Chapter 176: Transforming All Demons into Gods, Chaos Core
"You… did you do that on purpose?"
Tamamo no Mae rose from the floor in one smooth motion, her breath uneven for the first time since Rowe had arrived. Her chest rose and fell as she forced the rhythm back under control.
Rowe lowered his hands. The last flecks of light scattered from his cuffs and vanished into the air.
The qin sword was never meant to last. It was a concept given shape, the edge of Qin's human order condensed by the will of an army. Rowe had borrowed the right to use it once. After that single use, it naturally dispersed.
He had what he came for. There was no reason to cling to a tool after its function ended.
He looked at the magnificent palace that was Tamamo no Mae's true seat, and smiled as if he were admiring a piece of craftsmanship.
Her question was not really a question. It was confirmation.
Even so, he answered.
"What do you think?"
"This concubine will not guess." Tamamo no Mae exhaled hard, her tails swaying behind her like a curtain being drawn.
Without a doubt, she had stepped into a snare.
Rowe had known she was watching him. He had used the fluctuation caused by her interference to trace the signal back to its origin.
This one was more foxlike than the fox.
Tamamo no Mae puffed her cheeks for a heartbeat, then narrowed her eyes.
"Am I the fox, or are you?"
"You are," Rowe said, perfectly serious. "You smell like one. That is the best evidence."
Her brow twitched in a way that did not belong to a divine beast and absolutely belonged to a woman being insulted in her own palace.
Do not get angry. Stay calm.
She inhaled, recomposed herself, and returned to her seat as if nothing had happened.
Her pale fingers drew a slow line through the air. Tamamo no Mae was an ancient demon god who had condensed nine tails. A single scare could not keep her unsteady for long, even if Rowe had left an unpleasant imprint on her mind.
She crossed her legs, let her posture soften, and smiled with practiced charm.
"I will admit it. You are cunning. Calculating."
Her gaze slid over him, as if tasting the shape of his existence.
"To sense me, and to cut straight into this place…"
She leaned forward just enough to make the intent unmistakable.
"Have you decided to be with me?"
Her voice turned sweet, almost indulgent.
"If you are with me, whatever you desire, I can satisfy. You do understand that this time…"
Her eyes gleamed.
"This is my true body."
At their first meeting, Tamamo no Mae had used an illusionary projection, a manifestation that was so complete it was almost indistinguishable from reality. Almost.
The difference was not appearance.
It was pressure.
It was the way her presence curled around human instincts, bypassing thought and reaching straight for the animal parts of the mind.
Even a primordial human would hesitate before this.
Because this was the restraint written into humanity itself.
Because she was one of the Evils of Humanity.
"A beast of pleasure," Rowe said, as if naming a specimen.
Tamamo no Mae chuckled.
"Correct. This form is the manifestation of human evil."
The Age of Gods was receding. Human order was deepening. Humanity's weight on the surface of the planet grew heavier with every generation.
And as humans claimed the world, their desires did too.
Desire became a scale that could affect the entire planet simply because it could affect all humans living upon it.
By definition, that was close to a supreme god.
Tamamo no Mae stood, dark blue robes flowing as she approached. Her steps were unhurried, confident in her own inevitability.
"This is something I confirmed while pushing the Six Heavens Ancient Ghosts toward resurgence. The chaotic aspects stripped from the gods are not merely filth."
"They are a method."
She came closer. Close enough that her perfume became a boundary of its own.
"If you want it, I can show you many actions. Many poses. In this form."
Her palm rose and traced Rowe's cheek, as if she were already claiming him.
Her tails swayed behind her with lazy satisfaction.
Rowe stared at her for a moment, silent.
Then he spoke.
"You still do not have a real lover. How did you become this skilled?"
The effect was immediate.
Tamamo no Mae's smile froze so hard it looked like someone had cracked porcelain.
For a heartbeat, her expression collapsed into raw disbelief.
Rowe did not let her recover.
"Also, stalling is useless."
He met her golden eyes directly.
"Human Evil can influence humans. But I have never been purely human."
He was human.
He was a machina god.
He was a star god.
And now he was something else besides, the Taiyi that had accepted Chaos as its core.
As a human, he could feel the pull.
As something beyond human, he could treat it as dust.
It was a matter of choice, nothing more.
Tamamo no Mae already knew that. They had exchanged blows before. If she still played this game, it was for one reason only.
Time.
Time for the Six Heavens Ancient Ghosts to complete their manifestation.
Rowe let his gaze fall downward through the layers of human order into the present world.
The Divine Land was already tipping into disorder.
Outside Guanzhong, which was sheltered by the stars and supported by Xijun, and aside from Zhao with its breached passes and Chu that had already been cleaned, the remaining states were drowning.
In Qi, countless spheres of light scattered like broken lanterns.
In Wei, yellow mist smothered the sky.
In Han, drifting dandelionlike fragments filled the air.
In Yan, the faceless god unfolded vast twisted tendrils that pierced through heaven and earth.
The strangeness thickened. Chaos became visible.
The Six Heavens Ancient Ghosts were dragging themselves out of the cracks of human order.
Step by step, they were trying to set their true bodies onto the Divine Land.
"Oh dear." Tamamo no Mae smiled as if amused by being caught. "So you noticed."
All nine tails spread at once and she retreated several paces. The tails struck the ground and lifted her up, weaving into a golden throne beneath her.
She sat with her legs crossed, looking down at Rowe. Her lips curved into a defiant smile, no longer bothering with honeyed pretense.
"You would not assume the ancestral gods sealed only a handful of Six Heavens Ancient Ghosts, would you?"
The Heavens Ancient Ghosts were born from the Outer Gods of Chaos trying to contaminate the ancestral gods and failing.
If there had been many ancient gods, then there were many sealed remnants.
Her voice sharpened into triumph.
"This manifestation will tear apart the true seal, the last barrier of the Divine Land."
"The Great Investiture Array left by Jiang Ziya, the Heavenly Equal Supreme."
"When it breaks, the mist of Chaos will cover the world. Everything will sink into darkness."
She leaned forward, her eyes burning gold.
"And only I will become the one light within it."
Her charm withdrew like a blade being sheathed.
In its place was majesty.
More than half the Divine Land was falling into the old chaos. Chaos itself was neither good nor evil, but for humans aligned with order, it was evil by definition.
Tamamo no Mae was also evil.
She had seized the Authority of the sun.
Or, in her own words, returned to what she originally was.
She raised her chin.
"I was one of the manifestations of the Primal Sun. If not for the Star Hunter who arrived back then, I would not have been divided and scattered."
"Now that I am reunited, I will reclaim the Authority that belongs to me."
Her gaze softened into something possessive.
"Do not worry. I will not harm you. I will cherish you."
"For a Monarch of the Divine Land with your wisdom, courage, and perseverance…"
She smiled, cruel and intimate at once.
"I will only keep you. Drain you. Turn you into something useless that cannot leave me."
Manic.
Vicious.
Arrogant.
Rowe listened without interruption.
Then he spoke.
"Unfortunately, I am the same as you."
His tone carried no admiration. If anything, it carried something that felt wrong.
Gratitude.
Tamamo no Mae's skin prickled.
Gratitude for what?
A clang rang out.
Rowe raised his hand as if brushing dust aside and placed his palm on the hilt of the sword suspended behind him.
The blade hummed, and the palace itself seemed to vibrate with distant sound.
Tamamo no Mae heard it too.
The cracking.
The whispers.
The brittle, breaking noise of the Investiture Array fracturing as more Ancient Ghosts forced themselves upward.
And beneath that, the pressure of countless sealed things that had been pinned down until now.
They were coming.
In the domains already occupied by the first four Ancient Ghosts, new presences appeared within layers of mist.
Darkness. Distortion. Inversion. A spreading wrongness.
The four states of Qi, Yan, Han, and Wei convulsed. Even Chu, Qin, and Zhao were not spared. Ordinary people collapsed into inexplicable sleep, and in their dreams they fell into an endless twisted universe.
They panicked. They flailed. They broke.
Disorder repeated until the world itself seemed to forget its own shape.
Heaven and earth began to converge.
It looked like the planet was returning to Chaos.
The blade continued to hum.
And Tamamo no Mae's heart, oddly, calmed.
Because the array was breaking.
Because the suppressed ghosts were rising.
Because by her logic, nothing could stop it now.
"You are bluffing," she said lightly, wiggling a finger. "Useless."
"Since you mocked me, then next I will make you my lover."
She rose.
Nine tails lifted her higher and higher. Her body radiated brilliant light that pierced from the deepest layers of human order into the present world.
A suspended sun.
A declaration.
The Nine Tailed Fox, once shot down by giant gods, finally manifested as a sun god.
White faced. Gold furred. A god of radiance, now trying to become the first light in a land returning to chaos.
In her future, chaos and evil would walk openly.
And she would be one of them.
Evil displayed with evil.
Then Rowe finally drew his sword.
The light of the blade was not simple radiance. It was something brewed for a long time and completed in an instant.
Black and white Chaos.
A crimson threaded storm.
And beneath it, the primal rotational force of the planet itself.
A familiar Authority surfaced, one Rowe had not manifested in a long time.
Ea, the power that once belonged to the god of Mesopotamia.
But Rowe did not aim it at Tamamo no Mae.
He aimed it beneath his feet.
Tamamo no Mae's eyes widened.
From bottom to top, striking through human order required direction, calculation, precision.
From top to bottom, it required only violence.
Rowe was already here.
Beneath him was the Divine Land.
So he used the planet's rotational force to cut space, and under Tamamo no Mae's astonished gaze, he swept the blade outward toward the vast world.
Tamamo no Mae moved to stop him.
And found her body heavy.
Something had wrapped around her.
Silver white chains.
For an instant, she could not breathe.
Immortal Binding Rope?
No.
This was worse.
"Chains of Heaven," Rowe said, amused, as his sword continued its descent.
It was only a projection. It could not fully seal Tamamo no Mae.
But its nature was enough.
Enough to force hesitation.
Because its origin carried a name she could not treat lightly.
A fear engraved in her memory.
A god who had created the Divine Land.
In that flicker of hesitation, Rowe took what he needed.
A soft cry escaped Tamamo no Mae, sharp enough to make countless Ancient Ghosts recoil.
They sensed threat. They turned, instinctively ready to strike back.
Then the sound of a bell rang from above.
It spread outward from the depths of history.
An ancient bell rose high, and within the distortion of infinite light and shadow, a massive unspeakable presence unfolded, like a silhouette made of wrong laws.
Rowe's voice was calm.
"Come."
The sword light fell.
Mist began to flow toward it.
"Come to this place."
"You will return here."
More chaos poured in. More unspeakable aura was dragged from the states and gathered by the sword wind.
Beneath that bell, the sun Tamamo no Mae had raised looked small.
Before he had set out, Rowe said he intended to sweep away the Six Heavens Ancient Ghosts of the Divine Land with the sword that joined Yin and Yang and accepted Chaos.
But sweep away never meant slaughter.
It meant extraction.
It meant devouring the chaos inside them.
And once the chaos was removed, what remained was not a monster.
It was a god.
An orthodox god of heaven and earth, returned to its rightful shape.
"If I slaughtered them," Rowe said quietly, "it might help the ancestral gods fighting from beyond the heavens."
"But it would also mean they lose their last traces on the ground."
"They would lose their foothold. Their retreat."
"And I refuse to do that."
Tamamo no Mae's eyes narrowed, the first genuine confusion breaking through her arrogance.
Rowe's sword continued to draw the world's Chaos inward.
"So what do I do instead?"
He answered himself, voice steady.
"If you want to drag the Divine Land back into Chaos, then I do the opposite."
"I gather the Chaos."
"I transform all demons into gods."
Then the ancestral gods could manifest here again through avatars, through bodies born from the same origin, rebuilding the Divine Land without losing their connection to it.
And Rowe himself, guided by endless Chaos and made heavier by every thread he drew in, would become what he had chosen from the beginning.
The core.
The Chaos Core.
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