Chapter 158: Embodiment of Cruelty

The Plague Garden moved first. Vines erupted from the earth, each one thick as a building, wrapped in thorns that dripped with concentrated plague. They lashed toward the Heavenly Demon with speed that defied their massive size.

It didn't dodge. Its cracked blade moved in a single elegant arc. The vines fell apart while the slash traveled beyond physical space, severing the attack's conceptual existence.

The Mother of Life didn't pause, flora exploded across the battlefield with trees bursting from stone. Flowers bloomed and withered in seconds, releasing spores that could kill entire ecosystems. Lea can tell, for the sake of the evacuating people, Mard Awalan was holding back. This isn't the full might of a God from beyond the Sky, just a preview of a gentle but deadly Mother.

The Heavenly Demon walked through it all, blade rising and falling with mechanical precision. Each swing erased whatever stood before it, each swing that can be seen hides thousands more cuts. Plants, spores, even reality itself parted around its strikes.

Lea tracked him from the temple roof, letting loose arrow after arrow, each one carrying different curses.

They shattered against the storm of cuts before connecting.

It's not even trying... Lea realized with growing horror.

The Plague Garden shifted tactics. Her body dispersed into millions of microscopic organisms, surrounding Tianzai from all angles. An ocean of plague given form.

The Heavenly Demon stopped walking, merely raised the cracked blade.

The atmosphere changed in an instant.

The exhalation carried its malice outward like a shockwave, sharpened into blades. The microscopic plagues evaporated by the peak of swordsmanship. The Plague Garden's form scattered, forced to retreat and reconstitute.

And with that, it officially stepped into the city.

Lea cursed, "It's gaining Tempo. Every exchange makes it sharper."

The storm wolves circled, waiting for an opening that wouldn't come. They were powerless against an unstoppable force.

The Heavenly Demon's eyes, empty of everything except the desire to cut, finally focused upward. It gazed at Lea, spotting her through pure intuition. She realized that, in those eyes... it recognized her as something worth cutting.

She remembered clearly that the Heavenly Demon possessed the Divine Domain of Separation. From its name, Lea could tell the Lord could cut everything.

Staying away was the right move. She flapped her wings—

Only for a dimensional cut to tear both of her wings apart. Instead of letting herself crash, she sank into her shadow and slipped away, intending to lure the Heavenly Demon away.

However, she couldn't run. In the shadow, she saw a slash cutting through the dimension.

How does one fight something like this?!

"Heavenly Slaughtering Art - Sparrow's Flight."

That was all she heard before being killed in an instant. Her soul was diced apart, cut into tiny pieces. And she ended up back in the Dream World, fully exhausted on the floor. Luckily, her Soul is connected to this Divine Domain.

Thanks to the subconsciousness of humanity's fear toward her, Lea has a stable anchor to the world, even if she isn't a true god yet.

"What even is a sparrow...?", she asked out loud, grumbling.

Staying here was better to recover her strength, but what about the people? Have they gotten away safely?

She was too weak to go now, when her soul hadn't gathered yet.

Would Charlotte come here to deal with that mass of malice and cruelty?

"Can I... reason with it?"

"Not impossible.", the Jester appear right before her, "This world tamed The Nova Blight, after all. But because that emerald comet's Attributes are Hazard and Melody. It isn't that insane."

"But for that sword? Severance and Corruption. It just wants to cut and cut. It has cut planets, stars, galactic empires. Can you convince something so single-minded to stop?"

"Can you?"

Can I stop it? No, its rampage is beyond me. But... can I use its love for cutting things... to aim it at Sinclair.

Like Charlotte said, the ability to speak is the strongest power in the universe.

"I will go out there again..."

She had devised a plan in quick succession. The Shapeless Comedy also got it and agreed. She owns the Divine Domain of Unconscious, while also having the Divine Domain of Order on a technicality...

They shouldn't be compatible with Separation.

Leaving a significant part of her Soul in the mansion, Lea returned to the real world. She felt weak... this body is as weak as an ordinary human.

The Plague Garden had regenerated and was raining acid full of diseases down. But that also means destroying half of Conlun, which was already in ruin. With a storm of cuts and cleaves, the Heavenly Demon killed all the microbes. However, the acid raid was still melting it.

"Heaven Demon!", Lea yelled out.

Those red eyes snapped toward her.

"I would like to formally make a Contract with you.", she held her hand out, "I will become your wielder; all I ask is to borrow your power to strike down one person."

"Who would that be?", he smiled.

It's interested, good. Even if it was just mild musing.

"You had cut down planets, stars, other things I couldn't even imagine. But have you ever cut down... an Anomaly of the universe?"

Anomalies are inherently errors in the structure that is the universe, they exist as aberrations of Cosmic Laws. So only the violated Voidborns would take care of those errors.

The problem with Sinclair is...

Space doesn't do anything. Time made a deal with her. And Tale cannot touch her. Unless she becomes too dangerous and forces The Universal Matrix to step in, she is essentially free.

"Do you not want to slice apart an error?"

Cruelty and malice, that was all she could see in those eyes. As well as something else, a person crying in pain, begging for salvation that would never come.

It was the host taken over by The Heavenly Slaughter.

"It has been since forever another one of my kind offers themselves to me.", it responded with pleasure.

The raging storm of attacks stopped, letting acid and decay eat away the host. Flesh melted away, organs falling out to the ground. Yet the host kept standing.

"But for a faker like you, someone who wants revenge so badly. I guess you will make a decent wielder.", it spoke through the melting corpse.

"This world has something similar to mine, titles and names speaking of who they are. So be honored, you who bathed in despair and came back."

"Heavenly Killing Star; Sword of Blood; Granter of Equality."

A malicious being with no reason to be so, it was born as that. A sword that only wants to kill for no special reason. It treats all as equal, equally falling under it.

"Broken Light; Cruel Luminosity; Sword's End."

Shining with malice, it drives all insane, wanting to hold its power. Overwhelming evil takes over its host, becoming the sword's puppet. It is the embodiment of swordsmanship, the ending of all swords and swordsmasters.

"Heavenly Demon; Lord of Slaughter; Despair's Final Cry."

A monster that came from beyond the sky. A monster that kills with pleasure and joy. A monster that silences all cries.

Those were the last words coming from that man's mouth. And only a cracked blade now lay on the ground, tempting everything to hold it again.

"What will... you do..."

Lea looked up, the massive slime monster reshaping into the form of a woman.

"I... respect... all life... I respect your... choice..."

"I know what I am doing.", Lea nodded and walked toward the sword.

She has absolutely no idea what she is doing.

"I am Lea Darkwill, The Faceless Twilight...", she grabbed the hilt.

She can feel the corruption eating away at her, taking over her body almost instantly. Just slightly slower than her thought process...

So Lea dragged the Star God into her Dream World with Sinking Rem. It was easier with them connected through Malediction and Corruption.

The mansion trembles at the presence of a Star God and an incompatible Divine Domain. But Lea has two Divine Domains and a Jester with her.

She could barely keep it together...

The Faceless Twilight smiles, keeping a confident façade. She held her hand out.

"I am similar to you, but completely different. I love because of hate, I continue because I hate, I feel endless malice toward everything that ruined my life."

"I would ask you, whom malice and evil point at no one and everyone. I would like to wield that evil of yours."

From one demon to another. From a hypocrite to a simple-minded slaughterer.

"After that, I don't care about anything else."

The Faceless Twilight at her core is an Avenger. The real Lea died that day, sinking into the abyss. She is just the remains of a dead person.

She truly doesn't care about anything else. Not even becoming a god, not even the promise of obtaining two more Divinities.

An Avenger with nothing to lose is the most dangerous kind.

In front of her, the blade that had silenced countless salvation and despair.

"Let me wield you."

Once again, she grabbed the hilt of the sword. Endless malice flooded her soul and mind.

The Faceless Twilight smiled.

=0=0=

On the outside, Charlotte came. Staring at the black and gold statue holding the hilt of the cracked blade. She had her cane today, fidgeting with the silver Rose Compass engraved on it.

"Quite interesting, if I say so myself. But don't think I need to be here, right?", she stared at the sky, looking at the feathered Angels hovering in the sky.

"As always, the Almighty doesn't show Themselves.", she sighed, "But that is not a problem."

Since it was close to Their territory, The Three Rings had no choice but to come deal with the Weakest Lord of Annihilation. Something They didn't do in the New World. They are here to kill The Heavenly Slaughter and its host - Lea.

Not that Charlotte would allow that.

"In the Name of Humanity...", she tapped her compass, "Laputa Argatha."

Not a sword, spear, nor a bow. Not any type of weapon. But an azure blue flying fortress, with guns lined up on the walls; every tip of buildings has guns on them. This was a clear threat from the Monarch to the Angels.

"So choose. Give me an uneventful day. I still have a concert to see.", her azure eyes light up with madness and pleasure.

While she was confronting the Angels, The Plague Garden had returned to its slime form, quietly waiting for Lea to awaken...

Or perhaps, another Heavenly Demon.