Chapter 219: The Divine Tree

God Realm,

Thalira kept chanting.

Her lips moved in silence, fingers pressed together at her chest, divine mana flowing in thin green strands that sank into the floor beneath her feet. From the outside she looked calm, composed—one more goddess watching the battle unfold.

Inside, her thoughts were anything but calm.

This is bad.

Her gaze flicked back to the battlefield in the distance. The five gods had surrounded him, striking from every angle. Firestorms, ice spears, tidal pressure, gale blades, crushing force—each attack carried the weight of a higher god.

And yet the fight wasn’t tilting in their favor.

It wasn’t even overwhelming him.

Zane moved through their attacks with unnerving ease. Sometimes he dodged. Sometimes he deflected. Sometimes he simply stood there and let an attack crash against the dark mana surrounding his body before answering with a counter that forced a god to retreat.

He was smiling.

Covered in dark mana, eyes amused, fighting five higher gods at once—and smiling.

Thalira’s chanting didn’t stop, but her thoughts tightened.

This guy…

He has more power to spare.

A flicker of unease crept into her chest. She had seen beings stronger than herself before. The great leaders. The oldest gods. Even they did not fight like this—carefree, entertained, as though this were nothing more than a passing diversion.

He’s not even trying to end it quickly.

Her fingers pressed harder together as the spell continued to form beneath the surface of the realm, roots of divine energy spreading deeper and deeper through the foundation of the god realm itself.

I already sent the message to the Great Protector.

If he kills us, he’ll leave.

He can’t leave.

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she watched him parry Primordius’ flames with one hand while slipping past a tidal surge from Veyra, dark mana coiling like a living shadow around his movements.

This guy is too dangerous.

If he walks out of the god realm alive… if he returns to the mortal realm…

No.

We have to make him stay here.

Her chanting deepened, voice now barely audible even to herself. The spell needed time. The roots needed to grow. The anchor needed to take hold.

We have to stall.

As much as we can.

Her eyes lifted again to the battlefield where the five gods fought desperately against a man who still looked amused.

Just a little longer.

Veyra drifted to the side of the battlefield, watching for an opening.

The others were pressing him—fire, wind, ice, beast-force colliding in violent waves—but he moved through it all like it was a game. Still, for a moment, his attention shifted. Primordius lunged. Sylphara followed. Glacira layered a field of killing frost over the space between them.

Veyra’s black eyes narrowed.

Now.

She raised her trident slowly, divine mana gathering around its prongs. Azure light thickened, condensing into a swelling mass of water drawn from nothing. A golden ocean began to form above her palm, dense and crushing, spiraling inward as she prepared to release it point-blank into his flank.

Just one clean hit—

A voice came from right in front of her.

“Veyra.”

She froze.

Zane stood there, already inside her guard.

“…Trying to sneak attack on me?” he asked quietly.

Her eyes widened. She tried to pull back, to slip into the current she’d formed—but his hand was already on her.

For a split second, everything felt…light.

Her heartbeat stumbled. His face was close. Too close. Purple iridescence crept across the blue scales of her cheeks as confusion flashed through her mind.

Why… is he…

So—

Handsome?

Her pulse sped up without her permission. Her chest felt tight and oddly warm. Thoughts tangled together in a haze.

What is this…?

No. This is wrong. He’s an abyssal. I’m a goddess.

Is this an illusion…?

Then why do I feel…light?

Is this…love?

Zane tilted his head, watching her expression with faint amusement. Then he sighed.

“…No,” he said. “That’s just your internal organs. How was my illusion?”

Her mind snapped.

“What—?”

She looked down.

His hand was inside her abdomen.

Dark mana clung to his arm, red and gold divine blood spilling around his wrist. Something slick and warm slid free as he pulled back slowly.

Her intestines followed.

Corruption spread instantly along them, black veins crawling through divine flesh as his mana seeped in.

Veyra’s breath hitched.

Zane watched the reaction calmly. “Your moveset is very boring,” he said.

“So die fish,” he said with a straight face.

He pulled harder.

She screamed.

“Aaah—!”

The sound barely finished leaving her throat before he looped the torn length around her neck, yanked tight, and drove a dark-mana-coated kick into her torso. The impact sent her crashing downward, body twisting, divine aura shattering across the air as she struck the distant surface below.

The golden ocean she’d been forming collapsed into mist.

Zane hovered where he was, flicking a trace of blood from his fingers.

He glanced at the remaining gods.

“…Next.”

The remaining gods were still reorienting themselves when Zane vanished.

For a split second, even their divine senses lost him. No distortion. No ripple. Just… gone.

By the time they found him again, it was already too late.

Far off across the shattered terrain, a body fell from the sky.

A high goddess.

Broken. Torn apart. Dark mana still eating through what remained of her form.

Zane hovered above the corpse, faint blood drifting away from him in slow spirals. He turned his head toward the others as they finally arrived, expressions tightening when they saw what had happened.

“…Finally found me,” he said lightly. “Took a while, didn’t it?”

He shifted his stance, ready to move again.

Then—

Something tightened around his wrist.

A green vine shot up from the ground below, thick as a pillar, veins glowing faint gold. It wrapped around his arm and held.

Zane paused.

“…Hmm.”

Another vine burst upward and caught his other arm. Then more followed—coiling around his torso, his legs, his shoulders. They layered over one another rapidly, tightening with unnatural force, divine energy humming through them as they tried to bind him completely.

Within seconds, his form was almost swallowed by the mass of living restraints.

The gods stared.

Then they looked up.

Thalira hovered in the sky above the battlefield, both hands raised, eyes closed in concentration. Her aura pulsed outward in slow waves, green and gold spreading across the land below.

The ground trembled.

Massive roots tore through the ground, rising like pillars. Vines thickened and twisted together, interlocking, weaving into a single colossal structure. White-gold leaves unfurled in clusters, glowing softly as branches extended in every direction.

It kept growing.

Higher. Wider.

Until a vast, radiant tree towered over the battlefield—its trunk thicker than mountains, its crown spreading like a second sky.

Glacira’s voice cut through the silence.

“…It’s… the Divine World Tree…?”

The Divine World Tree towered over the broken landscape, its trunk wider than mountains, its branches spreading across the sky like a second horizon. White leaves shimmered faintly, each one humming with restrained divine authority. The massive vines that formed it pulsed slowly, as if alive, as if breathing.

The remaining gods gathered near its base.

Thalira descended from the sky, landing lightly atop one of the enormous vine-roots that jutted out like ridgelines. She looked tired for only a moment—shoulders slightly lowered, breath faintly uneven—but the glow around her steadied quickly.

Primordius folded his arms, a satisfied grin spreading across his face.

“Way to go, Thalira,” he said. “You actually pulled it off. The Divine World Tree…”

Thalira didn’t respond immediately. She only gave a small nod.

Glacira’s white eyes scanned the tree, frost mist curling from her breath.

“But unfortunately,” she said calmly, “the time you took to summon it cost Veyra her life.”

A brief silence followed.

Sylphara hovered nearby, silver hair drifting in the airless space.

“…Still,” she said quietly, “it’s a relief. If he’s dead, at least this ends here.”

Thalira’s expression didn’t change.

“He is not dead.”

All of them turned toward her.

“…What?”

Primordius frowned. “I must have heard wrong. You’re saying he’s not dead?”

Thalira shook her head once.

“But I trapped him.”

She lifted her gaze toward the immense trunk.

“Let’s go.”

They flew together, rising along the massive structure. The vines beneath them were thick as mountain ranges, layered and intertwined, forming natural platforms across the bark-like surface. Divine light pulsed through the roots like veins of gold.

They landed before the trunk’s center.

And there—

At the heart of the tree, wrapped in layer upon layer of luminous vine—

Zane stood.

Bound from neck to toe.

Vines coiled around his torso, arms, and legs, tightening and merging into the bark behind him. Only his head remained uncovered.

He looked… comfortable.

Zane glanced at them and smiled.

“Oh. Hi,” he said lightly.

“Took you long enough.”

Primordius’s jaw tightened. Glacira’s gaze hardened.

Thalira stepped forward.

“This is where you die,” she said. “You’ve caused enough destruction. Enough death.”

Zane tilted his head slightly.

“…Straight to the serious stuff, huh.”

“And what makes you think that..whatever this is can stop me..?”

He shifted, as if testing the bindings. The vines tightened instantly, glowing brighter in response.

He tried again.

Nothing.

“…Hmm.”

He frowned faintly.

“That’s not right.”

A brief pause.

“…I can’t use dark mana.”

For a moment, silence spread between them.

Then the gods smiled.

Primordius exhaled sharply through his nose, satisfied.

Glacira’s lips curved almost imperceptibly.

Sylphara relaxed her stance.

Thalira’s body began to glow softly. The fatigue that had weighed on her only moments ago faded completely, replaced by a steady, restored presence. Her aura stabilized, stronger than before.

She looked at Zane.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

Zane blinked once.

“…Oh.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep