I watched the Avatar die like everyone else did, the moment faithfully recorded on Coralost Camera Technology ™ as Mok Fan and his two ladies beat her down, caged her, eroded her defenses, didn’t let her flee, countered her last-ditch attempt, weathered her explosive suicide attempt, and then removed her from this existence and the purview of the Lords of Light forever, burying her in vivus and making sure her soul didn’t go back to her masters at all.

There was a lot of screaming and curses involved, which a lot of people watching got a very satisfying kick out of. I couldn’t even chide anyone, because, Heavens, that bitch earned everything that was done to her.

Some of the Synod’s Contracted Beasts were actually still alive by the time the Avatar died, but all of the Archangels were dead, they and their subordinates getting up to three Sages each to have fun with, none of those Sages out for anything less than blood.

While the stuff on their bodies was free for the looting, there was only one order: any Wings of Light were to be turned in to be Burned away. They were creations of the Lords of Light, and anyone who was caught trying to sneak one away was going to be aced as a minion of the Lords.

All the sets were soon accounted for, and the cameras were set up around the Formation for the whole world to watch all the cracked and glowing things Burn down to Essence.

The whole city was crushed, leveled, immolated, frozen, flooded, and otherwise wiped away and broken up as cleanly and thoroughly as possible. When it was mostly done, the hand of Infinite Sands reached out and cleaned out two hundred meters of earth underneath the whole city. The whole world watched the fused, crumbled, and shattered remains, not a single building, monument, home, or street intact as more than scattered and sundered rubble, slide slowly beneath the incoming waves of the harbor, vanishing beneath the churning waters and to history.

It was one of the oldest and greatest cities of Humanity, and there were definitely mixed feelings on seeing it go... but nobody complained aloud.

Besides, the new harbor was actually quite picturesque, all other things aside.

Up in the sky, the remnants of a Conduit sputtered and then finally halted, too late and too powerless to do anything. Beyond the Aether, the Lords of Light seethed as they, too, lost their last foothold on the planet, and had to plan on other ways to get back in here.

I wasn’t going to give them any advice, only harass the heck out of their Isolating Barrier and irritate the piss out of them.

However, nobody relaxed. The Noble and Imperial Beasts barely moved, and there was no conflict. There was only the waiting for the other shoe to fall, as the Realm Lords of Light and Dark stewed in their homes and planned how to get into the Mortal Realm.

How long it would take them to make that decision is how long we had to accumulate the Faith necessary to hold them off. After such a resounding victory, ensuring that even their best scenario was going to be drowned in our spite, the Faith was pouring in.

The ministers were told to all stay on message, which was utter Truth and disclosure. The Realm Lords had isolated us, and a way was being made to punch a way through. That way was powered by Faith, because if we tried a Ritual, they would intervene and destroy it long, long before we could possibly gather enough Mana to do the job.

Faith and prayer was not something they could sense, and so they had no idea how much power was building. Earnest belief, given freely, was the single most potent weapon we had right now, and if there was more than a little righteous anger involved, well, that was fine, too!

I waited, flitting out regularly into the Aether to crash Formation Nodes. I was aware of the minimum limit on accumulated Faith, where we might do the job; the target, where we probably could do the job; and the greater goal, where we absolutely would do the job.

It was likely to hit the minimum before they made a decision, but the odds wouldn’t be good if that happened. The longer the wait, the better the odds.

Distractions...

------

Six days. Six days the world got to relax. New converts got to see the sun rise, and the Salute to Aru was whispered out by Sound Mages, tapping into the very Faith it engendered to help awaken and revitalize those who came to greet the dawn.

On the seventh day, the whole world felt the rocking of the Veil as the attack came. It crashed into a dimensional wall reinforced to be many, many times stronger than it was in the past, but now it was being attacked by full-strength Realm Lords.

I’d watched their Planes being sacrificed, shrinking in size and power, their foundation and essence torn free to replace the strength of the Judged and Cursed, topping them off on their Mana, mending the horrendous injuries of some, making sure they were in top form.

Then they moved their planes through the Aether, slowly and grimly, butting them up against their target, and the assault began.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The Netherlords had fronted their whole Realm on the Veil to Earth, and the Dark Mana was churning wildly over the whole planet in response to its proximity. People who still had Dark Elements started going mad, screaming about what was coming, lashing out at everything about them, and had to be put down.

The Light was doing the same, but they’d split their assault with murderous intent, one going after the Broom Closet, the other three opposite the six Netherlords in trying to force their way into the Mortal Realm.

I’d watched them coming in from out in the Aether, and the instant all ten of them began their assault, I popped another Formation Node.

There was no let-up in the attack, which was soon making the sky wobble like a bubble up beyond the clouds, the blue of the sky flickering and glitching as all those below could glimpse the skies of the Realms beyond, lights baleful and harshly crystalline glowing through with promises of doom for everyone.

It was a time to pray, because most mere mortals could do nothing here.

Most. Not all.

The second Node collapsed, but it wasn’t randomly chosen, and there was no travel time involved. I definitely felt the pause of their attention as I blew apart the neighboring Node, and the Realm Lords immediately realized that I wasn’t playing around now, either.

I wasn’t trying to collapse the Barrier now; I was going to make a hole in it!

Emperors sitting atop Pyramids all over the world, with multiple Kings atop the ones in Egypt, held the line on the Veil, redistributing the force, sending Dark energy over to protect against the Light and vice versa, reducing the might and fury of the attacks to a fraction of their true effect, and incidentally infuriating the Realm Lords all the more by doing so.

The Laws of Space and Time creaked and groaned as two Realms tried to wrestle ours into conjunction, enough Mana to obliterate the surface of the planet creating howling storms in the Aether that didn’t help their cause in the slightest.

The third Formation Node collapsed. One more, and I’d have the circle half-complete.

With howls of true annoyance, the two un-Judged Netherlords hurtled out to stop me, as well as the uncursed Lord of Light, Ilah, who’d been hammering on the Broom Closet. The rest continued to assault the Veil.

---

The fourth Node collapsed before they reached me, leaving four to go, and they could only guard three of them. To their immense frustration, the fifth Node I chose was the one that none of them were at, and even as they converged on me in outrage, I blew it apart.

They were trying to seal the Aether against me fleeing, but the storms kicked up by their own activities made that nigh-impossible, so that left coming in from three directions to make sure they could delay me when I fled.

That was absolutely fine. I headed right for the Lord of Undead of the Netherlords, and as I did, I finally let my Astral Ward leak a bit of my Aura. Their desperately-focused senses latched onto it and identified it immediately.

True Realm Lord level!

The Undead Lord’s racing attack towards me slowed drastically as It realized what It was heading into. I was already building power up past the Imperial, all of the Aether howling as I finally called on Nine Stars and started bringing it to It.

Its defenses ate my attack of Shards brighter than the Sun, buckling and shattering as they did, but they held against an assault that would have wiped out a Warded city on Earth. It was reinforcing them against me with great haste... when the Beast Lord hit It in the back, dumped a Seven Elements Charge into It, and then the Judgement I’d left Imbued into the Beast Lord’s mighty horn went off as well.

The spectral robe about the inhuman corpse and its four arms blew away under the attack, smashing the Undead Lord through Its own shields and sending It tumbling in surprise and agony... right into a Disruptive, Vivic follow-up.

Its screams shook the Aether, spectral bones and spiritual meat wrapping It up to protect It from the craters blazing over Its entire body... which were not healing.

The Beast Lord and I turned to face the other two Lords racing up, shields of Argent energy and Sevenfold Elements smashing into their long-range attacks, blowing spears of Light and monstrous claws of demonic energy apart as the two other free Realm Lords arrived on the scene.

The Lord of the Demon Element was a hugely muscled, horned, furred, and fanged monstrosity, boiling over with all kinds of energies that were fueled by his own massive reserves. He was a True Realm Lord and the strongest of the Netherlords, even moderate ability to wield all the Dark Elements boosted to incredible power by His unique Element.

The Lord of the Undead was a half-True Realm Lord, and the Lord of the Koran was also a True Realm Lord.

The Beast Lord was a True Realm Lord, and I was definitely holding the same level of power in my Aura, despite not bothering to boost myself up several hundred feet in height!

This wasn’t a two-way standoff, it was a three, because Ilah was definitely not standing with the Demon and Undead Lords, either!

Unafraid, the Demon Lord just smiled and flexed His massive claws, secure in the power of His Element and His own personal might. He would definitely have no problem dealing with the Beast Lord...

That is, until I swept an Avatar of Creation spell over the Beast Lord. The massive and mighty Ki-Rin promptly doubled in size, seething with Elemental and Primal power from the depths of Creation. He nearly made the Demon Lord’s burning eyes pop out in shock as the Beast Lord promptly charged Him, all the Aether singing behind Him and opening up to a star-filled sky blazing Holy Light down upon the two of them.

---

I watched Ki-Rin and primordial Demon go tumbling away through the Aether, their unleashed energies ripping through a million miles of space in a place where space generally had no meaning.

That left me a wounded Undead Lord, and Ilah.

“Truce, until we deal with this interloper!” Ilah shouted out, glaring at me for daring to intervene in their little game, His great Book of Law in hand.

“Agreed!” clacked the rotting jaws of the Undead Lord, old flesh ablaze sloughed off and replaced by a city’s worth of new meat. It wasn’t a true replacement, but at least He wasn’t burning anymore... and His monstrous vitality still wasn’t closing the wounds He’d suffered, either.

I gave no hint I cared at all. The Undead Lord would go for personal combat, while Ilah would try to assail me from afar. They were both about to find out that size was very much against them in this circumstance, even as I began to roil the space about us. They abruptly realized all three of us were moving.

Towards the sixth Node point!

Outraged that I dared think so little of them as to actually have ideas of still working on their Isolation Barrier, both of them attacked at the same moment.