R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 42 (Patreon)

R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 42 (in-editing-v2)

(I’ve decided that the first 90% of this chapter, and all of the two previous ones, will be moved to the end of Volume 4 in the final release. However, given that I’ve already released the two previous ones, I decided I’ll release this one as it is too!)

(the final release will have some edits to have the placement make sense, but will contain the same core info)

As Micheal’s duel with Constantine’s Clone ended and he was teleported away in a bright flash of light, his thoughts drifted for a few brief moments.

He found himself thinking about a topic he had shoved to the side ever since he returned.

About Titled Deities.

Micheal’s short term plans all centered around countering the Vile King’s disastrous actions. This had been his major priority, to prop up humanity using knowledge of the future.

His long term plans, however, centered around the existence of Titled Deities.

They were creatures that possessed irrational, illogical powers that far surpassed that of any other being… and they were the creatures that caused the downfall of humanity.

In truth, in the eyes of the Deities, Micheal was fairly certain humanity was merely a footnote. By the time Humanity’s Last Army was formed, various groups of Deities had broken up into factions that warred with one another, each led by their own Titled Deity.

It should have been an opportune time for the human race to stage a comeback… but by that point, humanity’s forces had already been crippled.

In the end, the Deity that wiped them out wasn’t even a Titled Deity.

‘General Kelleth.’ Micheal vividly recalled the name of the Morian General that had brought about his death.

‘He was someone who possessed God-tier Ki.’ Most Deities called their Inner Energy ‘Divine Energy’ or ‘Divine Power’ or various other terms, but functionally the energy acted just like the Ki humanity was able to cultivate thanks to the Shop. All Deities were born with Lord-Tier Ki, but training past that level was exceptionally difficult.

God-Tier Ki was the highest evolution of energy a being could possess. Achieving it required a tremendous amount of training, willpower, and self-control. Even Micheal, in his first life, had only managed to evolve his Ki to the King-Tier, the third highest level, beneath both God-Tier and Emperor-Tier.

‘He was renowned as the strongest Deity without a Title.’ Very few beings were capable of achieving God-Tier Ki.

‘I’m sure there was no warrior among the Deities as dedicated to training as him…’ Micheal mused, weighing what he knew about the Morian General.

‘But training alone isn’t enough to get a Title.’ If that had been the case, there would’ve been hundreds of Titled Deities.

‘Titled Deities aren’t strong because of something like powerful Ki or highly evolved Physiques…’ Micheal’s thoughts went on,

‘They’re monsters because their powers are irrational.’

Titled Deities were creatures that warped reality, breaking the very laws that melded the universe together. Their power came from their sheer, illogical abilities that broke all of the rules.

Micheal’s eyes twitched as certain names jumped to the forefront of his mind...

The names of the 5 Titled Deities that ruined humanity.

‘Navir.’

Title: The Master of Nirvana.

He was an insane Titled Deity who did whatever he pleased, hunted down by his own Deific race, the Angels. It was humanity’s eternal misfortune to encounter him on the 6th Layer.

It was Navir who killed the Nirvana Saint, destroyed the Purgatory Church, wiped out the fractured Knights of the Round Table, and decimated the Moorim Association and the Alliance of Saints.

Humanity never killed Navir. He moved on to the 7th Layer of his own volition.

‘Sion Swordsoul.’

Title: The Infinite Edge

Sion was a Titled Deity obsessed with the idea of ultimate power. He was a Toren, a member of the Tribe of Deities that had Ascended from the Ancient World thousands of years ago, what was now humanity’s 2nd Layer.

Humanity first encountered him on the 5th Layer. After Sion found out that humanity passed through the Ancient World to reach the 5th Layer, Sion took it upon himself to personally challenge every strong human he could find to a duel.

Dark Void estimated that more than half of the top 100 strongest humans died to Sion on the 5th Layer, permanently sabotaging humanity’s chances of survival.

Humanity never killed Sion. He moved on to the 7th Layer of his own volition.

‘Bosmond Jingleton.’

Title: The Jester of Fate

A secretive Titled Deity with a deceptive name and Title.

Bosmond was a master manipulator who took pleasure in tormenting the weak, while hiding in the shadows. Dark Void later estimated that Bosmond had a hand in roughly 95% of the battles that broke out on the 5th Layer, whether they be clashes between humanity and other races, Deities and other races, or a mix in-between.

Humanity only found out about Bosmond’s existence in Micheal’s final year in the first timeline. Bosmond had been a member of the Aerdu Tribe of Deities, the same group of Deities that were annihilated by the Vile King in a secret, one-night war.

Bosmond seemingly vanished into thin air that night. It was only a few weeks after this incident that the Vile King ceased all activities, his influence upon humanity vanishing as if it had never been.

‘Ashroth.’

Title: The Immortal

A nigh-unkillable monster that had lived for 80,000 years, Ashroth was a casually cruel Titled Deity that cared nothing for the lives of others, including his own people, The Yil. He was a Deity that attacked entire races all by himself simply because he was bored.

While exact statistics were never known, Dark Void estimated that 90% of the First Wave humans that had charged up the Layers were killed by Ashroth, through the countless incursions he wrought out of boredom.

Ashroth eventually vanished on the 6th Layer. Dark Void later concluded that he was killed by the Titled Deity Navir, but the exact manner and method of Ashroth's demise remained a mystery. 

‘Jay sol Arget.’

Title: The Unbound

A curious Titled Deity humanity knew very little about, but one that caused untold damage.

Jay sol Arget was an Endwalker, a member of a peculiar Tribe of Deities that existed in the ‘background’ of reality, beings that were said to be nearly impossible to consciously notice. It was said that an Endwalker could stand in the middle of a road, in front of an army of attentive scouts, and go unseen, an eerie existence that inspired fear and horror.

Humanity knew very little else about Endwalkers because the Endwalkers and humanity should have only crossed paths on the 7th Layer, which the human race died immediately upon reaching.

Even members of the 12 Tribes of Deities could only travel up the Layers.

No one could travel down them…

No one except for Jay sol Arget, as it turned out.

This particular Titled Deity was the only known creature to descend from a higher Layer to a lower Layer. He descended all the way from the final 7th Layer down to humanity’s 3rd Layer, a process that left the Titled Deity crippled.

All that, Dark Void claimed, to assassinate a single human:

Aaron Bartram: The White Knight, Founder of the Knights of the Round Table, one of humanity’s strongest and most cohesive organizations, even after it fractured with his death.

Researchers from Dark Void discovered the corpse of this Titled Deity on the Third Layer during the Tenth Wave and managed to sift through enough bits of the Endwalker’s memory to discover two startling facts.

The first, that this was the corpse of a Titled Deity, sent waves through the secretive de-centralized research society. The second fact was even more startling: this corpse was a being that possessed knowledge of the future.

Visions pulled from the Endwalker’s memories showed a future in which Aaron Bartram, the White Knight, fought and killed Jay sol Arget, this same Titled Deity, on the 7th Layer.

A future where Aaron Bartram had gained a new nickname:

Humanity’s Strongest.

A future Jay sol Arget traveled down the Layers to erase.

‘…’

‘...bastards, all of them.’

Micheal’s heart fluttered with emotions as memories of these Titled Deities washed over him.

These were not the only Titled Deities that humanity encountered, but these five in particular were the ones that caused the most serious, and the most horrific, damage to humanity.

They were the targets that he absolutely had to eliminate, at all costs.

Micheal’s vision slowly began to recover. He felt a warm, comfortable energy begin to flow through his body, refreshing both his mind and his Soul.

Constantine Lancaster was a foe he couldn’t ignore… but after killing the Vile King’s Clone, Micheal took a moment to reflect and remind himself of the bigger picture.

Constantine was only a small part of a much, much bigger problem.

Abruptly, the light surrounding Micheal vanished and the space around him solidified.

Without a whit of hesitation in his heart, Micheal gathered his focus and took a deep breath, preparing himself to meet with a being that had once fought alone against an entire Tribe of Deities.

It was finally time.

Micheal opened his eyes and found himself standing in a small, mostly empty gray room that stood about a dozen meters wide. At the center of this room was a small wooden table with two chairs placed on either side, the only features present in this otherwise dismal space.

Blood pounded in Micheal’s ears as he stared at the dark, shadowy figure resting on one of those two chairs. Feelings of excitement, worry, and curiosity filled him as he began to tense up, his mind racing. 

Sitting before him was an aged, elderly Dark Wraith whose very existence itself seemed to distort the world around him. 

Micheal recognized the figure instantly.

Tallanoran. 

The Soul King.

A Master of Time.

Before Micheal could say or do anything, the elderly Dark Wraith looked up from the table and turned to face Micheal.

And then… he began to smile. 

“It’s about time you arrived.” The Soul King gazed at him with a twinkle in his eye, saying words that brought Micheal to an abrupt, frozen halt, 

“I’ve been waiting for you across two timelines.”

.