Chapter 87: The Curse of Supremacy
Sir George felt as though he was burning alive.
Every swing of Ascalon sent divine essence coursing through his veins, threatening to reduce both his soul and body to ash. The holy blade screamed in his grip — furious, eager, and starving to be unleashed at its full divine potential. Yet George could only manifest it up to its sacred potential.
George had used Ascalon's divine power only once, a long time ago, to stop Dagon from descending upon this realm. That single act had cost him half his Supreme lifespan and so he could not afford to pay such a hefty price again. For if he did... Then he would die.
George did not want to die. After all, he still had to rebuild his domain and atone for the sins of the Forever Knights, which had been corrupted into a monstrous cult led by a filthy nightmare creature. The irony of it all did not escape him.
As they fought, the cursed will of Vilgax pressed down on him like an ocean, threatening to drown him in its vast depths. They exchanged thousands of blows each powerful enough to destroy the world around them, with the impact traveling through the Earth's atmosphere, ascending higher with each echange.
In truth, they were not there anymore.
both vilgax and George we're using their Wills to transcend the concept of time and space — not destroying or manipulating it, but simply existing outside of it by elevating themselves to a higher plane. And so, while the aftershocks of their battle could be felt across the entire planet, their true, catastrophic power was contained within this non-space.
Such a feat was impossible for any lesser beings, even ones with aspects suited for it. But he was no longer mortal, for he was Supreme, a being who existed between the Pinnacle of mortality and the edge of divinity...
Yet he was not truly divine. He existed in the painful gap between the two — a demigod who could glimpse the truth of divinity, but never truly hold it. Every time he used his Will to touch that higher truth, even for a fraction of a second, his soul trembled with ecstatic understanding… only for that understanding to slip away like sand through his fingers.
That understanding was apotheosis, the dream of every creature walking the path of ascension.
The emptiness it left behind was worse than any wound, even the wounds this harrowing deity was inflicting upon him.
That was the true curse of being Supreme. Or perhaps its blessing, for some.
Not the power and the responsibility, but the longing… the maddening desire to be more, the desire to become a god.
The flames of desire inside a Supreme were vaster than those of lower ranks, and so they naturally felt more. They longed for more power, they longed for more progress, and they longed for divinity...
But most importantly, they longed to impose their Will upon the world and reshape it in their image.
And so, George did just that.
George's Will, which he had been using to transcend time and space, was directed inside Ascalon, saturating the blade and turning it into a conduit of his Will.
That conduit did not just serve as a means of directing his Will but it also empowered it even further, granting it extraordinary power at the price of loosing its versatility.
And so, george swung the blade, creating a devastating symphony of white gold arcs.
Vilgax, who had assumed the form of a formless mass of sickly cursed tentacles, recoiled as the arcs of pristine light engulfed his world of darkness.
A blinding arc of holy light severed three massive tentacles at once, causing them to fall outside of the non-space and toward the Earth like meteorites.
Golden light — light that burned brighter than any fire — devoured the corrupted flesh and turned it into harmless vapor.
Vilgax roared in fury, his grotesque form writhing and shifting in agony. The alien warlord's body had become a vessel for something far older and fouler than existence itself, and thus Dagon's influence oozed from every pore.
George frowned as he flew upward, dodging Vilgax's tentacles that could wrap around and absorb the life force of entire planets.
The concept Vilgax embodied was strange and terrifying, just like the deity he worshipped. He was a Cursed Tyrant in soul, spirit, shadow, and body. That was undeniable but he was not bound to a realm like regular spirits were. Instead, he was bound to Dagon itself. This had caused Vilgax's concept to become quite vague.
From the history of the old warlord, the concept he would have embodied if he had become Sacred naturally was conquest or domination… But now, he was embodying the very concept of being Cursed.
The concept of being a profane deity, with his Will functioning like that of a Titan — so vast and deep within himself.
Each of his strikes and attacks carried the weight of his profanity. From his crimson eye-beams of energy to his tentacles that absorbed the life force of other beings, every attack was capable of corrupting George.
George could not contend with that… Perhaps if he had his Domain, but not like as he was now.
'No… I just need more time. If I could just reach the depths of its core, then I could kill it .'
As George supreme mind was trying desperately to find a way to kill vilgax, something suddenly changed in the world around them.
In the void they were in, Vilgax's oppressive presence changed.
Instead of expanding or condensing, it suddenly became much more… natural.
The non-space around them bent and morphed as sickly purplish darkness crept across it, saturating everything with Vilgax's dark essence to the point where one could no longer tell where Vilgax began and where the world ended.
George frowned, dodging another assault crimson energy as he realized what was happening.
Vilgax was fusing with the non-space created by their Wills, corrupting it and because of that, George's Will was getting corrupted as well.
Will was merely an expression of the spirit, and thus that corruption was bound to be fatal...
George did not ponder long on how that was possible. Instead, he simply raised Ascalon and called upon his dormant ability, the ability to create a potent Golden light capable of dealing soul damage, and unleashed its wrath upon vilgax, pushing the warlord away.
Ascalon, which was soulbounded to George, augmented the golden light and became one with it, transforming into a radiant star of pristine golden light — incorruptible and unchanging.
George's soul, however, was not incorruptibl and so, the darkness brought by Vilgax spread through him, reaching the depths of his soul and spirit, corrupting both
Then, in moments, that corruption was banished, destroyed by Ascalon.
Then, a seed of corruption sprouted in George's soul… And that too, was banished by Ascalon.
This repeated hundreds of times in what felt like an eternity. Corruption flooded George, but Ascalon saved him everytime… refusing to allow its wielder to fall into profanity.
George had wondered before if the creator of Ascalon had built the holy blade specifically to combat corruption… Well, he wouldn't know. But he was glad they did create it anyway.
Ascalon's power was vast and unfathomable. It banished the influence of the Void and restored George's purity. And at times, when it couldn't save him in time, it simply destroyed him, then brought him back as good as new in mere moments.
Of course, it was not Ascalon alone that was saving him, as there was also his will.
If not for George's Will, he would have gone mad long ago and turned into a mad beast anyway.
Observing this peculiar situation, Vilgax snarled in his unholy vastness.
"You are no ordinary madman. Do you not think of the agony of dying over and over?"
He said, not stopping his assault even for a moment.
George looked at the cursed tyrant, stuck in this cycle of corruption and restoration, and simply smiled.
"I can endure it. As long as I can take one step further."
He charged once more.
Again and again the cycle repeated. Vilgax's attacks would land, spreading vile corruption that ate away at George's soul. George would purify himself with Ascalon's holy light and his own indomitable Will, Sometimes the corruption was too deep and so he died.
And every time, he came back.
Each resurrection was more painful than the last. Each time he saw the a glimpse of divinity and the call of the voice, of the path of ascension and the path of profanity. The terrible existence between both divinity and corruption gnawed at his mind like a starving beast.
Still, he fought.
Between strikes, George began to chant — not loudly, but with quiet, solemn sorcery that resonated with his soul and Ascalon, further augmenting them. It was a sorcery much similar to the sorcery of shaping, brought upon by the daemon of hope, however this sorcery was not created by any daemon but instead, her uncle and jailor, the god of light.
"I am the light of my sword… forged in hellish flames to bring forth a new dawn for a dead realm…"
A tentacle impaled his chest casuing corruption to flood him, and then he was engulfed in Divine light once again, reborn in its crucible.
"I am the blade that breaks tyranny and purifies all that is profane…"
He burned the corruption away, driving Ascalon to the deepest part of vilgax soul.
"I am the blade of the realm, forged in light to halt an unstoppable corruption…"
Golden light flared violently around him, causing cracks to form in the non space they existed in.
"And I have come for you… conqueror of worlds."
Vilgax's smile widened into something monstrous.
"You truly are insane."
In the midst of this, a third golden-white eye suddenly opened on George's forehead, giving him the visage of a terrible angel, or perhaps a harrowing Nephilim... But that was not the end. All around the non-space, hundreds of eyes suddenly materialized, floating bodiless in the void. They were filled with curiosity and a maddening desire to learn and understand the flow of all things, both sane and mad, corrupt and Divine.
Each of them fixed their eerie gaze upon Vilgax, seeing him, understanding him — his concept, his powers, his connection to Dagon, and most importantly, the gaps within his Will, everything was unraveled.
This was George's Awakened Ability — The All-Seeing Eye.
Then, through the eyes and Ascalon, George channeled his Will once again, connecting them all together to create a gigantic web of Will with Ascalon at its center, serving as the anchor for all of this.
George then activated his Ascended Ability, and a golden-white halo appeared behind his back, absorbing spirit essence from the world and from Vilgax himself before turning it into pure light.
He channeled that light through his Will, letting it glide through the magnificent web of eyes. In doing so, he became a bridge between the halo and the web, continuously filling it with purifying light augmented by Ascalon.
Vilgax immediately understood what George was trying to do and moved to stop it. His formless body manifested massive crimson eyes that blazed with a horrifying red glow, and then terrible waves of energy shot forward toward the web George had created, aiming to destroy both it and George, who stood at its center.
But it was already too late.
Ascalon and the hundreds of eyes glowed with blinding brilliance. Then, an ocean of light — each strand carrying George's Will — was unleashed toward Vilgax. As the attack surged forward, the non-space between them cracked even further, before shattering like glass, violently throwing both combatants back into Earth's atmosphere.
The projectiles of light continued ascending toward Vilgax, whose shadow now covered half the planet.
Vilgax, instead of being terrified by an attack capable of destroying planets, simply smiled.
A terrible, horrifying smile that had no end and no beginning.