Tens of thousands of kilometres away, there was a great crater spanning nearly 15 kilometres in radius.

The ground all around had been scorched an ashen grey, while that within the crater had turned into a mix of blackened residue and what looked like shards of gla.s.s. The smell of ash and sulphur hung heavy in the air as well as that of salt. There was no life all around, not even wind in this place. And if one looked at it too long, the only thoughts in one's mind would be bone chilling fear at the thought of the destructive power required to render such a scene possible.

In the middle of this scene of barrenness stood a grand palace, one with pillars of ivory, floorings wholly of silver and walls of solid, pure gold, completely incongruent with its surroundings. Everything in this palace looked brand new but would also give one a sense of countless years past.

In contrast with the beauty of the palace was a sight that would cause one's skin to crawl. From afar, it looked like the ground around the palace were just the same as anywhere else, a mix of white from the reflective gla.s.s shards and blackened ground. But when one looked carefully, the ground around the palace squirmed.

Surrounding the palace were hundreds of thousands of crawlers, piled into a river, a moat flowing incessantly around the building.

Though the construction was somewhat reminiscent of human aesthetics, the scale of things indicated this this was not the case.

Whether the archways, doorways, pa.s.sageways, hallways… Whether the seats, tables or curtains untouched by time… Whether the royal hall, the decorative swords and s.h.i.+eld hanging on the walls or the imperial throne…

Everything was so large that a human would be more than dwarfed, looking only as big as a cat or small dog.

And on that imperial throne sat a person dressed completely in black. His long black hair was tied with a black sash and hung down his right shoulder, contrasting his sun-kissed brown skin. He was handsome in a masculine way, his bearing and body structure exuding power. His clothes were luxurious in design and of obviously the highest grade of materials, however, the colours left him looking sorely out of place.

He was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the throne with a low, black obsidian table placed before him, reading through several doc.u.ments – missives and letters requiring his attention.

Before the throne stood a stunningly beautiful woman dressed demurely in full-black garb, one whose beauty neared the realm of perfection. The conservative black robe hung loosely, covering her from neck down to her exquisite travel boots – also black. However, no matter how loosely her clothes hung, they could not hide her bountifully curvaceous body, full and fleshed out at some places while slim and refined at others. Her flowing silver hair, sparkling, enchanting silver eyes and supple brown skin were the only parts of her body that were not completely in black.

Countless a man had been smitten by her beauty and charm, as well as a good number of women. However, those who had attempted to court her had quickly found that she was as deadly as she was beautiful.

After all, "she" was silver dragon queen Valenti, a warlord of the Semi-Divine stage who had reigned unhindered for a dozen generations.

And yet she was the one who had spoken those reverent words to her liege who was seated before her. She stood patiently before the seated man, awaiting his reply and orders.

The throne room was empty except for these two people. Silence was all that was heard except for the sound of skin against paper as the man continued to leaf through his doc.u.ments, acting as if he had not heard a word she said - but Valenti knew that her only options was to wait.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the man on the throne sighed and leaned his chin on his arm, closing his eyes.

"For even Belic and the Sun Lord's conscient to fall… It looks like our plans have to be brought forward…" He mused to himself as he opened his eyes, thoughts running through his mind.

Valenti nodded, then waited. However, the man just continued to slowly browse through the doc.u.ments and missives before him.

Confused and unclear as to her instructions, Valenti opened her mouth to ask, "Lord, what are—"

"Leave the Child of Light alone, let us wait and watch. The waters are too muddy… Proceed with our plans and ignore that Child, I want to see what our nemesis has planned…"

* * * * *

Far away to the south-east, there stood an una.s.suming tree.

The tree was located in the middle of rolling lands, the ground cresting and falling all around with several small rocky mounds not far away.

This tree was rather tall, but otherwise completely normal in ratio of width and height. Curiously, there were not many other plants nearby, merely spa.r.s.ely s.p.a.ced brown, wooden gra.s.s, shrubs or herbaceous vegetation with green moss covering the ground in between.

The roots of the tree were thick and gnarled, slightly protruding up from the ground as if though it were ensconced upon a round and high hill or perhaps a solid rock. And from underneath the dense network of roots both hair-like and large, there seemed to a brown glow gently pulsing every now and then. The roots of the tree seemed to pulse together with this glow, giving one the impression of a person's chest rising and falling as she breathed.

Clinging to the tree were also lush vines with sharp thorns, while a ring of lighter yellow-brown texture was seen spiralling up the tree's bark. One could also see many small insects buzzing and soaring by, while animals were either crawling up its trunk or, for those that could not climb so dextrously, following the spiral path leading up the tree's surface.

On this morning, surrounding the branches and leaves of the tree were plumes of mist and moisture so thick that it seemed nearly like fog, or perhaps even clouds. However, it was clearly refres.h.i.+ng and soothing morning dew rising into the air to nourish the land…

The small animals, insects and miniscule organisms approaching the micro-scale congregated near the top of the tree where there was an odd landing of sorts formed from intertwined branches. It was curious how the floor of the landing was flat, so flat that water spilled on the surface would remain stagnant, not flowing away to drip down through the canopy layer.

The sound of chirping, squeaking or chitterling filled the atmosphere as they gathered round an empty protrusion in the centre that looked like a tiny tree branch sticking upright, one with a flat top.

Just then, a little scaled bird about the size of a humming bird glided in, glittering silver under the rays of the sun.

The little insects scurried out of the bird's path, scrambling away at seeing a predator far higher up in the food chain, allowing the bird to land near the front of the crowd among other creatures roughly around its size.

A miniature monkey turned to greet the new arrival, though his expression showed he was far from pleased to see her.

He fixed a piercing stare on their visitor, raising one brow, saying, "Valenti. Why are you here? If you are looking for trouble… We have enough already. I don't mind resolving one right now if she insists on it…"

Folding his arms, his powerful biceps and pectorals to bulge dangerous before continuing, "Here before mother World Tree…"

He let off a dangerous aura as he finished. "Don't think you'll leave with your life."

Silver dragon queen Valenti flexed her wings once before tucking them away, folding against her body the life-reaping appendages that spanned more than 40 metres in each direction. She then narrowed her eyes and had an enigmatic expression on her face as she faced the G.o.d of Beast-Spirits, Berethar.

"Your Highness…" She paused and smiled slyly.

I've come for an alliance."

The atmosphere at the World Tree exploded into clamour, dissipating the clouds and shaking the mountains that were nearby.

 * * * * * 

Across the world, countless great ent.i.ties' turned their attention to the north – to the far off Northern Reaches near the northern-most pole of the world where the sun shone throughout the year, drawn by the impending changes to the world.

Abyssal Devil Princes.

Demon Kings.

Kings and Emperors of nations in the four corners of the world and the Central Dominion that had nearly united the entire world.

Elemental spirits of the wild.

t.i.tans of the sea, Tyrants of the air.

Rulers of sleeping ancient civilisations or reincarnations of fallen G.o.ds.

All of them were called to attention at the descent of the Divine Lord's conscience on one boy.

Each of these major powers of the world arose to look to the Northern Reaches, each with varying objectives, but all with one target. Some frowned, unable to decide what to do. Some had gazes of vengeance, some eyes of hope. Others still had looks of merely mild interest or even boredom.

But there was one person whose expression was the most perplexed of all of these.

He was seated in a simple wooden chair, dressed in plain and rough yellow robes. His face was plain but kind, round and ever smiling. He kept his hair short in a style that required no grooming and had not a single ornament on his person – except for a staff that looked like two golden serpents intertwined tightly, culminating in a transparent blue orb at the top where their mouths met.

However plain he looked, there would be not a single soul who would dare to disdain him as he sat before the 8 Mythical Spirit-level believers who were performing the forbidden Ninth Sacrament in a choir.

Seated on the Prime Servant's chair in Temple, Pope Sunil of the Divine Sun Lord's church allowed his kindly smile to crack for just an instant for only the second time ever in his life as he raised his hands in the middle of the finale, joining the heavenly choir to complete the last burst of song.

Then it was silent.

Smiling benevolently once more, Pope Sunil shook his head with pity and spoke to the awaiting Myth-level believers.

He spoke but two words; spoken in a gentle, loving voice, one that sounded frail, wavering and almost breaking.

"Kill him."

 * * * * *

 Lars awoke with a start.

Instantly he gathered his consciousness, realising to his relief that only a little more than an hour had pa.s.sed, that dawn had arrived…

And that a Semi-divine Land Dragon stood over him, saliva dripping onto his body.