Lightning struck, and thunder roared through the crimson sky. The heavens wept as if trembling in fear of the looming deserters, it's presence heavy in the sky above the mortal world.
The earth was painted a bloody red, soaked in the lifeblood of the fallen. Destruction and wreckage stretched endlessly across the landscape, and scattered among the ruins lay the severed remains of various alien races. Some were headless, others had limbs torn apart, and a few were barely recognizable, mere remnants of what once were living beings.
The sheer scale of devastation was enough to haunt one's dreams, a nightmare that would steal sleep for countless nights.
At the center of it all, the cause of this massacre, Morca, knelt on the bloodied ground, cradling the lifeless form of his beloved brother. A single, precise wound pierced through his brother's forehead, a small hole between his brows that had stolen his life away.
Gently, Morca placed the lifeless body aside and rose to his feet. A drained silence clung to him, an aura so suffocating it provoked fear in the primal souls of those who remained. Dried, blood stained tears streaked his face, and his hair, dyed not with his own blood but with that of the fallen, was matted from the battle that had just ended.
His gaze remained steady as he looked at the four remaining figures hovering in the air.
These four were unlike the others. Their presence radiated ancient authority and ruthless power, their five mighty wings marking them as beings of the Heavenly Titan Court. Each bore wings of a different color; black, red, gold, and purple. They were the last of the seven envoys of the court.
The Battle of Ascension.
A loud voice suddenly shattered the tense silence.
"You, fiend! How dare you blaspheme against the Heavenly Titan Court by killing three of our envoys! Your sins cannot be atoned for with your pathetic life alone! You are cursed, damned to eternal doom! Your soul shall be extracted, your figure rejected by all the heavens, and even the abyss of death shall deny you!"
The envoy with black wings roared, its voice trembling with fury.
"Blasphemy, you say?" Morca's voice was cold, devoid of emotion. He no longer sounded like the man who had shed bloody tears just moments ago. "How can I not see it for what it is? You hypocrites of the heavens."
"Impudent wretch!" another envoy snarled. "We represent the heavens, sent to evaluate your worthiness for ascension. But you have failed! Not only that, you are an eternal doom, deemed dangerous and corrupt! You are unfit for the highest heavens and even the abyssal realm!"
The envoy's words were laced with caution, subtly stalling for time. They knew the truth, they could not stop this dangerous mortal, this man who had bathed in the blood of the Heavenly Titan Court's envoys. That was why they had cast the Demon Slayer's Eternal Doom Curse upon him, to attract the attention of that entity.
Morca scoffed. "By slaughtering an innocent person to obstruct my ascension? How hypocritical. The heavens have rotted from within. Allow me to correct your errors, so-called envoys."
He knew what they were doing. They were buying time. But he would not allow it.
He would kill them swiftly and continue his ascension.
The envoys, enraged, gritted their teeth. "Fine! Then we shall show you your place, mortal! You are nothing, and nothing you shall become in the face of the heavens!"
With that, the four envoys moved as one, attacking from different angles. Their combined aura was as heavy as a mountain, pressing down as if to crush Morca into dust.
Morca's eyes flickered with madness. He focused on the descending figures and released his grip on his blade. It floated horizontally beside him, humming with restrained energy.
In an instant, slash!
A flash of light. A fountain of crimson.
Blood sprayed through the night sky like curtains of red silk. His blade returned to his grasp, vibrating violently, black-gold blood dripping from its edge.
It seemed… excited.
On the bloodied ground, massive chunks of flesh lay scattered, the remains of the four envoys, now nothing more than unrecognizable corpses.
Morca, undisturbed, stood calm and aloof. Nothing in this world could shake him.
Without hesitation, he turned toward the swirling portal above. The gateway to the so-called heavenly realms awaited him.
His gaze dropped to the sword in his grasp. A smirk tugged at his lips as he addressed it.
"Avoc, calm down. There are more waiting to celebrate our ascension on the other side."
The blade trembled in his hand, vibrating with excitement.
Morca chuckled. He did not fear the battle ahead.
Dragging his bloody body forward, he stepped toward the portal.
Then, everything stilled.
No movement. No sound.
He could not lift a single finger. His gaze locked onto the swirling gateway, as if silently begging it to swallow him whole.
His primal instincts screamed, Move!
But he couldn't.
The only thing he could do was roll his eyes, searching for the source of the unseen force restraining him.
And then, a voice echoed through the void. A voice that would haunt him for a long, long time.
"I must say, you are truly something, unawakened child of the Cursed One. I almost lost you… for real. Thank goodness I managed to send this clone in time, at a great price, but it was worth it."
For the first time in a long while, Morca felt it, real danger. A chilling fear crept into his chest.
He knew what he had to do, but the real problem was that he couldn't move. Worse yet, he had no access to his storage ring, where he might have found a treasure he could use to escape.
The eerie voice echoed again.
"You have been cursed by the Demon Slayer's Eternal Doom. Do not even think of escaping, for the eyes of the heavens and the Abyssal Curse Demon Slayer's clan are upon you."
"I'm doomed... so this is it," Morca thought bitterly. My carelessness has finally caught up to me, death. What a cruel fate.
He cursed his bad luck. He had been too overconfident, convinced he was untouchable. But now, he realized, he was no match for this ancient monster, one he hadn't even known existed.
"Now, 'descendant of the cursed one,' I will show you that you are nothing before the Most High Heaven. I shall extract your soul for eternal torment."
The voice rang out like the final judgment, condemning him to his fate.
A bottle appeared in its hand, and a strange suction force began drawing Morca's soul out of his body, pulling it toward the bottle's opening.
Just as it seemed his soul was about to be sealed inside…
A thick darkness engulfed the entire planet. Nothing could be seen, not the glowing alien clone, nor the devastation that had unfolded.
Everything turned to void, leaving the fate of the planet unknown…
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A/N
I will be updating this book at least three chapters a day from now till Sunday.
EXPECTED TO REACH 301-500 CHAPTER