He raised Calimostria high into the air, holding the four-and-a-half-meter sapphire glaive with one arm, letting its weight swing naturally into a wide arc. But instead of bringing it down with brute strength, he swirled it.
He made an elegant, seamless circular motion into a perfect circle. Energy bent around him like gravity no longer mattered and for one beautiful moment, a circle of sapphire energy hovered around him.
Then it descended. The moment it touched the ground, the entire island erupted.
Like thousands of crystalline birds erupting from the eye of a storm, feathers made of pure sapphire wind, each half a meter long, exploded outward from the ring, shredding the battlefield.
The forest was leveled.
The wind was silent. Ironically, the Calm Gale was utterly noiseless yet so destructive that the entire terrain was remade. Everything was vaporized in circular waves that spun outward like a divine pulse. The forest around him was gone. All corrupted roots, vines, and even warped peonies were erased in sapphire brilliance.
And above, a sapphire beam exploded into the sky into a perfect pillar of light that rose up, stretching through the night sky like it wanted to stab the stars themselves.
Vastarael stood alone in the center.
Dust floated around him in lazy arcs. All that remained was the faint scent of burned nature and the divine resonance of his technique humming across the battlefield.
In front of him, in the center of a perfectly circular scorched crater, a crimson core floated, beating faintly. It was the heart of the Crimson Verdarite.
He reached out with one hand, his now massive fingers curling gently around it. As he held the sphere of crimson light in his palm, he tilted his head and murmured softly, a slight smile curving his lips.
"I'll give this to Elyonari. She earned it. She needs to become a Divine soon."
----
Meanwhile, in the Halo Islands…
The sky which had been cloaked in thick clouds from the Longest Nightfall, was suddenly torn open by light.
A singular beam of sapphire burst through the heavens. The night skies lit up bright as day, dyed in sapphire blue. Every citizen of the Halo Islands paused.
The oceans rocked as the tides surged, drawn to the shockwave of the energy pulse. It swelled into a mighty high tide. The ground itself vibrated, humming with the residual tremor of something far greater than mortal power.
On one of the floating watchtowers near the heart of the Imperfecta Magistra, members of the Seventh Enlightenment stood on the balcony, staring in stunned silence.
Phaenora's hair glowed faintly in the starlit wash of the beam. Her eyes narrowed as she stared toward the west, toward the origin of that impossible light. Natalis and Denisia Andelaris stood behind her, their faces caught in open awe.
"It's him," came a quiet, certain voice.
Adelasta.
The cold woman sat on the edge of the tower's railing, her eyes half-lidded but certain.
"That's Veneri's energy."
Phaenora turned toward her slowly. "...Are you sure?"
Adelasta didn't even look at her. She didn't need to. Her gaze was locked on the heavens, where the light still burned in the clouds like a star summoned from below.
"I would know it anywhere. He made it. He's a Divine now."
They were silent. No one cheered. They didn't need to. Because at that moment, they all understood something profound:
Vastarael Richinaria was a Divine now.
------
Snow swirled softly around the cratered remnants of the once-majestic Grove of Peonies, where silence now reigned in the aftermath of cataclysm.
There, Vastarael Richinaria sat at the center of stillness itself, his back pressed against a fallen boulder, one knee bent slightly as the other stretched before him. His glaive lay beside him, the massive sapphire blade still humming faintly, its edge half-sunk into the torn soil.
Upon his thigh rested Elyonari Mintheris.
To a casual observer, the scene might have been mistaken for a father cradling a sleeping daughter, but that illusion was soon destroyed by the tenderness in his gaze. He looked down at her with a solemnity born of affection too deep for words, his massive hand resting protectively along her spine.
She barely reached the width of his thigh now, her 175 cm frame dwarfed by the 400 cm monolith of divine might he had become. Yet in that moment, she was weightless in his lap.
Her face, tranquil in sleep was flush with faint streaks of greenish light running through her veins, which were signs of divinity awakening. Her eyelids twitched every now and then, as if her soul was shifting between planes of being.
He had placed a Sleep Rune on her chest etched with utmost care using a fingernail glowing with sapphire light. A thin rune now shimmered faintly beneath the fabric of her tunic. She wouldn't wake until the painful part was over.
He exhaled softly and brought up his Character Profile, displayed in translucent, blue holographs just before his golden eyes.
---
Name: [Vastarael Richinaria.]
Alias: [Veneri]
Age: [???]
Title: [Prince of Anqerise], [Prince of Beauty], [Obsidian Towermaster]
Species: [Aeterium (Nexus Bloodline)]
Affiliation: [Dynasty Richinaria]
Status: [Divine, First Resonance]
Pinnacle Tethers: [Sapphire Materialization], [Omniphage], [Timeless.]
Base Tethers: [Circlecraft], [Rune Drawing], [Sapphire Bond], [Mystic Eyes], [Peony Creation], [Inventory], [Soul and Body Reconstruction], [Limitless], [Soul Vision], [Memory Implantation and Extraction.]
Major Divinities: [Protection], [Love], [Justice], [Time]
Minor Divinities: [Water]
Codex: [Prince of Anqerise], [Handsome Prince of Freedom], [Obsidian Towermaster]
Artifacts: [Calimostria], [Divine Mystic Book of Altherion], [Fool's Copy], [Bowl of Wisdom]
Overwrite: [Not Created.]
Divine Transformation: [Chronos Manifest]
Boon: [Ethereal Beauty]
Bane: [Trouble in Paradise]
Destiny: [Suffering Before Reward]
Fate: [Death In The Embrace of Love.]
-----
Vastarael stared at the final three lines longer than he should have. He didn't flinch when he saw "Fate: Death in the Embrace of Love."
But something in his jaw tightened, and his hand resting on Elyonari's back curled slightly as if he was bracing for something he already knew would come. That line had always been there.
He gently pushed a few strands of hair from her cheek, his fingertip big enough to cover the side of her face. She stirred, unconsciously nuzzling against the warmth of his palm.
"Stupid girl… you really grew on me, huh? Don't fall in love with me," he whispered as if it would undo the inevitable. "I'll only break your heart."
Yet his hand remained on her back, gently rubbing in slow circles.
She was glowing brighter now. Her core was resonating. Her entire body shimmered, veins tracing ethereal vines beneath her skin. Her soul was evolving beneath the veil of sleep, reshaping itself into something stronger.
He could feel it.
Her Nature Energy was aligning with divine frequency. Her aura had a purity to it.
"It's almost over. You're becoming divine… and you're still beautiful in every stage."
Vastarael looked up at the gray night sky above the crater. Snowflakes drifted down in the silence. He let a few land on his upturned palm.
"They won't understand why I did this. But you… maybe you will."
He turned back to her and pressed his forehead with his fingertip.
"I won't be here for long, Elyonari. But until I'm gone… I'll protect you."
And for a while longer, he held her.