Chapter 208: The Lord of Nightmares (2)
Once the skill was created, Akasha wasted no time in returning to the balcony where Yume and Luna waited.
He descended through the thin void wind and settled lightly onto the polished wood, the long cascade of purple and snow-white hair settling across his shoulders as the soft glow of the floating star-system projection washed over them once more.
Luna tilted her head as soon as his feet touched the balcony, her heart-shaped eyes narrowing with quiet curiosity.
"Hmm, I see you’ve changed your mind about the skill you were going to make," she remarked.
A small smile tugged at the corner of Akasha’s lips.
"Well, originally, I planned to let the two Pantheons tear each other apart under my manipulations," he said.
Before creating the skill, he had wanted something that wouldn’t just mark his targets but also control their final actions before death.
However, he realized that level of precision wouldn’t be possible until he learned more Authorities.
"Since that will take too much time, I’ll just eliminate them myself, then head out to save those two dying worlds. With any luck, Jovian will have summoned me by then."
Yume’s soft chuckle drifted from his other side, blue-streaked hair shifting as she leaned against the railing.
"Master... Do you not remember telling Jovian to give you at least a full year before the next summoning?"
Akasha paused, the earlier conversation playing vividly in his mind. A quick flicker of recognition crossed his face, and he gave a slight, almost sheepish shake of his head.
"Uhhh... well, I don’t know how that slipped my mind," he said, realizing he’d spent weeks cursing at
Jovian for taking too long with the summon, when in the end Jovian had only been following orders.
"Alright, I’ll just head out once everything here is finished, then."
As the words left him, the artifacts he always wore began to shift.
Soft light ran across his frame, and within moments the familiar pieces reformed into a long black coat that fell to his bare feet, a simple black T-shirt, and matching black pants.
The new attire settled against his luminous, brown skin with quiet finality.
He rolled his shoulders once, then cracked his neck, his red-dotted eyes flicking between the two women.
"Are you coming along for the show?" he asked, "or am I doing this solo?"
Luna’s reply carried its usual teasing warmth.
"Love... Just open the portal already."
Akasha chuckled under his breath, the sound low and relaxed. Before moving, he reached inward and triggered the newly acquired skill.
[Mark of Extinction (Divine)]
As the power settled in, he grasped its full scope—there was no real limit to how many marks he could set.
And seizing the moment, he focused on two far-off targets and branded both Lane and the Child of Consumption with a single, effortless thought.
The marks took hold instantly, without the slightest resistance.
HUMMM!
He lifted one hand and waved it through the open air, and a sleek portal of layered purple and white light shimmered into existence before them.
Without a word, he stepped through, the long black coat whispering against his bare feet.
Luna and Yume followed close, the three of them vanishing into the light in the same breath.
As they crossed, he called on one of his innate powers.
[Dreamy Protection (Divine)]
In that moment, a soft, barely noticeable veil of dream essence drifted over their bodies, and they effortlessly slipped into the realm of dreams.
Since gaining this power, Akasha no longer needed his scythe to enter the dreams of others during battles. Now, he could do it with ease, using nothing more than a simple ability.
The far side of the portal opened onto a private chamber of dark metal and polished glass.
-----
The Child of Consumption sat alone on a long, low couch, one arm draped across the backrest, the other resting loosely on his thigh.
His gaze was fixed on the wide viewport in front of him, watching the distant sphere of Kalpa grow steadily larger against the black void.
His voice drifted out into the empty room, low and almost conversational, yet carrying a quiet, simmering edge.
"The Supreme God, he should know I won’t be simply testing that barrier..." he murmured, eyes never leaving the approaching world.
He kicked one heel lightly against the base of the couch, repeating every few seconds.
A small, crooked smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he continued speaking to the empty room, as though the silence itself were a playmate that refused to answer.
"What I really want is the guy who’s been wrecking my ships one after another."
His eyes narrowed, a sudden spark of intensity flashing within them.
"I want to look him in the eye when I tear him apart, to see the moment he realizes all his clever little tricks were for nothing."
He suddenly leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and pressed his palms against the cool glass of the viewport.
For a moment, he just gazed at the expanding world of Kalpa.
"Five months...," he whispered to the distant planet, voice soft and almost petulant.
"In five months... I will have your head!"
----
Near the fading glow of the closing portal, Akasha, Luna, and Yume stood quietly for a long moment, simply watching.
Luna’s heart-shaped eyes glimmered with slow, playful amusement as she leaned a little closer to Akasha.
"Well, looks like in five months..." she drawled, amused by the rambling nonsense of the Child of Consumption, "he’s going to have your head!"
Yume’s voice came cool and steady, her blue-streaked hair swaying gently as she tilted her head.
"Pfft, I honestly can’t make sense of some people. He doesn’t even know what you look like," she said with a laugh, "and yet he’s talking about taking your head."
Akasha’s red-specked eyes stayed locked on the figure seated before him, a faint, almost lazy smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. This expression held both curiosity and quiet finality.
"I don’t get it either, my Yume," he murmured, "but whatever the case... let’s just finish this."
In that moment, Akasha took a single step... and in that moment he appeared directly behind the Child of Consumption.
While he moved within the Dreams of beings... there was no need for any affinity activations or anything else... as it was all imaginary.
In fact, he could kill someone with a single thought from their dreams if they were vastly weaker than him.
And... Akasha never intended to make this a lengthy process...
No, he wanted them gone... as simple as that.
The moment he appeared, the long black coat settled around him as he stood there, close enough that the other being’s breathing was audible.
In one motion, he swung his arm as if it was a blade itself... but the Dreamer’s Scythe materialized into his hand mid-swing.
SHKKKKKKKK!!!!!
TTHUDDDDD!!!!!
The moment the scythe touched the Child of Consumption, it sliced through flesh, bone, and spirit in one impossibly clean motion.
His head slipped from his shoulders without the slightest resistance, as a dark spray of blood spilled out slowly, lingering in the air for a heartbeat before drifting downward.
The severed head rolled forward, striking the polished floor with a dull, almost anticlimactic sound.
For a fraction of a second the body remained seated upright on the couch, as though it had not yet realized it was dead.
Then the shoulders slumped, and the headless form collapsed sideways in a heavy, graceless sprawl.
Akasha stood behind the corpse, scythe still held loosely in one hand, the long black coat settling once more around his bare feet.
Drip! Drip! Drip!
The chamber had fallen into a sudden, ringing silence broken only by the soft sound of blood hitting the floor.