The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

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“RAAAAHHH!”

“OOOOOHH!”

“GRAAAAHH!”

The rallying roars of all factions echoed at the same time as the War Games began. Orcs, Thralls, and Beast people gave their loudest shouts and roars, and their weapons rose into the sky, lifting upwards and downwards, a way to show their respect to their God of Battle and Bloodshed.

Meanwhile, my faction remained silent; there was no need to scream or shout like monsters. Not even the loud cavemen said a word. Most of them had also grown pissed off that their foes brought little kids to fight, finding them dishonorable trash.

“They brought children... dishonorable trash! Do they want children to fight? Monsters!” Fiery Hair was ferociously angry, her hair waving like flames. “Bing Bing! What do?!”

“Calm down, dear.” I patted her shoulders. “I’ll save the children; you take care of whatever gets closer. Those with weird, dark auras... kill them. The rest, just knock them out.”

“Okay! Fiery Hair trusts Bing Bing!” She roared, her tattoos glowing brightly as her hands generated flames. “PEOPLE! WE FIGHT!”

“OOOHHH!”

The cavemen cheered behind her as they charged forward first. The other three factions didn’t even bother fighting with one another, quickly rushing towards us.

Well, several bastards instantly moved to kill the children, though. Weak and defenseless, they would be easy kills for their damned points.

These children had no points themselves, though; if they get killed here, they can’t revive.

And I cannot let anybody touch children as long as I am here!

“STOP.”

With a mere word, I unleashed a shockwave of light and electricity everywhere, all at once. Divine Photon Essence wrapping around the bodies of countless bastards and electrocuting them.

“W-What is this? Uuaaaggh!”

“Magic?! Is this magic- UGH?!”

“W-Wait, I wasn’t…! AAAHH!”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

No mercy!

Those bastards, who ever considered killing a child?

They deserve no mercy, even if they were not even from this world.

Even if they weren’t cultists.

NO MERCY!

Their bodies exploded into countless pieces, and the children were terrified by the scene of blood.

“I’m sorry, but I had to do this; forgive me.”

I spoke to them as they noticed the Photon essence wrapped around their bodies, creating protective barriers.

I created over 150 barriers to protect all children within seconds.

It's nothing hard for me to do.

The barriers were further reinforced as I fused my Cosmic Relic Creation into the barriers.

“Stay there, and wait… You’re safe now, I promise.”

The children were confused, looking around at the bright barrier.

“W-We’re saved?”

“What… happened?”

“Mommy?! Is that you?!”

“I want my dad… Where is he?!”

“Buaaaah!”

Most of them were either asking for their family members or crying.

Poor, innocent souls.

I shall become your shield, forever and ever.

I won’t let harm come to children ever again!

Never… again…

I swore back then that I had made an oath to the last person who ever cared for me genuinely.

I promise that for as long as I lived, I would fight for every child I met and for every child I saw.

And that I would never hesitate to punish those who would dare bring harm to them either.

I promised that to you, Granny Zhi Hui.

“Now that’s taken care of.”

I moved at lightning speed. I incapacitated every warrior I met that wasn’t my target with a zapping strike of electricity and photon essence.

ZAAP! ZAAP! ZAAP! ZAAP!

Until finally, I found some of them.

“YOU! How dare you incapacitate those warriors and protect those soldiers?! You dare go against our God’s entertainment?!”

There were roughly thirty cultists in front of me. Not all of them dared to participate, though; this was a rather small amount. There were perhaps sixty more, and nothing else. They were cowards who enjoyed watching the War Games, but not so much participating in them.

“Entertainment?! And don’t call them soldiers! They were innocent children! None of them were ready to fight in a War Game, you sick monsters!”

“Monsters, us?!” screamed one of them. “You’re the only monster here daring to threaten our culture!”

“Your… culture?” I laughed. “Well, if your culture is about forcing innocent people unwilling to do things to fight and kill each other for a sick god’s entertainment... Then fuck your culture! Come at me and die honorably! I’ll rip you apart piece by piece!”

I was furious, and I couldn’t contain it anymore.

“KILL THAT INSANE WOMAN!”

They charged toward me with fury. Their levels varied between Level 1000 and 2500; they were not bad at all; they were fairly powerful beings, without a doubt.

Yet so what?!

The first man who stepped in front of me swung a giant hammer blazing with his magical aura—a giant, red-skinned orc.

“Die, heretic!”

CRASH!

His hammer only struck my head, and then it gained countless cracks, shattering into pieces.

“H-Huh? Wha…?!” His eyes were confused about what had happened.

“Your pitiful hammer broke when it hit me…” I explained to myself. “Do you understand now? How strong am I?”

“Y-YOU…!”

His fists rushed down, then.

SLAP!

I slapped him with indignation and disgust. 

His entire body was torn to pieces by the intense force produced alone, exploding apart into countless muscle fibers, fragments of bones, and shredded internal organs.

SPLAT!

“You don’t even deserve me to use any technique against you; you don’t have the right to see my true power! Die like the pathetic flies you are!”

They charged furiously even after seeing them, and I slapped them, all of them, one after another as they came. 

SLAP! SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!

Their bodies came undone in seconds, exploding apart by the sheer force accumulated in the palms of my hands, capable of splitting whole continents.

I didn’t even put that much force into them, yet they were still torn to pieces.

“How weak and pathetic! Is this the strength of the cult of the barbarian god?! It seems your followers are all pieces of trash, just like you!” I roared at the bishop, who was still alive. “You’re his avatar, right?”

“L-let me go! We understand! You’re strong!” he cried. "Please, we didn’t mean to-”

“Don’t act like you’re sorry, you unforgivable monster!”

I pushed him down and stepped into his head.

“Stop sullying my view.”

CRASH!

I crushed the green orc’s head and crushed it like watermelon, making his brains explode out of his broken skull, splattering into the grasslands.

“Hahh… Hahh…”

I looked around, seeing their bodies torn apart.

Yet it wasn’t enough!

My rage was unending.

“Hah, and don’t think you can revive afterward…”

I smiled, grabbing their souls and waiting near their bodies.

I understood how it worked; these points were actually tiny fragments of divinity.

It kept their souls attached to their bodies as long as they died within the god’s domain, this entire battlefield.

Once the War Games ended, he would use some sort of healing magic and fully heal their bodies, while the points, tiny divinity fragments, would return to him after placing the souls back into the bodies.

An unending cycle of death and rebirth on a battlefield of bloodshed and suffering. Without a doubt, this was all only strengthening that God.

All these battles, all these deaths—they were only making him stronger with each War Game.

“Your ability to revive will not save you from your true death!”

I absorbed their points and divinity fragments and devoured them.

After that, instead of shattering the souls themselves, I summoned a dimensional crack.

“Demons of the Cursed Library, you’re free to eat the souls of everyone I or my friends kill.”

A cute demon woman stepped out, petite in height but exuding a tremendous amount of demonic and cursed energies from her body.

Her face was a beautiful blue mask, with long, silky black hair and spiraling horns moving upwards, while the rest of her body revealed gray skin and black scales covering her.

“You heard the boss, everyone. Time to feast.”

She summoned all the demons available, roughly thirty of them; some looked angry, but none dared to disobey me now that she had led them.

Apparently, Belze was a figure of respect for them.

“We can eat souls?!”

“Really?!”

“And these are so tasty-looking!”

“Full of divinity, gryahahaha!”

“Maybe you’re not too bad, boss!”

Demons of all shapes and sizes surged from the dimensional crack, viciously taking away the souls of cultists and devouring them. Belze took a couple herself, eating them as the souls screamed in agony.

“You’re quite the generous boss, actually,” she said, smiling. “I thought you were a goody-two-shoes, but you’re up for some mischief, eh?”

“These are all the souls of monsters undeserving of mercy,” I said. “Do whatever you want with them. Just obey my words, and you shall be rewarded with even more delicious meals, alright?”

“Sure!” Belze nodded. “You heard her, brats! We better work for our food!”

“YEAAAH!” they roared while laughing maliciously.

I wasn’t too fond of cooperating with these creatures of evil, but if they were sealed and imprisoned by beings that were even more corrupt than them, then it meant they probably were worse... or better.

And I kind of liked Belze; she seemed like a good girl.

“Do we offer you support? We can curse and stuff,” she said.

“Sure, just don’t kill those I don’t want to kill; can you do that?” I asked. “If you ever dare disobey, the books where you come from will get burned.”

“We get it, yeah! We’re your contracted demons anyway!” she laughed. “Let’s do it, fuckers!”

“Then let’s go!”

I charged forward, unleashing my electrifying attacks; any soldier that came close was electrocuted and knocked out instantly. The demons right behind me covered for those I had not paid attention to, cursing them and making them drop almost dead. 

Sometimes they struck their heads very hard, making them almost bleed to death. They were brutal, but they obeyed my commands. Breaking a few bones in the process or giving them brain damage by striking their heads wasn’t out of the question.

As long as they don’t kill, yeah.

“There!”

I quickly sensed more of the participating cultists. They were gathering around the generals. All while my friends rushed to target them. I saw Urbosa and Merkite rush to fight Leos, Mursha target that shadow man, and lastly, Peperina went alone to confront Infernos.

I wasn’t too sure about Peperina’s victory, so I kept a close eye on her and would assist her if she needed further help.

But the rest? I was sure they would win.

“You demons can also sense their Auras, right?” I asked them. “Members of the Cult of the Barbarian God possess strange Auras packed with his malefic divinity; find them and kill them while I search for more.”

“Understood!” Belze said, spreading her wings out and flying into the skies. “Found a few!”

She smiled, descending towards them while four other demons accompanied her. She materialized a huge spear out of her own flesh and bones, which grew from her own arm, and then unleashed an attack.

“W-What are those things?!” one of the cultists panicked.

“D-Demons?!” The leader of their group screamed in horror.

“Hello, my meals~!”

Her spear pierced through their bodies within seconds, impaling them countless times and splattering their blood, flesh, broken bones, and shredded internal organs everywhere.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

“More souls, yahoo!”

“Gimme, gimme!”

“Mine!”

The demons rushed towards the floating souls, but Belze stopped them, pointing her spear at them.

“Excuse me? I killed them; these souls are MINE,” she said. “If you want to eat more, kill the targets, got it? Don’t leech on me, bastards!”

The demons panicked as they stepped back. Belze was good at showing her strength and not letting others take advantage of her, I see.

She devoured the souls, feeling stronger.

Well, the skill itself also felt stronger; by letting the demons grow, the Skill itself also grew stronger, and its unique energy also grew in power and quantity.

This black and dark red energy, which seemed like a fusion of many evil energies, converged and is now flowing through my hands.

“So this is Primordial Demonic Heaven Essence, huh?”

“She’s there!”

“Stop her!”

“Kill her now!”

Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by even more soldiers—not all of them were cultists.

It looks like they quickly hired a lot of mercenaries, huh?

“Enough playing around, woman.”

And then, a tall orc stepped in, a hybrid between red and green orcs, whose skin was brown instead, with a few tattoo-like patches of green and red resembling flames.

He was over three meters tall, exuding an enormous quantity of Divinity from the Barbarian God, another Avatar, and a strong one at that.

“As one of the strongest Avatars of our God, I will not let you sully his battlefield anymore with your filthy righteousness!”

He quickly summoned two enormous swords, wielding them as he imbued them with green- and crimson-colored energies.

“Hah? Good, I wanted to try out this new energy’s power anyway.”

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