30: Chapter 30 Slaying the God of Corpses and Plundering the Plague God's Office
Time had lost all meaning.
The sickening sound of corrosion on the battlefield had long since faded into utter silence.
The once sky-blotting abyssal poison mist, having fulfilled its purpose, dissipated into faint wisps of purple smoke that slowly settled, ultimately merging completely with the repeatedly ravaged earth of this divine domain.
Stillness.
Absolute stillness.
The entire world held no sound save for the howling wind, still carrying the scent of blood and decay.
The battle had lasted a mere ten minutes.
Ten minutes. For a war between deities, it wasn't even enough time for a probing charge.
But here, it represented the end of a deity and the entire undead civilization he had forged.
Not a single intact skeleton could be found of that once-unrivaled undead army, one that could have trampled ordinary low-tier divine kingdoms.
They had been utterly reduced to pools of foul, black ichor, bubbling their last as they slowly seeped into the soil, nourishing the earth of Su Chen's divine domain.
This was their final value.
At the center of the divine domain, upon the scorched earth repeatedly pierced by spines and deeply plowed by poison mist...
The divine body of the God of Corrupt Corpses lay in a shape beyond recognition.
One of his divine arms had been ripped clean off. The stump bled not blood, but only a grayish, dissipating radiance of divinity.
A horrifying, massive wound pierced his chest. A broken bone spear, belonging to some colossal Zerg unit, pinned him firmly to the ground.
Divine blood—that liquid imbued with law and divine power—seeped slowly from the wound, only to be greedily absorbed the instant it touched the earth.
The compound eyes of Queen of Blades Sarah, shimmering with a deep violet light, looked down upon him from above.
One of her bladed limbs, sheathed in dark green chitin, pressed heavily upon the God of Corrupt Corpses's chest. Each slight increase in pressure elicited a chorus of cracking sounds from his straining divine form.
In her hand, a blade of pure psionic energy coalesced, its edge flickering with destructive power.
Its tip was less than a finger's breadth from the God of Corrupt Corpses's brow.
The icy energy fluctuations stabbed at his very soul, making it tremble.
"Don't..."
"Don't kill me!"
His divine spark teetered on the brink of collapse after the relentless assault. Now, he could maintain not a shred of divine dignity. A distorted, hoarse syllable was squeezed from his throat.
He twisted his ruined body in panic, trying to lift his head to see the figure that held his fate.
"I surrender! I yield!"
"I'll pay reparations! I have divine power, resources I've accumulated for millennia! I'll give it all! Everything!"
His words came faster and faster, his pitch rising higher—the frantic desperation of a drowning man clutching at a final straw.
A figure descended slowly through the dissipating smoke and dust.
No wings, no divine radiance. He simply walked down the void, each step as if upon an invisible staircase—steady, carrying a suffocating pressure.
Su Chen's military boots finally landed on the scorched earth before the God of Corrupt Corpses.
Not a sound was made.
He expressionlessly lowered his gaze, looking upon this "neighbor" who had once stood so high and attempted to turn his own divine domain into a land of rot.
That gaze held no joy of victory, no thrill of vengeance, not even the slightest ripple of emotion.
Calm.
Cold.
As if appraising an object, evaluating its final, residual worth.
"My apologies."
Su Chen spoke, his voice soft yet clear as it reached the God of Corrupt Corpses's ears.
Those two words caused a faint glimmer of hope to suddenly spark within the God of Corrupt Corpses's fear-filled eyes.
He thought this was the beginning of negotiations.
However, Su Chen's next words utterly crushed that glimmer.
"The Zerg Swarm takes no prisoners."
This statement declared a cold, irrefutable racial law.
The light in the God of Corrupt Corpses's eyes froze solid.
He opened his mouth, perhaps to say more, but Su Chen gave him no chance.
"Moreover, I have my eye on your divine portfolio."
The instant those words fell, the expression on the God of Corrupt Corpses's face transformed completely from supplication and fear into boundless despair and horror.
He finally understood. From the very beginning, the other's goal was not conquest, not plundering resources.
It was devouring!
It was turning his very existence into fuel for his own ascension!
Su Chen spoke no more.
He raised his hand, fingers spread, and pressed his palm directly onto the crown of the God of Corrupt Corpses's head.
That hand was not particularly large, even somewhat slender. But to the God of Corrupt Corpses's senses, it felt like a descending firmament, one that would swallow everything.
"NO—!"
He let out one final, piercing roar. Divine power erupted with unprecedented intensity as he tried to break free from Sarah's suppression.
Yet, it was all futile.
In the center of Su Chen's palm, a miniature, impossibly deep black vortex suddenly manifested.
"Divine Art: Plunder!"
No incantation was needed. No ritual.
This was a fundamental divine art engraved upon Su Chen's very soul, one of the most overbearing and core authorities of his being as the Swarm Overlord.
"AAAAAAAGH—!"
An indescribably shrill scream rose sharply, echoing throughout the silent divine domain.
This was not physical pain, but a foundational agony born from the soul, the divine spark, the very laws being forcibly stripped, torn apart, and devoured!
The God of Corrupt Corpses's divine body convulsed violently. The divine light in his eyes dimmed at a visible pace, as if all radiance were being sucked away.
His memories, his comprehension of the laws of Plague and decay, everything that made him a deity... all were violently wrenched forth by Su Chen's overwhelmingly domineering devouring power, churned into a torrent of pure energy that surged into Su Chen's palm.
A mere three seconds.
The screaming ceased abruptly.
The God of Corrupt Corpses's massive, ruined divine body crumbled like a sand sculpture weathered by wind, dissolving into a cloud of gray motes of light that ultimately vanished without a trace.
All that remained was the broken bone spear embedded in the ground.
[Ding! Congratulations on slaying the Second-Turn Demigod 'God of Corrupt Corpses'!]
[You have obtained spoils of war: 24 strands of Divine Power.]
[You have obtained a divine portfolio Fragment: [Plague (Unclaimed)]!]
Cold system prompts appeared one by one on Su Chen's retina.
He slowly raised his hand. Floating quietly in his palm was a divine portfolio crystal the size of a fist, emitting a foul, grayish-green glow.
That ominous light seemed to contain all the rot and sickness in the world.
This was the condensed essence of a demigod's laws after their fall.
Su Chen's gaze ignored the 24 strands of pure Divine Power, fixed instead upon this divine portfolio crystal. Deep within his eyes, a massive stream of system data flickered at a staggering rate, analyzing and calculating.
[Compatibility analysis in progress...]
[divine portfolio: [Plague (Unclaimed)]]
[divine portfolio: [Virulent Toxin (Host)]]
[Analysis complete... Compatibility: 100%!]
[Fusion prediction: Absorbing this divine portfolio fragment has an extremely high probability of completing the Zerg Swarm's genetic database shortcomings, unlocking higher-tier 'Viral Transmission' and 'Biochemical Infection' genetic chains!]
"Perfect."
Su Chen uttered the two words.
The corner of his mouth finally lifted in a faint arc, one of absolute mastery.
Without hesitation, he clenched his fist, crushing the Plague divine portfolio crystal.
The crystal instantly transformed into an extremely dense, grayish-green torrent that surged madly up his arm and into his body.
A power—cold, filthy, saturated with the aura of death and sickness—exploded within his divine soul.
Yet, upon encountering the even more domineering, more primordial source of his [Virulent Toxin] divine portfolio within him, this power became as docile as a subject before its sovereign, swiftly assimilated, absorbed, and fused.
This battle...
Was not merely about eliminating a lurking, ill-intentioned threat at his flank.
Nor was it merely about reaping immense profits, elevating the Zerg Swarm's reserves to a new level.
More importantly...
Su Chen lifted his head. His gaze seemed to pierce through the crystalline walls of his divine domain, looking toward the boundless, opportunity-and-slaughter-filled World of Gods.
"The Zerg Cataclysm" would officially rise to infamy, stepping upon the corpse and divine spark of the God of Corrupt Corpses!