Desire's Vessel: My Lewd Reincarnation-Chapter 43: Divine Challenge 4

A roar of explosions were prominent throughout the desert landscape as Helios tore free of Naga’s coils, divine golden fire ripping through the serpent’s body and hurling it aside in a spiral of molten light. Egar slammed in immediately after, its massive claws crashing into Helios’ chest plate with enough force to crater the desert sand beneath them both.

Zaja barely registered the exchange as his vision was flooded with violet and gold system light.

The pain throbbed through his ribs with a sharp insistent wince and his lungs burned with every breath. His skin felt tight and he was seconds away from being outpaced completely.

He had scrolled through the system shop, past weapons, artifacts, buffs and even contracts but those were not what he needed at the moment.

When he spotted, he knew it was exactly his taste:

~Ember of the Unreturned Moment~

~Price: 9,999 Desire Points~

~Additional cost: casual debt required~

The price was just under his Desire Points balance and he immediately tapped the confirm to purchase.

The systems interface froze for a few seconds as if it was hesitant or reluctant to grant his decision.

~Warning: this purchase will permanently erase one guaranteed positive outcome from the vessel’s future. This action is irreversible~

~Description: a crystallized fragment of a moment that was never allowed to complete. When consumed, the user’s body is forcibly restored to the exact physical state it held one heartbeat before receiving its first injury in the current combat instance.~

It sounded like a heal, but it wasn’t. It instantly rewinds Zaja’s physical condition to a pristine state from earlier in the fight, burns, microfractures, muscle tears, nervous shock etc. And it works even under divine suppression, bypassing regeneration resistance because it doesn’t heal, it reasserts a prior truth of the vessel.

Although the wisdom of the Obsidian Wyrm Stallion didn’t prevent him from making this decision, somehow the Desire System felt it was an item that came with a steep cost. The user permanently forfeits the next guaranteed positive outcome in their future, a totally random event that would guarantee failure.

Zaja exhaled slowly, his attention returning to the battle between his Red Veil Arcane beasts and Helios. Egar was bleeding thick red blood oozing out of its wounds. Naga’s body flickered, struggling to maintain form under divine pressure. Helios stood at the center of it all radiant and inexhaustible. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Take it..."

~Purchase confirmed~

The ember manifested in his palm almost immediately. It was a small, jagged shard of amber crystal, pulsing softly like a heartbeat frozen in time. When his fingers closed around it seemed to pulse even more.

It absorbed into his skin and almost instantly all pain in his body vanished, the damage to his flawless skin and Zaja let in a gasp of relief or shock depending on how much you look at it.

His body snapped back to a prior state, his muscles were whole again and his skin became unbroken with his lungs clear as ever. The ache of injury was gone, but something colder replaced it. A hollow deep sensation in his, usually where he felt his Shadow Fire, like a door quietly sealing somewhere far away.

The ember crumbled into ash in his hands, Zaja watched it happened and he straightened up.

Helios felt a power boost in the surrounding area and the god froze mid motion, his head snapping toward Zaja as the sun overhead flickered violently.

"What did you just do Jester child..." Helios growled.

Zaja flashed his perfect thirty two with a smile and left the ground with a deafening boom, the Shadow Fire detonating beneath his feet, launching him forward in a blur of black and deep red. The mirrored sand darkened as he passed, reflections dying where his presence once touched.

Helios sensed danger and raised his spear, but his reactions were ultimately too slow as the shadow’s edge slammed into his divine armour, the light instantly collapsed inward and the impact bent space itself, hurling Helios backwards for the first time.

The god skidded across the desert, carving molten trenches, Zaja however did not let this rare chance go to waste, he pressed harder with relentless blade moving in tight efficient arcs, with his Shadow Fire energy bleeding off every strike and devouring excess heat.

Helios countered with brutal precision, his spear flashing like a second miniature sun, each thrust capable of erasing mountains. They collided again and again, shockwaves tearing the desert apart.

"Now!!!" Zaja barked.

Immediately Naga surged back into the fight, coiling around Helios’s arm mid thrust, its fangs sinking deep as Shadow Fire energy flooded divine channels. Egar slammed in from the opposite side, its claws tearing at Helios’s golden armour, forcing the god to brace under combined weight.

Zaja saw a completely ajar window and took his chance, moving through them, he leaped, the Shadow Fire exploded from his chest with raw and uncontrolled power, launching him skyward as he twisted mid air and brought the shdow’s edge down in a tow handed arc.

The attack landed straight at the chest of the god and he staggered.

"You overreach," the god thundered. "Mortal flesh cannot contain..."

Zaja landed hard and the Shadow Fire energies poured off him in violent, dramatic waves.

Helios seemed to feel the power boost in Zaja as if it was some kind of absence given will

"Impossible..." the god whispered.

Zaja raised his hand and Shadow Fire energies gathered with a so much pressure, density and weight. The mirrored desert around him collapsed inward and reflections shattered as if crushed by gravity.

"Both of you..." Zaja said calmly. "Clear..."

The Red Veil Arcane Beasts disengaged instantly, retreating as the shadow swelled, then Zaja thrust his palm forward and with that, the result of their meeting was final.

A beam of raw Shadow Fire tore across the desert, swallowing Helios whole. The divine flame screamed as it stripped away, light collapsing into nothingness as the god was slammed into the dunes with catastrophic force.

And when the shadow cleared, Helios lay embedded in a crater of blackened glass, his armour was crack, crown of flame dim and unstable. Golden igor pooled beneath him, evaporating slowly.

Zaja walked over him and looked him dead in the eye, "...Now, your grace... I would love to have my three wishes now..."