371 Nirtan VII : Humanity, Doomed

[You Have advanced to the second circle of the God realm]

[You have absorbed the essence, soul and divine energy of a lesser God of adventure and mining. You have received 10k faith points, and minor control over the domain of adventure, as such the soul rune (EARTH) has been branded into your soul in exchange for your control over adventure and mining.]

[To advance to the next circle of godhood you need to slay and absorb the essence of two lesser gods with different domains.]

"Owww!" the feeling of having a soul rune branded on your divine soul was quite painful, but it was a feeling that only lasted for a moment. I had already returned to my normal form, but I felt ready drained using my divine avatar for the first time. That skill for all intents and purposes was the true look of my divine form, which is to say that as a god that was what I truly looked like, a giant shirtless, shoeless, man beast with faces on his skin. Weird does not even begin to describe it.

I moved towards the flashing green sword on the ground and picked it up. The moment I did, I felt as if my vision seemed to zoom into the blade and suddenly I found myself traveling through space and time, across multiple universes, galaxies, stars, planets and black holes until finally I came to a stop in front of a blue planet.

I looked at my body, and all I could see was an energy form with no hint of flesh or substance, I was like a ghost, incapable of touching or affecting anything. I looked down at the planet beneath me and couldn't help but have this intense feeling of melancholy and rage mixed together. This was my home, a place that had been hell for me during my first life, but nevertheless it was home, other was earth.

"Do you miss it?" a voice asked from behind me.

"Of course he does, I'm his home!" another voice answered.

I couldn't help but shake my head, how did it happen that I ended up in an argument between a planetary entity and a cosmic devourer. I turned around with an annoyed look on my face and had to fight the urge to scream out in anger when I saw the forms the devourer and earth was wearing. The forms of both my fathers from my two lives stared at me as I contemplated what to say.

"Why did you guys bring me here?"

"Contrary to what you believe Jason, I'm not omnipresent or omniscient. Every time I appeared before you, thousands of innocent people have to die as fuel to transfer myself into the seven layer dimensions to see you and your comrades. I like to think that I created the seven layer universes by funneling all human hopes, dreams, choices made and unmade into an enclosed space, but now I realize that I was just a catalyst, a simple planet with the power to interact with it's residents. To put it simply the seven layer universes were made by nothing else than humanity. My power comes from them, and so does yours, and every object or being from the seven layer universe is in one way or another connected to their origins, your home which is more than just the planet itself, but rather the people. The sword key brought you here, however what it's trying to tell you, I don't really know." Earth said to me, furrowing the face of my earth father in the process.

"I think it's telling you that you're running out of time, even if you find the keys you won't be able to stop me. There are many cracks in all of the universe, and I'm afraid the first, second, and third universe have been left completely defenseless. I might not be able to devour them unless I devour your earth, but I can still infect them and seed them with my apostles just as I've seeded the merged universes. And when they finally merge, you would be fighting and army born of my flesh. And I know I will win, if nothing but for the very fact that discord is a part of your nature, and none of you would be united enough to face me. You will all fall and become a part of the collective."

I shook my head, frankly speaking I was already tired, seems like the fight would never end. First there's a planet that schemes, but I can't really blame it, humans were born on it. And then the cosmic entity that wants to eat me and my family (you could probably read another meaning into that, but please get your mind out of the gutter), and my friends. Powerful cosmic entity in their own right, and now they're telling me that the only things that has kept us safe and made us grow stronger was humanity itself. And with everything that has been said and done, this Devourer was still dumb as fuck, Jesus! Bad guys never learn do they? Is it a rule that they have to be so slow to the take. I guess we'll never know, that's a cosmic question that could be left for another day.

"First of all, you both should know that we will fight to protect our home, whether it's earth or the seven layer universes. And the three undefended universes would rally in strength and power and keep on fighting against you until the dragon kings get there to save them. There would be no victory for you Devourer, and that's mainly due to your stupidity. Earth and it's humans, much less it's seven universes are not like other planets or races. You've underestimated us so many times and each time you do we've kicked your ass, but yet you never learn.

So you have armies right? Well then bring it on, you want to eat us up and keep us in dark disgusting bowels right? Well fuck you! But you should know, there would be no victory, no surrender, and devouring of any human, regardless of race or any planet or universe! Because believe me when I tell you, we will fuck you up! And mess you up! Until you're nothing more than one big massive joke!

Humanity is flawed, but that's why we're beautiful. Because in our imperfections, we learn to be better, we grow and we change and we adapt. We're creators and destroyers, life givers and death bringers. You lost the moment you decided we looked tasty, but I promise you we're gonna be feeding you something alright, and it's not going to be tasty. See you around."

As soon as I finished speaking I had this incredible feeling, as if I was being pulled out of something or rather being pulled away from the planet below me and from the faces of my two dead fathers. Moving away until they became nothing more than a speck, and I was staring at my reflection on a glittering jade green blade with the map of the seven layer universes, or rather a clock as it showed the fourth universe getting close to merge with others. This was the sword key of the universe, one of the most powerful tools in existence.....and it was in my hands.

I looked around at the massive level of destruction I had caused during my fight with the now deceased lesser god of adventure and mining. It was catastrophic for the planet, and even now I could feel it slowly starting to break apart, in just a few hours it would crack and it's core would completely destabilize. I guess it had reached it's twilight.

There was a loud crash of thunder and Joshua appeared besides me. He looked really troubled, but from his expression I knew he had failed in what he set out to do.

"I Destroyed the Devourer's gate, killed the drone leaders in charge of controlling the other species. But yet, the moment they got disconnected from the drone leaders, they all broke down and died in the most terrible and painful way. They were torn from the inside out by nothing else than the emotions and sense of self the Devourer took away from them. They're all lost."

I could tell this hit him really hard, but there was nothing he could do; at least for now anyway. I moved towards him and placed my hands on his shoulder and gave him the brightest smile I could muster.

"The next time we come across a gate, we should capture some of them for research back on Sperm, I believe we should be able to find away to removed their connection and prevent them from dying after it's done. But we've done what we came here for, and we need to leave. Where's Baeki?" I asked as I handed the sword key to Joshua who was giving it a closer look before replying to me.

"She's evacuating the troops, your little waltz with the other god has left this dance floor a mess. Seems like Emrys gets his wish after all, the planet wouldn't survive."

I nodded at him as I placed an arm on his shoulder and then teleported to the observation deck of the frigate, shocking most of the crew members at our sudden appearance. We stood there long enough that Baeki and the rest of our soldiers who had escaped the planet came to join us as we watched it break apart. Before that happened I took a little peek at my stat page just to see what had changed.

NAME: GOD KING KAEL COR

• RACE: GOD: VAMPIRE/ DRAGON/HUMAN

• CLASS: GOD: DOMAINS: (RUNE/SOUL/HOPE)

• REALM: GOD(2nd CIRCLE)

• FAITH POINTS: 25K

SKILLS: PASSIVE

• [AURA MANIPULATION: ] MASTER

• [DIVINE AUTHORITY: LEVEL 1] BASIC

• [SOUL GOD: LEVEL 2]

SKILLS: ACTIVE

• [RUNE CRAFT: ] MASTER

• [BLOOD CRYSTAL: ] MASTER

• [DIVINE AVATAR: LEVEL 2] ADVANCED

• [COMBINE SKILL: LEVEL N/A] MASTERED

BLOODLINE SKILLS:

• DIVINE RUNE CRAFT

• SOUL GOD

• NATURE KING

RACIAL SKILLS:

• BLOOD MANIPULATION

• DIVINE AURA

• DARK ELEMENT

• LIGHT ELEMENT

• SOUL FLAME

• RUNE SPEECH

GOD RUNES:

• [BREAK/SHIELD/PUSH/PULL/HEAL/DREAM/CREATE/TRACE/SUMMON/COMPEL/EARTH]

BLOODLINE CREST:

• [COMMUNICATION/SOUL SENSE/GRAND TELEPORTATION/RUNE CRAFT]

As the world breathed it's last, I couldn't help but wonder about something, so I turned and asked the commander of the frigate.

"What's the name of these planet anyway?" it was Baeki who answered me.

"It's name is Nirtan, it's gnomish for doomed. I guess they were right."