The moment Dale grasped the sword of the Lord of Time, all the battles in the entire Void seemed to slow down by half a beat.
It wasn't that time had actually slowed down, but rather that everyone's senses were drawn to this scene— the Magic Pioneer, recognized as the "most refined and cultured" among the Eternal, had actually taken a direct hit from the Lord of Time's sword with his own flesh and blood, behaving like a martial artist or knight at the Eternity level. The sword's edge pierced his palm, and silvery-white Eternal blood dripped down the blade. Each drop of blood, falling into the Void, transformed into a burning pattern of laws—a projection of the magical theorems that were violently circulating within Dale's body.
The Lord of Time intended to draw his sword and strike again, but He discovered that the force of resistance emanating from the hilt was increasing at an incredible rate. It wasn't that Dale's power was recovering, but rather that His power had undergone some kind of transformation in nature.
"You're insane," said the Lord of Time.
His voice remained calm, but beneath that calm lay a hint of apprehension that even he himself had not anticipated.
The Magic Pioneer did not answer.
His right hand still gripped the longsword, but his left hand slowly rose, his five fingers spread, pointing towards a direction in the Void that was not in sight—the location of the remnants of the Elemental Dimension, the dimensional foundation left behind after the fall of the King of Elements, which had not yet been fully absorbed by the Federation.
"Dale! What are you doing?!"
The voice of the Mother of the Stars descended from the heavens, and for the first time, an emotion beyond mere "scrutiny" surfaced in her eyes, formed from twin nebulae.
He saw it.
The Mother of the Stars saw what the Dale, Magic Pioneer, was doing—not resisting, not defending, but using herself as a medium to "extract" the residual essence of the Elemental Dimension and integrate it into her own Eternity Law.
This is not cultivation, not enlightenment, and not any normal way to break through to a higher realm.
This is a sacrifice.
What was sacrificed was not life, but the very foundation of existence in one dimension.
Burn, dimensions!!
A seven-colored light shone from the left palm of the Dale, Magic Pioneer, the color of which was exactly the same as the seven-colored torrent that once flowed through the Elemental Dimension. The light went from faint to dazzling in just three breaths, and in those three breaths, the entire structure of the laws in the Void began to tilt in Dale's direction—as if the entire Elemental Dimension was responding to his call.
No, it's not a summons.
It was plunder.
Although the Elemental Dimension has been occupied by the Federation and the Weave has covered every corner of it, the "origin" of this dimension—the deepest, most primal foundation that supports the existence of the entire dimension—has not yet been fully digested. According to the Federation's plan, this should have been a process that lasted for thousands of years, allowing the Elemental Dimension gradually become part of the Federation through slow integration, just like a river flowing into the sea.
But what Dale is doing now is draining the entire river dry in one go.
A torrent of elements surged forth from the Void, from the spatial rifts, from every thread of the Weave, from the tops of the seven holy towers, and from the core of the Elemental Furnace. They converged into a seven-colored vortex with a diameter of a thousand miles, and at the center of the vortex was Dale's body.
His body began to swell.
It wasn't the expansion of muscles, but the expansion of his presence. To everyone's perception, Dale's physical size hadn't increased, but his "existence" was expanding wildly—from the existence of a single person, to the existence of a civilization, to the existence of a plane, to the existence of a dimension.
Those rings of the sevenfold law that had been extinguished—the outermost Ring of Concept Manipulation and the sixth Ring of Nihility Containment —lit up again. Not restored, but replaced by new, more powerful laws. The new rings were larger, brighter, and spun faster than before, and each ring's edge displayed unprecedented rainbow patterns, the original imprint of the Elemental Dimension on the laws of Dale.
"He is absorbing the origin of the Elemental Dimension!"
Angley's voice resounded through the Void, and for the first time, the God of Wisdom's tone revealed undisguised horror. It wasn't because Dale's actions were so shocking, but because Angley's calculation matrix told him: what Dale was doing had less than a three percent chance of success.
The remaining 97 percent was the origin of the dimension that Dale's body could not withstand, causing it to burst, decompose, and return to nothingness.
But Dale's success rate is rising at an inexplicable rate.
Three percent... five percent... twelve percent... twenty-seven percent...
It's escalating every second.
It wasn't because of his good luck, but because of his very existence— the Magic Pioneer. Behind this title lies his essence of "paving new paths on the road of magic." When others see a dead end, he only sees the direction that needs to be opened; when others think it's impossible, he is simply thinking about where the boundaries of "impossible" lie.
The Lord of Time attempted to withdraw his sword, but to His surprise, He discovered that the sword was held by Dale, not physically, but rather that Dale's laws were intertwined with the Lord of Time's Law of Time. If the Lord of Time to forcibly withdraw the sword, a portion of His Law of Time would be pulled out and attached to Dale's laws, becoming part of Dale's nourishment.
"A fine tactic," whispered the Lord of Time.
He chose another way—to let go.
The longsword remained in Dale's hand, and the figure of the Lord of Time vanished like a phantom, only to re-form nearby. The longsword, forged from the solidified flow of time, shattered inch by inch in Dale's hands after losing its master's support, turning into countless fragments of time, which were then completely annihilated under the crushing force of Dale's laws.
But the Lord of Time's retreat gave Dale a final opening.
In that narrow gap, Dale completed the final extraction.
The colorful vortex suddenly contracted.
All the light, all the torrents, the origin of all dimensions, surged into Dale's body in an instant.
There was a moment of absolute stillness in the Void —no sound, no light, no fluctuation of any law. That stillness lasted less than a second, but everyone felt that moment was incredibly long, long enough for them to silently utter the words "It's over."
Then, Dale opened his eyes.
Those eyes, which once reflected the microcosm of the Astral Realm and the essence of magic in one, now only had one color left—pure white.
It's not the white light, but the concept of "white" itself.
The light emanating from his eyes pierced through the Void, through space, through time, and through cause and effect, shining directly into the depths of the soul of every being.
There was no mercy, no judgment, no emotion in that light.
There was only one thing in that light—magic.
"This is... the earliest form of magic..."
When Dale spoke, his voice was no longer just a sound, but a resonance of laws generated by the vibration of magical essence in the Void.
"Magic existed before all laws took shape, before all concepts were born. It is the instinct of intelligent life to explore the unknown, and the first answer to the question 'why'."
His body reformed in the light, no longer the blood-soaked, dying figure he had been before, but a completely new "Dao Body" composed of pure white laws. That body had no flesh or bones, only countless magical patterns, more ancient than runes, flowing across its surface. Each Dao Pattern was an undiscovered magical Truth, and each node was an unnamed elemental reaction.
Behind Him, the seven layers of law halos had completely changed their appearance.
It's no longer seven levels, but only one.
A halo of pure white light, forming Infinity expanding array of laws, covering the entire Void.
This halo contains no elemental distinctions, no attribute differences; it is simply "magic"—the original, pure essence of magic, unbound by any laws.
"Second-Step Eternity." The voice of the Mother of the Stars descended from the heavens, and for the first time, there was a fluctuation of emotion in that voice—not anger, but a complex, indescribable emotion, a mixture of admiration, regret, and uncontrollable rage.
"You use the Elemental Dimension dimension I desire to break through your own limitations."
"Dale, do you know what you're doing?"
Although the way the Magic Pioneer broke through was unconventional—it was a further step beyond the Law System rather than the normal fusion of the three systems—the result was exactly what the Mother of the Stars least wanted to see: yet another variable had emerged.
Indeed, none of the Eternal were easy to deal with, the Mother of the Stars sighed inwardly. One variable had been eliminated, but another remained.
Dale looked up at the Mother of the Stars.
His gaze was calm as a mirror, devoid of provocation or fear, simply stating a fact:
"I know."
"You need the complete Astral Realm to break through the Third-Step Eternity."
"I want the Infinity possibilities of magic to transcend all constraints."
Your path and my path overlap here—but in opposite directions.
He raised his right hand, and pure white light of law condensed in his palm into a weapon without a fixed form. Sometimes the weapon resembled a sword, sometimes a staff, sometimes a book, and sometimes a door. Its form depended on the observer's understanding, but its essence never changed—it was a projection of the concept of "magic" into the material world.
"So you ruined my plans." The Mother of the Stars ' voice suddenly turned cold, so cold that the temperature in the Void plummeted by an unknown number of degrees. It wasn't a drop in temperature, but rather the concept of "warmth" was stripped away from this Void.
"Not destroy," Dale said, "But redistribute."
I have absorbed half of the origin of the Elemental Dimension. The other half remains in the ruins of this dimension. You can take that other half and use it to complete your Inner Universe.
"But you'll never get the complete Third-Step Eternity."
A sigh echoed in the Void.
That was not a human sigh, but the resonance of the entire material universe at a certain moment. The body of the Mother of the Stars leaned forward slightly with the sigh, and in the eyes formed by the twin nebulae, two vortexes of creation began to spin wildly, exceeding the limits of any means of observation.
"Dale."
He only uttered this name.
"You think you can ruin my plans? No, you're too naive. You've forgotten my abilities. Returning to one's original state is my forte; what I swallow, I can also spit out!"
Then, the Mother of the Stars moved.
The Mother of the Stars's single step caused the entire Void to tremble.
This is not a metaphor, but a literal statement— the Void beneath His feet, as if unable to withstand His wrath, began to collapse in large swathes. What collapsed was not space itself, but the concept of "space" itself. Beneath His feet, that area became an absolute void where even "nothingness" did not exist; any matter, energy, or law entering that area would unconditionally disappear, and even the event of "disappearance" would not be recorded.
"You think that by entering the Second-Step Eternity, you can contend with me?"
The voice of the Mother of the Stars was no longer calm, but carried an ancient majesty from the beginning of the universe. It was the material world itself speaking, every star, every grain of dust, and every atom resonating simultaneously.
"My existence predates the dimension you inhabit."
"I have witnessed the rise and fall of countless civilizations, and the birth and demise of countless Eternal."
You are just one of them.
His right hand rose, but this time, it was not his palm or his arm that rose, but the will of his entire upper body.
In the Void, all the remaining fragments of stars—the hundreds of millions of fragments scattered across the battlefield after being shattered by the previous "Stars Fall Across the Heavens"—simultaneously lit up. Not to glow, but to respond to the call of the Mother of the Stars.
These fragments rearranged, combined, and merged in the Void, eventually forming a giant hand composed of countless star fragments that covered the entire battlefield.
Each finger of the giant hand is a solidified spiral arm of a galaxy; the palm of the giant hand is a condensed ocean of nebulae; the back of the giant hand is imprinted with projections of all the major events in the material universe from its birth to the present.
This is the true way of the Mother of the Stars.
It is not "Stars Fall Across the Heavens", nor "Star Crushing", but rather -- He is the heavens, He is the Cosmic Sea. This giant hand is not a weapon He summoned, but a part of His body, an extension of His authority, and a manifestation of His way of being.
A giant hand pressed down.
It wasn't aimed at Dale alone, but at the entire Immortal Continent, the entire Elemental Dimension Ruins, and the entire battlefield area. The range of this palm strike covered the Void centered on the Immortal Continent, spanning countless light-years.
Dale raised his hand, and pure white light of law condensed into a giant magical sword in his palm. The sword blade pointed upwards, meeting the descending giant palm of stars.
Sword and palm clashed.
There was no sound.
It wasn't because the sound was absorbed, but because the energy of the collision exceeded the upper limit of what a "sound wave" physical phenomenon could exist. The sound wave was submerged, torn apart, and annihilated by the subsequent energy tide the moment it was born.
In that Void, only light remained.
Pure white magical light and bronze starlight collided head-on on a certain plane. The plane of collision was like an invisible knife, slicing the Void in two. On the white half, laws flowed and Demon Pattern flickered; on the bronze half, stars rotated and gravity twisted.
At the boundary between the two lights, the spatial structure is collapsing irreversibly. The collapsing area continues to expand, spreading in all directions from the point of collision, and wherever it passes, everything is reduced to its most basic energy state.
Dale's body was trembling.
He has entered the Second-Step Eternity, and His laws have been sublimated into the pure essence of magic. But He is not facing an ordinary opponent— the Mother of the Stars is the strongest being in the Astral Realm, an existence that has accumulated countless epochs in the Second-Step Eternity, and a cosmic lord who is only one piece away from stepping into the Third-Step Eternity.
Although the speed at which the giant hand pressed down slowed down due to Dale's resistance, it never stopped.
Inch by inch, and then another inch.
Every inch of downward pressure meant that Dale's laws were compressed a little more, his magical essence was erased by a layer, and his body was crushed again and again before being reborn in the laws.
The silvery-white blood of the Eternal seeped from every pore of Dale, evaporating in the Void, turning into fragments of law in the process, and then into nothingness within those fragments.
Cracks began to appear in Dale's seven-fold unified halo.
It wasn't shattered by external force, but rather, under continuous pressure, its internal structural laws began to fatigue, age, and collapse. Just like a piece of metal that, after repeated bending, finally reaches its fatigue limit, and no force can stop it from breaking.
"You are wasting your own life." The voice of the Mother of the Stars came from above the giant hand, devoid of any emotion, simply stating a fact.
Even if you absorb the essence of the Elemental Dimension, your foundation can only reach this depth. You can burn it to gain temporary power, but burning always has an end.
"And my power coexists with the material universe, exists alongside most of the Astral Realm, reaches the boundless chaos, and extends to every corner of the universe!!"
Dale did not answer.
Because He had no energy left to answer.
All his energy was focused on maintaining the integrity of the halo of laws, on resisting the downward pressure of that giant hand, and on protecting the Immortal Continent behind him that was about to collapse.
Every breath He gained was buying time for the Federation citizens of the Immortal Continent to evacuate, time for the seven Holy Towers to activate their final defenses, and time for the Elemental Furnace to transfer its core Energy Reserve.
He is not vying with the Mother of the Stars.
He's just stalling.
This realization caused the nebula vortex in the eyes of the Mother of the Stars to suddenly stop spinning for half a breath.
You're stalling for time.
A barely perceptible smile appeared at the corner of Dale's mouth.
You figured it out.
But I'm not the only one procrastinating.
Deep within the Void, on a spatial coordinate that had never been marked before, a door opened.
That wasn't an ordinary portal, a dimensional rift, or any known means of crossing dimensions.
That door itself is an entrance to a new dimension.
The door is made of solidified darkness, but countless tormented faces emerge from its dark surface—each face representing a soul that once fell into Hell, lost itself in eternal torment, leaving only the marks of pain imprinted on the door.
Seven dark red chains were wrapped around the door frame, each engraved with a different rune of original sin: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust. These runes flashed continuously, and with each flash, an invisible force was drawn from the Void and injected into the depths of the door.
This is the Gate of Myriad Worlds.
After the Lord of Hell ascended to the Second-Step Eternity, it transformed from a single spatial Miracle Creation into a twelve-star Miracle Creation that also possesses the element of original sin.
The moment the door opened, a suffocating sense of oppression surged out from within. That oppression wasn't simply the aura of a powerful figure, but something more fundamental—original sin.
Every living being present, whether a Federation Mage from the Immortal Continent or a warrior of the Titan God Race, felt their deepest, most hidden desires awakened. Some recalled their suppressed ambitions, some their forgotten greed, some their restrained anger, and some their denied jealousy.
These original sins coalesced, intertwined, and merged in the Void, eventually transforming into a dark, decaying torrent that surged forth from the Gate of Myriad Worlds.
A figure stands amidst the torrent.
His height is no more than that of an ordinary person, but in everyone's perception, his existence is greater than the giant hand of the Mother of the Stars. That greatness is not in terms of physical size, but in terms of "meaning"—he is the source of all original sin, the projection of the dark side of every living being's heart, and the embodiment of the concept of "evil" on Eternity level.
His skin was dark red, like solidified magma or dried blood. His eyes were two burning sulfur flames, their pupils reflecting the Endless Abyss of the Hell dimension. Curved ram horns grew from his head, inscribed with countless lost incantations of original sin. Thirty-six pairs of enormous bat-like wings unfolded from his back, the membranes on them not being skin, but solidified laws of sin.
He wore a robe woven from the shadows of the Abyss, the hem of which trailed in the Void Void, leaving a trail of burning flames of original sin with every inch it dragged.
His right hand held a scepter, at the top of which was a beating heart—not the heart of a living being, but the core of the Hell dimension, each beat sending original sin energy into the entire Hell dimension.
Asmodeus, Lord of Hell.
"Oh."
Asmodeus emerged from the Gate of Myriad Worlds, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield, over Dale being crushed by the giant hand of stars, over the nine Grand Sage struggling above the Immortal Continent, and over the shattered fragments of laws and collapsing spatial structures in the Void.
"You've come at just the right time."
His gaze finally settled on the Mother of the Stars.
"Earth Mother Goddess, it's been a long time."