Author Note: So, I love all of you very much, so I'm telling you in advance that today's chapter ends in an abyssal cliffhanger. You've been warned.
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Our group had finally stopped their walk in a deep part of the forest. Yasenia and Cecile flew up to the sky and hovered over the area for about twenty minutes. Meanwhile, our girls stayed alert on the ground.
Kali even summoned Valeria. They were in the middle of the forest, so her strength in this environment was ridiculously high.
Valeria closed her eyes and sat cross-legged on the ground. Then, her soft-looking green hair extended into the ground and connected with the trees in the area.
After Yasenia and Cecile landed, Yasenia spoke. "There are some beasts, but none of them showed real intelligence. We are completely safe unless Valeria says otherwise."
Valeria opened her green eyes and caressed Yasenia's head. "Don't worry, Yasenia. You can go ahead and do whatever you want. As you said, the only living beings in the surroundings are unintelligent beasts."
Then, Valeria cut her hair and let it meld with the floor. It was very nutritious for the environment.
"If you need anything more, even cuddles, don't forget to summon me, Kali." After that, Valeria kissed Kali's forehead and then sunk into her.
"Yes!" Kali smiled and looked at the dragoness.
Yasenia nodded and moved toward a clearing in the forest.
The area was without trees, and the Moonlight poured unobstructed. Yasenia's dragon body gave a soft glow as she reached the middle of the location.
Evelyn sighed. "It is as if she belongs in the sky. Truly a beautiful creature."
The others nodded.
Each time they looked at Yasenia from afar, she really looked beautiful, like an artistic piece of art.
After Yasenia distanced herself from them a distance she perceived as secure, she took out the [Black Crystal Heart] and grabbed it with her claw.
The item was extremely similar to a real heart but completely black and also had a crystalline surface. The glow on it allowed the details to be seen more clearly. However, it wasn't beating and looked like a mineral more than anything else.
"Let's see what this is."
Then, Yasenia slowly poured her energy into the heart. Her energy exited her meridians and sunk into the heart.
Slowly but surely, Yasenia began seeing something glowing. It was a ghostly green aura that spread in the heart. Moreover, a black fog began falling to the ground and filling Yasenia's feet.
In the middle of the night, it looked as if Yasenia's feet were slowly sinking into darkness. However, Yasenia's heart was unflinching. She didn't even think that this item could hurt her.
Therefore, she continued pouring energy inside. The green glow inside the heart began illuminating past its confines, looking eerily beautiful.
Yasenia found it endearing since it made her remember Tatyana's presence.
After one hour of patient energy transferring, the whole clearing was covered in black fog. It didn't go up, only reaching about a meter in height. It was a little above Angel's waist. Moreover, the green light was now strong enough to compare with a lamp.
Then, as if it had absorbed all the energy it needed, Yasenia felt it floating up. Therefore, she let it go.
Yasenia debated whether to stay below it, finally deciding to go to her lovers' side. Cecile asked, "Why did you let it go?"
Yasenia shook her head. "I didn't. It left my hand once it stopped absorbing more energy."
Then, a low sound reached their ears.
*Thump-Thump.*
They all blinked twice and focused on the heart, not believing what they'd just heard. However, the sound repeated again.
*Thump-Thump.*
This sound was clearly coming from the black heart. Evelyn was shocked. "It won't become alive or something, right?"
The black fog in the surroundings began spinning, whirling around the heart at a moderate speed. For them, it felt like a cool breeze.
Valeria suddenly materialized herself. They looked at her and saw that she was frowning while looking at the surrounding forest. "The forest is dying... No, more accurately, the black fog is sucking the forest's life essence."
Yasenia said, "Valeria, I'm sorry if it hurts you, but I won't stop it, even if it means killing this whole forest."
Valeria sighed, "I know... Hm?" Valeria looked at the fog and squinted. "You are trying even to take my life essence? Not so easy."
A green glow appeared around Valeria, and the fog suddenly avoided her, creating a small circle around her.
Andrea asked, "Should we create a barrier? If it is even taking Valeria's life essence, we don't know if it is absorbing ours."
Yasenia nodded. "Just in case. Although I doubt that mom would give me something that dangerous, we don't lose anything from being cautious."
Angel nodded and waved her hand. Liquid glass spread from her extremely fast, surrounding a ten-meter area. Then, from the fifteen nodes she created, lines of red crystal connected them, creating three concentric circles, the smallest with a five-meter radius.
Then, she chanted casually, "[Triple layered crystal defense formation]."
A light beam shot from her hand and sunk into one of the fifteen nodes. Next, a laser rebounded on all the nodes, and a reddish light circled around the red crystal lines, creating geometrical forms inside the three concentric circles.
Three seconds later, a transparent and reddish dome surrounded them.
Evelyn's and Andrea's mouths, who had a deeper understanding of formations than the others beside Yasenia, dropped open. Evelyn almost cursed aloud.
"What the fuck?"
...
Umm... She cursed aloud. Hmm? She shouldn't have… Huh?
A-Anyway, Evelyn asked while looking at the barrier. "What did you do these months, little Angel? Your instantaneous barrier is a little too strong compared to the ones you created in the past."
Angel blinked and commented, "Is it? I find it mediocre, to be honest. After my constitution and bloodline changes, formations like this one are just three or four waves of my hand. Still, they aren't strong enough to block many strong attacks, so they can only be called time-gaining formations."
This time even those that didn't understand formations were sweating cold. There was a collective thought from all of them besides Yasenia, 'Thankfully, she is our ally.'
Yasenia's thought went something like this, 'My baby is so talented~ I really want to pamper her!'
And so she did.
Before Angel knew what was happening, a dragoness had coiled around her, licking her face tenderly. Angel's body became soft and fell into the dragoness's embrace, sinking into the sweet pampering she was receiving.
As they marveled at Angel's increase in power and Yasenia's skill in making Angel a human blob, black thunderclouds manifested above the floating heart with a loud rumble.
This startled even the blob-Angel and pampering-mode Yasenia.
They all looked up and gulped.
The clouds were so dark that you could differentiate between the darkness of the night and the pure darkness in the clouds. It felt as if it was sucking the light away from the World.
Not only that, the second they saw the lightning rumbling in the clouds, their hearts felt heavy.
The same multicolored lightning that destroyed Yasenia's body was roaring in the clouds. However, unlike the one with Yasenia, it was literally meters wide and kilometers long this time.
If Yasenia's lightning was a small snake, this thunder was a giant easter dragon made of Pure Heavenly Lightning.
Valeria's face became solemn. "[World-Ending Heavenly Lightning]."
Evelyn stuttered with a pale face. "W-World what?"
Valeria said seriously. "The lightning you are seeing is not the real lightning. That's a projection of the thing about to be summoned. The Heavens of this world seem unwilling to let whatever Tatyana's item is trying to do resolve."
They looked at the still-growing lightning bolt and gulped. 'That's a projection? That kilometric lightning of pure destruction is a projection!?'
Kali blinked and said. "Wait, the heavens of this world? What do you mean?"
Valeria frowned. "Hmm, my tongue slipped..." She didn't want to say anything, but looking at Kali's begging face, she felt helpless and sighed. "I can only tell you that each World has its own Heavens. There is indeed a Universal Heaven, but it can't oversee all the Universes by itself, so it makes copies of itself and lets them grow with each World. I can't tell you any more details, or it will be bad for you."
They nodded seriously. They understood that Valeria wouldn't hurt them.
Mirrory also appeared and looked at the black sky. "Impressive. They are so angry that they rather destroy this World than allow the item to take effect."
Andrea spoke to Yasenia with a questioning tone, "Umm, Yasenia would you be able to…?"
Yasenia shook her head continuously. "I'm not a god! That's too powerful. I would be obliterated in an instant if that thing touched me."
Yasenia then said. "Moreover, dears. The only reason I survived the Pure Heavenly Lightning bolt was all the treasures I used for rebirth. Technically, I didn't even survive!"
Kali asked, "Not even using all your Celestial Energy?"
Yasenia shook her head, "No. This tribulation is on another whole level, no another whole dimension!"
*Thump-Thump!*
The heart in the middle of the catastrophic storm pulsed once. Unlike the other times, it was a heartbeat so loud that it overpowered Heaven's rumbling!
Yasenia and the others looked speechless as the sound waves made Angel's formation wobble dangerously. Even Cecile couldn't maintain her silence. "My love, what the hell did Tatyana give you?"
Yasenia didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "I wish I knew."
As the heartbeat and the Heavens fought in which side was more imposing, a pulse of death energy expanded like a wave from the heart. Angel's barrier instantly shattered, and all of them were flooded by the black wave.
Valeria's expression changed as soon as the wave of Death energy touched her, and she coughed a mouthful of blood. Kali got scared. "V-Valeria, are you okay? What happened?"
Valeria waved her hand, and the green aura around her exploded with might, pushing the Death energy inside her out of her body and the space around her. "Don't worry, Kali. I didn't expect the Death energy to be so pure that it could compete against my Life energy."
Then, Valeria commented in awe. "She has such a pure Death energy. It is as of it has come from the center of the Underworld."
Mirrory commented, "Although it is weak in strength, the purity doesn't lose to a common God of Death. What realm is your mother in, Yasenia?"
Yasenia said, "I heard some demons call her demigoddess or law-creator, but I don't really know."
Valeria and Mirrory showed shock.
Valeria said solemnly, "Only a demigoddess, and she already has such high-quality Death energy? Impossible. Her death energy must be special. If not, her talent is literally unheard of."
Andrea looked at them and asked. "Why didn't it affect us if it is so pure?"
Mirrory snorted. "Aren't you smart? Think for yourself and try to answer it. Don't rely on us because we are present."
Andrea didn't take her tone to heart and took her advice seriously. Then, she said. "Probably Tatyana excluded us one way or another. However, Valeria awakened inside the secret realm, so Tatyana didn't exclude her. That's why it affected her."
Mirrory nodded. "Good. Remember, you can ask your hypothesis, but don't ask us blatantly. Unless it is something you must know instantly, we want all of you to develop critical thinking and think for yourselves."
Andrea bowed and said. "Thank you, Mirrory."
Mirrory nodded and looked around. "Thankfully, you decided to do this very deep in the forest. Even then, I think that almost ten thousand kilometers around us have died."
"Ten thousand kilometers!? D-Did we walk that far from the towns and cities?" Kali's eyes opened wide.
Yasenia nodded. "Yes, unless there are hidden towns. It just affected the forest. However, we must run away the second this thing finishes. I bet that the experts of this Continent will arrive sooner rather than later."
*RUMBLE!*
After the loud deafening sound, they looked up, and their eyes widened in terror. The lightning bolt had taken the form of a multicolored ten-kilometer easter dragon. However, it was completely made of [World-Destroying Heavenly Lightning].
However, as if to answer the creation of the Heavenly Lightning Dragon, the crystal heart absorbed all the Death energy, and the light in the middle shone like a Green Sun surrounded by black clouds.
Then, with a powerful heartbeat, all the Death energy gathered from killing millions of acres of forest rushed into the heart.
The light dimmed, and the world became silent for a second. Even the lightning dragon in the sky looked at the heart silently.
Then, a change occurred around the heart.
From it, black veins and arteries began growing at high speed. The veins completed the circulatory system, and scarlet blood poured from them.
The blood didn't fall. It took the shape of muscles, bones, and slowly the form of a human.
Although it was a gruesome spectacle, our girls had their mouths completely opened as that shape became the naked form of someone they were very familiar with.
After a sigh, the silence was broken by an elegant and beautiful voice. "Finally, I'm back~."