Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 496: Ba & Ka

Chapter 496: Ba & Ka

Due to the ways of Cultivation, Dasha Pang could not simply manifest a prosthetic made of Qi. Cultivation permanently changed the inner workings of Qi manipulation and control.

So he walked with one leg and black blood drooling from his gauntlets. He walked up the stairs and past where Khamose first stood. He had been protecting something.

At the top of the stairs, attached to the wall was a brown stone tablet. Magical hieroglyphics were written. A seal.

’The hieroglyphics...ancient and advanced. Breaking this will be impossible, at least for someone like me.’

He suddenly thought about the Anti-Magic Swordsman. She could probably do it. Alas, she was not here. He wasn’t able to do accurate long-distance Qi Sense due to the rampaging Qi of Mehen. However, he suspected she was far, far down.

With a deep, rattling breath, Dasha clenched his fists.

Then he punched.

CRACK!

The stone shuddered under the force of his strike. Dust rained down, but the seal held.

So he punched again.

And again.

Fist after fist, his gauntlets shattered against the unyielding surface. His knuckles split even through the mighty gauntlets. His Qi dropped and increased sharply as he sucked in Natural Qi via Tu Na Breathing. He wasn’t desperate. He was patient.

For every strike, he theorized what the point of this was. For every drop of blood, he thought of Mehen’s power. For every cracked stone, he thought of his victory.

One thousand punches.

That was when the seal finally fractured.

BOOM!

The backlash sent cracks racing up the walls, and with a deafening shatter, the tablet crumbled to dust. A portal-like doorway now stood where the seal had once been.

Beyond it, the staircase bled like a fresh wound. Thick red liquid oozed down the steps in illogical heaps, as though a thousand men were sacrificed here. The blood was somewhere between oil and congealed flesh. The walls pulsed like the insides of a living being.

Red everywhere, the stench clogging up his scent, Dasha walked forward.

His one remaining leg sank into the gore.

Every step felt like wading through something alive, yet he pressed on. The stairs twisted upward. Up, up, up, until he reached the peak of the climb and he arrived at the throne.

In its center, two entities stood and immediately, the pieces fell into place. "Just as I suspected."

Khet or the "physical body". Sah or the "spiritual body". Ren or the "name, identity". Ba or the "personality". Ka or the "double" or "vital essence". Ib or the "heart". Shuyet or the "shadow". Sekhem or the "power".

Here, at the top of the castle, at the top of a staircase of blood, was two out of the many parts of an Egyptian entity.

Mehen’s Ba hovered like an ethereal wraith, shifting constantly. It had no solid form, only a massive, coiling shadow of a serpent that flickered between different versions of itself—a young god, an old beast, a maddened husk. Its eyes burned with a fading golden glow, and from its shifting mass, faint whispers echoed.

"Do not...approach...do not...approach!"

Mehen’s Ka, however, was solid.

A towering monstrosity that resembled a serpent made of pale stone. It was cracked, broken, as if pieces of its being had eroded over the centuries. Limbs that should not exist protruded from its body—hands that clawed at the air, seeking something lost.

And between the Ka and the Ba...

A severed head.

Not just any head. The same as the one he found in the Monster Hunters basement. The same one Dasha saw in legends and ancient paintings.

Yamata-no-Orochi’s.

Another one of its heads had appeared. Its massive, decayed jaws were still frozen in a twisted snarl. The power radiating from it was ancient and furious. It almost felt alive—almost. The hydra head seemed to flicker with monstrous amounts of Qi. Dasha closed his eyes and tasted it.

This...this was nothing like the one in the basement. This head was being drained of its power, even now.

"So much Qi...so liquid...so free..."

Breathing in and out, with Tu Na Breathing, Dasha seemed to be connecting with everything. He did not fear the head or the pieces of Mehen. This was the most perfect place for a Cultivator. A world of pure, liquid Natural Qi.

"In order to maintain hold of the rest of this castle, you relinquished control here. You expected yourself to be hiding away and protected by your little jackal, yes? How unfortunate. You stole a child that belongs to me."

The blood room deepened with pressure. Gravity doubled. The Natural Qi swirled and whirled back to Dasha Pang. He raised a gauntlet and opened his palm. Black electricity blasted from it and Mehen’s Ka flinched away.

"Weak. So weak."

"No...no..." Mehen’s voice echoed through the chamber. "I want... to EXIST!"

The god’s cries shook the very walls. Mehen’s Ba twisted violently while his Ka reached forward with its fractured, dying limbs.

Dasha stopped at the foot of the throne.

He could see it now. The truth.

Mehen was nothing.

A fragment of his former self. A god who had lost almost everything. A forgotten god.

His power was feeble. His attacks? They would be pathetic. He could not fight.

So, instead, Mehen had spent centuries attempting to rebuild himself.

By kidnapping children.

By searching for the perfect vessel.

By stealing life to craft something he could never reclaim.

Dasha’s fists tightened.

"A forgotten god who plays with innocent lives," he declared. "How pathetic."

[ Qi Gathering (Middle Stage) upgraded into Qi Gathering (Late Stage) ]

Mehen screamed.

The chamber quaked.

The blood on the walls surged.

Ba lunged at him, a massive serpent of mist and memory, its gaping mouth stretching to swallow him whole. Ka followed, dragging its crippled form forward, arms grasping, hands clutching.

At the corner of his eye, he saw it. His mana was increasing rapidly.

[ Forcible level up! ]

[ Forcible level up! ]

[ Forcible level up! ]

[ Forcible level up! ]

[ Forcible level up! ]

[ Forcible level up! ]

Dasha exhaled louder and louder. The world continued to warp around him. The world continued to feed him. By every passing millisecond, he grew stronger. Stronger, stronger, stronger.

He casually blasted past them like a ghost, his very trail sucking up their Qi. The god’s Ba hissed and whimpered. It was so, so weak. Dasha walked to the head of the Yamato-no-Orochi and sat on it like a throne.

Tu Na Breathing did not stop. It never stopped.

The entire chamber trembled.

The blood-rivers froze, then reversed—flowing toward Dasha. The very walls seemed to fold inward, drawn to him like a vortex.

And then, with deliberate control—

He absorbed the god’s Ka.

Ka—the double, the essence, the very power of a god.

Mehen fought back.

Mehen howled.

Mehen tried to consume him instead.

But Dasha had already mastered his Qi. He had already survived divine judgment. He had already taken the power of others before. So he forced it into submission. The Ka of Mehen rushed into his veins.

Black veins crawled up his throat. His Qi roared, bursting through every cell. His body shuddered.

And then—

His left leg regenerated.

The flesh twisted, reformed. Bones clicked into place. Muscles snapped together. It wasn’t the same though. The flesh—it was that of a snake. Brown and scaly although shaped exactly that of a human.

Those same scales emerged on the left side of his face too. His pupils were swallowed up by it and a single crack ran through it, like fractured glass. It was...it was almost too much. Too dangerous. Suddenly appearing was the Jack the Ripper mask and he grabbed at it. It was broken, showing his eyes and and cheeks and hid only his chin. More chips fell. More of the darkness fused within him.

[ Forcible level up! ]

[ Forcible level up! ]

Yamata-no-Orochi. Mehen. Jack the Ripper.

The powers were coming together.

Dasha stared up at the sky, seated calmly on his makeshift throne. He breathed in and out. The weight of Mehen’s Ka settled within him, absorbed completely.

Mehen’s Ba flickered violently.

What was left of the serpent god now cowered.

Dasha rose from the hydra’s head, standing with his breathing heavy and his eyes dark. Mehen’s Ba was its personality and it constantly changed shape: a serpent, a human, and as Dasha sucked up more of his Territory, it changed into a reflection of Dasha Pang himself.

"Y-you...can’tttttt! PLEAASSE!"

All the darkness and light of this world belonged to him. Standing there, he had become an authority. An absolute.

"I wish to know one last thing," said Dasha. "Where are the children?"

"T-they...they are down below! They are guarded by my Prophet, Mehenet! H-he has been bringing them! He holds with him a great hypnosis!"

"I see." Dasha crossed his legs, put a fist to his cheek, and opened his palm. Mehen’s Ba started to lose its form, started to destabilize and rip away. The Ba screamed until it turned into a ball and hovered on his open palm. Dasha’s ability to manipulate Natural Qi had improved exponentially. He could do anything. "I am going to keep you for my experiments, Mehen. I thank you for your service."

Just like that, the mortal snuffed out the old Egyptian god.