Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

The battle, while short had a lot of implications.

While it was ongoing, every last one of the Haron forces in the Doxon Duchy had met their end and with Kirill\'s defeat, the last resistance to the Sapphirine Cult in the Duchy was subjugated.

Svetlana Doxon, the Duchess herself was not against the Sapphirine Cult, she was against being out of the loop.

"Don\'t bother resisting. It is done." Hal said to Kirill both vocally and mentally.

Kirill gritted his teeth,

"I can\'t-" he began to say but Hal interrupted him,

"I could so easily have made your death permanent. Your Ordinance is absolutely nothing before me" Hal said and he turned away from him in the air as the Astral sphere around them faded away.

"Why didn\'t you? Why didn\'t make it permanent?" Kirill asked.

"Oh come on, is it not obvious? I still have use for you yet. Your first order of business is to prepare a report to inform the Imperial Palace that Doxon is mine.

Let them know another has fallen.

Don\'t be shy to garnish the report with how much you worship me" Hal said with a small chuckle as he knew the last anecdote would be taken as an order by Kirill. An order he could not disobey.

Hal vanished from the Duchy palace Sky and reappeared in the lounge immediately after.

"So you\'ve had your meeting, how did you find it?" he asked Melinda.

"It barely happened. Everything devolved into conflict almost immediately." Melinda said with a look at Emily who, with her expressions alone, made it clear she regretted nothing.

Hal just smiled and then faced Svetlana,

"Duchess, let\'s take a little trip," he said and he walked towards her to place a hand on her forehead.

Svetlana had no say in whether his hand touched her head or not. Se could not resist even if she wanted to.

With his hand on her head, Hal made contact with her soul and ejected it from her body with minimal effort.

"What the-?" Svetlana said with a gasp as she observed her ethereal soul and then saw her body standing still with Hal\'s hand still against her forehead.

Hal\'s soul emerged from his body as well and while it was depicted just like his real body, the entire form was a Sapphirine Blue color while it constantly radiated authority that Svetlana\'s soul could not help but feel the urge to bow to.

Mind you, this was a big deal to Svetlana because while she had no access to her cultivation locked in her body and had no access to her time-manipulating Artifact, she still possessed her Dao as well as her insight into the Abstract Ordinance of time.

And then she watched as Hal\'s body turned its head away from her face at an angle to address the ladies in the hall,

"Are you planning to watch?" Hal\'s body asked showing off its ability to function despite the absence of a soul and try as she might, Svetlana could not even cause her body to twitch.

Before either one of the ladies could answer though, Hal\'s soul exited the lounge and it pulled Svetlana along as well. The moment they went through the wall and emerged on the other side, they left the Cosmic realm entirely and journeyed to the Nether realm.

While she still had access to Dao as well as her Ordinance, Svetlana could not shake the feeling of powerlessness and that was to be expected. She was totally at his mercy.

She had even been detached from her body in a manner that would make it impossible for her to return on her own.

And then they stopped moving and stood still above a multitude of aimlessly wandering souls.

"Why are we here?" Svetlana asked.

"We are here to witness the consequences of your negligence. We are here to confirm something that you must already know; You are a terrible mother" Hal said in a low tone that while casual seemed ominous.

"What are you talking about?" Svetlana asked to which Hal answered,

"I am not your son"

"What?"

"You heard me, I am not your son. Your son died, powerless to defend himself.

His soul left the Nexus world and left his body a mere husk for me to take control of.

The Doxon blood that used to flow through his veins became replaced by the Primeval Devil Blood that I inherited from my mother. My real mother, who is more of a sociopathic psychopath than you can imagine." Hal said and as he described Nihasa, there was a strange twinkle in his eye.

Svetlana was not paying attention to notice the twinkle. Even if she had suspected something was different about Hal, never had she thought he was not her son, and even all that Hal was telling her only confused her.

Hal could tell but he just continued,

"I was connected to the Doxon family by some sort of sentiment and I made proper use of that but never could I qualify as your offspring.

Hal died. He died because you left him at the hands of a father who obviously detested him as a constant reminder of what you did to him.

Come along, you should meet your son" Hal said and lowered himself down into the sea of wandering souls with Svetlana being dragged along.

The Nether realm is massive. It can be argued that it is not as large as the Cosmic or Mortal realm but the individual souls it contained surpassed the uncountables still living in both the Mortal and Cosmic realms combined.

In the Nether realm, there was no such thing as real estate and no such thing as discomfort with the souls. They just moved as it soothed them... Either separately or clumped together.

So many were the souls that there is hardly any chance for the creation of a new soul as there are already so many waiting to be reincarnated anyway.

,m Hall\'s soul had not come from the many here though. His soul had been freshly created when his mother, Nihasa the Devil Queen had him although he did go on to be reincarnated many times in the Mortal realm afterward.

Among the zillions of souls roaming the Nether realm, Hal pinpointed the one he had come for, and with the presence of his Sovereignty surrounding him and Svetlana, a path was cleared so that, soon, he was standing in front of a faceless soul.

Hal waved his hand through the area that was meant to be the head of the soul and it not only froze the soul and stopped it from attempting to continue its aimless wandering but it also restored its face.

The face was an exact copy of how Hal\'s face used to be when he first took over the body. There was a similarity between his face now and the face of the true owner of his body but Hal had long left the core similarities behind.

Ever since Hal took over, the body had been undergoing changes. Going from skinny to muscular... Going from simply handsome to being absolutely perfect. Gaining many inches in height.

Hair was a whole different mysterious hue and the same was true for the eyes.

The most significant change to the body came after Hal succeeded in creating Infinity while in the Monument of Ordinances... At that moment, the body became absolutely different from what Svetlana had begotten.

In fact, Hal had basically recreated himself to the point where there was no being who could claim some sort of ownership.

Looking at the soul of the previous owner of his body had Hal feeling things and he was not sure what they were.

He had no respect for the Hal who died but he did pity him.

\'Is it gratitude? Nah, If I were to be grateful that he exited his body, then I might as well be grateful to Gregory Payne for killing him.\' Hal shook away the thoughts to face Svetlana who was frozen at the sight of her son\'s soul.

Hal tapped her ethereal forehead with his equally ethereal fingers and he gave her everything she needed to ascertain that what he was showing her was true.

"When we spoke of his defection which you caused by creating the housing for your Chrono spheres, you seemed so caring. As though you were truly anguished by your decisions but we both know that\'s not true.

Dress it however you please but you did not care about him.

Every so-called procedure you put in place to keep him safe, especially Rita, was half-assed.

Had I not begun to cultivate, you would not have given a damn.

The poor boy didn\'t even know you were his mother. He died feeling alone, feeling abandoned. He spent his final moment cursing Gregory\'s name and so thick was his contempt for his bastard of a father that when I took over his body, I inherited that contempt.

You though, he had nothing against you because he had no thoughts about you at all. You were no one to him"

Svetlana pursed her ethereal lips as tightly as possible with eyes staring right at her son\'s soul.

"So what? You brought me here to guilt me?" Svetlana asked and Hal chuckled,

"You know what\'s funny, I actually understand you. The Nexus world is a Dog-eat-Dog world. Every relative is meant to be an asset and Hal could never be an asset" he said.

"So you get it," Svetlana said and got even closer to Hal who had a hand on her son\'s soul.

"I do but I also understand from Hal\'s perspective.

You have the right to not want anything to do with your defective son. It makes you a bad mother but being a good mother is not a parameter for being a strong cultivation expert.

However, Hal has the right to then gain strength and turn around to use it against you for the neglect you showed him.

Hal is weak at the moment... Just a useless soul wandering among equally useless souls but I am here and I will be the medium to give you what you deserve."

The useless soul of Hal Doxon, the actual son of Svetlana Doxon suddenly stretched out an ethereal arm and it touched its hand against Svetlana\'s temple.

"Feel it. Feel the pain and despair that your son experienced in his final hours!" Hal said with authority as all surrounding souls gave them a wide berth and Svetlana let out a screech that spread to the very end of the Nether realm,

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"