A Mid-tier Sage possesses the power to annihilate a million stars in a single, full-strength strike. With such world-shaking force, each is a supreme being capable of traversing the vast cosmos and its myriad galaxies at will.
Should a Mid-tier Sage turn their malice toward the galactic core without an equal to oppose them, it would be a catastrophe for all life there. Such a being could utterly destroy the entire Sanchegues super-structure single-handedly.
Therefore, since ancient times, the Mid-tier Sages of the Arnel and Iain races on the Galactic Continent have maintained a pact: those who have reached the Mid-tier Sage realm must not engage in conflict within the galactic core's territory, under penalty of being collectively hunted down.
Under this agreement, despite various disputes over the eons, the Mid-tier Sages remained in the background, acting more as deterrents than active combatants.
However, this pact only applied to the civilizations of the galactic core. When a powerful entity—seemingly a Mid-tier Sage himself—suddenly descended, the agreement became meaningless. The intruder cared nothing for local rules.
Left with no choice, the Arnel and Iain races dispatched two Mid-tier Sages to intercept the unknown enemy, while each keeping another Mid-tier Sage behind to protect the continent and its inhabitants.
During the fierce battle, the two defending Sages managed to push the intruder off the Galactic Continent. As the fighting raged, they desperately moved the battlefield toward the high-density stellar region of the galactic core, hundreds of trillions of kilometers away.
BOOM!!!
As the three clashed, the infinite firmament seemed to ignite with the light of millions of suns. Endless light and heat, like an apocalyptic tide, surged back toward the Galactic Continent. The two Sages remaining behind did not stand idle, intervening to neutralize more than half of the massive radiant wave.
Yet, despite their efforts, nearly half of the terrifying shockwaves from that initial clash still split into hundreds of energy torrents, slamming into the surface of the Galactic Continent.
Because the ancient [Black Scepter Array]—which blurs the line between physical reality and the Realm of Phantasm—cannot be shut down, these "shockwaves," each capable of leveling a star system, traveled at speeds far exceeding light across the vast territories.
They tore apart thousands of mountain ranges measured in astronomical units, shattering them into millions of crimson, fiery meteors the size of planets. These fragments were sent hurtling in all directions. Consequently, other regions that had initially escaped the direct blast were suddenly subjected to this astronomical-level "splatter" attack.
BOOM! RUMBLE!
The scale of the destruction was immense, triggering continuous shocks that reached Level 20 or higher—powerful enough to shatter the structure of stars. These violent vibrations ravaged the earth, grinding entire regions into dust. They merged into a titanic tidal wave of shock, mercilessly engulfing the Civilization Zones and obliterating prosperous territories, erasing all traces of life and turning fertile lands into silent wastes.
Even the Sky Cities floating among the clouds were not spared. Under the relentless bombardment of planet-sized fiery meteors, they turned into useless ruins and plummeted to the ground, instantly crushing everything within a hundred thousand miles of their impact sites.
Beyond the Overlord-level, the transcendent beings of the galactic core had no defense against such power. They could only tremble amidst the waves of destruction, fleeing for their lives or waiting helplessly for inevitable annihilation.
Countless citizens fled their homes, becoming refugees in their own land.
Only after a time did the catastrophe—caused merely by the clash of three Mid-tier Sages—begin to subside. Yet these "shockwaves" had already inflicted unprecedented trauma on the Galactic Continent. Mountain ranges were upended, and the terrain was scarred beyond recognition.
The magnificent landscapes of the past were gone, replaced by desolation and silence. Winding rivers were now bone-dry beds, and the shattered peaks looked like weeping titans.
Meanwhile, a hundred trillion kilometers away in the heart of the galaxy, the three entities capable of effortlessly warping three-dimensional space-time to execute FTL attacks were engaged in a struggle of mythic proportions.
SWOOSH!!!
A flash of radiant light.
A sun with a diameter of millions of kilometers was instantly pierced by a streak of warped, illusory light. The star shuddered and exploded, spewing massive quantities of high-temperature plasma into the surrounding void.
In less than a second, another smaller star billions of kilometers away was struck by the same phantom light and met an irreversible, explosive end.
If one were to pull back their perspective to span thousands of trillions of kilometers, they would see a vast expanse of space littered with the husks of tens of thousands of stars—a literal sea of purgatory. Radiation, heat, flames, and plasma were everywhere.
In this zone of stellar extinction, blurred streams of light interwoven with warped space-time continuously appeared and vanished.
These were the terrifying shockwaves of the three Sages clashing. Each beam contained enough power to pierce and disintegrate a star a thousand times over, and each raced through the void at tens of thousands of times the speed of light.
Should a single one of these beams strike a galactic civilization, the destruction would be absolute and unstoppable. If a world were unlucky enough to be hit by dozens of such beams simultaneously, there would be no escape—only immediate death.
It was these very shockwaves that inflicted such a brutal and frenzied assault on the high-density stellar region of the galactic core.
BOOM! RUMBLE!
Within a sea of searing light, two looming figures—shining more brilliantly than the sun—hurtled through the void, wreathed in endless radiant flames as they launched a high-speed assault on a third giant clad in heavy black armor.
Around them, millions of wild flashes of light danced, and torrents of energy scattered in every direction. The four fundamental forces of the universe clashed and intertwined; every microsecond, streaks of distorted light were birthed, each powerful enough to pierce ten thousand stars or inflict grievous wounds upon the Galactic Continent.
Yet, as these phantom lights struck the three figures, they failed to move them in the slightest, as if these cosmic energies were no more than a gentle breeze.
However, the stars positioned relatively close to the trio were not so fortunate. Each one exploded in turn as the three figures swept past, transforming into scorching torrents that raced toward the limitless dark void, vanishing instantly into the shadows.
One such fragment of stellar remains, roughly ten thousand kilometers in diameter and shaped like a solar flare, hurtled across hundreds of millions of kilometers before slamming into a small dwarf star.
The impact shattered the star, triggering a magnificent supernova that melted into a massive, surging wave of fire, sweeping across the four corners of the universe.
But these events failed to draw even a shred of attention from the three Sages. Their entire focus was locked onto one another.
SWOOSH!
Suddenly, one of the Twin Sages of the Core took advantage of his companion's cover. He released a concentrated beam of brilliant light encased within a warp space-time bubble, striking the black-armored giant squarely.
BOOM!!!
The void shuddered violently. In a single second, the black-armored giant was propelled trillions of kilometers by the spinning, burning impact of the space-time phase. Along his path, he violently pierced through five stars of varying sizes.
Because the penetration was so forceful and rapid, the stars instantly collapsed and detonated in a series of explosions, sending thousands of clouds of searing matter roaring into the vast void.
Nearby planets and comets were swallowed in an instant, vaporized into nothingness.
During this, the Twin Sages activated their own warp bubbles, crossing the trillion-kilometer gap instantly to reach the black-armored giant. They began an ultimate, continuous assault, akin to an inescapable hell-prison of strikes.
In response, the black-armored giant tore through the brilliant light pinned against his chest and launched a counter-attack of his own.
Millions of punches per second.
At the macro level, each punch could pierce the densest neutron star and annihilate a celestial body's gravitational structure. At the micro level, each punch could decouple all strong and weak nuclear force connections, disintegrating matter into subatomic particles.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Flashes of light far surpassing the intensity of gamma-ray bursts flickered with superhuman frequency across the cosmos. These flashes were the sparks of impact as the Sages struck one another.
This light destabilized the four fundamental forces and warped the structure of three-dimensional space-time. Any ordinary matter exposed to its radiance would collapse into ash.
One moment, the cluster of flashing light appeared beside a neutron star.
The next second, that neutron star exploded into countless high-energy neutron beams, while the light-cluster reappeared 1.8 trillion kilometers away. This flashing light was the manifestation of the three Sages as they continuously bypassed the speed of light to traverse the vast universe.
Each step they took distorted the size and distance of three-dimensional space-time, flattening curves, shrinking the massive, and bringing the distant into immediate proximity. The battlefield of the three Sages was fragmented; they were here one microsecond and there the next, their conflict spanning quadrillions of kilometers of vast space.
During their continuous flight and combat, gargantuan stars were repeatedly caught in the crossfire and annihilated.
Even if thousands of interstellar civilizations deployed their entire fleets and every expert they possessed to besiege them, not a single soul would survive for even a microsecond.
In that span, they would be reduced to infinite light and heat by the shockwaves of the Sages' clash, scattered into the dark void.
BOOM!!!
At that moment, two more unknown Mid-tier Sages suddenly manifested, launching a combined pincer attack that slammed into the black-armored giant's chest.
Seeing the opening, the original Twin Sages instantly condensed spheres of power in their palms, each containing enough force to shatter millions of stars, encased them in surging space-time phase curves, and slammed them into the giant's back with a roar.
A double-sided, pincer assault.
BOOM!!!!
In this instant, it felt as though the entire infinite space exploded.
The Dirac Sea, hidden "behind" three-dimensional space-time, boiled over. Centered on the five powerful Sages, tens of billions of super-high-energy particle beams, each capable of vaporizing a rocky planet, shot forth, mixed with a roaring tidal wave of space-time curvature.
These forces raced in every direction at thousands of times the speed of light.
CRACK—
This combined strike from the four Mid-tier Sages shattered every piece of armor covering the black-armored giant.
WHOOSH—
As the infinite light dissipated, a giant emerged amidst the four Sages of the Core. He stood over a thousand meters tall; his lower half had vanished, and his upper body was covered in wounds and the remnants of his heavy, shattered armor. His appearance was tragic, yet his face was magnificent and his aura was transcendently vast.
This was the true form of Godshell, stripped of all outward disguises.
Upon revealing his true self, he immediately sensed something within the Galactic Continent, hundreds of trillions of kilometers away.
An object there had awakened, erupting with a terrifying, god-like aura before instantly activating a warp bubble and racing toward him at many times the speed of light.
Feeling the connection with this distant object, Godshell achieved a sudden, divine realization:
"The Divinity-Frame... Yes! My Divinity-Frame is calling to me, flying toward me!"
The arrival of this divine object acted as a violent catalyst. Within his body and soul, the four fundamental forces intertwined and began to merge, slowly unifying into an unimaginably majestic and mystical power.
The moment they saw Godshell's face, the four Sages of the Core froze. Simultaneously, a profound, ancient aura, echoing with the desolation of primeval times, erupted from Godshell's body, sweeping through the vast interstellar void.
Feeling this aura, at once familiar and alien, the four stunned Sages trembled as if struck by lightning. Looking at Godshell, they cried out in disbelief:
"Ancient... Star Eater?!! You... it's you... Progenitor... Progenitor God?!"
As the four Sages spiraled into mental chaos, a hazy, blurred streak of light arrived from the dark void, striking Godshell squarely in the chest.
This light was a cross-shaped, illusory crystal.
In the next heartbeat, the crystal fractured and dissolved into Godshell's body, transforming into a stream of cool, clear light that bypassed all obstacles to reach the deepest depths of his body and soul. There, it instantly constructed an incredibly precise, complex, and mystical Tachyon-based communication super-structure loop.
HUMMM
In an instant, reality and the Realm of Phantasm overlapped in Godshell's vision. He clearly felt an artificial field, similar to the Realm of Phantasm and capable of ignoring the constraints of light speed, instantly covering the entire black space in every direction.
"Separated for millions of years..."
Godshell looked up and sighed, then chuckled. "Old friend, we get to fight side-by-side once more."
Following his laughter, the four fundamental forces within his body and soul abruptly unified, becoming the true Grand Unified Force. Though Godshell's power Quantity was still far from that of a High-tier Sage, his Quality had surpassed the Mid-tier. He had returned to the High-tier realm.
The four Sages eventually snapped out of their shock. Despite their lingering dread, they unleashed their full power, preparing to strike once again at this being who appeared to be their Progenitor God.
At that precise moment, Godshell slightly raised his hand and clenched his fist.
BOOM!!!
In the blink of an eye, every molecule, atom, neutron, and proton within 3,000 light-years of him, along with the millions of stars, countless rocky planets, and the four Sages of the Core nearest to him, all suddenly...
Vaporized and vanished.
As Godshell donned the Divinity-Frame, which had slumbered for untold millennia, a flood of memories awakened within him. These included the operational parameters of this super-technological armor, memories of the Sanchegues super-structure in the galactic core, and fragmented histories of the various races of the core.
Through these vivid, experiential memories, Godshell realized that the four Sages who had besieged him belonged to the Arnel and Iain races, the very species created by his predecessor, Saknussim, millions of years ago.
He "saw" the series of biological experiments and preparations Saknussim had conducted before birthing these two supreme races. Among these projects was the creation of the Aurora Clan on Earth.
The Arnel and Iain were the ultimate results of tens of thousands of such experiments, the two strongest races in the Milky Way.
Beyond this, Godshell discovered the origin of the Divinity-Frame itself. The armor was, staggeringly, the standard-issue equipment provided by the Houiste Federation to all its citizens.
However, despite its seemingly large numbers, the requirement to wear it was exceptionally high. To don a Divinity-Frame, one had to be at least a Low-tier Sage. Half-Sages and Stage Ten Overlords need not apply. This realization sparked a startling conclusion: the Houiste Federation was a race composed entirely of Sages.
"Every single individual in the race, adults, children, even infants... they are all Sages."
Even the stoic Godshell felt a tremor of shock.
What did that even mean?
To be born with the power to destroy thousands of stars?
To be born with mastery over one of the universe's fundamental forces?
They were, in every sense, a race of Gods.
In contrast, the entire Milky Way, spanning 200,000 light-years and containing hundreds of billions of stars and countless civilizations, failed to produce even a single natural Sage.
Only within the galactic core did Sages exist, and those likely only achieved their status by scavenging Saknussim's vast legacy millions of years ago.
Yet, in the deep reaches of space, billions of light-years away, there existed a terrifying race like the Houiste, born into godhood.
Compared to them, every other species was no more than an ant.
No, calling them ants was too generous; the races of the Milky Way were as insignificant as air. But as Godshell's mind reeled from this information, he reviewed the capabilities of the Divinity-Frame itself, and was shaken once more.
This time, it was by the sheer technical might of the Houiste.
The memories revealed that, once activated, the armor could project a unique [Localized Tachyon Interface Field] belonging to the wearer. This field was a [Segmented Phantasm Field], a technological replica of the complex mechanisms of the true Realm of Phantasm at the end of the Sentience Realm, created by the Houiste civilization.
This [Phantasm Field] inherited the attribute of extreme rule-decentralization from the true Realm of Phantasm. Once fully deployed, the wearer could effortlessly bypass the limitations of light speed, allowing the range, intensity, and precision of their [Observation] and [Interaction] with the physical world to be fully realized.
Within this field, no change in matter, energy, data, or space-time could escape the wearer's precise perception. The fundamental law that "the effective speed of information transmission cannot exceed the speed of light" became utterly meaningless.
Furthermore, each suit of armor possessed internal dimensional trays with storage capacities measured in planetary volumes. These folded spaces within the armor served various complex and profound functions.
Take energy, for example. Within the Divinity-Frame's dimensional slots, multiple high-capacity cores with extreme production and conversion efficiencies were installed.
There were four types:
The [Etheric Directional Simulation Energy Array], which converts and produces energy from the boundless Ether filling space.
The [Dirac Ocean Extraction Engine], which directly siphons limitless zero-point energy from "behind" space-time.
The [Dark Matter Cage Engine], which annihilates and converts dark matter, comprising over half of the universe's mass, into fuel.
The [Ethereal Annihilation Smelter], which transforms dark energy, comprising the vast majority of the universe's energy, into clean power.
With these four energy cores, the wearer of a Divinity-Frame never has to worry about energy reserves or output power from the moment they don the armor. They can use it for as long as they desire.
Furthermore, the onboard intelligent system optimizes the wearer's perception and power for maximum efficiency. Whether creating or destroying, the Divinity-Frame ensures that every action is precise, with zero waste or error.
Within this intelligent system, the wearer can store and execute various forms of energy manipulation: electrical, optical, thermal, nuclear, and magnetic.
To put it simply, any superpower, martial art, spell, or secret technique based on the four fundamental forces can be recorded once and then unleashed with a single thought within the [Phantasm Field].
The wearer can also record the structural models of everything in the universe, from the micro to the macro. They can use the Divinity-Frame to rapidly construct landforms, terrestrial planets, gas giants, stars, white dwarfs, neutron stars, or even targeted wormholes.
Beyond these celestial bodies, the wearer can also mass-produce interstellar dreadnoughts, neutron battle stars, Dyson Spheres, and space-time gates.
Aside from physical objects, the Divinity-Frame can record and replicate cosmic disasters: nebulae, interstellar storms, solar flares, antimatter meteors, supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and black holes, allowing them to be summoned instantly. Within the deployed field, the wearer is an omnipotent creator, a supreme god.
A single individual could conquer ten thousand civilizations and countless lives.
Though Godshell couldn't find the manufacturing process or materials in his fragmented memories, he did learn the specific hierarchy of the Houiste Divinity-Frames:
Low-tier Frame: For Low-tier Sages. The Phantasm Field covers a diameter of 20 light-years.
Mid-tier Frame: For Mid-tier Sages. The Phantasm Field covers a diameter of 200 light-years.
High-tier Frame: For High-tier Sages. The Phantasm Field covers a diameter of 3,000 light-years.
Super-tier Frame: For Peak Sages. The Phantasm Field covers a diameter of 60,000 light-years, more than three times the total length of the Orion Arm. Even Saknussim didn't possess one of these, nor was he qualified to wear it.
...
Godshell's remaining eye flickered as he sensed the vast, 3,000 light-year expanse.
HUMMM
In this moment, it was as if the universe were facing its end. Within the 3,000 light-year space-time radius centered on Godshell, all matter entered a state of cascading annihilation.
The four Sages of the Core, bound by invisible force, sensed the four fundamental forces flowing through space-time, matter, energy, and information merge into a single Grand Unified Force. They stared at Godshell in shock, their voices trembling:
"A High-tier Sage... This is the power of a High-tier Sage... the Grand Unified Force!"
"You... you truly are the Progenitor God!"
At that instant, any doubt the four Sages had vanished, replaced by bitter regret and soul-deep terror.
Suddenly, they felt the vast Dirac Sea "behind" the three-dimensional space-time vibrate. It boiled over, birthing billions of high-energy particles.
These particles instantly condensed into a multitude of super-gravitational vortexes. These vortexes, spanning billions of kilometers, swirled and drifted through the void.
From the high-frequency radiation emitted by the approaching swarm of vortexes, the four Sages sensed the presence of massive, blurred masses of incredible density.
Around these masses, space-time collapsed into a dangerous, incomprehensible state beyond their understanding.
The four Sages realized in horror:
Black holes! They were all black holes!
This was a massive tide formed from billions of micro-black holes, surging toward them. Their minds reeled as they cried out:
"Black holes? So many of them?! The Progenitor God can create countless black holes... and surround us entirely?!"
Godshell, now standing outside their encirclement, looked at the four Sages with a cold, flickering eye.
"As creations, you dared to harbor murderous intent toward your creator. You... deserve to die."
At his command, hundreds of millions of black holes, each with the mass of Earth, Jupiter, or even the Sun, roared toward the four Sages. In the next heartbeat, the legion of black holes engulfed them like a horde of demons patrolling a hellish abyss.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! RUMBLE!
In an instant, the entire vast void fell into a state of chaotic, violent space-time upheaval.
Under these circumstances, the space-time upheaval within the cosmos became unimaginably terrifying. The delicate, three-dimensional structure of space-time was reduced to a chaotic tangle by the dense cluster of black holes.
It became a zone of absolute death.
Even Godshell didn't have the confidence to survive a single second within it. Naturally, the consciousness of the four Sages of the Core was extinguished the moment they were engulfed by the tide of black holes; they died before they could utter a single word.
"Sigh."
Godshell sighed. "Now... time to see what's left of my home."
As he spoke, the infinite void before him began to ripple.
Tens of thousands of high-energy light streaks manifested out of thin air, twisting and merging into a rotating ring of light. At the center of this spinning radiance, three-dimensional space-time warped to its limit, and a pitch-black, spherical entity appeared.
A wormhole.
The moment it formed, Godshell flew into its depths and vanished from the chaotic battlefield.
...
The Heart of the Milky Way.
The dark void outside the Sanchegues super-structure.
HUMMM
A deep, dark wormhole spanning over ten thousand meters rapidly expanded. As it vibrated and flickered with phantom light, a giant with a shattered upper body, radiating a majestic, boundless aura, flew out.
It was Godshell.
The moment he arrived, the massive wormhole behind him collapsed under his cold will, dissolving into layers of space-time ripples that raced through the void at faster-than-light speeds. Ignoring this, Godshell looked down toward the Galactic Continent.
Beneath his immense, super-three-dimensional mental perception, he saw that the continent was in ruins. Entire Civilization Zones and territories were now silent and desolate.
Almost every corner of the land had been reduced to tragic debris.