The Divine Immortal chapter 6: Reality Refracted (This is the unedited version)

Xerxes reappeared back at Nammu before he could comprehend what had just occurred.

“We’re so close to achieving our goal.” Xerxes thinks to himself

Xerxes suddenly gets a rush of emotions fill his chest. Agony, starvation, desperation, and fear overwhelm the last surviving Nammuian.

“What are these sorrowful cries” Xerxes mumbled in the dead, dormant planet

Xerxes closes his eyes and tries to concentrate on a single voice at a time.

“Get off our planet”

“Return my child!”

“Stop, my home!”

“WHY!!!”

Xerxes felt a tear go down his cheek as he suffers the same anguish from each voices he focuses in on.

“Who and what are these voices” Xerxes asks out

Xerxes wanders on the planetary surface seeming to look for source for the cries. Xerxes wanders for a while, he finds himself back in one the great Nammuian cities, Akkad. Xerxes looks around in horror at the state of the once prosperous city.

“This was the center of trade, a hotspot for children, not a site of war.” Xerxes wonders, “What happened here, why is there so much rubble and death?”

Xerxes once again focuses in on the voices.

“they’re taking all the men…”

“They’re taking all of our Magisteel!?”

“We have to fight back!”

“They’re slaughtering everyone!”

“Won’t anyone save us?”

Xerxes falls to his knees.

“I wasn’t there to protect them.. I MUST avenge them, my people deserved better than to slaughtered and used as slaves.” Xerxes said in agony

Xerxes looks at the remnants of the machines left by the invaders to see a logo and the words Tinted Earth.

“What is this… Tinted Earth, I must learn more” Xerxes said

‘Reunite us all and all your wishes will be realized’

Xerxes ponders about the nature of Tinted Earth but his thoughts begin to wander as he realizes he needs to return to his quest. Xerxes focuses on the Space stone on his back to pinpoint the location of his next destination. Xerxes creates a rip in space and whisks away. Soon Xerxes finds himself floating next to a supermassive pulsar. The collapsed neutron star sits at a neglected region of multiverse, in a region of space forgotten by Deities and Kaiju alike. Xerxes stares at the neutron star in disbelief, the radiation emitting from the pulsar begins bombarding Xerxes in astronomically lethal doses of radiation enough to kill a god, his immortality coupled with creation stone is the only thing keeping the tyrant alive.

“I can sense a stone lurking within, why did I not just warp inside this strange phenomenon” Xerxes said in confusion


‘Imagination’

Xerxes closes his eyes and thinks about his lessons from his youth. He remembers seeing a river, he remembers the lands shapes it, the clouds that fill it, and the plants that feed off of it.

“Life is not water, it is all of nature’s pieces working in harmony.” Xerxes remembers, “These stones aren’t just separate pieces, they too can work in harmony.”

Xerxes focuses deeply as his Destruction hand combines energies from the Space stone. Both stones glow intensely to create a miniature gravitational well in front of the pulsar, bending the light and radiation within causing a opening to appear. The opening is full of blind white light as it rushes out into space. Xerxes seizes the opportunity to enter the pulsar. Xerxes steps into the bright white room, he finds himself standing in what seems to be ankle deep “Water.” Xerxes steps through the area, his feet wades through the water, when Xerxes stopped. Xerxes creates a round stone and throws it at the water in front of the podium. The stone bounces and falls into a area of water and sinks silently.

“It cannot ever be this easy” Xerxes proudly decrees.

Suddenly the ground and water below Xerxes shakes violently as a Giant reflective serpentine creature emerges from the depths. Xerxes gets drenched in water as the creature emerges. Xerxes saw the crystalline texture on the snake.

“I assume you’re of this stone, are you a god, are you immortal, what manner of creature are you?” Xerxes loudly said

The snake does not respond, it’s eyes glows bright white, and it momentarily blinds Xerxes. After the quick flash, the giant snake loudly hisses at Xerxes with ill intent.

“I guess this won’t be a fruitful conversation” Xerxes says as he draws out his colossal sword and prepares himself for the snake’s move

The massive snake slithers backwards as it’s cobra-like hood opens wide. Xerxes prepares himself for a venomous strike when the giant snake suddenly flashes bright colorful lights which engulf the entire room.

“AGH!” Xerxes exclaims as he covers his eyes

Once Xerxes’s eyes refocus, he sees dozens of snakes slithering all around him in the sky and in the water below. Xerxes swings at one of the snakes as it passes by but the blade phases right through it, before Xerxes can figure out what happens, he is slapped by a tail from behind sending Xerxes flying across the wide area. Xerxes gets back up and closes his eyes, he feels out with the Soulsborne Geode, and hears the voice of the real snake.

“you ssssssssssshouldn’t be here tressssssssspassssssser”

Xerxes pinpoints the source of the voice in the quiver of illusions and starts approaching the real snake. The snake sees Xerxes approaching just to him over the illusions, hisses again, closes it’s hood, and dives back into the water. The illusions fade away and Xerxes opens his eyes.

“Your tricks are too banal” Xerxes taunts

The snake rises out of the water again and hisses once more.

“What did that immortal say to me again.. ‘ah yes, Phase two!’” Xerxes jokingly thinks to himself letting a smile escape to his face

The cobra’s hood opens once again flashes Xerxes with a dim-violet light. The room goes completely dark. Xerxes can’t see anything at all.

“Has this creature stolen my sight!?” Xerxes ponders

The 4 stones upon Xerxes’s body glows faintly giving Xerxes the smallest of light. Xerxes only sees the visible light emitted from stones.

“Ah, so this snake has removed the visible light from this room” Xerxes realizes

Xerxes remembers back to when his people made light in the darkest tunnels in their deepests caves. Xerxes once again concentrates and combines the energies of space and creation to create a dust nebulized phosphorus and begins covering the room with it. The phosphorus interacts with the ultraviolet light in the room to create a small amount of visible violet light. With the room lit up, Xerxes hurls a ball of destruction at the snake. The snake tries to get out of the way of it’s impending doom when the ball hits the tail of the long cobra as it tries to evade. The end of the tail that contacts the destructive ball fades from existence. The snake retreats back into the water and Xerxes hears a voice from the Soulsborne Geode

“Tresssssssspasssser you ssssssssshall die by the true light of the cosssssssmossssss”

Xerxes readies himself for the next emanation when the snake reappears, opens it’s hood, and blasts gamma radiation directly at Xerxes. The gamma rays hit Xerxes and he feels uncontrollable pain as he feels every cell being torn apart in his body. The intensity of the radiation dwarfs what he experiences at the pulsar until he completely vanishes from impact zone. The snake stops as it’s hood is disintegrating from intensity of the attack. The snake’s hood starts to turns a deep purple. Suddenly the hood is removed from both sides of the snakes head. The snake cries out with a giant hiss.

“No more tricks” Xerxes boasts as he reappears behind the snake’s head.

The snake whips it head to the side and flings Xerxes off of it. Xerxes quickly recovers and sees the snake rush at him. Xerxes smirks and empowers his colossal sword with destruction and cleaves the snake down the middle as it recklessly approaches. The crystalline snake breaks into two and then shatters into a billion pieces. Xerxes looks back at the podium, seeing the exposed quartz, and walks towards it. Xerxes approaches the materiallite quartz sitting on the pedestal and grabs it.

‘Your vision should not be limited to only visible light’

Xerxes slams the stone into his right temple and warps away.

He's literally becoming Chaos with the Chaos Emeralds (for context: In Sonic Adventure, Chaos, the god of destruction, wakes up and goes around fighting Sonic for the Chaos Emeralds and becomes stronger over time)

Interesting analogy