(I know someone will attack me for this chapter, so I'm kneeling in advance.)
Norton might not be particularly adept at using intrigue and scheming.
But when it comes to acting skills, Norton is truly unmatched!
Even the rebellious Abraham failed to see through his acting skills over the past century, which shows just how much Norton has honed his craft.
By exploiting the fact that mutating from one's own flesh and blood would create one's own creature, Norton precisely grasped three key points: Kuba could not linger for long, he had to kill him before he was hanged on the cross, and he wanted to break free from God's control and gain freedom. In doing so, he completely controlled Kuba's mentality.
To prevent Norton from continuing to wreak havoc on Garden of Eden, Kuba had no choice but to rely on Norton's talk of devouring to see if it could inflict real damage as Norton claimed.
After consuming Norton, he discovered that Norton could indeed transform him, even freeing him from God's limitations, so that joy could overshadow his inner doubts, thus leading to his complete descent into ruin...
If Existence Level is Kuba's divine skill, then half-baked creation is Norton's divine skill!
Kuba's original divine body was created entirely by God, and the divine nature of his body granted him a life level similar to that of God (referring only to the level of the divine body God used after entering the Garden of Eden ).
However, with the injection of Norton's foreign influence, after the body of Kuba mutated, its structure was no longer entirely created by God, but rather mixed with a trace of Norton's influence.
Similar to how Kuba's divine body is a program generated by code written by God, but now Norton has also added his code, this mutated program is now run by the code of both God and Norton.
Therefore, Norton gained a certain degree of control over the Kuba's Body program by controlling his own portion of the mutated code.
The reason why the divine body possesses Existence Level is because it is the sum total of all creations constructed by God. However, this sum total has now been destroyed and is no longer the sum total of all creations. Therefore, the so-called divine body is no longer a divine body, Existence Level, it no longer possesses a person.
Norton's uniqueness lies not only in the fact that he is an outsider and a heretic, but also in the fact that after his code was added, this product, which combines the code of both God and Norton, could still run. This is the most special thing about it.
The real danger isn't in getting it running, but in the fact that Norton can extract its own code at any time once it's running, causing these malformed programs to completely crash. That's what's truly terrifying. (I've explained this further for those who didn't understand.)
Kuba's expression changed drastically as Norton choked him and lifted him into the air.
His slightly reddened eyes stared in terror at Norton's dark eyes, his neck almost snapped by Norton's grip.
The feeling of having everything under control just now has completely vanished. Not only has it vanished, but now a layer of Pressure far greater than that of life force is covering Kuba's body.
This Pressure was incredibly familiar to Kuba, so familiar that it easily evoked his ancient memories.
Because of this great aura, he had already experienced far too much from God's divine body!
"No, this is impossible! I, Kuba, am a divine being, my Existence Level was bestowed upon me by God! How could you bring down my Existence Level... No, why do you possess the aura of God?"
No!!!"
Kuba's eyes were bulged out by Norton's grip. Not only has he lost all his Existence Level, but the reason for the change in his divine body is that a part of his living essence is still in Norton's hands. Therefore, the status between the two has changed drastically in an instant.
The original Kuba, Bowser, has now evolved into a mutated product of Norton. Although the mutation is not complete, and his divine body is still most likely constructed from God's creations, the mere one ten-millionth of influence from Norton has still caused him to lose his Existence Level, and even his entire life can be arbitrarily controlled by Norton.
Because Norton could already control the genes within him, thereby completely destroying his flesh and blood.
" Existence Level?" The decaying skin on Norton's back was suddenly ripped open from the inside, and two pale wings emerged.
"Whoosh!" With a whoosh of wings, its body floated up, gripping Kuba's neck and making the two fly together in the cave.
His dark eyes looked at Kuba's terrified expression with amusement, then he raised his head and laughed heartily with a sigh.
" Existence Level, hahaha, Existence Level, what a ridiculous word! It is because of the existence of this so-called Existence Level that this world is truly divided into different classes! The existence of one Existence Level can crush everything below Existence Level!"
Those Existence Level official are all mere straw dogs; I, Norton, have learned this all too well!
But from this moment forward, there can only be one Existence Level individual in this world: Norton!
Norton's laughter abruptly ceased; his previously arrogant expression instantly turned calm, making him look like a madman.
His dark eyes looked at Kuba, whom he was holding in his hand, and at the eyes that were beginning to glow red. A trace of pity appeared on his face, which had been laughing wildly just moments before. He loosened his grip on Kuba's neck slightly, and his words were filled with tenderness.
"You've sealed yourself away for thousands of years for the sake of Garden of Eden; you're quite a pitiful person. If I had the ability to erase memories, I would definitely use it on you and let you enjoy life to the fullest."
But unfortunately, I didn't.
So, to put my mind at ease, you should just disappear!
"If you don't die, I, Norton, won't be able to sleep soundly!"
"Buzz!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Kuba felt an extremely powerful and familiar force field being generated on Norton's body, instantly enveloping half of the Papal State.
As that force field appeared, a sense of detachment began to emerge from Kuba's body.
Norton slowly released his grip on Kuba, watching with pity as Kuba's body slowly floated down from mid-air.
Kuba felt that familiar yet powerful force field, an overwhelming sense of panic and a strange sadness welled up within him.
His body sank uncontrollably downwards as if drowning. He reached out helplessly, waving his hands frantically like a drowning man, trying to grab onto something.
However, his slowly sinking body could no longer find any support, and he could only struggle upwards in a panic, helpless, and fearful manner, just like a real drowning person, but all his efforts were in vain.
As his body slowly fell, tiny fragments began to peel away from his skin...
Kuba felt his body disintegrate in disbelief. His exquisitely perfect face was filled with fear and despair. His sorrowful eyes looked at Norton, filled with helplessness and desolation.
"No! No! No! What did you do? What did you do? Why do I feel so powerless? No, I feel like I'm disappearing, I..."
His body slowly fell to the ground as it disintegrated. It was indeed a divine body created by God. Even though Norton had removed the essence of his current body, that great creation unique to God was still able to support him as he slowly withered away, instead of turning to ashes in an instant like the Vampire created by Norton.
As its decay slowed down, Norton noticed a slight difference between this slow decay and the instantaneous decay.
Those Vampire that withered away in an instant died too quickly for him to perceive any specific changes.
However, Kuba's decomposition is now slow, and Norton can clearly sense the changes in his body through his Pressure.
As he attempted to annihilate it, in an instant, the mutation belonging to Norton within Kuba was extracted, which was the reason for the complete collapse of his body.
However, after Norton extracted the Norton mutation from Kuba's body, all that remained of Kuba's disintegrating body was God's creation.
Because its body has mutated, the combined creations of God and Norton constitute the operating logic of this mutated species. Therefore, after Norton extracted his own elements, although this mutated species was doomed due to the fundamental lack of its operating mechanism, the part of it that belonged exclusively to God's creation was not under Norton's control. (Some people may still not understand, so let me explain.)
Therefore, if Norton's attempt to annihilate it fails to immediately disintegrate, it will instead revert to its pre-mutation state, beyond Norton's control.
Although death was inevitable, in this final, slow decay, it somehow returned to a state that Norton could no longer control.
This is why Norton is considered a forgery; his so-called theft of God's authority is ultimately just a clever trick!
This unusual occurrence caused Norton to frown, and a bad feeling rose in his heart.
"Oh no, I have this feeling like I've become the villain, and in the end, I failed completely?"
Norton has always placed more faith in his intuition.
Watching Kuba's body gradually fall, he spread his wings and flew down into the cave with a whoosh to pick up the white bone nails and bone crosses on the ground.
He is now only one step away from complete freedom, and he cannot afford to be careless in the slightest.
Since Kuba's body is decomposing so slowly, if he were to make a final desperate attempt, he would surely try to retrieve the bone nails and the cross to seal Norton away.
So Norton anticipated the enemy's moves first, to avoid any dramatic twists and turns!
He suspected that Kuba was putting on an act, because it was hard to believe that First Stage god would appear so weak when clearly on the verge of death. Norton had tried every possible method before!
Would he, Kuba, really be so cowardly?
With a whoosh of Norton's wings, his body flew downwards.
Seeing Norton suddenly fly down, Kuba's incredulous and pained words abruptly stopped, his expression changed drastically, and then his body, which was still scattering debris, suddenly trembled, and two pure white bone wings, just like Norton's, suddenly unfolded behind him, then fell like a pure white arrow towards the pure white bone nail below.
"You were really acting against me!" Norton was terrified, his pure white wings flapping so hard they almost broke off.
He instantly unleashed his Pressure to its maximum, but now that Kuba's body was nothing more than a decaying creation of God, Norton's Pressure was rendered useless.
On the contrary, the body of Kuba, a creation of God, was originally in the Existence Level of a divine being, and its strength was far greater than that of Norton.
Previously, his body possessed Norton's mutated genes, allowing Norton to easily crush or destroy him. However, now that his body no longer contains Norton's genes, Norton can no longer compare to him.
His Existence Level was not reborn due to the mutation of his body and his complete decay, but the strength unique to God's creation was still able to suppress Norton's still incomplete body.
As Kuba spread his wings, his body flew much faster than Norton's, a change that left Norton utterly astonished.
In the past, eliminating all threats was a necessary tactic for navigating the world of martial arts, and Norton did the same. Unexpectedly, it backfired, turning his advantageous position into a disadvantageous one!
"Damn it, I was too careless! If I had gotten the Pale Nail and the Cross before destroying Kuba, none of this mess would have happened!"
But it's really not his fault. Who would have thought that Kuba's death wasn't instantaneous, but rather a gradual decomposition?
Fortunately, Norton flew early and was close to the nail and cross. His pale, decaying body crashed to the ground, and like a crawling tortoise, he flapped his wings to pick up the pale nail, then stabbed it into the chest of the lunging Kuba.
Kuba was a step slower, only a body length behind. He stared in disbelief at the bone nails hurtling towards him. Having lost his ability to float, he could only use his pale wings to stop his momentum, but it was of little use.
Seeing that the pale bone nail was about to pierce him, he could only hurriedly stretch out his hands to block it.
"Puff!"
The pure white bone nail pierced Kuba 'Kuba pale palm, making his face contort in a grotesque grimace.
Norton stood upright on his legs, flapping his wings and whistling as he forcefully thrust the pale bone nail toward Kuba.
Kuba's exquisite face was now bared, revealing fangs and contorted in a ferocious grimace. The previous anguish was completely gone from his face; instead, his expression was one of madness.
His palm pressed down hard on the pale bone nail, and his wings flapped fiercely to exert downward pressure. He relied on the last reserves of his divine body to wrestle with Norton. His pale body was covered with ashes as his wings flapped. His face had never been so crazy and ferocious.
Its ferocious mouth opened, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth, and its body, relying on the last special feature of God's creation, emitted a huge, mournful cry that could be heard across half of the Southern Continent.
"From the moment I Kuba born, I discovered that all things are like straw dogs, eternally imprisoned and unable to be free under the oppression of Existence Level. Therefore, I resolved to help all things break free from the oppression of Existence Level, even at the cost of assassinating God and sealing myself on the cross for ten thousand years!"
Unexpectedly, after ten thousand years, the old God was sealed away, yet some people still aspire to become the new God in order to establish their own oppressive Existence Level.
Such an existence is a calamity for all things. I, Kuba, was bewitched and deceived by this wicked man. Now I am about to die, but I still have the will to seal this evil man away for the Garden of Eden!
Those in the Southern Continent who hear this voice, remember this: never release this villain from his seal, or disaster will ensue and terror will descend!!!
With a deafening roar that nearly shattered the cave, Kuba's hand, pierced by the pale cross, even severed completely, frantically pressed the massive head of the pure white bone spur towards Norton's body.
"Ahhh!!! Wait, wait, we can reconcile. I don't want to be God, I just want to live an honest life, ahhhh..." Norton gritted his teeth, black liquid overflowing from his two dark eyes, like black blood.
His wings flapped frantically behind him, and he desperately resisted the downward force of Kuba with his hands. However, his body had not yet reached the Fourth Stage, and it was ultimately no match for the strength of Kuba's Fourth Stage Existence Level body. Under such intense struggle, he could only watch helplessly as the end of the pale bone nail pressed down towards his chest.
An unprecedented fear finally gripped Norton's heart, and as the pale bone nail pierced his chest, he begged for mercy frantically.
However, all his efforts were in vain. Kuba, whose body was constantly dissipating, showed no intention of giving up and continued to press the bone nail down relentlessly.
"No! I can't die! I can't be sealed away! I want freedom, I want freedom!!!"
Black tears of blood welled up in Norton's eyes. He could no longer wrestle with Kuba. He pulled his hands outwards sharply, dislodging the bone nail, and then spread his wings and flew away, desperately trying to escape.
Just as he turned around and flew two meters with the flap of his pale wings, Kuba's enormous wings spread out behind him, and at the same time, he stretched out his pale arm and forcefully grabbed Norton's calf, pulling his flying body down. Then, the pale bone nail in his right hand stabbed fiercely into Norton's back.
"Puff!"
The bone nail pierced through his body, tearing through Norton's wings and flesh, and plunged deep into his chest cavity.
"No!!!"
A piercing scream echoed through the cave, Norton's soaring body plummeted to the ground mid-air...