The Land of Chaos was not any known star region within the cosmos. It was a primordial, unknown, and miraculous place, the placental membrane of chaos itself, where Apsu had dwelt before the universe was ever born.
There were no stars here, no light or darkness, not even stable concepts of time and space. Only endless, churning currents of primordial chaos energy surged through the void.
They bore bizarre colors and took unstable forms, sometimes coalescing into all-devouring vortices, sometimes condensing into crystals pregnant with terrifying power, and sometimes dispersing into absolute nothingness.
This was the placental membrane of the cosmos, the ruins left over from the moment of creation, and the resting place chosen by the Absolute God Apsu for his slumber.
His aura pervaded the region, making it all the more dangerous and unpredictable. Ordinary deities who lacked special means or guidance would, upon setting foot here, be easily assimilated and broken down, becoming a part of the chaos itself.
Axis and Athena advanced through the chaos with ease, their bodies wrapped in the radiant glow of their own divine power. Axis's Origin Cosmo was like a miniature cosmic singularity, constantly being born and destroyed, repelling the chaos energies that drew near or absorbing and transforming them. Athena spread out a golden barrier of divine power, warding off the chaotic currents.
"The chaotic currents here are truly terrifying. Within the Divine Passage, without divine blood, or being a god oneself, one's body would be torn to pieces in an instant.
"Here, any slightly weaker Tertiary or Secondary God would be shredded the moment they entered. Even a Primary God could only hold out for a short while.
"Only Primordial Gods like us can come and go freely. No wonder he chose to slumber in this place," Athena said with admiration after observing her surroundings.
The Divine Passage was absolutely forbidden to mortals, but was not this place equally forbidden to the gods?
"How pitiful. He created the universe, yet was driven out by the children he birthed, gravely wounded and on the verge of death, able only to cling to life in this place," Axis said in a calm tone, yet with a trace of cold resolve. "But it is precisely because of this that I have my chance."
"He is truly formidable. He found himself a remarkably safe place to sleep. But his wounds are grave. If nothing unexpected occurs, he should never wake again. I can take this opportunity to kill him once and for all," Axis said.
This was an opportunity that came very rarely. Here, Axis would utterly slay the Absolute God Apsu.
"I can only support you in spirit, Axis. The life force of an Absolute God is exceedingly powerful. Although they can be defeated by Primordial Gods, they cannot truly be killed, not even in a weakened state," Athena said from beside him.
She knew Axis possessed a very special power, the ability to seize an enemy's strength after killing them. Axis intended to use this technique to take Apsu's power for his own.
But killing an Absolute God was no simple matter. Otherwise, the Primordial Gods born of this cosmos long ago would have done so themselves. In those days, all they had managed was to drive Apsu out.
After being banished for 13.8 billion years, Apsu had returned to the universe he created, only to be gravely wounded once more and cast into absolute slumber, the kind from which one would never wake. He could only passively wield the power of an Absolute God in defense, but his conscious mind would never stir again.
"Rest assured. I have absolute certainty in killing him and taking all of his divine power," Axis said, his expression brimming with confidence.
The other Primordial Gods had no means of dealing with Apsu, but he was not counted among them. Apsu's power was indeed formidable, but by relying on ki and the energy of a God of Destruction, Axis could slay him.
After being strengthened by his Divine Cosmo, Axis's power had grown beyond imagination. Empowered by the Cosmo, his God of Destruction energy could unleash far greater might than before.
He could easily kill an Absolute God, without needing to borrow even Pegasus's power. This was why he had dared to ally with Kairos.
"Axis, be careful. Even in slumber, his instinctive defenses..." Athena warned, her staff gripped tightly, her golden Cosmo gathering, ready to lend support at any moment.
She was now a Primordial God herself, and she could be of some help to Axis. At the very least, she could channel a portion of her divine power to reinforce him.
"It is of no consequence. Before true 'destruction energy,' all defenses are futile," Axis said, drawing a deep breath. Within him, the Origin Divine Cosmo that fused the powers of multiple cosmic systems began to burn with unprecedented ferocity.
The deep violet energy of the God of Destruction no longer existed in isolation. It had melded perfectly with the burning of Axis's Divine Cosmo, becoming the manifestation of its core rule of annihilation.
The gold-red divine power provided the vast reservoir of energy. The emerald green life ki maintained the steady output and ultimate control. The most primal of all, the chaotic starlight, governed over everything.
His eyes had completely transformed into two violently exploding, ever birthing and dying micro cosmic singularities.
The God of Destruction Sword hummed endlessly in his hand. The violet radiance flowing across its blade had become extremely restrained, yet it gave off an aura of annihilation that made even Athena, a Primordial God, feel a tremor in her heart.
"Chaos Absolute God Apsu, your life shall come to its end, and your power shall serve me," Axis slowly raised his divine sword, its tip pointed toward the dark core of the Absolute God.
The deep violet energy of destruction, empowered by the Divine Cosmo, plunged straight into the body of the Absolute God.
Hummmm!
That body of absolute darkness instinctively sensed the ultimate threat. Even though his consciousness slumbered, the instinctive defense mechanism of a creator god was fully triggered.
A barrier of absolute darkness, ten billion times more profound than the surrounding blackness, appeared in an instant. Across its surface drifted the shadowy phantoms of countless shattered galaxies and wailing gods and demons, the final shield forged from the resentment and despair born at the cosmos's dawn. It could devour and assimilate all forms of energy and rule-based attacks.
However, Axis's God of Destruction energy was not just a form of energy. It was destruction itself. It had already become a power of law.
The power of the Absolute God was indeed formidable, but the instinctive counter-defense held no effect.
"How lamentable. Chaos God Apsu, had you been in your prime, you might have made a worthy opponent. But now, you cannot even rouse yourself awake.
"Meet your end in eternal slumber," Axis gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands. Violet God of Destruction force blazed across his body, and he forced the God of Destruction Sword down toward Apsu's heart.
Tssshh!
A sound so faint it was nearly imperceptible rose up.
That barrier of absolute darkness, which was said to devour all things and cut off all laws, was, the moment it touched that thin violet line, pierced easily and silently, as if it were ice and snow burned by a red-hot iron. A small hole had been eaten clean through it!
The barrier shuddered violently, attempting to repair itself, but the violet destructive energy lingering at the breach stubbornly prevented any possibility of healing!
The thin violet line passed through the barrier without the slightest obstruction and struck directly at the core of Apsu's dark body!
"Aughhhhh! Ahhh!"
A terrifying roar, one that could not be heard by the ears yet echoed directly in the deepest part of Axis's and Athena's souls, a roar filled with endless pain, fury, and astonishment, suddenly erupted.
Apsu's slumbering and damaged consciousness was violently stimulated by the lethal agony, briefly rousing a sliver of awareness. He sought to evade the fate of death bearing down upon him.
As an Absolute God of Chaos who had created an entire universe, Apsu still possessed some means of preserving his life. But such power might work against a Primordial God, but against an existence of Axis's caliber, it would not do.
Those great eyes, formed purely of nothingness, snapped open in the darkness. They were filled with fury, bewilderment, and a trace of unbelievable fear.
He had felt it! That power! The power that could truly and utterly kill him!
He frantically mustered what remained of his strength. The chaotic sea around them seethed, transforming into billions of dark tendrils that swept toward Axis, carrying forces capable of extinguishing stars and corrupting laws.
The rules throughout the Land of Chaos grew wildly violent, trying to crush the intruder. But this upheaval stirred up by the Chaos God meant nothing to Axis and Athena.
This power could slay every deity below Primordial rank, but against a Primordial God it was utterly useless.
"A dying struggle! Accept your fate, Apsu," Axis snorted coldly, not moving a muscle.
The Origin Cosmo burning around him suddenly expanded, forming an ever-growing field of destruction. The dark tendrils, which could easily tear apart a Main God, slammed into the field and were instantly ground up, decomposed, and absorbed by the destructive energy cycling within, becoming nourishment for the field instead.
And the thin violet line that had buried itself within Apsu's body was only now revealing its true, horrifying might.
It was like the deadliest virus, multiplying and destroying frantically within its host. Destroy. Chaos God Apsu.
Apsu's divine body, composed of the purest darkness, began to collapse and annihilate from within, visibly to the naked eye. Vast swathes of the dark divine form dissipated like weathered sand sculptures, returning to true nothingness.
He was being annihilated directly by Axis's God of Destruction energy.
The soul-roar Apsu let out was filled with pain and unwillingness. That sliver of newly roused consciousness struggled madly, attempting to reassemble his divine body and summon the deeper powers of creation to resist.
But it was useless!
Under the urging of Axis's Divine Cosmo, the God of Destruction energy displayed an absolute destructiveness that surpassed the rules of its original universe. It destroyed not only matter and energy, but the very "concept" of Apsu's existence itself!
"No... impossible... how dare you? You dare!"
Broken and horror-stricken soul-pulses drifted out. It was Apsu's final protest and question.
On the brink of death, this Chaos God who had slumbered so long finally awakened. But at this moment, there was nothing he could do to change his fate.
Axis's face was expressionless. The violet light of the God of Destruction Sword flared even more brightly, and an even more majestic surge of destructive energy roared down the thin line and into Apsu's body!
"Be destroyed, Apsu. You have no chance. Face reality."
Boom. A conceptual roar echoed. Apsu's physical form was wholly seized by Axis's power, the violet energy slowly enveloping the shell of the Dark God.
Apsu's massive dark divine body froze on the spot, then, like a sheet of black paper set alight, utterly transformed from within into countless black motes of light dancing through the air, which then faded entirely, as if they had never been.
The suffocating absolute pressure, the dark aura that had filled the chaos, vanished in an instant.
Apsu, Absolute God and one of the creators of the universe, had, in his slumber, been utterly slain by Axis through absolute power.
The entire process had seemed long, but in truth it had unfolded in a flash. Athena, standing to the side, had not even found the chance to lend aid before the battle was already over. She stared blankly at that empty, lifeless region, her red lips slightly parted, her peerless face filled with shock and disbelief.
An Absolute God... had been slain in an instant just like that?
"I curse you, outsider. I curse you. You shall be killed." In the final moment, Axis seemed to hear a voice.
But what did the curse of a dying god matter to Axis?
Apsu's divine power had indeed formed a curse of sorts, but it was utterly powerless before Axis's divine power. Axis had already begun to absorb the power of the Dark God.
Athena, standing beside him, wore a look of astonished delight. She had not imagined that Axis would succeed so smoothly.
Though it had been in Apsu's weakest, most slumbering moment, the feat was still beyond belief. What level had Axis's power truly reached?
In the instant Apsu was fully annihilated, a boundless, utterly pure divine power, steeped in the dual essences of creation and nothingness, surged forth like a river breaking its banks, freed from its bonds, about to scatter into the chaos.
"Mazahs!"
He growled low, his eyes flashing with a soul-shaking light. The mysterious force that originated from the DC universe was unleashed!
A formless, massive vortex of runes took shape above his head, radiating a terrifying pull.
The terrifying dark divine power, the chaotic divine power, that had been about to scatter, was drawn wildly into Axis's body, like rivers flowing into the sea.
"Urghhhhh!"
Even with Axis's current half-step Absolute God body and soul, the sudden influx of such an immense and supreme power forced him to grit out a muffled groan of pain.
His divine body felt as though it were about to burst. The skin beneath the Sacred Cloth cracked inch by inch, exposing the divine blood within, through which chaotic starlight and violet destructive energy flowed. Yet his eyes were filled with wild excitement and fervor.
"If I cannot even subdue this power, then how am I to become an Absolute God?"
His Divine Cosmo began to turn at an unprecedented speed, operating like the most efficient of furnaces, forcibly suppressing, ordering, and fusing this newly acquired power of an Absolute God.
Athena kept watch nervously at his side. She could feel a world-shaking transformation taking place within him. His aura was climbing at a terrifying rate, drawing ever closer to some critical threshold.
But there was nothing she could do. She could only silently bless Axis, hoping he would safely assimilate the Absolute God's power.
In that moment, time itself seemed to lose meaning. Axis's power appeared to transcend all else, forming an absolute chaotic domain that ceaselessly drew in divine force.
Within this chaotic domain, Axis's body gradually formed into a massive violet eggshell. Black chaotic energy and violet destructive energy twined together.
They collided, then were absorbed by Axis, whose divine power grew at a terrifying rate.
Though he had already reached the realm of a half-step Absolute God, only now, while truly absorbing the power of an Absolute God, did Axis realize just how outrageous his attempt had been.
If the power of an Absolute God could be rated at ten, his half-step Absolute God power amounted to only about two. Nonetheless, relying on the terrifying Saiyan physical body and the newly acquired Sacred Cloth, Axis gritted his teeth and endured, using the energy of destruction to continuously help digest and absorb this power of an Absolute God.
At last...
Hummm!!!
A brand-new majesty, towering above all things, as if the very will of the cosmos itself, erupted outward from within Axis!
His fractured body healed in an instant. His Sacred Cloth evolved of its own accord, becoming more archaic and profound. The patterns of chaotic starry nebulae across its surface seemed to come alive, truly containing a vision of a multiverse in endless evolution! The God of Destruction Sword in his hand was also wrapped in a shroud of eternal shadow, its might redoubled.
He slowly opened his eyes. His left eye was a creative light where galaxies were ceaselessly being born. His right eye was the absolute darkness where all things returned to silence in their final end!
Creation and destruction, light and darkness, had achieved a perfect unity and balance within Axis.
In that moment, he had succeeded in taking and fusing the full divine power of the Absolute God Apsu. He had crossed the final barrier. The very tier of his being had undergone complete transformation, and he had ascended to the supreme realm.
Absolute God! The absolute pinnacle of the universe tier.
He had even touched the boundary of the multiverse realm. For Axis's power could now create one universe, then a second, and a third.
And when the number of single universes grew large enough, they would converge into a multiverse, elevating Axis's power to a still higher level.
"Wonderful. You have done it... Axis." Athena murmured, gazing at Axis, whose aura had grown vast beyond measure, profound, and unfathomable. Her heart was filled with shock and joy.
Axis sensed the mighty force coursing endlessly within him. With a single thought, he could open up a galaxy, or return a universe to nothingness. A satisfied smile curled at the corners of his mouth.
The realm of an Absolute God! In this moment, the Absolute God Axis had descended.
Only after fully grasping the power of an Absolute God did Axis understand how wretchedly Apsu had been defeated, how outrageously he had fallen.
Having just created this universe, Apsu had exhausted vast reserves of energy, only to be defeated by the Primordial Gods that were newly born within the cosmos.
After finally finding his way back to his own universe, he had been defeated once more upon his return, by a nameless upstart, and in the end slain by Axis's own hand.