Astoria was like a certain historical figure in the way she rushed around the world.
Her joyous cries reached every end of the star.
"They have returned!"
She didn't need to say more than that.
Even the common soldiers knew that there was something they were waiting for, a path to victory.
And judging by the way their leaders' faces lit up, it was clear that moment had arrived.
From the western plains where Long Chen and Aishia stood over a pile of corpses, to where Rose and the girls were fighting fiercely against the most densely packed section of the wave, to the depths of the Golden Dragon Estate where Alexander was healing the unconscious Su Ren's broken body, her cries spread.
They looked into the sky in unison.
The light in their eyes burned the same regardless of location.
Hidden from everyone else's perception, Alexander smiled.
"Mm, that's how things were supposed to go. I guess it's my time to disappear again."
His expression was a bit wry, but what could he do?
He was just a—
'Haha, does this happen to everyone? Well, it's not like my position is a bad one.'
He only came to fulfill his role.
Since it was over, his presence was no longer needed.
'I hope I won't have to come out for a long time, but who knows? There are still things that need to be done.'
He glanced down at Su Ren and laid his body back carefully.
"You'll be fine once you wake up, but…"
"…isn't it a bit of a shame to just leave like this?"
He turned his attention to the thick stone door that separated him from the two remaining Demigods in this world.
His heartbeat was somewhat erratic, but he stood up and moved despite his hesitation.
It wasn't hard to get through the door. He had more than enough ability to phase through its defenses.
And the scene inside became clear.
Nobody had seen this.
When Tian Yang realized what his close friend had done, he ordered this area to enter a lockdown so nobody could enter and see his state.
For good reason.
The current Golden Dragon Emperor looked nothing like his usual valiant and undaunted form.
He was wilted like a dying flower. His body was weak and looked like it would break with a single push.
His energy was constantly being siphoned by the world for its survival. Even his Divinity wasn't safe from this pull.
"Haa…"
It was a hard sight to see.
Tian Yang was sitting cross-legged next to him, his hand on the Golden Dragon Emperor's forehead.
'Are you facilitating the energy transfer…? No, you're using your own energy to maintain his life force. As always…'
Alexander shook his head.
At this rate, both of them would die by the time the world was saved. Their energy had been pushed to its limits.
'It's a miracle they could even survive this long. To keep an entire planet, especially one like the Fate Star, intact with the power of two people alone…I can't believe they even dared to try something like this.'
He couldn't think of any other word to describe it besides "suicidal."
But…
'I guess that's the resolve you need to survive in this world.'
"Enough of this."
He spoke out loud, snapping himself out of his strange fate, and held his arm out again.
"Neither of you are allowed to die."
Mana flowed forth.
Was it right to call it mana?
"An energy" left his palm and wrapped around the two fractured Divinities.
"I can't do anything about the World Core, but that shouldn't be a problem with the Dimensional Prism in hand. Instead, I'll give you this…"
The energy pushed into their bodies and sunk into their skin.
Tian Yang woke up at this point, but he was unable to do anything to counter that energy.
It flowed into his body, through his systems, and into the Golden Dragon Emperor before forming a cycle that constantly strengthened as it moved between them.
"This isn't much, but it's a 'chance.' When you wake up again, you'll understand what it means."
That energy would do the rest on its own.
"Until we meet again."
The expression on his face was…complicated, but Alexander turned around nonetheless.
As he'd mentioned before, his purpose here was accomplished.
Without a word or a single sound, he vanished into the air.
Like a phantom that never existed in the first place.
Those who witnessed his presence or received his grace were forced to wonder who he was.
But the mystery behind his existence couldn't be revealed to them so easily, if at all.
All they needed to know was that he was here as their guardian angel.
A being descended to the lower planes to assist them.
By the will of their greatest supporter.
***
Precisely 2 seconds after Alexander's disappearance…
It happened in but an instant.
If one was observing from the starry sky, it would have played out as such:
Zara and Alea's mana combined inside the Dimensional Prism, and a scan ran over their bodies as if it was gauging their worth.
The second it acknowledged them as the rightful users of its power, a blue geometric barrier spread from their position in the sky and encapsulated the world in a single instant.
And then…
It disappeared.
The entirety of Beast Emperor Star vanished from the starry sky.
No matter how much longer one watched, they wouldn't see it return.
Unless…
Unless one turned one's attention past the bounds of the Beast Domain.
In a nondescript area of the Divine Realm, roughly near the border of the Human Domain, a world appeared from thin air.
This was none other than Beast Emperor Star.
But if the observer saw it as a simple teleportation effect, they would be sorely mistaken.
Something magisterial happened when that world was sucked into the Dimensional Prism.
Zara and Alea made sure of it.
In that single instant, they were Gods with power nearing absolute.
They spread destruction with a single wave of their hands, eradicating all Nox presence from the world.
And in the next move, they targeted the very center of the world and reformed its World Core.
The reality-altering power of this prism wasn't a joke.
Both creation and destruction were under their complete control.
However, it was still impossible to control the cycle of life and death.
Those who died remained dead, but those who lived were granted salvation.
The once-crumbling Beast Emperor Star regained its light and its life. The Golden Dragon Emperor was disconnected from its systems and saved. The war that took so many innocent and heroic lives ended in an instant.
And the world itself was moved out of its precarious position, becoming a part of the Divine Realm's systems with none the wiser, not even those who resided in this very system.
It was a miracle among miracles.
Or could it be the workings of Fate?
In the minutes that passed after the event, nobody on the surface of the world could make out the truth.
No, they hardly even realized the war was over.
How could they?
After such a drawn-out conflict, for it to be over in but a single second, how could anyone accept this?
But unknown to them, it took far longer than that.
The time they spent in the Dimensional Prism wasn't something they could comprehend.
It was better to say they were "frozen in time" after Zara and Alea pulled them into that treasure.
That's why they didn't realize.
That's why it didn't sink in for them.
For a treasure like this…
…it was impossible to wield its power without consequences.
