Victory

In the face of the cosmic aura, his deepest desires were invoked. He saw himself defeating the Evernight Goddess. He saw himself ascending to become the pillar of the cosmos. He saw himself standing on the altar of his wedding, looking forward to the bride-to-be. He saw himself sitting with his father, playing chess, and drinking coffee in the twilight. He saw himself travelling the cosmos after Earth couldn't contain his wanderlust. He saw himself attaining peace in his life at last…

Everything was already there—achieved and accomplished—waiting for him to claim it all for himself.

All Lucien needed to do was grasp it, and all of it would be his.

Yet he turned away from it, grimly walking away.

Yes, all of his deepest desires were fulfilled there, but they weren't his. He was still a long way from achieving any of it. That harsh truth persisted in his core as the Desire tried to seize control of his mind, soul, and heart.

And so he walked away, rejecting the wonderful paradise that awaited him on the other side.

With his choice, the perfect world shimmered with unreal light, twisting and shifting in a coalescence of unthinkable images and inconceivable echoes, all coming together to reveal the truth behind it all.

What awaited Lucien on the other side was not a perfect world but the abyss of the cosmos, swirling and churning amidst the universe as a whole. It was pitch black, with no ray of light, as though it reflected the darkness that inhabited the hearts of the cosmos.

And in the midst of it all was a figure larger than galaxies. It was a twisted wooden mass that protruded mutated flowers, slime-dripping mouths, withering legs, and tentacles. Small creatures are continually spat forth by the monstrosity, which are either consumed into the miasmatic form or escape to some monstrous life elsewhere.

Mother Tree of Desire!

Lucien faced the Mother Tree of Desire calmly. "My will is not that weak to succumb to your illusions." He looked at the dark abyss that contained nothing but Depravity and Degeneracy in disgust. "As I said earlier, you are not the Desire; you are simply a pretender created by the Original Creator." He finished with a snap.

Then the cosmos shattered all around him, with the raging roars of Mother Tree of Desire as a backdrop.

With that, the Demon of the End was back on Earth, floating in the Berserk Sea amidst a black ocean of mutation blooming with twisted flowers and dripping with mucus.

And Suah floated nearby in his abomination form, and above him was a projection of a mummy wrapped in yellowish straps pierced by countless brown tree branches.

Chains twisted with thorny veins protruded out from within both of them towards Lucien to chain him, but the crimson-black fire that drenched his figure protected him from them, resulting in a conflict between both of them in an attempt to weaken each other.

The intention of Suah was clear as day. He wanted to push Lucien into the loving embrace of his mother. To accomplish this, he did not hesitate to pray to the corrupted Chained God and summon his projection. And they attacked Lucien together, using the corruption of the Mother Tree of Desire within both of them.

It manifested as twisted chains around Lucien with the intention of invoking his deepest desires under the cosmic aura of the Desire, and they wanted to chain his very essence to it all.

Ultimately, this would have ended with Lucien being corrupted and controlled by the Mother Tree of Desire.

It was a great plan and all, and it would have succeeded if it had been someone else in the place of Lucien; alas, it was not….

Lucien opened his silver eyes, exhaling in the embers of tranquilly, though his flames raged in wrath, pouring out from his figure in waves and melting the twisted chains.

"How…?" Suah's voice expressed his thorough astonishment and bemusement. "How do you still stand in front of my mother?"

"You underestimated me, my will, and my determination." Lucien stated calmly, clutching his sword. "Now you shall pay for it."

The Demon of the End had gathered all of his resolve, determination, and will; then he imposed them on reality throughout the battlefield with his words, and everything in the battlefield shimmered with silver light, submitting to his whims.

At this moment, Lucien held control over the reality of their battlefield. He achieved this through the authority of "Conquest," which was all about conquering everything, even reality itself.

He had achieved the true might of the Conqueror!

Lucien willed the projection of the Chained God to dissipate, severing the connection that Suah managed to establish to the battlefield, and of course, Suah tried to stop him after getting out of his shock, but with the advantage of controlling reality itself, he managed to keep him busy for those few moments.

As the projection of the Chained God faded away, Lucien discretely breathed a sigh of relief. A major trouble was averted by his swift response, though the surprise and distraction of Suah also helped.

Finally, Lucien concentrated on the abomination himself, which thrashed out of the ocean of white roses in wrath and bewilderment. His twisted figure was completely decaying in the embrace of Death, but as soon as he got out, he purged away the influences of Lucien with his authorities. "You, you..." he hissed. "What are you..?"

"Me?" Lucien chuckled. "I have many names and titles, but you can call me Reaper, for I am here to claim your soul."

"Arrogance!" Suah yelled, twisted laughter bursting from each of his mouths. "Just because you managed to send the Chained God away doesn't mean you've won."

"Oh, but I have." Lucien grinned as his figure erupted with a catastrophic aura. "I should thank you, to be honest. I was actually able to attain the true might of the Conqueror thanks to your little attempt to corrupt me. There is nothing you can do now but accept your fate."

Suah trembled as the aura passed over him. In the face of it, all of his senses screamed danger—danger that might end his life.

'Impossible..' the Abomination thought in astonishment. It was not that he never considered Death, but with the existence of his mother backing him, even the Gods themselves were helpless to deal with his existence.

"Oh." Lucien squinted in amusement, seeing through him. "You don't really think your mother will save you this time?"

'Of course..' Suah wanted to reply vehemently, but he lost his voice because he couldn't connect with his mother. She was still there in the cosmos, but something—most likely those wretched gods—was blocking him from reaching out to his mother.

It was at this moment that Suah realised the cruel truth. This was a trap from the start, but not for Lucien but for himself. He was never going to get out of here alive. He was going to be forever separated from his mother.

But Suah would never accept that; he could never accept it, and so he roared and rushed at Lucien with all his might, feigning an intention to battle him to death while trying to find a way out of here.

"Futile." Lucien stated, looking ahead at the Abomination. "My declaration still stands: submit to me, the Abomination of the World."

Suah froze in his tracks as the familiar declaration was imposed on himself, but it was so much more powerful this time, as though everything was pressing down on his very existence in a bid to make him submit to Lucien.

The Abomination tried to resist, stirring all of his authorities against the declaration, but when they faced the blazing will of Lucien, they began to waver and flatter, just like his own existence.

And he was losing himself, slowly falling into the clutches of the Reaper.

No.

He was going to escape.

He was going to see his mother again.

No matter what.

Suah actually began to push Lucien's will out of himself, and just as he began to see hope, he abruptly felt all of his instincts screech, but it was too late, since the crimson sword had already pierced through his very existence, all but melting his determination and will into pieces, and immediately, the declaration began to fill the entirety of his being.

"Such a determination. Such a will." Lucien walked towards Suah, who remained completely frozen. "I almost admire you, Suah." He stopped in front of the Abomination, "If you had kept it going, you would have succeeded and broken my declaration; you might even have had a chance to escape from me. But alas, you are not the hero of this story, nor am I the villain."

"So this ends now." The Demon of the End spoke, his voice severe and harsh, passing his final judgement on Suah. "Kill yourself."

Suah did as he was told, like a puppet following the command of his master. His figure soon began evaporating bit by bit as the glaring rays of the sun broke through the clouds and illuminated him in blazing brilliance. "Mother…." In the last embers of his will, he whispered painfully. "I am sorry, I failed you…"

Then the Abomination of the World was gone, melting and burning away into ashes, leaving behind a black chain with the thrones that emitted steam under the scorching rays before finally becoming still in serenity.

Lucien looked at the ashes sweeping away in the winds in moments of heavy silence, his sombre face bathed in the golden rays of the sun. Then he bent down and picked the chain after making certain it was safe, and then he looked up at the sky. The clouds were dissipating, revealing the golden sun, blazing and searing, in the heavens. 'I need to leave immediately…' he thought with trepidation.

He was certain that the moment he cut his connection with the sword of the conqueror and exited the stage of equilibrium, the brunt of the fight would come bearing down on him. It wasn't that he wouldn't be able to bear it; nevertheless, it was a moment of weakness that anyone could take advantage of. They might just decide to deal with him and be done with all trouble, for example, the Eternal Blazing Sun—he was certain those were the exact thoughts going through the divine mind of the sun now.

Lucien exhaled, looking around the destroyed Berserk Sea for one last time, then frowned, for all that greeted him was a wasteland corrupted by authorities. 'Something must be done about this…' he thought as he began to teleport through the spirit world. 'or repercussions on the world would be severe..'

But before he could completely teleport away, the spirit world fell into chaos, and all the knowledge and information in it began to stir and tremble as something colossal emerged from within them.

Lucien looked up, his pupils shrinking at the divine sight that greeted him.

It was an illusory tower. Every level was made up of thick books. Each book had a brass eye on it. The higher one looked, the darker it became. It was filled with the aura of insanity, destruction, inauspiciousness, and disaster.

The tower extended into the sky as though it had encompassed the entire world within itself, including the destroyed Berserk Sea.

Immediately following that, all around Lucien, pitch-black stone columns were erected, setting up a majestic cathedral.

Inside this cathedral, each column, each arch, and each dome's surface were embedded with the bones of different races. They were densely packed together, protecting Lucien within them.

With the appearance of the cathedral, faint thunderclaps began to echo from the infinite heights, and the blazing sun in the high heavens began to shine brighter as well.

But even as the cathedral faded away into the dreams of the world, the blazing sun still shone and the faint thunderclaps still resounded, but they ultimately did nothing to stop its disappearance.

With that, the illusory tower that encompassed the world emitted an inconceivable light, illuminating everything for a moment before fading away along with the tower into the astral world.

The world remained the same—the southern continent was in chaos due to the war between the Numinous Episcopate and the Northern Countries, and the Northern Continent finally took notice of the situation, but it was too late—nothing appeared to have changed, but the blazing sun shone on the surface of the stormy blue sea between the Southern and Northern Continents said otherwise.

It was as if a battle between the strongest archangels had never occurred here. And if one were to put a word to what that illusory tower did, it would be...

Miracle.

—————

Corpse Cathedral.

Lucien sat on a chair in the cathedral, his crimson sword and the thorny chain beside him. He looked utterly pale and weak, leaning completely back on the chair as he heavily breathed in and out, gazing up at the ceiling with hazy eyes.

But as Adam appeared before him, Lucien flashed a big smile at the Angel of Imagination that said anything but weakness.

"I told you victory was in my veins, didn't I?.."

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A/N : Phew...this chapter took some time to complete. I hope you found the fight good, as I tried my best in it.

And as always, stones will be appreciated; they keep me motivated.