The One Above The Heavens Chapter 17 (Patreon)

The rest of the day after I killed Angra Mainyu was basically passed through in a stupor after I got back home...

In fact, the moment I got home. I promptly picked up Sakura and Rin without a hint of shame and dragged them into bed to take a nap with me.

I literally just killed a flesh and blood god that wasn't a heretic god so I was beyond caring about anything as I quickly fell asleep after feeling Athena's presence fading away.

"Muooh! Youuuu! You big idiot! You literally were just here a few days ago! And I don't even have any authority to give to you!?" I heard Mommy dearest Pandora scream as she gently slapped my chest as my head rested in her soft lap.

I just smiled as my eyes cleared up to see the pouting face of my adoptive mother above me. "Love you too mother dearest... Actually, I have no idea why I am here seeing as I knew you wouldn't have any authority to give to me." 

There was a pause before Pandora's pout turned introspective and then she frowned as she looked outwards past myself and the deep all-consuming mist that surrounded us that kept Pandora safe from the other gods and entities that hated her for making Campione.

The mist rippled and I sat up with my power flaring outwards as I pulled Pandora behind me with the goddess's hand grabbing my robe.

But... Nothing came through the mist.

"Uhm, it was Alaya. She sent me a message even if she couldn't truly find me." Pandora spoke unsurely and I frowned hearing that.

As just because I was attached to the Human Order of the world, I wasn't allied with Alaya, and in truth as a Campione, I lived under the possible guillotine of her summoning a wave of heroic spirits and calling upon the Grands of the classes of Heroic Spirits to gank me when my desire of dominion outstretched her allowance.

I exhaled and spoke slowly. "What does she want?" I asked.

There was a pause as I turned and Pandora and I both by unspoken agreement kneeled down to sit across from the other before she took a deep breath and with confusion in her eyes she spoke. 

"Jake... She says that due to your actions in killing Angra Mainyu as a Campione and causing great damage to the leylines unveiling the world to magic, and causing a host of many... Issues she telepathically sent a message to me." 

She visibly chewed on her thoughts before she spoke. "She had a demand of a favor to ask in order to smooth over the hate Gaea had for you for basically burning some of her veins under her skin with your attack."

I chewed on my inner cheek at hearing that... As obviously it was my fault for going above and beyond in summoning the true Heavens of Celestial Myth with the original ten suns with the nine Yi shot down remaining still in my grasp.

Unveiling the magical world to the world at large was always going to put me at odds with the world at large when I planned to take over the world in the magical sense. So the question was.

Do I bother to keep on Alaya's good side? 

But... However, I really wanted to remain on Gaea's good side. Having the planet I lived on actively pissed off at you sounded like a good way to have 'random' bolts of lightning and tiny meteors slamming into me at all hours of the day.

"What favor did she want of me?" I asked curiously.

Pandora gave a slight hum before she answered frankly. "Alaya wants you to act as one of her Counter Guardian's basically. She wants you to go to a technologically advanced world... And utterly destroy the mega-corporations in a grand display to push them back."

I tilted my head to the side and said slowly. "Wait... First of all, how do I get back? And secondly like she just wants me to slaughter a bunch of normal people without magic?" 

There was a pause before Pandora said bluntly. "I will send you back to your bed so don't worry, and there will be time dilation between parallel worlds. But... Yeah, they are literally killing the world and within another couple of decades humans won't be able to breathe the air without filters."

That left me thinking about my choices then.

For one. I wasn't agaisnt doing what needed to be done in this case. If I needed to suppress a bunch of civilian mortals from literally killing their entire planet... Well, that fucking sucks for the people killing the planet and working for such psychopaths.

On the other side... Alaya was also doing me a favor in soothing over Gaea who was pissed at me for slamming a miniature sun onto her skin basically and giving her a second-degree burn.

So after a minute I nodded and said. "Alright, I am willing to do this favor. How long can I expect to be gone?" I asked curiously.

Pandora gave me a small smile and after a moment she said bluntly. "That depends on you, you just need to cull the native population through extreme violence. Gaea has all but already given up on the world so there literally aren't any leylines for you to hurt, just bleach the vast majority of the surface of the world and kill a couple of billions and you could be back in a couple of hours at most."

The casual way she spoke of killing billions of people was fucking scary but seeing my troubled expression Pandora gently cupped my cheeks with her soft hands and spoke softly.

"My son... That world is doomed to be pruned by Gaea and Alaya if you don't deal with it as the world no longer has any magic at all basically. Everyone in that world is going to die either in a couple of decades at most and their attempts at making a  moon colony won't save them at all."

I slowly nodded while I hardened my heart to do what I needed to do as an emperor. "Very well. Send me on my way then." 

Pandora smiled with her looking past me with my head snapping to look behind me as I spun around to see a swirling kaleidoscope of light that was obviously a portal.

'Is the Second True Magic also involved? Or is that just something to do with parallel world travel?' I mused before I took a breath and gave Pandora a nod before I strode into the portal without fear.

As if I couldn't trust Pandora my adoptive mother who gave me so much power, then who the hell else could I trust? 

My thoughts were correct as naught but moments after falling into the swirling pool of infinite lights that led to countless infinite parallel worlds I was firmly ejected from the portal with myself coming to a stop in the middle of the air as I used my magic.

But the moment I used my magic I frowned... As I could feel it, I could feel the complete and utter lack of magic in the air which meant that regenerating my own magical energy would be a bit slower.

"Now where... Oh that's where I am." I mused with a chuckle as I realized all too quickly where I was actually.

My mind automatically translated all the Japanese neon lights along with allowing me to read the signs that were still in English and it only took me a moment to catch the Arasaka signs everywhere including massive holographic displays that shot themselves into the sky.

I had been sent to a parallel version of Earth, and technically Cyberpunk 2077 was quite literally just another alternate timeline/parallel future of Earth that it could take.

I flew into the air as I stretched out my magical power as I took in the massive Arasaka tower that towered hundreds of floors into the air of Tokyo Japan.

'I wonder where I am in the timeline? Am I at Edgerunner's point, or am I at the game's point of Cyberpunk 2077.' I mused before I stared at the tower and decided to be as fucking blunt as possible.

Filling my lungs with my mana I spoke in a voice all the souls of Tokyo would hear as though I was standing directly beside them. Which I knew would freak out a lot of them thinking I had hacked into their implants or something.

But I wanted to give them at least some form of a warning as although I was going to leave... A fuck load of bodies. I didn't want a bunch of truly innocent blood on my hands.

"I am the Jade Emperor... I am flying in front of the Arasaka Tower currently. All the people of Tokyo are to bar their windows and hid in cover. I am removing all the megacorporations in this world due to their destruction of the planet with you having three minutes to secure yourself and others."

I folded my legs underneath myself as I covered myself in a powerful barrier in case some assholes decided to shoot missiles, railguns, or otherwise take potshots at me to say nothing of what Arasaka had in store.

The city picked up in volume as many people looked up in the massive city square I was flying within and likewise, they saw me on the countless cameras that had been turned towards me and easily found me.

And in but moments I snorted as the crackle of gunfire wrang out. Many shots were going towards me and missing or even hitting my barrier. But many people just decided to shoot the people nearby, because they were just fucking crazy.

"Groups of humans truly are the worst." I mused with disappointment as I hoped they would get to cover but... They just wanted to shoot at me, or likewise themselves for what? Just to shoot one another for no damned reason?

But I shook my head as I looked back to the Arasaka tower and I raised an eyebrow as I saw a figure atop the massive tower and seeing the massive cyborg I snorted seeing Adam Smasher seemingly waiting for me to come land atop the tower or something.

"You are not worthy of meeting my gaze with how you have thrown aside your humanity," I spoke with my voice smashing directly into Adam Smasher's mind with him staggering as I gently flicked my wrist with my Yang sealing flying out.

"Let human arrogance be crushed," I spoke to the world and the seal flew up and then quickly grew to a size that completely eclipsed the Arasaka tower.

The world seemingly held its breath as my seal, which had grown to be more than a thousand meters wide and three thousand meters tall slowly fell down at the direction of my wrist and I watched coldly as Adam Smasher threw himself off the top of the Arasaka tower at seeing the massive seal coming down onto the tower.

A cataclysmic rumbling noise rang out as my divine seal smashed through the building that had been built to withstand a nuclear bomb. The massive seal crushed the tower under its great weight and the very city rumbled as tons of materials were smashed into the ground.

A couple of sharp booms rang out and I blinked as large cannon rounds basically bounced off my barrier and my gaze tracked back to their direction and I saw Adam Smasher was using one mechanical hand to control his fall down the Arasaka tower while his other hand held a massive cannon of an assault rifle that was shooting the highest caliber rounds I had ever seen.

That wasn't from an old warship anyway.

Honestly, it was just kinda sad with how his munitions, missiles and the hundreds of other people shooting at me could do absolutely nothing to me.

Ten seconds later a bone-deep rumble rang out as my massive seal slammed into the ground level and then continued to push down shattering the many sublevels below the massive tower.

'Tens of thousands dead with just that attack.' I mused before looking over at the other surrounding towers of Tokyo.

I really didn't want to be a complete sociopath and kill literally everyone so I waved my hand with my flying sword flying out with a scream of displaced air and a loud crashing noise rang out as my flying sword bloomed with my mana and qi to extend its blade length greatly.

With the crashing noise being the noise as my flying sword parted through the surrounding high rise towers surrounding me with the massive buildings siding down to fall down with a mighty crashing noise as the building being cut in half at an angle made the top half of the towers fall into the city below.

And although many... Many people were going to die from me doing that, but it wouldn't be the 100 percent death rate that Arasaka Tower received.

But as I did my grisly duty I could feel a gaze upon myself and I knew with a grimace that it was the feeling of Alaya and Gaea's gaze upon myself.

'The personifications of the planet and humanity itself are watching... And cheering me on, you all truly went too far with your harvesting of the world for resources.' I thought with a slight sigh as my Flying Sword zipped out and it flared with power as large beams were sent flying to tear up the surrounding area.

I just needed to be quick at this point... No need to make anyone suffer if I could just obliterate them so they couldn't feel an instant of pain.

A couple of minutes later I exhaled and gaze up into the smoke and debris-filled sky as I spoke to the Alaya and Gaea. "Is one city of millions dead enough?"

And I choked with my body feeling crushed as an alien mind countless times bigger than myself invaded my mind with a blunt sentence filling my mind with eldritch knowledge even as my eyes and nose bled at the weight of the mind of Gaea. 

"N̵o̸,̶ ̸a̶t̶ ̶l̸e̴a̴s̸t̸ ̶t̴e̷n̷ ̶t̸i̶m̶e̴s̶ ̶t̷h̴a̵t̷ ̵n̶u̷m̷b̷e̷r̶ ̷m̸u̷s̸t̶ ̷d̸i̵e̸ ̸t̵o̸ ̸b̶r̷i̴n̶g̷ ̷b̶a̶l̷a̷n̴c̶e̸ ̴t̷o̷ ̷t̸h̸i̷s̴ ̶d̴y̸i̵n̶g̸ ̴w̵o̴r̵l̵d̸.̷"

'They really want me to cull back this population...' I thought with my heart sinking before I hardened it. I had already gotten my hands bloody and if I was to be a ruler of any sort I would have a lot more blood on my hands.

I had already started my massacre... I just needed to man up and finish it.

My gaze turned towards the south and I rode on my Flying Sword to Kyoto.

-

"What the actual fuck is going on..." A voice filled with horror spoke as Rebecca watched in stunned silence along with the rest of the crew as the walking apocalypse that was the Jade Emperor slowly flew away after ignoring small yield nuclear weapons, hyper-advanced laser weapons, and the entire Chinese army after he cut the Kang Tao headquarters in half and then used a spell to make all of Beijing erupt like a volcano.

"This isn't fake... There are too many different streamers, too many edge runners, too many damn near impregnable news companies reporting on this for it to be a stunt." Kiwi spoke coldly before she turned to the leader of the group in Main and spoke.

"Maine, the monster is just cutting down the mega corporations and when he is done with China's mega corporations he is likely to come straight for Night City. We got to get out of the city and into the badlands." 

Maine the eight-foot-tall giant slowly nod as he watched with his jaw clenching at the sight of a monster in human grabbing a missile out of the air only to use it as a javelin to throw it into the tank making it explode.

"There is literally nothing we can do in the face of that... Devil King." Maine spoke and he shivered as the name Devil King came through his mind with supernatural ease. The label seemingly fits the casually apocalyptic figure perfectly.

And then a drone flew up to the figure and Kiwi quickly switched over the channel as the drone actually managed to get a response from the figure.

[This is Byorgson of Sweden's Green Earth News. Why are you doing these actions Jade Emperor!? Why are you killing so many people?]

The figure actually stopped before dragging a hand down his face as though the weight of the tens of millions was something he could wipe out of his mind with a hand movement.

And everyone stilled as the Devil King, the Campione's voice filled their ears with his charisma of a literal divine entity overwhelming their mind and soul. [The planet itself is dying. And the world will not recover in the slightest until I destroy the mega-corporations that have enslaved the world. To say nothing of how Arasaka thinks they had defeated death with how they have made their engram consciousness program. You all will not escape your fates though.]

The form seemingly grew larger as he spoke again. [But do not give up... Do your best to slay me, I am the Jade Emperor, the heavens that have come to punish you foolish mortals for overstepping your bounds and I lead humanity back to the right path. Humanity will survive my deeds do not worry about extinction.]

The speaker on the other end of the drone after a moment of silence managed to choke out seeing as the Jade Emperor was about to fly away. [Couldn't you lead humanity slower without the indiscriminate death? Not destroy everything we spent decades building!?]

The Jade Emperor stilled before he looked back to the drone and his words made the world grieve for the future lost souls as he said coldly. [Noah's flood never taught humanity... Why would a more gentle culling work this time? No this has to be a quick bloody affair where you watch the world you all worked so hard to destroy crumble a full century back in time.]