Taken Horizon Origin, volume 1, Duality

Episode 17 : god of the taken horizon

***
"Why is the mana so afraid?" Staring at the open air i found myself feeling this inexplicable dread from my connection to the world around me. Almost like the eye of a predator had scared stiff all the ambient mana.

Silven and the hooded man next to him both seemed to feel the same thing as they looked off into the distance over the cracked brick wall and past the apocalyi that was frozen in fear.

Wind got sucked in bashing my hair in my face as I watched a titanic black serpent create a whirlpool all on its own. Others serpents like it soon joined in its circles creating the vortex of water but they were nowhere near as big.

"The world serpent?" The great deity, [hollow eternity], was standing right above us as we looked into the distance. looking confused and somewhat scared, "what is that leviathan doing so close to the archipelago?"

Silven's face was sweating from the fear of this hallowing presence. His friend was in a similar state with how is hand shook as he clutched the wall but i couldn't say much either. My beast soul, my instincts, everything was yelling at me to get as far away from it as possible. Except one thing

[your aspect is celebrating the development]

The giant metal behemoth known as the apocalyi that had reduced this entire city to rubble slowly turned around to watch as the whirlpool got more violent, faster, and more aggressive as the snakes circling in its waves howled.

[an immortal has uncovered their strand of divinity!]

Screens appeared in front of everyones faces and we all shared bewildered expressions to see Strife desperately trying to push through what could only be described as a typhoon from hell as winds cut and tore apart his armors scales. Peeling them off and cutting him apart as easily as slicing fruit in half.

"What in the nine hells?"

"He's getting himself killed!"

"Why's he trying to take it so forcefully!?"

the gods surrounding Arthur and his group all shouted about how what Strife was doing was tantamount to trying to tame a dragon as it razed a city.

"He doesn't know..." I heard [hollow eternity] mutter near me and he continued seeing Silven and my confusion, "strands of divinity are meant to recognize their master of their own will. What the homunculus is doing... forcing your way to become a new god has never ended well."

***

[your strand of divinity rejects you]

Crashing, cutting, and blighting my skin. Each wind blade and every gust hurt more than the last as i pushed through the storm of spitting water. Gritting my teeth to take this power for myself however I pushed through the pain.

[aspect: taker of all, goes into frenzy!]

[title: white king of taken purity, goes berserk!]

[title: black king of given corruption, howls in delirium!]

My hand reached for the glowing thread in the distance, trying to grab it but i was still so many steps away from it.

The fingers at the end of my hand got sliced off through the storming twister around me. I should of at least winced from the pain while my own blood splashed in my face but my entire body had gone numb.

[prime title: antagonist, is going crazy!]

[origin title: conqueror, charges to insanity!]

My fingers grew back along with the metallic scales that were meant to protect them and i pressed on through the storm getting thrashed by spouts of water and squalls of wind trying so desperately to halt my advance as I took another step forward.