Layla stood in the center of the ballroom, her presence serene yet authoritative.
She lifted her hand slowly, palm up, a gesture she didn’t need to make—purely for dramatic effect.
HUMMMM!!!
In that instant, her divinity unfurled, not in a blaze or violent surge, but in a calm, steady swell, like a tide quietly slipping over the shore.
It drifted outward, wrapping the grand venue in its gentle embrace before spilling far beyond, reaching the Stronghold and washing over every corner of Reality Nine in one seamless, invisible sweep.
Then she spoke.
Her voice was soft, almost gentle, but it carried the absolute weight of Truth itself.
"Mana.... it has never existed within Reality Nine."
The mont those words left her mouth.... the effect was instantaneous.
Across the grand hall, guests suddenly gasped and clutched at their chests.
A Sect Elder in ornate robes staggered backward, his face twisting in horror as the familiar flow of mana in his core simply... disappeared.
"What— what is this?!" he choked out, dropping to one knee.
Nearby, a Clan Leader who had been quietly channeling energy into a protective talisman cried out as the talisman shattered in his hand.
"She.... How—?!"
Screams began to spread in waves through the crowd, not prompted by the ominous tir hanging above their heads, but by a far more profound terror.
It was unmistakable what mana represented to nearly every being in the room—save for a rare few.
Stripped of mana, these entities were reduced to nothing more than advanced yet powerless races.
Near the balcony, a cluster of cultivators grasped at their throats, their breaths shallow and frantic, like n drowning in invisible waters, as the very air around them felt alien—devoid of the mana they had relied upon for their entire existence.
---
Beyond the venue, across the boundless expanse of Reality Nine, the sense of panic intensified.
In every domain, beings witnessed their talents, skills, and all that relied upon Mana unravel into nothingness.
Beast tars stood aghast as their bonds with beasts disintegrated, the once-loyal creatures reverting to feral instincts, stripped of power and scattering in disoriented flight.
While entire factions felt their intricate grand formations disband, the luminous runes dissolving into emptiness as the very foundation of mana was wrenched away.
That wasn’t all thought... as without mana how could the Reality itself function?
CRACK!!!!! CRACK!!!!!
The sky over the plane of existence splintered like shattered glass, with long, jagged cracks stretching across for light-years in every direction.
Mountains shuddered, and rivers of mana halted mid-flow, their courses reduced to dry, fractured channels.
Even the very fabric of reality itself began to split apart, spider-webbing outward as though a stone had been hurled against an imnse pane of glass.
Within the Venue.... even Ancestor Seeker stiffened visibly in her seat.
In this mont, her eyes widened for a fraction of a second — the first ti many had ever seen her caught off guard — as her own vast reserves of mana suddenly beca unreachable.
She clutched the armrest of her chair, her breath catching for a mont before she forced herself to remain composed.
’Ah, there it is....’ Layla thought as she watched everything fall into Chaos.
She smiled—soft, serene, completely in control—and added another truth as she spoke.
"Even without mana, Reality Nine remained stable and functioned normally. Mana was always... only accessible within this Hall."
Not even a mont after she spoke, the fracturing, it simply stopped.
The chaos outside the venue cald instantly, as if the Reality itself had been put on pause.
The plane stabilized completely as if soone had blinked things back into order, but mana was now completely locked away from the entire Reality — except inside the Grand Ball venue.
Layla’s voice echoed again, calm and resolute.
"Oh... and I almost forgot to ntion. This place never had any exits."
And with those last words, as the hall fell into a stunned, the four won made their way back to their thrones.
Guests looked at each other in horror, realizing they were now trapped inside the only place in Reality Nine where mana still existed.
Then, a small swirl light appeared near the center of the dais.
Unara materialized in her full form.
Her red-white hair floated as if caught in an invisible breeze, as she landed lightly on the edge of the raised platform.
She stretched her arms overhead with a lazy yawn, as though she had just woken from a nap, before scanning the crowd with bright, mischievous eyes.
She tilted her head, a playful smile curling her lips.
"No need to look so scared, everyone," she said, her voice light and almost teasing as she hopped down from the dais edge and walked a few steps forward, her bare feet silent on the polished floor.
"The event will still proceed in an orderly fashion. We’re not here to cause unnecessary panic... at least not yet."
A shaky voice broke the heavy silence, rising from sowhere in the middle of the crowd — a mid-ranked elder from one of the smaller sects, his complexion pale and his tone quivering with unease.
"So... what exactly are we here for?" he blurted out, the question slipping free before he could hold it back.
"If this isn’t just so kind of celebration, then what’s the real reason behind all this? Why bring us together like this?"
Unara’s grin grew even more impish as she tilted her head, her bright, playful eyes glancing toward the source of the voice.
"Oh? Getting straight to the point." She said, "That’s not a bad trait, you know."
She stepped forward at an unhurried pace, her bare feet silent against the gleaming floor as she spoke to the gathered hall.
"I think our lovely daughter, Aurora, put it best. This occasion is many things," she said, her tone gentle yet effortlessly reaching every corner of the space.
"A celebration, a declaration, a warning, and a welco. And.... you’re here because the Ineffable Pantheon has decided it’s finally ti for Reality to et us in earnest."
She paused deliberately, allowing her words to resonate in the silence before continuing with a subtle note of playful provocation.
"Consider this the dawn of a new era. Whether that era manifests as a paradise or a tornt are matters determined entirely by each of you, is it not?"
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