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"T-This is impossible! Impossible! I won't…! I won't die against a mere mortal!"
The {Mother of Artificial Life} was growing rapidly more desperate; unlike a true machine, she had a soul and possessed strong emotions after her ascension, giving birth to things such as Fear, Uncertainty, Frustration, and even Pride.
This created a more vulnerable mind at the end of the day, one that could be forced to suffer even more than before, a mind that was susceptible to agony and despair.
As she was being torn to shreds and agonizing, her wires, metals, and circuits unified rapidly into massive fists, punching the Heavenly Empress with heaven-shattering power.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
RUMBLE!
Each punch brought an immense amount of power, generating a gigantic shockwave that shook the entire Domain Clash, making her Mechanical Domain progressively more powerful. Countless tubes connected to her mechanical body, fueling her with Cosmic Electromagnetic Energies.
"BURN TO ASHES!"
With a furious, mechanical roar, the Mother of Artificial Life unleashed all her power at once, concentrated into a titanic beam of pure blue light, a photon cannon capable of piercing through space itself, shattering and warping the empty air around it!
TRUUUMMM!!!
The Heavenly Empress faced the attack alone; her golden sword, now demonic in appearance and with dark colors, overflowed with tremendous power.
"{Demonic Dark Flames of Despair Arts}: {Eternal Misfortune Given Form: Yasomagatsuhi Blade}"
"ROOOOAAARRR!"
Suddenly, a dark, evil dragon manifested out of her powerful and monstrous demonic aura, and as Anna gasped, the dragon merged with her master's blade, turning her sword into a hundred-meter-tall hunk of black steel.
SLAAAASH!
And then, she swung it down, a single, simple downward slash, which released a titanic dark shockwave that sliced through the cannon, splitting it apart and dissolving it before it could even touch her.
"IMPOSSIBLE!"
The Constellation gasped in disbelief as the attack reached her, shaped as a monstrous, demonic, and evil dragon that embodied all of the World's Suffering.
Once it hit her, it didn't just slice her once, but countless times, constantly, without end. Every single slash felt agonizing; her Cosmic Soul was being shredded!
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
"AAARRGGHHHH!"
She screamed in agony, her mechanical noise echoing through the Domain Clash, as her Mechanical Domain quickly exploded into pieces and disappeared; the Heavenly Empress dark domain swallowed her completely.
The darkness twisted the Constellation's perception of reality, as she found herself drowning in an endless sea of pure darkness.
And from within them, she saw them, hundreds, thousands, millions, and then billions of specters of all shapes and sizes, most of them humanoid or outright human-looking, screaming, crying, and agonizing.
"Aaaggghh! It burns!"
"Why?! Why is my son dead?!"
"I don't want this anymore! Not anymoreeeee!"
"Uuuaaaggghh! The pain never ends!"
"Why?! Why?! WHYYYY?!"
They were all frenzied, insane specters constantly crying, screaming, and agonizing, they surrounded the Constellation's subconscious, constantly making her experience their agony.
And as this happened, she saw her, watching from afar, her eyes glowing red; her sword had transformed, becoming an endless spiraling storm of darkness and screaming souls.
"All those you've killed indiscriminately. All those you've made suffer. The innocent souls. The children and elderly. The mothers and fathers. The hardworking and the honest. All of them, they are here; hear their cries! Suffer their agony!"
"N-No…! W-What is this?! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!"
The souls started to drag her gigantic body down; she experienced the pain of all those she had killed, of the civilizations she destroyed across the stars, of the humanity she betrayed and slaughtered, of the countless defenseless innocents that could only watch as cold machines killed them all.
"T-THIS ISN'T REAL! IT'S NOT… IT'S NOT REAL!"
The Constellation kept crying and screaming, even when the specters grabbed her body and tore it into pieces. Every part they took was turned into black ashes.
Piece by piece, they tore her down to her smallest form, a small set of wires, metal, and circuits attached to a cosmic electromagnetic core.
"NO…! NO…! T-THIS ISN'T…! THIS ISN'T REAL…! IT CAN'T BE HAPPENING! IT CAN'T BE HAPPENING!"
The Machine that tried to imitate the Living so much ended up becoming exactly like them, succumbing to despair and insanity, denying reality, something Machines would usually never do.
"Deny reality all you want, but your end is here," the Heavenly Empress said. "This is for my son, you piece of shit! Scream, scream as loudly as possible! So every Constellation can learn that nobody… NOBODY will ever mess with my FAMILY!"
Crack, crack…!
CRACK!
She grasped the core and pressed it, countless cracks spreading through it slowly; every passing second was an eternal agony, to the point the Constellation wished it all to end.
"PLEASE…! NO MORE! NO MOREEEE! KILL ME! PLEASE KILL ME!"
The Heavenly Empress smiled viciously, feasting on her agony.
"To think the self-proclaimed smartest and most perfect, cold and emotionless machine… Would beg me for it to end. Pathetic. Your entire existence is meaningless! Constellation? You're just a glorified piece of junk! HERE IT IS, THE DEATH YOU SO MUCH DESIRE! ENJOY IT!"
CRAAASH!
The core shattered, and so the Constellation's Cosmic Soul, into countless pieces, until everything ended, darkness, eternal darkness, swallowed the Constellation's consciousness forevermore.
BOOOMMM!!!
A cosmic explosion engulfed the entire Domain, shattering it into pieces; countless glass-like fragments fell from the sky like rain as the Heavenly Empress watched the sea with empty eyes.
The pieces of cosmic energy fell into her body, fusing with her; she felt a new power she had never felt before rushing through her body; she was no longer a Venerable, she had ascended beyond.
The Universe seemed to rejoice; her rich Story was more than enough to turn her into a full-fledged Constellation.
And yet… even as the Universe, the Cosmos itself, embraced her…
TRUUUM!
She looked at it with spite and wrath.
"Don't you dare crown me with the vainglory of the fallen, Demiurge." She spoke with wrath and fury. "I shall never play along with your pathetic little game. I will throw away what you deem worthy if necessary. I reject the Universe and the Cosmos."
She shook her body as all the cosmic fragments suddenly fell from her body, exploding and disappearing.
Anna was left speechless as she watched the scene in silence; never had she thought this could happen… Her adoptive mother's sorrow for her own son ran so deep it made her go mad.
And even then, could she even blame her for such a thing? What mother wouldn't go mad if their beloved child was transformed into an endlessly agonizing aberration? Destined to suffer for eternity until slain?
She felt hatred, wrath, frustration, sorrow… And so much of it all was overwhelming.
Her powers went beyond cosmic energy; cultivated deep within the two paths she walked, she didn't need any Universe or Cosmos to crown her a Constellation, to make her a star.
As she would alone become the black star that would shatter them all and swallow them into the endless darkness of despair.
"Haaahh… Haaahhh… Haaahhhh…"
She was gasping for air, gripping her fists tightly, tears of blood falling from her eyes; she gritted her beak in frustration, the Flames of Despair engulfing her, making her more powerful but madder, thirsty for revenge.
"Mother…"
"Ah!"
The Heavenly Empress gasped; as she felt a warm hug coming from behind, she attacked Anna without hesitating, overtaken by her madness, by her insanity!
"Let me go!"
And yet Anna took her blows and didn't let go of her; she hugged her even tighter, showering her with an aura of pink color, of Love.
"I must kill them all!"
"It's okay…"
"I must make them suffer!"
"Everything will be alright."
"I must avenge my son!!!"
"I'm here for you…"
"I…! I…!"
Slowly, the Heavenly Empress calmed down, the darkness receding, going back where it came from, her Heart of Hope.
Her crystallized power quickly went back to normal, the Demonic Heart of Despair going back to the Heavenly Heart of Hope.
"Anna… I'm sorry!"
She started crying, her tears of blood replaced by transparent tears of sorrow and regret.
She hugged her daughter, healing her wounds with her light.
"I'm so sorry for hurting you…!"
Anna smiled, kissing her mother's forehead and embracing her with her Love.
"It's alright, it didn't hurt that much; I'm okay."
"I let… the darkness take over me… I became mad! I became… what I hate the most, what I abhor the most… I became a Demon…"
The Heavenly Empress cried more, completely shocked at what she had done.
"I know…"
"I am such a hypocrite… I don't deserve my title; I don't deserve to be the beacon of hope for anybody… I am nothing but a self-centered woman… I am so flawed… I am so imperfect… I am so terrible… I-"
"I think you're good as you are, Mom. With your flaws and with your talents. Everyone has them. Nobody in this universe, even the cosmos, can be perfect. From the lowest of creatures to the mightiest of embodiments of entropy, they all have great flaws."
"But I made an Oath… and I broke it…"
"Then let's make a new one together, alright? I know you suffered, and what you went through… I simply cannot imagine it. You cannot be blamed for your insanity if you only went through it because of losing Song…"
"I… I'm so sorry…"
Anna patted her shoulders, smiling at her.
"I know you're sorry, and because you're sorry, it means that you're not an evil person, Mom. Nor are you a demon."
After she guided her, after she taught her so much, and after she helped Anna see a new world of possibilities to gain enlightenment and become someone even better than before, it was now her disciple's and adopted daughter's turn to do the same for her.
"It's not the end of the world. Song is with us, a Fragment of his Past and his Records, he's your son, and he will help you save him," Anna said. "We have to look into the path ahead and not stop. We are so close, Mother. Please, do not fall into despair… And even if you do, I will always be there to drag you back in."
"Anna…" the Heavenly Empress cried. "I love you so much, my little star…"
She hugged Anna back, rubbing her beak on her face.
"Our time together might have been brief, but you are already my dear daughter…" She said. "Thank you for being here for me… I never thought I needed you more than now."
"Hahah… That's a bit embarrassing…" Anna blushed a bit, giggling cutely. "But yeah! No problem, that's what family is for, right? The dark power you released, it must have been agonizing, but it also helped you surpass your limits and kill a Constellation. It even allowed you to reject the Universe and the Cosmos… Don't abandon it, because even if it is a fearsome power, it is still you."
"You're… I guess you're right…" She nodded, sighing. "I always tried to reject the idea I had a dark side, that there was something demonic within me… But everything in the universe, the cosmos itself, has two parts: Yin and Yang. Without these two, we cannot exist. Every being, no matter how good, has darkness within them, and every being, no matter how dark, has some light within them as well."
"Yep," Anna nodded. "We don't have much time now, Mother… We have to hurry and advance. The army is rapidly approaching the tree. Without their Venerable Robots or their Constellations protecting them, they're defenseless now. It's time."
The Heavenly Demon, Song, and Fang Shuan quickly regrouped with everyone as well; there was little time to talk about what had happened, though.
"I suppose you've changed quite a lot," the Heavenly Demon smiled. "The darkness you've always suppressed, I saw it. It was glorious, my love."
"And what about you?" giggled the Heavenly Empress. "The light I've never thought you would embrace, it's here now, at full view. Have you truly turned over a new leaf?"
"I want to believe I did, but only actions can prove our ideals and convictions," the Heavenly Demon said. "The sins I've committed will never be erased, and they are what make me who I am… So in essence, it's still just me!" His calm demeanor changed, becoming cranky like before.
"Hahaha! I suppose some things never change," laughed the Heavenly Empress. "Song, are you ready, dear?"
"I-I am!" Song nodded. "Mom, Dad… Sis! Let's do this!"
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Can't wait to see what's next? You can join my Patreon:
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And gain access to all these Advanced Chapters:
198 Advanced Chapters of
The Protagonist's Sister Is Actually The Strongest
85 Advanced Chapters of
The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns
19 Advanced Chapters of
Fantasy Story Online: The Crippled Vampire Prince Walks The Heavenly Demon Path