The Power of the Heavenly Master

Gilgamesh gasped, and he ruthlessly pulled the sword out of Lord Cloud's body, causing the latter to cry out.

With a swift motion, Gilgamesh's body swiveled as he attempted to cut an orb of light in half, but he was far too slow.

It struck him in the chest and exploded, eradicating flesh and bone as Gilgamesh was violently blasted to the ground.

After smashing into the ground, Gilgamesh coughed up large mouthful of blood.

With a massive hole in his torso, he grit his teeth and looked down into his open chest cavity.

He could see his beating heart, his charred and damaged organs, and even the glow of his meridians.

"Fucking hell!"

Gilgamesh spurred on the Obscure Spark and forced it to pour out all of its power. Even so, it would still take a few moments for him to heal.

Luckily, his meridians weren't damaged badly, and he could still summon true energy.

Lord Cloud had been falling from the sky until the Heavenly Master caught him in his golden light, and he brought him closer to get a better look.

"He... He..." Lord Cloud struggled to come to terms with his new reality, while the Heavenly Master was coming to understand the extent of the damage.

"So he can completely eradicate a true energy nature like this?" The Heavenly Master fell into thought while he aimed another orb of light at Gilgamesh.

'If he was able to touch Cloud's soul, could he have also eradicated his inherent nature?'

While still pondering Gilgamesh's anomalous existence, the Heavenly Master tossed another orb of golden light.

"Well, if all I have to do is subdue the nature of heaven in my attacks, he shouldn't be hard to deal with."

Gilgamesh looked up and saw the orb of light, and he gnashed his teeth while maximizing his power and the nature of the Old Power.

With those energies coming together, he was able to easily blend his inherent nature into the sword.

He cut apart the orb, and his eyes widened when he saw a dozen more already on the way.

"Ugh!"

Gilgamesh took a step forward, cutting another orb, then took another step as he halved one more.

With each step, he neutralized an orb of light while also slowly healing. By now, his bones, flesh and skin were about 75% regenerated.

The Heavenly Master suddenly stopped, and Gilgamesh sliced the final orb before regarding him with a beastly, ferocious scowl.

"I can keep this up for years before I run out of true energy, you know. Why not just give up? You death will be a lot less painful that way." The Heavenly Master descended from the sky and landed in Gilgamesh's backyard.

"Also, I haven't even used half of my power in any of those attacks. I could have killed you with that first orb, and those are just tiny bombs of energy that I can casually create."

The Heavenly Master came closer to Gilgamesh, and he shook his head. "Your potential is limitless, but your character is shallow. You need to learn to strategize-"

"You can stick your 'strategy' right up your hairy asshole!" Gilgamesh cut him off.

"Sigh. Very well, then." The Heavenly Master splayed his arms and fingers, and the divine halo behind him expanded by at least a thousandfold.

As a result, his aura also grew. It grew until Gilgamesh started to find it hard to breathe, and that was just from being in the Heavenly Master's presence.

The disciples, servants and Guardians all shuddered in response to this release of power.

"Even if I take away the heavenly true nature I was blessed with, I am still strong enough to wipe out this entire sect."

"So tell me, 'Gilgamesh,' what can you do?"

The Heavenly Master turned his palms toward Gilgamesh, and finally targeted him with his true energy.

"Fade to dust, mortal."

"Purifying Ray!"

The Heavenly Master's halo swelled before discharging a ray of dazzling golden light, imbued with the full power of his cultivation base.

'Crap!' Gilgamesh grabbed Samael and tried to fend off against the light, but he could not.

This wasn't a physical attack, so he frantically utilized his inherent nature and attempted to stave off the Purifying Ray.

Unfortunately, his aura was unable to stop the approach of the light. There was no nature behind this attack.

It was just pure true energy, and it was impossible for the current him to defend against. His cultivation was ultimately too low.

The Purifying Ray struck him, and his skin and flesh was instantly burnt away, undoing all of the Obscure Spark's hard work.

This time, all of Gilgamesh's clothes and hair was burnt away, leaving him utterly and totally bare.

His skin melted away, his flesh sizzled and burned and his bones went from white, to black, to ash.

If this kept up, he would truly become nothing more than a pile of dust.

"This is it for him," a disciple said.

"So much for Gilgamesh the Hero..." said someone else.

"Let's be honest though, he was a bit villainous... down to the very end."

Little Feather interlocked her hands and brought them over her mouth. "Come on, Big Brother. You can't be beat, remember? That's what you told me..."

Despite her unwavering confidence in her Big Brother Gilgamesh, Little Feather's eyes were filling with tears.

All eyes were on Gilgamesh as he faced the full force of the Heavenly Master's attack.

The pain was unbearable, but Gilgamesh roared and suffered through it. It was also at this moment that he heard the Omniscient Author's voice in his head.

'Damnit! There's no choice! You have to eat the Soul-Spark! Hurry, before your ring is destroyed!'

Gilgamesh heard the Author's words, but actually doing that would take some time.

Performing the slightest movement excruciating, and he could barely gather his consciousness in order to activate the ring.

However, he managed to do it and pulled then candle out.

For a split second, the flame of the candle resisted the Purifying Ray, and the Heavenly Master's eyes widened incredulously.

After that split second, Gilgamesh had already eaten the flame and tossed aside the candle.

'What the fuck now, Author!?'

'Endure! If I'm right, this might help you use more of the power of your inherent nature. Just endure!'

Gilgamesh felt like he could slap the Omniscient Author to death.

How was he supposed to endure?

He had eaten the Soul-Spark because he thought it would help him endure, but now he had to endure on his own anyway!?

This fucking Author!!!

[T/N: iKissTurtles made a 4th-Wall-Breaking joke. Just in case that went over your head.]

Gilgamesh was about to grit his teeth, but they were already reduced to dust. He could use his gums to try to bite down on the dusty enamel in his mouth...

But it just wouldn't feel the same.

He was now nothing but a partly fleshy skeleton, and he was slowly losing more and more layers. His meridians were now totally exposed, and slowly being 'purified' by the scorching light.

The only things that remained were his crimson eyes. After all, the eyes were the windows to the soul, and Gilgamesh soul was far from being purified.

'Just a bit more!'

The Omniscient Author, within Gilgamesh sea of energy, was already noticing the changes caused by Gilgamesh eating the Soul-Spark.

If Gilgamesh was able to properly focus, he would have sensed it too.

Above the lake in Gilgamesh's sea of energy, the incomplete, indiscernible image of his inherent nature slowly began to come into focus.

At the same time, a tiny piece of it fully materialized.

The Omniscient Author, Obscure Spark, Truth's Mind, Old Power and Endless Cycle looked up at it.

To them, it looked like... a finger?

Once that finger appeared, the effects of the Soul-Spark vanished. It appeared that, after it was absorbed by Gilgamesh's soul, it was only able to promote his soul power by a tiny amount.

Such a tiny amount, actually, that all it could do was produce a finger.

"Well," the Omniscient Author said, "Look on the bright side."

"At least now we know that whatever the image of our Master's inherent nature is, it has a finger!"

The Miniature Divine Ones: "...retard..."

On the outside, Gilgamesh had only just started to feel the effect of his soul power rapidly increasing.

When that happened, he no longer felt the effects of the Purifying Ray. Instead, everything he could see faded away, and he felt new sensation arising from within.

He had felt this once before, when he had gained his initial understanding of his inherent nature.

He saw flashes and images, experienced memories and emotions, and learned many more things.

As he was undergoing this process, the Heavenly Master frowned and he took a closer look at Gilgamesh's body.

Suddenly, he faltered slightly and his energy wavered. With wide eyes, he took a step forward and got an even closer look.

"This can't be..." he whispered.

"My Purifying Ray has stopped having an effect?"

When he realized this, his head made a sharp turn to his right. Right there next to him, he saw a small wooden cup, filled with fragrant hot tea.

"What the-"

Boom!

The tea cup exploded, and sent the Heavenly Master flying into Gilgamesh's house. Luckily, the servant girls had already evacuated, so there was no one inside.

As for Gilgamesh, a barrier of jasmine flowers had appeared around his body, protecting him from the explosion and also promoting his healing.

Then, as if he had been standing there all along, the Old Patriarch appeared in Gilgamesh's backyard.

"You fought hard, young one. I apologize for taking so long to come to your aid- I truly thought you would create another miracle. Forgive me."

The Old Patriarch had his back to Gilgamesh as he spoke, but when Gilgamesh didn't respond he turned to the side and looked behind him.

However, before the Old Patriarch could see much, a heavily burnt, fleshy fist shattered his jasmine flower barrier and punched him square in the face and sent him flying off to the side.

"Don't your dare look down on me you grey-haired piece of shit!"