Chapter 174: The Shattered Aegis and the Feast of Divinity
The sky above the farmhouse had become a fractured mirror of celestial gold and abyssal violet. Uriel, the Warden of Order, stood paralyzed in the heavens, his massive shield—the very symbol of universal law—cracked down the center. He looked down at the two princes, Anos and Akuto, who hovered before him like twin harbingers of an encroaching apocalypse. For the first time in an eternity, a being of the Upper Realm felt the cold, suffocating grip of mortality.
"Impossible..." Uriel's voice was a booming thunder that lacked its usual conviction. "The Decree is absolute. No mortal or demon possesses the authority to overwrite the laws of the High Council!"
"Then consider the Council's laws obsolete," Anos replied, his voice calm but vibrating with a resonance that shattered the nearby clouds. He raised the God-Slayer, the blade now humming with the stolen light of the fallen vanguards. "My father is the Author of this age. Your role in his story has just been deleted."
On Uriel's left, Akuto was barely recognizable as the boy who had once worked the fields. The Sakuna root had fully manifested, wrapping around his limbs like obsidian armor, its crimson veins pulsing with a hunger that seemed to warp the very light around him. He didn't speak; he only bared his teeth in a predatory grin. To Akuto, Uriel wasn't a god—he was a feast of concentrated divine essence.
With a nod from Anos, the two brothers moved in a synchronized blur of speed that bypassed the laws of physics. Anos struck first, his sword tracing a line of violet fire across Uriel's chest, bypasssing the divine armor as if it were nothing but mist. As Uriel recoiled, Akuto lunged, his claws sinking into the Warden's shoulder. Instead of blood, liquid starlight poured from the wound, and Akuto began to inhale it, his own aura expanding exponentially with every drop of divine ichor he consumed.
Below them, seated upon his rising obsidian throne, Volt watched the spectacle with the detached gaze of a master craftsman observing his finest creations. The golden crest on his wrist was glowing with a terrifying intensity, serving as the anchor that allowed his sons to operate outside the boundaries of fate. He could feel the panic radiating from the Upper Realm, a frantic surge of spiritual data as the gods realized that their Warden was being dismantled like a common puppet.
"They fight well," Vanessa whispered, standing beside the throne. She had come out of the house, her fear replaced by a strange, fierce pride. "But the Council will not let this insult pass. They will send the Seraphim next."
"Let them send the entire heavens," Volt replied, his voice echoing through the valley. "The more they send, the more my sons will grow. Every angel that falls is another brick in the fortress of our legacy."
In the sky, the battle reached its climax. Uriel attempted to cast a final spell, a "Correction Burst" intended to erase the area within a ten-mile radius. But before the light could expand, Akuto's hand clamped over the Warden's mouth, the cursed energy of the Sakuna root neutralizing the divine incantation at its source. Anos plunged the God-Slayer through Uriel's heart, and the Warden's massive form began to disintegrate into thousands of golden shards.
As Uriel vanished, a massive influx of pure, raw energy descended upon the farmhouse. It was the "Experience of the Slain," a cosmic byproduct of defeating a being of such high authority. The ground beneath the farm didn't just crystallize; it began to hum with a frequency that suggested it was becoming a sentient entity. The growth of Volt's influence, which had already been staggering, now broke every known record of spiritual evolution.
Akuto descended slowly, his body steaming with the heat of the consumed divinity. His eyes were no longer just red; they held a golden fleck at the center—the mark of a being that had eaten a god. Anos landed beside him, his sword still dripping with starlight. They both turned toward the throne and knelt before their father.
"The Warden is no more, Father," Anos reported.
Volt stood up, the obsidian throne merging back into the earth as he descended. He walked toward his sons and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. The golden crest on his wrist pulsed one final time, sealing the power they had just gained into their very souls.
"Today, you have proven that the script of the gods is nothing but paper," Volt said, his voice carrying to every corner of the realm. "But the High Council will now realize that this is not a rebellion. This is a replacement. We are the new architects of reality, and the world will learn to speak our language."
High above, the golden vortex finally closed, but the sky did not return to its original state. A permanent violet rift remained, a scar in the heavens that served as a constant reminder of the Demon King's return. The winter air grew silent again, but the silence was different now—it was the silence of a world waiting for its new master to speak the