The theft process requires no time, no space, and no cause and effect—His "hand" appears directly inside the object being stolen from, taking the target before the other party can even react.
But now, the Mother of the Stars has realized what's happening and has turned her attention to Asmodeus.
Within the eye formed by the twin nebulae, two vortexes of creation rotated in opposite directions simultaneously. In that instant of reverse rotation, the fundamental laws of the Material Dimension were touched—not just a single law was modified, but all the laws of the entire Material Dimension were "paused" for a moment.
Asmodeus's hand, reaching towards the entrance to the Fantasy Dimension, froze.
This is a powerful control ability that is many times more advanced than time stop.
The body of the Lord of Hell froze.
The entire battlefield froze.
That pause lasted for less than a ten-thousandth of a breath, but for an being of the Mother of the Stars's caliber, even a ten-thousandth of a breath was enough to accomplish a great deal.
He did two things.
The Mother of the Stars gripped the Chaos Stele in her right hand and hurled it at Asmodeus with a force a hundred times greater than before.
Subsequently, the Mother of the Stars ' will established three "mass defense lines" at the entrance to the Fantasy Dimension —any being entering the Fantasy Dimension must withstand the crushing force equivalent to the entire mass of the dimension.
The Hand of Hell has touched the first line of defense against quality issues.
The hand formed from original sin began to crumble the moment it touched the defenses. Layers of skin were peeled away, muscles were torn apart, and bones were crushed.
But the Lord of Hell did not give up.
He gritted his teeth and burned his entire arm into the Fire of Original Sin, using the flames to corrode the first line of defense.
The point where the flames met the defenses burst forth with blinding light—it was a life-or-death struggle between mass and original sin at the microscopic level, a series of collisions of laws, a war fought countless times in a trillionth of a second.
The first line of defense was corroded, leaving a gap the size of a pinhead.
But the Chaos Stele had already crashed down.
The stone tablet was placed squarely on Asmodeus's chest.
The force of that strike was enough to shatter an ordinary dimension. The body of the Lord of Hell bent in the middle from the impact of the stone tablet, like a bent iron rod. His spine—forged from the hardest Abyss obsidian in the Hell dimension—sounded with a piercing crack.
Dark red blood of original sin gushed from His mouth, eyes, ears, and from every wound on His body, forming a burning sea of original sin in the Void.
Asmodeus's body was blasted away.
He shattered countless spatial barriers and broke through countless dimensional boundaries, finally crashing heavily into a decaying high-level plane deep in the Void —that plane shattered upon impact, and the burst of light even briefly overwhelmed the collision of laws at the center of the battlefield.
The Lord of Hell crawled out of the plane's ruins, covered in blood, with only one and a half of his thirty-six pairs of wings remaining, one of his ram horns broken off, and the Hell Core Scepter in his hand riddled with cracks, threatening to shatter at any moment.
In His eyes, the sulfurous flames still burned.
Although it was much dimmer than before, it was still burning.
He raised his skeletal hand and pointed in the direction of the Mother of the Stars.
"Earth Mother Goddess, you are indeed very strong, but you are not invincible..."
"My Hand of Hell... has touched the very essence of the Fantasy Dimension..."
Even if you defeat me... you can't stop me from stealing... even just a tiny bit...
The Mother of the Stars looked at the Lord of Hell; in her eyes, formed by twin nebulae, there was no anger, only a cold, absolute pressure that transcended emotion.
You can't take away even a trace of the essence.
He raised his right foot and stepped into the Void.
That step, though taken in the Void, felt as if it were stepping on the Lord of Hell. Asmodeus, light-years away, groaned, his body once again bent under the pressure of an invisible force— the Mother of the Stars attacking His true form directly through the causal lines with "mass."
"Dale couldn't stop me, and neither can you."
The voice of the Mother of the Stars echoed throughout the Void.
"I will obtain the entire Astral Realm."
I will step into Third-Step Eternity.
"I will cross the Tide of Destruction and journey to the Land of Origin in the center of the Chaos Sea."
You are all just pebbles on the road.
His gaze shifted from the Lord of Hell to the Magic Pioneer, Dale.
"Pebbles should be crushed."
Dale remained silent, pure white light of law slowly flowing around him.
His injuries were not much less severe than those of the Lord of Hell, yet his gaze remained calm.
Maybe.
The Magic Pioneer said.
"Perhaps we are just pebbles."
"But enough stones can also stop the wheels."
On the Immortal Continent behind Him, the seven holy towers resonated simultaneously with deafening roars. The core Energy Reserve of the Elemental Furnace were being transferred to a safe location, Federation citizens were being urgently evacuated through the Weave, and the nine Grand Sage were organizing the final defense.
Every breath that Dale fights for is saving more lives.
The Mother of the Stars watched all this, her eyes, formed from twin nebulae, slowly turning.
"Then I'll crush you all."
He raised the Chaos Stele, preparing to launch the final blow.
But before that--
From the deeper reaches of the Void, one after another, the auras of the Eternal emanated.
In the Void, the first aura was like the breath of an ancient forest, deep and far-reaching. It was not the aura of one person, but the collective will of an entire forest, an entire mountain range, and an entire land. The aura carried the fragrance of grass and trees, the aroma of soil, and the resilience and vitality that life itself had accumulated over millions of years of evolution, which could not be erased by any force.
The Ancestral Tree of Life emerged from a crack in the Void.
The form He manifested at this moment was not human, but a colossal tree towering into the clouds—its canopy obscuring countless light-years, each leaf a green star, each branch a swirling band of nebulae, and its trunk etched with the evolutionary map of all life forms in the universe from its birth to the present. His roots were deeply embedded in the Void, drawing not nourishment from Void, but the very concept of "existence."
He is a newly ascended Eternal, the youngest among the surrounding Greater Eternal, with only the Goddess of Fate roughly equal to him. However, the term "newly ascended" does not imply weakness within the Eternal hierarchy.
Making progress at the Eternity level is extremely difficult; among those One-Step Eternal, the difference in combat power is not significant.
The power of the Ancestral Tree of Life originates from all living, past, and future lives. The birth of each life adds to its power, and the passing of each life leaves a ring on its trunk. It is the collective consciousness of life, the embodiment of the concept of "life" on Eternity level.
Immediately following, a second aura appeared in the Void.
That aura was completely different from that of the Ancestral Tree of Life —it was more ancient, more enormous, but also more illusory. It was not the real entity, but a projection. Even so, the pressure of this projection already surpassed that of the real entities of most of the Eternal present.
World Tree.
The projection took on a human form, no taller than an average person, but its body was composed of countless intertwined branches and roots, each branch bearing a leaf, and each leaf being an independent world. Its eyes were two golden suns, and wherever the sunlight shone, new life, new civilization, and new possibilities would spring up.
He did not speak, but simply hovered silently in the Void, his gaze fixed on the Mother of the Stars.
A third aura surged in from another direction, carrying the scent of sulfur and blood, along with Endless desire and the temptation of depravity.
Ruler of the Abyss.
His image is somewhat similar to that of the Lord of Hell, but he is more evil, more chaotic, and more unpredictable. The image of the Ruler of the Abyss also changes frequently, which is rooted in his chaotic and evil nature.
At this moment, His skin was a dark purple, covered with countless fine scales, each scale engraved with the name of a soul He had devoured. Six horns grew from His head, each tipped with a burning black star. His hands wore ten rings, each a Miracle Creation —but the most striking was the dark red ring on His left ring finger, its surface flowing with liquid Abyss energy. It was His most precious treasure, the Miracle Creation, the Ancient Ring of the Abyss, capable of assisting the Ruler of the Abyss and unleashing boundless power.
Behind Him lay Endless Abyss, a phantom without order, without laws, without any comprehensible structure, only pure, mad, ceaseless chaos and Destruction. The Abyss itself was the source of His power.
The fourth aura, like a thread of Fate, spread silently from the Void.
The Goddess of Fate.
He wore a long golden dress, the hem of which trailed in Void Void, leaving a golden trail of Fate with every inch it went. His face was veiled by a hazy golden veil, obscuring his features, so only a pair of deep eyes behind the veil could be seen, eyes that seemed to see through all cause and effect.
His right hand held a golden revolver— the Sovereign of Fate.
This Miracle Creation, obtained from the God of Battle, also changed as the Goddess of Fate grew into Eternal. Seven chambers were engraved on the gun, each corresponding to a Fate: birth, growth, decay, death, Samsara, transcendence, and a seventh, nameless "unknown" that even the Goddess of Fate herself could not predict.
Her demeanor was noble and aloof, like a queen sitting on a cloud overlooking all living beings, with everything under her control and everything proceeding in an orderly manner.
But few people know what lies hidden behind this sense of "having everything under control".
The fifth aura followed closely behind the Goddess of Fate, and that aura intertwined with the aura of the Ruler of the Abyss, like two bolts of lightning constantly colliding.
Abyss Warden.
He wore a black trench coat, the hem of which fluttered in the Void, revealing ancient seal runes written on the lining. His hair was black, his eyes were black, and even the book in his hand— the Black Book —was black.
His left hand held the Black Book, while his right hand's fingers gently pressed on the cover, as if ready to open it at any moment.
Three rival Eternal choose to temporarily halt their battle and unite to confront the greatest upheaval in the world's history.
A sixth aura emanated from the distant Void, carrying the scent of iron and blood, the horns of war, and the lamentations of the dead.
God of War of the Astral Realm.
His aura was weak—weaker than any of the Eternal present.
Those were injuries sustained after the battle with Lancelot.
If the Mother of the Stars succeeds in devouring the entire Astral Realm and enters the Third-Step Eternity, then all Eternal who do not obey her will be purged. No one will be spared, no one will remain uninvolved.
Therefore, the Eternal who were once enemies, who once fought each other, and who were once sworn enemies, now stand on the same side.
It wasn't for friendship, it wasn't for justice, it wasn't even for survival.
It is only because in the face of the Mother of the Stars, each of them is a "pebble"—and only when pebbles gather together can they possibly stop the wheel.
No Eternal wants to entrust their Fate to another Eternal.
The crown of the Ancestral Tree of Life trembled slightly, uttering its first greeting:
"Earth Mother Goddess."
The sound emanating from the canopy wasn't from a throat, but from the simultaneous rustling of millions of leaves. The sounds of each leaf overlapped, creating a gentle yet awe-inspiring wave of sound, like the entire forest breathing.
"You've gone too far."
The Mother of the Stars shifted her gaze from Dale, sweeping it over every Eternal. Her eyes, formed of nebulae, held no anger, no fear, not even the slightest ripple of emotion.
"Too much?"
His voice was as calm as a dead sea.
"I'm just going my own way."
"It's you who are blocking my way."
A dangerous smile appeared on the lips of the Ruler of the Abyss, and the black stars on its six horns flickered simultaneously.
"Your path? Earth Mother Goddess, your path will traverse the entire Astral Realm, crush all Eternal who disobey you, and build your Inner Universe upon our corpses—is this what you call a 'path'?"
"That's called 'overbearing'."
"However, if I were in your position, I would have been much more domineering, but unfortunately we are enemies now."
The Mother of the Stars looked at the Ruler of the Abyss, her eyes, formed of nebulae, showing no emotion.
The Abyss Warden raised the Black Book and gently tapped the cover with his right index finger.
"No need for further words. At this point, only war remains."
His voice was very soft, as if afraid of disturbing something, but every word clearly reached the ears of everyone present.
"Domineering is also a principle, we have nothing to say about it."
"But if you want to devour the entire Astral Realm, then we have no choice but to intervene."
"Because the Astral Realm is not your private property."
The Goddess of Fate remained silent. She simply stood quietly in the Void, her golden robes billowing in the Void, the Sovereign of Fate slowly turning in her right hand. Her gaze passed through the Mother of the Stars, through the Lord of Time, through all the Eternal present, and landed on some unseen place in the Void.
No one knows what He is looking at.
The God of War of the Astral Realm dragged his wounded body and slowly took a step forward.
As he took that step, countless cracks appeared in the Void —not from the force of the impact, but from the inability to withstand his fighting spirit. His fighting spirit was not energy, not laws, but the very concept of "war." As long as he was fighting, the war would not end; as long as the war was not over, he would not fall.
"Your Majesty the God King."
The God of War of the Astral Realm spoke, his voice hoarse, like a veteran returning from the battlefield recalling past battles.
"The Astral Realm is too vast, so vast that no single being can truly possess it."
"What you're trying to do is fundamentally wrong."
The Mother of the Stars fell silent.
The silence lasted for three breaths.
Then He spoke, His voice even calmer than before, so calm it sent chills down one's spine:
"Right or wrong is merely a matter of differing perspectives."
"You think I'm wrong because you're on the opposite side of me."
"But when I step into the Third-Step Eternity, cross the Tide of Destruction, and arrive at the Land of Origin— "
"You will understand that everything I have done is for the future of the Astral Realm."