Chapter 478: Twin Ascension

Astralis, resting atop a mountain peak deep within his territory, frowned as he observed the cracked scales on the left side of his body. If not for his divine bloodline giving him immunity to void attacks, that colossal void monster would have killed him in seconds.

However, his immunity to void attacks hadn't saved him from the monster physically smacking him out of the sky with its enormous claw. After suffering that hit and seeing that his relentless onslaught of star beams was having little effect on the void creature, he decided to retreat.

"A decade's worth of Qi wasted. It was a stupid fight. Even if I defeated the monster, I wouldn't have gained any Qi from eating its corpse," Astralis growled as he swiveled his head to look up at the stars.

While recovering, he had set up a cosmic array to increase his Qi sensitivity over a wider area. Due to the nature of void creatures, there was no way to directly detect them with a spiritual sense. Instead, he had to notice dead spots, which was difficult since this layer of creation was already rather Qi desolate. If this were the first layer of creation, a void monster would stick out like a rock falling into water. But down here, it was like trying to feel for the absence of a faint breeze.

"At least that monster was massive," Astralis mused. "If it were tiny, like a rodent, I'd have no chance of detecting it. But seriously, where did such a monster come from? And that weird floating island that managed to survive my star beam? Who were they?"

Since he had already been set back from reaching the Monarch Realm anytime soon, Astralis decided to sate his curiosity and pushed more Qi into the cosmic array. Fake stars overhead pulsed with power across the sky, and he analyzed the cosmic resonance.

His eyes widened. "What is going on?!"

It was as if the heavens themselves were trying to purge the beast tide. Endless lightning rained down upon the beast tide, and he could see vast swathes of ruined land covered in reality-devouring Qi that served as a border, guarding against the beast tide and stopping it from advancing.

This wasn't the type of intervention that could be orchestrated by the strongest cultivators—not even the World Tree could mount a defense like this.

"Has someone found a way to weaponize the heavens?" Astralis cursed under his breath. For the first time in eons, he felt genuine fear. First, there was the appearance of that monster that could smack him out of the sky, and now there was evidence of someone capable of using the very heavens against them.

Astralis was arrogant, but even he knew he was no match for heaven's unrelenting wrath.

"I need to tell Zephyrine about this."

Astralis refocused his cosmic array to aim toward the deepest area of the beast tide.

"Zephyrine, can you hear me?" he called out, using the cosmic array to boost the range of his voice.

The wind answered a while later.

"Astralis, it's rare for you to contact me."

He felt a deep rage rise in his mind at Zephyrine's voice. His eyes narrowed. His reaction made no sense. It was illogical. He had no reason to be mad or jealous of Zephyrine. She had only ever been fair to him, and he respected her strength.

Shelving his feelings for now, he explained the pressing situation he had observed on the front lines.

"I'm aware of heaven's involvement and of the desolation Qi impeding our advancement," Zephyrine replied after hearing him out.

"Are you going to be doing anything about it?"

There was a long silence.

"Astralis, have you encountered Ig'Zal recently?" Zephyrine asked, clearly changing the subject.

"The Mind Eater? No, I don't believe I have," Astralis answered honestly, with a hint of unease in his voice. Anything involving Ig'Zal was never a good thing.

"Think deeply," Zephyrine whispered through the wind in his ear as if she didn't want to be heard. "Do you have any gaps in your memory or perhaps an odd affliction against me?"

Astralis thought about it, and Zephyrine was right.

"I do have a gap in my memory from a few days ago. I believed someone tried to control my mind. While out seeking the culprit, I encountered a strange ship sailing toward my lands through the beast tide. A void monster of immense strength confronted me, and I had to shamefully flee."

"You noticed the mind control, yet your mind remains your own?"

"Besides the illogical jealousy and anger toward you? Yes, I'm myself, as far as I'm aware," Astralis replied, not liking where this was going.

"Ig'Zal has reached Monarch Realm and has been going around enslaving all of the Primal Overlords to unite against me," the wind answered, and Astralis was stunned into silence. That Moth, who had been decades behind him, had ascended to the Monarch Realm? That was utterly unthinkable.

Astralis blinked as the realization set in. "You're saying Ig'Zal targeted me as well?"

"Indeed, but as expected of the Celestial Star Dragon, you managed to resist his tricks. That's a relief," Zephyrine replied.

Astralis had never heard the great Zephyrine sound genuinely relieved about something before. In his mind, she was the symbol of indisputable strength.

"What are you going to do about Ig'Zal?" Astralis asked. There was no way they could leave the Mind Eater to his own devices if he had reached the Monarch Realm. That was a level of power few on this layer of creation could wield, and every one of them dominated the world around them. Zephyrine was already the leader of the monsters, so with Ig'Zal reaching the Monarch Realm, the balance of power was bound to shift.

"There's nothing I can do. My entire Qi pool is being used to push the beast tide forward. Ig'Zal is in the Monarch Realm and has gathered many of the Primal Overlords to his side. I can't keep the beast tide advancing and fight off so many strong opponents at the same time."

This was bad. Really bad. Ig'Zal had ascended at the perfect time. Was his being decades away nothing but a ruse to avoid being culled by Zephyrine?

It was almost like that darn moth had planned for this.

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"Can't you halt the beast tide and quickly deal with Ig'Zal? He was never the strongest in combat strength—despite being in the Monarch Realm, even I could kill him right now."

"I can't halt the beast tide,"

Zephyrine said, her tone leaving no room for rebuttal.

"Why not?" Astralis asked anyway. While the beast tide was clearly struggling with the invention of the heavens, there was no way Ig'Zal could be ignored.

"I made a promise to my mother long ago," Zephyrine said wistfully. "One that I wouldn't break, even if it kills me."

Astralis trembled. He had never considered that Zephyrine might have parents. Just how powerful were they that she wouldn't dare break a promise made to them?

This was bad. If the beast tide couldn't advance to the next spiritual spring, his cultivation was doomed to stall. The decline in Qi was already reaching his lands, and how could he possibly sit idle while knowing Ig'Zal had reached the Monarch Realm?

There was also the matter of the void monster. Knowing such a threat was out there, Astralis wanted to keep cultivating under the protective shade of Zephyrine's immense strength.

Zephyrine couldn't die, not yet, at least.

"What if I went to deal with Ig'Zal for you?" Astralis suggested. It would take an immense amount of Qi and some luck, but he was certain he could strike Ig'Zal down, considering he had already blocked the moth's mind control.

"You will die a dog's death," Zephyrine said simply. "In a short time, he has captured the minds of ten Primal Overlords."

Astralis gulped. There was a careful balance of power between the Primal Overlords. Since their strengths were all so equal, fights between Primal Overlords were rare. Only Zephyrine had the strength to fight against multiple, so for him to fight Ig'Zal, who was now a realm above him, and also had to battle not just one but ten Primal Overlords?

Zephyrine was right. He would die a dog's death.

"Hold on, only ten? Including me, that means there's one more he hasn't captured yet. Who is it?" Astralis asked. He waited a long time for a reply. Just as he was about to get up and fly toward Zephyrine, the answer came from the wind.

"Veylorak, the Dread Maw of the Molten Depths. He is the last one standing beside you."

Astralis nodded to himself. That made sense. Out of all of the Primal Overlords, I'd fear trying to control that monster the most. He glanced to the west, where Veylorak's territory lay. Deciding to be cautious, he checked the area with his cosmic array. Another few months of Qi vanished, but it was worth it for the peace of mind.

Veylorak's Qi signature was like a burning storm under the ground as the two-thousand-meter-long monster shifted through the earth, leaving a molten trail in his wake. There was no sign of Ig'Zal or any other Primal Overlords in the area, yet Veylorak seemed to be moving at great speed... almost as if he were hunting something.

Astralis spread his wings. Ignoring the shooting pain in his left side, he took to the skies. Gliding toward the west, he kept checking the cosmic array but couldn't detect what Veylorak was hunting.

Fully entering Veylorak's territory, he felt the heat rising from the molten ground below, causing the air to shimmer. Forests were alight, sand had melted to glass, and lakes boiled, causing pillars of steam to dot the landscape. Mountains toppled and split, some turning into volcanoes. Wherever Veylorak went, destruction followed.

"Is he hunting Ig'Zal? That moth was always quite good at masking his presence," Astralis mused as he followed behind. Despite moving at considerable speed, parting clouds as he went, Veylorak was faster, like a shark darting through water.

The air shimmered up ahead, and Astralis noticed it instantly. Extending his winds, he paused in the air, not daring to get any closer. Instead, he stuck to observing from afar. A ghostly white fog seemed to appear out of nowhere, and from within it, the floating island emerged. A whisper at the back of his mind chanted a name he had heard before... Moros. The name of that floating island that had survived his star beam and harboured that void monster.

Immediately, thunder boomed through the land as if announcing Moros's arrival. Looking up, Astralis saw a sea of heavenly eyes glaring down at the world—specifically Moros. A storm of heavenly lightning followed, pummeling the island.

Astralis narrowed his eyes and analyzed the Qi fluctuations. "Someone is ascending to the Nascent Soul Realm on that island. No wait... it's two people at once?"

Empowering his spiritual senses to the max to penetrate the layers of shields enveloping the island, he confirmed it was two. However, they weren't cultivators like he expected or even monsters.

They were spirit trees.

He had only seen a Nascent Soul Realm spirit tree once in his life, yet he was witnessing two ascending at the same time?

"Hold on, is that..." Astralis trailed off as he noticed a person standing near the trees—his daughter, Nymeria. What in the nine realms was she doing there?! He had so many questions... a sentiment Veylorak, the Dread Maw of the Molten Depths, didn't seem to share.

The ground below the island exploded as Veylorak surged upwards, enveloped by a wave of molten rock. His infamous maw, capable of devouring anything—even a star—engulfed the island as if it were a tiny snack.

However, before Veylorak's maw could close, sealing the island's fate to burn in his abyssal throat filled with primal fire, there was a pulse of Qi, and the island... vanished. Like a ghost, it was gone. Veylorak's maw clamped shut on nothing but air, and he received a face full of heavenly lightning for his troubles.

Veylorak roared in anger at the sky, shaking the heavens and cracking the ground for miles. The lava that had engulfed the monster cascaded to the ground, briefly revealing Veylorak's true form.

Astralis always described Veylorak as a colossal centipede-like wyrm with a segmented carapace forged from obsidian that pulsed with veins of molten gold. Twin horns that could smash through mountains adorned his head, and beside the maw, he had no eyes or ears.

Despite taking dozens of heavenly lightning bolts to the face, Veylorak had sustained minimal damage. The monster was more likely frustrated that his snack had escaped as he crashed down to the earth, vanishing into the depths once more.

Astralis remained where he was, frowning to himself. Moros had definitely been on its way to attack him, and the void monster had intervened when he had tried to preemptively strike them down. Yet his daughter was on their side?

He wasn't particularly surprised one of his children would seek to kill him. It just seemed strange...

"Hold on, I attacked them on the assumption that they were the ones to mind control me. But Zephyrine confirmed that was Ig'Zal's doing. In that case, maybe attacking me wasn't their goal?" He tilted his head. "Then why are they attacking Veylorak now? Did Ig'Zal get to my daughter and is using her to kill the two Primal Overlords he failed to control?"

That theory seemed to hold some weight, but he still harbored doubts. He felt like everyone around him was playing a game, and he was yet to figure out which one.

While he had been pondering, Veylorak was on the move again. Now that he was far closer, Astralis noticed it too. The incredibly faint focus of the heaves on a certain point... the sea of golden eyes in the sky was tracking the position of Moros, ready to strike the moment they reappeared.

I'm not sure why they came this deep into the Primal Overlord's territory to ascend, but if Moros doesn't reappear regularly enough, those spirit trees won't have enough energy from the heavenly lightning to advance to the Nascent Soul Realm.

With that in mind, Moros would inevitably reappear, and if they could do the same trick as last time, Veylorak would fail to devour them.

"Unless slowly hurting Veylorak with divine lightning is their goal, I doubt they are too thrilled about being hunted," Astralis mused. He wanted to confront his daughter and get some answers, but that was going to be difficult if they could only appear for a few seconds at a time before Veylorak tried to eat them.

The only solution he could see to make his daughter aware of his presence and to get a moment to speak with her was to remove Veylorak from the picture. Feeling regret for the Qi he was about to waste, his twin Star Cores, which were at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, powered up.

For the first time in centuries, he was going to attack a Primal Overlord in their territory.

Overhead, the constellations stirred in response to Astralis's summons.

Eight celestial points ignited across the heavens, each a burning eye of his power. Astralis did not act; instead, he patiently awaited the perfect moment.

The instant Moros breached the veil and returned to reality, he invoked the stars' wrath. Eight lances of stellar fury descended in unison, their brilliance outshining the sun and stars, striking the earth beneath Moros with cosmic precision.

For a heartbeat, the world turned white and fell into a harrowing stillness. Then, reality ruptured. Fire and wind burst forth in a cataclysmic shockwave that scorched the landscape.

Veylorak, who had broken the earth's surface only to receive the eight-star beams to the face, roared and retreated into the ground to avoid death.

As the destruction settled, as Astralis had anticipated, Moros remained there—floating over a smoldering crater. Flapping his wings, he warped reality and teleported above the floating island. Landing on its layers of shields that crackled under his weight, he stared down at Nymeria.

"Daughter," he said in draconic, "you have some explaining to do."