Sovereign of the Karmic System

The body of the Swordsman suddenly went limp, and his arms started to float due to the lack of gravity.

With his hand still wrapped around the Swordsman's throat, the parasitic king looked at his body with amazement. "Spectacular.." He said as a wide grin appeared on his face, which quickly disappeared the moment he remembered how all of the children of Iewah, had a failsafe ability that would resurrect them after dying once. If that was not enough, being aware of his gradually decreasing power, the parasitic king knew that the more time passed, the worse off he would be in facing the two.

For the following few seconds he tried to think of a way to kill the Swordsman once and for all, when suddenly, an idea came to his mind. The murderous god did not care about the Swordsman, and the only person he needed to capture was Jerigh, so even if the Swordsman were to disappear, he would not have to fear the anger of his new master.

With only a portion of the exhilarating blood essence left in his body, his entire body started to break apart into what appeared like a sea urchin, and a moment later, he swallowed the dead body of the Swordsman before he could come back to life.

Horrifying noises of crunching and tearing could be heard coming from within him, but soon after, they stopped. "I don't believe I cannot eat you!" Said the parasitic king, while feeling that instead of turning into blood essence, the mangled body of the Swordsman was being covered by a sort of cocoon.

Instead of silk, this cocoon was formed by a thread of sword intent, which could cut almost anything it would come in contact with. This thread was constantly trying to cut the parasitic king from the inside, forcing him to focus all of the blood essence left to protect his stomach.

The sword intent chipped away at the blood essence, and before he could realize it, the parasitic king started to receive injuries to his stomach, which would be ground to nothingness the moment it would touch the cocoon. Unable to devour him, the parasitic king had no choice but to spit the Swordsman right out, and allow him to be resurrected before killing him one last time.

What the parasitic king did not know, was that embedded into the thread of sword intent, was something different. While his sword intent came from his body, the swordsman was using a second form of power which originated from his very own artifact.. The living sword.

Originally a simple instrument that could improve his battle prowess and cut anything, the living sword possessed its own consciousness, and was able to absorb, distribute, and channel the sword intent of the Swordsman on its own accord, based on the enemy the wielder was fighting. Now, however, this sword had a new power, and this power, was none other than the concept of immortality, which was added to it when it had been merged with the Deathbringer's artifact.

This had been done out of necessity, during the many encounters he and Jerigh had with the followers of the Murderous God, resulting in the Swordsman reaching complete immortality.

Whenever the Swordsman would die, his own sword would immediately activate, ejecting a mixture of the swordsman's sword intent, and the concept of immortality that the sword possessed. This particular fusion of essences would be extremely damaging against natural life essence, making it the perfect protection against any living being who wished to attack him while he was regenerating.

The parasitic king was in trouble. The blood essence in his body was now but a fraction of that he had obtained by sacrificing the brutal, while Jerigh and the Swordsman did not appear to be affected in the slightest.

After a few more attempts at killing the Swordsman, this feeling of danger turned into worry, and the worry turned into the fear he had always felt when interacting with beings more powerful than him. His newly built world of power and dreams of dominance rapidly crashed down in front of these two seemingly undefeatable blade wielders, leaving only the will to escape into his mind.

"Worthless. Truly worthless." Said a disembodied, yet familiar voice with anger. Following the resounding of this voice was the appearance of two entities, that the parasitic king welcomed with looks of relief. These two entities were the Sovereign of Corruption, and the Murderous God.

"Master, I have failed.. These tw-"

"QUIET!" Barked out the Murderous God, already annoyed about having to even look at the parasitic king. "Giving you the Heinous Path of Blood was a mistake. I will deal with you later." He then added with a menacing tone right before turning to look at the Swordsman, and Jerigh.

"I have been looking for you for over a year now. It cost me a lot to come here personally." He said as the angered expression on his face turned into an even deeper frown. After no more than a few seconds, however, the frown disappeared, and he went back to his expression of calmness, contempt, and sense of superiority. "But now I have you.. And you will bring me to the little dimension jumper." He said with a smile while looking straight into Jerigh's eyes.

Jerigh and the Swordsman looked at one another, and without saying a word, they came to the mutual understanding that there was no hope for them to face this being. However, before either of them could attempt an escape, two strings of blood shot out of the golden bell that was hanging from the Murderous God's belt, and wrapped around their bodies.

While the string that was wrapped around Jerigh's body stopped, the one that had captured the swordsman didn't, and instead expanded to a point where his body could not be seen. This thick dark red thread soon turned into a glob of blood, which engulfed him completely.

The extremely corrosive blood essence of the Murderous quickly dissolved the body of the Swordsman, but right when he tried to absorb him, he noticed that an unextinguishable spark of life was present in his sword, and that as long as it existed, he would never be able to absorb any of the Swordsman's power.

Slightly annoyed by this, the Murderous God solidified the blood essence, and trapped the Swordsman into a bloody prison. He then turned to look at Jerigh with a malicious smile, and said, "I will have my fun with you.."

As he finished speaking, the Murderous God retracted the thread of blood along with the currently bound Jerigh, but right before he could get a hold of him, a layer of space suddenly solidified, locking the thread in place.

"Or maybe there won't be a need for that." He said right before turning to look right and showing a smile even wider than before. His eyes landed on the figures of Daniel, Sewah, Aeron, and Xargy, who looked at him from only a few kilometers away. "I was going to search his soul to find out where you were, but now that you are here.. Oh, who am I kidding, I will still do it eheh" He said.

Daniel ignored the words of the Murderous God, and instead turned to look at Jerigh, whom he hadn't seen in years. No words were needed, just a faint nod which reignited the camaraderie between the two.

"How cute." Said the murderous god before disappearing, and reappearing right next to Jerigh. His hand was ready too hook the latter's throat, and rip his windpipe right out, but instead, he felt the hardness of a set of knuckles land squarely on his mouth, sending him flying back at an impressive speed.

This punch was not particularly powerful, and left no damage, but for some reason, the Murderous God was unable to avoid it. Clear in his eyes like any other attack, this punch felt like it came out of nowhere, and yet everywhere at the same time. Seemingly seconds away, and yet already landed before he could even react to it. That, was the power of spacetime.

The Murderous God stopped his motion only a few kilometers after being hit, surprised, but not damaged in the least. He looked at Daniel, and said, "I'll be damned.. This universe gets more and more interesting by the day. But I wonder for how long you can defend your friends." With the power of his blood essence, the murderous god shot through those few kilometers like a comet, throwing a punch at Jerigh, but right before it could reach, Daniel's head moved in front of him, and exploded like a watermelon that had been dropped from the hundredth story of a building.

Jerigh's eyes opened in shock, and for a moment, all of the sword intent that he was able to produce focused on the edge of his sword. He then slashed with all of the power he was capable of, "AAAARGH!" he shouted in blind rage.

The murderous god did not bother to avoid this attack, and instead blocked Jerigh's sword by grabbing it in between his index and middle finger. Then, with a light pressure, he dissipated the sword intent, and snapped the sword's blade like a stick.

Slightly disappointed by Daniel's unavoidable death, he then once again reached for Jerigh's throat.

With his fingers wrapped around Jerigh's neck, he turned to look at Daniel's companion, and said, "Bring the dimensional jumper to me. Or I will kill you-" right before his eyes landed on Aeron's, which were shining with a dark green color.

Suddenly, the Murderous God found himself someplace else. He was standing in line along with thousands of kids, right in front of what appeared to be a pool of water colored red by all of the blood that had been poured into it. By the side of this pool, was a mountain of tens of thousands of bodies, all kids that, like him, were being sacrificed.

"Come ahead." Said the cold voice of the executioner, who had just thrown the body of a five years old girl onto the pile, and was holding a black dagger from which fresh blood was still dripping.

The murderous god could remember this scene from millions of years ago. How instead of simply letting himself be killed, he had jumped into the pool that was being prepared for the sect master's son. Reborn from blood, was the tradition that he would come to include to the Heinous Path of Blood, the cultivation path that he had invented during his life.

Aware that he was being forced to relive his memories, the murderous god looked at his surroundings. The old sect he had destroyed, all of the cultivators that he had slaughtered, the cruel and aloof leader whose heart he had eaten while he was still alive. Everything was identical to how he remembered it.

However, while he was enjoying this look at his past, he was no prisoner. He simply closed his eyes, and while reopening them, he said, "These petty tricks won't work.." he then stopped as he noticed what was in front of him.

Daniel had wrapped his right arm around the murderous god's neck, while the left was covering his head. Only a slit that connected his eyes to Aeron's was left uncovered, while on the rest, he felt his blood essence being absorbed at an incredible rate by the concept of absorption of dark essence.

He tried to use his arms to reach for Daniel, but quickly noticed that both of them were already gone. One carried by the quiet and tired figure of Sewah, who had hacked into it with all of the power he possessed, and Xargy, who had bit into his other arm, and spent the few moments he had to twist in place, until the arm snapped off.

The murderous god tried to say something, but right as he opened his mouth, Jerigh's sword pierced his tongue, and impaled it onto the back of his throat.