CHAPTER 115 | EARTHEN EMBODIMENT

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  'How could it be?! How could he still be alive when I had killed him just moments earlier? It was impossible for him to be resurrected being one with nature...'

  "..."

  Lumicor's head was spinning with confusion, desperately searching for answers.

  He couldn't fathom how someone who wasn't even a half-elemental, like himself, could manage to wholly convert their body into an elemental form.

  It was utterly baffling that he could achieve this complete elemental conversion...

  No, it shouldn't be possible to achieve it, even for an Emperor, since he was still at 'Stage 1,' unless...

  Unless the enemy was at Stage 3.

  Only then would he be able to freely convert his body into an elemental form in a matter of seconds.

  But if that wasn't the case, then perhaps he had used Incarnation.

  Incarnation was a feat available only to those with an insane mastery in mana manipulation, which wasn't an impossibility for the monstrous entity before him.

  But how did he do it in that instant when his vessel had already died?

  It shouldn't be possible.

  When the physical vessel dies, the connection to mana, only through the core, is severed, making Incarnation impossible unless he had truly converted his entire body into a True Elemental.

  That process was infinitely harder than even converting into a Half Elemental, a form I can only barely mimic due to my lack of core information...

  I couldn't help but chuckle, that was probably exactly what Lumicor was pondering while his body, now nothing more than chunks of shredded meat, drifted helplessly along the currents.

  It was funny that he couldn't figure out what happened at all.

  Just how could it be possible for me to use Incarnation without it being unlocked as a skill, or without being at Stage 3?

  It was unheard of for a Stage 1 Emperor to use it, so how did I use this skill?

  It was a mystery that couldn't be overcome with intellect alone.

  Even him, who was hailed as a monstrous genius in this world, wouldn't be able to figure it out.

  Fufufu... How intriguing indeed.

  If only I could see his expression right now, it would been even more amusing to watch him racking his brain for answers.

  But it was a shame that he was cut into thousands of pieces.

  "..."

  Let's not linger too much on his miserable expression.

  It wouldn't be wise to indulge myself in the same carelessness that cost me my vessel moments ago.

  Now, back to the main question.

  'How did I use Incarnation itself to continue sustaining my existence in this world?'

  'Hmm... how did I accomplish such an impossible task that was a mere fancy at my current stage?'

  The answer was inherently simple, since what I did was nothing inherently impressive at all.

  I only did just like what I did when I had used my skill 'Fallen Descension.'

  I applied it, along with the structural integrity of Varuna's True Water Dragon, to incarnate my core into an Earthen body.

  Still, it was such a shame.

  That I've lost my access to my distorted authorities and my contract with Tellus in the process of incarnating my core into an empty shell made of earth, a shell that was then filled with millions of complex mana circuits in its new, formless state.

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  This was a task of sheer insanity.

  It was a new path of Incarnation that I had pioneered, and I call this path 'The Form of Ascendance.'

  It was still in its first phase, an incomplete theory that I had been contemplating whether I should put into motion or not after seeing Varuna's true water dragon and its transformation, which was surprisingly similar to Incarnation itself.

  There are three stages to the theoretical framework I am developing right now.

  For example, 'The Five Zen of the Distorted Emperor,' which I have rightfully classified as being in the first and most complicated stage to complete.

  The overall classification is structured like this.

  The third stage is the last, and in theory, by far the least difficult to complete.

  It would only take me a hundred or so years to complete half-heartedly, or a decade if I focused my entire attention on it.

  Then there is the second stage, which is fundamentally a qualitative leap compared to the third stage.

  Something like corrupting the 'Seed of the Fallen' in my body is one such classification.

  The time for completion usually takes a hundred thousand years, or a thousand if I put my entire heart into it.

  Me corrupting the Seed of the Fallen falls not in the latter part, but in the first part, since the time will greatly vary based on how complicated its connection with the apogee would be.

  It was such a mess to classify this task at the second stage.

  It could be at the third stage if I could analyze it deeply, or maybe it could be at the first stage and by far the hardest, since these theories are pretty much nonsensical.

  They are theories that tap the border of normalcy to insanity, concepts that could only be seen in fiction.

  Explaining how they work wouldn't even be possible in a single chapter, or by a million words alone that would take a thousand chapters if each chapter was precisely a thousand words.

  Well, it was a dreamlike method where realities and fictions don't align.

  While I could develop 'The Five Zen of the Distorted Emperor' itself to perfection, truly completing it means I need to reach 'Ascendance' itself, just like what my current form is called, 'The Form of Ascendance,' the formless form that will allow me to transcend mortality and become an Ascendance itself.

  Now, it can only be classified as a third-rate form.

  But in the near future, with me stitching my physical vessel with the flesh of all lifeforms, be it extinct or something that theoretically doesn't exist in this multiverse, it is only then will it achieve the state of Ascendance.

  It was an insanity, a theory that was considered a taboo itself.

  But I know that I could finish it with the help of Elara, who is the unawakened Mother of Time.

  Be it in her first life or even now, she herself remains unawakened at my guidance.

  Her sole purpose would only be set in motion when Samantha would truly become the Mother of Void, which is space.

  And without space, there is void, the nothingness.

  If you combine space and time, you'll be able to tap into the mystery of reality, and only then would I be able to gain it.

  BOOM!

  The world completely turned into whiteness as white lightning flashed along with pure light, containing the casualties of starlight itself.

  A flickering clash of power erupted, and as these two powers clashed for prominence, the world around us exploded into pure cadence.

  White lightning cackled violently as it exploded outwards in a blinding manner.

  Every little explosion carried the destruction of everything it passed through, turning it into a malignant sea of thunder, cackling to life with every millisecond.

  The starlight exploded in a burst of cadence.

  Then, the fragments of starlight conjoined and combined into a single pure needle made of incandescent power that flashed at the speed of light, phasing through matter in an instant.

  WHIRR!

  The world went into silence as the needle-like candescence of starlight vanished without a trace.

  Then, pain struck her nerves as she clutched at her throat, her lungs suddenly flooded with blood.

  COUGH! COUGH!

  Solia's pupils dilated into pure horror.

  Her breathing was muffled, blood flooding her systems.

  She couldn't breathe, nor could she move right now, as her body was paralyzed into a state of shock from the hole the needle had punched clean through her throat.

  Her life flashed before her.

  The memory of her as a child, dancing in the dusk beneath the gigantic trees, her mother smiling happily as her father watched from a distance, smiling foolishly as he looked at his wife and daughter.

  It was before the god of fire went berserk.

  It was pure bliss to experience this moment again for the final time.

  That was what she thought as she closed her eyes, then calmly composed herself, knowing her end was coming.

  "M-master... I... I..."

  She mustered every bit of strength to mutter those last words.

  It was her final utterance before she passed out.

  She knew she hated him to the bones, but she also knew she would still willingly jump into his bed if he so wished it...

  It was a wishful thinking, but she hoped that her master would love her as much as she hated and loved him at the same time.

  It was an irony itself that the person she hated was the person she loved the most.

  But she knew that in his eyes, she was nothing but a tool to accomplish his goals.

  Yet, even so... even if he only saw her as nothing but a tool, Solia would still willingly follow him, even if his love in the far future would die, only to be replaced with nothing but reverence for a god.

  She knew that she longed for the existence of Tellus faintly in her heart... even now, she was faintly thinking about him while thinking of her master.

  She was satisfied with this end.

  It was fitting for a woman as unclean as herself.

  Even to the bitter end, she was thinking of two men.

  It was irony, an irony to the end.

  She smiled, then opened her eyes for the final time.

  She saw Lumicor looking at her coldly, then out into the far distance as her vision blurred.

  Then before she could see it, her vision dulled and in the next second, all she could see was darkness as her ears lost their hearing.

  All she could feel in this oblivion was the earth around her slightly trembling.

  Then, in the next moment, that very earth crawled up her neck, then into her bare throat where the hole bore.

  It filled the wound with dirt.

  It was warm.

  Solia felt warmth for the last time in her life before she would disappear along with her master.

  'I wonder... If I was ever worthy of serving him.'