The interdimensional crossing gave the passengers no chance to enjoy the scenery. In less than three breaths of time, Konrad and his folks landed in the Celestial Realm's immeasurable space. Unlike the previous Mortal Realm, the Celestial Realm was an organized structure of fifty thousand worlds divided into four layers:
The Lower Heaven Layer, the Middle Heaven Layer, the Higher Heaven Layer, and the Zenith Heaven Layer.
Gods and religious sects ruled the fifty thousand worlds. But unlike the Infernal Realm, there was no such thing as a hierarchy of nobility ranks. But while on the surface, worlds remained largely independent, the ruling sects often were branches of stronger sects in higher layers with the Deva Primogens' sects standing above them all.
Thirty thousand worlds stood in the Lower Heaven Layer, fifteen thousand in the Middle Heaven Layer, and five thousand in the Higher Heaven Layer. But only one world stood in the Zenith Heaven Layer:
The Celestial World divided in thirteen domains ruled by the twelve Deva Primogens and the Central Domain of the Warden where the Celestial Court gathered. But of course, even in the Celestial World, thousands of weaker sects and domains subservient to the top thirteen existed.
And in a world the size of one thousand suns, how else could it be? Calling the Celestial World a planet was wholly inaccurate. It didn't orbit around anything, it was everything. With a step, Konrad led his folks from the Lower Heaven Layer into the Zenith Heaven Layer, or Heaven as most just called it.
If the Celestial Realm was a circle, then the Celestial World was its center. And even before they stepped into it, Nehal aside, all looked at it with awe.
"Holy shit. For the sake of all that is unholy, how did such a world ever come to be?"
Heide blurted with her disbelief-filled eyes almost popping out of their socket. And although she refrained from such language, the Valkyrie wasn't much better off. With but a glance, they could see that the soul unnerving domain standing before them was ten-thousand times the size of the Ancient Crystal World!
How many lives could such a World possibly house?
"Before I left, around 960 trillion."
Nehal replied to the silent question lingering within their minds. Konrad, Selene, and Verena, however, remained undisturbed. Shrouded by Devil Force, the six descended into the Celestial World's sky, into a magical realm of breathtaking wonders.
Within the Celestial World, there wasn't one but nine sun and moons. Yet, the light of day brightened the sky with a soothing gentleness one wouldn't have expected granting the many flaring, celestial bodies orbiting around it. Indeed, the suns orbited around Heaven, not the other way around, and each burned with a unique color that filled Heaven's sky with permanent rainbows.
Here, the very breeze carried soothing melodies, and the intensity of the spiritual energies within the atmosphere stood leagues above that of the previous Mortal Realm. Of course, following Konrad's takeover and Chthonian Realm creation, they didn't lose out. Moreover, the world's structure was such that here Deities aside, none could fly. Naturally, none of this paused any constraints to Konrad's folks.
And with a glance, Konrad could see that Nehal's words were slightly inaccurate. Not that she attempted to deceive them, the cause of the substantial reduction in lives across Heaven and the Celestial Realm was none other than him.
And as Konrad's faction descended into Nehal's homeland, within Heaven's Central Domain, others gathered to discuss the changes.
…
In the Celestial Court, across a round, luminous white table, twenty-four figures gathered to discuss the earthshaking changes the Three Realms had suffered in the last two centuries. The twelve on the right were of flesh and blood while the twelve on the left were nothing more than avatars.
Both sides faced one another with a silent gravity they'd not suffered in millions of years.
"Two centuries. It's been centuries since that calamity, since the Mortal Realm collapsed under the Underworld's invasion and turned into something…we know nothing of."
A towering, armored middle-aged man with calm but oppressive black eyes, Dolgron, the Northern King of Hell and leader of the infernal side, began.
But as he swept the opposite Deva Primogens, a pause followed.
"At that time, many of our two Realms dispatched juniors to the Mortal Realm, for what purpose, I do not care. But according to your intel, only two survived. The rest were obliterated to the last. Though we can assume that they fell to the catastrophe, I'm inclined to think the Ancient Crystal World they were dispatched to is the key behind this mystery.
Now, you're not willing to reveal the 'why' of your actions and again, I do not care. But the fact of the matter is that the Underworld didn't go berserk without reason. Someone triggered it, controlled it, and made a fool of you all."
Dolgron pursued, and as his words echoed, cold light flashed within Ashara, the Eastern King of Hell's eyes. Not just him. Of the twelve Deva Primogens, though they made no sound, Daksha, the Cardinal Dream Lord and Surya, the Cardinal Sun Lord, flashed mysterious glints.
They didn't just lose talented juniors. They lost descendants. But undoubtedly, their losses couldn't compare to Ashara's. But how could they expect that the forces they dispatched would all meet their maker in a feeble world of the Mortal Realm? Yet, that inconceivable instance occured.
"But now, the identity of that entity, the Chthonian Primogen as we were instructed to call him, is of little importance. What matters are the consequences we now face. True, those born in the Celestial and Infernal naturally stand with superior conditions and constitutions. Finding a pure mortal, unable to cultivate, is like locating a needle in a haystack.
Even the weakest of mature cultivators stand at the Grand Knight and Spirit Ranks. Therefore, though fear clouds the lower echelons of our societies, we haven't yet felt the true consequences.
However, even Sages only have 100,000 years of lifespan. To us Gods, 100,000 years is nothing. But in that 'nothing' amount of time, we will not have a single cultivator beneath godhood. Not a single existence below that rank. We're heading toward the extinction of our Realms as we know them. Billions of lights years filled with nothing but 100,000 deities.
That entity severed our future, and even the Realm Wills are powerless before it. How do we handle this?"
Dolgron asked the gathered leaders, but as all looked at one another, no answer followed his words, and cold silence returned.
Never did he expect that at that time, a guffaw would erupt three chairs away from him.
