The skies rumbled as the weight of two powerful auras settled over Artemis's garden. Winds surged in every direction, trees bent and cracked, and the ground trembled beneath the pressure. The presence of two powerful Fourth Gate users was enough to shake the balance of the battlefield.

Anyone without a strong will or a fourth Gate was forced to their knees if they were too close to the imposing figures.

Some ascenders clutched their chests, coughing blood as their bodies reacted to the overwhelming force pressing down on them. For others, it felt like the world itself had paused in fear.

Mao Feng had just brought down one of the guardian beasts. Its icy remains collapsed in fragments, sliding down the hillsides like a slow avalanche. The war around her was already in motion—she could see it. Sorcerers from House Artemis had joined the fray, unleashing their powers against the Phoenix, the dragon, and the Moon Siren.

The battlefield had fully come alive.

But at the center of it all stood Mao Feng and Artemis, facing each other like shadows from the same past. They had once trained together in the same sect, under the same mentors. They had been guided by shared ideals—taught to protect, to ascend, to lead.

Back then, House Artemis had not yet risen to power. They hadn't yet found the Moon Goddess's lineage, and everything was different.

"So this was your plan all along?" Mao asked. Her voice was steady but firm. "To destroy me and then turn against us for the sake of power?"

Artemis floated just above the ground, eyes steady and distant. The moon reflected perfectly in his gaze, as if he saw past the present, into the future.

"I never sought your clan's destruction, Mao Feng. In fact, your daughters are still part of what must come. They have a place in the world I'm building."

"This isn't our future," she replied, her tone sharper now. "The Blood Tower isn't meant to exist. It doesn't belong here…it needs to be destroyed."

"You still think like the rest," Artemis said quietly. He raised one hand, his fingers tightening into a fist. "I'm not bound by fear or tradition. I believe in what comes next. Once we harness the Concept of Creation, everything will change. And when it does, you'll understand."

Mao Feng raised her sword. The silver light along its edge pulsed with power. It was true that sorcerers were the pillars of humanity since they had transcended the limits placed on them by the world. They were the swords used against the darkness and the last stand against the end.

However, at their core, Sorcerers were Humanity's protectors. And killing a fellow sorcerer was allowed if it was for the sake of humanity.

"You've really agreed with a world ruled by those people." She felt disappointed by Artemis's decisions. "I can't let the visionaries decide my future. Humanity won't fall."

With a burst of intent, a silver stream of zenshi surged from the tip of Mao Feng's blade.

It struck Artemis's spherical barrier with precision, and the moment it connected, the barrier's surface crystallized, freezing instantly.

Her aura, the Concept of Cold, allowed her to freeze nearly anything she willed. Against Mao Feng, most barriers were meaningless unless they were forged through actual magical Fire.

Lord Artemis watched his shimmering barrier of zenshi turn to brittle ice. And with a faint motion, he dismissed it, causing it to shatter like glass.

"We are Humanity. The ones who are not touched by the hand of fate are lesser beings that are unworthy of the future," he said calmly, almost disinterested, as he willed zenshi into his Fourth and Second gates. Essence flared around him, and with it came his command over the Concept of Time.

The shift was immediate. The flow of time began to slow across the battlefield. Leaves drifted sluggishly through the air. Warriors locked in battle seemed to move in slow motion, their attacks delayed by an unseen force. It was like the world itself had become heavy beneath Artemis's influence.

Sensing the change, Mao Feng launched forward. Her speed cut through the temporal haze as she closed the distance between them.

In one fluid motion, she gathered her essence into her Dao blade and unleashed a beautiful, sweeping strike.

Their swords met with a sound like thunder shattering across the sky. The resulting shockwave rippled through the air, shaking the ground and sending a pulse of power strong enough to split the skies—if there had been any clouds on this floor.

What followed was a deadly, precise exchange of blows that sounded like small-scale explosions.

Both sorcerers moved with a refined grace, and the force of each clash made the floor itself tremble beneath them. It was like two giants were facing off each other in a death battle.

Their summoned beasts were also not idle. They clashed just as fiercely, pouncing and tearing into each other with primal fury, seemingly unaffected by the temporal slow. The ancient summons were bound to the will of their masters, so they fought without facing any resistance.

Mao Feng's strikes were calm and calculated, each swing of her sword powered by the quiet strength of conviction.

Artemis met each blow with equal mastery, countering with a finesse that shattered the air. His swordsmanship was something he rarely depended on as a sorcerer.

Of what use could a sword be to someone who could bend something like time?

Before the Fall, swordsmanship was useless in a world dominated by guns, tanks, and nuclear warheads that were capable of leveling cities with a single command. Nations once built vast cities dedicated solely to the production of weapons. Their leaders used them to dominate, to conquer, and to destroy without ever setting foot on a battlefield.

But things changed when the Fall happened.

Magical beasts descended into the mortal realm, and suddenly, nuclear weapons were obsolete. Guns couldn't stop a Were Beast. They couldn't wound a Dragon Serpent, a Shadow Child, or a Blood Wolf.

Even tanks and nuclear warheads were ineffective against the infected creatures that now roamed the wilds freely.

When the first Ascenders emerged and the art of enchanting was revealed, the world was forced to return to its roots.

Swords, spears, and relic weapons became humanity's front-line defenses. Sects were revived by ancient bloodlines, and the age of martial arts returned—reborn from necessity.

To Lord Artemis, this was regression. A civilization once capable of reaching the stars and building on harsh planets was now clinging to blades and spiritual techniques.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

To him, if such great power had returned to the world, why not use it to claim everything? To conquer the realms beyond?

To him, Ascenders weren't guardians—they were chosen. Fate itself had marked them as survivors, meant to inherit the next world once this one collapsed. They were meant to rule the divine realm.

With the help of the Visionaries and the Heavenly Court, that dream was not impossible.

He slashed at Mao Feng again, and this zenshi tore through the sky like divine lightning.

But before his divine essence made contact with her body, Mao Feng vanished. Her existence had faded into a dense white fog that engulfed him in an instant.

The temperature plummeted, and his armor became brittle with frost in less than a breath. He only survived because he was shielded by a white—bluish layer of light that covered his armor.

Within the fog, jagged icicles materialized and began raining down on him from every direction. But they moved slowly, too slowly.

Mao Feng scowled when she saw this. 'As long as he commands time, I can't rely on projectiles. Then I'll use this instead.'

The mist twisted like a living thing, forming multiple reflections of Mao Feng. Her forged weapon allowed her to create illusions—perfect enough to fight, dangerous enough to wound.

Sixteen Mao Fengs appeared across the sky, each wielding a sword that radiated zenshi.

'Hmm…'

Artemis didn't flinch. He sighed and dismissed his sword.

The illusions all struck in unison. The first one froze mid-air and was scattered by a single slice of Artemis's palm, exploding into snowflakes. Three others fell immediately after, their blades unable to even reach him.

They lacked the true Will of Mao Feng and were vulnerable to the flow of his time command.

Icicles continued to fall, but they shattered harmlessly against the white, blue flames he conjured. As for the illusions that cast them, he reversed their timeline, forcing them to dissolve back into mist.

"Come now, Mao Feng," Artemis said with a scowl after killing a few more illusions. "I don't have time for your games."

From sixteen illusions, only five remained.

And among them, only one could move at full speed…Mao Feng herself.

But none of them moved.

Instead, Mao Feng whispered a chant, and Artemis's entire body was suddenly encased in an icy prison. The moment he was sealed, she muttered a second chant, and five ice spears plunged into the frozen shell.

Then, knowing that all that wasn't enough to stop a sorcerer, she raised her left hand and clenched it.

Boom!

The block exploded with a violent gust, sending shards of ice and frozen air in every direction. Everything it touched began to freeze, including the battlefield below.

When the storm cleared, Artemis still hovered in the sky. But his body was a ruin.

Though his zenshi shield had preserved him, his entire left side was mangled. His blood was frozen solid. His muscles and bones encased in frost. He could barely lift his arm.

"I need to avoid that the next time," he muttered, voice tight with pain.

And then, in his mind, he commanded:

'Return. World.'

The battlefield obeyed.

Time reversed itself across the land, flowing backward like a rewound recording. Everything that had occurred after the ice prison was undone—its creation, the spears, even the explosion.

When the distortion settled, Mao Feng's remaining illusions vanished like mist, and Artemis stood behind her.

Her eyes widened. She was a sorcerer too; she could feel it. The laws of reality had been bent. No... rewritten.

"Shit…"

Artemis grinned as his shadow loomed behind her.

"My Aura might not be as flashy as yours…" he said, voice smooth, "but I've got all the time in the world to figure out how to beat you."

***

Luna tried to rise, but the pressure forced her right back down. Her body trembled. Sweat dripped from her face as her arms shook under the invisible weight pressing against her.

'Move… Move… MOVE, damn it!' she screamed at herself, willing more essence into her limbs.

Her muscles surged. She forced herself forward, crawling as the storm above intensified.

Time and space twisted above her. Reality cracked and distorted from the sheer power being exchanged. If she hadn't witnessed Storm Rider's power firsthand, Luna might have still believed Sorcerers were the peak of humanity's strength.

She looked up and caught sight of two great summons. A massive, white, wingless dragon spiraled through the air, clashing with a titanic shadow creature with giant wings.

The sky thundered with their collision.

The dragon opened its mouth and released a beam of freezing light. The dark being veered aside and let the blast strike nearby soldiers, killing them instantly.

The Ice consumed their bodies before they could scream.

Then, with a roar, the dragon lunged—biting into one of its black wings, drawing black blood that melted the trees and ground. The two crashed to the ground like falling stars.

The earth shook even more.

Soldiers from both sides scattered, fleeing the chaos. Some were crushed under falling debris; others were frozen solid, transformed into ice sculptures by lingering aura.

And above it all, the Fourth Gate users dueled.

Mao Feng landed a clean strike on Artemis's breastplate. Her grey eyes glinted as ice blossomed across his armor's surface. She seized the fractured plate and hurled him toward the distant forest.

Boom!

The forest exploded in splinters and ash as his body slammed into the earth, carving a crater in his wake.

Mao Feng didn't hesitate to follow up with that. She dismissed her sword and conjured a spear of pure ice.

She hurled it with all her force, its speed almost breaking the sound barrier.

Artemis burst from the crater, unharmed. He cut through the incoming spear with a single sweep of his manifested blade, scattering frost across the ruined trees.

"Halt. World!"

He roared with rage, and everything instantly froze. The world around him halted. Sound vanished and movement stilled.

Only he moved now.

His eyes glowed with quiet malice as he soared toward Mao Feng. Blue essence ignited along his blade as he got closer to Mao Feng. To him, this wasn't cruelty—it was necessity.

This was for humanity's future.

Meddling with time always tore at his two Soul Gates. He knew that if he held this state for more than five minutes, his soul might shatter from the strain of commanding something as absolute as time. This error was something born from acquiring a powerful lineage without the special divine blood to bring out its true potential.

He acquired the domain of Time, but it was weaker for someone who followed the false path. And its zenshi consumption was a great one.

Regardless of that, he pressed forward. He was about to cleave through the frozen Mao Feng when his sword was stopped.

Steel met steel, and sparks exploded in frozen time.

"Command over time," said a calm, almost amused voice. "How convenient…"

A new figure stood between them, holding her own blade against his. With a smirk, she shoved him back.

"I can't let you kill her, Lord Artemis," Storm Rider said, standing tall and unwavering.

"How did you… move?" Artemis narrowed his eyes, already on edge. The presence this woman exuded was dense, like space compressed around her.

"I am a Visionary. And according to the rules, my will is closer to that of the gods." Storm Rider didn't wait.

Her dagger shifted into a longsword with a shimmer of energy. On her first swing, the blade shattered Artemis's sword like glass. She hadn't struck to kill, he was an important figure among the mortals.

Lord Artemis froze in the moment. The golden-haired woman appeared in front of him and hit him with a palm strike charged with essence that sent him hurtling from the sky into the river below like a missile.

Storm frowned. "This is supposed to be one of the strongest humans?"

Upon his defeat, time immediately resumed, and the tower rumbled when the gigantic tree growing out of the river started to crumble down.

Artemis's garden, a once beautiful sanctuary, was now losing its life energy to the hungry tree. The trees started to crumble, the moon started to lose its light, and the clear rivers became contaminated with black ether.

Very soon, the other deities were going to sense the imbalance when the blood tower was destroyed.

"You…"

Storm Rider said to Mao Feng with a composed smile, though her grip on the sword never relaxed. She was afraid of what was coming next.

"I'm not your enemy, Mao Feng," she said with calm authority. "But you must withdraw your force and prepare your soldiers. What comes next will not spare hesitation."

It wasn't a request. It was a command.

Mao Feng scanned the forest warily. "…how do we destroy the tower?"

Storm Rider smiled. "Lunaris Feng already did that."

"She did?"

Storm Rider smiled. "Of course she did. As expected of my student, heh. You raised an incredible woman, you know. I barely remember my mother."

Mao Feng blinked. What kind of relationship did this stranger have with her daughter?

Mao Feng was confused, "She's your student?"

"Yes. I taught her the basics. Please know that Zheng Feng did the right thing..."

Mao Feng was about to ask this woman how she knew her late husband, but stopped when she saw Artemis crawling out of the river. He was soaked and wounded, his expression worn and exhausted.

"He won't be able to open his second gate," Storm Rider said quietly. "But he must not die here. If he does, the mortal realm will descend into chaos."

With that, this version of Storm Rider vanished. Despite possessing nearly limitless life essence, maintaining two domains strained her greatly. The number of Omniscient Avatars she could deploy was decreasing rapidly.

'Lunaris Feng must live today…'

***

Somewhere deeper in the woods…

The pressure finally lifted.

Luna staggered to her feet, sweat-drenched and trembling. Despite the pain, she pressed forward through the shattered battlefield, searching for her sister.

Time was slipping away. She was now cursed, and as the tower's essence dwindled like a dying breath drawn into the void. She didn't have much time left.

She limped on, ignoring the throb in her leg and following the essence in the ice. She reached a frozen river and gasped in a lump of air.

There, amidst the silence, stood a dying tree. It looked like a piece of art carved from glass: its branches twisted like broken veins, now entirely made of ice.

The true Mildrith was dead.

Next to it lay a massive head of a creature she couldn't recognize. From its pure presence, Luna could tell it was a summon. It hadn't returned to the void, meaning the mystical summon had been severed from the void and then brutally killed.

Just then, Luna's heart skipped a beat when she saw someone standing next to the head of the creature. Her white hair was wet with blood, and her overall aura wasn't human.

"Lena," Luna called her sister's name with caution. "There is something I need to tell you."

"I already know," Lena didn't turn.

Luna's brows knitted, and she asked, "Know what?"

Lena was quiet for a moment. The silence between the two sisters almost became tangible.

After a minute of doing nothing, Lena slowly turned to reveal her new appearance to Luna.

Luna's blood ran cold when she saw this.

Her sister's gaze, once familiar, had become utterly foreign. The cold in her eyes was no longer just emotional…it was divine as they looked at her.

[Hail to the Everlight, the True Celestial, Child of Fire, and Breaker of Eternity!]

Suddenly, there was a burst of life essence when Lena spoke. Golden sparks flickered to life around her outstretched arm.

Her voice came in layers. One was hers, and the other was far older.

[We have finally found you. Heavenly Supreme's Inheritor]

With those words, a blast of gold lightning erupted from her palm and struck Luna before she could react. It had moved so fast that Luna herself didn't notice until it hit her.

The world exploded into light, and the frozen river shattered beneath her attack.

Trees cracked and splintered as Luna was thrown through them. What was left of her armor was destroyed, and her skin was burned once the golden lightning connected with her.

Pain roared through her like molten fire. Every nerve screamed. Her vision blurred as she slammed into a stone slab and tumbled to the ground.

She coughed blood—so much blood.

'How… how did she find me so fast?'

She already knew the answer.

That wasn't Lena anymore. This was the third presence she had sensed earlier, the one who had created all this ice with life essence, and one of the enemies she had to avoid.

The person who stood on the frozen river… was the Servant of Light.

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