FREE USE in Primitive World

Chapter 176: Chapter 176: Divine Law Fragment

The Void Temple

Back in the epicenter, the pressure was heavy enough to crush diamonds.

Sol hung suspended in the eye of the storm. He was no longer conscious in the human sense. His mind was drifting in a white ocean of pure information.

The chanting grew louder and louder, a deafening symphony that vibrated even the ancient obsidian pillars.

OMMMM. AEX. OMMMMM. DOMINUS.

More and more divine glow gathered around Sol, swirling like a nebula being born. It coalesced, turning from white to gold, then to a deep, burning Charcoal laced with starlight.

On the throne, Isylia watched with wide, tear-filled eyes. She recognized the chant. She had heard it only once before, at the dawn of her own creation.

…

CRACK.

Finally it seemed to reach the peak and light solidified. It slammed onto Sol’s skin.

Massive, unknown divine tattoos began to etch themselves across his naked body. They started at his fingertips and toes, racing inward like burning ink.

They spiraled up his legs, wrapped around his torso, accentuating every muscle, climbed his neck, interlocking with the veins of starlight and pure divine power.

Sol screamed silently, his mouth open in a rictus of ecstasy and agony as the laws of the universe were inscribed onto his biological form. His mortal shell was being forcibly upgraded to house a Divine Concept.

The tattoos pulsed, moving around like living beings. Finally, they flowed upward, converging on his face.

The chanting reached a fever pitch, a single, sustained note that threatened to shatter the dimension.

FLASH.

All the lines met in the center of his forehead. They twisted, knotted, and fused into a single, complex Character.

Isylia gasped. She knew that character. It was a symbol from a language lost to time… a mark that signified the birth of a divine concept shard.

The character shone with a blinding, diamond-hard brilliance for a single heartbeat. It seared itself into his skull, burning through bone and brain, etching itself onto his soul.

And then, just as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished.

The light died. The tattoos sank beneath his skin, disappearing into his flesh, becoming part of his DNA, waiting to be called upon. The chanting cut off into silence. The pressure evaporated.

Sol hung in the air for a second longer, a mortal man who now carried the invisible blueprint of a god.

Then, gravity remembered him.

He fell.

Thump.

He landed on Isylia, a dead weight of warm, sweating, god-marked flesh.

Isylia stared at him, her chest heaving, her mind reeling. She reached out a trembling hand and touched his forehead, right where the mark had been. It was burning hot to the touch.

“How is this possible?” she whispered to the unconscious man.

…

Suddenly, Sol gasped, his lungs inflating with a sudden, violent rush of air.

His eyes snapped open. The first thing he saw was not the terrifying expanse of the void, but the stunned, wide-eyed face of Isylia beneath him.

He blinked, a wave of disorientation washing over him like a cold tide. The last thing he remembered was burning… burning from the inside out, his soul being shredded by a pressure that shouldn’t exist. Now, there was only a hum. A low, vibrating thrum of energy that seemed to originate from the marrow of his bones.

He tried to push himself up, and that was when the first anomaly struck.

He pushed too hard.

With a sensation of weightlessness, his upper body shot upward with explosive force. His hands, pressing against the obsidian floor on either side of Isylia, didn’t just support him; they felt like hydraulic presses.

CRUNCH.

The ancient stone beneath his palms, stone that had weathered countless eons, groaned and spiderwebbed with deep, jagged cracks. Debris popped into the air like shrapnel.

“Whoa,” Sol muttered, his voice dropping an octave, losing its boyish rasp and gaining a deep, resonant timber that could induce wet dreams in any female.

He looked down at himself.

He was… larger, not just his weapon, his whole body seemed to have a glow up.

His height had stretched, his frame broadening to accommodate muscles that were no longer just lean, but dense and coiled like braided steel cables. His skin, previously rough and light tanned, now held a faint, healthy luster, almost as if a layer of diamond dust had been mixed into his epidermis.

He felt a surge of power coursing through his veins, a torrential river compared to the trickle he was used to.

He flexed his hand. The air popped between his fingers.

“Isylia?” Sol looked down at the Goddess, confusion warring with the adrenaline in his blood. “What happened? I feel—”

“Quiet,” Isylia interrupted, her voice breathless. She wasn’t looking at his face. She was staring at his chest, where the last remnants of the complex, glowing divine tattoos were sinking into his pores, fading like ink soaking into wet paper.

She reached up, her cool fingers tracing the line of his pectoral muscle, feeling the supernatural heat radiating from him.

“You…” She looked up, her golden eyes searching his now faintly crimson ones. “What are you?”

Sol frowned. “I was hoping you could tell me. One minute I had poured all my seeds in you and exhausted, the next I’m… this.”

Isylia sat up, pushing him back slightly so she could look him in the eye. The playful, seductive demeanor she sometimes wore was gone, replaced by the serious, piercing gaze of a Primordial.

“You have a Divine Law Fragment inside you,” she said, the words heavy with disbelief. “You didn’t have it before. Not a trace. But now… your body is pulsing with it.”

“Divine Law Fragment?” Sol repeated the term, testing the weight of it on his tongue. “Is that what those glowing tattoos were?”

“Yes,” Isylia said, shaking her head as if trying to clear a fog. She looked at him with a mix of frustration and awe. “Listen closely, Sol. The universe is built on rigid Laws. Fire, Space, Time, Death, Life… everything is governed by a Law. Usually, these Laws are abstract concepts, invisible threads holding reality together.

But sometimes, when the conditions are right, these Laws crystallize. They shatter into fragments.”

She gestured to the chaotic air around them.

“If a being acquires enough of these fragments… through a long, agonizing, and arduous process… they can weave them together to form a Divinity. That is how one becomes a God.”

Sol’s eyes widened. He looked at his hands again. “So… I just need to collect these things like coins?

“If only it were that simple,” Isylia scoffed, a dry, incredulous laugh escaping her lips. “Anything can become a Law, but the chances of finding a physical fragment are one in a trillion. Most mortals never even see one. So, most people don’t depend on finding them. Instead, they try to comprehend the Laws on their own.”

She leaned in, her eyes intense. “They meditate in caves for centuries. They fight, wage wars, massacre millions, some crazy ones, even starve themselves to clear their minds, hoping to catch a fleeting glimpse of the Truth, creating artificial Law Fragments in their minds. It takes eons.”

She poked him hard in the chest. Her finger met muscle as hard as iron.

“But you… You didn’t study. You didn’t meditate for a thousand years. You didn’t fight or kill nor did you have a fruitious encounter.”

Her golden eyes narrowed. “You just… mated. You slept with me, and somehow, your body treated my essence like a buffet. You bypassed eons of comprehension and just absorbed the fundamental truths of the universe directly into your DNA.”

Sol blinked. A slow, incredulous grin began to spread across his face. “So, you’re saying I got the cheat codes?”

“I don’t know what a ’cheat code’ is, but I assume it means cosmic theft,” Isylia snapped, though there was no malice in it, only bewilderment. “You are an anomaly, Sol. Most mortals cannot even sense Divine Law Fragments. If they try to touch one, their souls burn to ash. Even the strongest human emperors can’t absorb them without incredible luck and destiny. But you… you just took them. It’s absurd. It’s insulting my aeons of knowledge”

Sol chuckled, flexing his new muscles again. The power felt intoxicating. “Well, it seems I wasn’t really at a loss meeting you, was I? In fact, I think I got the better end of the deal.”

Isylia rolled her eyes, but a flush colored her cheeks. “Don’t get cocky. Just because you have them doesn’t mean you can use them.”

Sol paused. He tried to “flex” his soul, trying to call upon that burning white light he had felt earlier. Nothing happened. Just the physical strength.

“How do I use them?” he asked, looking up at her with puppy eyes.

“You don’t. Not yet,” Isylia explained, standing up and dusting off her robes. “Your body is still mortal.You need divine power to even barely feel it let alone use. For now, they will lay dormant in your cells. They will slowly nourish your body and soul, refining you, making your potential limitless. You need to become strong enough… surpass your mortal limits… and then you will naturally be able to access them.”

She looked at him, her expression turning solemn. “There are others in the vast universe who absorb these fragments. Those with the highest concentration, who can achieve enlightenment and pass the World’s Test… they become the new Gods of that Law.”

Sol absorbed this information. He wasn’t just stronger; he had been given a ticket to the top of the food chain. He just had to survive long enough to cash it in.

He looked at Isylia, a newfound respect.. and perhaps something warmer… in his eyes.

“So,” Sol said, standing up and towering over her slightly. “It means that the only reason I have a shot at this… is because you are super awesome.”

Isylia froze.

She blinked, surprised by the sudden compliment. Then, she tossed her hair back, her golden eyes shimmering with ancient pride and a hint of vanity.

“Of course, who do you think I am,” she declared, lifting her chin.