Record of Ragnarok: Ouroboros

Chapter 20: We Are

The dragon sinks its teeth into the demon king's flesh

I can still feel their agony and suffering lingering on my skin.

Yu Huang stood over the crimson blood pool. The air was thick with the smell of blood. His hands trembled slightly, clenched at his sides, and he spoke softly.

"So much death...so much loss...was it all worth it?" His voice trembled, not with fear but with the crushing burden of choices made and lives shattered.

"In the end, who am I?" He paused.

An emperor that forsook his status.

Yu Huang raised his head as countless corpses slowly disintegrated into black dust in front of the emperor, closing his eyes shut.

Now my subjects rend every last of my soul.

Yu Huang then opened his eyes, exposing dual pupils in each jade-green eye. Black, dense tendrils shaped like bone-revealing torn arms began to creep up on the god's back, slowly reaching upward until they covered his head, face, and eyes.

I am the Jade Emperor.

[Valhalla Arena - Current Time]

Heimdall jumped into the air with his Gjallarhorn raised high. "Yu Huang has completely catapulted Nobunaga into the wall of China itself!" The Watchman gave a short and triumphant shout. The emperor took a deep breath, and smoke began coming from his fist.

"So he still has more cards up his sleeve, huh?" Chernobog said as Perun stayed silent and watched Yu Huang with a stern expression.

Zeus, Hermes, Athena, and Dionysus maintained a calm expression, while Ares had a doubtful worried one. "Fufufu~ Turns out sending out Yu Huang was a good idea after all." The council chairman chuckled.

"I apologize for doubting you, Lord Zeus," Athena muttered, hiding her face from Zeus before her father casually tapped her shoulder.

"Don't sweat the small stuff, Athena!" Zeus said before letting go of his daughter's shoulder.

Meanwhile, in the Aztec God VIP seating, the blue-haired supreme god gritted his teeth, veins popping out of his head, gripping his armchair tightly. "That fool! He should've finished this fight from the beginning instead of dragging it for too long!" Huitzilopochtli snapped.

As the other gods were rambling, the Chinese gods looked at Yu Huang with visible concern. "Is it just me or is something weird going on with lord Yu Huang...?" Xuanwu stuttered.

"No, he clearly isn't!" Erlang called out as his eyes panickedly narrowed.

The Chinese gods were the only ones to notice the emperor's unusual state. His body trembled violently like seizures, and his teeth clenched so firm that they produced sparks. His dual pupils' eyes rapidly fluctuate between dilating and returning to normal. His breathing grew erratic and increasingly audible, and, finally, his shadow twisted and morphed into a chaotic amalgamation of darkened corpses, struggling to maintain its form.

"CALM DOWN...! KEEP IT TOGETHER...!" Yu Huang muttered to himself in frustration, gripping his shadow and his own body as he steadied himself. Slowly, he regained control, his body gradually returning to its normal state.

Without warning, Wukong sprang to his feet, his face twisting with frustration as he seized Erlang by the collar. "Erlang Shen! You'd better start explaining everything, right now!" Wukong shouted in frustration.