“It’s broken!!!” Without thinking, Saint Geom roared at the top of his lungs. His dominant arm was falling down from the strain that his strike had caused, but the Sword Saint didn’t care about fatigue. If need be, Saint Geom would leap into action and rip the Allfather out of the Tree of Darkness with his own two hands. However, the leader of this whole operation didn’t move a single inch.

“Shin?!” Saint Longyu Tian called out to Shin, who had his eyes closed and body loosened up. From the outside, it looked like the man didn’t have the slightest intention of attacking the Allfather and the Black Masks, which greatly worried the members of the Alliance. “We have to attack the Allfather now, else he’ll ascend!!!”

The portal at the centre of the mana whirlpool was getting bigger and bigger with each passing second. The Tree of Darkness’ branches weren’t impacted by the Spirit Saints’ all-out attack and were on the verge of ripping a hole through Heaven’s Gate. And more shockingly…

A hooded figure rose up from the apex of the tree, his body inching closer towards the threshold. It seems that… the Allfather’s preparations were complete. He was about… to make that final leap.

“I know that...” Shin replied, but his heart wasn’t with the Alliance members. It looked like half of his mind had been split, and his soul wasn’t within his own body.

“Damn it, he must have used too much mana!” In a fit of anxiety, Longyu Tian wrongly deduced Shin’s symptoms. “We’ll have to do it on our own! Let’s raid the Tree of Darkness now!!!”

“ORYAHHHH!!!” With war cries echoing left and right, the Spirit Saints raised their Spirits and Spiritual Armaments, rallying all of Alliance members to join the final assault.

“ATTACK!!!” Saint Geom was the first to fly out of the defensive line. Being the one with the highest offensive power, the Sword Saint was in a prime position to interrupt the Allfather’s ritual and bring an end to the dastardly war. The Samingeom glistened with Saint-Levelled swordlight, burning and melting away any Umbras that dared to venture into its path.

The other Spirit Saints quickly moved to support Saint Geom’s charge. Saint Althea provided healing and auxiliary support. At the same time, Saint Shenshe Zemin spread her corrosive poison to keep the Umbras at bay. The Himmel Ancestor, with his mana restored using Shin’s Restoration ability, was able to summon out his Immortal Army once more to dominate the battlefield. In contrast, Saint Firebird dominated the skies with his fiery radiance.

Saint Longyu Tian used her Time Field to slow down the movements of the Umrbas, which was child’s play for the Saint of Time, while she sped up her allies’ actions. Right now, they needed to rush towards the opened Tree of Darkness while they had the chance. If the Allfather ascends… Everything that they had been fighting for would have been for nought.

“Fly to Heaven’s Gate! We’ll stop the Allfather from ascending!!!” Saint Althea leapt to the sky, spinning her blade twice.

“RARARA!!! GET AWAY YOU FUCKERS!!!”

However, before any of the Spirit Saints could come close… A miniature sun came flying in their direction, forcing them to take two steps backwards to evade. Four coloured beams shot in between them and the Tree of Darkness. Black, White, Purple and Red… The Four remaining of the Nine Coloured Noble Beasts. The final stewards of the Allfather and the ones that stayed till the very end… They weren’t going to stand idle as the Alliance tried to crush their dreams.

“Teleport away!!!” Shiro shot surges of Space-Elements into the air, creating random portals that moved the Spirit Saints further away from the Tree of Darkness. “You’re not delaying the Allfather!”

Other Spirit Saints were caught up by the Archane Queen’s spun out webs, deterring their path forwards. “Ara, I would love to stay and taste your brain matter, but the Immortal Realm calls.”

And finally…

“None of you are going to interfere in my Master’s dream… Just stand there and watch as we ascend!” Kuro growled in his Wolf form, showing off all of the powers that a Darkness-Elemental Primordial Beast. Umbral energy flowed out from his fur, and over a hundred clones were summoned, each one brandishing the energy of a faux Tier 9 Spirit Beast. Taking down the minions that Kuro had summoned wasn’t difficult, but it would sure as hell take time. Time that the Alliance couldn’t afford to waste.

“Shin! What are you doing?!” At that point, Kanari couldn’t bear it anymore. She grabbed her husband by the sleeves and turned to his absent-minded face, hoping to slap some sense into him. “The Allfather is about to ascend! Do something about it!”

It took him a while, but eventually… Shin’s mind finally came back to his physical body. He looked at his wife, one eye staring her down, the other glancing at the image of the Allfather reaching towards Heaven’s Gate. And then… he smiled.

“Don’t worry, Kanari. We’ve already won.” Shin declared.

“What?”

“Trust me. We’ve won.” Shin shook his head and didn’t elaborate, he grabbed Kanari’s hand and gently peeled it away from his arm. “Just wait and see.”

❖❖❖

The Allfather didn’t care about the mayhem that laid beneath his feet. The Alliance were knocking on his door with everything that they had. Immortal-Grade Spirit Armaments, Spirit Saints, Primordial Beasts… Everything that could very well mess up the Allfather’s plans for ascension were placed on the table. Given a few more minutes, the Tree of Darkness’ defences would be breached, and the full might of the Alliance would be pointing their swords at the Allfather’s neck.

But the man didn’t care.

The Allfather floated up to the highest of heavens and was basically centimetres away from escaping Earth’s gravity and breaking into outer space. However, the Allfather didn’t care for the material plane anymore. Standing before him was Heaven’s Gate, the entity that he’d been chasing for centuries now.

“Two ways to enter the Immortal Realm. Becoming a Spirit Immortal or opening Heaven’s Gate… Dream, I’m too untalented to use the former route, so I had to use this method. You wouldn’t hate me right?”

The Allfather chuckled to himself. Would Dream be disappointed to see him use an unconventional method? Or would she be proud? The Allfather didn’t know.

“But none of that matters… The most important thing is that I will finally see you again.”

The portal was finally at its breaking point as it spread to over a hundred metres in diameter. It was more than enough for the Allfather to pass through and finally break free from the chains that bound him to the mortal world. He was going to become eternal… he was going to meet Spirit Immortal Dream once more.

Both his bandaged hands touched the invisible ceiling that separated the mortal plane from the Immortal Realm. All the Allfather needed to do now was push through, and he would climb the stairs to Heaven. All he needed… was that final step.

“I’m coming to meet you now, Dream!”

But alas… Man proposes, Heaven disposes.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

The moment the Allfather’s hand pushed through that invisible barrier, the skies roared in a fury. No, the entire world cried with the anger of every single soul that it had. Heaven’s Gate, the whirlpool in the sky that the Allfather had taken so many years to create… was now broken into billions of elemental particles.

Hellfires that burnt at over a million degrees. Torrential winds that went over ten thousand kilometres an hour. Rock showers that held stones with densities heavier to that of platinum. Lightning bolts that raged with the fury of a thousand Ancient Gods. Storms that brought forth rain that weighed heavier than diamonds. Light rays that burnt through flesh and melted everything away in moments. Dark clouds that carried all the evil and suffering the world had to offer. Spatial tears that disrupted the space-time continuum. Time fractures that broke one’s sensation of time. And even unending fogs that held the mysteries of the mind…

Disasters that were more destructive than the time Spirit Immortal Dream ascended… They were all unleashed. But instead of bringing devastation to the world like in Spirit Immortal Dream’s case, all of the disasters were targetted on one sole entity…

“ARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!”

The Allfather couldn’t even form words from the pain that permeated through his entire soul. The Tree of Darkness, said to be invincible in the material plane, was now rotting away. All of the Umbras that the Allfather had summoned… they were now being melted by the elemental storm that descended from the sky.

“This is...” Kanari was absolutely gobsmacked by the gruelling sight. No living mortal was meant to suffer through even one of those disasters, let alone the full ten. It was one of those catastrophes that one wouldn’t even wish on their worst enemies.

For a full minute, the former Mythpoint Reach was ravaged by the disasters, killing any living soul that got in its way. The Alliance members closest to the Tree of Darkness were teleported away by Shin’s Cosmic Wings. At the same time, the Black Masks, including the remaining Noble Beasts, were quickly moved using Shiro’s portals. Only the Allfather, the target of the ravaging storms, stayed behind to receive the Heavenly Punishment. Well, not by choice of course.

“As I said, we’ve won.” Shin didn’t look all too surprised. Facing all of those disasters, it would be a shocker if the Tree of Darkness survived that blow. Most of it melted away in seconds, leaving behind only a single bark and some roots.

Shin looked down at the remnants of the Tree of Darkness with a complicated gaze. His eyes hid a burden of truth and pain, one that wasn’t felt by a regular mortal.

“Idiot… The Wall to Eternity isn’t that easily breached.”

“What did you say?”

Since Shin’s voice was as soft as a fly, Kanari didn’t catch his words. Leaning in, the ethereal beauty asked for a volume up.

“No, nothing.” However, Shin wasn’t all that keen on elaborating himself. His body turned aqueous as he prepared to teleport away. “Stay here for a few moments. Gather the Alliance and rest. Wait for my return.”

“Where are you going?”

“... To end it all.”