Chaos Heir

Chapter 1550: Incorporation

The crack was tiny, barely a blemish on that otherwise completely unharmed figure.

No drops of blood actually oozed out of that wound, either. Some of that liquid became visible, but it didn’t have the time to flow down since the glowing pitch-black smoke immediately fixed it.

Yet, wounds at that level had a deeper meaning. In a way, bodies were physical representations or mere shells of grander, ethereal existences. Hurting them signified the ability to touch upon those superior statuses, providing the confirmation Khan needed.

Despite the Maker’s divine heritage, Khan could make him bleed. Therefore, he could kill him. The alien was undeniably strong, stronger than anyone Khan had ever faced. However, they stood in the same realm.

That meant that Khan didn’t need enlightenment or further evolution. He didn’t have to transform again somehow to be able to affect that opponent.

Khan was already there. He only had to be the better fighter, and there finally was some progress.

Khan hadn’t really had the time to test what his body could do after spending the past weeks eating moons and other small celestial bodies.

Theoretically, the change should have been slight, but it was a difference nonetheless, and those details gained utmost importance in fights at such high levels.

Truth be told, that was also true when it came to the gains from the Nak’s home world. The battle in Aynor couldn’t make Khan go all-out, so he was testing what he was really capable of at that exact moment.

Moreover, Khan never had the opportunity to fight such a grand opponent. That was his first time testing himself against actual stars, so it took him a few exchanges to get used to that spectacular but strange battle.

That series of reckless exchanges ultimately led to confidence. Khan couldn’t only fight stars. He could also win against them.

Of course, everything had a price. In Khan’s case, and as it had often been the case in his life, the currency for his achievements was pain.

Realistically, there was no way to dodge the Maker’s attacks. Even defending against them had clear limits.

The alien’s mastery wasn’t something that could be matched. The Maker was better than Khan in ways that he couldn’t even imagine himself achieving. Still, that only applied to spells and matter manipulation.

Khan could rely on his body, which was finally starting to keep up with that heated battle, and another ability, which looked on the verge of the long-awaited breakthrough.

The Maker watched as Khan’s body healed, replacing the burns with healthy tissue, shedding off any fuming patch of flesh to restore him to his unharmed state.

That recovery speed was spectacular, even surpassing what the True Chaos could achieve, but something else soon claimed the Maker’s attention. Khan also diverted his gaze, joining him in the inspection of the last variable in the battle.

The cloud had remained in its place since the beginning of the battle, unaffected and unbothered by the bursts of scorching, obliterating light that had submerged it.

Nevertheless, the spell had changed while Khan and the Maker were busy trying to kill each other, and the same went for its situation.

More crackling tendrils had grown from the cloud, acting as thundering tentacles that converged at the same spot. The spell’s main body had also inflated by several sizes, vouching for its power increase, which remained unable to overwhelm the blinding blockade.

The Maker had initially used one miniature star to keep the cloud busy, but the latter was now against three of those, raging to no end, struggling to devour them, but still stuck in that stalemate.

Just like Khan was aware of where his edge stood in that battle, so was the Maker. The alien couldn’t do much against Khan’s body, but that destructive lifeform was a different matter.

Facing the cloud directly would expose the Maker, so he had opted to keep it busy. However, the plan had reached its limit.

A thundering cry suddenly roared through the area, replacing any other sound. The cloud abruptly expanded, its crackling fabric washing over the blinding miniature stars to incorporate them into its body.

The cloud had been unable to overwhelm the miniature stars until now, so forcing them inside its figure exposed it to the full extent of their power.

The vast, tentacled cloud immediately shrank because of that. The stars’ gravity and scorching properties forced the spell to condense and deplete an immense amount of mana to survive that direct exposure.

However, the opposite was also true. That forceful absorption put the cloud’s structural integrity at risk but submerged the miniature stars in its crackling energy, forcing them to face a dense and unending version of its destruction.

That reckless approach could very well mean the cloud’s death. Still, it also featured one key advantage. Whatever the clash’s outcome was, it would happen quickly instead of after a prolonged stalemate.

Both Khan and the Maker were aware of that point, so they simply watched, keeping track of each other through their senses to intervene if either of them decided to affect that clash.

The cloud’s thundering cries grew louder. Its glow also intensified, but its figure kept shrinking, seemingly unable to overpower the miniature celestial bodies it had enveloped.

Despite the cloud’s struggles, that trend continued, eventually affecting its voice and light. The spell dimmed as its cries grew muffled, collapsing upon themselves alongside its figure.

The process continued until the cloud became nothing more than a dark spark. It looked about to disappear, ready to release what it shouldn’t have eaten, which the following event seemed to confirm.

Another roar pierced the area, accompanied by a blinding flash. Gales of energy spread everywhere, blowing over Khan and the Maker, blinding them and messing with their senses.

Then, as the two warriors’ perception recovered, they found themselves immersed in a different world, which also described how the previous clash had really gone.

"You took your time," Khan scoffed as purple-red light shone all over him, showing no trace of the previous glowing darkness.