HPDBC Chapter 348: Supreme
Chapter 348: Supreme
"I wonder what she left..." Lorem looked over Asura’s shoulder, curious, while Helliana snorted with a huff. "We should throw it away! Peh... good riddance."
Asura leaned down and lifted the book. On the cover was a picture of a male standing with both arms crossed.
’What a peculiar book... no title, just the word ’Supreme.’ I can’t help but wonder what it signifies.’ Asura mused. He turned to the first page, only to be confronted by a series of intricate symbols, a language he somehow recognised as that of the deities.
How is this possible?’ Asura’s head throbbed, a dull ache forming as he attempted to decipher the enigmatic text.
"Ouch..." Asura frowned, rubbing his temples. "I get the feeling reading this might kill me." He dropped the book onto the table and slumped into the chair behind him. "So, where were we?"
"Asura... you’re bleeding!" Lorem’s concerned voice sounded as she pressed a cloth to his nose that flooded with fresh blood.
"S-Strange... I felt lightheaded, but now my nose is bleeding."
"Please, don’t read that strange book if it makes you sick. I don’t want you to die!" Helliana added, her hands gently massaging his shoulders.
"Die? Why would I die from reading?" Asura picked the book up, running his fingers along the binding, tracing the stitching. He then entered a strange state of focus. The first page he observed before seemed to contain information about the second phase of the Monolith project. How did he understand this? It was thanks to devouring the soul of that elderly phoenix before he destroyed the monoliths.
"The monoliths were born in the void, nurtured by chaos and blood..."
Asura’s monotone voice echoed. Each word seemed to cause the air to vibrate, as his skin showed various patterns and black runes. These runes were being written into his flesh and bones by the monoliths as he continued to speak of what he read on the first page. "The gods wanted to use the power of the monoliths they found—however, they failed...
Their bodies and spirits couldn’t fuse with the monoliths. No matter how hard they tried..."
Drip!
Drip!
He experienced a heavy nosebleed, leaving Lorem astonished by the words he uttered, which were not familiar but a strange gibberish that she and Helliana, thanks to being connected to the monoliths and Asura deeply, struggled to comprehend. The words caused great pain in their heads.
Though they didn’t suffer a nosebleed or other damage, they started understanding more about the monoliths that Asura mentioned.
Helliana snapped out of her shock first, dabbing Asura’s other nostril with the bloody towel.
"A group obsessed with the monoliths formed; their leader, the deity of a sun, tried to fuse his body with the monoliths. However, he failed. His body shattered and his spirit fractured; in desperation, that group formed a religion named the Cult of the Divine Sun, and they desired to bring back their beloved deity and make the monoliths bow down to his power."
Asura’s eyes turned black; his flesh was almost full of strange runes and patterns as if there was still some kind of defence mechanism inside the monoliths.
"Asura... please stop...!" Lorem tried to help him, her hands stroking his cheeks while Helliana gripped his hand and placed it on her chest, hoping it would awaken him... but they failed.
She knew of only one other that carried a single phoenix wing... The woman beside Asura, Helliana.
"I can only pray that she and Asura do not meet..."
With one final look at Asura’s face, she disappeared into the air, leaving behind her black pipe.
Asura felt a strange sense of weight pressing down on his soul. He realised this was a dream, but the huge towering monoliths all surrounded him, their aura vibrating, and it felt as if they were alive...
’Alive? These monoliths aren’t alive but sentient...’ Asura wanted to speak these words, but he could not move his lips or do anything. He could only observe and learn...
[Incubating suitable host confirmed. Beginning procedure...] A monotonous voice echoed around Asura, sending waves of nausea into his mind as he experienced the changes...
’What is this?!’
"C-Can you hear me?" Lorem’s voice echoed in his dream. It felt like she might be trying to wake him up, but Asura held on to the dream. He felt something important was happening.
[Monolith Phase 2 Fully synchronised- The Supreme Project has begun...]
Asura observed his skin changing, black marks and runes covering his entire body, forcing him to absorb large quantities of energy to nourish himself, an act that drew his soul close to the monoliths in this dream.
However, before he could touch that thin veil that stopped him from understanding everything, his body flew in the air, and he woke up with two beautiful faces looking at him with concern.
"You’re awake!"
"Asura, you were suffocating in your sleep!"
"Don’t you ever do that again! If you try to read that book again, I will... I will stop having sex with you!" Lorem shouted in a huff, her cheeks puffed out.
"No, no... I didn’t read it. I don’t want to die just yet, you know?" Asura tried to calm Lorem down. "This... this happened because I broke through to the next stage, and it caused a backlash..." He then snapped his fingertips to create a ball of black fire that seemed more stable than ever but with almost triple the explosive power compared to before. "See, I am fine?"
"..."
"..."
Lorem took the book and hid it inside her item storage, "I will keep this safe for now... Okay?"
"Sure... that’s fine with me."
However, the two didn’t realise, even if they took away that book... Another copy, with all the hidden information, remained inside his mind already and lay on the throne beside the Devouring monolith in his spirit palace.