The divine light that poured from Vastarael's body shimmered across the broken remains of the Grove, burning away the lingering corruption.
It purified the air and fractured earth just by existing. The power was absolute.
Elyonari gasped as she watched it wash toward her before the energy touched her skin. It surged through her broken bones and fractures, healing her.
Body Reconstruction.
Only the Aeterium had it, and only one Aeterium had ever used it like this, with a Divine Rank behind it. She blinked once and all her wounds were gone.
Her eyes widened slowly, her lips parting in awe as she finally looked up and saw him.
Vastarael Richinaria, Divine of the Aeterium.
Standing at a colossal four meters, he towered like a mythical figure reborn from the first myths of creation. His curly glowing white hair flowed freely behind him down past his waist, fluttering without wind as if even gravity now bowed to him. Behind his back floated a massive halo, gold as the core of a sun, but fractured into four radiant points at the circumference. Each point hummed with immense power.
His eyes were pure golden irises, glowing so brightly that Elyonari felt like looking into them was like staring into a perfected eternity.
And that armor. That impossible, sapphire-blue armor...
It was crafted not of mortal ore but formed from the very crystallized essence of his Tether, Sapphire Materialization. Filigree patterns of glowing cerulean markings traced along the armor's plated grooves. A translucent cape formed of pure energy draped behind him.
His double bladed glaive Calimostria had transformed too. It now stood over four and a half meters tall. And through it all, he stood there, watching her and Elyonari couldn't move.
Her knees gave out with a soft gasp and fell down from pure shock. Her breath stuttered. Her lips quivered. Her heart pounded as if it would leap out of her chest. Her pupils were dilated. Her face burned. She could barely think.
She panted.
"Wh... what... what... what are you...? V-Veneri I...I..."
He stepped toward her. The earth quaked softly under each footstep. He stopped right before her and knelt. His massive form lowered gently until he was on one knee in front of her. The gold from his eyes reflected against her emerald ones.
And with his large, bionic hand, he reached out and slowly tilted her chin upward with a single finger.
Elyonari gasped.
His fingers were so big they practically cradled her jaw and yet he was infinitely gentle. Her skin tingled where he touched her.
"Stop looking at me like that," she whimpered, biting her lip. Her legs trembled beneath her. Her entire body betrayed her as her cheeks blazed scarlet. "Y-you're too... too much."
She couldn't look away.
The Love Divinity—one of the four anchors of his Divine Halo—was fully active, flooding the air with that impossible magnetism that no mortal, or being could ever ignore. It was like staring at the embodiment of love itself. It was not fair.
Her Boon made her resistant to mental and physical interference, but this wasn't interference. This was simply Vastarael. And he chuckled. To her, if felt like a low, rich, velvet-like sound that tickled the very soul.
Elyonari whined aloud and covered her face with his hand, panting uncontrollably. He laughed again.
"Thank you. You gave me the time I needed. I'll handle the rest now."
And with that, he stood.
He reached to the side and Calimostria flew to his hand with a deafening hum. He turned to the deeper parts of the island, where the Verdarite's body was rebuilding.
He didn't look back. He vanished.
One step forward and the world blurred as he accelerated with such force that he ripped the air apart, golden and blue light fracturing behind him like a dimensional crack.
Elyonari fell onto the grass, gasping for breath, the tears finally rolling down her cheeks.
"That idiot. That absolutely divine idiot..."
And somewhere in her pounding chest, she finally admitted it.
She was in love with Vastarael Richinaria. Seeing that form made her...
------
The grove was silent, or what was left of it. The crater Elyonari made stretched for hundreds of meters, the twisted roots and shattered trees now ash or splinters. The main body of the Crimson Verdarite regenerated.
He stood there in the middle of the island, steam rising from his burning, half-cracked armor as his wooden flesh twisted and reformed, patched by corrupted Nature Energy. His crimson eyes as if nothing had happened.
But then, Vastarael appeared.
No sound came with his entrance. The weight of a Divine made the clouds above swirl without a breeze and the corrupted flora hiss and recoil like it feared him. He was twice the height of the Crimson Verdarite now.
He stared at the Verdarite for a moment and then he sat down right on the cratered earth, cross-legged and casual as if they were two old friends meeting after years. His massive glaive was planted beside him like a flag declaring the land his. The weight of it made the cracked earth groan beneath it.
He tilted his head, leaned his chin on his hand, and muttered with a bored tone.
"So this is it? This is you at your best? I just... I don't know. I guess I expected more. I see you as a weakling now."
The Crimson Verdarite twitched. Vastarael continued, sighing from the sight he was looking at.
"You used to be terrifying. You're one of the most infamous enemies in Erna Isles. The annihilator of the Raukerai. The crimson blight that silenced a tribe in one night. And now..."
He chuckled.
"Now you're just... underwhelming."
The Verdarite's form snapped in fury. Vines shot out from every direction corrupted Nature Energy. They roared like ancient, sentient spears, moving fast enough to shred divine metal. Normally, not even Narisva Starisnova would avoid this.
And Vastarael didn't flinch. He waved his hand lazily. A pulse erupted from Calimostria's embedded edge.
The air itself ruptured. The vines were disintegrated mid-flight, torn apart in molecular dust by a shockwave of sapphire energy that leveled everything for a kilometer radius. Nothing survived it.
Vastarael looked at his hand as if disappointed it worked so well. He glanced back at the Verdarite, raising a brow.
"So... are you done?"
The Crimson Verdarite howled, vines growing from his back like wings, crimson pollen flooding the air in rage. The land beneath him cracked as his form inflated with power.
"You dare MOCK ME?!"
Vastarael stood now. He dusted himself off, almost like a noble straightening his sleeves before a dance.
"Mock you? Oh no, no. This is pity. This is what disappointment sounds like when I realize... you're not worth the hatred anymore."
The Verdarite screamed, "You came back for vengeance!"
"And I found you weren't even worth that," Vastarael said smoothly, eyes gleaming like suns. "Honestly, if I was still an Ascender, I still would have bested you even though I would have struggled a lot. I did kill a Divine as an Ascender three years ago."
He took a single step forward.
"Still, I have to enact justice. It's one of my Divinities. You slaughtered the Raukerai. That's not something I can overlook. I'm literally mandated to deliver justice. I don't make the rules. Though, I'm really, really glad I get to enjoy enforcing them."
The Verdarite lunged forward in a primal shriek, vines and weapons erupting from his body as he charged but Vastarael did not move.
Instead, he calmly raised his glaive, turning his wrist once.
"You see… you're the perfect subject."
The vines slammed into Calimostria's edge and shattered into particles. Vastarael's grin deepened.
"I just unlocked the Second Plenituse Form. I'm a Seventh Star Mage. And now, a Divine."
He twirled the glaive once. Sapphire sparks fell like feathers.
"I figured I'd test my new technique on you. You should be grateful."
He took another step forward. The ground beneath the Verdarite crumbled.
"I'm going to make this hurt."
The way he said it sent shivers through the corrupted Verdarite's roots.
"And unlike you, I'm going to remember this futile resistance."
He vanished in a blur of gold and sapphire light.
"Second Plenituse Technique, Calm Gale."