NOVPUB“Come.”
A melodious female voice echoed from the coffin. In an instant, the scattered golden swords, previously swallowed by the black sludge, seemed to rediscover their purpose.
Intense golden light burst forth, radiating with blinding brilliance as they buzzed violently, like the herald of an impending storm. Breaking free from the sludge’s grip, the swords converged, forming a long, dragon-like river.
Clang!
In the grasp of that jade-like hand, the golden river of swords merged until they formed a gleaming longsword no more than three feet in length.
Three’s eyelids twitched as she watched the transformation. She could sense the overwhelming power emanating from the golden longsword—a power strong enough to breach the heavens.
Yet, for some reason, it remained suppressed within the limitations of a demigod artifact.
There was no time for Three to dwell on such a matter.
The black sludge around her churned, condensing into a colossal black sword. The energy it exuded was so oppressive it stretched for thousands of miles.
Gripping the hilt tightly, Three gritted her teeth. Using this move in her current state was draining, but she had no choice. She raised the black longsword high and brought it down with all her might.
Before the blade could fully descend, a deep, bottomless fissure tore across the land. It spread rapidly, splitting mountains, rivers, and forests in its path.
Rumble…
The coffin’s lid shifted further, opening a little wider.
With a flick of her wrist, the golden longsword in that jade-like hand moved as though it was weightless, tracing a graceful arc through the air before meeting the descending black blade head-on.
The size difference was absurd—a sword as small as a toothpick against the black blade that was almost a thousand meters long.
Yet, when they collided, a deafening roar erupted, shaking heaven and earth.
Lilith, with her overly sensitive hearing, instinctively clamped her hands over her ears.
Meanwhile, Erica, standing beside her, stared blankly at the sky. Her voice trembled as she mumbled in a daze, “The sky… cracked…”
A colossal rift tore through the heavens, stretching like an abyss across the sky. Everything in its path—clouds, the black sludge, and even the ominous black sun that had loomed above for so long—was cleaved in two.
Three’s sword had sundered the land, while the blade in that jade-like hand had split the sky.
“Damn it…” Three muttered under her breath. But her eyes weren’t on the rift in the sky. She was looking at her own hands. Or rather, where her hands should have been.
From her elbows upward, there was nothing—just cleanly severed stumps where her arms had once been.
Her opponent had chopped her arms off when she cleaved the sky. Her strength… had far exceeded anything Three had imagined.
“How could such a terrifying demigod exist in a place like this?”
Three was no ordinary demigod. While she had indeed achieved the Demigod Realm, her mastery over power and perception far exceeded that level.
The difference between her and a fellow demigod-level opponent could be likened to a martial arts master fighting an untrained individual—she could crush them effortlessly.
Until now, she had believed no demigod could defeat her. But reality had delivered a merciless slap to her face. Her opponent had just defeated her… with just one strike.
Rumbleeeeee…
The lid of the coffin finally slid open completely, revealing a woman clad in a flowing white dress, with long hair that reached her ankles.
As soon as she stepped out of the coffin, Three could almost hear the cheers of this world. Even though the woman’s first strike had sundered the sky, the world itself seemed to be celebrating her awakening.
This woman was the true owner of this small world. The moment she opened her eyes, the entire world seemed to brighten significantly. With a graceful wave of her hand, the cracks in the sky began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Then she looked directly at Three, like an emperor surveying ants on the ground.
“Next, I’ll cut off your legs,” she said, her voice calm but carrying the weight of absolute authority.
◆◇◆◇◆ 𝑛𝘰𝑣𝑝𝑢𝑏.𝘤𝑜𝘮
“Wow, we won!!!”
Erica tilted her head up to gaze at the battlefield in the sky, her excitement bubbling over as she shook Lilith enthusiastically.
“Lilith, look! That big sister is so powerful! She suppressed her opponent instantly. She’s on our side, right? That means we don’t have to be afraid of being chased anymore. Did we actually survive?”
“Uh-huh, maybe,” Lilith replied absentmindedly.
Her gaze was fixed on the woman in white floating in midair.
Lilith was certain that she was the blurry figure that had appeared before her moments ago. That sense of familiarity was undeniable. It was soothing and reassuring.
Yet no matter how intently Lilith studied the woman’s face—her delicate features and noble aura—and no matter how deeply she searched through the old memories buried in the recesses of her mind, she just couldn’t recall who she was.
Lilith even combed through every face she could remember from her past life, disregarding race or gender, hoping to find even the slightest resemblance.
But… There was nothing. No matter how far back she reached into the depths of her memory, there was no trace of this woman.
If there was any similarity at all, her eyebrows and eyes carried a faint resemblance to Luna’s. But even that wasn’t definitive—such a resemblance was so common that she could easily find two women out of ten who shared it.
“Who… are you really? Why are you so sad? Who is it that makes you sad? Is it… me?”
◆◇◆◇◆
A black altar streaked through the void, darting endlessly as it attempted to evade the terrifying presence trailing behind it.
However, it was evident that the altar’s speed was waning. The petite figure pursuing it drew closer with each passing moment, the distance between them shrinking rapidly.
What remained was no more than a few thousand meters—a distance insignificant to a mortal, but for a being of the Divine Realm, it wasn’t even enough to count as a blink of an eye.
Four sat atop the altar, his face pale and drenched in sweat as he focused intently on maneuvering it.
“Damn it! Isn’t Three ready yet?”
Anxiously, he glanced at the hourglass beside him. Only a minuscule amount of sand remained in the upper bulb. It wouldn’t be long before it ran out completely.
He could feel his strength reaching its limit.
Being chased by such an overwhelmingly powerful deity, Four felt as if the pressure were crushing him, making every moment unbearable. His mind and body were utterly exhausted, and even his control over the altar was starting to falter.
“At this rate, I’ll be caught in ten breaths!”
The power Four had painstakingly conserved to deal with the baby deity behind him was already spent in a futile attempt to prolong the chase. Even extinguishing the God Attracting Incense now wouldn’t save him; she would almost certainly catch him in the process.
Gambling on the slim hope that this baby deity might forgive his offense and let him go was a laughable impossibility.
“Damn it! Three has really gotten me into big trouble this time. I’ve got no choice but to fight!”
Four suddenly pulled out a dagger, and without hesitation, slashed the artery on his neck. Blood gushed from the wound as Four collapsed helplessly atop the altar. His life essence spilled freely, pooling onto the altar below.
The altar, dim and faltering moments before, absorbed the blood greedily. Its surface glowed faintly once more, and its speed increased ever so slightly.
“As expected of a mortal body… Even when sacrificed, it barely makes a difference.”
Four’s face twisted in bitterness as his vitality drained away.
After a brief hesitation, he closed his eyes in resignation.
“Damn you, Moen. If you don’t make it out alive and repay this favor, I’ll dig up your grave and make you pay in death,” Four muttered bitterly in his mind.
He retracted the divine sense he used to control this body and transferred it to the void altar.
“AHHHH!!!”
A soul-wrenching scream tore through the void. Four had sacrificed a portion of his divine sense—an act akin to cutting a piece of flesh directly from his main body.
