Chapter 427: Chapter 427: Danger Chapter 427 – Danger This time, Noah didn’t lose consciousness in the midst of the process. But not losing consciousness didn’t mean not feeling the pain that came with the fusion. It was a soul-wrenching one. And this time, it was no flowery metaphor. Noah found himself, against his own volition, groaning in deep, immense pain as his whole body was being reconstructed and altered in a new kind of way. He didn’t know yet what he had done, his actions backed by pure recklessness and confidence in his own self, but Noah was attempting to fuse within him a being at the Myriad Creators rank. But not only. The Void Lord, Noah realized amidst the process, was a clone of another being. A clone? Well, it was strange to put it that way. He was a construct, one created by someone. No, by something. It was a being Noah instinctively, with Providence screaming inside his mind like a mad-touched beast, did not dare to look too deeply into. He would be noticed. And he knew he would die. But what was sure was that the Void Lord did not have the Void Origin. Instead, a part of him was made of the Origin of Void. A fragment of the Origin. And he was not the only one. Noah realized with chilling clarity the implication, while the surrounding darkness slowly began to melt away, then was replaced by a white-silverish expanse. His body started to become stronger, and that in a mesmerizing way. It was not only his body, but his own Buntu that was getting stronger with him. After absorbing the Void Lord into him, Noah obtained the uncountable number of years the man had lived. Instead of having those memories mix with his own, Noah separated them and began to watch them like one would watch a film. He watched how the Void Lord came to be. The man was not birthed in the conventional way. No, the man was made by using a fragment of the Void Origin. With that fragment, his body was constructed to match the desire of his creator. His creator then infused his will inside the Void Lord, giving him birth. The first thing the Void Lord saw, upon fully awakening, was a moving formless darkness shaped like a gigantic, spire-like human, with eyes as uncountable as sands in a desert shrouding the whole body. Beside the unfathomable figure was an old man, chained, bleeding black blood furiously. The old man had many parts of his body missing, leaving only a remnant of who he once was. There were no eyes in his sockets, yet Noah could feel the voidness eating the inside of the old man. There was a sense of abandonment he naturally emitted that chilled even Noah’s heart. It was strange, for the old man seemed to reject everything... even his own self. The memories continued, flashing in a blur. He saw how the Void Lord began to assemble the void beasts, trying to create a sort of empire. Or simply, a coalition of void beasts. It failed miserably. The innate nature of void beasts to eat each other was stronger than anything. They were not made to live in one single community. Yet the Void Lord didn’t give up. He continued his quest with relentless effort. He began to gather void beasts in small groups of the same genre. But he didn’t stop there. He used his overwhelming control over void itself to instill deep fear inside each of them. Yet, again, fear alone would not build an empire. That was a shaky foundation to build upon, one that would lead to rebellion and intense civil war. But the Void Lord himself did not believe in that. He believed only in absolute fear. So he used the innate nature of void beasts to devour their own kin and made a simple but structured system. He used those who were disobedient or reluctant to follow his orders as food for those who were willing. One could imagine the frenzy the low-level void beasts felt, given the chance to eat beings they couldn’t even dare to look at before. Soon, small stables groups were forming. Added to that, Noah began to grasp why these void beasts were hated by the factions. These beasts had another nature: their ability to absorb the power of worlds into their bodies, destroy them, and grow stronger in the process. But that was the nicest fate a world could receive at their hands, only given by impatient void beasts. The patient ones didn’t feast. They corrupted. They corrupted worlds after worlds, making the beings inside nothing but Void-Touched, as they were called. They were slaves of void beasts, following their every whim with fanatical frenzy. The worlds they corrupted would eventually be considered Void Worlds, homes to calamitous void creatures and their enslaved populations. The worst thing about them was that a corrupted world became the world of the one who corrupted it. Not only in name, but in literal sense. The world would exist inside the void beast, making them, in some form, Worlds Bearers. Just like what Noah was. But Noah was recognized by the Universe, making it seem like he was the first to achieve such a feat. He was not. Void beasts had done so since the dawn of time. And with each passing memory, Noah began to understand how lucky he was that he had thought of his plan to kill the Void Lord. And only then did he realize that there was not only one future where he died. There were numerous futures where he was no more, but he had only seen one. "This is getting ridiculous." Noah scowled as the fusion soon approached its end. He had absorbed the authority of the Void Lord, which was a worm of void that could devour everything and give it back to its master. With that, Noah’s Absolute Authority shifted and took a shape. Now, it looked like a silverfish-small mouse with oversized ears made of threads. Its eyes were slitted and purple. With this mouse, Noah could apply his authority with the same potency as inside his Buntu. He also took the domain of the Void Lord, which was named Nullity: a domain where everything was negated except Void. Noah took that domain, transformed it into a small black cubic box. It would be a gift for Noelle, he decided. Next, there was the Void Lord’s many skills. Noah took some and discarded others. There were also bloodlines and talents, which Noah took and added inside his Elysiari bloodline. It became denser and more refined. Even the talents, Noah transformed them into bloodline-talents, then placed them inside his own bloodline. If one was lucky enough amidst his descendants, one could obtain the talent of the Void Lord. Next, Noah felt that his whole existence was elevated further, and there were three new laws he understood thanks to the fusion. He put them aside, planning to give all these understandings to his wives if they ever wished them. Noah had gained many wondrous things during the process, but he had also gained one new huge problem. But Noah acted instantly. He went into the past and grabbed the body of the Void Lord. The man was nothing but a husk, but Noah gave him back all his memories and even the fragment of void. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮 He created a fake authority with his Absolute Authority — one close enough to feel the same — and gave it to him. After that, he sent the Void Lord on his way, with a wisp of his law inside him. Noah appeared back inside the void of the universe, wiping a cold sweat on his brow. "I cannot attract that thing’s attention on me. And damn the Origin of Void, that thing will have to wait. I am too weak for that being." Noah cursed, feeling his heart racing for some unknown reason. He was sensing something bad. His senses were tingling too loudly for his taste. He closed his eyes, his mind drawling and spiraling in multiple directions... ’How come such a being exists inside the universe. Wait...’ Noah halted his thoughts for a moment. ’Did that being even exist inside the universe? It couldn’t be. That thing was too alien. Hell, all the void beasts are too alien.’ ’They are eating this universe at a very slow but steady pace. Every world they corrupted became rejected by the universe, yet the universe had no choice but to bear it inside of it.’ That meant... if they corrupted enough of the universe, they could have enough authority to impose whatever they wanted. ’And there was also the fact that that Being wanted the Void Lord to gather the void beasts into one single force. As if...’ Noah halted his jumbling thoughts again, understanding whispering inside his mind. He cursed. "This is getting ridiculous." He opened back his eyes, feeling a headache. Now, more than ever, Noah needed the strength of the Origins and the submission of the numerous factions. If even these beasts of madness were banding together, then they could not afford to remain scattered and warring against each other. He had stopped a Void Lord, but goddamn it! "There are multiple other Void Lords, each one holding inside a fragment of the Origin of Void." Again, Noah cursed. He sighed next, face sour. "The quest for the Origin of Void is impossible for now." Noah said, voice honeyed by bubbling irritation, "We can only—!" The words sank back into Noah’s throat. He frowned, raised his head overhead, feeling someone trying to enter inside his Buntu by force. His frown deepened, forming a chasm between his eyebrows, before his eyes dilated, and he coughed, blood spraying. That being succeeded in forcing a way into his Buntu. His eyes widened even more when he recognized who that being was. "Am... am I fucking dreaming?" Noah wondered in a daze before opening a passage toward his Buntu right away, heart at his throat. —End of Chapter 427—