Chapter 1158: Birthright

Chaos Heir

The Great Old One had achieved miraculous things and witnessed his species' planetary war. The ancient creature was no stranger to magnificent events, but something about Khan's power managed to shock it.

Khan's power wasn't as vast as the Great Old One's or its brothers and sisters. Yet, it was unfathomably profound, exerting authority on layers of existence that shouldn't be able to have ears, let alone listen to him.

The shock intensified when Khan bent his hand, piercing the wall of frozen mana with his fingers. That energy's high temperature started to burn them, but the suffering ended as soon as Khan voiced another mental order.

'Shatter,' Khan ordered, releasing more mana into the frozen blue wall of energy.

An invisible tremor ran through the frozen synthetic mana and the energy still expanding on the other side. The gesture wasn't even close to a technique or an attack. It carried part of Khan's innately destructive influence but didn't use it as its main driving force. Instead, it merely looked like a slightly forceful request.

To the Great Old One's surprise, the mana listened to Khan's order. The frozen wall, the still-expanding wave, and the rising mushroom-shaped pillar gave up on their structural integrity, dispersing their momentum and breaking into a massive cloud of scorching energy.

Khan waved his hand, and gales blew through the blue cloud, pushing the scorching mana away. Waves of that scorching energy ran everywhere over and above the moon, eventually escaping its thin atmosphere to disperse inside the vast expanse and reveal the destroyed surface.

A second vast but shallower crater had appeared on the moon. The celestial body had gained a few more hills and a large patch of charred ground, forever changing its appearance. Cracks also littered the area, seemingly ready to widen and unleash another wave of destruction.

The Great Old One had been able to endure the nuke and recover from its deadly effects, but Khan could directly trivialize that obliterating weapon. Moreover, the ancient creature had used some of Khan's powers and improvements to its innate abilities in its performance, highlighting its clear inferiority.

Of course, the Great Old One would have been able to do far more in its original body, but the fundamental truth didn't change. Khan's powers were undoubtedly superior. They didn't lack might but also featured fantastic flexibility, making them theoretically limitless.

Also, Khan didn't only have mana now. It had gained the Great Old One's bloodline, inheriting abilities the ancient creature had been unable to perform due to its inborn inferiority. Khan was a complete being now, only limited by his knowledge.

The Great Old One's shock transformed into greed. It had lost the body it was proud of, but fate had awarded it with everything else it lacked. Khan was its ticket toward the Nak, the final evolution, and planetary domination, and it wouldn't give up on it so easily.

The distraction caused by the nuke had allowed the Great Old One's consciousness to expand again. The ancient creature's will resided inside Khan's brain, and it was aware of its weaknesses. It had felt them during the memory absorption, so it knew how to attack inside that unfavorable environment.

Khan had focused on absorbing the heaviest foreign memories in his brain, the echoes about the Nak, but more of those still lingered inside him. The Great Old One only had to let them in to flood Khan's mind and attempt to break them, giving it a chance to take over his body.

Nevertheless, as soon as the Great Old One's consciousness expanded to try to mess with Khan's mind, the previous bloodthirst returned. The ancient creature was ready for it, but Khan managed to surprise it again.

The bloodthirst didn't try to contain the Great Old One's consciousness. Instead, it was merely a reaction to what Khan was doing in the outside world. The ancient snake could still feel its surroundings through Khan's senses, so it saw his scarlet hand reaching for his own throat.

'I warn you,' Khan thought, speaking to the foreign consciousness inside him. 'Try anything, and I'll kill us both.'

Khan didn't limit himself to empty threats. The sharp, red membrane around his fingers grew, turning into fang-shaped claws that pierced his skin, digging into his neck and releasing slow trails of blood.

The injury was by no means deep or serious. The first nuke had inflicted far worse, and the Great Old One had made Khan come out relatively unscathed. However, the gesture conveyed Khan's resolve, and the ancient creature knew it wasn't a bluff. Their battle had proven as much.

'Why would you go so far to oppose us?' The Great Old One said inside Khan's mind, his hissing voice in full display now. 'Heir to the Nak's Chaos, you know we would serve your mission better. We would succeed where you still harbor doubts.'

'You won't,' Khan responded through his thoughts. 'It became clear when you had control. You only know how to dominate, and the mana needs more than that.'

'We are gods, Nak's Heir,' The Great Old One declared. 'Domination is our birthright. You inherited our species' bloodline, so that right is yours, too.'

Even as a mere lingering consciousness, the Great Old One had some influence on Khan's mind, especially after the recent absorption of memories. The two were connected, so its feelings resonated with him, and he couldn't completely dismiss them since they were partially correct.

As much as Khan didn't want to admit it, his spiritual solitude came from a place of superiority. He lived in a world only he could see or sense, and his power inevitably widened that gap. The recent transformation had even made Khan more inhuman, awarding him with strength that defied common sense.

So, the Great Old One's desire to dominate the universe felt somewhat right. Khan's idea of leadership was different, but he also harbored similar feelings. He would burn the universe if it didn't comply with his wishes. That wasn't domination but carried the same overbearing vibes.

'I will dominate the universe,' Khan promised, 'What's left of it after I save it.'

'Your flaws still weaken you, Chaos' Heir,' The Great Old One claimed. 'You might have bested us, but your power has no future. You need us to show you the path, the path we have walked for millennia.'

'It took you dying to be willing to compromise,' Khan mocked. 'I'll take your birthright, but there is no us.'