NOVEL WEB Chapter 425: Ascension to Godhood?
The sea of mana quivered again—this time not from the presence of the goddess, but from him.
From Pyris.
The moment he accepted the Lust Embodiment, something fundamental shifted—not in the world, but in the rules that governed it.
At first, the Lust Essence had flowed in like a steady stream. He could handle it. It entered through the cracks in reality around him—threads of desire, flickers of temptation, sighs from the hearts of distant minds. He felt it touch him gently, like a breeze made of emotion.
But then it changed.
Suddenly, more came.
More than the air could carry.
More than space should have held.
The crowd gathered for the launch of the Game, oblivious to what was happening in this divine layer of reality, unknowingly fed him. Thousands of people—millions across the realm—each with thoughts, glances, silent wants. Their desires weren't spoken. They didn't need to be. It was enough that they existed. Enough that their souls whispered need.
And Pyris heard every one. Their lust!
Their Lust poured into him like molten starlight—not crude, but elegant. Refined. Pure. The essence of what Lust truly was, untouched by vulgarity or shame. Not a weapon, not a vice, but a truth.
It didn't go into his body alone—it burrowed into his core.
Into the very place his soul sat.
And with every breath, every flicker of incoming essence, he felt it—his power rising, not by numbers, not by system metrics or combat strength, but by something higher.
Meaning.
He was technically still Rank 17. A mid-tier to high-tier Ascendant. By all traditional standards, not even close to godhood.
And yet—
Reality itself responded to him like it did to deities.
The mana around him bent. Light dimmed and swirled in flirtation with his aura. Time stilled slightly—barely, subtly—but enough to show that even Chronos paused to observe. The world didn't just see him.
It acknowledged him.
Not as a man. Not even as a being of power.
But as a presence.
A potential presentation of a concept.
He could feel it coming—ascension.
Not in the traditional sense. Not with wings or halos or a declaration from the heavens. But something deeper.
A becoming.
His mind briefly flickered, touching the edge of the Lust Concept itself. He saw the abstract formed. Felt the gravitational pull of what it meant to represent—not imitate, not channel—but to be.
And it hurt.
It was like staring at the sun behind your own eyes. But even as the power crushed into his soul, trying to fold him into itself, he held.
The ichor pulsed. The Endless aura around him ignited.
And he stood in it.
He wasn't a god yet.
But the line that divided power from meaning was cracking.
And Pyris—
Partial Embodiment of Lust, Rank 17, Corruption of Divinity—
Was walking through that fracture, rewriting what ascension meant.
The sea of mana inside him quivered again—this time not from the presence of the goddess, but from him.
From Pyris.
Something fundamental shifted—not in the world, but in the rules that governed it.
The mana around him bent. Light dimmed and swirled in flirtation with his aura. Time stilled slightly—barely, subtly—but enough to show that even Chronos paused to observe. The world didn't just see him.
It acknowledged him.
Not as a man. Not even as a being of power.
But as a presence.
A potential presentation of a concept.
He could feel it coming—ascension.
Not in the traditional sense. Not with wings or halos or a declaration from the heavens. But something deeper.
A becoming!
His mind briefly flickered, touching the edge of the Lust Concept itself. He saw the abstract formed. Felt the gravitational pull of what it meant to represent—not imitate, not channel—but to be.
And it hurt.
It was like staring at the sun behind your own eyes. But even as the power crushed into his soul, trying to fold him into itself, he held.
The ichor pulsed. The Endless aura around him ignited.
And he stood in it.
He wasn't a god yet.
But the line that divided power from meaning was cracking.
And Pyris—
Partial Embodiment of Lust, Rank 17, Corruption of Divinity—
Was walking through that fracture, rewriting what ascension meant.
[Ding! Host is ascending to godhood…]
[Alert: Host is about to face the Godhood Retribution…]
And then—stillness.
It wasn't pain.
It wasn't power.
It was becoming.
As Pyris stood on the precipice—between what he had been and what the cosmos feared he might become—his body no longer felt like flesh and bone. It pulsed not with mana, but with meaning. His skin wasn't holding energy—it was being rewritten into energy. His blood ran like wildfire soaked in silk, surging with truths older than history.
His bones… hummed. Not like weapons, but like melodies—harmonies composed in the language of temptation and divinity.
His breath slowed.
Not from weakness.
But from reverence.
The universe, in that moment, felt like it had stopped just to watch him.
To see if he would dare cross the line.
And Pyris did not speak.
He did not scream.
He simply was.
And as his soul expanded, memories—not just his own—rushed through him.
Faces. Names. Lovers. Cries. Desires unspoken and lives unlived. Regrets. Cravings. The ache of longing echoing from the throats of billions. It all crashed into him like collapsing galaxies, and yet he held. They weren't voices of the past. They were pillars of the present.
Because he was no longer a man of the world.
He was becoming one of the truths that built it.
Time bowed.
Space inhaled.
Existence leaned in.
And then—he felt it again in it's most raw form!
Lust.
Not the act.
Not the temptation.
But the Concept.
It coiled around his soul like a crown of stars made from longing itself. It didn't just accept him. It recognized him. Welcomed him home. Pyris was not becoming a god who watched from clouds, nor a statue worshipped in echoing temples.
He was becoming the kind of god whose name was erased from every scroll because it was too dangerous to speak.
The kind of god that rewrote the law of want.
And in that final instant— something cracked.
Not in agony.
Not in fear.
But in arrival.
[Ding… Ascension to godhood… Processing concept alignment…]
But then—
[ALERT! Ascension to godhood rejected!]
Everything stopped.
The mana sea froze.
The stars went silent.
The ichor inside Pyris' veins turned cold—not from rejection, but from suspension. The Endless aura around him shimmered erratically. The cosmos, which had begun to open its gates, sealed them shut in a breath.
Not because he wasn't worthy.
Not because he was weak.
But because there was already a God of Lust.
And Pyris…
Pyris was no second.
He was not made to repeat a legacy.
He was becoming something else.
And that's what terrified the structure most of all.