Chapter 114: Corruption and Freedom

Chapter 114: Corruption and Freedom

Word count = 1825 on 11/19/2023

In the Divine realm, the god kings are working together to open up a special rift to another world. One which they had not been aware was actually connected to their world as a barrier separates them. Yet this barrier has been weakened enough for a single entity to pass through.

A young man with long silver hair, yellow golden eyes and wearing a simple blue robe appears in the Douluo heaven Realm. The god kings are wary of this intruder as they hope they haven't invited a new tiger to their divine realm just to kill the other tiger. The young man has a mysterious aura around him which makes them feel stifled which is the reason for their wariness. The young man suppresses his aura.

"I believe you need my help?" The young man states as his gaze turns to Xue Tie sealed state and a frown descends on his face. He begins walking towards Xue Tie but is blocked by Poseidon who questions. "Are you Miquella?"

"Indeed. As i'm sure you have seen, the looping timeline of my world had created parallel versions of myself which had all unified once the current me was free of Mohg…or as you all call him, Shade. I hope to put an end to him once and for all then return to my home. Perhaps once your divine realm can properly ascend, we might meet again. But for now, my time is limited before i cause too much destruction" Miquella explains a bit and bypasses Poseidon and from his words, they all realize that random parts of the divine realm is cracking and fragmenting, the other weaker gods are patching up various smaller cracks and luckily nothing major has occurred yet to shatter their home.

Miquella places his hand on Xue Tie's head and channels his energy to the soul fragment hidden within Xue Tie. He is quickly brought up to date on the situation as strengthens his soul clone.

(Back in mental realm of Samsara x Xue Tie)

With Miquellas new growth, he is able to properly wail on Shade until he seems to stop after he was beaten black and blue. The chains have also grown brittle as Miquella utilized his power to bypass the chains to strike at Shades chest and other parts of his body. The river tries to help Shade escape or heal him but the chains continue to negate this power. If Shade was given a chance, he too could have projected onto this mental space as he shares partial ownership but he can't concentrate at all and has been beaten down.

The strengthened soul fragment Miquella looks at Xue Tie and says. "I cant kill him."

"Not yet at least, the corruption instilled into the river of reincarnation of your world has to be cleansed of chaos before you can finish him off. Otherwise the river will simply escape with him again as it has before." he explains in more detail for his reason.

He instead uses his power to extract the current form of the river of samsara which is the goblet of colorful liquid, the form it took when Xue Tie previously 'overcame' the fake samsara host trial created by Shade to fool him.

"ROAR!!!!" Yet with its appearance, the goblet shines a dark purple color that bursts out into tendrils that seep into the semi bound Shade. His body rapidly grows into a mountain-like state as he roars and sweeps his fist down along the ground to blast Miquella away. He flips in the air to reposition himself before dashing forward again. His fists glow golden as he begins flipping and hopping around the Shadliath (shade-goliath) who continues throwing hands at him, sometimes even slamming the ground like it's a battle between spiderman and hulk. Yet this time, spiderman isn't joking.

Xue Tie wants to try to summon more chains or something to bind Shade again but he finds that the very area around them is being corrupted in the dark purple color. Waves of energy shimmer outwards from the battle area which dyes the rest of the region in this color as well but lighter.

With a pale face from the hopelessness of the situation. He disengages from the battle to process what he could do. Xue Tie realizes that he can't afford to delay his own actions anymore and instead internally focuses his attention, channeling his mental energy to revive his original death abilities. The comprehension of powers is fueled by his imagination until his outward appearance, be it mental or physical, is surrounded by black flames. He recognizes that his powers originated from the samsara river but through his imagination.

He commands death itself to be inflicted upon the corruption bound to it. The mental region shakes as the area around Xue Tie is freed from the purple aura and is instead tainted pitch black.

Xue Tie's first order of business is to kill his fear and trauma. That doesnt mean he forgot this feeling or the memory of it but it no longer binds him to its rules. He then manifests the flames to begin burning the very land around them. The shell of reincarnation that makes up the mental area they are in. it is but a false apparition that is within Xue Tie's mindscape. The very same pitch black land that Xue Tie had talked to Mohg multiple times in.

The black flames spread out like tree roots throughout the land, spreading the death to the corruption and rivers mental area. Shadliath once again smacks Miquella away and then charges at Xue Tie, realizing the threat that Xue Tie's actions are committing. By destroying the region. Shade and the river would lose the advantage of mental power and all the corruption would be limited to his own body and whatever part of Xue Tie's mind he was able to corrupt during his chained moment. Yet he still doesnt want to lose the minor advantage he holds in this area.

Shade lunges his foot at Xue Tie who calmly sidesteps the foot before waving his hand and slicing off the foot, causing Shadliath to fall over, almost doing the splits before using his hands to spin in place and try kicking out with his other foot while the first regenerates. Xue Tie simply ducks the foot before infusing himself with black flames and taking on his martial spirit fusion state of giant Mohg. Except it's his body and face, effectively turning himself into a giant, far larger than Shades' body.

Xue Tie punches him in the face which knocks Shade a few feet away, he doesnt follow up as most of his focus is on breaking the space first. Currently, 50% of the area has been burned by his black flames. Shade growls in annoyance as the room lights up except where it's been burned. The light turns into beams that flow into Shades' body. He grows even bigger and in perfect health again. Yet now, The trio of Xue Tie, SHITAN (shade + titan + shit)[1], and Miquella who has been spending his time fighting off the corruption that touched him whenever he was in contact with Shade. Once Shade had turned his attention to Xue Tie, he had been gathering energy for a major attack which is unleashed now in the form of Elden Stars[2].

Now back in Xue Tie's own mind region, he finds the black clouds around him had from the very beginning been the corruption serving as an illusion of the death flame itself. This is likely due to the long time together with Shade. Until he first entered when he unlocked his nihil in the first place. He was not aware of how to even enter this place. The consistency only increased after the first fight against the Food Gods vessels as he got to slowly comprehend his bloodline and unlock Death many years later.

Faced with his entire mind being corrupted, he sets it a blaze once more even if he injuries himself. He takes the drastic action and unleashes his death energy into a signature form. Summoning a black flame trident in his hands, he thrusts up.

"NIHIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" His body explodes with Black flames which smother the entire shrouded space. Xue Tie's body in the physical world coughs up blood as his mental powers are greatly weakened due to the self-inflicted wound. But in doing so, he has cleansed his mind of the chaos and corruption from the river of reincarnation. Shitan has not been able to do much as he evades the Elden Stars or tries to smash Miquella into paste. The corruption affected his mind too much, turning him beast-like, which is why he further lost the advantage from not targeting Xue Tie as he cleared the corruption.

Xue Tie falls to his knees from the pain coursing through him as well as his original personality from his old world. Regaining his sense of self which slowly heals the damage done to his mind. Luckily Miquella is playing around with Shitan, dodging all his attacks whilst unleashing various incantations or sorceries to strike out at Shitan. It appears as if this actually does little against Shitan due to the corruptive force being ever more so concentrated within Shitans body.

Xue Tie takes half an hour to recover as Miquella has been leading Shitan on a merry goosechase. Granted time inside here might not be flowing at the same time as the outside world. At most one minute has passed on the outside.

Xue Tie in this mental half hour has been gathering his might before he finally yells out.

"I EXPEL YOU. BEGONE FROM HERE SHADE", He roars as he sends out waves of black flames which both inflict a but on Shade before a second wave opens a rift that sucks Shade out…Miquella follows with a nod of his head to Xue Tie before heading through it as well. Xue Tie suffered another small mental injury due to the rift but it quickly heals from the quality of his original soul fragment finally merging back into his body.

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[1]: You can read this as Citan (a type of 'god' figure from 40k warhammer.

[2]: Essentially an orb that floats towards the target while releasing hundreds of other orbs that accelerate to the same target. It's used by the final boss of Elden Ring, the Elden Beast.

As payment for my foolishness un not posting the previous chapter, I shall try to give the next chapter tomorrow. It might be thr lower end of words as a result

If there was more than one person in my discord channel. They could have called me out for being an idiot. So here is the invite code again for the server.

ShUhBQVN.

It's valid for a week.