"Damn it!" A Peak Demigod from the Dark Empire roared, skidding to a halt as a glowing Ranger descended from the clouds, radiating a pressure that made the air feel like lead, "You are gods! To act against mortals is to invite the immediate punishment of the Laws!"
"We aren't killing you." The Ranger sneered, his voice vibrating with a power that shook the Demigod's very soul, "The 'GM' only punishes us if we slaughter you directly. But there's no rule against us standing in your way. Our mortal troops will be here in a few hours to finish the job."
The Dark Empire's troops looked back. Behind them, the horizon was thick with Saints and Demigods of the Castle Faction, fueled by the blood of the puppets they had just finished harvesting.
The escape was over. The choice was now binary and brutal: they could choose to surrender and serve the Great Aetherium, or they could remain as they were, nothing more than high-value targets in someone else's quest for Godhood.
…
The Light Empire's core had fractured into three distinct theaters of absolute annihilation.
The first theatre was high above the clouds, tens of thousands of meters into the sky. It was a sealed battlefield which was a 'graveyard of Gods'. Here, a million-strong army of the Great Aetherium and Castle gods trapped the last fifty thousand True Gods of the Dark Empire.
It was no longer a battle; it was a slaughter of the immortal, where even the most ancient Gods of the Dark Empire found themselves hunted like common prey.
On the ground below, the second theatre stretched across the horizon, a sprawling expanse where the logic of leadership had vanished. Trillions of alchemy puppets and undead servants, now severed from the command of their fleeing masters, stood like hollow husks.
Their combat effectiveness had plummeted to nearly zero, leaving them as nothing more than standing stalks of 'XP' waiting for the scythe. The more than ten trillion troops of the Castle Faction moved through these divided zones, purging the dregs of this headless army with a speed that defied the eye.
The third theatre, however, was where the true drama of desperation played out. Located two hundred thousand kilometers to the rear, the 'Seeds of the Dark Empire', hundreds of billions of fleeing troops, found their retreat cut off.
Intercepted by the newly ascended Castle Faction Gods, they were forced into a final, futile stand. These were the elite mages and alchemists of the Dark Empire, yet their morale was non-existent. They had abandoned their puppets to save their own skins, only to find that against these army of Gods, there was no place to hide.
…
In the sealed battlefield, the atmosphere was thick with the scent of ozone and divine blood. The Gods of the Dark Empire, once the arrogant masters of the continent, were reduced to screaming for mercy, "I surrender! Do not kill me!"
But for the Angels and the Castle Faction Gods, these pleas were static. To them, these hostile Gods were a rare, finite resource. The keys to their own evolution before the Abyss invaded.
Sylvana, the spirit of the Elven Mother Tree, moved through the chaos like a streak of violet aurora. Unlike the Sixteen-Winged Angels, whose growth was currently capped by their potential, Sylvana's mutation as a 'barrack' spirit gave her the limitless growth potential of a Castle Lord.
"Not enough." She whispered, her eyes glowing with ancient power as she shattered the defenses of a High God. Seeing her desire, the Sixteen-Winged Angel Mary, Haru's first and most trusted companion began suppressing High Gods and delivering them directly to Sylvana.
With one final, devastating strike, Sylvana felt the barrier of the High God Tier shatter. A pillar of golden light erupted from the void, cascading over her in a blinding torrent of gold. The battlefield fell momentarily silent as the aura of a Supreme Goddess began to emanate from the golden pillar.
Sylvana was not the only one on the verge of ascension. Christine fought with a frantic, cold grace. Having consumed numerous 'Bloodline Evolution Blueprints', her potential had been pushed into the Supreme God Tier, but she lacked the final surge of energy. She watched Sylvana's breakthrough with a flash of envy, but it was quickly replaced by shock.
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