The Murim was no place for the weak.
It was said that only the strong survived in this world. But those who struggled to survive and emerged alive at the end were the strongest. That's the type of world the Murim was.
The Jianghu was a place of mortal strife, bloodshed, bitter cultivation, and despair. No one was safe. Bandits ran rampant and caused chaos. The government officials and righteous alliance turned a blind eye to most of the sufferings of mortals.
It was a corrupt reality.
The concept of noblesse oblige was something easily discarded even for the so-called righteous cultivators. It was just a tool.
The Orthodox Alliance, the standout rulers of the Murim, included the Namgung Clan (the leading clan), Sichuan Tang Clan of the Southern Region, Mount Hua Sect, Kunlun Sect, Jaegal Clan, Hebei Peng Clan, Wudang School, Emei Clan, and Shaolin Temple of the west. They controlled a major section of the martial society. The Orthodox Alliance existed to bring stability and balance to the chaotic Murim. They also acted on their own interests and benefits. Reputation was part of martial skills in the eyes of Orthodox cultivators.
However, there was one thing that would always bring tension and unity among these benefit-oriented individuals and that was: The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was said to be a religious and militant group located in the Northwest region. It was powerful enough to face the combined power of the nine great sects and other martial arts factions. Even after several upheavals in the martial world, the Orthodox factions still walked on eggshells around them and didn't dare attack.
While the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was a force full of demonic lunatics, that wasn't what brought fear and awe in the hearts of the people of Murim.
Standing above the Divine Cult and the martial arts world, was the Heavenly Demon. The title alone demanded worship from the myriad beings as it was naturally assumed by the strongest of that generation inside the demonic cult.
If the outside world was riddled by mayhem and bloodshed, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was a supreme playground for massacre and vileness. A true jungle, more brutal than the rest.
And the same environment gave birth to an anomaly. The 666th Heavenly Demon. The undisputed demon over the history of the Murim. She was titled Heaven's Envy Divine Demon in the cult, but the world knew her as the Bloodborne Devil Empress. An existence born from blood, slaughter and pure martial prowess.
Members of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult revered and worshipped her as the ultimate demon for actualizing the end of the demonic path. Though she hailed from the demonic cult known for its dark roots, no one objected to the idea of her being equal to the heavens as revolting as it was in the eyes of the Orthodox members.
She was a calamitous existence, walking unbound between heaven and earth. Daring to disregard the righteous, unorthodox and even the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult itself.
The roots of all the martial arts in the central plains come from Buddhism and Taoism. They portray a picture of great nature in all its aspects, adhering to its laws of desirelessness and inaction.
While there was profundity in the Taoist teachings, the Heavenly Demon stood at the opposite end of the spectrum. She lived for her own desires and that was to surpass her own existence. Why opt for one path, when you can learn from all the existing paths and forge your own?
In the Golden Vault Expanse, the cultivation realms were categorized into two parts, the foundational tier and advanced tier. The foundational tier included: Third-rate, Second-rate and First-rate martial artists. The advanced tier consisted of Master, Grandmaster, Supreme Grandmaster, Transcendent, Evolutionary, Divine Sovereign, Quasi Eternal Origin and the fabled Eternal Origin realm. Each major realm was further divided into sub-realms: Initial, intermediate and Peak stages. The only exception to this rule was the Eternal Origin realm. It was an untrodden and inaccessible path proclaimed to be a myth by the supreme martial experts.
Eternal Origin represented the one thing the Divine Sovereigns yearned for over the course of their entire lives, transcending the concept of mortality. It punctuated perfection, a state of existence beyond life and death, becoming a pure unadulterated vessel of omnipotence.
----<>----
In the Northern Extreme Icefield region, the most dangerous place in Murim due to the eternal coldness that could freeze even Divine Sovereigns, a change was happening.
White peaks stretched across the snowy landscapes and above the highest peak was the blurry form of a figure sitting cross-legged. The mountain peak threatened to pierce the heavens, surrounded by icy mist and astral winds that could destroy both the body and soul.
The figure was a young woman of unrivaled beauty and grace, like a celestial goddess descended into the mortal realm. Her skin was pale and flawless. Even while seated, her modest black robes couldn't hide her perfect proportions. Her long silky black hair tugged ever-so-gently under the incessant chatter of the wind. Despite the snowy storm and absolute zero temperatures, no snow or ice touched her being. Amid the icy domain, she was inviolable and sacred, untouched by the laws of nature.
It was then that her lashes slowly fluttered open, dramatically revealing enchanting silver eyes oozing demonic charm.
"Huu," she gently exhaled, her mere breath overwriting the laws of ice and for an instant, everything became hot. This immensely shocked the monstrous beasts of that region, bringing them the illusion of instantaneous apocalypse. A hellscape. And when everything returned to normal, they felt as if their logic had been overturned. Literally.
The young woman was the 666th generation Heavenly Demon. Even the epithet of 'demon sovereign' was currently insufficient. And her true name that only a few people knew was Seol Hwa.
"So, this is the feeling of breaking through to the Eternal Origin realm. It feels like with a wave of my hand, I could destroy heaven and earth," Seol Hwa smiled lightly.
'Not eternal origin but a mere illusion of the realm's true capabilities. Hmm, it's only right to call it Quasi Eternal Origin,' She contemplated as she manipulated the new energy inside her primordial meridians.
The primal energy was golden red, and the way it oscillated around her hand made it seem alive. It seemed to contain the blueprints of both creation and destruction, embodying limitless possibilities.
'Primordial Eternal Origin Qi, the source energy of the chaotic universe. However, this is not enough.' Seol Hwa shook her head before reabsorbing the energy.
In life, there are times when you come to a crossroads and must make a choice to move forward. Seol Hwa was not satisfied with simply being called the strongest.
Titles and reputation were just earthly decorations. What she wanted was absolute freedom, to transcend the chains of fate and the heavens.
Ever since she was sold to the demonic cult at a young age, helpless and weak, she was forced to adapt and improvise.
There was no space for a crying girl when children your own age could stab your heart when you sleep.
To be a Heavenly Demon is to dare to think of the impossible and act on it.
And she wasn't satisfied with merely having a taste of the so-called inaccessible realm. She wanted to have what others deemed impossible. The final step.
It was a dangerous path that risked her own existence, her own dissolution.
Eight hundred years of bitter cultivation, sanguinary battles and comprehension had led to this very moment.
'Though I tread through the precipice of death. I have no choice but to endure this hardship.' Seol Hwa pursed her lips, looking up at the heavens.
Her sharp gaze pierced the veil of the clouds, breaking into the outer universe as if searching for something.
Certainty flashed in her beautiful face as she averted her gaze.
She then performed thousands of Taoist signs in an instant, effortlessly setting up a spatio-temporal lock array that encompassed the whole northern region. No living being noticed the array deployment as there were no energy fluctuations, rendering everything temporally static. Seol Hwa herself was a divine-tier formation expert.
The spatio-temporal lock array would serve as a buffer zone, isolating her environment from the outside world. It could also negate karmic or fate manipulation techniques. She just needed it to block the prying eyes of Heaven's Will when she tried to attempt the final leap. Even if by nonsensical chance, the array was deciphered and broken, she was never going to stop.
'No one can stop my ascension today! Neither the heavens nor man!' A deadly fire blazed in her eyes, affirming her convictions.
Calming herself, she emptied all unnecessary thoughts and closed her eyes.
The tri-aspects of existence, internal energy, physical body and her soul were all cultivated to perfection. All the three aspects needed to be optimally aligned to even think about attempting that step. And traveling across the Jianghu, stealing techniques, challenging the Orthodox bastards was all for her dao accumulation and foundation.
The reason why she had chosen the northernmost region for her ascension attempt was due to its unique topography. It was near the boundary of the world and an uncharted domain of nothingness. This severely disrupted the natural flow of the universal laws, making it a blind spot for Heaven's Will. Additionally, the laws were constantly being broken down to their basest state making it easier to further comprehend the dao.
Under her deliberate control the three thousand universal laws she had comprehended slowly began converging in her body. The 3000 laws which were always separated and operated individually were being forced to combine. They ran amok in her body, soul and mind, fighting the lunacy Seol Hwa was trying.
She gritted her teeth defiantly; her brows knitted in concentration. The pain was existential, threatening to erode her will to live.
'As long as there is 1% chance, I'll have 99% faith!'
Cracks started forming on her skin, signifying her collapse into nothingness in case she failed.
Seol Hwa persevered as her self-created technique, Nirvanic Demon Undying Canon, automatically activated to heal her body and her soul.
'Persevere.'
Life was an unreasonable game where winning was impossible from the start. The strong die and winners lose in the end. For a moment of hope and honor, people would stake their lives against futility. So what?
Seol Hwa was doing the same. Riding against the tides of fate. The futility of it all was what fueled her ambition even more. Stagnancy was even worse than death.
The 3000 laws were in a state of disharmony and directly shattered the reality within the array. Space collapsed and time became chaotic.
Due to the array's unique self-healing properties, everything returned to its initial state only to perpetuate another cycle.
The Bloodborne Devil Empress knew the cycle wasn't going to take forever. Soon, the controlled chaos would spread to the outside world. As it stands, the very foundation of the world might be catapulted into oblivion if she didn't unify the stubborn 3000 laws.
Using her own vessel as the battlefield for unification was the only way to assure maximum control. It was the only way to rewrite her existence at the metaphysical level.
Her own apotheosis depended on it. All aspects to be rewritten and equalized into a more conceptual state.
'So close.' Her jaw tightened even as her whole being continuously dissolved into nothingness and then back to completeness via healing. She could feel the myriad laws slowly unifying while she underwent enlightenment.
It was then that whatever was happening inside the array could no longer be contained. The array shattered and the whole region was extinguished from reality, creating a dead zone of entropy.
Of course, with the sole exception of Seol Hwa.
She was currently at a critical stage, and she couldn't risk dividing her attention anymore even if she could. She hadn't expected the supreme 3000 universal laws merely combining a bit could herald a localized entropy effect on her surroundings. This only served to confirm she was in the right direction and inevitably, her madness, her transcendence was going to cost millions of lives.
Within seconds, the nearby kingdoms would be swallowed whole by the aftereffects of 3000 laws' unification.
What she disliked the most was messing with the mortals. They reminded her of her weak self when she was merely an emaciated husk of a human being.
'Sword Will Actualization.' She activated her domain, her will containing nullity threatening to devour everything. She was running against time and knew the Universal Will might have already caught on to what she was doing.
'So close yet so far. I need more time.'
Suddenly, an audacious voice boomed through the region, almost disrupting Seol Hwa's concentration.
"Amitabha, everything in the world revolves around destiny. Everything is preordained and has its own cause and effect. Heaven's Envy divine demon, you must face the karma for your actions!"
"Your ascension threatens the balance of the heavens and the innocents of Murim!"
A bald man appeared at the edge of Seol Hwa's domain. He had a benevolent smile on his aged face. The golden kasaya he wore was of simple design and clasped within his hands were sarira Buddhist beads shining with golden brilliance.
"Old monk, I'm the cause and the effect."
"I also certainly don't remember inviting your bald ass here." Seol Hwa scoffed heavily, her eyes opened, seething with annoyance, knowing that the biggest hurdle was dealing with these righteous cretins.
"Mind your own business, Bodhi Dharma!" She was clearly not a fan of the Buddhist sovereign and his entire Shaolin Temple. And she knew the bald monk wasn't alone. Her divine sense had already picked the auras of other divine sovereigns hiding in the void. For them to assemble almost at the same time meant Heaven's Will was certainly behind them.
An angry vein ticked on the old monk's bald head at the blatant insult. 'That demonic witch!'
Then, with practiced ease, he reigned in his annoyance. After all, he had a face to maintain.
"There is still time to convert to Buddhism and absolve all your sins, demon," said Bodhi Dharma, almost amicably.
"How very unenlightened of you, Bodhi Dharma," Seol Hwa replied in a mocking tone, mildly irked at the mention of her name. She suddenly felt violated.
Ignoring the monk, she glared at the void and sneered, "Why hide, you lapdogs of Heaven's Will?"
"Haha, as expected of the Bloodborne Devil Empress. The strongest existence under the heavens. You're still as beautiful as ever." A handsome man, looking to be in his 30s, emerged from the void. He had long white hair set in a high bun and wore majestic golden robes.
He was the Dominating Sword Sovereign from the Wudang sect, also the current leader of the Orthodox Alliance.
"And you are still as revolting as ever, Eunuch of Wudang," Seol Hwa casually retorted. Her comment caused shifts in the facial expressions of some divine sovereigns. But they had to hold it in. It was no time for laughter.
Dominating Sword Sovereign, seemingly unaffected by the taunt, only smiled bitterly. His situation was one of unrequited love toward Seol Hwa who only had eyes for Mount Tai and heart for martial arts.
'10 divine sovereigns with the exception of the Healing Immortal Maiden, Plum Blossom Sword Empress, and the Taiji Sovereign who probably weren't enticed by whatever Heaven's Will schemed.' She analyzed her assembled enemies while quickening her efforts toward grand unification.
"So, to what do I owe the visit of the elusive divine sovereigns? When I was at the demonic cult, you never bothered to give me a visit but now..." Seol Hwa calmly scanned the lineup of the top experts of Murim, cosmic rules steadily swirling around her form. Even during a possible crisis, she had already primed herself for all variables and eventualities.
Pay you a visit? As if anyone would dare mess with you on your own turf?
And you always like to beat people up under the guise of martial arts exchange?
But now that we have banded together under the authority of Heaven's Will, we are no longer afraid of you. You're just one person and the heavens are on our side.
Heaven's Will has already shown them a fraction of the missing link they needed to even think about the Eternal Origin realm. What mattered to these divine sovereigns was advancement as they had been stuck for millions of years in that realm. Any type of hope, no matter how small, could very well make them do anything drastic.
To top it off, they also didn't want the Bloodborne Devil Empress to transcend smoothly. She had to fail no matter what. That was the deal Heaven's Will struck with them.
Even if Heaven's Will hadn't sought them out, some of them would have tried to fish in troubled waters despite the Heavenly Demon's known might.
They were such opportunistic vultures.
"We just want to discuss the dao with you, Bloodborne Devil Empress. Maybe give us a few pointers," a green-robed old man with green serpentine eyes commented dryly, not bothering to hide the venom in his gaze. He was the Poison Sovereign of Sichuan Tang.
"Heaven's Will really played you perfectly. Don't you know it's puppeteering all your decisions?" Seol Hwa laughed derisively, intending to buy as much time as possible.
"Heaven's Will can renege on all its promises at any time. What are the chances that it will honor each one of the deals it made with you?"
Understanding showed in the faces of the divine sovereigns but that was it. They knew it was a double-edged sword. However, each one of them had their own schemes.
"Don't bother wasting your breath with her. She's just trying to buy herself time. You know what will happen if she succeeds, right?" the bald monk interjected harshly, cutting through the doubts. Then, a golden halo materialized behind his back, cloaking his figure in pure Buddhist light.
The other sovereigns also began preparing for war against the strongest Heavenly Demon, serious expressions on their visage.
Taiji. A state in which yin and yang, the origin of all matter, are locked together and intertwined.
Seol Hwa's mind sunk deeper into the deepest truths of eternal origin, squeezing every drop of enlightenment. She was getting closer to the singular point of infinite possibilities.
But a fight with the divine sovereigns and Heaven's Will was imminent. One thing she wouldn't shy away from was throwing fists.
'I will attack first.' A conceptual sword instantly formed in her hand and before the divine sovereigns could react, Seol Hwa's clone teleported close to the Ancient Barbaric Sovereign of Hebei Peng.
The Ancient Barbaric Sovereign sensed the subtle spatial fluctuations, but he was too late. The clone was at close range and when she swung the sword, reality caught its breath. All will to live was severed, karma sliced, fate butchered, and the Ancient Barbaric Sovereign said to have the most powerful physique in existence was immediately annihilated. Erased from reality.
Divine Sovereigns have already touched on the essence of laws, able to bend reality to their wills. Even resurrection was not a problem for them. A divine sovereign killing another was very difficult and not worth the effort, so they avoided fighting to death most of the time.
But Seol Hwa was an exception to this rule. She was a monster of statistical improbabilities. She was a variable under Heaven's Will authority.
So difficult was just difficult, not impossible.
"She has reached [will actualization], mastering [concept sword], the final realm of sword mastery. Something I have been trying to reach for eons!" Dominating Sword Sovereign's words echoed the shock in everyone's mind, his hand tightening around the Lightbringer Sword, a sword made of light essence.
Losing one of their own didn't startle them as much.
The facts were easily laid out in front of them. Seol Hwa's lethality was unimaginable and a single lapse in judgement might as well cost them their lives.
How could they handle the disrespect of a clone being used against them?
"Avalokiteshvara, while practicing deeply with the insight that brings us to the other shore. And with this realization, he overcomes an ill-being," Bodhi Dharma chanted sanctimoniously, the essence of buddha and purification coalescing at rapid speeds.
"All virtues converge into Dharma!" A primordial golden bell appeared in the void, its saintly lights blinding the world.
Bang!
A resonant sound echoed as the gong hit the bell.
A frown formed on the clone's face. 'Fucking Buddha. If I don't end this monk's life, the main body is going to be affected.'
The clone traversed space and executed a vertical slash towards the divine sovereigns who were presently more alert to ambushes.
Bang!
The Primordial Bell resisted the attack, destabilizing the conceptual erasure effect.
The clone squinted her eyes in mild curiosity and annoyance. She then attacked repeatedly but the Primordial Golden Bell defended against the onslaught, only reverberating the shockwaves of the attacks.
Amid the chaos, the Dominating Sword Immortal executed his sword technique, Lightspeed dominating Sword Art. It was extreme speed. The Lightbringer's blade surpassed the concept of speed and severed space-time itself.
The Poison Sovereign also followed in tandem releasing the absolute poison miasma imbued with the essence of corrosion, decay and death. The other sovereigns didn't lag behind, bombarding Seol Hwa's clone with pure spite.
"Hmph!" The clone snorted.
[Blazing Lotus Mirage]
A massive lotus of incandescent flames manifested around her. Fiery petals of concentrated sword qi erupted outward in overlapping waves, incinerating everything within its bloom radius.
Boom!
First, there was light, primordial light, followed by a cataclysmic clap that resounded all over the world.
The whole dimension shook, and all living beings looked at the heavens that had turned red.
It felt like world-extermination was nigh, and everyone was filled with fear.
The space where the two attacks had met collapsed into a black hole, the resultant force forcing the sovereigns back.
Some of them coughed up blood but it didn't faze them as they watched the clone slowly fragment into particles. But just as it was fragmenting, its regeneration began only for it to fragment again.
"Voodoo Divine Sovereign!" Dominating Sword Immortal shouted, his tone filled with urgency as he looked at an old woman dressed in ragged robes with a ghastly appearance.
Without hesitation, Voodoo Divine Sovereign of Emei brandished an ancient runic dagger and stabbed herself in the heart.
"Ugh," she moaned in twisted pleasure, her eyes rolling back as her entire existence began scuttling toward nihility. It was a necessary sacrifice: her own death for Seol Hwa's.
The supreme laws of equivalent exchange and causality intertwined and followed the causal links of Seol Hwa's clone.
A look of surprise flashed in the clone's face as a hole formed in her chest.
"This..." Slowly, dark tendrils of curses and madness spread all over her, disrupting everything about her existence. It beheld power beyond the divine sovereigns, but darker, more corrupted as if it didn't originate from this universe.
Without suspense, the clone was consumed by supreme curse laws, her mere identity eroded into specks of dark motes of light.
At the same time, a thin line of blood escaped the corners of Seol Hwa's lips.
The divine sovereigns watched in glee having finally dealt some visible damage to the Bloodborne devil empress.
"Amitabha, struggling is meaningless, Bloodborne devil empress. Accept anatman and find peace in Buddha's will."
"Seol Hwa, cast away your demonic will and accept the way of the righteous."
"Demonic bitch, you are finished!"
One by one, the divine sovereigns began spewing nonsensical words to deal her a psychological blow. They knew she had been injured and even if it wasn't a serious injury, their only purpose was to thwart her demonic path.
A wicked laughter erupted from her chest, full of demonic defiance and arrogance. The voices of the people in front of her were just like the buzzing of flies.
"Hmph, it's always been that way. You fools would always condemn those who were outside your standard of understanding and give them insignificant labels."
"These are naught but superficial criteria you've come up with to justify your own weaknesses."
Seol Hwa slowly stood up and wiped away the blood from the corner of her lips. The fusion of the 3000 laws was at 98.999% and the only thing she had in mind was to wipe out the trash in front of her.
The aura she radiated eclipsed all of creation, causing law phenomena around her figure.
The hearts of the sovereigns palpated with tension and uneasiness, making them cease their taunts.
Standing before them was destruction personified. A force capable of ending the world if she wished.
And when Seol Hwa moved, she was like a ghost, her figure becoming one with the void.
One step.
It was only one step, and she was already upon the Buddhist Sovereign. Her indifferent eyes looking at a foe whose death she was so assured of. Her fist was subtly raised, like a storm in motion, fracturing reality with each movement.
And in that instance, Bodhi Dharma summoned the Primordial Bell to protect himself.
"Amitabha..."
CRACK!
Her punch effortlessly dismantled the Primordial bell made from the mystical Eternium metal into atomized particles. Unimpeded, it continued to disintegrate Bodhi Dharma to cosmic dust.
His Buddhist will, dao essence, soul and physical form all perished.
"Pathetic bald donkey. All that talk about the 'no-self', only to die after the first punch. Who's meeting Buddha now? I'm Buddha!" She remarked with mockery, spitting directly at Bodhi Dharma's grave.
What?!
"Kill her!" The Poison Sovereign was the first one to break out of the horrific trance as he rushed to attack.
Infinite Blood Poison Law Domain.
Heaven and earth were overturned as a new reality was added into the present. A world of infinite blood poison capable of corroding everything in existence. It was a dao that belonged to the Sichuan Tang clan Patriarch.
After him, the Dominating sword sovereign also materialized his own domain.
Unlimited Slaughter Sword Domain.
Two domains were superimposed and crushed into Seol Hwa. And uncannily, she didn't defend against the domains. Didn't need to, as she slowly walked towards the divine sovereigns.
Anything that touched her dissolved into nothingness as a Taiji diagram formed beneath her feet.
Whoosh!
She appeared next to another sovereign; her palm straightened like a blade and drove it into his heart. And with a swipe, she severed him into two parts. Blood splashed on her pristine robes and some on her face.
Three divine sovereigns down. The next moment, a series of irresistible slaughter followed, and Seol Hwa really bore the name Bloodborne Devil Empress.
She was born in blood, and she would transcend with the blood of her enemies. Erasing anything that stood between her and her eternal ascension.
As she tightly held the lifeless head of the last man, the dominating sword sovereign, the heavens split.
CRACK!
From within the divide, a faceless humanoid descended. A crown of stars hovered above their head and their entire being was composed of supreme heavenly principles.
Heaven's Will had fully awakened.
"Heretic, why must you insist on an ascension that will put the universe at risk?" A powerful voice reverberated throughout the universe, even the beings in other worlds heard the supreme force that maintained order over all existence.
"Put a stop to this madness, Seol Hwa!"
"Even the heavens are not exempted from bullshit, I see." Seol Hwa gazed up at Heaven's Will.
"Don't we all cultivate to grow strong?"
"The path you strive to undertake is a dead-end," Heaven's Will dissuaded her. "There's no such thing as Eternal Origin. You will fail."
"If the road ahead is closed off, I'll blaze through it and destroy everything impeding my freedom." Seol Hwa raised her hand and tightly clenched her fist defiantly.
"Even if it means unmaking creation itself?"
"That's the cost of true power. Some risks are unavoidable," She scoffed.
'So, this is the living manifestation of Heaven's Will. It's crazy powerful. More powerful than anything I have ever faced in my life.'
'My odds of winning are low if we factor in my incomplete grand unification of the 3000 laws.'
'As a demon, I represent the antithesis of order. I only want power and escape from the universal matrix. Where's the fun in simply being the strongest inside someone's cage?'
'I despise it.'
"Then, it seems you have to be exterminated to balance the scale of the universe!" The humanoid raised its finger and pointed at Seol Hwa.
That simple action heralded a perpetual circle of inevitability. The story and narrative were rewritten such that Seol Hwa's advancement will never succeed.
And for the second time in her life, Seol Hwa felt powerless. Against the full might of the universe, she could only try to resist.
She hated that feeling. It reminded her of her past when she was a mere mortal sold as a slave to the demonic cult. She had to slaughter her way amidst betrayal, fear, and hopelessness.
Futility.
Giving up?
She had prepared for 800 years to reach her current realm, all for the slim chance of transcending the universal hierarchy.
Her demonic will did not relent to conformity. She had rather voluntary collapse than acquiesce to the heavenly order.
Even if the universe wanted to suppress her fate, her destiny, her existence and martial path, she would not stay passive.
She was not a puppet. She was...
"I'm the 666th Heavenly Demon, Seol Hwa. And I walk not the path of defiance but of freedom. Today, even if I die..."
"My demonic heart will be everlasting!" Seol Hwa laughed at the heavens, the now 99.899% unified 3000 laws materializing in front of her.
She was not afraid of death for she believed she had walked the right path. She wasn't wrong. The heavens were.
A multicolored beam carrying the full brunt of the universe hurtled toward the Bloodborne Devil Empress.
It spelled doom. Nonexistence. Cessation.
A feeling of transience sprang up in her heart, but she gritted her teeth and directed the essence of her martial arts, the partially unified laws and her whole being into her own counterattack.
The spatial-temporal continuum screamed as void fissures manifested all over the universe.
BANG!
Multiple worlds were erased, forced toward an early entropy by the clash between the two cosmic attacks.
"I told you, I'm inevitable," Heaven's Will said with no emotion in its voice, not bothered that the world they were fighting in had vanished.
And with its destruction, trillions of lives were lost, not including the other worlds. About half of the population in the universe had been extinguished.
In its eyes, it was just cosmic balance. A cycle of destruction that would trigger the creation of newer worlds.
"No, you are not," a blob of soul retorted softly. Seol Hwa had survived but her origin was beyond repair and soon, she would cease to exist.
'My journey doesn't end here,' She thought as she swiftly activated her contingency technique in case she failed.
"Why were you not satisfied under my heavens? Didn't I give you freedom to run amok in the Murim?" Heaven's Will lamented.
"I could have given you eternity, to live as long as the universe."
"The essence of a person's life is not in how long they live, but in what they achieve," Seol Hwa replied, "And surpassing you, trampling your cosmic authority under my foot, brings me greater joy than an illusion of true freedom!"
"Then, I'll just devour you so that you can become one with me," Heaven's Will declared as it raised its palm. It was then...
"Uh?"
What does life even inherently mean? The omnipotence to decide life and death of others? Control over people's fate? human connection? purpose? joy and sadness? being satisfied? Life is an illusion for mortals. I strive to go beyond it, turn the unreal to real. Absolute freedom over all forms of existence. But...but now, I'm perishing, edging towards nothingness.
I REFUSE!
'Primordial Devil Fate Reversal Scripture.'
The mere thought of the technique created a maelstrom of possibilities, integrating the laws of causality, karma, fate, her devilish will and the catalyst, eternal origin energy to fuel the reversal of her life's story.
It was a gamble.
Her very first time activating it to its fullest potential. It could theoretically displace her soul across the river of time, overriding any attack aimed at fully erasing her from reality. Even a fragment of her thought could fully suffice.
The chance of failure was 99%. The 1% was her hope.
"No, you won't!" Heaven's Will shouted angrily instantly sending another annihilatory beam.
'Yes, I can,' Seol Hwa watched in slow motion, not caring about her death. Not caring about the damned universal will. Not caring about anything.
In this limitless void, she was all alone. Her body was destroyed, and soul nearly terminated.
Even the furious roars from Heaven's Will were muted.
And when everything collapsed around her and the Primordial Devil Fate Reversal Scripture spurred her into uncertainty, she surrendered herself.
To be one with DEATH.
All for a chance of rebirth.
A soul tear escaped from her soul fragment before she disappeared. 'I just wanted freedom. Was that too much to ask?'
~~~<>~~~
Author's Notes/Yu_ner's corner:
I know what you're thinking, wait... my mistake. I don't know what you're thinking cause some of your minds might be terrifying for me.
Anyway, I know my first chapter was a lot, LIKE a lot. There's too much going on and it feels like the epilogue of some novels. Stay with me.
Writing the first chapter the way it is, was the only way I could even think about when I got started. It isn't the perfect start; however, it was the most important start to me. The ideas would have remained in my mind, rotting away if I hadn't decided to write my first fanfiction.
Writing is pretty difficult, huh? I feel like I lost some of my mental power LoL (I don't play League btw). The chapter's very long. Spent more than 5 hours to write (RIP my back).
And also as English is my third language, there might be some awkward sentences here and there. You can be my alpha editors when you spot any errors. Also, this is random but... I love Miss Hwa.
I'll probably be posting three days a week. (anymore than that and I'd start worrying about a hunchback)
I have a tumblr page, check it out: https://www.tumblr.com/yunerr21
Support greatly appreciated if you buy me coffee: https://ko-fi.com/yunerr21
If you want to read 15+ more chapters: https://patreon.com/Yu_ner?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink