Chapter 424: The Beginning Of The End [LXXXVI]

Meanwhile…

“Lucas, they’ve breached the first defensive layer!” Iris shouted, her voice trembling as the alarm sigils flared across the chamber.

“She’s right. The inner barrier is destabilizing. At this rate… they’ll break it soon.” Maya was already at the console, her eyes wide as she scanned the projections.

At those words, Lucas gritted his teeth in anger, clutching his fists tightly.

He had briefly reached the peak of the Semi-God realm and wasn’t strong enough to fight against them.

Even if he used his blessing, he was only confident that he could take at most a dozen gods with him, leaving the rest free to attack the kingdom.

“….Queen Isabella, what should we do?” he couldn’t help but ask.

Isabella stood near the central window, her hands clasped behind her back, staring at the distant glow of the barriers under attack.

She had done her duty as the Queen for more than nine years since Aestrea had left.

Nine years because a single month on the Divine Realm was a year on their planet.

Because so much time had passed, most of them were already at the power limit of the world, but they didn’t have the time to ascend because they were busy with their own things.

And those things were supposed to end in three months or so, but now, those gods were invading their planet, and of course, they needed to defend it!

“…I’ve already deployed everyone we can spare,” she said evenly.

“Vivian. Zeva. Yara. Alaine. The others as well. Even Ruli and Leaf are fighting on the front lines.”

She turned, her eyes being as cold as ever.

“The only option left is forced ascension.”

Since Aestrea had left, her personality had only grown colder.

“NOOO!” Lucas spun toward her.

“We can’t just leave,” he said, his voice rising despite himself.

“This is our planet. Our home. There are billions of people down there who can’t defend themselves. We can’t abandon them just to save ourselves!”

Isabella’s composure cracked at those words, and almost immediately, she snapped toward him, her voice cutting through the chamber, instantly shutting him up.

“And what do you think we’re doing right now?!”

She took a step forward, her aura flaring uncontrollably for a moment.

“All the continental kings have already committed their strongest forces. Every empire, every church, every hidden power has sent what they have… and not a single god has fallen.”

Not one.

“There are hundreds of them, Lucas,” she continued, her voice shaking with fury.

“Hundreds of true gods. And every minute we stall, more die… our people die.”

Her hands trembled before she forced them still.

“What the fuck are we supposed to do?”

Silence fell over the chamber.

Lucas opened his mouth, then closed it again.

His anger had nowhere to go now as he couldn’t refute her words at all.

His shoulders slumped, and his gaze dropped to the floor.

…Drip.

“A-ah…” Iris suddenly gasped, her voice breaking the heavy silence.

“Q-Queen Isabella, you…”

Lucas lifted his head instinctively.

Only then did he see it.

The Queen, a woman who was usually cold and untouchable, was crying.

Tears streamed down her face unchecked, falling onto the marble floor as her hands clenched into tight fists at her sides, trembling as if holding herself together took every ounce of strength she had left.

For a moment, no one spoke.

Then Isabella laughed softly, bitterly

“…Do you know what I really am?” she asked, her voice cracking.

“Not a queen or an empress.”

She swallowed, shoulders shaking.

“I’m just a powerless woman who’s been waiting nine years for the man she loves to come back.”

Her fists tightened further, knuckles turning white.

“Every day, I told myself, just endure a little longer. Manage the kingdom. Train successors. Find capable people. Prepare everything so I won’t be needed anymore.” She looked up, her eyes red and shining.

“I thought… once it was all done, I could finally ascend.”

Her breath hitched.

“I could finally stand in the Divine Realm and see Aestrea again. Just once. I didn’t want glory. I didn’t want power. I just wanted time with him.”

She wiped at her tears angrily, as if ashamed of them.

“But ruling isn’t something you can just pause,” she continued.

“There’s always another crisis. Another negotiation. Another war. Another life depends on your decisions. I kept telling myself, after this, after that.”

Her voice broke completely.

“And now?” she laughed again.

“Now those fucking gods are tearing my kingdom apart.”

Her gaze trembled as she stared into nothingness.

“I might not even get the chance to see him again,” she whispered.

“Not before this world is destroyed. Not before everyone I swore to protect dies.”

The chamber felt unbearably small.

Lucas took a step forward, his throat tight, but no words came.

Iris covered her mouth, tears pooling in her own eyes as she looked at the woman who had carried the weight of an entire world alone.

Maya simply couldn’t bear to look at Isabella as tears were already sliding down her cheeks.

Isabella straightened slowly, forcing her tears back even as her hands continued to shake.

“So don’t ask me why I’m choosing forced ascension,” she said quietly.

“I’m not choosing escape.”

Her eyes hardened again, though the pain behind them remained.

“I’m choosing the only path that might let me live long enough to see him… and the only chance we have left to fight back.”

BOOOOM!

The explosion caused everyone to rush towards the window, just to see a massive legion of winged figures entering the inner layer of the kingdom.

And then…

In the sky, a figure with two dark wings and a dragon tail appeared.

Her hair was a luscious red tone, and her eyes shone intensely as a red energy flowed around her body.

That person was…

“VIVIAN!!!”

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The moment Aestrea swung his sword…

The blue moon eclipsed as the moonlight simply collapsed inward, pouring into Midnight in a single, razor-thin line.

The blade passed through space as if space had already agreed to be cut.

Seraphel felt it before he saw it.

The golden spears around him froze in mid-rotation, their radiant light dimming instantly as frost raced across their surfaces.

His halo flickered violently, golden radiance shattering into dull fragments of light that crystallized and fell like broken glass.

“What—”

His voice never finished forming as the swing of Midnight reached out to him, without any hint of resistance whatsoever.

No clash or counterbalance.

Midnight simply passed cleanly through Seraphel’s body, slicing diagonally from his right shoulder to the left side of his waist, exactly like the hundreds Aestrea had slain before.

But this time, the cut didn’t simply bleed.

It froze.

Absolute zero flooded the wound instantly. Divinity, flesh, bone, soul… everything stopped at once.

Seraphel’s eyes widened in not pain but disbelief; his mouth remained half-open, expression locked forever between authority and realization.

A thin blue line appeared across his body.

CRRRRRRAAAACK!!!

His entire form shattered.

It wasn’t split in half or dissipated into whisps, it…

Shattered.

His body exploded into countless frozen fragments, each piece perfectly preserved for a fraction of a second before turning to pale blue dust and dispersing into nothingness.

His wings crystallized and disintegrated midair. His halo froze, cracked, and vanished without a trace.

This strong 8✯ Intermediate True God was erased by a single move, and slowly, the blue moon behind Aestrea started fading away…

The Domain of Silence remained for a few seconds, as suddenly, the cold expanded calmly, inexorably, like a tide that did not need permission.

Chiill….

The frost raced outward in all directions.

Mountains froze solid mid-collapse.

Oceans turned to glassy, pale-blue ice in seconds.

The sky itself crystallized, clouds freezing into fragile sculptures before shattering into glittering snow.

Forests became silver statues.

Cities, empty or not, were sealed in perfect stillness.

Everything within a hundred-kilometer radius was locked in eternal winter, trapped in an absolute and flawless silence.

At the very center of it all, Aestrea stood alone.

Midnight hung loosely at his side, its blade faintly coated in frost that slowly evaporated into nothingness.

“Fuuu… huu.”

His breath came out as pale mist, then stopped steaming as even the air stabilized. And finally, the Domain of Silence dissolved, and sounds returned.

[You’ve killed an 8✯ Intermediate True God!

[You have absorbed the Authority of Balance!]

[The Authority of Ice has reached the Godly Grade!]

[The Domain of Silence has entered a cooldown!]

[Your attributes have been increased by a minor stage!]

“Pfftt…!”

A mouthful of blood escaped his lips, his sight getting slightly blurry as he held his chest, feeling his quick heartbeat.

“S-shit… I can’t believe that even with a power comparable to a peak 7✯ True God, I still cannot use the second-to-last move of my Sword Art.”

Gritting his teeth, Aestrea slowly walked to the gateway and tried to force it open, as someone had also put a seal for unauthorized people.

Crack…

The gateway was trying to force his cultivation to be sealed, but Aestrea directly rejected the rules and went through it anyway.

…There wasn’t going to be something or someone that would be able to stop him at that moment, and even if Chronos came in person…

No matter what he would do, Aestrea wouldn’t give a fuck about his own soul if he needed it to protect the people he loved.

Swish…

He forcefully went through the portal.

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