Time was still passing extremely slowly and with each infinitesimally small moment that passed, Tal’s Uyil Belts grew dimmer.

I manifested before a seemingly frozen Musa as light and glared at him with a fury that nearly set the Elephantine Forest ablaze.

[Why…?] I wheezed while gently cradling Tal’s body with Gravity Magic.

Musa’s eyes somehow turned to me, even in this realm of ungodly power, and they flashed gold.

[If the purpose of ordinary life is to reproduce as a pitiful attempt at immortality, we Glass Entities must transcend the very boundaries of life and death by becoming… absolute.] He said in a voice that shook me to my core.

[But… is that what you want, my dear? Immortality was never your desire… it was mine. So what do you want, my love? I may not be able to provide it but the least I could do is try.] I weakly smiled but Musa’s face remained devoid of all expression.

His eyes simply burnt with a fire that rivaled any I had ever seen in fury but it was also without emotion.

Just-

[Hunger.] Musa growled.

[I must feed until I transcend so that I may become absolute. That is what I want, Sav’ta.]

My eyes widened to their limits.

Those weren’t Musa’s words.

My son would never say that!

My son didn’t want that!

Musa was a kind and loving man and… I had allowed him to slaughter five thousand people.

Even if it was ultimately necessary to remove the Children of Aviyv as a threat, I should have…

Musa had put himself in harm's way so that the conflict would only end in the loss of life on one side.

He had chosen to take the weight of all that death onto his shoulders…

I shook myself out of my daze and focused only on my son.

[Musa?] I called although my voice came as more of a whimper.

The being before me didn’t respond and I could tell he was desperately trying to move, desperately trying to attack.

I had to make a decision.

Continue trying to reach whatever was left of Musa or quickly kill him and remove the threat that he posed for all of the other humanoids.

I took a deep breath and raised my hand all while twisting the Gravity around Musa’s neck but just as the Glass that made it began to crack, Musa swung his Soul Blade downwards.

I looked down and my eyes widened upon seeing that although Musa’s blade hadn’t done any damage to me physically, it had stretched all the way down to my Uyil Belts where it managed to cut one a little.

I continued squeezing Musa’s neck but at this point, we were operating at incredibly slow time scales and with every passing moment, Musa learnt more and more about this plane of existence, this plane of power.

His soul flashed gold and I watched as his Belts tightened even further, keeping me from crushing his neck.

He also began moving and I knew that the amount of force he’d generate if he was able to move would most likely create a shockwave that would kill everyone on Y’shuah so I wrapped him in a barrier of distorted Gravity and threw him to my Northern Pole all while laying Tal down to rest.

I manifested before Musa again after he crashed into a wall of ice.

We were still perceiving time at its slowest passage and so he remained stuck in the ice for a bit because he had yet to lose his momentum which kept him from falling.

[Musa… please… if you’re in there, wake up. Come back to me.] I whimpered but the being before me simply raised its head and looked at the dragons above.

I needed to stop him but Uyil Torsion and his Glass Body were making that very difficult.

I tried breaking his sword by crashing it with Gravity Magic but the damned sword twisted its Uyil Belts to protect itself.

This, however, took a toll on it and the flesh at its centre began to bleed.

Musa noticed this and pumped the sword full of Life Energy.

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He then swung its soul upward and, in a desperate bid to protect my dragon friends, I created a large barrier of Glass in the sky that shattered as soon. The Soul Sword touched it.

I needed to deal more physical damage and so I created a doll around my ethereal Manifestation and punched Musa in the face with so much force that it split the cliff of ice behind him in half.

Unfortunately, his Uyil Belts were so tightly wound that I was barely able to make his head turn.

I needed more force, but more force would mean more collateral damage.

[Eshu!] I screamed.

[Take everyone to the Island of Tablets! Use as much Glass as you need to build as many ships as possible! Save them!]

Musa took advantage of my panicked state and tried punching me but he was far too slow so I avoided his fist by shifting my head to the side before using Gravity Magic to propel my fist into the right side of his face.

Again, he took the punch head on but his body had been so incredibly strengthened and his existence was so firmly planted in reality that I barely made a scratch on his skin.

Musa then swung his Soul Blade across my chest in a flash and I gasped as my perspective was forced out of it.

I watched with horror as the Uyil Belt which once drove it fell to the side as it had been severed.

Various earthquakes shook my surface but it was nothing catastrophic.

I needed to protect my Uyil Belts and my denizens.

Eshu was on the move and he wore my appearance which he would use to guide my denizens to safety but time was moving far too slowly for him to do anything.

How was he able to operate independently?

Because I willed it so.

I was a planet, not limited by a single set of senses.

I was able to feel everything across my surface, I had just chosen to maintain a single perspective since that was what I was used to in my old human life.

I returned my focus to Musa who seemed to be moving more fluidly with each passing nanosecond.

He seemed to have his eyes trained on my severed Uyil Belt.

It was as if he was simply driven by a hunger which allowed nothing, not even a god, to stand in its way.

My ethereal Manifestation didn’t require a physical form to operate so I shifted towards Musa as he launched himself towards the Belt and tried using Soul Magic to attack his soul directly but I quickly realized that I needed a soul to damage his soul.

I used Gravity Magic to pin him back to the cliff before summoning Mlezi’s Spear which was stored in Musa’s place but I still needed a soul.

I had seen how Musa had created his weapon and it seemed as though a preexisting soul was necessary.

But… I didn’t want to sacrifice any of my denizens, so I chose a different albeit equally cruel option.

I raised the diamond Spear and created a sperm and egg cell pair which instantly combined to form a new lifeform but I rushed its growth by forcing a ton of Life Energy into it.

I watched with horror as it grew into a humanoid glass entity but before it could even open its eyes, I impaled it, and sent a wave of Glass Energy into both it and the Spear, destroying both before pulling them together, flooding them with Glass and Life Energy resulting in a living Spear of Diamond and Glass.

It’s core was still mostly made of diamond but interwoven within were bits and pieces of the newborn.

I turned to Musa who had seen everything I did while he recovered but he charged towards me regardless.

Such… relentlessness.

That which drove his every movement.

It was a pity that it could not be redirected towards something more constructive.

I let out a sigh and shifted towards him.

He tried cutting me again but my Uyil Belts were safely tucked beneath my surface.

I raised Mlezi’s spear, which I enhanced by flooding it with Life and Glass Energy on top of the fact that I twisted its Uyil Belts, and not even he could hide his concern as I thrust it towards him.

[AAAAAHHHHHH!] Musa screamed as his eyes flashed purple.

I then watched as he absorbed an incredible amount of Glass in a fraction of a second.

He then, just as my Spear touched his chest, threw himself down into my surface.

[No!] I cried while trying to stop him by squeezing him with millions of tons of Gravitational Force but he countered me by using the pressure generated by the twisting gravity to push himself further down.

I then watched as he mercilessly swung his Soul Sword at my Uyil Belts but since they were far too low, his eyes flashed white and he forcefully pulled them closer.

He was able to do this because my Belts loosely floated inside me and since I could not make use of Uyil Torsion, I could not reinforce them.

Musa cut one, then two, then five of my Belts before I was finally able to tear him out of my surface.

I used so much force in doing this that I nearly tore my Northern Pole open and this sent out a massive shockwave that undoubtedly affected my denizens.

Eshu was still nowhere close to warning everyone but I couldn’t allow myself to perceive time normally.

Musa would be able to wreak unimaginable havoc otherwise.

My eyes widened as a deep roar filled the air above.

I saw that the Red Emperor was looking at me but I didn’t know what he was saying so I used Glass Transference to temporarily seal Musa in a cubical diamond prison before shifting towards the greatest of dragons.

I then hurriedly sent one of my Belts towards him and touched his own as he soared in the afternoon sky.

[What is it?] I asked with a voice laden with panic.

[Hello, mother!] He greeted for the first time. His voice so deep, and so torn that a tear would have fallen from my eye if I wasn’t a hologram of light.

[Mother?]

[It was on your surface that we were born and it was you who protected us from all that would otherwise harm us, so I hope you do not mind the title.]

[I don’t but what is it that you wanted to say?] I asked while keeping an eye on Musa who had managed to punch a crack into his diamond cell.

[I want to help you! To grant your Spear a flame of life only second to yours! After all, it is his will that sustains him! Your current Spear isn’t determined enough to kill him!]

I bit my teeth.

I could see it in the Emperor’s eyes.

This was not the time nor place to wonder or question and so I gave him a nod before raising my Spear.

[My kind are capable of surviving in the void of space! We only stayed because we liked our place of birth – our home! So could I ask that you continue to look after them when I am gone?]

[Alright!] I nodded before stabbing the Red Emperor in the Forehead.

I then forcefully fused Mlezi’s Spear’s soul with his by breaking them down first and combining them.

What followed amazed me to no end.

A Spear was born that was no longer than two meters. It had a solid diamond body and tip but was adorned with ethereal scales and fingerprints that ran along its length.

But that wasn’t what shook me to my core.

Twisted within, to the point that it looked like a solid mass, was the spear’s soul.

[Come now, mother! Let us triumph over that unending pool of malice!]