"Goddess' Blessing."
Elena's mana, entwined with concepts of holiness and purity, truly had the ability to create a safe zone within the apocalypse that had befallen Beast Emperor Star.
As she took to calming the sudden madness that overcame the army, a figure landed beside her, his golden eyes cold and piercing.
"Helper, the situation has become extremely severe. The beast population of the world has been driven to madness by the corrupted rain of the Fate Clouds, and the Fate Clouds themselves have begun to dissipate. We must act immediately if we wish to change the situation.
This man, Hedrick, was the Draconic War God, the Second Prince of the Golden Dragon Royal Family himself. Before he'd come to battle, his father had told him to explicitly trust the Valkyrie that would likely arrive to aid him.
As such, he didn't withhold any information, and despite her small strength, he treated her as an equal.
'Aside from Father Emperor's suggestion, I must still befriend this woman. Her power will be an incredible asset in the current situation.' He thought as he watched the Golden Dragon troops regain their sanity.
Elena's expression became grimmer with every passing second as she listened to the information.
According to Hedrick, the Black Dragon Clan's previous teleportation had taken them directly to the Inner Estate where the palace was located. It was evident that they were going to use the chaos as an opportunity to launch a siege.
And it wasn't them alone. All of the hostile forces that the Golden Dragon Clan gathered with the plan of slowly taking care of them one by one united, leaving them severely outnumbered and overwhelmed.
The world itself was shaking from the wide-scale destruction taking place on its surface. The Golden Dragon Emperor had to maintain his utmost focus to keep it stable as stronger and stronger beings began to fight.
It was an utterly hopeless scenario that appeared out of nowhere.
No, it was an utterly hopeless scenario that was the result of a thousand years of planning.
'The original corrosion of the Fate Clouds was due to the Black Dragon Clan's plotting, but the rain has changed in the past few seconds.' Elena thought to herself.
The current rain, the color of that rain, was not the blackened gold it originally held. Currently, that black color had deluded into a more murky grey.
While this color change wasn't significant enough to mean anything to others, Elena was different.
After all, she spent several years fighting side by side with a woman with the natural ability to read fate, almost staying together for every hour of every day.
She was never able to grasp it herself, but if it was just colors…
Rose had told her more than enough to allow her to read the rain.
"The situation isn't hopeless yet," she declared to Hedrick, her voice solemn.
Hedrick immediately turned his attention to her, ready to hear the solution offered by someone his father trusted to such agree.
However, when Elena opened her mouth…
"We must save the common people."
Hedrick immediately frowned.
"Do you think this is a game?" He growled.
Elena shook her head, clearly aware of his misunderstanding.
"I'm a proponent of justice, but I'm not an idiot with a hero complex. To attain victory this time, our best chance is to save the common people."
Before Hedrick could interrupt again, Elena flashed him a sharp glare, letting him understand the gravity of her words.
"The Fate Clouds have protected the Golden Dragon Clan for untold millennia. It isn't just a matter of physical protection, but the ethereal aspect as well."
"The 'Fate' of the Golden Dragon Clan has always been protected, and as long as that 'Fate' remains protected, the Golden Dragon Clan will not fall, no matter how tragic its fate may seem."
Hedrick's eyes widened as he finally understood her point.
"If the Fate Clouds can be restored…" he muttered.
"Just as the common people were sacrificed to destroy the Fate Clouds, they can be saved to repair them," Elena concluded.
Hedrick nodded in concession. "I apologize for my previous bias. I will lead my troops and work in tandem with you to protect this world!"
Elena nodded as well. "Good. I can cover half by myself, I'll need you to take the rest."
"No problem."
"Yes, problem. You cannot kill the frenzied beasts. You must restrain and suppress them until I can come and purify their souls."
Hedrick frowned at the troublesome situation, but didn't complain.
He needed to do what needed to be done.
As he watched Elena's figure fade into the distance, a look of abject determination on her face, he thought back to his family at the palace.
'Hold strong.' He thought in prayer. His eyes were icy, but they burned with the flames of vengeance.
'I will not allow these scum to take our world!'
***
"Boy, is that all you have?!"
Arthur's crazed exclamation boomed through the vacuum of space. His bloody mana roared and raged, forming massive unavoidable waves that trapped Damien from every direction.
"Tch."
Damien clicked his tongue in annoyance as he dodged Arthur's attacks and attempted to escape the encirclement.
'Not being able to teleport is fucking annoying.'
Damien was currently in a domain of Arthur's creation. Even if he teleported, the current situation would just repeat itself.
Damien withdrew Mirage and switched Freya to his right hand before summoning Hel in his left.
'The Mirror Domain would be ineffective facing such a grand display of laws, and it's too early to summon the Space-Time River…'
Bang! Bang! Bang!
BOOM!
'I have to use "that."'
900 shots left Freya's barrel in a matter of a second and swarmed the surrounding space with white bullets, unavoidable due to their numerosity.
These shots were followed by a single black bullet fired from Hel, hidden deeply within the storm to the point where even Arthur couldn't detect it.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Arthur's arms moved at unbelievable speeds as he blocked each and every life bullet that came near him. He felt the strange fluctuation that made his lifeblood tremble and knew very well that he couldn't allow those bullets to hit.
Splitting a portion of his mind, Arthur spread his awareness to find and counterattack—
Damien appeared in the air above Arthur, his back facing his enemy and his sword crossed against his chest.
The second Arthur recognized his presence, he released his stored momentum and twisted his body violently, slashing Mirage out with everything he had…!
'Void Sword Art Seventh Form…'
Arthur tried to dodge, but Hel's death bullet struck him in the side and forced him to remain stationary.
Mirage slashed into Arthur's shoulder.
And immediately, everything went white.
It was a flash of light that could be seen even several million miles away. Countless beings on several worlds deep in the Beast Domain turned their eyes to the sky to witness the strange phenomenon.
From the surface of Beast Emperor Star, it was as if the sun dropped into their atmosphere, directly blinding anyone under the extreme peak of 4th class.
The energies of spacetime, the energies of Samsara, that slight trace of Void, they combined into a mystical sight, a sight rare to witness from such close proximity.
It truly looked like a—
'…Supernova.'
