NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1045: 1042: Gate of Death
As the black sphere of death and madness crumbled into pieces, the Clown's new form appeared.
From the black sphere of death, something colossal emerged from it.
A giant of madness.
The Clown's new body towered like a mountain of twisted flesh and dripping scarlet ichor. Countless faces, the remnants of those he had absorbed, bulged and contorted across his skin.
Some were laughing, some were crying, some were howling, and some were whispering the secrets of death. Secrets that mortals should never hear.
The Clown's hair, if it could still be called that, flowed like black smoke, writhing in defiance of gravity.
His spine protruded in jagged arcs, forming something like the ribs of a broken cathedral, and from his back were tattered wings made of flayed pages, each etched with runes that bled as they fluttered.
In his chest, where a heart should be, the Book of Death pulsed. It was embedded in the Clown's massive chest, and its pages were open. Its pages turned endlessly on their own, every turn releasing screams that warped the air.
His eyes were no longer eyes, but spinning spirals of black and white that burned with pure delirium. His left eye was black, while his right eye was white.
Strangely enough, his massive face was still covered by his mask. The mask had enlarged to cover his face.
When Corey, Pamela, Queen Nerith, Jeremy, and the others looked into them, they saw their reflections twisting, melting, and dying a thousand deaths.
It was like they were seeing a thousand ways by which death could claim them.
Every movement he made caused the ground to wilt, the skies to darken, and the souls of the living to tremble. His laughter which was half divine, half monstrous, like a choir of insane fallen angels... echoed across the world tree's realm and beyond the Chained Firmament.
The moment the Clown's new form took shape, the world convulsed. The air turned thick, not with mist, but with blood vapor mixed with the aura of death.
Every breath Corey, Pamela, Queen Nerith, Jeremy, Elizabeth, Caesar, Rorik, and Mathias took was heavy and metallic, like inhaling the last sighs of the dead.
The ground beneath them wept crimson as if the soil itself bled, forming rivers that coiled toward the Clown's feet like serpents returning to their master.
The sky which was filled with silver thunderstorms and Corey's formation, shattered.
The clouds twisted into spirals, and the lightning in the sky changed.
Corey's expression changed and he nearly coughed out a mouthful of blood as he felt his control over the lightning in the sky shatter.
The silver lightning changed, its color became two colors- deep scarlet and black, much darker than Corey's tribulation lightning.
Each bolt struck the land, causing decay to spread across the land and even the air that was struck itself.
The sun dimmed to a dying ember, and a few moments later, it blinked out entirely, leaving only the crimson light that radiated from the Clown's monstrous body and the crimson and black lightning in the sky brightened the realm.
Meanwhile, the Book of Death which was now embedded in the Clown's chest bled words into reality.
Every letter that spilled from its pages became a living curse that crawled across the air like insects made of ink. They attached themselves to existence and whispered blasphemies that corroded the very idea of life.
Corey and the others heard these whispers at first, not knowing what they were, but the moment Jeremy coughed out a mouthful of blood and everybody noticed that they were dying, Pamela instinctively created a runic barrier that protected all of them from the whispers of the Book of Death.
Across the horizon of the world tree's realm where Corey's act of destruction had not touched, the laws of nature screamed.
Forests withered into ash. River's evaporated and turned into blood. The wind became filled with the Clown's laughter causing Corey and the rest to grimace, especially Corey who was using his Ears of Omniscience.
The Clown's laughter caused his Sea of Consciousness to tremble, and this was significant because his mental defenses were as strong as that of an Immortal's mental defenses.
That was not all that happened after the Clown's transformation.
The shadows in the world tree's realm began moving on their own, worshipping their new Lord and master.
Even mana itself recoiled and rebelled as the Clown's death qi slowly filled the realm. The once vibrant energy of the world coiled in fear, turning dark and unstable.
Queen Nerith, Jeremy, and his companions felt the mana in their bodies becoming a lot weaker.
Their weapons which utilizes mana also became weaker and 'dull'. Those who were sensitive to mana like Corey, Pamela, Elizabeth, and Queen Nerith saw a swirling vortex of despair centered around the Clown's colossal form... It was like a living black hole.
And then... This black hole manifested in the physical world and not just the spiritual world.
And from the black hole, a gate that was thrice the size of the Clown's current form manifested, causing the expressions of Corey and the rest to drastically.
Their instincts and very beings warned them of the gate, and then they all bled from their eyes and orifices, releasing screams of pain and terror.
Even Corey and Pamela were not exceptions.
The gate was something they should not have seen. Something that was far beyond them. Something that only the true gods of their universe had the bare minimum qualifications to look at without running mad.
Everybody was in serious agony, and their screams of agony fueled the laughter of the Clown.
"HAHAHAHAHA! MORE! MORE! BEHOLD MY WORK OF ART! DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME, COREY!"
The Clown's voice boomed throughout the realm, his voice sounding like the thousands of people he had absorbed into himself.
But none was able to react to the Clown's words and voice, they were all fighting for their lives after looking at the Gate of Death.
A few moments later, the Gate of Death opened.