Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

In the belief system of the 7th Heaven, they deeply believe their Heavenly God, the True Faith Heavenly God, who is essentially their sky and their ground. In his teachings, he deems that in his heaven there will always be a route for salvation, but this route of salvation will require the will and desire to pursue it.

The saying was simply put: "There is always a road of safety beneath the heavens."

A male Heavenly Commander who had followed Abrams since their youths spoke, "I believe in Ancestral Lord’s judgment." His words were filled with a near fanatical belief and steel-biting resolve, as if he was willing to live and die by Abrams choices.

"..." Admah gave this man a side glance and said nothing else.

King Moshe’s eyes still contained hostility as he looked at Admah and Levana, but it was far less than before. "Do we have another choice? If the heavens have left us a path of escape, then this is it. What if we fail to grasp it?" The tone in his voice was slightly despondent.

"What if it’s not our path?" Levana softly voiced. To her, there were still options they could take, the most obvious being fighting with their very lives on the line. If the Lycan race as a whole was willing to go into battle with the mentality of self-detonation, igniting their heavenly shrines, or burning their primal blood, would the Darnixian actually be willing to pursue it to the end?

"You wish to go down the path of mutual destruction in the slight hope we survive?!" King Moshe’s rage once again flared, "If it wasn’t for you and Admah, would we even be in this situation?!" His fangs bared and his claws twitched, as if ready to reap away lives. He hated these two deeply. The others had expressions of discontent as well, but they kept their opinions to themselves. That being said, their silence was a tacit agreement to King Moshe’s claims.

Abrams deeply sighed. Glancing at these two top-tier cultivators with the chance to supplant his current role as leader of their race, he felt complex emotions. This was especially so considering that Levana was his daughter. In truth, this is likely the only reason they weren’t killed off for their actions.

Looking at Abrams conflicted expression, King Moshe’s thoughts traveled to his daughter whose fate was unknown. His daughter was safe from this calamity, being out of the realm, but she was adamant about trying to find a lifeline for the Lycan race. With her brave and heroic spirit, she recruited members of varying guilds in the promise of grand rewards. This force she accumulated was not to be underestimated, even seventh-floor Heavenly Genesis experts were recruited. Alas, her good intentions were for naught as the enemy was simply far too terrifying.

The force collapsed instantly in a trap, his daughter was captured by Eitan, and their fate remained as uncertain as before.

With each memory flashing of his daughter, from her birth, to her toddler-years as he taught her, to adolescence where she showed traces of being the woman she was today, and finally as she reached her current state, his thoughts became further dragged in madness and rage.

"You ungrateful bastards! YOU ADULTEROUS BASTARDS WITH NO SHAME!!" His aura had erupted fully within the confines of the vault, his muscles violently bulged and veins sprouted as his blood flowed with immense vigor, and his eyes shined with the brilliance of an apex predator!

Admah and Levana looked at King Moshe without the slightest hint of fear, their eyes even contained a trace of unified mockery. With their strength, which exceeded King Moshe, and their status and backing being the Ancestral Lord himself, how could they fear him? This display was nothing but empty air.

"Silence!" Abrams thunderously shouted. With those words, the essence that originated from the heavens turned sluggish slightly, causing a sensation of discomfort to all those present. King Moshe’s momentum and aura were immediately doused, his expression ugly to the extreme. His eyes continued to emanate deep and unrestrained killing intent towards these two, his gaze never leaving them for a single moment. It was as if, as long as they spoke a single word, he would immediately strike disregarding even Abrams.

"We must remain united to survive this," Abrams strongly stated. The others felt conflicted, but the majority agreed with the notion. After all, they were undoubtedly stronger together. This was proven countless times in their history, and why their race wasn’t spread out among many realms like others.

Abrams didn’t feel like lingering any longer, double-checking Yan Zaizen’s demands to ensure that all materials were gathered, he stepped forward. A spatial slit appeared before him and he entered it calmly. The others hesitated for a moment, their expressions complex or filled with devoted belief. To many, this was a ridiculous route to take, but to those who had a high amount of faith, not only in their leader but in the heavens, they had radical hope.

Stepping into the rift, they vanished from the vault. In the end, only Levana, Admah, and King Moshe remained.

Levana looked deeply at King Moshe with a hint of disdain, "You should focus your wild energy elsewhere, like on your daughter perhaps." Leaving that aggressive remark, she stepped into the spatial slit. King Moshe growled deeply in response, wanting nothing more than to rip her limb from limb.

Admah stood before King Moshe, looking him in the eyes, and the usual calmness in his gaze wavered. His eyes seemed as if it wanted to convey a thousand things, but he couldn’t say one. After sounding a rare and soft sigh filled with complex and difficult to convey emotion, he stepped into the spatial rift.

King Moshe’s gaze flickered slightly. After witnessing that gaze and sigh left him feeling weak. "Admah...why did you...is she worth it?" Looking at the spatial rift, he also heavily sighed. The vault that was once a symbol for wealth and prosperity was instead filled with the conflicting emotions of the Lycan race. Soon, all had entered the rift.

-----

While those events took place, Yan Zaizen remained seated in meditation. His thoughts were immersed in the heavenly laws. His replication of the barrier art left a profound mark in his mind. As he concentrated further on its essence, he felt that it could be improved further.

"Barrier of Absolute Space? Isolation Barrier of Space?" He felt his naming sense was off. Pinaka also showed no mercy, "Both of those names are too simple." As she rejected them, Yan Zaizen felt a little vexed. The concept of the art is to seal off multi-layered space in an isolated containment, such as a spherical barrier. Taking this line of understanding, shouldn’t the name be along those lines?

As if knowing his thoughts, Pinaka had an idea, "Why limit it to the confines of a barrier?" This idea to her wasn’t clear, but she still voiced it.

"...?" His brows raised, contemplating her words deeply. Limited to a barrier? Isn’t that the technique...

"!" His eyes shone brilliantly with enlightenment. Standing up, his body emanated silver light. This silver light was only ten inches from his body, but it gave off a powerful feeling of spatial laws. "A barrier is limited, but what if you can create a realm?"

Suddenly, these words were like a flare to the heavens. The silver light exploded outwards, dazzling the world in a silver light that seemed to drop like rain. In his immediate area, this silver rain of light seemed endless and ever-present. It went down, but it remained continuous and seemingly infinite in quantity within this ten-inch area.

"This is?!" Pinaka was startled, her soul form appearing. She was in the rain. The rain seemed to exist in this space but also outside of it. It was visible but untouchable, as if it existed in a different space. "What is this?" It gave her an odd feeling as if she was no longer within normal space.

Yan Zaizen’s eyes were brilliant beyond imagination! "Mystic Realm of Isolation," he softly exclaimed, the excitement in his voice was unable to be hidden. This small space drew heavily upon the concept of chaotic space and its ability to interact and exist seamlessly with other folds of space, such as standard space and the spatial void.

Focusing, he expanded the silver rain to ten yards. Pinaka felt a surge across her body but nothing more.

"Try to leave."

"Leave?" Curious, Pinaka walked to the boundary of this silver rain and attempted to step outside. The moment she did, her foot seemed to have touched a wall. It was incredibly hard. Pressing her hand against the boundary, she truly felt an incomparably hard wall. It wasn’t a flat wall, more so like oceanic waves in constant motion, but it was impossible for her to exit.

"What is this? Is this a barrier?" She questioned, unable to make heads or tails of it. It seemed to have the characteristics of the barrier, but it felt different somehow while inside. The silver light looks as if it’s affecting her, but she couldn’t find out the difference.

"To you, it may not be much other than a barrier, but to spatial cultivators..." his eyes turned slightly evil and a chuckle filled with malevolence sounded, "to spatial cultivators, this is the bane of their existence."

Furrowing her brows, she was about to ask more when a rift appeared in the room. With a shimmer, she reverted to a body of light and attempted to reenter Yan Zaizen’s soul. However, her soul light went through Yan Zaizen. The moment that happened, she reverted back and looked at Yan Zaizen with deep shock.

She realized she was still surrounded by the silver rain of light.

"Haha," Yan Zaizen chuckled once more before ending the art. The silver rain vanished. With eyes filled with curiosity, she once again attempted to enter Yan Zaizen’s soul. This time, it went off without a hitch.

"How did you...?" Pinaka felt bewildered to the point of being beyond curious. She felt Yan Zaizen’s aura and location, so she was sure he stood directly before her, but she went through him like he wasn’t there. As if she was isolated from him...

While she was immersed in her thoughts, Abrams and the other walked in from the rift. Yan Zaizen felt a bubbling sensation of excitement. "Payday!"