Village Head's Debauchery-Chapter 1317: The Ninth Maw, Devour!
General Reynold fell silent, allowing him time to absorb everything.
Orion also learned that a Divine Archetype could not only be forged by oneself but could also be influenced by external factors.
It made sense.
After all, becoming an anomaly meant breaking away from the chains of fate and opposing the Divine Mysteries. Not everyone could carve a path to divinity alone.
If it were that easy, then Naka wouldn't have relied so heavily on the Vylkr armour ascend, especially considering its inherent limitations.
Orion didn't dare boast, but even with General Reynold, Oberon, and the Mysteries of the Twelve-Step Stairs, he knew that if not for him, the villagers would never have tasted divinity.
The other inhabitants of Paradise would have had no choice but to ascend through the path of the Divine Apostles. Others would have been lucky just to become demigods.
But at the end of the day, everything in this universe was built upon the past.
Even his Divine Archetype, though unique, was no exception.
After several minutes, Orion concluded his contemplation.
He had long suspected that General Reynold and Oberon were hiding something related to their ascensions, but he hadn't pressed them. They had proven their integrity. He trusted them, not just with himself, but with his family and all of Paradise.
And now, as always, they revealed the truth when the time was right.
"So there's a chance my divine ascension could be achieved more smoothly with the help of the Vylkr armour?" Orion asked.
They both nodded.
"It will be a difficult path," Oberon said. "But yes, there is a chance."
"The only thing I will have to warn you is that while the White Flame might aid in developing your divine archetype and help in your ascension. If you fail..." General Reynold said, "Though your memories would remain untempered, you might lose the right to ascension; there's a chance that you might end up as my former self. A failure where there once was hope - a living embodiment of the White Flame."
General Reynold gazed at Orion.
"But if you can succeed. As I said, your future would be limitless."
"As long as there's a path, I'll walk it," Orion said. "I want to know what true divinity feels like."
With that, Brane, Zara, and the others would no longer need to search endlessly for opportunities to ascend. Soon, they would only need to hunt the Vylkr spawns, just as the spawns had once hunted them.
Despite the warnings they wanted to voice, they knew it was no use. They couldn't stop him, so they held their tongues.
Still, they were proud. With Paradise having such a trailblazer, their rise was inevitable.
Orion nodded and made sure his lucky coin was still in his pocket.
Then he donned the Morphic Puppet.
The armour crept onto his skin, transforming into a full suit. Once fully equipped, Orion was protected from any external force unless it matched or exceeded his own strength.
He clenched his fists and sighed. Despite accumulating Vylkr energy for several months, the Morphic Puppet had only grown marginally in strength. That was why he'd put it away for a while; his own power had far surpassed it.
Now, he realized that this wasn't how Vylkr armour was meant to grow.
It was meant to devour.
Orion turned toward the corpse of the Nyzzorrak. It was already severely damaged, with part of its armour crushed.
He hoped it would be enough to fuel his ascension.
He pushed aside any doubts. From the Nyzzorrak's memories, he knew the other Vylkr spawns within the Spirit Beast Coalition had already learned of its death and would now act with caution.
Capturing them would be nearly impossible unless they launched a full-scale assault.
Orion enveloped himself with his divine power and sat before the corpse.
He instantly activated Vylkr Warrior Mode, channeling his Vylkr energy through Morphic Puppet.
A surge of power erupted from his body. Around him, dense strands of Vylkr energy twisted and coiled, intertwining like serpents.
His armour began to shift, expanding and contracting, inflating and deflating as if it were trying to break free of his body.
Then, after a few minutes, it began to settle.
An inky radiance shimmered across the sleek surface of the Vylkr armour.
Morphic Puppet had stabilized.
Orion activated the sealed process within the armour, the ability to devour an essence rather than simply infect it.
Ninth Maw.
Deep within the armour, a black, veined lotus-shaped tear formed, spreading across the chest plate, glowing with mysterious inscriptions. It then transformed into wide jaws resembling those of a voracious beast.
The jaws lunged forward, clamping down on the Nyzzorrak's corpse.
Slowly, the essence of the corpse was drawn in.
Even the crimson Vylkr armour it wore was not spared.
As Morphic Puppet devoured the remains, Orion felt a mental attack strike his consciousness.
Devour.
Devour.
Devour.
For others, a mental attack powered by raw Vylkr energy was enough to fracture their consciousness or implant a seed of that urge deep within. However, Orion, having grown used to wielding Vylkr energy, resisted it with ease.
Within seconds, the entire corpse was consumed.
Suddenly, Orion sensed that something was wrong. He opened his eyes.
The Spiritual Link Point had vanished.
He could no longer sense General Reynold or Oberon's presence.
He was alone on this planet.
And standing before him... was an enraged Nyzzorrak, the very corpse he had just devoured.
"YOU? I WILL KILL YOU!! I WILL KILL YOU!!" Nyzzorrak screamed hysterically and surged forward.
His crimson armour opened its carnivorous jaws, seeking to devour Orion whole.
This was Nyzzorak's final dying will:
To kill and devour him.
To kill and devour all of Paradise.
Had this encounter occurred beyond the bounds of Paradise, Orion might have needed to put up a serious fight. After all, the dying will of a Vylkr spawn that had lived for over 30,000 years wasn't something he could shrug off without effort.
However, since they were still within the range of the Mysteries of the Twelve-Step Stairs, Nyzzorrak's will was naturally suppressed, allowing the process to proceed smoothly.
Orion closed his eyes, giving him no attention.
A transparent barrier enveloped his consciousness, shielding him.
A crushing pressure descended upon Nyzzorrak, compressing him from all sides.
"NNNOOO!!" He let out a gut-wrenching cry as his form was obliterated into dust.
But this time, there was no one around to hear him.
He vanished into nothingness.
Orion felt a shift in his consciousness and could once again sense the others outside.
He exhaled in relief.
Soon, the armour began to assimilate the essence it had devoured, sending waves of ripples across its surface.
Orion felt a foreign essence begin to meld with his being through the Vylkr armour.
It was the essence of the Nyzzorrak.
As Orion forcefully assimilated it, searing pain coursed through his body.
The process of integrating a foreign essence filled with the laws of the universe was no easy feat.
His skin cracked. His body convulsed. Organs twisted and crushed under invisible force.
His mind trembled as cosmic truths surged into his consciousness, law after law flooding in all at once.
"AHHH!!"
A raw scream tore from Orion's lips.
Devour.
Devour.
Devour
The mental attack returned, stronger and more persistent, riding on the waves of pain.
However, Orion didn't falter.
If he faltered now, his body would become a hollow husk, overtaken by the primal instinct of the Vylkr armour.
Hours passed.
Orion no longer knew how long the assimilation had lasted. His body was being crushed and reforged repeatedly.
Every law that Nyzzorrak had consumed was now being etched into Orion's very being.
If not for the armour holding him together, he would have either exploded or, worse, fallen apart molecule by molecule.
He could feel the Vylkr armour itself becoming imprinted onto his existence.
He sensed its instincts and understood that the Vylkr armour was a sentient entity. Unfortunately, its intelligence was lacking.
If it had been more aware, he doubted he could have withstood its will.
As if in response to the changes occurring within him, the White Flame suddenly burned more vigorously.
'Finally,' Orion thought.
He had no control over the White Flame. All he could do was observe and hope it would react to the assimilation process, especially before the next stage, his ascension.
He was grateful that it had.
"Now then... let's see what kind of power lies within my Divine Archetype."
The flames expanded from their dormant position within his heart. Wisps of white fire flowed outward, spreading through every inch of his body as though trying to purge the assimilated essence of the Vylkr spawn.
Within seconds, every fibre of his being was flooded with these purifying flames, easing the torment that had been wracking his form.
Then the wisps intensified, coalescing into a full flicker of pure White Flame.
The fire ignited his tissues, organs, and every cell within him, transforming his insides into a blazing furnace.
Orion felt no heat, but externally, something else did.
The Vylkr armour began to melt, turning to liquid as it wrapped tightly around his body, sealing him in like a cocoon.
