Outside the battlefield, Christine and the Nature Goddesses—the Goddesses of War, Flames, Wisdom, Sea, Victory—watched Lysandra's ascension with expressions that had given up pretending to be neutral.
Among the Castle Lords and Rangers it was louder.
"That's Lady Lysandra, a General of the Imperial Army, just below the Supreme Commander Her Holiness Celestia!"
"Now that she's a Supreme God, her title as a General seems well earned."
"Hey! As an Intermediate God, I feel personally attacked."
Someone worked through the logic aloud: the Great Aetherium's Angels had slaughtered over a million Evil Gods. Gods who'd already hit their growth ceilings stopped accumulating exp and thanks to the Guardian Angels' Divine Spells, that overflow transferred to the ones still climbing. A peak High God drowning in that kind of exp wasn't going to stay there for long if their growth potential allowed that.
But underneath the crowd noise, the Native Gods were quieter. The Ancient Goddesses understood what they were really watching. Castle creatures had no shackles of potential. They didn't need centuries of grueling ascetic cultivation and just needed to kill enough enemies to ascend on their own.
The Native Gods could grind for ten thousand years, fifty thousand years, and still find the threshold to the Supreme God Tier out of their reach. The Endless Continent's Laws gave these creatures everything while the natives, by comparison, seemed almost forgotten.
Selene, the Goddess of Moonlight and Hunting, said nothing. She could feel her own threshold from here and recognized the shape of it. She would get there. But the contrast still sat uneasily.
…
A second golden light appeared before the first had fully faded. It was Eveline, the Eighteen-Winged Fallen Angel, the Supreme Commander of the Fallen Angel Army. It was a special unit of the Imperial Army which only answered directly to the Divine Emperor.
Another Peak High Goddess who ascended to become a Supreme Goddess, right there, in the same war, minutes apart. The sound of mass inhaling traveled across the area.
"Six Supreme Gods." Someone said flatly, "The Great Aetherium has six Supreme Gods."
This was a double happiness, and it wasn't over yet. Haru felt it before Eveline's golden light had fully settled. A completely different aura from within himself. The paper-thin barrier tore. Although there was no golden light, he had finally ascended to the peak.
The Divine Aura erupting from his body was unmistakable, his Divine Power rising exponentially.
'Less than two months from a Tier Zero mortal to this. Even by the standards of a world that ran on miracles, this is something else.'
The Demon Emperor held at least one God Monarch Tier Law and the title of a Pseudo God King, so 'comparable' was doing some work, but the distance between them had closed. Even if the Demon Emperor crossed into the Endless Continent in force, with his Twelve Demon Monarchs and his armies, the pressure on Haru would be manageable now.
For now, two paths to the next level were already open for him. Celestia had held a God Monarch Tier Law once in the Illusory Angel Realm, she would recover it soon, and Haru could learn from that process directly.
Separately, his Abyssal Artifacts were feeding his Abyss Law. If it evolved into a God Monarch Tier Law in this way, then the gap between Haru and Aschenkranz, the Demon Emperor, would close.
…
Celestia stepped through the Space-Time barrier without announcing herself as her natal artifact carried the origin of Space-Time Law, enough for her to enter and exit his seal without being rejected. She materialized beside him carrying the hammer, its surface still laced with unsettled purple lightning.
"Congratulations, My Lord. You're one step closer to returning to 'your peak'."
There was a genuine feeling underneath the formality. For Celestia, Haru's strength wasn't separate from her family's future. She could become the strongest Angel to ever exist, a God Queen, and it still wouldn't be enough. Only Haru could lead the direction of the Angel Race. His ascension mattered to her more than her own.
"Congratulations to you as well. You would also recover your peak soon."
"Everything comes from the Lord's blessings."
Haru took the hammer from her, turned it over a few times, and felt the weight of it. The artifact's aura had settled firmly as a top-level Supreme God Tier Artifact.
He set it down and shook his head, "It's a pity."
Celestia lowered her head, "I was careless. I failed to kill Varkath. A beam appeared on the battlefield and he managed to escape."
"You fought a peak Supreme God at less than your peak strength. Beating him was the realistic outcome. You achieved it, and you even took this." A glance at the hammer, "He'll remember the lesson. Next time he considers provoking the Great Aetherium, he'll think carefully."
"As for the beam that pulled him out." Haru said, "Did it come from Obrys?"
_____________
Did the beam come from the base camp of the Titan Pantheon called Obrys, or was there some other power like the Dragon Pantheon at play here?
Stay tuned to find out.
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