Chapter 1011: Primal

The Primal was slightly chubby, but his momentum didn't suffer from that. He was incredibly fast and didn't hesitate to show that.

Eliminating the Volcano God had been a rather simple task, but it didn't seem like the Primal came for the Volcano God in the first place. Still, organizing the cosmos was one of the things the Primal did. The Volcano God intervened in the lives of the mortals by eliminating an entire planetary system with his cut-open Divinity.

Maybe Michael could survive this...somehow.

"You are that kid with Fenrir's Curse?" The Primal asked, his azure hide-like skin around his lips stretching far. The Primal had azure-like hide as skin, razor-sharp teeth, and large, pitch-black eyes. His arms and legs were unproportionally long and seemed to wave around wildly. It was almost like the man didn't have any control of his arms and legs.

Michael swallowed hard while continuing to fuel his body with as much Essence as he and his God Curses needed to unleash his full power. He tried to access Slipstream to escape if necessary but quickly noticed how the fissure in the fabric of space and reality blocked all major space jumps. He could still use Slipstream but only jump a few hundred kilometers at a time. That wasn't enough to escape the Primal.

"I have Fenrir inside me," Michael nodded slowly. Even if the Primal were a bit slow, he would be able to sense the three Divinities radiating from him. It didn't take a genius to do so.

"You look different than expected. To think the Will choose a Hyuman to give Fenrir to after so many Hyumans have been annoying, destroying the Origin Expanse left and right. I wonder what makes you special," The Primal said, only to shrug, "Actually, I don't really care. I know about your powers, the God Curses, and the second heart in your chest. Even the Pure Aether radiating faintly from you is known to me. You cannot hide the Pure Aether with those merged Divinity Domains. Well, you tried, so that's that."

The Primal looked at Michael intently, ready to say more, but its lips remained shut. Michael's lips parted and closed a few times, but he was unsure if whatever he was going to say would kill him. "Are you going to kill me?" Michael asked at last. He could have avoided the topic and try to stall more time to prepare for the inevitable, however, Michael wasn't sure if that was possible in the first place. The God Curses were already doing their utmost to help him with their Divinities, and Michael was unsure how much stronger he could get without unleashing the full force of dead planets and countless tons of Void Ingots at once.

"Do you want me to kill you?" The Primal retorted.

"Not really, I would much rather survive-...." As the words escaped his lips, the Primal did something. His pitch-black eyes glowed faintly, and a stream of unknown Essence gushed out of them.

Michael pushed to the side a quarter of a second before the Essence reached him, but their velocity was incredibly high, forcing Michael and the God Curses to retaliate. They unleashed streams of their Essences as well while activating the Power and Death Authority.

Unfortunately, Michael's Essences were crushed easily. The Primal's Essence flood swamped the space and reached Michael, whose body reacted similarly to the Volcano God's.

His chest burst apart alongside his arms and legs.

A wave of pain flooded Michael, who reacted instinctively with Unlimited Enhancement applied to River of Vigor. The supreme healing serum, alongside the enhanced Soultrait, healed Michael rapidly, but regrowing four limbs and a good portion of his upper body wouldn't be completed within a second or two. It would take a little longer.

"You survived that? Looks like the Beast Gods pushed you above the threshold of the average Minor God. That's interesting, given you're only an 8th Tier Awakened. I think we can deduce that you are not yet a full-fledged God but that the rankings of the Origin Expanse's Awakened do not apply to you anymore. Very interesting." The Primal said lightheartedly.

Michael cursed inwardly and tried retaliating. He conjured spears with Emperor Qi but focused on applying the Death Authority and the purest Essences of the Wolf Divinity to them. At last, Michael hurled them at the Primal with the Power Authority, pushing their velocity to another level.

The Primal smiled nonchalantly at the sight unfolding before him and waved his hand. A wall of Essence formed before him, blocking the Emperor Qi spears easily. Michael was annoyed, but the Primal's actions were interesting.

'He is cautious. If the projectiles wouldn't be able to harm him, the Primal would have never used an Essence barrier!' [He knows what Fenrir can do. Isn't that the one who captured you, Fenrir?] Hel asked, but Fenrir merely growled. The Beast God wasn't in the mood to respond. He was in fury, which transferred to Michael, whose eyes narrowed to tiny slits.

If the Primal standing before them was the same who defeated and captured Fenrir, that would be good and bad at the same time. First things first, the Primal would know Fenrir's powers like the back of his hand. He would know what Fenrir could do and could do various things to overpower Fenrir's Wolf Divinity. But, at the same time, the Primal would know Fenrir's powers. That wasn't only an advantage for the Primal.

After all, the Primal would also know what could injure him and that he had to be more careful fighting Fenrir IF there was something the Wolf Divinity could do to harm the Primal. That was the case, which was evident at the Essence barrier.

'What did you do to harm him? Can we repeat that? Even if we can't recreate the same effect, how about we make it seem like we can do it in order to fool the Primal? Since Pure Aether is good enough to injure the Primal, all we need to do is get close to the Primal and cut him a few times.'

[You make it sound so easy. The Primal are not that easy to defeat, especially not this guy. He is a nuisance and probably one of the Primal who has caught most rebelling Gods. Though he did not only catch most, but he killed those who were easy enough to kill. There was no need to bother capturing the weaker rebelling gods.] Fenrir responded.

[And no. We cannot recreate the same effect. Michael would be torn into shreds with his body.]

'That is...unfortunate...'

Michael's body was still not strong enough to endure the full power of the God Curses' Divinities. His Divinities were growing and thus also nourishing and strengthening his body, but that wasn't enough. He was still not strong enough.

'Does that mean I have to die?' Michael asked as a joke, but the God Curses didn't respond.

"You are thinking too loud. Your expressions reveal everything that's on your mind." The Primal chuckled before releasing another series of Essence. This time, it wasn't a flood but a rainstorm of Essence. A hail descended upon Michael, who accessed Slipstream instinctively to evade it.

"Oh? You have a Spatial Soultrait as well? Looks like you developed something new from Fenrir's powers. That is very interesting. To think Fenrir is capable of something like that. I don't think he could that before." The Primal surprised Michael with that, only for Fenrir to growl.

[I spent eons in the void. Of course, I was planning my revenge. Growing my powers and creating Extraction was necessary!]

'While that's interesting...how about we use my Soultraits to beat the shit out of him?' Michael suggested, but the God Curses laughed. It was a sad laugh.

[I don't want to crush your dreams, but I don't think this is how it's going to work.]