It was the beginning of a calm and ordinary day in the secret continent. Alm and Bruno were helping all the Onis and cultivators of the city so that nothing good would go unnoticed.
Everyone was getting ready to go out and explore the remaining extremely dangerous new places. Almost 70% of the entire area had already been mapped, and the prospect of the remainder was promising. They first circled the entire coast, gradually venturing inwards, measuring the level of the beasts that lived there. The best and most dangerous were left for last; this remaining 30 % would yield twice as much as the rest.
Everything seemed normal until suddenly the whale appeared inside the chaos gem world and warned everyone to prepare to return. Fortunately, everyone was resting inside that world; the whale simply left with the gem and took everyone away through the spatial channel.
They crossed the channel to the lunar world with a cold expression. Their instincts seemed to explode in alertness, but upon carefully observing everything around them, they felt nothing wrong. Without hesitation, they opened another channel to the city, but they needed to wait a few minutes for the space to stabilize.
As they watched the channel ahead of them, just imagining crossing and arriving in the city, the mortal danger looming over their heads became almost tangible and undeniable. Going there would trigger a terrifying event.
Quickly, they sensed the presences through the array that should have been nearby, and a certainty took hold of them.
’Ruri, Corin, and Runula are in the city. From the danger we feel... it’s a trap,’ Bruno said tersely. ’They must have chosen the moment when Vuard and Loeus were in the city and released the two, obviously to catch us all together...’
Alm completed coldly. ’Something completely beyond our knowledge happened. As soon as we step into the city, an escape-proof trap will be waiting for us.’
The channel ahead of them needed thirty seconds to be safe. Their minds were racing, searching for something they might have overlooked. They had executed everything perfectly with the breaking of the two seals, and whenever they fought, they never showed nearly anything of their maximum power; even their allies were not allowed to do so.
What did they overlook? Certainly something they had no control over; it came from outside this zone they could observe.
’The only thing capable of making the four rival families, who fought over resources, unite to kill us, even if they lose their precious disciples... is a serious danger, something that could end their existence. A hero,’ Bruno concluded.
’The underworld was the only place where we revealed ourselves completely. The incident we forged with Mihkriel on this planet was supposed to be the only connection to the underworld. He obviously fled and would never return, but some trace connected us...’ Alm reflected calmly, but in that same moment, the two thought of the only possibility.
’FUCK!’ Bruno spat furiously. ’The only possibility is the runic-sealed weapons we left for the Black Phoenixes. Those should have been a treasure for that clan, a secret weapon that could save them from extinction. How and why did they reveal that? It doesn’t make sense... and even if something strange happened, the weapons weren’t immortal. Now that we know there are higher levels of those weapons, only weak divine cultivators would be interested in them.’
Alm and Bruno hadn’t cared before about those weapons because, despite not being immortal, the runic seals possessed a hidden, unpredictable power beyond cultivation. The Black Phoenixes would guard them and never reveal them, and when necessary, they could use them to turn the tide against any danger.
It was literally a second life for the entire race, but it would only work once. After revealing what the runic seals of the weapons did, the enemies would be prepared. Not to mention that most seals were single-use, with a waiting time to be used again in combat.
That’s why a very strong divine cultivator would always prefer a powerful immortal weapon with a constant power, not something that would serve only once with an inflexible power. Even if some weapons had been exposed for a random reason, it shouldn’t have caught the attention of important people.
As for the danger, the Black Phoenixes, after the underworld problem, would certainly isolate themselves on a planet and not attract attention for a while. The underworld was much vaster than a universe, and life forms were much rarer. If the clan wanted to remain silent, it was practically impossible for a danger capable of making them use the weapons to knock on their door.
’Unexpected things always happen, but it wasn’t just one. To be discovered, several unknown factors converged. We exposed that we could forge these weapons, and the fact that Vuard created great connections with the divine world, and he came from the same planet that Mihkriel emerged from... that must have connected us. Fate data fucked us,’ Alm concluded.
In that second, the spatial channel stabilized completely. The whale took a deep breath and reflected. From the danger they felt and the only possible traces left by them, the enemy was certainly a hero they couldn’t deal with. He would only reveal himself when they appeared, ensuring their capture.
’Ruri and the others are with them, we can’t escape,’ Bruno said dryly. ’We’ve come too far with this body and built a power capable of annihilating anything in exchange for its existence. Let’s just settle this cleanly and start over somewhere else; those who know about us will flee with us. You’ve wanted to get rid of this whale body so much, haven’t you?’
Alm huffed without replying. They had physical cultivation, the primordial bloodline of the behemoth, the Yin and Yang tattoos, and two completely compatible divine souls. Added to the power of faith, self-created law, etc... it was a combination of unique and terrifying things that obviously should never be possible to coexist together. With all this at their disposal, a simple ’human’ with mortal cultivation could unleash an annihilating and indefensible power.
Alm and Bruno’s knowledge, along with the system’s help, had led them to create invincible suicidal techniques. They could easily kill a hero and his army, but they would have to look for a new body afterwards. That would be bad, but nothing so serious; the problem was that the two had lived long enough in this universe to know that nothing there was simple, and they couldn’t think that everything was under control.
Now, that bloodthirsty and unstoppable villain had his brother again, disciples, and even a woman he loved; they all waited for them and trusted them completely. There was no escape route. With just a dry sigh, the whale took a step forward, jumping into the spatial channel.
It took five seconds.
Then they emerged near the entrance of the city, at the beginning of a typical morning on that planet. Everything seemed normal and without anything to draw attention. But at the exact moment they arrived, a rune on the whale’s forehead glowed, and he threw a small gray gem towards the city formation.
It was a swift movement that took a second, then... the whale immediately turned in a direction.
Suddenly, the entire simple ascending planet was swallowed as if the celestial laws were trying to devour them. Everything was covered by a golden power, as if a furious god had attacked them.
There was no more sky, only the oppressive gold, and in the center of it all, the whale looked up coldly. Infinite golden runes created a formation covering the entire continent and sealing their escape route.
Up there...
The whale saw a sacred pulse standing out on the horizon, radiating a presence that eclipsed everything around. A human figure floated there, he looked down and stared coldly at the whale.
He had a pair of ethereal golden wings, and behind him, something colossal took shape, as if a colossal cloud were condensing into a threatening figure.
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It was a manifestation... Alm and Bruno had seen this for the first time in this universe with Ruri. The manifestation of a hero was supposed to be something on another level, but no matter what it was, it would still be within the scope of a divine cultivator; they could deal with that.
However, in the midst of these thoughts, everything began to tremble violently. Even the rotation of the planet froze. The manifestation unfolding before them was nowhere near what Alm and Bruno had imagined.
It pulsated again, and it was as if a pair of immense eyes opened in the sky, staring down at the world below with overwhelming intensity.
They saw... no... felt something that made their divine souls pulsate with infinite hatred. That manifestation was something akin to the power of faith. It connected the hero to the will of his goddess... to the queen.
All the will above the celestial laws, which could control infinite universes and enslave infinite souls, was manifested in the hero’s power. It was only her will; the queen wouldn’t bother to really look at what was happening there. But they were no longer in a median universe controlled by her; they were in her main universe, where everything was governed by her will.
The whale’s body reacted instantaneously. All the Qi, the laws of its internal runes, the primordial power, the bloodline... everything was expelled from its body by a divine and invincible will. The whale trembled, powerless before the overwhelming force enveloping it.
As for their divine souls, the golden power locked them and sealed them completely, imprisoning them without mercy.
It took a mere second. All their weapons and possible annihilating techniques were completely nullified. They became simple mortals, defenseless and without any chance of retaliation.