The Divinities had gone to war.
A war among each other, with the Fate of All Heavens and Myriad Realms at stake. A war neither side could afford to lose.
That was a war that would not have a peaceful end.
After a series of fights steadily escalating and involving more and more Powerhouses into it, the situation had arrived at a point where all the Big Shots of the Cosmos had been participating.
After millennia of battles across different worlds, it all came together at a single point: The Divine Realm.
No more scheming, no more indirect exertion of might, no more plans and manipulations to shift the way mortals perceived them, no more tricks of politics, economic restraints or deals to gather followers and resources.
No more pawns and throws of the dice to decide matters between them. This time, the most powerful beings in existence would take the matter into their hands, and face each other directly into the battlefield.
They went to the Divine Realm to indulge in the most ancient of ways to decide a conflict, to handle things in the purest and most primal of ways: Battle.
There, the Gods would slaughter, and the very pillars of reality would be faced against each other.
Only catastrophe could come from that.
They had sealed the Heavenly Realm of the Gods because, along with the Void between dimensions, it would be the battlefield where they could unleash their true powers and murderous intent without worry for third parties.
Many people had been evacuated from the Divine Realm, many in quite a forceful manner, because once the war had escalated to an irremediable degree, the top warriors were all too far gone in their rage and way too stubborn to look for a peaceful solution.
But many supporters of both sides had stayed behind, intending to fight as an army and back their leaders in the war.
A foolish, naïf and arrogant mistake, for there was no place for armies in a direct confrontation between Divinities.
When two groups of Ninth Stage Cultivators went into battle, Eighth Stage and Seventh Stage Cultivators could still play some role, managing formations, giving covering fire, supporting with artifacts or supplying resources such as medicine and energy for arrays.
But when Tenth Stage Powerhouses fought, when the True Gods wielded the Laws of existence to take each other’s lives, only 9th Stage beings could witness such fight and remain alive.
At such a stage there was no ploy to be used nor support by outsiders, only pure individual power and personal comprehension of the Cosmos put into test against the enemy’s own.
And when the top beings in existence, the only two Eleventh Stage Sovereigns in the known history of the Cosmos clashed at full power with the whole magnificence of their wrath, unleashing their true might unto their techniques to obliterate the opponent, determined to fight to the bitter end; even the Major Gods had to avoid being within reach of their attacks, as reality twisted and realigned itself obeying the two clashing Wills, grinding to nothingness anything in the way.
Neither side would bend the knee.
Both sides were determined to extinguish the other’s existence.
And thus the whole Cosmos would bleed.
In a Cosmos where no one of 9th Stage was left to keep order, the beings left outside the Divine Realm started to get arrogant, sharpening their fangs while they waited for the conclusion of the war, scheming and preparing for the seizing of the Myriad Realms.
Due to different reasons, few beings that barely qualified as ‘divinity-level’ didn’t participate in the war of the Gods; each had their own circumstances, but these beings had some things in common, they didn’t have real control over the forces of the Cosmos like a Divinity would.
But they wished to.
And they would wait for when the time was ripe to change that situation and to turn their ambitions into reality.
200 cycles later, the Gates of the Divine Realm opened again, and Chaos flooded out, unleashing change in a thousand different ways across all worlds with an unstoppable force.
Now, it was a time of change. Many lives would perish, entire worlds would be destroyed, but those that rose to the challenge would be rewarded with boundless riches and infinite possibilities. The entirety of the Cosmos was in for the taking.
Many would be focusing on survival, reacting to the Cataclysm and trying to stay out of danger, passively preserving themselves.
But others would act. Those that had been awaiting this golden opportunity, those that had planned and prepared.
200 years they had been patiently waiting.
Now, it was time to rise.
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In a secluded world, there was a flatland without much in sight.
The sky was green and the ground was brown hard rock, in this small and simple world there was only one thing of notice: an elegant chair of Oakwood, with an ample back, stylish armrests, and a comfortable cushion that allowed one to recline and enjoy the high-quality softness.
On it, a woman sat.
The world around her parted as if it were a paper being cut by a sharp blade or a waterfall splitting upon clashing against a pointy rock. She emitted a sharp aura of power, an immense amount of energy heavily condensed and refined into the sharpest sword in existence.
Her hair was auburn with a deep red tone, falling in waves over her shoulders and upper back like reddish-brown leaves of autumn dancing in the wind. Her skin was like porcelain, with a healthy pink tone; she had almond-shaped eyes with irises of a shining emerald color, her pupils were slightly elongated in a vertical fashion resembling scabbards containing an extremely dangerous blade inside them, shrouded and hidden in the blackness; if one looked closely, they could see a tinge of scarlet and violet dancing at times within her pupils, elusive and mysterious.
She wore a black jacket made from Dragon scales and skin woven with threads of Thokcha, with an interior covered in the soft and comfortable yet highly durable Dark Silk from Nether Arachnes.
Underneath the jacket, she wore a white vest weaved from Heaven-embracing Cotton, a fiber capable of resisting attacks from all elements and allowed free flow of energy through it, which was turned into a marvelous piece of defensive equipment by using the right enchantments.
From her waist down she had a three-layered skirt of blue, green, and white, with shades going from darker to lighter as they went down to her calves, being longer on the back than on the front.
A belt full of runes kept it in place, each rune possessed a different effect and served functions much greater than a simple accessory.
From below her knees to the ankles she had black ornaments similar to greaves adorned in silver runes, and the top of her feet was covered with a black cloth that ended in a simple and thin golden ring on her big toes.
She wore no shoes nor anything to cover the soles of her feet, yet her feet would never get dirty, mundane filth could never sully the appearance of being of power like her.
Every part of her attire was either enchanted or a magical object of some kind, just her jacket already classified as a high-class armor, and these weren’t even close to the best equipment she had in her possession.
She was simply dressed for the occasion, in what was for her a casual attire. She lacked mundane clothes, she had been taught to always wear quality items, and she intended to do so. True, indulging in excessive care for appearances was a dangerous path that only led to seeking outsiders’ approval, but her gear and clothes were not sumptuous, they were simply of great quality, which was different to being showy.
And she also didn’t really care much about other people’s opinions about her, she lived her life as she wished, what someone else thought about her was not something she factored in her decision-making process; besides, the only two people whose opinion she really valued had always supported each decision she had made and expressed heartfelt pride and trust in her judgment.
The woman sitting on the wooden chair made it look like a throne, simply because it was she who was sitting on it. The elegance and magnificent aura emanating from her made it so.
An empress would be an empress even if she sat in the middle of nowhere, and if this woman chose to sit on a stone, that stone might as well be the throne of the world.
She was powerful, she was beautiful, and she was extremely dangerous, deadly to a degree very few beings in existence were.
This warrior laid back on the wooden chair and closed her eyes, restraining her aura. The sharp blade entered its scabbard, contained for now.
But always ready to cut down any enemy at any time.
She waited, with her eyes closed and her mind calm, for the arrival of some people.
Woe to them if they made her sword leave its scabbard.
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There was a slight vibration on space and four figures emerged from a fluctuating portal.
Four men, human in appearance but something else in nature.
They were 3 Piasts, beasts who had cultivated to become powerful beings after gaining spiritual awareness, and one Druk, a member of one of the subspecies related to Dragons that were also collectively known as "Drakes".
“Finally, what took you so long?”
The young woman on the wooden throne smiled at them and spoke in a soft and modulated voice, but didn’t open her eyes nor shift her stance on the chair. She simply sat in a carefree manner as if she was relaxing before taking a nap.
The four newcomers were staring at her while their Spiritual Sense scanned the surroundings.
“Who are you? What did you do?”
One of the Piasts, a man in blue robes like a Daoist, who was actually a Spirit Butterfly with fire attribute, asked in a deep voice.
They had been on the way to the Grand Citadel of Tenrell using a dimensional portal, they should have appeared in the fields outside the Citadel but instead had appeared on this strange flatland.
They were capable of identifying this place as a pocket dimension, a small world no bigger than a hundred kilometers in each direction.
But they were trapped, unable to teleport outside.
And the stunningly beautiful woman in front of them made each cell in their bodies scream in alarm.
Danger.
The woman smiled sweetly.
Immediate, overbearing, life-ending danger.
“Oh, I didn’t really do much, I just sat here until you guys decided to go cause trouble for the good folks over there in Tenrell, and you finally appeared. So, do you still want to go there to cause trouble?”
She kept supporting her head on her right hand, eyes closed as if she was sleeping, the corner of her mouth turned upwards in a subtle but confident smile.
The four cultivators started to release their auras.
“If you think you can stop us… “
The Drake started to speak but could not finish his words.
The dangerous being sitting in the chair raised four fingers of her left hand, which had been lazily laying on the armrest of her chair.
That simple, seemingly meaningless gesture made the four cultivators jump back at full speed, releasing their auras and changing into their true forms.
A Spirit Butterfly covered in blue flames.
A Draconian warrior with aquamarine scales holding a green sabre on his left claw.
A Blacksand Jackal soldier standing on two legs and holding a black mace on both hands.
An Armored Spike Rat that was snarling furiously.
They took distance at the highest speed they could, raising protective artifacts and weapons, unleashing their full power in a hurry, lest they be too slow and not live to regret it.
Hundreds of meters away, they stopped their retreat.
Just a moment ago, they all felt the same thing.
Death.
They had been about to die. Those four raised fingers were four incomparably sharp swords about to slice them in half.
They had all felt it in the deepest part of their souls, their instincts honed by dozens of millennia of battles and training had screamed at full strength to retreat.
Retreat or die.
Now they were fully on guard, but none of them had the confidence to actually fight her.
Her relaxed smiling expression didn’t change, she simply let her four fingers fall back, again in a lazy, careless manner.
“Were you saying something?”
She mocked them without even looking at them, but they were sure she had each of their positions pinpointed and was clearly watching each of their movement in detail despite never opening her eyes.
Her nonchalant attitude humiliated them, but her move just now had made it clear that they didn’t have the qualifications to be her match.
“Now I recognize you. I feel like an idiot for not noticing immediately.”
The Draconian warrior with the sabre had a grave voice, his tone was a mixture of respect and dread.
“My name is Yerass Khesar; it is an honor to meet you in person, Invincible Fairy.”
He inclined his head, never letting his eyes and Spiritual Sense stop watching her.
Once his words finished, the other Cultivators’ pupils shrank slightly, they couldn’t avoid taking one more step back subconsciously.
“That’s…”
“Oh, fuck.”
The Spirit Butterfly and the Blacksand Jackal spoke out loud while the Armored Spike Rat silently kept trying to teleport away without success.
The Invincible Fairy, that was one of the titles of the woman praised as one of the greatest prodigies in the Way of the Sword in all history. The stories about her abound, far too many to properly differentiate between truth and exaggeration.
A Sword Master with a style that disregarded the notions of distance, time, and shape; capable of striking without need of forms nor care for positioning. Possessor of Skills that defied logic and powers that went beyond common imagination, her sword bypassed legendary defenses as if they were sheets of paper, and she had opened an entirely new Path of Cultivation through the Art of the Sword.
It was said that she had once clashed swords with the God of War and made him bleed.
She was one who had become indifferent to the vagaries of time before she had actually stepped into the realms of Immortality proper. Now, her glory was Eternal. Through her veins flowed blood that was the Magnum Opus of Alchemy, Primordial Chaos beat at the center of her Cultivation Core. Her body was a true masterpiece, impervious to the ravage of Time by its very nature, honed into perfection by millennia of training under the tutelage of the greatest warrior ever born, her instincts and senses heightened to an extreme degree, every portion of her being was a flawless combination of a deadly weapon and an impregnable fortress.
She was a wielder of transcendental power, and same as her brother before her, and their Master before either of them, she had slain a God, claiming the title of Slayer of Gods, and done so before arriving at the 8th Stage of Cultivation. Although it hadn't been one of the Tenth Stage Beings that were called the True Gods. She had killed a Ninth Stage Divinity of Fire, something that shouldn't be possible for a Seventh Stage being. But she had succeeded, making a mockery of what was an absolutely insurmountable limit to most of the existences in the Cosmos.
Inheritor of a peerless Legacy which she carried with her head held high, her Destiny was greatness, her future was full of infinite possibilities. And she was still in the process of rising, being at the upper levels of the Seventh Stage of Cultivation. She was already considered a Powerhouse, a force to be feared and adored, standing among the greatest names in history through her own efforts and deeds.
Her name was Adeline Ragnild, the Second Disciple and, to the eyes of all the Cosmos, the proud daughter of the Heavenly Lord of Unfathomable Mysteries, Navin Lakar.
Just like her Elder Brother and her Master, she possessed a multitude of titles and sobriquets, given by allies and enemies alike: The Invincible Fairy, the Timeless Sword, the Witch of Slaughter, Dancer of Chaos, Empress of the Battlefield, the Smiling Slash, and many more.
Adeline Ragnild was admired and feared by all who witnessed her might and heard of her tales. She was loved and hated, idolized and desired, dreaded as an enemy and invaluable as an ally.
She was an individual that was impossible to ignore, as everything about her was extraordinary. From her origins to her life experience and the great prowess that she had demonstrated on the many adventures she had participated in.
Her name and appearance were known throughout the Cosmos by all people of importance. Images of her and Arian Rohinel, the Chaoist Archmagus, were in the most famous places of Cultivation in the Higher Worlds. Images of her Master were not so easy to have, and many were reluctant to have such things in the first place, since to have the image of a Divinity-level Entity meant to have that Entity’s eyes on you.
Such an extremely powerful and dangerous individual was sitting in front of them, blocking the path to their objective.
Yerass sighed deeply, he could already foresee the conclusion of this matter in only two possible ways.
Either they turned back and give up, or she sliced them to little pieces.
If even half of the tales about this woman were true, they didn’t stand a chance.
“Oh, you know about me. Good, that simplifies things.”
Adeline grinned. She shifted her posture slightly, that mere action had the four Cultivators tense up.
“Then, be a dear and deliver a message to your boss for me. Tell him to not mess with Thessei, they made a deal with me and now are under my protection.”
Instantaneously, they felt that the space restriction was lifted, teleportation was no longer blocked.
“You can run away now, but send the message at once.”
They were like ants in front of her. Three Piast of the Sixth Stage and a Seventh Stage Drake were no match for her.
Her voice was not condescending nor disdainful, but the words and attitude were like a slap in their faces.
And they had no choice but to swallow the insult.
Silently, they nodded in acceptance, the Blacksand Jackal brought out a stone talisman and filled it with Qi to imbue a message, then he crushed it.
The message would be sent and received immediately over space.
“It has been done.”
The Jackal spoke. They all stared at her, waiting for her response for long seconds that extended for what seemed like an eternity despite being no more than ten seconds.
Finally, she nodded.
“Good.”
They wasted no time and teleported out of the pocket dimension, not wanting to stay even a second longer than necessary in the presence of such a dangerous individual.
Not after she had so casually almost killed them.
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Adeline stayed there, rapping at the armrest with the fingers of her left hand.
For a couple of minutes, that was all she did. Distracting herself as she waited.
Lounging on the chair, Adeline waited for the ‘guests’ to arrive again, and she was certain they would attempt this again; after people passed a certain level of power they tended to become a bit narrow-minded in some ways, and extremely stubborn; that made them predictable.
Overconfidence in their power caused that.
It was one of the first things she had learned as a Cultivator, warned by her Master and Elder Brother to maintain a good disposition and flexibility in her actions, capable of adapting and embracing new things, able to recognize when one was in error and to take action to remedy it.
To always keep a clear mind, to not be blinded by arrogance or self-righteousness.
Adeline kept her eyes closed, sitting with one leg over the other, giving a relaxed and somewhat careless impression.
Though to think that she was being careless would be a horrible mistake, because she never let her guard down.
She waited there for hours, unmoving as a marble sculpture.
Finally, she sighed and raised her head.
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“Really, these people are idiots. So predictable and unoriginal.”
The entire pocket dimension trembled as its sky was ripped apart by the assault of multiple Practitioners.
One Eighth Stage Human Cultivator.
Five of the Seventh Stage; Four Piasts, and the Draconian warrior from before.
And Eight from the Sixth Stage; five Piasts, including the three that had come initially, one Human, one Centaur and one strange Elf shrouded in a bloody aura.
All appeared in a battle formation around her, arms at the ready and in their true forms, the Eighth Stage Human and two of the Seventh Stage Piasts raised Scrolls and opened them, activating them instantaneously.
The Scrolls unleashed three different arrays that coordinated with each other to form one greater formation.
They intended to contain Adeline with this restrictive array.
“Sorry, but we won’t stop our goals simply because you tell us so. I know of your power, but there’s too much at stake here.”
The leading man said as the array consolidated and completed its seal. Adeline hadn’t moved at all, she simply laughed.
“Oh, please. If you really knew about my power, you would have turned away and not mess again with Thessei. Instead, you came here with all your buddies and try to trap me, or are you trying to kill me? Nah, not even you would be so stupid to actually attempt that.”
Adeline had a small grin on her face as if she was watching a funny puppet show.
“I know we can’t kill you, and this array won’t hold you for long, but at least it will be able to keep you here for a few days, that will be enough.”
The 8th Stage man kept a serene expression as he replied.
“Really? Then tell me this: what will you do once I get out of here and go after you?”
“A problem for the future, and one that we do not want but also can’t help but incurring. When the time comes, we will see how to make reparations for this slight affront.”
“What if I ask for your lives in ‘reparation for this slight affront’ as you put it?”
Adeline’s grin was the same, she tapped her chin with her index finger in amusement, these people were courting death.
“We have our reasons to fight, Lady Invincible Fairy. It might be we offend you now, but please understand that we act out of necessity.”
The Draconian warrior spoke. He was visibly unwilling to participate in any affront against her, he seemed to be the most knowledgeable of the whole bunch.
“Yerass, right? If the matter is so important and urgent that you have to invade Thessei and offend me in the process, why don’t you tell me and I’ll see what I can do.”
Adeline turned her head to the Druk. She might not care much about these people’s lives, but if there was a way to reach a peaceful solution then it was worth considering.
The warrior hesitated, he opened his mouth to speak but closed it as the Eighth Stage Cultivator gave him a hard look.
“We don’t have to explain our motives to you, we will discuss again after our goal is achieved, and settle this matter then.”
The Eighth Stage man spoke and tried to scan the pocket dimension to teleport towards Thessei. Adeline had twisted the space channels, so anyone who tried to get there would instead arrive at this small world.
So the man was looking for the second exit, if this place had been forcefully placed as a chokepoint, then it had to be connected to Thessei, and thus could be used to get there.
“Umm, actually, you guys are trapped here, you can’t leave without my permission. So how will you leave?”
Adeline tilted her head in mock confusion.
The man’s face twisted in anger, he summoned a giant sword taller and wider than he was. He continued scanning the surroundings with his Spiritual Sense, feeling the complexity of the initially seemingly simple pocket dimension.
“A pocket dimension inside another pocket dimension? Clever, but not enough to hold me here, Daughter of Chaos.”
That was one of her oldest sobriquets, she had good memories from the day it had first been said.
Thousands of years ago, Adeline had met a woman who challenged her to a duel and called her ‘Adeline Lakar, Daughter of Chaos’ before the battle; now, that was a great name, and she had really liked it, so up to this day Adeline still sent that woman a present every decade.
“Actually, it’s a pocket dimension inside other eight pocket dimensions, you should train to sharpen that Spiritual Sense of yours, it’s very weak.”
Adeline stuck out her tongue. It was fun mocking these wimpy idiots, but she was getting bored quickly.
“Nine pocket dimensions overlapped? Ridiculous! We would have noticed such handiwork, and such a thing is impossible, to begin with!”
One of the Piasts shouted. Other people in the group started to make noise too and tried to scan their surroundings, but the overlap between pocket dimensions confused their senses.
“Impossible? Bah, it’s barely a good trick that’s a bit tedious to use, that’s all. See, this is the problem with people like you, you are full of ambition but have no vision. So you just clumsily go around causing messes when you try to take things for yourselves but you actually have no idea how to do that, so you end up hurting people for your selfish desires, and then get killed after making fools of yourselves.”
Adeline’s smile disappeared as she straightened in the chair and turned her head to face again the Eighth Stage Cultivator.
“And I have got no more patience for idiots like you.”
She opened her eyes. The figure of the 8th Stage Human reflected in her eyes just as her powerful Sword Intent was unleashed.
Iaido, that's how swordsmen from mortal worlds would call a move like this.
To maintain a mental presence such that one was capable of quickly drawing a sword as an immediate reaction to sudden attacks, famous for enabling a warrior to unsheathe the sword, cutting an opponent with an extremely fast strike, and putting the sword back on its scabbard, all in one smooth and controlled movement.
This was an example of such a principle taken to an extremely high degree of mastery by one who exceeded the limits of a physical body.
Adeline was a Seventh Stage Cultivator; her capabilities were far above what a mortal could imagine.
And she was no average Seventh Stage Cultivator. Her Cultivation Art was Primordial Soul Profound Breath, a peerless cultivation method created as the zenith of her Master's lifework.
It had been the main advantage that allowed her to jump ranks and fight opponents of higher Stages than her own. The key to her deed of slaying a Divinity.
Adeline's techniques were far from ordinary.
She needed no physical sword to strike down her enemies.
Her Will was the firmest handle, her Aura and Qi formed the sharpest sword.
She had high comprehension on the principle of Space; for her, to lay her gaze on something was to have it within range, to focus her Intent on an action was enough to have it done.
By coordination of her mind and vision, the condensed and previously prepared Sword Qi was turned into an instantaneous attack, like a tensed arrow that was just let loose.
The slash bypassed the restrictions of the triple array placed by the group of cultivators, disregarding distance and time. It cut at the leader without coming from any direction, simply happening directly on the space he was occupying.
The Cultivator tried to block, unleashing all his power and activating a life-saving treasure while he tried to counterattack by slashing with his sword.
But Adeline’s slash was unstoppable.
His sword was cut cleanly in half. The life-saving treasure, a small totem that generated a barrier around the man, was split in two and turned into dust as the barrier was ripped open and the Cultivator’s blood was spilled.
His life was preserved, but barely. A huge gash started on his shoulder and ended on his midriff, from the open wound his life essence was gushing out.
He retreated in a panic, unable to summon any strength to fly or fight back, and fell to the ground. One of his comrades caught him while staring at Adeline with a terrified look.
“Leave, if you try this stupidity again, I will kill you all.”
Adeline commanded with a cold voice that let them all feel sharp blades against the nape of their necks. She waved a hand and the triple array that they had placed in hopes of containing her was moved aside. Thanks to the overlapping of the nine pocket dimensions, she hadn't been trapped, the array had been settled on an empty space from the beginning.
The restrictions on space were lifted again by Adeline.
Once they felt that, they all started to teleport in a hurry.
Just as the Druk warrior, Yerass, was about to escape, Adeline flicked a finger and a small ball of light landed on his claw.
Yerass had a scare but calmed down when he didn’t feel any harm. The little ball of light turned into a rectangular card like those from a deck for games and bets. On it, was the picture of a white sword surrounded by runes.
“If it’s true that you really are in need and were forced to come here to attack Thessei, I’ll contact you later. I’ll hear your story then, and maybe I will help you.”
Adeline’s voice sounded right next to Yerass’s ear. All the other practitioners had left already.
He turned to look at her, meeting her gaze was like being stabbed in the eyes by a sword. Yerass bowed deeply and teleported away after putting the card into a storage item.
Adeline sighed and got out of the nine-layered pocket dimension. Lifting the restriction but keeping wards to inform her of any strange movements towards that world.
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Having arrived at Thessei, Adeline walked at a slow pace to the Central Metropolis guarded by the Grand Citadel of Tenrell, the city was the center of power in this entire realm, hidden within a gigantic array kept in place by the Citadel, so the population and resources could not be taken without overtaking the Citadel first.
She had been asked by the current Lord of Tenrell, Gaerel Folarel, to protect them. Thessei was a realm that specialized in trade with other worlds and possessed a vast information network. But despite having multiple connections, they also had multiple enemies and people waiting to take their resources.
Gaerel was a Human warrior of the Seventh Stage, he had contacted Adeline after receiving information of hostile movements against his land. Thessei usually had too many allies to face any direct attack like the one they received just now, but in such turbulent times, it was hard to have real friends to rely on.
Alliances made out of interest did not survive harsh circumstances.
But Adeline had answered his call for help and made a deal to protect them in exchange of usage of their information network, a valuable resource that she could employ for a good cause.
Adeline walked at a leisure pace, the first thing to do would be to ask Gaerel to check for any information regarding the Nether Realm's current situation.
As far as she knew, there had been no leakage or cracks into the Hellish Planes, so the array that Arian was managing probably had done its work properly.
The Nether Containment Grand Formation, which she could not manage at the same degree of proficiency as him; such matters were his specialty. Without that formation, in the event of a great disturbance happening across the Cosmos, the Nether Realms would start to permeate many Planes and contaminate the organisms living there, which would make one literal hell of a problem, and such disturbance had been pretty much a guaranteed thing given the number of Divinities that would inevitably die once her Master and the other heavy-weights started bringing out the big toys.
Divine-rank Weapons, Dao Items and Life Artifacts of the top powerhouses of the Cosmos were not prone to letting the ones on the receiving end walk unscathed.
Even so, they had hoped it could only be a worst-case measure that wouldn’t be needed to be used.
Obviously they had been too optimistic at that.
He might still be busy with it, so he might not be able to leave the Nether Planes. If that was the case, she would go there to discuss their course of action.
She would need to be careful, probably enter through one of the most exterior regions of the Netherworld and go from there, she didn’t want to risk damaging the formation by forcing a dimensional gate to a deeper region.
The consequences of such Grand Formation backlashing could be extremely dangerous to the person maintaining it. She would never bet with her brother’s safety, no need to take such risks.
Adeline kept a peaceful and clear state of mind as she started to recall the events of the past two centuries.
She had to fight, cheat, stab, beat, kill, stab, plot, scheme, seal, bribe, stab, blackmail, outsmart, coerce, stab, cut, stab, and stab again a lot of people and monsters before things could get moving and a modicum of preparation and order could be had.
There had been a lot of stabbing and cutting, because people were idiots and too ambitious for their own good. She actually thought that monsters and beasts were the least troublesome bunch.
Arrogant assholes in positions of powers thought that they were untouchable due to the backing of Divinities who were actually being killed at the time, while the rest of the rowdy bunch were arrogant assholes in positions of power who thought they were untouchable because there were no longer any Divinities to fear or obey.
She might have a prejudice against arrogant assholes in positions of power, but she was trying to be reasonable and yet they still kept going with their stupid schemes and dreams of conquest for other worlds.
Couldn’t they be happy cultivating in peace without bothering other people?
Such mindset was probably why those old monsters who were thousands and sometimes even millions of years old had not achieved the title of Major Gods, incapable of rising to the position of True Powerhouses.
The realm above Ninth Stage was not for the pusillanimous.
Beings who didn’t have the courage to fight for their goals until they thought that all was granted because they were surrounded by weaker beings could never ascend to true glory.
If they could only act when the victory was close, danger-free and with the required effort to take candy from a toddler, then they would never pass the Trials of Ascension.
Although, if they had been on that level of power they would be dead now, so there was that. She had to grant them that they had at least survived until now, which was quite a deed.
But that gave them no excuse to start causing trouble across the Myriad Worlds.
So Adeline had beaten all pricks that caused problems initially and gotten what she wanted, for the sake of the Cosmos, for their own good, and for her own fun and amusement, but that was extra.
Yet even all that work hadn’t been enough. Because now that the Seal of the Cosmos was broken, everyone would start to move, and even she could not prevent that.
Preparedness averted perils, but sometimes the peril was just too big, and you couldn’t stop it, only brace yourself and survive it.
She had allies and friends, and there were people willing to help to keep some order and stability, she knew there were people outside her circle of influence who were ready to fight to protect those of the Lower Planes from hostile interventions of outsiders.
But it was one thing to be willing, another to be able.
Most of the people could only attend to their own, and had to shield their clans, organizations, and friends from the incoming danger. Very few people were capable of sheltering others, much less to travel to different worlds and fight other cultivators like Adeline was doing.
But that was fine, everyone could only do what they were able to do.
There was a multitude of cases where she had to go to extreme measures to keep the worst from happening, and it still hadn’t been pretty.
Simply because the Gods weren’t there to guide people didn’t mean that they would stop moving; just like there were groups that would not move again until their leading Divinity came back and tell them otherwise, there were others that would not wait for confirmation from their Masters to act.
People still had their own ambitions, and while the upper echelons of the Cosmos had known what was going on with the top Powerhouses and Divinities, most of the Cosmos was in the dark, so they acted as if it was all still the same.
It wasn’t their fault that they were in the dark about such matters, but it was their fault that they were being complete idiots and trying to cause unnecessary messes, especially among those that knew the Gods were occupied in the Divine Realm so they thought they had some leisure time to do as they pleased before the Divinities returned.
Utter idiots, all of them.
Adeline's serene expression changed and her anger flared momentarily as she thought about all the difficulties in this past century.
Multiple times she had to step up and draw a figurative line in the sand with her sword; which was more akin to decapitating the most bothersome person and then threatening the rest with being next if they didn’t behave.
Sometimes the best preparation was an old-fashioned sword slash to the enemy’s head.
A classic, if she said so herself.
Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. As everything in life.
The first century had been quite calm, with everyone still gathering the courage to make the jump, but this last century had been one crazy circus, as she moved from one bloody mess caused by idiots to the next.
Adeline didn’t like to be a cop for other people, and she would not be. But she had promised her Master that she would look out for the lower-level people of the Cosmos if it was within her reach, not that he had actually asked her to do it, but she felt it was the right thing to do and had promised him such.
He had smiled at her and said he was proud of her and her decision. The memory was bittersweet for her, his smiling face full of pride and kindness, the confidence in his words, the warmth of a kiss on her forehead as she embraced the man who had adopted her and raised her as a daughter, and loved her more than she had thought was possible.
It had been the last time she had seen him, already centuries ago.
She had cried, and she knew that Arian had cried too, unable to join their father in the greatest and most important war in history. They had to stay behind, full of worries and wondering if that would be the last time they would see him again.
She didn’t regret her decision. Sure, it was a hard task, but it was worth it and she still felt it was the right choice.
It was one thing if great influences or Higher Worlds decided to go to war against each other or continue with their natural courses of expansion and evolution, but it was completely different if they started to extend their claws to the lower worlds.
And that was the thing she was out to prevent.
Because guidance and benefaction were different from conquest and dominance.
She had played as ‘peace ambassador’ between the Daoist Sects in Violet Husk World and the Daoist Sects in Spectre Whirlwind World, which were about to launch a full-scale war between the two worlds. Not everyone in those worlds was a Cultivator, so they would have started a bloodshed of bystanders.
So Adeline had done the sensible thing to prevent casualties of third parties: lay a trap for the top dogs of both sides and lock them into a dimension where they could have fun and fight each other until death for all she cared. They would be locked there for at least a couple of decades, if any of them actually managed to get out at all.
Putting rabid dogs and ghost-loving rabid dogs together into a closed bag was a recipe for a nasty bloody fight.
But hey, at least only they could get hurt. Other people wouldn’t have to pay for their craziness.
Another trouble was that while the beasts from the Desolate Wilderness Plane had been in a period of hibernation after the Heavens had been closed, calmly watching the situation, after the first century of peace they had become restless and started invasions to other Realms.
The Children of the Gods had been silent all the while, but she kept a vigilant eye on their movements, they were the group with the greatest power right now, even if they weren’t much united and didn’t consider themselves as a group. And she really wished they wouldn’t, but she wasn’t optimist in that regard.
Sharing a loss was a way to unite people, it was a truth verified since the dawn of time, and these guys would act soon, after they had confirmed the death of their progenitors. The sons and daughters of the Divinities would try to seize the thrones of their parents, though they would not act immediately. They would be the greatest claimants to their seats of power and would attempt to take hold of their predecessors’ Laws and Paths.
The second most dangerous group was the Witenagemot, an ancient council of Sages all at the Eight Stage of Cultivation, formed by people from different races, it occupied the second place in the list of worrisome groups, they had been quiet so far, but in this case Adeline knew for certain that they were not motionless, they were simply scheming and moving pieces in the dark.
The King of Katabria had launched an invasion against the Nether Planes 50 years ago, in the hopes of seizing one of the Nine Serenities, the nine central places of power in the Netherworld, one for each Nether Plane. Such incursion could have messed with the Grand Formation that Arian was controlling, so Adeline had intervened; which was to say, she had fought the legions of Katabria and went on to have a sword-to-face conversation with King Nekron.
It had been a hard fight, the King was a powerhouse at the peak of Eighth Stage, already half-step into Ninth Stage. He had, after all, the strength to attempt an incursion to one of the hearts of the Nether Planes.
They had reached a compromise, and although she didn’t like it, she was winning more in that deal. He would refrain from any incursion to the Nether Planes for now, which was what mattered.
The list of troublesome events went on and on.
Many influences and individuals had made small or big moves in the last century, causing large and little waves in the Cosmos, most of them preparing for the moment when the result of the war would be known.
And one week ago, it had been the moment of truth.
The seal was finally broken, and everyone would show their true colors, and even she could not predict what would happen now, what kind of place would the Cosmos turn into.
The different races of magical creatures had started to make noise; the High Elves, the Elemental Giants, the Dark Clans, even some of the Dragons had come out from seclusion now that the Gods were gone.
The Seven Spheres of Pereastra were in turmoil, and at the brink of internal war between Spheres. Personally, she hoped that Tavnyr Rhizi, Emperor of the Fourth Sphere of Pereastra, would finally kick all their asses and conquer that whole Plane, those realms really needed a tough hand to put order, especially to those zealots in the Seventh Sphere. The best thing was that Tavnyr was a really good ruler, who cared for his people and made great efforts to improve their quality of life.
Besides, he was a friend and occasional drinking buddy of her Big Brother, which gave him a lot of points in her book. She might consider lending him a hand if she got some free time.
Many realms were broken into pieces by the backlash of the breaking of the Seal of the Cosmos, she could not tend to them right now, but she would try to do something soon.
There was also the matter of that guy Marcus who had suspiciously arrived at one of her family’s own private realms right when the Cataclysm had started. She had almost killed him when she felt the entrance, but noticing that he wasn’t a threat, although he was very talented, she let him stay for a day before sending him to another realm. Turns out he had grabbed an old amulet of Arian and it had taken him to that secret realm when the disturbance started.
She would need to talk to her brother about it when they met again.
The forces of the Faerie Realm were moving, she knew that, but they would take longer to actually do something to other worlds, that gave her precious time.
Many powerful clans were already fighting each other.
Every magical creature and cultivator had gotten rid of the pressure of the Seal of the Cosmos, so now a more rapid evolution would start, so more powerful and varied creatures will appear.
The restrictions of the Great Path of Ascension were gone, and in the feeling of exhilarating freedom, Practitioners from every tradition and legacy would rise.
The Cosmos would move forward, and change would come, one way or the other.
There were just too many things happening, even with some groups out there that tried to keep an orderly manner, it was just too big of a tide. The turmoil, restlessness and outright chaos were inevitable.
In summary, now the Cosmos was free, as her Master would put it. But such state also brought with it a period of disturbances before it could stabilize into a forward tide of positive change.
She had succeeded in minimizing the damage, and yet the minimum damage was still a catastrophe across countless worlds. There was just no way to prevent that.
She had managed to get the top players to behave when the chaos started and kept the Major Races -which had the greatest armies, the strongest warriors and deadliest technologies- at bay so that they wouldn’t go on a frenzy of conquest across worlds, at least not right now.
This state was delicate, and would not be kept forever. The movements during the last century were mere testing of the waters, now they had confirmation that the Gods were gone so they would pull out their true strength into their movements, and even she didn’t know in what kind of state her Master would be after the war.
She believed in her Master, but she also feared for the worst.
The powerhouses would make their move soon, and she could not stop them all nor prevent them all from moving their troops, and they knew that too. The only thing that kept this unstable equilibrium was that they all wanted somebody else to be the one to occupy her, and fortunately those bastards were too self-important and ambitious to actually cooperate with each other, they had no trust in each other, which would halt their steps for some time.
But that would not be for long.
The cosmos had changed, and was still changing, it was an unstoppable tide and one had to ride it or be drown by it.
Only people like her Master could split and halt that kind of tide, but in this case, her Master was the tide, in a certain way, so there was no stopping it.
Now, first things first, she had to get in contact with her Big Brother, and together they would look for a way to check on their Master’s condition and a way to meet up with him if it was possible.
Everything was secondary until they reunited, they could think about what to do with the Cosmos then.
Adeline was still thinking on future plans when she felt a light pull on her Cultivation Core. She turned her head and expanded her senses in the direction of the pull.
On a hill barely a kilometer where she was, a man in robes of violet and silver stood with a hand over his head, waving at her with a smile.
Her Elder Brother, Arian Rohinel.
She turned completely to his direction and started to run, after three steps she accelerated to an extreme speed and jumped towards him, her arms extended forwards.
“Arian!”
She shouted in pleasant surprise as she transcended space to arrive by his side in an instant.
“Hey, Adie! Guess what? Mas-”
Arian's smile faltered for a moment, he noticed the huge force that Adeline’s jump carried.
Time slowed down for Arian, enabling him to take notice of everything around him with an enhanced perception. She really was propelling herself to his location with a tremendous force.
She must be doing this just to mess with him.
He took a step back and tried to take some distance. His foot was still in midair as he noticed that, despite him using a Shrinking Ground Technique, her position relative to him was not changing, they both were getting away from Arian’s initial position, while Adeline was still in midair in her jump with her arms extended towards him.
His foot still in the air in the middle of a retreating motion, Arian continued moving. The area surrounding him changed, he was no longer on a hill but on a beach.
Adeline was still in the air in front of him, at exactly the same distance from him, which was no more than two meters.
The location changed again; forest, mountain, desert, space, the sea, Arian moved to different places across Thessei Plane but Adeline was still in front of him no matter how he teleported.
With a big smug grin on her face.
Had she fixed her relative position to him in her movement? This was quite the accomplishment in the comprehension of the Law of Space.
Still, it seemed really wasteful and petty to use it in such playful manner.
Although he wasn’t one to talk, teleporting at high speed while altering his own temporal perception to avoid her tackle.
Once his thoughts arrived at this, he sighed before resigning himself and returning to the hill where they had started this chase.
His foot finished the retreating movement and finally touched the ground. He braced himself, preparing for impact and spread his arms to receive the tackling hug of Adeline.
Adeline was as tall as Arian, standing at 1.86 m, though they could change their appearances and measures at will, this was their natural state.
Time returned to normal.
Arian received his younger sister’s tackle, redirecting the force of the impact to the air behind him, which would have caused a booming explosion, but he made a rune appear to absorb it.
“Ugh, careful, girl! I missed you too.”
Arian tightened his embrace of his sister, returning the hug.
He had been very worried; he didn’t know what kind of crazy actions the different groups in the Cosmos would do, or what kind of perils Adeline would face. For the past two hundred years, he had been worried about his family as he handled the great array in the Nether Planes.
Despite knowing that she was very powerful and perfectly capable of taking care of herself, it was inevitable that he worried.
No matter how strong a cultivator was, they could still be surrounded and overwhelmed if the enemies were too numerous or clever enough.
“Arian, let’s go. We need to get back home, then we need to find a way to contact Master, or at least find out in what kind of state he is. You just got out of the Nether Realms, right? I’ll fill you in on the things that have happened in the past century, but Master comes first.”
Adeline spoke at high speed, decisive and firm. The priority was clear: to check on their Master’s current condition and find a way to reunite.
“Ah, actually, I wanted to tell you about that. Turn around.”
Arian replied with a smile and rotated his finger, signaling Adeline to spin and look behind her.
She turned around and found her Master standing a couple of meters behind her, unhurriedly eating popcorn without any worry.
“Hello, Addie-”
Navin managed to put the popcorn aside before Adeline leaped on him, closing her arms around him, and buried her face on his shoulder.
For a minute, they stood there silently. Adeline was tightly embracing her father as Navin caressed her hair.
“I was worried.”
Adeline said in a soft voice, her face still on her Master’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry I worried you, princess.”
Navin kissed the top of her head. She raised her head and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Welcome back, Master.”
She showed him a beautiful smile, relieved of worries and joyful to be reunited with her family again.
“It’s good to be back, Addie.”
Navin smiled too, now they were all together again, he could leave his worries behind.
He turned his head to look at his First Disciple, who was looking at them with warm eyes.
“You are such a mean brother, trying to dodge your sister’s loving hug.”
Navin pointed at Arian with an accusatory finger and a tone of fake reprimand. Arian simply rolled his eyes but kept smiling. If his Master could joke around then things weren't so bad and urgent. No matter the current situation of the Cosmos, they could handle it together.
“Hey, she launched herself towards me like a meteor. She is the one who has to watch her manners.”
Arian defended himself in mock-offense. At that, Adeline turned to look at Arian and stuck out her tongue.
“Hmph, as if you couldn’t handle that! It’s called ‘tough love’, haven’t you heard of it? You need to expand your knowledge.”
She raised her head with a grin and puffed her chest out, while Arian was wondering what kind of books she had been reading lately. She always picked up weird ideas from her constant journeys through the different realms.
“But there’s no problem, you can’t dodge my [Ineluctable Hug Absolute Technique], even if you Void Walk or use Cosmic Treading, it’s unavoidable! Hahaha.”
Adeline announced with pride. Her comprehension of Space Principle had allowed her to create many certain-hit techniques that could only be dodged with great difficulty and if one had a higher understanding of the Laws of Space and Time than her.
“Did you actually create a technique for the sole purpose of hugging me in a way I couldn’t dodge?”
“Of course. And it’s a Masterpiece of Spatial Control, coordinating the Principles of Relative Positioning, Void Travel and even tapping on Causality. Behold, Anti-Big-Brother Technique #23 has successfully passed the test. This is a historic moment.”
Adeline answered with a huge grin. Navin laughed at that declaration while Arian just looked at her in a mixture of admiration and annoyance for the creation of such a complex technique for such a mundane use.
She had been training in different manners, even an apparently ‘joking’ technique like this could be a great exercise and it had multiple applications despite the ridiculous name.
“Never change, sweetie.”
Navin kissed the top of her head and extended an arm to grab Arian.
Having his two first Disciples in his arms, Navin closed his eyes, enjoying the short moment of bliss.
“Let’s go back home, we have many things to do.”