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  BOOOM!

  Primordial Essence was eled alongside Photon energy; an explosion of blinding light ed it all. The God of Deep Darkness was instantly blown up, his body disappearing and burning into ashes as he screamed in pain. The eternal light ed everything; his castle was destroyed, vaporized, and quite literally deleted from existence, and everything within our surroundings was also destroyed.

  What remained was only me, standing over a huge crater deep within the hard floor of the underworld. I looked around my surroundings and quickly noticed that, despite the attack, God wasn’t dead yet.

  “Not dead yet, amazing. So you take more tha.”

  Darkness gathered from all my surroundings. I felt the Underworld itself twist its own ws. The God that gover all was reformed from scratch, with shadows and darkness quickly gathering above me, f the figure of a giganti made of pure obscurity, umbral darkness weaving itself into a robe, long skeletal cws, and sharp crimson eyes.

  “You ot kill me.” He spoke with a stern voice.

  “Is that so?” I pointed my fi him, and a beam of Photonic Esseed.

  BOOOM!

  His entire body was destroyed once more, and as the light ed him pletely, nothing was left behind. For a moment, there were a few seds of total stillness.

  Yet.

  “I told you it’s impossible.”

  He reappeared again, the same form, the same shape, altogether above me, looming like a gigantic being that I simply couldn’t fight a. He died twid came back. He’s like Joseph, then? There are some teiques that restruct him pletely.

  “And what makes you believe so?”

  He started to ugh at my question, his ughter reverberating across the entire underworld. Suddenly, all the Undead, all of the subjects I killed, came back as Undead skeletons around him—ghosts, zombies, whatever else there could be, it came back.

  “As you see, we Gods are eternal beings. Our subjects, as well, are eternal as long as they’re bound to our souls.” He ughed. “You might have been able to kill my weakest Avatars, but in my Divine Realm, I am supremely omnipotent!”

  “Not really,” I spoke as I waved my scythe and my sword. Two waves ht light and dark shadows engulfed the undead, killing them instantly. “I’ve been studying you, Gods, for a little while since I nded here. You are certainly different than any foe I’ve ever fought; your bodies and your existences work differently, yes. However, you definitely die.”

  “Yes, gods die; I won’t deny it. But as ht now, I ’t die.” He ughed. “We Gods are made of the belief and faith of our followers! As long as there’s belief in my existehin the world of Eclipse, I will keep reappearing endlessly! I am an absolute existehe embodiment of Eclipse’s mortals' fear of the unknown, their fear of darkness ah. I am the patron god of bandits, thieves, and the wicked! Psychopaths! I am the other side of the same , while the Mother of Brilliance is my plete opposite. She loves and cares for everybody and protects them. Meanwhile, I bring them chaos and challenges.”

  “Is that so?” I asked. “So?”

  “…So! You ’t kill me! You might be incredibly powerful for a mortal, perhaps even strohan me. And because of that, I ’t even dare to harm you either.” He sighed. “However, if we ’t harm one ahe’s simply live in harmony. I bee your ally if you desire. We fight against the ods; I might teach you a way to weaken them and force them to bee your sves.”

  “How cute; you’re trying to bey ally now?” I ughed. “Well, at one point in my life, when I was much weaker, I would have accepted that offer. However, right now, nothing says you ’t truly die.”

  “If you wanted me to die, you would o first kill every person who ever believed in my existence. You would eveo wipe out the most intelligent life iirety of Eclipse! Do you uand? Your heart is one of a hero; I know it. Deep down, you would never do such a thing.” He smiled. “You may try to kill me as much as you want now, but you will simply not get as! Now, either leave or simply stay by my side. The result will be the same.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said, raising my hands into the empty air. “You Gods are not "absolute." Although you are fed by your believers through Faith, your existence still die, regardless of whether your believers die or not. The way to do it, however, is not something most people would know.”

  “What? W-What are you talking about?!” He muttered. “There is simply no way than- AH!”

  His eyes widened as he saw my hands grasping something—something invisible, something not even he could clearly dis. It was the very fabric of his own Divine Domain; they resembled tless transparent threads of Divinity. I was able to easily grasp them by coating my own hands with Primordial Essence.

  “Stop! Are y to destroy my Divine Realm?!”

  “Suddenly you became scared, huh? I wonder why!”

  “S-STOP!”

  The God of Deep Darkness didn’t wait for another sed, his endless shadows enpassiirely. As I saw tless jaws made of shadows attempting to tear me to shreds, such attacks, however, were nowhere as strong as the Teiques a Peak Immortal could unleash. Each of his blows released explosions of shadows, darkness, and even pure death essence. His abilities stantly attempt to reach my soul.

  Yet…

  “You ’t stop me.”

  I closed my hands tightly as I tore apart his Divine Realm’s "threads," the very fabric of the Divine Realm formation he had created using his powers or skills. He certainly made them rely on a power he couldn’t quite uand. I believe even the Gods of the Tower are all subject to the System at the end, and therefore, it makes sehat there are certain things he isn’t aware of within the powers he uses seamlessly.

  Crack, crack…!

  “STOP!”

  CRASH!

  I didn’t stop; the Divine Realm was torn open like a piece of fabric. A cra space opened, which kept expanding as I tio tear it apart. I moved at lightning speed across the entire Underworld, tearing apart the entire Divine Realm that the God of Deep Darkness had fed for perhaps thousands of years, if not more.

  “NOOO! STOP! I SAID STOP!”

  He grew desperate, tless crimson eyes appearing all around me, firing beams of all-destructive Death Essence, capable of turning most living beings into piles of ashes in a mere instant by iing them with pure Death Essence.

  Yet.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  “Way too weak; you’re not even parable to a Mid-Rank Immortal with such attacks! And you call yourself a God? You’re more like just a puppy to me.”

  “RAAAARRGH!”

  He roared with the utmost fury and frustration as his entire Divine Realm started to get, quite literally, folded. I was folding the fabric of his Realm by twisting the space itself; I made it smaller and smaller. While being pletely ued by any of his attacks, I tinued folding and, at the same time, refining the Divine Realm.

  “Stop this at once! What do you think you’re doing?! I am a GOD! Give me some respect, at least! HEY! WHAT- UGH! WHAT IS THIS?!”

  However, it was too te; he was now in the palm of my hands, made into a much smaller entity. My way of dealing with Gods was very simple. Because their existences depended on the Divine Realms they possessed, I simply had to fold their Divine Realm into a much smaller form, paough to hold them but no bigger than that.

  “Although your existences indeed depend on the belief and faith of your subjects, it doesn’t mean you simply regee endlessly. It works differently, is it not? You Gods gain this power as Faith Points, and you use it to grow your Divinity Trees, further improving the crity of your existences.” I expio him something he seemed unaware of. “You kept reviving after I killed you because you tinued spending Faith Points to recover.”

  “T-That’s…!” He quickly panicked. “E-ENOUGH! Even if my Faith Points reach zero, I will simply earn more and recain; it won’t matter as long as- Ah!”

  “Is that so? The’s give it a go!” I ughed, iing my fingers into his “immortal body”, and draining him of his endless energy. “Thank you for the meal.”

  FLUOSH!

  “UGH…?! W-WAIT! STOP! STOP, I SAID!”

  He kept screaming as I started abs his energy, and an endless source of Divinity started reag my body. My Divinity, which had been growing slowly, started shining brighter than ever before, improving by the sed.

  “UAARRGH! NOOO!”

  However, my meal was stopped midway through as the God of Deep Darkness mustered all the power he had. I felt like his stats increased drastically as he unleashed his stro skills, barely managing to slip away from my hands. How? He became part void and part shadow, disappearing and then reappearing behi least a kilometer away.

  “Hahhh… Y-You monster! You’ve forced me to use my Secret Divinity, the one I’ve been f for a millennium!” He screamed. His Divine Realm had been pacted into a single body, making him naturally stronger as well, as all his powers were pacted into a smaller form.

  “Was that the element of Void?” I wondered. “The only Element I could not assimite was the elusive Dao of Void!”

  “Dao of Void?!” He asked. “You talk a bunch of words I don’t even uand, you insane woman…!” His body quickly shifted into that of a tall and muscur man made of darkness and void essence, with six arms and three heads. “I’ll end you.”

  His hands opened crimson eyes, firing Void Beams against me. I felt as if each beam was able to traverse space by deleting it pletely. This made it so that when a beam hit me, a huge cra space was left, with the resulting energy fluctuations geing enormous aructive explosions.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  He kept shooting and shooting; the impact force of his beams was much more powerful than any ability or attack he had ever unleashed before. For the first time ever, I felt slightly taken aback.

  “Hahahah! You ’t escape the Element of Void, woman!” The God of Deep Darkness ughed. “And this power… I owe it to you for having gifted me with such immerength! I hought it ossible to refine my Divine Realm and my body together into such a pa!”

  As he ughed while drowning in his own fake glory, I tinued walking towards him, his beams exploding and leaving holes in space, yet these holes and the distortions in the fabric of dimensions were uo harm me. My Primordial Nine Heaven Prote gained a few little cracks, though, so it was quite endable.

  “Amusing ihe Element of Void; if I assimite it from you, it’ll be an incredible reward!” I smiled back at him. “Now, now, enough of pying around. e and die, please.”

  “E-Eh?!” He stepped back as he saw me appear from within the smoke left behind by the explosion. “plete unscathed?! No… but that’s impossible!”

  “Impossible? The only thing impossible here is you ever harming me.” I smiled. “However, I want to show you what I do and the extent of my abilities. As a farewell gift. I will show you what you ’t bee. True Darkness.”

  “T-True… Darkness…?”

  As he started to panid fire more Void Beams, my entire body turned deep b a sed. I was enshrouded by bck, st clouds and bd crimson lightning surging endlessly, zapping my surroundings. The position of my entire body ged in a mere split sed.

  “{Immemorial Nine Heaven Embodiment}: {Shadow ed Bck Heaven’s Physique}”

  “W-Wha…?!”

  His crimson eyes opened wide as he saw my form ge. Much like him, I had bee a being of pure obscurity, of umbral, eternal darkness.

  This was one of the special abilities within the {Immemorial Nine Heaven Embodiment} arts, which allowed me to assimite Nine different Physiques, all fed using the Nine Heavens of Murim.

  And the Bck Heaven’s Physique embodied the endless darkness of the bck skies.

  “This is the power you will never be able to achieve,” I said. “Admire it; stay in awe of its greatness. This will be the first and st time you see it. Because your death is noroag, God of Deep Darkness.”

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  Pach