As everyone stared at the veil in the skies with varying expressions, Atticus was facing a battle of his own.
Xal'zereth's detonation had unleashed a supernova of pure mana surging outward. And while he was currently containing everything, it was beyond straining.
He had turned into the energy that had reduced the paragons into nothingness, but it was a force capable of obliterating anything shaped by form, bound by structure, or composed of elental substance.
But pure mana was not matter. It was essence. Unshaped. Unbound. Formless.
The elents destroy form. But pure mana has no form to destroy.
But yet the mana was still incredibly volatile, and he had to keep it bound and restrained until it stabilized and returned to a manageable state.
But this was the problem, he was containing a supernova. It was akin to a balloon attempting to contain an explosion from within. It was a miracle he was still in one piece.
'It's painful.' From within the expansive sky, Atticus's thoughts ran.
He had long since unleashed his will, casting it around his formless form like an ethereal armor, and the crimson glow of the energy containing the explosion had gotten thicker.
And yet, it was hell.
The energy thrashed inside him like a caged god, unrelenting. Every second felt like his body was being torn apart from the inside.
His powers had always been centered around action and overwhelming force.
And while his defensive abilities were far from weak, they were never designed to contain sothing like this.
A single crack, a single slip in control, and the energy would consu him, detonate outward, not just destroying him, but everything around him in a wave of annihilation.
But still, he endured.
"I'll help you, bond."
As Ozeroth's voice ca, a pulse of deep violet spread outward, like a curtain being drawn across the veil.
The explosion, the chaotic thrashing from within, began to slow. The energy dwindled, and the once-wild containnt began to settle. Bit by bit, it shrank.
Soon enough, the supernova collapsed inward, folding into itself until it beca nothing more than a small, stable core of seething light, trapped within the veil.
And when the final flicker faded, Atticus's figure ford in the skies once more.
Then, the wind ceased. The air stilled. And the temperature dropped as his gaze fell upon the figures that had appeared just below him.
In the brief instant that Xal'zereth had detonated, before Atticus could fully contain the blast, the remnants of the dinsional world that held the military camp had crumbled.
The wish imbued by the life artifact, to prevent any outside interference, had been anchored to that very dinsional plane. And as the dinsion shattered, so too did the wish.
Instantly, the leaders of the Alliance were alerted. But even with their imnse capabilities and ans, not even they could arrive in re monts. They would still need at least a few seconds.
But it seed soone else had a different ans in mind.
Without warning, space distorted in front of the massive elental cocoon that held Carius and Drakthanion. The air folded in on itself, rippling like liquid glass before two figures materialized mid-air, hovering in silence.
They had identical features, wreathed in such overwhelming power that the space around them stilled completely.
Paragons of the Dinsari race.
The first figure's eyes flared.
"Carius!" Azrakan's voice resounded through the ruin as his gaze swept across the devastated remains of the camp, the shattered earth, dead recruits, and scattered survivors.
But he paid them no mind. His focus was only on one thing, his son.
The artifact they had given Carius had teleported them here. They had given it to Carius for him to use to summon them in dire monts.
And since the Dinsari had been the primary architects of the dinsional world that held the military camp, they could bypass its restrictions. But that hadn't been necessary, the dinsional plane was gone.
Azrakan's eyes narrowed sharply as his senses locked onto Carius, trapped within the culmination of elental forces, a cocoon. His expression darkened.
"Who dares!" His voice thundered, but before he could make a move, he froze. He felt it.
A sudden chill gripped his spine like an iron vice.
His gaze slowly lifted, and there, above him, hovered a force of nature, a presence so imnse it warped the very concept of a threat.
His eyes widened in disbelief.
'That face…'
There was no way he could forget it. The monster. The human boy who had plagued the Dinsari, who had humiliated their race during the Nexus event and beco a symbol of humanity's rise.
But now…
"Impossible…" Azrakan whispered, voice filled with nothing but shock.
But beside him, a deeper, colder voice followed.
"Tread carefully."
Azrakan turned sharply. His father's face was grave, more serious than he had ever seen it.
Eletantron Valarius, the mightiest among the Dinsari, had not taken his eyes off Atticus for even a second. His gaze was razor-sharp, narrowed to the extres.
He could feel it, the power radiating from the boy above.
After all these years, even after the wounds he had sustained during the Nexus event, Eletantron was still a being of imnse strength. Although not completely, he had healed.
Eletantron's presence was a force in itself, and his voice ca on like a thousand spatial echoes collapsing into one.
"Human Apex…" Eletantron spoke, the atmosphere becoming heavier. "What is the aning of this?"
Just then, space cracked apart as multiple warships tore through the skies, breaking through warp space and slowing as they descended in the distance.
From each warship, streaks of light surged down, shooting across the sky and arriving like descending stars. One after another, powerful figures erged.
The first of the leaders of the Alliance had arrived, and their lineup was expected. There wasn't a single trace of the lower races among them, and only a few mid-tier races.
The only ones who had made it in ti… were the superior races.
The leaders of the Nullite, Lucendi, Regenerari, Obliteri, Evolari, Requiem, Transmutari, Vampyros, Drakon, and Demon races descended one after another, each casting their gaze upon the devastation with different expressions.
And they arrived just in ti to hear Eletantron's voice directed toward Atticus.
Their gazes turned upward, toward the figure floating above it all.
And then a wave of pure shock slamd into their minds.
That was… Atticus Ravenstein?
Had he been the one responsible for all this destruction?
Their thoughts sharpened instantly, eyes narrowing, mana flaring. But before any of them could speak, Atticus spoke.
His voice rang across the skies as a judgnt.
"Carius Valarius. Drakthanion Ignisyth."
"Both betrayed the Alliance by colluding with the Obsidian Order."
The mont those words left his lips, the tension in the air spiked. A deafening silence followed.
"Their actions killed millions. Injured millions more. And forever scarred the lives of those ant to be the future of this Alliance."
A killing intent surged like a tidal wave from Atticus, slamming into every being present, freezing even the strongest for an instant.
"I sentence them to death." His words dropped like a bomb.
"And anyone who stands in my way…"
His eyes burned with terrifying clarity.
"…will share their fate."
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