Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power - Chapter 342

Chapter 342: Chapter 342: Just die.
Chapter 342 – Just die.

“Cradle of Emptiness.”

The moment those words empty of anything — of subsistence, of emotions, of any kind of meaning — rang out through the world like a divine echo and thundered deep inside the destroyed city…

…the whole Silver city disappeared into emptiness, swallowed by the immense domain of Kaden.

From outside view, the place where the City of Silver was situated was no more. Instead, a wide empty space was left, with no building, no corpses of the fallen, neither their blood.

It was as if the city was erased from the very fabric of the world, leaving nothing but emptiness. A wound in space. An anomaly that felt terribly wrong to even the most mundane folk, let alone an awakened walking the path of ascendancy.

And as if by fate, it was at that exact moment that Aurora Starborn arrived at the city, standing there, a fire of confusion dancing intensely inside her mesmerizing starry eyes.

Her whole body was shrouded in starry luster, with one crimson star in front of her, created by using the blood of Kaden.

She was completely exhausted, beads of sweat falling down her face like unending rain. Her chest was heaving up and down sporadically, her breathing shallow and ragged.

Some parts of her golden hair were plastered on her face because of the sweat, showing how much she abused her power to get there as fast as possible.

She turned her head to look around where she stood, wondering for a brief moment if she had been lost because of the dancing and living shadows and the disappearance of the sun and the moon.

But she immediately shook her head, denying that thought, as her heart and intimate connection with Kaden showed her clearly that she was in the right spot.

Added to that, the crimson star was guiding her towards him, but it stopped exactly where she stood, shaking and trembling as if afraid of going one step further.

Above, the sky of the empire was falling apart, and the furious voice of the Sun Empress could be heard vibrating all over the world, with the growl of the Moon following shortly after, causing earthquakes of shadows to rise in harrowing proportions all around.

The frost that was slithering in the sky was slowly being tainted in deep golden-crimson blood.

Seeing it, horror began to submerge Aurora into one of cold realization. She staggered back, her eyes still transfixed on the sight above.

“N-No way…” she breathed, painfully realizing the outcome of the battle between the Sun and Moon and the eventual fates of Kaden and herself with the Empress winning.

At that realization, she snapped her head towards the empty space where Silver City had been, praying to all gods — who could deign to hear the prayers of a desperate woman in love — to save the one that made the path she was walking still bearable.

She prayed. For that was all she could do.

Yet she knew…she knew the gods would never answer one’s prayers, except if you were ready to lose your most beloved thing.

Suddenly, it seemed the weight of the world was pressing down on her as she kneeled on the writhing shadows, her head lowered, praying and waiting for a miracle to happen.

A miracle.

She prayed for one, not knowing that a miracle was at that same moment fighting the vessel of a god, inside a domain empty of…

…anything.

…

Anything.

Anything inside his domain could be erased and fed to emptiness if he wished.

That realization would have sent a shiver down through Kaden’s spine, yet he felt nothing, for he was one with emptiness at that moment.

It was intriguing, he emptily mused.

In that domain of crimson, everything was painted in a deep and intense red as if the universe itself was bleeding.

Kaden stood in the middle of that domain, his back straight and steady.

His appearance had now changed. His eyes were now white, with no pupils whatsoever, emitting a sense of emptiness enough to make one go mad.

His hair was still black, but the kind of black one would only find in the deepest space of the void. His clothes, too, were no more. His chest was left bare, showing his chiseled and lean muscles for all to see. On his back was his Mark of Burden, with the symbol of Reditha glowing enchantingly in the crisp of the domain.

Added to that, his lower part of the body was framed in black pants made of condensed emptiness.

He closed his eyes, trying to sense the effect of his domain. Information began to naturally pour into his mind, making him understand that his domain corroded the mind of anyone inside into forgetting their own sense of existence, but also gave him the power to erase any kind of concept.

At that, Kaden couldn’t help but pause, acknowledging the harrowing implication of it.

If he wanted, the very concept of sight would be swallowed by emptiness, leaving his opponent no way to see. The same with life and death, making Kaden able to kill by erasing life inside his domain, ending his opponent instantly.

He could sense he was immune to the effects of his domain, and that he was only able to erase one concept at a time. So it was temporary, he deduced.

Added to that, to erase a concept his Will was primordial, and that especially if he was against an Elderling.

Taking all this into his mind, Kaden sighed and finally rested his eyes in front of him, watching Lord Silver looking around with growing shock, as if unable to believe what he was sensing.

“E-Emptiness?” he managed to stutter, looking at Kaden with newfound eyes. Greedy eyes.

Kaden might not know in what kind of concept he was dabbling with, but Silver — or more specifically Thirty-Three — knew extremely well Emptiness.

He knew how this concept — like its opposite, Totality — was sentient enough to choose who could use it.

And he knew that Emptiness never chose anyone since the beginning, neither did it ever meddle with their games.

So why now?

That should have been the question He asked himself, but given the opportunity to witness a glimpse of Emptiness in his hand, his mind was completely blinded by greed.

‘A Seed of Emptiness? No! Not at the level of Seed, this is just a wisp of it! Only a wisp! But enough! More than enough!’ Lord Silver was struggling to contain the overwhelming enthusiastic whisper of Thirty-Three inside his head.

He staggered a couple of steps backward and lowered his head, his hand clenching his skull tightly, sweat dripping in cascades, feeling his mind decaying slowly. He was puzzled at first, only to realize that his god was trying to take over his body.

His eyes went wide, color leaving his face, as he shivered in absolute dread, as he immediately began to struggle, “My Lord! No!” he wailed.

Above, Kaden looked at this scene with apathetic eyes. As it was his domain, he could sense that the power inside Lord Silver was trying to take over the body of Silver.

It was a kind of power he had felt when he was inspecting Lady Sora’s mind, and now he knew why it felt familiar the first time he witnessed it.

This was divinity. Something he managed to meddle with thanks to the divinity of the Sorrow Pathway and the Sun Way of the Celeste Pathway he obtained.

A god. Or something similar.

‘Lady Sora… and a god?’ he thought, but immediately snapped his attention back to the current situation.

Below, he watched slowly how Lord Silver was shouting and crying, begging for his god to not take over his body, “Seeker! This was not the deal!” he cried out, his body cracking, “You promised me an increase in my talent! You promised me to make me an Ascendant!”

His wails were useless, yet Silver couldn’t stop struggling.

If he did, then he would inevitably die. The divinity of Thirty-Three was too strong to be contained inside his body. It would crumble.

Yet Thirty-Three didn’t care, and slowly Lord Silver stopped resisting. It was a lost cause since the beginning, for Thirty-Three had been inside his mind far too long and had the time to decay it deeply.

After taking control, Silver’s body began to change. His silver hair transformed and became ashes flickering sporadically behind him. Above his head, two horns emerged, each one shaped like 33.

His eyes became fully the 33 symbol, his nose disappearing completely, with his mouth showing a wide row of sharp immaculate black teeth.

Behind him burst two pairs of wings, ashes-like, flapping constantly and restlessly.

His body became grey, with cracks appearing all over it, each crack glowing black.

Finishing his transformation, the entity finally raised his head toward Kaden, who was watching this whole scene without acting, his hands behind his back leisurely.

The entity, Thirty-Three, grinned maniacally, “Your Origin. Your core. Your heart. Your mind. It doesn’t matter, Prometheus! I want them all!” he shrieked like a banshee, causing waves of power to erupt from him in cascading layers.

Wordlessly, for He knew this body would not hold for long, he immediately used the little divinity he could muster in his current state and tore apart the space toward Kaden like a cannonball, leaving a trail of ashes.

The air around him shivered and started to decay. Even Kaden’s domain was being taken down slowly.

Kaden watched him approaching quietly. Soon, Thirty-Three was only a couple of letters away from him, his stretched claws ready to sever his head.

He exhaled, and for a brief heartbeat the concept Velocity disappeared.

Thirty-Three abruptly stopped, surprised. Only to find Kaden in front of him with his hand stretched upward, summoning a colossal red sword.

“Fall.” Kaden whispered, allowing the concept of Velocity to once again exist.

The crimson sword fell.

Thirty-Three gritted his teeth and wrapped his wings around his body to protect himself, adding his decaying divinity to reinforce them.

A bad choice.

The crimson sword arrived just an inch from him, and Thirty-Three finally felt the concept of defense be erased.

His eyes widened just in time for the sword to pierce his chest mercilessly, shredding apart his skin in splinters.

“Arghh!” he cried, and was sent downwards with whipping intensity.

Amidst the fall, he tried to use his divinity to get rid of the sword, only to feel an impossible restriction clutching at his divinity.

He frowned, coughed grey blood, and forcefully took out the sword from his chest with a growl of pain. He stopped his infinite descent with his wings flapping heavily, and studied the power blocking his divinity.

He frowned, “Will?” he whispered incredulously. Then his eyes widened,

“The Slave?” he cried out in shock.

“Oh. So you know my master?” Kaden’s voice rang out as Thirty-Three snapped his head to the left only to see the wide open palm of Kaden wrapping his face with vicious grip.

He opened his mouth.

“Silence.” Kaden ordered.

And closed it abruptly.

‘The Slave? Master?’ Thirty-Three’s mind was lost.

What was happening? Who was this man?

How could he have the uniqueness of the Slave?

Emptiness… and now the Slave?

No, it was not only them, he realized. His eyes dilated as he noticed something particular deep inside Kaden, something so subtle no one should have noticed.

Thirty-Three became red with anger at the sight of it, managing to talk once more.

“YOU!” he growled, speaking even with Kaden’s palm on his face, his overwhelming Will making him exponentially weak. The corpse of Silver was cracking and decaying far too quickly.

Yet Thirty-Three spoke.

“YOU SHAPESHIFTING BASTARD!” he growled like berserker beast, “IT’S YOU AGAIN! WHY ARE YOU CHANGING THE TIMELINE ONCE MORE?!”

Kaden was suddenly puzzled by his outburst, yet he had no patience to spare for him. He began to gather a large amount of Will in his palm to kill Thirty-Three.

“Now,” he began,

“HERO!” Thirty-Three struggled under his grasp, “WE WILL KILL YOU, HERO!”

“Why are you calling me Hero, worm?” Kaden asked, emotionless, before shaking his head, sensing the dwindling of his mana.

His palm began to be shrouded by tangible crimson Will, then with a voice akin to a concept,

“Just…”

“WE WILL—!”

“…die.”

Instantly, Thirty-Three — or rather his vessel — completely stopped, unmoving as the concept of life was erased inside of him, then his mind killed by a flash of crimson sword.

And just like that…

Kaden had killed the vessel of a divine.

—End of Chapter 342—