SHK CH 651: Karma Severing (Patreon)

The hunt ended, the night receded, and a new day graced the world as the sun rose over the horizon.

In a memorial park that was being built and engraved with the names of all the people who died during the last war, Sol was sitting with his true body and throwing seeds under the wind for doves and pigeons to feast on.

The citizens had been mostly undisturbed despite the events from the night prior and now Sol could watch as the people of Lustburg went on with their days. Some families came to the monument with flowers and tears. Some people came with bitterness and resentment. A few widows came holding their children or with their growing bellies, filled with a new life.

It was a bitter reminder, a sight that no amount of statistics could perfectly convey.

War was sad. War torn families apart. Forever separating them. War only truly profited the rulers most of the time, while the commoners would only face the consequences and pain of war.

I am sorry.

Sol apologized inwardly. His eyes left the people mingling around as he gazed at the eager pigeons, who seemed to be a little too fat. This was the first true War, Lustburg went in after eighteen years. But it would not be the last.

Sol needed to conquer the world and even the entire universe to accomplish his selfish ambition. For this, many people would have to die. Even more innocent would suffer.

All he could do, to alleviate their suffering, was become stronger fast so that fewer people ever had to suffer such a fate.

“Sol…”

The pigeons ignored the intruder, all too content in gorging themselves on the delicious food this strange individual was bringing them.

Sol, meanwhile, smiled at the purple-haired woman. Lilith was as beautiful as always.

“Take a seat and feed them with me. It’s quite calming.” Lilith eyed the small bag of seeds. She could feel Sol's energy in them and wondered why he was wasting his power feeding pigeons.

But she did not refuse the seat offered and sat next to him on the bench, the pigeons then ignored Sol and flocked toward her as she started spreading the heavenly food.

“Traitors.” Sol chuckled, finding the way they immediately ditched him to be quite amusing.

Like this, the two stayed silent, Sol simply looking at the sky and Lilith looking at the pigeons. She did feel more appeased.

“What is happening?” She asked, confused.

“I infused this whole place with my power. In a way, you could say that this is a small holy ground.” Sol answered simply. He has been conducting many experiments to obtain better control of his power. [The World] has proven to be extremely valuable and the more his mastery increased, the more control he had over his dimension. Another thing worthy of note was that the goddesses were truly unable to detect his divinity.

Clearly, the Concept of Balance was at a higher level than ones related to emotions, such as the Seven Sins and Virtues. As long as he didn’t do things too overtly, he had nothing to fear.

“Well, I suppose you didn’t come here to chat about my new toys. Any questions?” Sol was in a very good mood.

“About yesterday. What happened?”

“Everything got handled quite fast. Milia’s new division was very effective and with Isis as a backup, those guys had no way of escaping even in death.” He laughed. Isis was very handy to have around.

Sol could have inverted their emotions, but there was nothing sure about this power. If they did not hate him in the first place, they wouldn’t start loving him?

“At the end of the day, the majority we caught were nothing but small shrimps. Sacrificial pawns were sent to die in exchange for any information they could glean. But we get a relatively bigger catch. Dwarves from Greed Dike.”

“Oh? What do you plan to do?” Lilith asked, but Sol shrugged, “Initially I hoped those guys would have some information about smiting or something that could help Theresa. Theresa is limited by her ability to multitask. No matter how fast her mind moves, she only has one body after all.”

“No luck?”

“No luck indeed. Isis did find a few interesting thoughts but nothing particularly useful for us.” Learning that the Prince of Greed Dike wanted to kill Theresa was one thing, but it was not very useful, nor would it negatively affect anything.

“I could use it as leverage. Affect Greed Dike even if only slightly, but that is nothing but a waste of time. I am not inclined to play more games with them at the moment.” He snorted dismissively.

Lilith was pretty sure that only Sol could look down so thoroughly on an entire Kingdom. But she had to admit that he had the capital to do so.

“Still, I know you. You are not the kind of man to take such a thing lying down.” Lilith grinned and Sol returned it.

He certainly was not. Selfish and vindictive were his middle names.

“I debated holding on. But if we hold on too much, people will start thinking we are some easy target. Furthermore, it will appear suspicious. So, I asked Theresa if there was anyone she wanted dead, and she gave me a list.”

A list appeared in his hand, naming more than dozens of nobles and businessmen. Many of them were part of Greed Dike councils and some of them were people who tried to steal from Theresa or have her eliminated, while a few others were linked to Wings of Freedom and funded some of their activity.

Lilith was quite intrigued by this list and remembered that Theresa was also quite the vindictive woman.

“So now what? Are you going to send the Crown’s Shadow? It would take a few days.” She was curious about what he would do about this.

“No need to. I can simply kill them from here.” His voice was calm as he said such chilling words.

“... What?” So shocking they were that Lilith took a second to properly register what he had just said.

“Karma is a funny thing, you see. It links us all. Some way or another. Some links are very fragile, while others are pretty sturdy. Well, at the end of the day, it matters not. In the Mortal Realm. All those below the Demigod realm are ants compared to me.”

His eyes changed. For a brief instant, the sky blue color was replaced by a rainbow hue.

<<Divine Weapon: Eye of Akasha.>>

If Isis or Camelia were present, they would have witnessed the slumbering giant that was Sol’s soul opening all its eyes simultaneously.

The world Sol looked at was now at a higher dimension. One where time and space were completely meaningless.

Below him was the river of time rushing without stopping and nourishing the large Tree of endless possibility. Meanwhile, all around him were Karma’s threads. Golden lines link him to all individuals in the world.

The amount of information rushing at his mind at the moment was mind-blowing, and if he had tried this before becoming a king, he would have only lasted a few seconds before drowning. But now, all this amounted to was nothing but a slight headache.

In this dimension, there was no Sol. Only a giant covered in a thousand eyes with a crown on his head.

The eyes moved, observing and ignoring the threads he had no care for. Simply holding one of those threads would give him all the information about a mortal. From the moment of their birth until the present moment and even the different futures that could affect them.

This was for all intent and purpose a power that entered Divine Territory.

The giant was not worried. Slowly, but surely, he found all the Threads he was searching for. The links were flimsy, but it was more than enough for him.

Gathering all those threads in one hand, a scissor appearing in another, the giant muttered.

Be proud. You are the first victims of this power.

[Boundaries of Life and Death: Karma Severing]

 One snip was all it took for dozens of people to die thousands of kilometers away from Sol.

***

Back in the real world, Lilith shivered, her eyes became filled with terror. As a near demigod with a concept related to Severing, she was more sensitive to power affecting Karma.

Yet, her mind was unable to completely grasp just what happened.

“What just happened?” She asked with difficulty.

Sol, appearing a little more tired, sighed, “Nothing but a paltry trick. This was a power I used against Nihil during the Astral War. At the moment, I can only kill Duke's realm and can severely affect all King realms in the Mortal Realm. It’s harder to affect Divine beasts or those related to gods.”

Sol waved his hand nonchalantly and stood up. He did not find such a feat to be particularly incredible. Powerful King could still partially resist this power, and there was nothing impressive about Killing Duke.

“Remember. In the future, our enemies will be demigods and even gods. You need to change your perspective.”

He laughed and took Lilith by the hand, prompting her to follow him in his stride.

“Enough about such trifles. Now, it’s time for us to go on a date and for you to honor your promise.”

Having fun with Lilith was far more important than a bunch of dwarves. As for that prince, he would make sure to kill him later.

A smiling Sol and a bewildered Lilith thus started a new day together.