Chapter 864: I Am

Theron caught himself before he fell. Despite the ease with which it looked like he was climbing, he was actually putting a great amount of effort into each stride. When that pressure suddenly vanished, his state could be imagined.

Luckily, he still managed, his eyes slowly opening to the world around him.

Theron took a breath and opened his eyes, his subconscious feeling like something had changed.

‘Huh?’

Theron reached out for Ayame as though she were slipping through his fingers. But his efforts were in vain.

She vanished.

“Ayame?!”

Theron took a strong step forward, but he wasn’t even sure in which direction to go.

He could see the entire flat top of the mountain with a single glance. He had no idea where Ayame could have gone.

Was she dead? What happened?

Anxiety beat at Theron’s chest, and he could do nothing but stand there and watch as strands of darkness rose up and touched a stone monument in the distance.

Was that Ayame? Theron wasn’t even sure anymore. What was happening?

The line of darkness rose into the skies, and when it reached the top of the stone monument Theron wasn’t in any mood to read, it sliced down.

One line after another was carefully carved into it.

And then, the darkness began to work its way down.

Theron finally seemed to notice that the stone monument was filled with names, and now Ayame, or what was left of her, was cutting them down.

Each name had a line stricken right through it. And every time this happened, the mountain trembled.

Once, then twice, then thrice… the action was repeated with an endless monotony.

The number of names on the stone monument was unfathomable; even Theron couldn’t get a good feel for just how many there were. Yet, Ayame seemed to be doing her best to diligently cross off each one.

That was when Theron saw it. Or, rather, sensed it.

He had been so distracted by Ayame that he hadn’t even noticed that his soul seemed to have recovered on the walk up the mountain. He had even less time to consider how that could be possible when he saw the strands returning to the world.

Theron blinked, confusion tugging at his heart as he subconsciously took out the Karmic Needle and Thread.

‘It is… it’s Karma. Karma returning to the world? Why?’

With every name that was crossed off, another large upswell of Karma bled out and vanished into the skies.

‘That name…’

Theron’s gaze flickered as he looked at the name at the very top.

“Ryu… Tatsuya…”

The name felt heavy on his tongue, as though he wasn’t allowed to say it. But he managed to nonetheless, his confusion only increasing.

He had never felt such a powerful name before. Even when he spoke out Voidwrought, it had never affected him as much as this.

‘What the hell is going on…’

Theron wasn’t one to be confused very often, but he did not have a single clue what was going on.

And also, if Ayame was crossing off names, why did she skip that one?

It was the one name Theron could read because it was the only one Ayame hadn’t stricken down.

‘Can she not do it? Or does she not want to do it?’

“Ryu… Tatsuya…”

Theron spoke the words again, and they once more left a bad taste in his mouth. He didn’t know why he disliked this name so much.

It felt like every time he said the name, he sensed a little bit more of the meaning behind it. And every time he did, he sensed that this man stood for too many things he didn’t like.

It was like he relished the carnage of the cultivation world, embraced it in a way Theron never could.

Theron’s frown deepened, and he stood there in a daze.

“Ryu… Tatsuya…”

His hand subconsciously landed on his father’s short sword, his palm gripping its hilt tighter and tighter.

“Ryu… Tatsuya…”

SHIIIIIIIIING.

Theron slowly pulled his short sword free. Every inch felt like he was fighting against a mountain, waves of pressure he hadn’t been able to sense before flooding toward him.

His bones creaked, and his femurs almost instantly fractured. His knees ground against themselves, his arms feeling as though stars had been hidden within his elbows and palms.

But he kept moving.

As blood poured down his nostrils and ears, down from his eyes and out of his mouth, he kept unsheathing.

“Ryu… Tatsuya…”

The name weighed heavier and heavier. It was becoming more difficult to speak, harder to even think about. It was like his soul itself was being split apart.

“Ryu… Tatsuya…”

A gaze. A pair of silver eyes that looked over the world, transcending time and space itself.

Suddenly, Theron couldn’t see at all. Even these eyes, he didn’t see them. He felt them, experienced them, witnessed them, basked in their presence.

He didn’t have the right to look at them. They were above him in every sense of the word, every sense of the meaning.

“Ryu… Tatsuya…”

Theron’s grip tightened, and then tightened again.

He grit his teeth, blood seeping out between them as he continued to pull on his blade.

50%… 60%… 70%…

It was just a short sword, and yet it was taking Theron everything he had to pull it from its sheath, every fiber of his being.

“Ryu… Tatsuya…”

“I am…” A voice boomed in Theron’s head. “… the Sky above the Sky… the Dao above the Dao… the Heavens above the Heavens…

“I am… Omniscient… Omnipotent… Omnipresent.

“All-powerful and Eternal…

“I will have a name that resounds above All, looming like a dome above Existence…”

Theron’s eardrums burst, his brain churning as though it were being minced.

“I will be the Mountain Peak you all chase for the rest of your lives…

“I am…”

Theron’s gritted teeth separated beneath the echoes of the booming voice, and this time, he spoke.

“Ryu Tatsuya.”

His voice wasn’t filled with pride, though.

It was filled with unbridled rage.

The howl of his sword echoed as he finally pulled it all the way out and slashed with all his might, a sword light that cut the world in two ringing across the stars.