant provocation against the System God, as if telling him to wash his neck because he would be coming for him next.

Deus Ex Machina looked at his son before giving Thirteen the middle finger.

This was the first time that the calm, composed, and always calculative System God had shown such a profane gesture toward someone whom he had personally brought into the world.