Both leaped toward the Gardener, pushing their Soul Auras to the absolute limit. Mirai grew even taller, sprouting two additional pairs of arms. Three heads emerged from her shoulders—two displaying despair, one radiant happiness. Her black horns lengthened, and black butterfly-like wings sprouted from her back, gleaming with imprisoned starlight.

With six fists she summoned six swords. Though she had never fought with blades before, Mirai instinctively knew they were perfect for severing these plants. She swung her blazing, demonic-flame-coated swords, each strike incinerating vast swathes of the moon’s surface.

At the same time, Soma clasped his hands in prayer and summoned one final surge of power through his connection to the Abyssal Mother. A colossal black gate materialized above him. Her eyes emerged from within, radiating overwhelming pressure that momentarily stunned Louis and Mirai.

“Worry not! Mother is on our side!”

“…”

Mother did not speak. She acted. A gigantic black arm—larger than any Soma had ever summoned, dwarfing entire mountains—reached forth. The palm crushed the Gardener’s final resistance while unleashing a sea of miasma.

From the miasma, countless more hands emerged, absorbing the Gardener’s pain and suffering, turning it against him—cursing his existence and spreading the Abyssal Mother’s endless, twisted compassion.

As the Gardener’s agonized screams echoed, Louis watched half the moon’s surface either burn to ash or wither into dry, crumbling plant matter. Despair flooded the Domain. He absorbed it, pushing his Ashen Frost to its absolute limit before reversing it.

His crumbling ashen dragon form underwent a profound transformation. Despair inverted into Hope. Millions of ash particles surrounding him turned to radiant light, gathering around Louis as he grew larger and more majestic.

From corrupted ashen dragon, he slowly became a shining, divine holy dragon—exactly like his mother—with gleaming white scales, feathered wings, and golden horns.

“Amazing…! Louis…! Is this…! Is this who you truly are?”

Mirai gazed in awe while restraining the Gardener as much as possible. Her eyes glowed brightly as she admired what Louis envisioned as his true dragon form. Though this was merely his Soul Projection shaped by Psychic Power, it looked almost indistinguishable from reality.

His Cultivation Methods and Abilities fused, solidifying his draconic form. He dove downward with feathered wings—no longer skeletal—tearing through walls of vines and trees with massive golden claws.

“STOP…! STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!!!”

The Gardener screamed. As Louis descended into the crater toward the moon’s core, hundreds of blooming red roses emerged—each displaying screaming faces. Every flower he had destroyed was formed from souls—perhaps from the Gardener’s original planet, or perhaps from its countless victims.

The heads shrieked, attempting to corrode his mind and soul. But Louis clung to his grandfather’s teachings within his Fake Dragon Heart—not just metaphorically. The more he recalled the creed of the Yggdrasil Dragon Family, the stronger he became.

Heart.

Spirit.

Will.

“Follow your Heart, Nurture your Spirit, and Strengthen your Will.”

He clenched his jaws, gripping Gungnir—which grew alongside his soul. The charged power of the Rune of Slaughter was moments from bursting.

His Psychic Aura surged, wrapping his body and pushing his soul projection to its limit.

Nirvana Flames and Holy Light merged into a radiant blaze that burned both his soul and spear as he thrust downward.

Below, he could already see them: the clustered, cracked cores of the Gardener, each gleaming and as large as a skyscraper.

“This is it…!”

Louis unleashed his technique at the same instant the Gardener counterattacked. Thick, tentacle-like vines lashed out, seizing his legs and piercing deep into his soul.

But none of it mattered. It was far too late.

“You should have never dared attack my Kingdom. You brought this upon yourself, Gardener!”

“S T O O O O O P !”

Hundreds of blooming roses fired thousands of lasers at Louis. He endured, using the power of his own rose to enhance his Soul Essence and Regeneration.

And then.

FLASH!

A blinding pillar of light erupted, piercing through the cores and shattering them one by one.

The Gardener screamed as its entire body writhed in agony and despair.

RUMBLE!

The entire emerald moon cracked. Massive fragments flew into the black void.

A blinding explosion of golden light surged from every fissure, rapidly tearing the Domain apart.

“T-This cannot… be happening…”

The Gardener’s final eye fixed on Louis, narrowing with a hatred deeper than any it had ever felt toward another being.

“Aaahhh… but… I cannot… truly hate you… what a beautiful… blooming flower you are…”

The last crimson flower fell from the crumbling emerald moon, slowly vanishing into the surrounding black void.

In its final moments, it extended its vines toward him, longing to touch this beautiful flower it could never possess.

In response, a red rose emerged from Louis’s chest and gazed down at it.

“I see… I guess you already claimed him… as your garden’s flower…”

The Grievance became a dying star amidst the cosmos.

With the Domain destroyed and the Grievance vanquished, Louis, Mirai, and Soma opened their eyes.

They were back in their original bodies!

“We’re back!” Mirai sighed in profound relief.

“The Nameless Streets are safe now… the Fantasy Field is gone,” Louis exhaled heavily. “We somehow did it… we killed a Level 5 Grievance.”

“Hohoh, if not for my dear mother’s blessing, it would have been simply impossible,” Soma’s voice echoed from behind, drawing glares of hatred and suspicion from both Louis and Mirai.

Their temporary alliance had ended. Nothing now prevented them from killing him—especially in his weakened state.

“The alliance is over,” Louis said, gripping Gungnir tightly. “Soma… for illegally spreading your religion across my country’s borders, and for daring to attempt summoning the Evil Goddess to swallow everything into her Fantasy Realm, I will now execute you.”

“Hm? Haha… surely you jest,” Soma laughed, showing no trace of worry despite Louis pointing his Soul Weapon at him. “Aren’t we friends, Prince Louis?”

“Friends?!” Louis clenched his teeth. “I would never be friends with a monster like you… Because of you, my mother…!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep