Ruri didn’t hesitate. She quickly manipulated the part of the formation that supported that little world. She realized that, internally, it was like an upgraded version of the sealed worlds. These small worlds functioned like branches of a tree, with the tree being the core of the formation — specifically, Alpenglow Planet.
Mastering the entire formation was impossible at that moment. But making a single branch collapse? That was within her reach. Her Master’s orders were absolute, and she never doubted they’d solve the problem.
In a matter of seconds, Ruri made the formation’s power attack the place, then triggered the ruin of that small world.
Meanwhile, all the heroes remained trapped under the brutal suppression of the celestial soul. The sealed energy kept them in a suffocating state of vulnerability. Alm and Bruno grunted dryly; their energies were running low, and in two minutes, they would be completely drained.
**BOOM!**
With a violent explosion, the environment began to shift abruptly.
The heroes, still struggling to free themselves, suddenly stopped. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. They looked up, their faces filled with panic, sensing an awful omen they couldn’t name.
In an instant, all the light was sucked from the place, plunging everything into a deep, oppressive darkness. The ground trembled as if the world was splitting in half.
Before the heroes could react, Alm and Bruno channeled all the power of their weapons into a single, devastating attack. There was no room for mercy or error.
*CRASH!*
The impact reverberated like the roar of a cataclysm. Shockwaves tore through everything around.
The heroes, desperate, tried to gather anything to defend themselves. But the blow was absolute. The attack hit them with such force that it tore through their bodies, breaking any remaining resistance. Their bodies were thrown like ragdolls, violently tossed away, with no chance of stabilization.
And then, the collapse happened completely.
Time and space folded in on themselves in a chaotic vortex, as if the fabric of reality was being devoured by a black hole. In mere ten seconds, a wave of destruction spread like an uncontrollable fire, consuming everything in its path.
There was no time to think. No time to escape.
Meanwhile, Alm and Bruno spotted one of the heroes holding a golden tablet. In an instant, they shot toward him, and Ruri emerged from the inventory using spatial shadow.
*Slash!*
Her katana hit the hero’s arm. However, she didn’t have enough power to make a deep cut in an immortal. Still, he recoiled enough for her to manipulate a spatial blade from the world’s collapse, directing it at him.
The hero was struck and coughed up blood. At that moment, Ruri snatched the tablet from his hands and fled to the whale’s side.
"Send everyone in the trial back to that world. That way, they can blend in with the massive population, making it harder to investigate and almost impossible to identify everyone who participated in the trial," Bruno said quickly.
Ruri nodded and, handling the tablet with ease, completed the task.
Then, she did something only a hero could do. Using her new Empyrean Supreme power, she gained a near-equivalent capacity to a hero. With the Dao knowledge of the God of Formation, she commanded part of the formation with no difficulty.
Everyone in the first world, and some who had reached the second, were surrounded by spatial power and forced to return to the world they had lived in before.
After that, Ruri sighed and said, "With just this tablet, I can’t do much. All the tablets and the formation are connected. If I open a passage to the center of the formation, it’ll be easily detected by all the heroes."
Alm and Bruno nodded in agreement and placed her back in the inventory to keep her safe.
At that moment, all the heroes had desperate looks, their expressions twisted between disbelief and sheer terror. They fought to resist the inevitable death, but it would only last a few more seconds.
Time seemed to stretch, each second thicker than the last. In mere ten seconds, that entire collapsing world exploded. Now the wave of power multiplied, devouring all the heroes.
"NO!"
**RUMBLE!**
The scream echoed through the void like a final plea for salvation. But there was no answer. No mercy.
Not even the immortals could resist. If only they had their powers at their peak, maybe they could hold out long enough to open a passage and escape. Maybe. But that was a fragile hope, crushed before it even had a chance to bloom. Alm and Bruno, with cold stares, didn’t allow any opening. They kept them sealed and powerless while chaos wrapped around them like a deadly embrace.
The heroes’ defenses shattered like glass. Their essences, once indestructible, dissipated into the air. When the last thread of resistance broke, all the immortals were reduced to nothing. Not even their divine souls, the peak of what they were, could escape the massacre. Pulverized.
Everyone disappeared, and the scene became a silent, devastating hell.
Alm and Bruno felt the last drop of power from the celestial soul being burned away. They only had thirty seconds before facing the same fate as the heroes.
Each second felt like an endless abyss, filled with the relentless sense of the end. Until they felt something close by. Surprised, they made a last quick move, shifting toward it.
There they found the Immortal Chaos Fragment they had left behind earlier. They hadn’t expected to locate it in the middle of all that chaos, but they truly sensed its presence; that fragment seemed to be resisting in that environment.
As they got closer, they realized the situation was even worse than they had imagined. ’It’s not that the Immortal Chaos Fragment resists this place. The spatial laws are slowly absorbing its energy. It just takes longer, but it will disappear soon. We can’t use it to survive,’ Bruno declared, tense.
Using the celestial rebirth miracle wouldn’t help either; they’d be reborn in the same place and die again. But of course, they could use the Space-Time Miracle to reach a safe spot, or use the hammer, which would be the same.
They were already inside the formation. After all the problems and deaths, the enemies would reinforce the defenses, making it nearly impossible to infiltrate again.
Now that they were inside, they couldn’t escape, but they also couldn’t go directly to Alpenglow Planet or they’d be caught. The only way to complete the mission was to stay there, in the middle of the destruction capable of exterminating even an immortal.
That way, no one would know what happened inside, and they would obviously think everyone was dead. It was a temporary solution until they found another opportunity to reach the planet.
At that moment, all the power of their souls extinguished. This was the only thing keeping them from dying, and a wave of destruction hit them directly.
’To hell with it,’ Alm roared, commanding the Immortal Chaos Fragment and converting it entirely into pure Qi for his body. His meridians were filled to the limit. His physical cultivation and primordial bloodline were pushed to the absolute limit.
*Crack! Crack!*
Their bodies began to crack, but their physical cultivation and the laws of the earth were pushed to the extreme. This would drain all their Qi quickly, but it helped them resist for a few seconds.
Yes, their physiques were now as strong as those immortal heroes who had died; but of course, they were sealed, so they were equalized.
Bruno acted quickly, moving the Qi of Purgatory they kept in the inventory. It was a resource saved for later cultivation, but now it was do or die.
The two tried to form a new physical level in their bodies. That energy flowed through their meridians and quickly settled, they felt the advancement and sighed in relief: the Qi of Purgatory was exactly what they needed. The Purgatory Star was successfully created. However, there was no time to celebrate.
Endless spatial blades attacked them from every direction. Their physical defenses were at their limit, about to give in within ten seconds. At that moment, the new physical power kicked in.
The Hidden Song Star and the Purgatory Star synchronized as if they were Yin and Yang. A sacred aura flowed through their bodies, drastically increasing their resistance, also reducing Qi consumption to less than a hundredth of what it was before.
They quickly analyzed the situation. ’It won’t work. Maybe we’ll gain five more minutes before the Qi runs out. Not even this new physique will save us,’ Alm concluded grimly.
Bruno, without hesitation, opened the Gates of Life and Death. The next level of physical cultivation was called the Star of Chaotic Virtues. Maybe, if they advanced once more, they’d have a chance to survive.
One minute, two minutes...
’It won’t work,’ Bruno concluded with sorrow.
This new level required something beyond the energies from the celestial laws. However, there was no clear theory on how to reach it, just a name and a vague idea: unite the virtues from the immortal chaos...
’Now that we know about the Immortal Chaos Fragment, it makes sense that it’s related to this. But... we’ve already consumed everything to convert into Qi and buy more time,’ Alm said seriously.
Even if they had figured this out earlier, they couldn’t avoid the initial conversion. They needed Qi and the Purgatory Star first.
With no other option, they used both gates to suck up all the energy from the celestial laws within their reach. With the tattoos, they would convert that energy into more Qi. However, they knew this strategy had a limit; once they took too much, the celestial laws would close off that source.
Five minutes passed, and as expected, the celestial laws blocked the flow.
Still, they managed to fill the micro-universe completely with countless energies different from the celestial laws. The problem was the insane Qi consumption by their bodies. They were surviving only by burning everything quickly to regenerate and defend themselves. When it was all gone, they really wouldn’t have a way out.
’We probably have ten minutes until the end,’ Bruno calculated.
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The two found themselves at a crossroads. Abandoning the mission meant condemning Isla and Almin. It was at that moment that a desperate message echoed from the inventory.
’Master! The tree is devouring the energy!’
Liumi roared, and Alm and Bruno widened their eyes. As if the situation wasn’t bad enough, now the tree was also contributing to their disaster.
But... both felt a strange change beginning to happen...