A Goddess Trembles

To cultivate is to harness the world's energy, otherwise known as Arcane Energy. It is the source of every cultivator's power, and if by chance, the world dies, the arcane energy will also be gone with it. And without arcane energy, the cultivators will become nothing but mortals. Stronger than the average person but mortal, nonetheless.

But this rarely happens since for a world to be destroyed, one has to be strong enough to do it. And only those in the Deity Realm can actually achieve that, however the gods will smite them if they do so.

To break through another level in each realm, a cultivator must break the barrier that is also known as the "World Gates".

The world gates serve as an obstacle for all cultivators, and each world gate is stronger than the last. The stronger the cultivator, the stronger the world gate, and it could take cultivators years before they could reach the next level in their realm.

To break a world gate, one must use their own arcane energy to attack it. The most popular strategy for this is to wear it down for years until the world gate is just about to break, then they could go for an all-out attack. Some may even use a stronger cultivator's energy to break the gate for them, however this is incredibly dangerous, as it could attract a lightning tribulation towards them.

Nobody knows what the world gates are, the only thing they know is that it will only appear randomly in some people's lives and it will only show up in a person's mindscape. In fact, cultivators are quite a rarity, even back in his old world due to how rare it is for people to even take a glance at a world gate.

Back then, children who have seen their world gates are immediately taken by a sect, either through negotiations or force. However, clans are rather special since most of their descendants have at least managed to cultivate. Some of them even reached the Transcendent Realm, which is just after the Demigod Realm. Those are usually the patriarchs, or the elders, though.

Anyway, the world gates are the same for all cultivators, well most of them.

See, Helel is special because of his world gates. Specifically, how weak they are.

His world gates are 5 times weaker than any cultivators' world gates, and it doesn't decrease the power that he receives from each level, meaning that his progress is 5 times faster than all of the cultivators back in his old world.

However, the weird thing about this is that this only happens once he reaches the Demigod Realm. Back then, he was considered just an average cultivator, even though he was the patriarch's son. But when he managed to reach the Demigod Realm, he became unstoppable.

And after years of non-stop fighting, he became a nihilistic person, and thus began his anarchy against the world.

Right now, Helel's plan is to quietly grow stronger, biding his time.

His goal at the moment is to kill the gods, but what should he do for the time being? Sure, he could keep cultivating in secret and just come out when he's ready but that's just boring. Where's the fun in that?

He used to lead people to battles, and always come out on top. He was their general and they were his soldiers, they understood that. But at home, in their city, they were all equal.

Was he sad that his people died? Yes. But is his goal only for the sheer purpose of revenge? No, it was never about revenge. This was their goal since the moment he started destroying countries. To kill the gods.

Does he feel guilty that he basically led all of his people to death? No, never. All of them knew the consequences of going against the gods and they embraced death every day. Including him.

Then what was the end game for all of them? Well, nothing. They would just continue on and on, even after the death of the gods. After all, if he could do it, why won't he?

The universe is vast, and the amount of adventure out there is endless.

That's why his goal of killing the gods is not necessarily his only focus.

But he does wonder what he'll do in this new world. After all, it is pretty big.

(4 Months Later)

(October 8, 1128)

It was night. Around 9 PM.

Since he felt quite lazy today, he didn't cultivate and just decided to rest for a change. Advancing to Level 8 of the Human Realm will take at least a year from now, and he's not exactly in a rush. Truth said to him that this world is completely devoid of influence from the gods, though he also said that there are beings here calling themselves gods, which they aren't.

As he lay on his bed with his hands behind his head, he stared at the ceiling and after a few moments, he closed his eyes.

When he opened them, he stared at a sewer. It was dark and gritty but at the end of the sewer, there were gigantic metal rods protruding from under the water, and there were two giant red eyes glaring at him from behind it.

He smiled in his original form before he died, and said, "Hello, fox."

"Human," the kyuubi growled back.

He just shook his head, and pointed somewhere else, "I'm not here for you, don't worry. Because I'm here… for her."

Around a few meters away from the fox, chained up on a wall, inside a smaller cage, was a woman seemingly in her 30s. Though not just any woman, a goddess. Long, messy hair as dark as the abyss itself, and plain black eyes. Smooth and pale white skin. She wore nothing but a dark dress, and in this form, she looked like a vulnerable and helpless beautiful woman.

If Helel didn't have his 200 years of experience, he would've fallen for her instantly.

He looked at her, and just like the kyuubi, she glared at him.

"I came here for you, Nyx," he softly said towards her.

"Leave me," she coldly replied.

He approached her, while saying, "Stop being so childish, Nyx. Just give me your power, and I'll at least give you the privilege of not being chained up like a dog. If you beg for it, I might even let you roam around this sewer," and then he stopped right in front of her cage.

She snorted, and frostily said, "You're just asking me to trade my powers and dignity for a bigger cage. Don't be ridiculous."

He smiled, "But it's still bigger."

"And it's a cage nonetheless."

He pursed his lips, "You sure are stubborn. Tell me then, what do you want?"

She chuckled for a bit before she gave him another glare, "I want to escape this place, and for you to die."

He smirked, "That's a pretty steep price for your powers but you're getting too bold, you must be punished," he snapped his fingers, and her dress disappeared.

She laid there, naked, and she widened her eyes. This is the first time he's done this!

Finally, he could see her tremble.

He banged on her cage, and then used his hands to each hold two metal bars as he let his face slowly creep towards hers.

"I have captured noble women, princesses, queens, and empresses, and I let my men defile them in front of their husbands and families; in front of their people. I humiliated them, and made them nothing but pigs. Now, do you think you have a choice here? You are nothing but an energy source for me, Nyx. You have tested my patience several times, and If you think you're special because you're a goddess, then let me tell you something," and he sneered, as he whispered into her ear, "You're just the same as everybody else."

And suddenly, she felt cold. It was cold before but it's colder now. If he defiles her now, then the last remaining pieces of her dignity will disappear. But even so, she kept her dignified look, and made herself appear as if she was never trembling from his words.

But still, he could see her shaking, and he smiled, as he pulled back.

He snapped his fingers again, and she was wearing her dress again.

"Of course I won't do that to you so soon. I want you to keep that defiant look on your face. So that when the day comes, I would love to see how broken you can be."

And then he disappeared from her vision, returning to the real world.

She stared meaninglessly at the dirty and dimly lit sewer as she thought about what her jailor had just said. But the only thing she could think of is how much he had humiliated her.

The giant fox only snorted, seemingly amused.

Helel only chuckled as he came back to reality.

He didn't actually let his men play with those women since even if he ordered them to, which he cannot do according to their brotherhood's laws, they wouldn't do it due to their morality. And he certainly wouldn't do that to another human being. However, it's different for Nyx.

She's not a human, she's a goddess. She is literally an alien to him, and it wouldn't be wrong to forcibly do despicable things towards her if that's what gets him what he wants.

He only needed her arcane energy so that he can use it to continuously break through the stages until he's at least at the Divine Realm. However, she's stubborn and she won't even give him the tiniest amount of her energy.

The Kyuubi might be a good energy source, if its energy wasn't chakra that is.

Oh right, there was the seal.

To keep the kyuubi sealed inside of him, he has to continuously fuel it with little amounts of chakra but since he doesn't have chakra in his body anymore, instead, only arcane energy, and it's been siphoning some of his energy every day!

Truthfully, it can be ignored since the amount the seal is eating is barely able to cast even a single spell, which greatly impressed him since to seal beings like the kyuubi, it would take at least a gigantic amount of arcane energy to keep it inside the seal.

Arcane Seals are stuff he barely dabbed upon, and he usually leaves it up to the Scribblers to do the seal making back in his old world. It made him realize how bad of an idea that was, and he should've learned it but alas, he can't now.

The only thing he knows besides fighting and cultivating is Alchemy, and that's only because his previous father forced him to learn it since he thought he would never amount to anything due to how slow he was at cultivating.

So, he studied it for around 3 decades, even after he had destroyed his entire clan, and he basically became a Grandmaster Alchemist, which is a title rarely reached by other people.

But he digresses.

Now he might have a theory that the kyuubi is somehow turning into an Arcane Beast because of how it is constantly being supplied by his energy but that's just a theory.

He stared at the ceiling of his room, and as he did that, he slowly fell to sleep. But as he did that, he noticed his foster mother watching through the small gap in his door.

He only smiled.

And outside, Maha chuckled, knowing that she just got busted by her foster son.

She quietly closed the door, and went downstairs. After that, she went to her kitchen, and there she opened the door leading to her backyard.

And there, someone is waiting for her.

A woman wearing a jounin vest, with a headband tied around her head. Visibly, she could still see the woman's red hair tied to a pony tail even though it was dark. And under the clouded moonlight, she could see a pair of beautiful, violet eyes.

"How is he?" The jounin woman asked, showing hints of worries on her face.

"Ren's fine. "

"That's a relief, dattebane."

Maha deadpanned, "You know you could just meet him, face to face, and ask him that question yourself, Kushina," she said dryly.