Deus Necros

Chapter 900: Chapter 900 LETS FUGGING GOOOOOO!

"How envious I am of that regenerative power of yours." Ludwig, or Wrath’s grin grew wide enough to show fangs.

The world pulsed purple, and Sloth’s entire body shuddered.

For the first time, every wound remaining upon Ludwig healed instantly. The broken horn erupted from his forehead in a burst of crimson bone, the tear through his side vanished and his damaged shoulder snapped back into place. Even the cracks beneath his skin disappeared.

Sloth looked down at his hand. A small wound remained across one knuckle.

It did not close.

Wrath moved.

Nightbreaker swept horizontally, and Sloth dodged rather than blocking. The mace missed him by inches before Wrath reversed the swing, forcing the pale giant to duck beneath it. Sloth’s fist struck Ludwig’s horn and broke it cleanly from the skull, but a replacement grew before the severed horn finished bouncing across the ground.

Sloth’s eyes widened.

Wrath’s other hand caught his shoulder. Sloth twisted and tore the arm from its socket before Ludwig could secure his grip, sending the massive limb crashing to the ground.

Last time, the arm had crawled back.

This time, flesh exploded from Ludwig’s shoulder. Bone shot outward, muscle wrapped around it and a new arm grew from the socket almost instantly. The hand closed into a fist before the discarded limb had even settled.

Ludwig punched Sloth with the newly formed arm. His fist entered the pale giant’s ribs, collapsed the bone beneath them and opened an enormous hole through his side.

Blue blood poured from the wound.

It remained open.

Sloth stumbled backward, and Ludwig laughed. "That’s convenient."

The severed arm lying behind Wrath twitched once before dissolving into dark matter as the Living Vessel rejected the redundant flesh.

Sloth touched the hole in his body and received no restoration. "You cannot maintain this."

"I know."

"Your envy is false."

"Also true."

Ludwig did not truly covet Sloth’s regeneration. The Living Vessel could already reconstruct itself, and he felt no desire for the Usurper’s body or any deep bitterness because Sloth possessed a better one.

Baleful Equilibrium had been invoked through a momentary imbalance. The envy was borrowed and temporary, but it was enough for the Authority to recognize something Sloth possessed that Ludwig currently lacked.

It was not enough to make the theft permanent.

Both of them understood that. Sloth only needed to wait. Eventually, the stolen balance would collapse, his regeneration would return and Ludwig’s borrowed restoration would disappear. The battle would return to what it had been.

Sloth did what he did best.

He stalled.

Wrath hated that.

Nightbreaker descended, but Sloth moved aside and allowed the earth to disappear beneath the impact. Wrath pursued while the pale giant refused every direct exchange. He ducked, parried, redirected and retreated. Whenever Nightbreaker came close, Sloth surrendered ground rather than flesh he could no longer replace.

Ludwig’s laughter echoed through the devastation. "You’re really moving now. That’s so unlike sloth."

Sloth ignored him.

Wrath accelerated. A fist grazed Sloth’s shoulder and tore away a chunk of flesh that did not return. Nightbreaker followed, but Sloth caught the handle rather than the head, redirected the swing and stepped away.

Wrath rammed its forehead into him. One horn entered Sloth’s chest, forcing the pale giant to tear himself free before Ludwig could widen the wound.

"You merely delay the inevitable," Sloth said.

"That’s rich coming from you. You’re acting, Moving! It’s already breaking your own Authority."

Wrath attacked again, and Sloth blocked one fist. Bone cracked in his forearm, prompting him to abandon the block and retreat immediately.

"You cannot kill me merely because restoration has been denied."

Ludwig’s human eye narrowed. "Again, you might be right."

Purple remained within one eye while crimson consumed the other.

"But I’m not just Wrath."

A presence manifested above Ludwig. It was not visible as a crown in the ordinary sense, yet something pressed down upon reality with the weight of unquestioned authority.

Pride.

Sloth stopped.

Ludwig spoke.

"This body never misses."

The canyon shuddered as the declaration settled into the world.

"This body kills the immortals."

Silence followed. Even Wrath seemed to pause for a fraction of a second as the Authority wrapped around it.

Sloth stared at Ludwig before his expression shifted toward something close to disdain. "Foolish. You invoke Pride’s Authority against something you do not control."

Wrath charged and swung Nightbreaker. Sloth disappeared from its path, and the mace missed.

The consequence was immediate.

Wrath’s entire body spasmed. Muscles tore, one knee buckled and cracks spread through both arms as Pride punished the contradiction.

This body never misses.

It had missed.

Reality collected the debt.

Ludwig coughed blood through Wrath’s teeth while Sloth reappeared farther away.

"Your declaration destroys its own vessel."

Ludwig straightened while Wrath’s rage exploded around him. The crimson aura intensified as pain and failure gave it even more reason to destroy.

"Yeah," Ludwig said with a laugh. "That’s true."

The damaged muscles repaired beneath the regeneration stolen from Sloth.

"You know the funny part? It doesn’t backfire on me."

His human eye blinked.

"It backfires on Wrath."

Nightbreaker rose.

"I’m not Wrath."

Wrath charged again, and the mace began moving. Sloth attempted to shift aside, but this time the world refused to allow the swing to become a miss.

Nightbreaker altered by the smallest possible degree. The correction was not enough to become Ludwig directing the attack or to give Wrath a specific target. Pride merely maintained the truth it had declared.

This body never misses.

The mace struck Sloth’s arm and tore it away completely. Blue blood sprayed across the broken landscape as he retreated, but Wrath seized him by the throat before he could escape.

Sloth struck Ludwig’s wrist and broke the bone. The grip remained.

Wrath slammed him into the ground, creating another crater, then raised Nightbreaker overhead.

Sloth looked up as the mace descended toward his face.

His body dissolved.

Ludwig’s hand closed upon nothing as Sloth rematerialized hundreds of meters away. Nightbreaker struck the ground and opened an enormous crater.

The backlash struck a heartbeat later.

Wrath convulsed. One arm twisted, several ribs shattered and blood erupted from Ludwig’s mouth as Pride punished another contradiction. He nearly fell before the stolen regeneration corrected every injury.

Wrath looked toward Sloth, and its rage intensified.

Crimson aura erupted from Ludwig’s shoulders in violent waves as crystal began growing directly from his flesh. Jagged formations spread around his horns, down his arms and across his back. More erupted beneath his feet with every step.

Wrath hated missing. Pride punished every miss, and Envy repaired the punishment. The pain and failure produced by the cycle only fed Wrath further.

Kaiser stared through the mirror. "Oh, this is catastrophically stupid."

Tull looked toward him. "Isn’t it working?"

"That does not make it less stupid."

Another crystalline formation exploded from the ground beneath Ludwig’s foot. The entire region surrounding him had begun to resemble an infection spreading from Wrath’s Authority.

Ludwig marched toward Sloth with Nightbreaker dragging behind him. "You can dodge, avoid me or run for as long as you want, but eventually, you die."

Sloth watched him with his missing arm still absent. The stolen regeneration had not returned, yet his expression remained calm.

"I can continue moving beyond your reach."

His body faded and reappeared farther away.

"Wrath cannot reach what refuses confrontation."

Ludwig stopped. "Maybe, but what if I add another command?"

The smile disappeared from his face as Pride pressed upon reality once again.

Kaiser’s expression changed. He leaned toward the mirror. "No. Don’t you dare."

Ludwig spoke.

"This space is under Spatial lockdown."

The Crown of Pride answered, and reality buckled.

The ruined canyon shuddered, though the disturbance did not come from the ground. Space itself distorted.

For one impossible instant, dust stopped in midair, falling stones froze and flames ceased flickering. Even the crimson aura pouring from Wrath became rigid around his body.

Then everything resumed.

The boundary had changed.

Sloth attempted to disappear. His body blurred, only to snap back into place.

His eyes widened.

The entire region had been declared fixed, becoming a sealed moment within a locked space. Movement remained possible inside the boundary, but escape from it was not.

Sloth looked toward Ludwig. "You are wielding three Authorities."

Wrath, Envy and Pride each pressed against a different part of reality. Wrath supplied absolute destruction. Envy had stolen Sloth’s restoration, while Pride enforced Ludwig’s declarations.

Sloth’s voice deepened. "One failure will destroy you."

Ludwig smiled. "Probably."

"Envy will collapse."

Purple light flickered within Ludwig’s eye. "Eventually."

"Pride will punish every contradiction."

"Already noticed."

"Wrath will tear your vessel apart."

Crimson crystal broke through Ludwig’s shoulder. "Definitely doing that too."

Sloth stared at him. "This cannot persist."

Ludwig tilted his head. "That almost sounds like you’re hoping it won’t."

"I do not hope. It is fact."

Sloth lowered his stance while Nightbreaker rose.

"All I need to do is avoid one strike. Your reckless declarations will collapse upon itself, and your vessel will break beneath the contradiction."

Ludwig stopped. His smile slowly widened. "There."

Sloth’s expression remained still. "There is nothing."

"That thing you just said."

"It is fact."

"No." Ludwig pointed Nightbreaker toward him. "That’s hope."

"I do not require hope for an inevitable outcome."

"Oh, you really don’t understand."

Wrath leaned forward as the crimson growths around his feet continued spreading.

Ludwig’s human eye stared directly at Sloth. "I can see it. That fleeting hope of yours."

Nightbreaker lowered.

"You’re hoping I miss."

Wrath vanished, and the ground detonated behind him.

Sloth moved as his body began dissolving, but purple light flashed beneath his feet. Chains erupted from the earth, not as iron or soul shackles, but as constructs born from Envy. They snapped around Sloth’s ankles, waist and arms.

They did not need to hold him for long.

A fraction of a second would be enough.

Sloth attempted to fade, but the temporal boundary refused the escape. The chains tightened and forced his body to remain solid.

Wrath arrived with Nightbreaker raised.

Three Authorities converged upon the same moment.

Envy had denied Sloth the restoration that made destruction meaningless. Pride had declared that this body would not miss. Wrath supplied the violence necessary to make that declaration matter.

And three declarations cemented the inevitable.

This Body Never Misses.

This Body Kills the Immortal.

And This space is Under lockdown.

Sloth looked upward.

Ludwig smiled through Wrath’s mouth. "Eat shit."

Nightbreaker fell.

Sloth raised both arms, but the mace struck through them and erased the bone beneath it. The weapon continued into his head and drove him into the ground.

Everything disappeared beneath crimson.

The canyon ruptured as a crater expanded outward with Sloth at its center, swallowing stone, red crystal and everything still standing within hundreds of meters. The shock wave traveled far enough to reach Kaiser’s group and shattered the magical mirror before them.

The image vanished.

Thomas stared into the empty air. "Uh..."

No one spoke.

Within the crater, Sloth’s body had been destroyed.

Almost.

His head remained, along with part of one shoulder and a section of his ribs. Everything else had been reduced to blue blood, pulverized bone and pale flesh spread across the broken earth.

There was no regeneration.

Wrath stared down at the remains. The crimson eyes within Sloth’s severed head remained open.

Nightbreaker rose and fell.

BOOM.

The crater deepened as what remained of Sloth’s shoulder disappeared. Wrath raised the mace and struck again, shattering bone beneath another explosion.

Nightbreaker rose.

It fell.

The head cracked.

Wrath struck again and erased one crimson eye. Another impact covered Nightbreaker in blue blood, but Wrath did not stop.

There was no reason to stop. The body beneath him had once existed, and that alone was enough for it to remain offensive.

Nightbreaker continued rising and falling. Every impact produced another explosion, deepening the already ruined crater until its walls towered around Ludwig. Red crystal erupted from the impact zone, shattered beneath the next swing and grew again from the fresh destruction.

Minutes passed, but Wrath continued.

There was no longer enough of Sloth left to recognize. Only blood and debris remained beneath Nightbreaker, yet the weapon struck them anyway.

The earth shook again and again while Ludwig watched from behind his one human eye. He could no longer tell how long the beating had continued. It might have been five minutes, ten or an hour.

Wrath possessed no concept of enough.

The purple light of Envy had already begun to fade. Pride’s pressure weakened, and the temporal lockdown cracked apart. None of it mattered anymore because Sloth had stopped moving long ago.

Wrath continued smashing the place where he had been.

Again and again, Nightbreaker rose and fell.

Eventually, in the middle of another descending swing, a notification appeared.

[You have slain the Slothful Death.]

Nightbreaker stopped.

Barely.

The mace hovered inches above the bottom of the crater. For the first time since Ludwig surrendered his body, Wrath hesitated.

His human eye stared at the notification before slowly looking down at what remained beneath him.

There was almost nothing.

Ludwig exhaled through fangs and a throat built for rage.

"Yeah...I think he’s dead."

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