Sovereign of the Karmic System

Chapter 573 - The Oriole Behind (Part 4)

To a champion of Destiny, the word danger did not possess the same meaning it did for everyone else. To them, rather than being something to be feared, danger was a simple bump in the road. A rock they had to walk around to avoid and move on with their lives, as the power to work around all types of danger was built within their very existence from the moment they were placed into their host.

This particular difference in views not only allowed the champions of Destiny who managed to survive to become extremely powerful entities, but also made them into beings which lacked the instinctive fear that any other animal, mortal, or cultivator possessed.. Or at least, that was what Elijah thought.

At the very height of his depraved spectacle, a voice had reached his ear.. One that not only revealed immediately his most well-kept and important secret, which he had fought to keep hidden for close to three thousand years, but that had also presented him with a gift. That boon was the sense of fear a mortal would feel when facing an undefeatable, and inescapable opponent.

This voice, he found out by slowly turning his head around, belonged to a figure of pure golden light, who stood casually behind him. This person was, of course, Daniel.

What followed his appearance were a few moments of silence, which Brie, still horrified by the uncovered surroundings, spent glancing around while in panic. Her wide-opened eyes moved randomly, trying to avoid the worst of it, and only stopped as they finally landed on Daniel's figure. Her heart started pounding in her chest as she noticed Elijah's bloody hand come to a halt a few inches away from her throat.

Ironically, Elijah was experiencing the same feelings Brie was, as he did not dare to make a move while in Daniel's presence. However, that did not mean he had given up. What his nature compelled him to do, instead of responding the way a prey would to a predator, was to rely on his system, on which he immediately focused in hope to find a way out.

Before he could, however, Daniel's terrifying voice once again began to resound in his ears. "Go ahead and try it.. I'll let you." He told him, as if predicting Elijah's intentions.

More fearful than ever, yet slightly relieved to be allowed to access his lifeline, Elijah formulated a thought, which to many others could have been translated as 'get me the hell out of here'.. He then waited for his system to generate a way for him to survive this encounter. Used to an immediate response, Elijah's heart started to sink, as his most reliable tool had remained quiet, telling him that of escaping this predicament, there was absolutely no chance.

While in this situation many would have fallen on their knees, and begged for mercy, that was not the norm for a champion of Destiny. After all, had there been hope for mercy, his system would have told him to do just that. A complete lack of response meant that he had no chance of escaping no matter how long he waited, or what he did.

If that was not enough, he could feel that the power emanated by Daniel's body was not that of a cultivator, but that of an aspect of existence.. Too vast and powerful to fight against.

"Go ahead.. You are free to try anything." Daniel said with a calm, almost gentle tone. His eyes were, like Brie's, pointed at his surroundings. At the bloodied walls, the abused people locked in the room behind the scared young girl, and the people who, unaware of what was happening, continued to dig into flesh and chew through bones without a care in the world.

While aware that he had no real chance of escaping, the moment Daniel's golden eyes moved away from him, Elijah bolted in the sky and escaped through space, covering hundreds of thousands of miles in the blink of an eye, and immediately left the area that Daniel's senses could reach.

Surprised by Elijah's speed, Daniel was reminded of how much the universe had changed. Many times before he had encountered other champions of destiny, yet none had the cultivation Elijah possessed, as it was comparable to that of a cultivator who had lived and cultivated for millions of years. In fact, Elijah's cultivation was so high that, had Daniel not been an aspect of existence, he doubted that he would have been his match.

After Elijah left the galaxy, the illusion that had clouded the minds of the people within the compound disappeared, and they regained their senses.

With confused eyes they looked at their blood-covered surroundings, but all they felt was confusion, and discomfort, as most of them had their mouths filled with warm fluids, and half chewed meat. "AHHHHH!" A horrified shriek pierced their ears, forcing the group of men to turn in the direction of the chubby young man, who was now laying onto his tipped chair as he stared at his platter with horrified eyes.

In response to the young man's scream, the other men looked at his plate, then theirs, where half chewed remains of human origin rested. What followed was an uproar of immense proportions. Those who did not scream cried, and those who were too shocked to cry tried to force their fingers down their throats in hope to spew what they had eaten.

The only one who had somehow regained her calm was Brie, as she found Daniel's presence, as well as the reaction his appearance had on Elijah, to be somewhat calming. "Wh-what is g-going on?" She asked while still trembling.

Bothered by the constant screaming, Daniel waved his hand casually, releasing a small fragment of his power in the surroundings. In a moment his essence wafted into the entire compound, like an unavoidable mist that reached every nook and cranny. Whatever this power touched, was affected by it. The people, no matter if injured or in a panic, were fully healed and brought back to a calm state of mind, the blood that painted the walls immediately evaporated, and the human remains left on the plates and cauldron turned into dust, disappearing from everyone's sight.

Once the surroundings were cleared, and the minds of the people forced into a calmer state, his power turned into time essence, locking in place the entire compound but Daniel, and Brie.

The reason why Daniel had not stopped Brie was not because he couldn't, or because he cared to talk to her, but because of the nature of the karma that surrounded her.. As she was the one and only person in this entire city to possess karma of a benevolent nature.

Surprised by this, Daniel decided to spend a moment answering her question. "Nothing out of the ordinary, in my eyes." He said while looking up at the spot in the sky where a couple of minutes ago the champion of Destiny had disappeared.

Realizing that Daniel had no interest in explaining further, the girl asked, "He seemed scared of you.. Why did you let him go?"

For the first time Daniel showed the parvence of a smile. "Who said that I let him go?" He responded before snapping his finger, causing a human-sized rift to open right next to him. From this rift dashed out the figure of Elijah, who had crossed the rift and appeared right in front of him without even noticing.

While surprised, Elijah was still a very old and powerful cultivator. It only took a moment for him to realize that it was part of Daniel's power to locate his position, and that was what made his escape impossible. Yet, he was not ready to surrender, as surrendering was not within the nature of a champion of Destiny.

After abandoning any plans of escaping, Elijah could only turn to the one thing he knew.. His system. The moment his eyes regained the golden hue characteristic of a champion of Destiny, something changed within Daniel.

Usually calm and collected, Daniel noticed his breath quicken, as his attention was caught by Brie. Unconsciously, thoughts of how pretty she looked, how nice her figure appeared, what kind of noises she would make if he forced himself on her, or what the taste of her flesh and blood was like, had started appearing in his mind. Each thought more depraved than the other, and too strong even for his mental fortitude to stop.

Seemingly entranced by the girl's figure, who was pressed against the wall, terrified by Elijah's reappearance, Daniel approached her with eager steps. His hands unwilling to wait any longer moved towards her, causing the already terrified Brie to shriek in horror. Right before he could touch her, however, Daniel's hand stopped, and with no apparent reason, Elijah fell on his knees while staring at the ground with a blank expression.

In the eyes of anybody else, the man had just fallen while in a trance, but in Daniel's eyes, what happened was different. The unparalleled amount of negative karma which encapsulated the entire city due to the sheer amount, had now attached itself to the person who had produced it, and that person, was none other than the owner of the depraved system.

He kneeled as a statue of pure gold as his karma slowly yet inevitably forced its way inside his body, burning his mind with the memories of the countless lives he had destroyed.

As this happened, Daniel, once again in control of his body, did not retract his body. Instead, with a now relaxed and composed demeanor, pushed his arm forward, until the tip of his finger touched Brie's forehead. From the tip of his finger emerged what for him was a negligible amount of essence, but that contained the methods to cultivate the spirit, body and mind, to reach immortality, to ascend into true immortality, and to breakthrough into the godhood stage.

Able to completely understand the content of what Daniel had just shared with her, Brie looked at him with gratitude, as she realized that with this information, she would? be able to find happiness, and no longer have to struggle to survive the day. "Why?.. Sir?" She asked timidly.

Daniel turned towards Elijah's limp figure, grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him off the ground. "You deserved it." He then said before his body separated itself from the ground, and like a lightning bolt, shot in the sky, leaving the group of survivors to find their will to survive despite all the macabre actions they had been forced to perform.

As the soldier, the chubby young man, and everybody else tried to come to terms with what they had done, they felt a powerful wind come from Brie's direction as, without her noticing, Daniel's essence had forced itself into her body and refined it to the point of ascension to immortality. In their mind, they could not help but wonder who the young-looking man that had put an end to Elijah's horrifying act was.

-----

Far away from the destroyed planet, in a remote segment of space, Daniel sat casually on top of an asteroid. In front of him, the limp figure of the champion of Destiny, who had now experienced close to a hundred thousand of the lives he had taken, but from the point of view of the victim. Every abuse, every torture, murder.. He begged for each one to stop, but every attempt was received with the same look of ecstasy he had plastered on his face while performing them.

As the number of lives he experienced reached the hundreds, Elijah could only think of how to escape this nightmare. At the thousandth, he internally screamed for Daniel to have mercy on him-By the ten thousandth, he would have taken his own life if he could.. When the number reached the six digits, his mind had finally broken. Not a single hope or desire of escaping was left in his mind, just an absolute feeling submission.

"If one day this hell will have an end, I will turn my life around.. I do not wish to visit this place again.." He repeated over and over again, thousands, millions of times.