Within the Southern Plains of the Fallen Bridge, under a ghost-black sky, gravity collapsed.
A soundless quake rumbled through the plains as building-sized runes etched into monolithic stones activated all at once. Sapphire exploded beneath them, causing shockwaves that bent the very fabric of space.
The first to die were the weakest tens of thousands Infected Krepsunas. They collapsed inward like crumpled tin. Their frames exploded under the sheer atmospheric weight pressing down on their flesh.
The ground sank from the force.
Krepsunas began to scream. The Southern Plain itself bowed as gravity intensified by a hundredfold, targeting every corrupted soul caught in Vastarael's rune field.
Monsters with claws the size of carriages slammed face-first into the earth, twitching helplessly. Wings snapped. Mandibles shattered. Some tried to crawl toward the edge, only to be dragged back by the unrelenting pull of extremely high gravity.
The stronger ones, the Scavenger and Sunderer ranks resisted. Their bodies shook, their bones cracking as they tried to rise. But even they were immobilized, kneeling like worshippers forced to bow before an unseen god.
"ATTACK HIM!"
The Frozen God's voice cracked reality. From somewhere in the black mist, he shouted in deranged fury. His horde tried to obey.
Then the second phase began. A pulse of sapphire light ignited.
A colossal hemispherical barrier burst into life, locking down the entire southern plain in an airtight dome. Every Krepsuna within the gravity field was now sealed inside.
Vastarael and Elyonari stood untouched at the cliff's edge, just outside its radius. The edge of the dome ended a single meter in front of them, perfectly measured.
The ground shook violently as the Frozen God screamed.
"You worm… YOU FILTHY, LOATHSOME WRETCH—"
But Vastarael was laughing.
He doubled over, absolutely cackling as if this was a personal comedy. His voice carried even in the thundering rage of a Krepsuna God. He laughed, wiping a tear from his eye.
"You thought this was it? This tiny little trap down south?"
He spread his arms wide.
"This isn't just happening here, Frost-Face. And I really hope you understand what that means, because while I came here, I was doing the exact same thing in the north, the west, and the east."
Elyonari's eyes widened, even though she'd suspected.
"You… trapped every direction?"
He grinned. "The entire inside of the Fallen Bridge… is rigged."
For a second, not even the Frozen God spoke.
Then came the shaking. The terrible realization slithered through the crust of the Fallen Bridge. Earthquakes began hammering every direction. Rune circuits, dormant for years, now ignited like wildfire.
And it didn't cost Vastarael his essence. After all, a Rune is drawn with energy and it can be made inactive by said energy. So he was just activating them.
Massive towers of energy erupted from the north, from the west and from the east. The gravity runes activated again, this time compressing with unthinkable intensity.
And then, the final phase.
Vastarael turned to Elyonari, smiled, and gently took her by the waist. From beneath them, a pitch-black portal spiraled open.
Elyonari stared, stunned by all of this.
"Vastarael... are we—"
"We're done here."
He looked over his shoulder at the madness one last time. His Mystic Eyes locked into the darkness beyond the dome.
"You will never see me again," he said to the Frozen God, "and I meant it."
"Wait—YOU COWARD—"
He dropped. The portal closed behind them. And then the inside of the Fallen Bridge exploded.
It wasn't like fire or lightning.
It was like ten suns being born at once and forced through the walls of a narrow space. The inside of the massive five-thousand-meter-high wall ruptured inward and outward at once.
The hemispherical barriers detonated their built-up energy.
The Northern mountains shattered. The Western ridges collapsed. The Eastern ranges disintegrated. Everything inside the Bridge went white with annihilation. And above it all, the roar of absolute fury echoed across all of Erna Isles.
"VAAAAAAAAASTARAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL!!!"
The skies cracked outside. The oceans boiled at the edges.
But he was still sealed. Still locked.
And his army, his beloved 530,000 Infected Krepsunas, had been atomized.
The Bridge itself remained. The Primofrost walls were still standing but now, inside that sacred, frozen crypt, the Frozen God was alone.
------
Above the Island of Peony, two figures were falling towards it.
As they plummeted through the cold air, Vastarael's retina displayed a wave of holographic windows, flickering in and out with digital clarity, each bordered with ancient glyphs only visible to those synced with the Academy System:
[System Notification]
[Subject: Vastarael Richinaria]
[Krepsuna Eliminations Registered: 530,163
Accumulated Essentia & Soul Mass: 8,873,921 units]
[Third Phase Ascender limit exceeded beyond limits.]
[System Override: Academy System has forcefully unlocked Divine Ascension Path. You no longer need to advance to Seventh Star to achieve Divinity.]
[Do you wish to initiate Divine Advancement?]
[Warning: Initiating advancement during aerial descent at 944 meters per second. Physical pain threshold will be exceeded. Proceed?]
He stared at the notification mid-fall, blinking as the wind tore past his face.
"…I was wondering when you'd show up," he murmured with a smirk.
The voice command was too steady for someone freefalling from the stratosphere.
"Advance now."
[Affirmed. Initiating Divine Advancement. Please brace for metamorphic trauma.
Welcome to the Divine Path, Seventh Star Mage, Vastarael Richinaria.]
That's when his body convulsed.
Elyonari, gliding alongside him with boosts of wind manipulation tethered to her legs and back, noticed it immediately. Vastarael's fingers jerked, cracking from the knuckles down to his wrist. His veins lit up. His back arched violently and his mouth opened in a sharp exhale of glowing fog.
"Vastarael?" She yelled through the wind. "Vastarael—!"
His skin was glowing literally from the inside. Cracks began forming along his forearms, chest and neck. His pseudo-cores were beginning to ignite.
He was evolving.
Elyonari reached out, grabbing his arm and pulling him close, locking her other hand behind his back as they kept falling. His eyes turned completely sapphire with no pupils or sclera.
"I'm fine," he hissed. "I've waited… so long for this. Just hold me…"
The Island of Peony rushed up toward them. It was a wasteland cloaked in endless thickets of scarlet blossom trees that hid predators in their roots, toxins in their leaves and death in their crimson pollen.
Vastarael barely noticed. The system had overloaded his neurons, pouring information into his Divine Pathway.
And yet, amidst that blinding pain. his expression sharpened.
His Mystic Eyes activated.
Through the blood in his throat, the shaking bones, the blinding migraine of becoming something more, he saw the place where the Raukerai Tribe had been massacred.
The same place where the Crimson Verdarite bathed in the blood of nomadic children who called Vastarael family.
The same place he'd once nearly died, fighting beside Xander, Farrynelle and Narisva.
He remembered the old woman with her wrapped hands who gave him food as he taught the women how to use Runes. He also remembered the child who painted his glaive with berry juice. He remembered the chief who wanted him to marry his daughters because he was special.
"I promised them…"
He whispered to himself as arcs of sapphire exploded out of his spine, twisting around his limbs.
He looked to Elyonari, his gaze burning through layers of time and pain.
"It's time to kill the Crimson Verdarite... and you'll tear its heart out. That one final strike will carry you to the Divine Rank."
The system had told him what he already calculated: killing the Crimson Verdarite, one of the most powerful corrupted entities on Erna Isles, would be enough for her.
Elyonari looked forward as their descent neared its final stage.
"Here we go..."