999,999+ Max Stat: Even the Gods Can't Stop Me

Chapter 23: Chapter 23: His Light

The darkness seemed overwhelming, only seemed. Amon had already faced darkness before, much darker than this one.

So she perfected it, he thought. This was a spell he had taught her. A simple trapping spell, which had infinite possibilities. Why? Because darkness meddled with everything.

If you want to lock someone powerful, if you want to force your opponent to face their worst nightmare, this did the job.

"Amon..." a feminine voice came.

Amon knew that familiar voice. From the darkness, she slowly appeared. Dark hair, dark eyes, chiseled and pale face.

"Nyima..." he called. But there was no smile on his face. He wanted to grab her, but he knew she was not really her, so he could only close his eyes, and the figure vanished.

And another image came once more, Pasang this time. Coming closer, with his lanky stick. "It’s your fault," he said, ready to swing his stick.

I know.

He thought, how could he forget? He would never forget. Many times he had erased his own memories, but not now. What he had in the Himalayas was something more precious, a peace which he had never felt before. A place which felt like he belonged.

And now he was away, on this rogue mission of his own. He missed it, ever so slightly, but no, he couldn’t go back.

"Amon!" Another scream came, now more masculine. Another familiar voice. He came running towards him.

"Amon, is that you?"

"Cheering... how?" he asked, coming closer. Amon could have felt that Nyima before was a shadow, but this, this didn’t look like it. "Why is your hair... golden?"

"Shit, this isn’t a dream, it’s really you." Cheering’s voice echoed like it was fading away. "Oh, you don’t know? I thought you did this..."

Amon stepped back a bit, feeling the connection, the link he felt only with his disciples. When he remembered, his tears piled up like the top of Everest.

"Did you go to the mountain...?"

"At Everest... yeah, I—"

The sound became numb, the darkness getting darker, and gradually Cheering vanished.

"Wait... fuck, fuck, Liliana, bring him back!" he shouted, but no answer came. "Bring him back, I say."

He could break the darkness, but no. He needed to find him. Claude first. But that man...

"It was indeed Cheering. Did he really climb all the way to Everest again to search for me, that idiot..." he said, breathing a bit heavily. "But it seems he is now my idiot, observing my divinity, my essence... but."

There was something more. His hair color, even his eyes—it was perfectly gold. Same as his. Which meant one thing. He didn’t just survive observing his divinity but digested it fully.

Cheering, you really are something. I had my suspicions, but in the end, you were more than I imagined.

He thought this when he felt a palm on his foot. He turned, and it was someone old, wearing the same clothes as Claude. He thought it was another illusion, so he kicked him away, but he came dragging himself towards him.

"Aaaammmonn, pleeeasse," he whispered.

"Oh," Amon said, looking closer. It was indeed him. Claude. "What happened? You look like a zombie," he asked, as he grabbed his shoulder, his golden light passing into him.

[Blessing Transferred]

[Receiver: Claude (disciple)]

The lean, zombified body gradually brightened and gained weight, his ash-like face becoming more human, more manly, then finally he looked like himself.

"Amon... where were you?"

"I was here the whole time. Why did you look so dried out, though?"

"I was hungry, very hungry. I didn’t have anything to eat, for months..."

"Months...?"

Pause.

Amon looked around, slightly amazed, as he realized what had just happened. Months. Here, he had only been locked in for a few minutes, but for Claude, it had already been months. Meaning time dilation.

Oh, Liliana, your darkness has improved immensely.

"I’ll pat her back a bit," he said, as he grabbed Claude’s shoulder.

"What! What do you mean, ’pat her back’?" Claude argued.

Snap!

Amon simply snapped his fingers, and just like that, the darkness around him started to crack, the floor below him started to quake. The whole place rumbled like something was about to erupt.

"We’re gonna get out? Finally?"

"Why not? This is enough for me to be considered impressed."

"Huh?" Claude questioned again. "Instead of her testing you, you were testing her?"

"Indeed. Otherwise I was going to take away her covenant. If she hasn’t progressed with what I taught her, then she isn’t worthy."

"But how are we gonna get out...?"

"Yes, darkness is the indefinite, malleable thing, the first element to ever exist, which is powerful, very powerful. It has given birth to chaos and mayhem, it has given birth to evil and lies.

It’s the first element which Lucifer mastered."

The world shook more and more, like it was getting ripped apart, an agonizing echo spreading all around the darkness.

"But darkness has its own weakness, a blatant weakness. Do you know what came after darkness? Why Lucifer lost the battle of the heavens?"

Claude turned to him, watching his body shine golden. "What..."

Amon smiled, as he snapped his fingers again, the quake growing larger. Now it lit up his whole body, and all that light focused in his fingers, two fingers.

"Yes, darkness came first... not because it was stronger."

He snapped his fingers.

"...but because no one had yet spoken."

[Skill used @#$@! tier]

His voice was neither loud nor soft. It was simply... there.

"Let there be light."

[Creator’s skill is being used: Let There Be Light.]

SNAP!

Like a whole sun, Amon ignited in bright white light, encasing all of the darkness in mere seconds. Fracturing, breaking every bit of darkness it touched, and with it came a scream, her scream.

When Claude opened his eyes, they were back in the forest, and before them she lay bare and burnt on the ground, unconscious.

"Is she dead?" Claude asked.

"No. Like you, even though you turned to bones, you lot will live. That is your blessing and your curse," Amon muttered, going closer and lifting her up.

"Let’s go..."

"Huh, where?"

"That house..." Amon said, as the whole dark jungle assembled before them had turned into a whole castle, with vines covering everything. "We are guests. Let’s treat ourselves like guests."