"This place should do…"
Zeno muttered underneath his gas mask as he arrived at one of the many random meteor craters scattered around on the moon's dusty surface that one of the spy drones found nearby from his location. His icy blue eyes glanced around the desolate, dull gray landscape before he walked down the crater's edge to the center of the ancient impact site.
Who knows how many millions of years ago that the meteor made this crater? Zeno thought as he stopped at the center of the crater. He then opens his left hand upward around his chest before he produces eight mini Godblood cubes from his palm and then commands them to spread out in four directions with him in the center so they can help reinforce the barriers that he is about to enact for his ascension.
"Oiii~! Big Boss, did you find the place~?"
"Yeah, yeah, I found it~"
While the cubes were arranging themselves in the assigned position, Louise's lazy voice suddenly came through the single-sided headset in Zeno's left ear, asking about his searching progress before he replied back to her with a wry smile.
"I'll start soon, so you guys better hurry back to the ship; who knows what will happen next?"
"Ehhh~? do we really have to~?"
"Back to the ship!"
"Tsk, fine..."
After Zeno ordered his bratty Ascendant Shadow to get back to the God-Wanderer, he started casting a spell with many purple magic circles in various sizes materializing around him as they spread out before they ended up hovering in the air at the four directions where the eight Godblood cubes are. He needs to lay the magic barriers to box himself in to prevent the possible collateral damage to the moon before he can try to ascend to the next level of Touki power. Zeno has the feeling that this ascension is going to be much louder and flashier than his previous ascension.
Then, around five seconds later, the cube-shaped multiple-layer barrier shimmered into existence inside the crater, its dark purple hue rippling rhythmically like a heartbeat as the spell and Godblood cubes held it together. These multiple-layer barriers are so strong that even the full-power attack of a super-devil-class being can barely scratch them because the barriers will absorb all kinds of energy to repair and reinforce themselves.
"Alright…"
Zeno, who was standing inside the barrier, took his gas mask off before he took a deep breath of radiation and moon dust that was filtered and converted into oxygen by Godblood in his body. He doesn't really need a gas mask in the first place, but he just wants to wear it for aesthetics' sake.
And after he sensed that his Ascendant Shadows and Shadow clones were already leaving the moon with the teleportation spell back to the GW to observe him from a safe distance and will react accordingly to the situation and help out if needed, Zeno then started his ascension.
"Here we go..."
Zeno first starts to cultivate his Touki while he does a T-pose as he levitates from the ground with his body starting to emit a blackish-purple aura from his skin as it encases his entire body in a solid Touki energy.
And from then on, Zeno's Touki aura began to rapidly grow stronger and denser with every second until it completely engulfed him in a sphere of Touki energy, obscuring his form from the outside view.
It looks just like an ominous blackish-purple sun has been born in the barriers to the crews inside the bridge of GW, who are watching the event with bated breath.
Zeno's ascension to the heavenly dragon class was definitely not a small event, just like he predicted, as the Touki energy continued to grow stronger and more intense, its energy vibrating through the vacuum of space until the space started to distort and small cracks began to appear within the barriers.
The situation outside, from an outside perspective, in contrast to the chaotic situation inside the barriers, is eerily calm as the very fabric of reality around Zeno inside the barriers begins to distort and break down with every surge of his Touki aura. It's like an apocalyptic volcano on the verge of erupting, while the barriers begin to shake as the ripples on the barriers go crazy but still hold strong thanks to the mini Godblood reinforcement.
Suddenly, with a very powerful burst of Touki energy, Zeno's icy blue eyes snapped open with a fierce intensity as he gritted his teeth at the overwhelmed sensation of his power rapidly increasing.
The space around him was supercharged with his bioelectricity and Touki energy that was discharging from him. His veins were bulging as they were pulsing with raw, unimaginable power. He felt his muscles and body stretching beyond their physical limits; he even felt like his soul was groaning as it tried to keep up with the sudden influx of power. He wants to scream out like Goku going Super Saiyan, but his entire body is so overflexed that he can't move a muscle as he tries to hold on for whatever is happening to pass.
Unbeknownst to Zeno, the Godblood in his body also starts their optimization of his power growth and physique evolution. It also modifies and repairs the damage that the ascension has done to his body and soul so he can gain maximum benefit with no waste. It can be said that Zeno is currently being reforged physically down to the spiritual level by Godblood right now.
÷×÷×÷
The once calm meteor crater on the mood was now the stage for a cosmic-level event again after millions of years as the blackish-purple Touki energy sphere shone a bright light through the multiple-layer barriers across the moon's desolate surface, filling the space around the crater with an oppressive aura as the moon beneath Zeno started to tremble slightly as his power grew and grew without seeming to stop, while the sphere of Touki generated small space quakes that echoed through the void of space such that even the crews inside the GW, thousands of miles away, could feel the trembling of space and the oppressive feeling of Zeno's raw power.
"Oh damn~!"
Zeshibana exclaimed with wide eyes as she felt the vibration on her seat.
"Can't believe that even with all those barriers, we could still feel it here."
Louise said in awe as she watched the sphere of Touki energy becoming brighter and brighter on the moon from the hologram screen in the command bridge. She wonders how powerful Zeno will be after his ascension to the heavenly dragon class.
Even from Earth, some survivors from various places could see a bright purple dot appear on the moon as they wondered what it was.
"What is happening up there~?"
Shizuka mumbles as she and Rika look at the faint morning moon in the blue sky with a bright purple dot from Zeno's office inside the Freedom Carrier's HQ.
"Who knows…?"
Rika muttered as she wondered what Zeno was doing up there. She can only hope that Shizuka will ask the right questions when the time comes.
"Muuu~! I'll definitely complain to him when he gets back~! I'll make him feel bad for leaving me behind…"
Rika glanced to see Shizuka huffing and puffing as she inflated her cheeks, and then Rika just shook her head.
"Maybe when pigs fly…"
÷×÷×÷
Back to the moon, as Zeno's power grew, so did the sphere of Touki energy. It grew so large that it was pushing against the barriers, which were groaning and deformed slightly as the energy tried to escape the confines of the barriers. The tremors on the moon grew more intense, sending moon dust flying into the air outside the barriers, creating quite a breathtaking spectacle that was a mix of strange extraterrestrial beauty and terror.
Inside the barriers, Zeno's body was barely visible, as a blur of a vaguely humanoid silhouette could only be seen amidst the Touki energy while the Godblood cubes shone as they fed from the massive amount of Touki going wild in the barriers.
If the surging Touki energy can be seen through, then you can see that Zeno's form was no longer that of a man but a living embodiment of the very essence of Touki. The fabric of reality itself seemed to struggle to host him, and his presence was far-reaching with a heavy oppressiveness that made the Ascendant Shadows and Shadow clones in the GW feel helpless and weak.
The pressure grew unbearable, and the barriers, once looking stable and sturdy, began to buckle, with many small cracks forming under the strain. The purple light grew so intense it washed out all other colors on the moon, and the very air within the crater seemed to thicken into a viscous plasma. The tremors of the moon grew into full-blown quakes; the moon's surface where the barriers are is cracking open and forming fissures as if it were made of clay under the tremendous force while the stone fragments rise in the air.
Within the eye of this storm of power, Zeno felt his entire being rewriting and evolving in real time. His muscles bulged and his bones cracked as his body reconstructed itself with Godblood help to handle the newfound strength. His senses sharpened to the point where he could feel the individual atoms of the moon's dust, each one like a tiny star in the vast emptiness of the space. His mind and soul too are undergoing expansion and evolution as he feels his thoughts more clearly and he becomes smarter.
Then the crews at GW felt another sudden spike in the Touki energy that was reaching an unimaginably overwhelmingly high level as the barriers' square shape forcefully turned into a round shape like a purple energy ball with small cracks that began to get bigger but were also quickly repaired a second later. The crews were a little nervous, as they thought the barriers might not hold and Zeno might shatter the moon apart like in the RWBY universe.
Finally, after three long hours of the ascension process, Zeno's blurry silhouette inside the sphere suddenly grew more defined, his body now beginning to turn back into flesh as he became more otherworldly, like a divine being. The tremors on the moon also grew weak without shaking the very core of the moon, like the moon itself might shatter any moment from Zeno's mighty divine Touki rampage.
The surging Touki's energy inside the barriers gradually becomes stable under Zeno's control before they quickly recede back into his body as the purple light and his oppressive presence vanish entirely, like everything was just an illusion or a dream. The barriers also turned back into a square shape as they astonishingly endured all of the unimaginable strain from the ascension without breaking and exploding like a nuclear bomb.
As the purple light dissipated, the tremors ceased, leaving the destroyed moon crater eerily quiet. The dust that had been thrown into the air by the intense tremors slowly settled down, revealing the new Zeno floating in the air above the center of the destroyed crater. His Touki-reforged body was now naked with unimaginable power coursing through his perfect and powerful skin, muscles, and bones. His icy blue eyes were now glowing and burned with the intensity of a newborn star. His soul, if it could be seen, would look like an extremely dense humanoid silhouette made out of blackish-purple energy.
But despite his evolution of body and soul, Zeno's handsome face still looks the same, as he subconsciously doesn't wish to be those Culties (Cultivators) with their transcendent, otherworldly beautiful/handsome faces and what-not.
"Fuuuu~ Haaaah~"
Zeno took a deep breath and exhaled in a relaxing manner before looking down at his own hands, which have no visible change from the outside, but he can cause a sonic boom easily with these hands if he wishes by just clenching them a little too hard.
"Well damn…!"
Zeno exclaimed with amazement at his new powerful self before he smirked since now he was sure that nothing in the DxD universe was a threat to him anymore.
Even if Great Red came, he could suck his energy dry with Godblood, or he could just drag the dragon god into a enforced reality field of sorts and counter his dream/reality manipulation bullshit.
"When I reach the dragon god class, then even gods from the ExE will no longer be a problem to me…"
Zeno smiles as he looks up at the GW in the distance, and then his smile twitches as he sees the Lewd Emperor taking a picture of his naked body with a perverted smirk from inside the command bridge…