Chaos Heir

Chapter 1583: Discharges

The discharge of roots, branches, and chunks of the trunk was chaotic and uncontrollable. It was no different from a bleeding injury, except that the blood had the shape of pieces of the previous gargantuan tree.

A fraction of the immense amount of mass contained inside the King escaped him, filling a vast area behind him with its twisted shapes before losing any structural integrity. That diverse torrent quickly melted into smoke, which dispersed in the environment.

And, while that True Chaos was still vanishing, something accumulated in the King’s throat, eventually making a drop of black blood flow down his parted lips.

To make things worse, the King felt as if he couldn’t immediately recover from that injury. The True Chaos would normally fix everything in no time, but the damage Ilman had inflicted was deep and lasting, affecting the King’s very being.

The fact that the King felt no connection with the just-dispersed parts of himself proved as much. Theoretically, the environment had enough True Chaos to refill whatever he had lost. However, he found himself unable to call upon that ability.

It was as if the internal injury had made the King’s existence forget about part of its true form, like a cauterized wound that had lost the ability to regrow the missing tissue.

The damage wasn’t significant. The King could easily disregard it due to how much energy and mass his body still contained. Yet, the injury’s nature gave him insights into a type of life his status as one of the God’s sons had always made him blind to.

Suddenly, the King felt like a mortal, brittle and with an expiration date. He could bleed like anyone else, and the same went for dying.

And, despite that incredible achievement, Ilman wasn’t done just yet.

Ilman had just finished sprinting, achieving an acceleration that the King had failed to keep track of. Every law of physics said that he would have had to stop before accumulating momentum again, but his figure blurred, sending afterimages of his left arm forward.

The King didn’t let those unclear scenes scare him. He had been hit and was hurt, but his existence could still unleash much. Moreover, there had to be a limit to how much power Ilman could unleash without sprinting or other techniques, so the King planned to use that opportunity for a counterattack.

The plan was to tank the unavoidably weaker blow and respond with overwhelming force. Ilman was also in front of the King, so a successful block would leave him exposed and defenseless.

However, the unthinkable happened. Ilman’s blurred palm hit the King’s chest, and the latter experienced a piercing force far more damaging than anything that had hit him before.

A sea of roots, branches, and pieces of the trunk blew out of the King’s fluttering cape at that time. A tide so plentiful that it built hills behind the alien washed over the area, reaching as far as the previously shattered ground.

Moreover, the pain was unbearable. The Scarlet Eyes were beyond those concepts, especially the Kings, but the elderly alien felt that palm strike in his very soul. The attack had torn through his being, destabilizing all of his functions.

Instead of enduring the blow and using that opportunity for a counterattack, the King ended up exposing himself to Ilman, who didn’t hesitate to intensify his offense.

Ilman had one palm and two fingers on the King’s chest, but both his hands blurred, slightly retreating, closing into punches, and shooting forward again. The gesture had been instantaneous, and its power surpassed his previous record again.

The impact between Ilman’s knuckles and the King’s chest was soft, but a circular shockwave expanded around the latter, digging through the ground and rising through the air.

A roar also resounded through the area before what looked like a tsunami of roots and branches escaped the King’s figure, fusing with the still-dispersing previous wave of True Chaos.

The King lost access to even more of his existence, but those thoughts didn’t cross his mind. He only knew that the damage was worsening, so he summoned whatever trace of control he had to jump backward.

The alien dived into the messy and twisted waves of what his existence had discharged, unable to fuse with them to hide himself, but still preferring that chaotic environment to a confrontation with Ilman.

Besides, the chaos would hinder Ilman, too, giving the King the chance to stabilize his condition and put an end to that incessant series of increasingly stronger attacks. At least, that was what should have happened.

The retreating mass of roots and branches had immediately trapped the King in its momentum, submerging his figure into what had once belonged to his existence. He didn’t exactly know where he was going, but his speed was great, and that was enough for now.

However, the roots and branches above the King suddenly opened, creating a gap that revealed the white sky above, as well as the figure diving through it. Somehow, Ilman had caught up with that evasive maneuver, and things didn’t end there.

As soon as the King spotted Ilman, the latter disappeared, only to reappear right above the former. Ilman’s left foot was on the King’s head, releasing an invisible attack powerful enough to blow away the surrounding twisted mess.

An explosion unfolded in the middle of that retreating tide, turning a vast chunk of it into dispersing True Chaos. New, clashing waves formed, only to accelerate the loss of structural integrity of that discharged mass.

Meanwhile, the King ended up lying on the ground, surrounded by the rising and dispersing smoke of what his existence had lost. He felt hurt and weak like he had never felt in his entire life, but the situation didn’t allow him to rest and recover.

Sounds of heavy steps resounded in the area, turning the King’s elderly face to his left. Ilman was obviously there, standing nearby, but veins had littered his figure now, highlighting his tensed, stressed muscles.

Strangely enough, Ilman looked even worse off than the King, but pure and mature resolve filled his expression now as he pushed through his physical state to shoot forward once again.