Chapter 47: Golden Domain and the First Heavenly Fracture
The vacuum pull of the Spatial Void Phase did not release them into a standard planetary zone. When the spatial fracturing around Min-jae’s sub-divine armor finally snapped shut, the group materialized straight onto a vast, endless platform constructed entirely out of solid, polished golden marble blocks that floated amidst a sea of moving cloud formations.
The atmosphere was blinding. A brilliant, multi-layered solar glare cast a heavy heat over the courtyard, but the natural gravity of this dimension was easily four times denser than Earth’s.
"Spatial alignment complete," Major General Shin Ye-rin reported, her voice carrying a deep, focused clarity through the faction connection. Her fingers traced the local boundaries on her updated interface. "Min-jae, we have successfully breached the outer boundary of the third layer. The tracking radar is marking over twelve high-density mana points dead ahead."
Min-jae stood perfectly still at the center of the golden platform, his hands casually stuffed inside the pocket segments of his True Vajra-Sovereign Sub-Divine God-Armor. The light-absorbing dark plates of his gear cast an ominous, shifting contrast against the blinding gold flooring beneath his combat boots, his bottomless black eyes taking in the grand architecture of the celestial courtyard.
Behind his flank, his seven flawless team members shifted into an immediate, tightly synchronized vanguard line. Yoo Ji-a’s Void-Valkyrie’s Crescent Fang spear crackled violently with a mixture of twilight lightning and fresh green starlight, while Kang Chae-yeon gripped the heavy hilt of her iron claymore, her wild crimson hair catching the celestial glare like real flames.
Liu Xiao stepped up tightly against his left shoulder, the countless green and white layers of her silk hanfu rustling softly in the high-altitude wind. Her full, heavy chest heaved with a steady breath as she raised her delicate hand, her exotic emerald-green eyes narrowing as she looked toward the towering, hundred-foot golden gates guarding the inner sanctuary.
"The field metrics are running smoothly, Min-jae," Liu Xiao voiced, her seductive melody carrying a deep, fanatical reverence. Her purple-and-gold belt tightened against her narrow waist as she maintained her majestic, regal posture. "My master’s field buff is fully active across the party line. The third sky’s divine suppression field is being completely absorbed by the nature lattice. They cannot suppress our mana reserves."
Crack -thoom !
Before Han Seo-yoon could pull back the silver energy string of her cosmic bow, the giant golden gates at the far end of the courtyard violently slammed open.
Charging out from the inner sanctuary, floating casually on platforms of solid starlight, was an elite vanguard regiment of over two hundred Level 38 Divine Palace Guards. They were encased in heavy, polished brass plate armor that gleamed with holy scripts, carrying massive golden halberds that crackled with high-tier judgment lightning. Leading the regiment from the front was an elite commander, his hollow golden eyes burning with intense, aristocratic disgust as his gaze settled onto the dark, uninvited figures.
"Mortal scum!" the commander’s voice boomed through a localized spatial amplification spell, vibrating across the golden marble platform like a low-frequency thunderclap. "You dare to carry the dead Flame God’s core into the pristine sanctuary of the Third Sky King? Your very presence on this marble is a capital insult to the heavenly council!"
The commander brought his heavy golden halberd down with a primal, rhythmic force, his Level 38 divine aura completely expanding across the courtyard. "All units, deploy the judgment lightning! Leave nothing but tattered rags and blackened bone fragments! Purge the heretics!"
Rat-rat-..!
The order shattered the silence of the celestial domain. Two hundred divine guards raised their halberds simultaneously, unleashing a massive, continuous wall of high-voltage holy lightning that converged directly onto Min-jae’s stationary figure. The sheer volume of the incoming elemental strike turned the entire golden courtyard into a blinding strobe light of raw kinetic and magical destruction, designed to vaporize an entire mortal division in a fraction of a millisecond.
"Min-jae!" Han Seo-yoon voiced, her voluptuous frame leaning forward as her sapphire eyes tracked the blinding flash.
"Stand your ground," Min-jae commanded flatly, his voice cutting through the electric thunder like an absolute blade.
He didn’t pull the space-cutting claymore from his shoulder. He stood completely stationary, his hands remaining casually inside his armor’s pocket segments, an empty, mocking smile touching his handsome face as the storm of two hundred divine lightning strikes slammed squarely into his chest plate.
The moment the multi-pronged elemental cataclysm made contact with his sub-divine armor, his passive trait, Cosmic Indifference, fired off its reality-breaking calculations at supersonic velocity.
[Ding! Received 680,000 points of High-Tier Divine Lightning Damage from 200 Palace Guards.]
[Sub-divine Trait Active: ’Vajra Ward’ converts 680,000 Magic Damage into Physical Impact... Successful.]
[sss-rank Talent Active: ’Eternal Vajra Deity Body’ triggered! Total Damage Negated. Health Pool: 100/100.]
[Sub-divine Passive Active: ’Vajra Retribution’ triggers 250% True Damage solar amplification!b]
[Reflecting 1,700,000 points of True Damage permanently imbued with ’Solar Fracture’!]
Supernova!.
A catastrophic, blinding white-hot counter-blast erupted from Min-jae’s skin, turning the entire pristine golden courtyard into a burning, boiling solar storm of pure primordial fire. The 1,700,000 points of True Damage didn’t travel like a standard projectile; it manifested as an instantaneous, conceptual space-fracture that locked directly onto the soul cores of the two hundred guards through the electric trajectories.
What followed was an absolute, instantaneous mass-suicide.
The 1.7 million points of True Damage completely ignored their polished brass plate armor, divine damage reduction metrics, and high holy shields. The moment their lightning touched Min-jae’s armor, the two hundred elite palace guards didn’t even get to completed their battle cries. Their bodies violently exploded from the inside out into a clean, blinding cloud of white experience particles, their golden halberds fracturing into molten scrap metal before their ashes could even touch the marble floor boards.
The elite commander let out a choked, blood-curdling shriek as the Solar Fracture trait instantly ignited his underlying life-force, burning away his divine mana pool by 5% every single millisecond until his life bar hit absolute zero, turning him into a pile of dark system ash in less than a fraction of a second.
The two-hundred-man divine vanguard regiment had been completely, molecularly erased from the ledger in less than three seconds without scratching a single piece of Min-jae’s god-armor.
Han Chae-won ran out from the rear flank, her face flushed with an absolute, fanatical exhilaration as she raised her small hands toward the sky. "The heavenly treasury is wide open, boss! Global Spatial Devour!"
A colossal, sweeping wave of purple spatial energy rippled outward from her petite body, cleanly vacuuming up the millions of gold coins, two hundred shattered halberd fragments, forty high-tier divine skill books, and a pulsing, diamond-like Commander Core Fragment floating over the ash piles straight into her infinite stasis storage, leaving the entire golden platform completely immaculate once more.
Min-jae stood amidst the cascading golden experience notifications, his armor completely smudgeless, his hands remaining casually inside his pockets as his interface updated with the raw data.
[Ding! Your team has achieved a World-First Absolute Clearing of the Third Sky Palace Vanguard!]
[Gained 95,000 EXP! You have leveled up! You are now Level 17!]
The interior golden sanctuary fell into a dead, terrifying silence, the high-altitude clouds turning a deep shade of crimson as the core logic rules of the heavenly realm registered the immediate fracture of their outer boundary lines. Min-jae slowly reached up, his fingers wrapping firmly around the heavy hilt of the Vajra-Sovereign World-Breaker claymore on his shoulder, his bottomless black eyes looking through the shattered golden gates toward the deepest inner throne room where the Third Sky King was hiding in sudden panic.
"The gatekeepers have been cleared," Min-jae murmured, his voice a low thunderclap that echoed through the divine corridors. A dark, ruthless grin touched his handsome face as his seven flawless queens lined up perfectly behind his back, their weapons humming with absolute execution parameters. "Let’s go inside and see if their king can survive ."
