Against The True Gods

Caine and his summons moved like a single, complex chimeric entity—one mind and a thousand bodies. His rings hovered behind him, rapidly spinning and gliding across the battlefield like extensions of his body, weaving through the chaos with a precision that seemed almost preordained.

Caine unleashed everything—spells, martial arts, wills, intents, qi—and as he did so, the world suddenly became eerily quiet. The cacophony of war faded into the background, replaced by a stillness that pressed against his consciousness, as though reality itself held its breath. In this unnatural quiet, every movement, every breath, and every heartbeat felt amplified, more significant than it had ever been.

He slipped into a trance, his mind embracing the void of thought, leaving only pure instinct.

All he perceived was the now. His vision fractured, each moment crystallized into a series of still frames.

Scene after scene unfolded before him.

An enemy lunged. A blade swung. Flesh split. A scream silenced. A body fell.

Then another.

And another.

Again. And again. And again. And again.

Wounds blossomed across his body, staining his clothes crimson, yet they felt inconsequential.

Instead of slowing down, he became faster, sharper. Pain was an afterthought, an irrelevant whisper in the storm of his will. His movements grew fluid, a dance choreographed by death itself.

His summons mirrored his every motion, extensions of his mind and soul, fighting alongside him in perfect synchrony. His control over them reached an entirely new level, an apex he hadn't known was possible.

It was within this abyss of silence and carnage that his mind bloomed once more.

'My Gifts.'

He had awakened five gifts: Analyse, Master, Sense, Control, and Warp. They had been with him, latent and untested, waiting for the moment he was ready to wield them fully.

Even now, he hadn't truly tapped into their depths.

It wasn't carelessness that held him back. The gifts were profound, intricate, and demanding.

To focus on them would have slowed his progress to a crawl. Had he tried to master them earlier, he would still be trapped in the early stages of Bone Forging, his potential shackled by his own ambitions.

But what were these gifts, truly? Each one, like all gifts, possessed passive and active aspects that mirrored each other. Caine's gifts were no exception.

Control was the simplest and most straightforward of his gifts. Its passive ability, Inner Control, allowed him near-perfect mastery over his body and his aspects. His muscles, his nerves, his very essence—everything obeyed his will with flawless precision. He could feel every fiber of his being, every flicker of energy that surged within him. They were not just parts of him; they were him.

The active counterpart, Outer Control, allowed him to extend that mastery beyond himself. He had only used it once, during his coming-of-age ceremony before his battle with Toseh. With it, he could bend atmospheric qi to his will, turning the very air into an extension of his power. Even dormant, this ability had allowed him to steal shards of universal forces effortlessly, his subconscious mind persuading reality to yield to his influence.

Warp was more intricate, a gift entwined with the fabric of space and time. Its passive ability, Continuum Glide, granted him an uncanny awareness of spatial and temporal shifts. He could feel the subtle warps in the fabric of reality, the ripples and currents that others were blind to. The full depth of this ability was beyond his current comprehension, a puzzle whose pieces would only fit together in the distant future.

Its active ability, Distort, was a tool he wielded often, especially in combat. With it, he could twist distances, collapsing vast spaces into a single step. But that was merely the surface of its potential. He could distort perceptions, clouding his enemies' minds. He could twist his qi, making it more volatile, more dangerous. He could warp flesh and matter, inflicting wounds with a gesture. The versatility of Distort was terrifying, a reminder that space itself was pliable in his hands.

Analyse was the gift he used the most, often without realizing it. Its passive ability, Comprehend, stood at the zenith of the Quasi Immeasurable Heavenly Tier, like all his others. It allowed him to understand anything effortlessly, no matter how complex or arcane.

The only limitation was the fragility of his mind, unable to handle the sheer weight of comprehension. Even at a fraction of its potential, Comprehend had propelled him forward, an unyielding force that pushed him beyond his limits.

The active ability, Compute, processed and filtered the information Comprehend gathered. It smoothed the flood of knowledge, making it manageable, digestible. Without it, his mind would have shattered when he mastered multiple elements at once. This gift had saved him from his own ambitions.

Master was the perfect partner to Analyse, a gift of mastery and perfection. Its passive ability, Absolute Savant, allowed him to achieve Savant-level proficiency in any skill he chose. Mastery levels ascended from mortal grades to the Immeasurable Grade, but above that lay realms few could fathom: True Primordial, True Transcendent, and True Divine. And then, beyond even those, was the Savant Grade—a level so rare it defied record.

Achieving it was rarer than being born with an Immeasurable Circle.

The active ability, True Virtuoso, elevated Savant-level mastery to a higher state: the Virtuoso state. This mastery was exclusive to those with his gift, a realm where perfection transcended itself. Together with Analyse, Master formed a cycle of limitless growth. But this was why he couldn't use them fully. His body was too weak to endure the strain of such limitless potential.

Sense, his fifth gift, was deceptively simple. Its passive ability, Sensory Prime, sharpened his senses to their utmost limits, with no backlash. Sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell—all heightened, all perfect.

Its active ability, Sensory Domain, created a field where his senses fused with the natural world. Within this domain, nothing escaped him. He could see the unseen, hear the unheard, touch the intangible. Every detail, every whisper of reality, became part of him.

These gifts, simple in concept yet boundless in execution, formed a synergy so potent that his potential had to be sealed. His body could not withstand the full force of what he was.

But today, that seal would break.

RUMBLE!