Solanky and Elena eased their speed and descended into the jungle below. Elena sent a voice transmission to the mythical beings, ordering them to lie low and reseal their power, then teleported away. The two dimensional gods stationed beyond the planet rushed back into position and slipped back into disguise.
Elena and Solanky reappeared in the main hall of the clan, where the grand elder hurried toward them. "The commotion has stirred unrest across the planet," he said. "Several fools tried to test the validity of the warning. They met their end instantly."
He turned to Solanky, shaking his head in disbelief. "You never cease to amaze me. You've barely reached the elementary god level, and already you rival a being half a step into the high god realm. As it stands, you're the second strongest in this clan — after me." He laughed, delighted, gripping Solanky's shoulder as he led him through the capital city.
They arrived at a grand structure known as the Hall of Scrolls, where the clan's elite came to trade manuals and treasures. The hall rose across three floors — the first for those beneath the elementary god level, the second for elementary and high-level gods, and the third reserved for beings above even high-level gods. The grand elder led Solanky straight to the top floor. At its entrance, countless restrictions shimmered in the air; the grand elder raised a hand and shattered them effortlessly. The two stepped through — and the room around them transformed, sealing itself into an independent space, cut off entirely from the world outside. Both men froze, briefly caught off guard.
The space took the shape of a vast cube, six thousand cubic kilometers in volume, filled with towering heaps of gold and precious stones gathered from across the lower realm's countless universes. They walked on, past the glittering piles, toward a separate structure. As they neared it, a warehouse came into view — and the air around it had grown heavy, the space itself trembling faintly.
Solanky and the grand elder traded a glance and stepped closer. The moment they did, the trembling stopped, and the warehouse doors swung open on their own. A bloodstained sword shot free at terrifying speed and hovered before the grand elder. He reached out to touch it — and the instant his fingers brushed the blade, a vision seized him, dragging him through the final events before their ancestors' deaths.
He tore his hand back sharply. Solanky asked what he'd seen. "Our founding ancestors were betrayed by their own team during the wars against the demons and devils," the grand elder said grimly. "They were tortured, then killed, by a devil of destruction. I believe he tried to divine something from them — but found nothing."
Solanky reached out telepathically to Elena, and she appeared beside them at once, asking why he'd called. He pointed to the sword still suspended before the grand elder. Elena studied it closely, her expression darkening. "Not good."
She closed her fist, sealing the space around the warehouse, then teleported all three of them a hundred thousand light-years from the fiery crimson star system, into a star field known as the Black Star Galaxy. There, she shifted into her true dragon form — though she kept it small, a mere twelve light-years in length — and slashed the space before her open, tearing a rift into a void where chaotic dark energies churned endlessly. She crushed the sword in her grip and cast the fragments into the void.
The grand elder and Solanky stared in shock. Elena sealed the rift shut and teleported them back, appearing a hundred light-years from the fiery crimson star system. "How did you find that sword?" she asked. "It was on the third floor of the Hall of Scrolls," the grand elder answered.
Elena's face turned grave. "The fiery crimson star system is in far deeper trouble than you realize. The devil you saw in that vision is called Elishen. His strength rivals my own. He is the most ruthless devil in existence, carrying a third-grade, second-class bloodline, and he commands a horde of devils and demons that cannot be killed without a god of creation's help." The grand elder and Solanky had never been more shaken.
Elena sighed. "My presence in the lower realm will have already told him someone found that sword and moved it. The two months I had left to remain in this plane have just shrunk to two days. We need to return to Sabiru and prepare for your ascension — any being above the high god level will only draw his suspicion now."
The three returned to the main hall of the Bayoka clan and began preparing for departure to the god realm. The grand elder told the king and queen everything, informing them of his ascension in the coming days, and that he would remain with Solanky, since the god realm would accelerate his growth far beyond what remained possible here.
Elena sent a voice transmission to the queen, instructing her to move Elisa to the underground bunker. The queen agreed at once, and brought Elisa's mother along as company. Elena's expression darkened — in every divination she'd run, in every vision she'd glimpsed, Solanky and Elisa's mother had always died. She could only nod and let it be.
The grand elder and Solanky returned to the main hall, fully prepared. Elena summoned every mythical being that traveled with her, drawing them into her internal dimensional space. The three rose into the air — but before they departed, Elena stretched a hand toward the Hall of Scrolls. In an instant, every elite Bayoka clan member inside was teleported clear, and every scroll on the first and second floors was ejected along with them. The hall itself shrank — from three hundred and ninety meters down to mere centimeters — and settled into Elena's palm. The people of the Bayoka clan looked on, stunned by the display.
"It's for the best," the grand elder said. "Today, I ascend to the god realm. My departure will help this clan grow stronger — but if I linger, I risk bringing catastrophe down on all of you." Every member of the Bayoka clan, king and elders included, dropped to one knee. "May the spirits of the ancestors guide you on your path in the god realm," they said as one. In the bunker Elena had sealed with countless restrictions, the queen, Elisa, and her mother echoed the same words in tribute.
Elena, Solanky, and the grand elder vanished from the Bayoka clan and reappeared above planet Sabiru. In the distance, the grand elder's gaze settled on a planet called Garish, its atmosphere a riot of color. "It's time," he said, "to settle the score." He flew above the planet, fixing on the clan that had tried to suppress the Bayoka in years past. A single flick of his finger — and then a deafening crack. The land of the Sombabi clan, two thousand square kilometers of it, was obliterated in an instant, left in smoldering ruin, over a billion lives erased in the span of a breath. He turned and flew back toward Solanky. Elena, without a word, slipped away and vanished without a trace.
The people of Garish rushed toward the ruins in ships and aircraft, only to find a wasteland of rubble, countless bodies lying still beneath it. Shaken, they turned back and fled to report what they had seen to the other clans.