The Skynet Falls
"Impossible."
The Dark Spider Demon's many eyes widened, disbelief etched across its monstrous face. Around it, the Octopus Demon and Moth Demon trembled in shock. Their combined strike, one strong enough to tear apart a lesser world, had struck true—yet the serpent before them stood unharmed, its scales gleaming beneath a thin layer of chaotic radiance.
The Chaos Barrier had nullified their efforts as if they were nothing.
One demon muttered, its voice trembling, "That… that was our strongest blow. If it were us on the receiving end—"
"We'd be dead," another finished grimly.
Inside the lair, the little plant demon gods stared wide-eyed. Star Tree Loli, who only moments ago had tried to usurp her boss's throne, nearly fell on her face. "Th-this is the boss's bodyguard?!" she gasped, her tiny voice carrying equal parts fear and awe.
For the first time since the battle began, they felt safe. Encircled by the vast body of the Primordial Ancient Serpent, they could almost believe no power in chaos could harm them.
Gu Chuan's massive head lowered, golden vertical pupils glaring down at the thirty attackers. His words rolled out like thunder:
"You dared to attack me. That is enough reason to die."
The Dark Spider Demon panicked, waving its legs frantically. "W-wait, this is a misunderstanding—"
But the serpent did not wait.
With terrifying speed for something so colossal, Gu Chuan's tail lashed through the void. Space itself screamed as the blow descended, empowered by the crystallized cells of his serpent body, each brimming with bottomless power.
"DEFEND! SUMMON ALL DEFENSES!" the demons shrieked.
Barriers erupted—ice, flame, steel, shadow—layer upon layer, until 129,600 veils of law covered the battlefield. A fortress of desperate will.
Boom.
The serpent's tail struck.
One after another, the barriers shattered like brittle glass, torn apart faster than the demons could repair them. Then the blow landed. The void went silent for a heartbeat before detonating into raw chaos, tearing apart hundreds of billions of kilometers of space.
When the storm cleared, twenty-seven chaos demon gods were gone—obliterated in body and soul.
Only three remained, broken and bloodied. The Dark Spider Demon twitched, ichor spilling from its ruptured abdomen. The Octopus Demon's tentacles were half-severed, writhing pitifully. The Moth Demon's once-proud wings were ragged, black scales drifting like ash.
Inside the lair, the plant lolis gaped in silence.
Starlight Grass finally squeaked, "The boss's bodyguard is too strong! He just—he just—swept them away like dust!"
Even the usually cold Demon Tree could only nod mutely, her pink petals trembling.
Chen Xi, the World Tree Loli, crossed her arms, trying to look calm though her eyes betrayed her astonishment. "Hmph. Of course he's strong. He's my bodyguard. Did you think I'd hire some weakling?"
Star Tree Loli, still nursing bruises from Chen Xi's earlier beating, went pale. I called him an idiot?! Am I insane?
Meanwhile, Gu Chuan loomed over the three survivors. His voice was colder than the void itself.
"You should have run faster."
The Moth Demon did not wait to hear more. Its wings flared, summoning the power of wind and space. In a flash of black gale, it vanished, its speed nearly light itself.
The Octopus Demon roared, compressing the chaos inside its massive body and blasting it outward like a cannon, propelling itself away at terrifying velocity.
The Dark Spider Demon, slower to act, cursed them both. "Traitors!" Then its many legs sank into the void, weaving law into a great Eight Trigrams pattern. Its body dissolved into darkness, slipping away like a shadow beyond perception.
For a moment, it seemed they might escape.
"Chaos Realm."
The Chaos Orb appeared in Gu Chuan's coils, radiating a stillness that froze time itself. The chaos airflows halted mid-surge. Even thought seemed suspended.
All three fleeing demons froze in place, bodies locked as if insects trapped in amber.
"No!" the Moth Demon screamed silently, its wings stiff as stone.
The Octopus Demon's momentum died, its tentacles quivering uselessly.
The Dark Spider Demon strained against the suppression, and in desperation spat out its trump card—a web woven of law itself.
"Come forth, Chaos Skynet!"
An immense net unfolded, each strand a thread of Dao, three thousand laws interlaced. It spread like heaven's canopy, vast enough to bind entire worlds.
Gu Chuan watched without moving. The Skynet fell upon him—only to falter. Compared to his colossal frame, the net looked laughably small, covering little more than one tail.
The Dark Spider Demon's many eyes widened in disbelief. "This… this can't be…"
But before it could recover, Gu Chuan spat a single drop of Primordial Venom. The planet-sized drop splashed over the Skynet, its corrosive essence eating into the treasure.
"Ahhh!" The spider demon shrieked as its soul-mark was burned away, its bond to the Skynet dissolving like frost under the sun. Blood spewed from its mandibles as it collapsed, unconscious from the pain.
Gu Chuan calmly reached out with his will. The Chaos Skynet dissolved into golden threads and wrapped around him, merging seamlessly with his serpent body.
He exhaled slowly. "Seamless. That will be its name."
The Moth Demon and Octopus Demon could only stare in horror before the Chaos Orb's suction consumed them. All three survivors were dragged screaming into its inner space, sealed away to await their fate.
The battlefield fell silent.
…
Inside the Chaos Orb, the plant lolis blinked at the sight of the vast new land, fertile and boundless.
"Mine! All mine!" Starlight Grass dove face-first into the soil, rubbing her cheeks in the dirt like a blissful cat.
Star Tree immediately pointed to a mountain range. "This territory belongs to the future King of Stars!"
Demon Tree unfurled her blossoms, declaring, "That valley is mine. Whoever argues will be fertilizer."
Chen Xi's lips twitched as her subordinates bickered over plots of land like spoiled children. She glanced at Gu Chuan, who was already ignoring them, his mind on the Skynet.
Show-off, she thought, though secretly relieved.
For in this vast chaos, where demon gods devoured each other without mercy, one fact was now clear: with Gu Chuan as their guardian, her roots—and the roots of all her siblings—had a chance to grow.