Some matter is as large as mountains, carrying enough mass to crush stars; some matter is as small as dust, but its density is comparable to the core of a neutron star, each particle weighing as much as a world; some matter is transparent, invisible to the naked eye, but the traces of its existence—the distortion of space, the expansion of time, the aberration of laws—are clearly visible.
They surged in from all directions, from all timelines, and from all possibilities, forming a cage with no exit, no boundaries, and no flaws.
The Mother of the Stars did not intend to kill Lancelot.
He wanted to trap Him.
This Lord of Endless was imprisoned in a material cage, preventing Him from participating in the upcoming battles, leaving Him only to hear the voices of the outside world in Eternity darkness, never able to break free.
"Matter: An Immeasurable Prison."
Lancelot took a deep breath.
The dimensions before him began to collapse—not because they couldn't withstand the pressure, but because Lancelot actively contracted the spatial structure around him. He compressed the Endless Void into a small space, and condensed the infinite laws into a single point.
Then, He gripped the Immortal-Execution Sword tightly.
On the sword's edge, four distinct powers manifested simultaneously—the ultimate power resulting from the fusion of the four swords: Immortal-Execution, Immortal-Slaughter, Immortal-Trapping, and Immortal-Termination. It was the beginning of Termination everything, the prelude to Destruction everything.
The combined power of the four elements intertwined, merged, and sublimated wildly on the sword's edge, transforming into a light that surpassed all colors in the world.
The light was not white, not gold, not any known color. The light was the embodiment of the concept of "annihilation," the Eternity reflection of the Truth that "all things have an end."
Lancelot swung his sword.
A deafening roar that tore the universe apart echoed through the Void.
A magnificent sword light, capable of annihilating everything, shot forth from the tip of the Immortal-Execution Sword. The instant it left the blade, it multiplied, then multiplied again, then multiplied into Endless forms—
The sword light poured out like a torrential rain, each sword light an independent Law of Termination with its own will. They automatically sought out the weak points of the material cage, automatically adjusted the angle and force of their attack, and automatically combined into the best sequence to break the formation.
The first sword light collided with the oncoming mountain material, shattering the mountain into countless fragments of rock.
The tenth sword light sliced through the transparent, high-density matter that was attacking from the side. The matter, invisible to the naked eye, had nowhere to hide in front of the sword light and was precisely cut into the most primitive particles.
The hundredth sword light pierced through the bottom of the cage, the area with the lowest material density. After penetrating, the sword light exploded, tearing the surrounding matter into fragments.
The thousandth sword light converged at the center of the cage—not fighting individually, but merging into a highly concentrated energy sphere filled with divine Radiance.
The energy sphere hovered in the center of the cage for a moment.
In that instant, all sound in the Void vanished.
Then--
The energy ball exploded.
Like a supreme sun suspended high in the sky suddenly exploding, it burst open, carrying unparalleled light and heat, as well as an unstoppable sharp aura, and rushed out in all directions.
That light illuminated half of the Astral Realm.
The heat melted away all the structures within the material cage.
Its sharpness sliced the outer wall of the cage into countless fragments.
When the light fades, when the heat dissipates, when the sharpness subsides—
The boundless prison created by the Mother of the Stars was shattered to pieces.
The fragments drifted in the Void, each one reflecting Lancelot's heroic figure standing with his sword in hand.
"A fine sword."
The voice of the Mother of the Stars came from high above, still calm, but with a hint of appreciation that even She herself could not deny.
But that's not enough.
His right hand rose, and the Chaos Stele spun in his palm.
Lancelot did not respond, but simply gripped the Immortal-Execution Sword tightly. The Endless Divine Realm behind him expanded once more, and the divine light of the gods converged into a torrent, flowing into Lancelot's body.
A major battle is about to break out.
But at that moment—
The Mother of the Stars moved her left hand.
His arm reached out in a certain direction in the Void, his palm first sinking slightly, then suddenly opening wide.
That direction had no target, no coordinates, nothing to lock onto. It was just ordinary Void, no different from the Void anywhere else.
But after the Mother of the Stars reached into that Void, she made a "grabbing" motion.
First comes the reality.
Every detail of the palm is clearly visible; fingerprints, veins, and joints are all physical entities.
Then transform into emptiness.
The palm suddenly became transparent, not disappearing, but transforming from a "material state" to a "conceptual state"—it was no longer a palm, but the concept of "grasping" itself.
Then, the abstract becomes concrete.
In a non-existent region, the conceptual hand touched something that actually existed. The instant of contact, the conceptual state reformed into a material state, the five fingers closing together and firmly grasping that thing.
Then—a sudden yank!
A piercing tearing sound echoed from the Void.
With a tearing sound, a silvery-black object was pulled out of that non-existent region by the Mother of the Stars.
The object was small, only about the size of a normal person's fist, but its surface shimmered with an eerie luster that did not belong to any known substance, as if "nothingness" had been solidified into a physical entity.
Along with the clump of silvery-black material, a dense spiderweb was also torn down.
The spiderweb's threads were as thin as hair, silvery-gray, each radiating a faint fluctuation of time. One end of the web was connected to that silvery-black object, while the other end extended into the depths of the Void, into a realm that was neither Eternity nor accessible, neither Eternity nor perceptible.
That wasn't ordinary space.
That is the source of the River of Space-Time.
The source of that spider web lies in the deepest part of the River of Space-Time, in the very beginning of time—when the Astral Realm had just been born, the myriad realms had not yet taken shape, and the first primordial life was still struggling in chaos—it took root there.
The spiderweb's roots are deeply embedded in the core structure of the River of Space-Time and River of Space-Time, intertwined with its very origin. Each strand connects to countless fragments of Space-Time —some from the past, some from the future, some from the present, and some from "possibilities" that have never existed before.
The spider silk doesn't hold water droplets or dew, but rather complete, independent Space-Time bubbles. Each Space-Time contains a miniature world where people live, civilizations evolve, and wars rage.
Billions of Space-Time bubbles have woven together a giant network covering most of the River of Space-Time.
If this network continues to spread, it will eventually dominate every corner of the River of Space-Time, bringing all timelines, all possibilities, and all the past and future under its control.
At that time, the Space-Time order of the Astral Realm will completely collapse.
It wasn't destroyed, but "replaced"—the original Law of Spacetime were replaced by the laws of the weavers of this web.
At that time, the entire Astral Realm will become the private property of a certain being.
Unfortunately, the Mother of the Stars still discovered it.
"As expected of the Mother of the Stars, the most powerful being in the Astral Realm."
The silvery-black object suddenly expanded in the palm of the Mother of the Stars, growing from the size of a fist to a radius of about ten feet, and then to a hundred feet, a thousand feet, and ten thousand feet.
Countless sharp bone spurs burst forth from its surface, each carrying the Eternity and Immortal mystery of the law—not the law itself, but the "negation of the law," the supreme self-definition that "time cannot act upon me," "space cannot bind me," and "cause and effect cannot define me."
At the tip of each bone spur hangs a small, rotating vortex of Space-Time. These are fragments of Space-Time that He stole from the River of Space-Time; they are the source of His power and also irrefutable evidence of His sins.
The owner of the bone spur gradually revealed its complete form as it swelled.
That was a spider.
It was no ordinary spider, but an Eternity Spider—a creature so enormous it could obscure several dimensions, entirely silver-black in color, and possessing countless compound eyes.
Each of His eight long legs is tens of thousands of feet long, covered with silvery-gray down, each hair a tiny timeline. His abdomen is enormous and bloated, its pattern a constantly rotating vortex of Space-Time. His head has no mouth, only countless compound eyes—each reflecting a different timeline, from its beginning to its end, all of history flowing within those eyes.
Devouring Demon Spider Gustavo.
The Goddess of Fate pronounced the name slowly and deliberately, her tone devoid of surprise, only a cold, somber tone that suggested she had confirmed something.