Rail saw red. Practically any chance he had of advancing in this life was cut off. Not only would he be unable to do that, but he would be unable to take that next step and master the mysterious Laws of the World.

He was so infuriated that he forgot about everything else, his aura rippling out in waves and almost shattering the planet.

If not for Ryker’s quick reaction time and the surge of his Chaos Domain, the planet would have likely imploded from the inside out. It was already destabilized after a large amount of energy was stripped from it. Heaving to withstand the aura of a God in such a situation would leave it dead on arrival.

Ryker coughed up a mouthful of blood as his Domain enveloped the region, swallowing the two of them whole.

“STAY BACK!” he roared.

His father had already closed in from the distance. But if he tried to participate in this battle, he would just end up dying for nothing. He couldn’t help in this situation at all.

Ryker brandished Prometheus in one hand and the Eldertree Whip in the other. Streaks of gold and violet struck the air in a tempest as he viciously assaulted Rail from both sides.

It didn’t seem like he was fighting it out against a God at all. They stood on equal footing, their momentums charging to the skies above and sundering the earth beneath.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Their violent auras sent his parents flying.

Rail was even more infuriated. He had wanted to target Ryker’s parents because he knew that this would cause Ryker the most pain, but Ryker had somehow canceled out their blows perfectly enough to send them away and yet not deal permanent harm to them.

The moment they were only in range, Ryker’s attacks became sharper, faster.

His raw power was still far beneath that of Rail. However, the Dao of Chaos that coated Prometheus was able to break through his defenses, and the branch of the Eldertree seemed capable of piercing through all things.

Rail was forced to layer his defenses again and again, wasting a large amount of Spirit Energy as he put up shield after shield in an attempt to protect the rest of his contracts. However, because there was no atmospheric Spirit Energy to lean on, he had to dig deeper and deeper into his dantian instead.

It was slower, weaker, and it was quickly draining his reserves.

Ryker, by comparison, had a vast well of Spirit Energy, one that was even larger than Rail’s, albeit much weaker in energy type. At the same time, he was pulling on the Daos of the world to bolster his strength, the one thing that had yet to be stripped from the world.

Although it was slowly weakening due to the lack of Spirit Energy, it would still be a long while until it completely disappeared, especially thanks to his grandmother’s Tribulations high in the skies above.

Suddenly, Ryker’s eyes lit up.

‘The Dao… and Spirit Energy…’

Why was the Dao slowly vanishing in the absence of Spirit Energy?

BANG!

The golden whip in Ryker’s hand suddenly accelerated, leaving shadows of golden needles through the skies.

He grasped three Paths of the Dao of Spirit in a single sitting, bolstering his control to a new level and strengthening him.

This time, while fused with the Dao of Chaos, the boost to strength was even more exaggerated.

The pressure Ryker was applying on Rail multiplied several times, and it went from a battle where he was on a slight back foot to one that was dead even.

PA. PA. PA.

His whip clapped like sparks of lightning through the air, buzzing with a dense might.

Spirit Energy… it wasn’t just an inferior substance that couldn’t display real might without the Dao. It was also the foundation that the Dao relied on.

If there was no Spirit Energy in the world, the Dao would likewise collapse along with it.

BANG! BOOM!

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Prometheus lashed out in a sudden change of cadence. The heaviness of the chain danced beneath the shadows of the swiftness of his whip.

The two formed a tandem of heft and lightness, of laboring and speed, of forcefulness and incisiveness.

Ryker took a step forward, his eyes shining brighter and brighter. The skies overturned, and by this point in their battle, there was hardly any earth beneath them to speak of. The ground was so ravaged and destroyed that underground rivers of magma and lava began to pool and rapidly cool, only to be destroyed and for the process to begin all over again.

In that moment, the Dome of the skies seemed to be reflected in Ryker’s eyes as he couldn’t help but have a thought…

The Dao couldn’t survive without Spirit Energy.

But Spirit Energy could thrive without the Dao.

Affinity… Circles… the Dantian…

Ryker’s comprehension soared in the midst of battle, grasping another 12 Paths in what felt like a single breath.

BANG! BANG!

Rail stumbled backward. He couldn’t heal the initial injury to his arm at all, so all this time he had been forced to fight with just one arm along with his feet.

He thought about summoning his beasts many times, but he simply didn’t want to risk one of them dying. The backlash would be even more severe if such a thing happened.

But now…

Fear lit in his eyes.

Off in the far distance, Leopold was holding down the fort, fighting off two Gods on his own. The restraining abilities of the Valorian Clan were off the charts; they were simply best suited to fighting against many enemies at once. And it was all the easier since his two enemies hadn’t summoned their beasts.

But none of the three could hide their shock as they watched the battle on that side reverse.

Pavao and Andrea looked toward one another. They had been willing to allow Leopold to stall all this time because they felt that the moment Ryker died, no matter how great Leopold was, he wouldn’t be able to hold up to a three-on-one battle.

However, the result was completely out of their expectations.

This was bad. The Eldertree was actually being controlled by Ryker.

They couldn’t understand how this was possible, unless…

“Laws of the World.”

They spoke at the same time, and their hearts shook in unison.

Somehow, Ryker had managed to grasp it all on his own without the guidance of those on the other side.

Unless he did have their guidance?

No, that was impossible. How could…

Their eyes flickered.

They weren’t fools. They knew that there was no power in existence that was a true monolith. They only made such an assumption because those on the other side were so powerful, but what if it was precisely because they were so powerful that they had so much more to struggle for?

What should they do?

Their thoughts were interrupted by a scream from Rail.

…

Ryker’s eyes blazed. It felt like every time he took a step, he comprehended something new. And every time he did, he layered that comprehension into his fusion.

Right now, he was using the Dao of Spirit like a support. It was the foundation of all things and nothing at all… as such, it could easily fuse with any and everything, even the Dao of Chaos itself.

Every time he comprehended another Path, not only did this fusion bolster his personal Spirit Energy, but it helped increase the strength of his other Daos themselves.

He had said that he would need at least a Dao of the 4th tier to fight on par with an injured God like Rail. After comprehending 33 Paths of the Dao of Spirit, it could already increase his Dao grade by an entire level with a fusion.

The Dao of Chaos was already a fusion of several minor Daos. The complexity of the layering made the effect of the fusion even more effective.

His comprehension slowed to an absolute crawl when he reached this point, but the Eldertree to his back was already swaying with more life and vitality than it ever had before.

Its golden bark shone with real light, shedding its previous dullness and spreading out to the world.

At the same time, the Spirit Energy that seemed to have vanished returned in droves.

Rail tried to greedily suck it up to control…

But how could that be possible?

This Spirit was all Ryker’s to use and wield. In fact, Rail’s expression twisted with horror when he felt that even the Spirit Energy inside of his body was beginning to twist and veer out of his control.

What kind of contracted beast was this?!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Ryker’s whip became more vicious, the Spirit Energy of the world heeding his call as he slashed out once, then twice, then thrice.

The more he learned about the Dao of Spirit, the more he felt that it was analogous to his Dao of Sealing. The Dao of Spirit was everything and yet nothing at all… and the Dao of Sealing sealed everything into nothing…

When he allowed the two to play off of one another, it was like the world danced in the path of his hands.

He had only comprehended a single Path of the Dao of Sealing until now, and yet that one Path seemed to become far more flexible in his hands all of a sudden, then doubled, and then doubled again.

Prometheus gained a mysterious air to it as it slashed down with [Whip Like Shield].

Rail tried to block but found that his body froze for a split moment just when it seemed that he would succeed.

Panic set in his heart as he tried to circulate his Spirit Energy to forcefully rip himself free of the binding, but that was when the Eldertree pulsed.

His Spirit Energy spun out of his control just as Ryker’s whip landed.

In the final moment, Rail managed to just barely sway to the side,

but the whip cut into the meat of his traps, just barely missing his neck and slashing down into his collarbone and through his lungs.

Ryker pulled back his chain and lashed out again. The Dao of Time, the Dao of Spirit, and the Dao of Sealing all layered into one. Learning from the last attack, he seemed to make it even more potent and intricate this time.

BANG!

Time came to a complete stop around Rail.

“STOP!”

Ryker didn’t even respond as his golden whip descended, slashing Rail’s head off his neck.

The head of a God spiraled through the air as Ryker gazed up at it.

He stood in silence for a long time. It seemed that even he didn’t quite believe what he had done.

All his life he had just wanted to be strong, to be the Emperor of the World.

But now, all of a sudden… it didn’t even quite feel real.

‘Maybe that’s because there’s still so far to go… and step one would be…’

He shifted his gaze from Rail’s flailing head, not even watching it plop to the ground as he stared up at the swimming skies.

‘… Break free of this prison…’