At the continent's northernmost reaches lay the Eternal Night Ice Plains.
The God of Storms' vast body, formed of lightning and hurricanes, nearly filled the sky.
His voice rang like ten thousand thunderclaps, carrying the authority to purify all things.
"Filth lurking in the shadows, before absolute light and heat, you will turn to ash!"
A lightning spear thicker than a mountain range tore through the heavens and drove straight toward the last patch of shadow where Night Cherry Tangle hid.
To the God of Storms, the outcome was certain.
Shadow was nothing more than an appendage of light.
Before lightning bright enough to illuminate the entire world, no shadow could hide.
That newly ascended shadow god would be purified by his thunder until not a trace remained.
Night Cherry Tangle stood within that last, tiny patch of shadow.
He could feel the laws sustaining it crumbling under the overwhelming might from above.
The threat of death pressed against his Soul Origin like a solid spike of ice.
The gap in rank was too great.
His opponent was an Upper God of long standing, the embodiment of storms and thunder.
He was only a newcomer who had just entered the Divine Realm.
If he tried to withstand the attack head-on, he would die.
Yet just as the devastating lightning was about to swallow him, a will crossed the barrier laid down by five Upper Gods and descended silently into his Sea of Consciousness.
It was Qin Chuan.
That will brought no power and offered no protection.
It carried only one sentence, one question.
"Night Cherry Tangle, what do you think a shadow is?"
The question jolted Night Cherry Tangle's will just as it was about to collapse.
What was a shadow?
Darkness?
The side turned away from light?
Nonexistence?
Countless