By the time Alexander finally opened his eyes, he was floating high in the sky, safely anchored inside a translucent, pale blue sphere. His body felt remarkably light, the lingering exhaustion of his rapid leveling entirely washed away.
He leaned forward, looking down through the barrier to view the ancient tree below. The landscape had completely changed. Fully half of the colossal tree's primary branches had already been cleanly chopped off, and a few more massive boughs plummeted into the abyss every few minutes, severed by blinding, synchronized slashes of radiant Solar and deep Night affinity mana.
Every once in a while, a massive, pale grey sphere would manifest across the lower foliage, temporarily trapping entire armies of insects before crushing them out of existence. Alexander shifted his gaze, his eyes drifting over to focus on the golden Sun Chariot, which was currently hovering in the open air directly beside his protective bubble. Reina was sitting tense in the driving seat, her expression making it abundantly clear that she desperately wished to be anywhere else but there.
"Reina!" Alexander called out, tapping the barrier.
Unfortunately, the heavy defensive barrier completely suppressed all acoustic vibrations, blocking every sound he made. Sighing, he slumped back against the curvature of the sphere and activated his upgraded sight skill, locking his focus onto the three powerhouse vanguards who were systematically clearing the giant tree from left to right. Hundreds of massive branches had already fallen to the forest floor; the baseline of the colossal world-tree was completely surrounded by a mountain of severed timber, each fallen branch measuring several kilometers in length.
Hakon was operating on pure, ruthless efficiency, casually burning entire swathes of worthless, lower-tier branches to save time. Beside him, Franklin simply projected a sweeping Aura of the Night across the leaves. The specialized darkness perfectly matched the underlying frequency of his personal Aura of Fatigue, but this particular manifestation actively fed upon raw life force and localized mana—mercilessly squeezing every single grasshopper off its vital essence and residual magic alike.
Meanwhile, Ketovan was executing flawless spatial control, continuously pulling up his customized domains to make short, devastating progress through the remaining Noble and Commander-rank beasts. From his birds-eye view, Alexander observed dozens of unique, high-tier evolutionary variants. There were massive lizards bearing a hyper-refined leaf affinity, heavy beetles that actively bent the surrounding wood to fashion high-velocity kinetic projectiles, and crystalline ants that rapidly materialized the rarest, densest gemstones just to slow down the incoming vanguard.
He even spotted magnificent butterflies boasting a literal twenty-foot wingspan, flapping their wings to generate localized plant-mana whirlpools that swept across the leaves, unintentionally crushing hundreds of thousands of their own Normal-rank kin in the crossfire. Yet, no matter how chaotic the battlefield became, every single time a high-tier beast was slain, its core was automatically extracted and gathered with the help of Ketovan's domain, which possessed a specialized affinity tailored to seamlessly stealing objects across space.
Alexander watched the mass slaughter with a pang of regret; it was a profound shame that he was missing out on entire mountains of experience levels right now. Millions of Normal-rank beasts were being systematically wiped out, and his system requirements only demanded a few thousand kills to secure another rapid rank-up. Still, he knew it was a perfectly fair trade in exchange for his life.
Turning his attention back toward the Sun Chariot, he ran a quick system scan across Reina to check her progress:
[Race/Classification:] Human Caster[Current Rank:] Soldier Rank 79
She had managed to secure a pretty massive chunk of levels during the initial chaos, though she still sat a few thousand high-tier kills away from breaking through to the Commander tier.
As if sensing his gaze, Reina turned her head, her eyes locking onto Alexander's sphere. Suddenly, her eyes widened in absolute horror.
Alexander felt the shift a microsecond too late—a powerful, oppressive presence materialized directly behind him inside his locked barrier. Before he could even turn his head, a hand clad in heavy, radiant red and gold armor gripped his shoulder, violently pulling Alexander out of his protective sphere and dragging him straight into a swirling spatial portal.
Alexander tried his absolute best to struggle, instantly channeling his mana to break the hold, but the mysterious intruder applied a fraction of a millimeter of physical pressure in response. Alexander's reinforced bones instantly fractured under the casual counter-grip, offering zero structural resistance. With all due respect to his Omniarch body, he was quite literally an insect compared to the absolute titan holding him.
The portal closed, depositing them into a strange pocket of space. The man released his grip, allowing Alex's arm to rapidly heal as he stepped back. The intruder possessed striking, dual-colored red and white hair and a terrifying cluster of five distinct, glowing eyes arranged symmetrically across his face. He looked down at Alexander, his gaze filled with deep, analytical interest.
"So, you are the chosen successor of the Hegemon and the Emperor..." the man murmured, his voice echoing through the void. "Not a bad choice of an avatar, I must say."
With a casual flick of his wrist, a luxurious, velvet sofa chair materialized out of thin air behind him, and the five-eyed man sat down comfortably, crossing his legs.
"What the hell are you?" Alexander demanded, forcing his voice to remain steady as he backed away. This entity was clearly not an ordinary mortal or a standard ranker; he had just effortlessly broken through a high-tier Royal-ranking warped space barrier specifically to kidnap him.
"Forgive my sudden breach of etiquette," the man replied, offering a smooth, dramatic bow from his seat. "I am Borus Gory Flare. The Crown Prince of the Flarens, representing the sovereign Planet of Flare."
"A crown prince?" Alexander countered, his eyes narrowing. "What do you want with me? Why am I being dragged into this space, and where exactly are we?"
Alex immediately flared his sight skill and his All-Seeing Eyes to their absolute maximum output, desperate to map his surroundings. But his perception returned nothing but a vast, infinite stretch of absolute emptiness.
"We are currently resting within the thin void that joins the realm of Eternia to the local warped spaces," Borus explained nonchalantly, inspecting his gauntlets. "Even though this spatial corridor stretches across a few light-years of distance, it is fairly small in the grand scheme of the cosmos. There is barely any active life inhabiting the space between here."
"What? Are you saying this is an entirely different universe?" Alexander asked, a sudden spike of fear hitting his chest. He worried the man had permanently dragged him out of Eternia and dropped him into some unknown, isolated nick of existence.
"No, no. Rest easy. It is merely a localized void buffer zone between Eternia and the Royal-rank warped space you were just farming," Borus clarified. He reached down to his waist, retrieving a small, standard leather bag that looked no larger than a common pocket pouch. "As for why I am here?"
The Flaren prince reached his hand deep into the tiny pouch. In complete defiance of spatial geometry, his fingers locked onto something massive, pulling out a colossal, glowing sphere-type object that easily measured several hundred kilometers in diameter. He set the massive construct afloat in the void, before reaching back into the pouch to pull out a second, equally gargantuan sphere.
The first object was a brilliant, rotating mass of shifting golden and brownish celestial energy, while the second orb was a dense, pulsing sphere of deep greenish and copperish light. The moment they stabilized in the vacuum, Alexander's system interface flashed with their identifications:
[Item Core Identified:] Time Crystal Wyvern Core (Rank: Divine)[Item Core Identified:] Arcane Dragon God Essence Core (Rank: Divine)
"Are those... actual Divine Rank cores?" Alexander whispered, his jaw dropping as he stared at the two massive orbs, which could comfortably be classified as literal celestial bodies floating in front of him. "Why the hell are you showing these to me?"
"His Imperial Majesty, Deodas Clamore Devanti Skati, sends his highest regards regarding your successful return to the mortal plane and your subsequent claiming of the Core of Hegemony," Prince Borus stated smoothly. "These celestial relics are his personal gifts, offered simply to ensure he remains in your good graces as you ascend. You are permitted to choose one of these two cores; the remaining one will serve as my personal payment for acting as a cosmic delivery agent to a baseline Normal Ranker."
"Deodas?" Alexander repeated, the name striking a heavy chord in his memory. "As in... the Almighty? What could a being of that scale possibly want to do with someone like me?"
"Nothing more than offering a polite helping hand to the successor of myriad paths and ancient legacies," the Flaren prince spoke, his five eyes blinking in unison. "Please, allow me to make this crystal clear: these are mere structural gifts. The Almighty does not expect any form of modern fealty, blood oaths, or reciprocal favors from you. Consider this a welcome-to-the-company gift of sorts. Make a wise choice."
"I'm not entirely sure..." Alexander muttered, staring at the two radiating powerhouses. "Do you have any inside advice on which one fits better?"
In truth, Alexander had already internally decided which core to take, all thanks to a certain all-powerful, ancient conceptual being who had suddenly started violently nagging directly behind his ear.
'Time. Take the time core. Time,' the Emperor's voice repeated inside his mind, the telepathic projection laced with a few casual threats of completely wiping out Alexander's soul field if he failed to select it.
Prince Borus tapped his chin, looking between the two cores. "Honestly speaking? The Time Core is vastly more useful for your current progression curve. Selecting the Arcane Core would likely make your life a tad harder, as your baseline human vessels would be forced to decipher and master the massive, volatile energy output just to keep yourself from accidentally blowing up your own core network. Though... I might be heavily biased toward this decision because I desperately want the Arcane Core for my own advancement... so do not heed my words blindly."
Alexander grinned slightly. "Time it is, then."
"Thank you for making this transaction simple," the prince smiled.
With a smooth wave of his hand, Borus guided the massive golden Time Core back into the tiny leather bag, handing the pouch directly over to Alexander. Then, he turned to the green Arcane Core, casually sliding the kilometer-wide celestial orb straight into his trousers' side pocket. The massive Divine-rank relic compressed instantly upon contact, fitting into his pocket as if it were nothing more than a common marble.
Alexander blinked at the display. "Nice pants."
Borus chuckled, patting his thigh. "You can find our clothing company's branches scattered all over the civilized worlds. The central boutique on the Flaren capital handles the head office designs, but the tailor shops over in Skyfall do a good enough job with the spatial weaving too. Stop by if you ever find yourself in the sector. Just tell them Borus sent you."
"Thanks. Is there anything else I need to know before I head back?" Alexander asked, clutching the bag tight.
"Just one final piece of advice..." the prince said, his expression turning serious as his five eyes locked onto Alexander's frame. "Be exceptionally careful while wielding that conceptual cutlass of yours. The Emperor does not deal gently with individuals who are not directly related to his bloodline using his conceptual blade recklessly. You would be wise to try getting the weapon formally blessed by a high-ranking Bishop or even the Archbishop of the Emperor Church to ensure you stay in his good graces."
Borus stood up from his chair, causing the furniture to dissolve back into void particles.
"And finally... never leave the side of the Motsari boy. Rather than his current standing inside the Church of the Hegemon, his family's deep ancestral bloodlines and cosmic connections will ultimately help you more than any isolated Divine Ranker ever could."
With a sharp motion, the Flaren prince tore open a portal directly behind Alexander, revealing the familiar, chaotic backdrop of the Royal-rank warped space.
"Thanks for the delivery, Prince Borus," Alexander said, his tone turning a bit friendlier.
"The pleasure is entirely mine." Borus offered a final, elegant bow as Alexander stepped backward through the rift, leaving the empty void behind to return safely to his pale blue sphere.
***