Chapter 336: The Realm of Gods

Chapter 336: The Realm of Gods

Mid Morning - Late Summer : Remains of The Dungeon of Colossus | Western Sirathan Mountains

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"Grace." My cold tone echoed through space, regardless of the flow of time, as I matched the gaze of the cloudy figure in front of me. "How well can you clean a soul..."

Not giving her time to respond, I instantly wrapped us both in a gate before releasing us in the void. *vwoop* Even with divinity slowing time to a near halt, with the space mana in my aura it happened almost instantaneously. "~H-huh?~"

Pulling my gaze off Grace, I finally looked around, expecting to see complete destruction and chaos in the wake of what I had done, but the scene that met my eyes was rather a field of color as if I was in the middle of a nebula, with countless speckles of souls mixed into it. -Seems like the void has eaten most of it.. hopefully it will still be enough...-

Slowly easing from her state of shock, Grace finally started looking around to see the mess before noticing the countless soul fragments. "~Are these...~"

"The fragmented souls of three ancients and three gods." Letting my aura flow unrestricted, I tried to keep tabs on everything around us, but it only made me feel unbelievably tiny, exposed, and anxious.

But Grace only continued. "~Three of the Valkyries?~" She mumbled before slowly floating out into the field of fragments, gazing at each, one at a time.

-So they really were the Valkyries...- I had learned quite a bit about them a couple of weeks prior from Hera when inquiring about Asgard and its gods. To keep things short, they were a group of thirteen goddesses that served beneath the main seats of Asgard, each with strength just below the likes of Magni, but predating all but Frigg and Odin. -Based on how they appeared so suddenly, I have to believe they were trapped in the dungeon somehow.. but that means the rest probably got away...-

However, that was a problem I would address another time. "~Do you want me to...~"

As Grace nervously turned back to look at me, I gave her a blunt stare. "If it's possible."

Slowly turning around to face the field of fragments again, she paused. "~It.. might be...~"

Compared to their souls originally, the void had consumed most of what there was, leaving countless tiny accumulations floating about. -But when it's all combined, it will put Father's soul just above one of the Valkyries...-

However, that was wishful thinking.

As Grace moved around, gently accumulating the countless fragments with a tiny, nearly invisible net stretching from her body, she split fragments into several groups before suddenly mixed them all and splitting them out again.

From what I could tell, it was part of the 'cleaning' process, expelling any sense of personality or identity the fragments may still carry, but.. "~For how long these fragments have been in the void.. they're filthy...~" Grace wore a slightly disgusted look as she continued to combine and split the fragments until one of the two pure white clouds was about three times the size of the other, and she flicked her fingers to launch it out into the void.

The contaminated fragments made up the majority. -That's all that's left, huh...- It was still plenty, enough for Father's soul to contend with most older ancients, but that meant the accumulation of fragments was larger than his soul itself.

"~This should be clean enough to avoid any changes to his ego or personality,~" she held out the small, fluffy cloud as she spoke, "~but I can't promise to know what will happen considering how much larger it is than his soul itself...~"

-But we also don't have a choice...- "That just means we need to take it one step at a time and feed it to him bit by bit." After waiting a moment to see if she would object, I engulfed us in a gate and returned us to reality. -It's a gamble.. but it's the best shot we have...- *vwoop*

*vwoom* Instantly being met with a wave of mana and the beaming morning light, I turned and confidently walked toward Father, with Grace quickly following suit.

She seemed a little uneasy, but after taking a moment to gather herself, her expression stiffened. "~Hooh.. the issue is we can only take things so slow; once you force the reserve to start forming, the clock will start...~"

I gave her a curious look as she floated up to me.

The aura of influence, on the other hand, was the area at which time was affected when one's divinity was manipulated. Within this aura, near the center, the time dilation would be strongest, and toward the edge, it would be weakest, effectively allowing you to manipulate the time of a space around you.

But this aura was unbearably small, only reaching the outer edge of my scales thanks to my mana veins.

However, that also meant if I put the flower in my body, I could freely manipulate it's time as I wished. -Right?-

But my theories told me otherwise. -Wait.. if I want to accelerate time.. isn't that what I'm doing now?- *vwoop* Quickly jumping into a gate to give myself a moment to think through the theories, I ran through everything I knew about divinity and did my best to try and understand it.

Currently, I believed I was slowing my divinity in order to slow time, tying the two together based off sensation, but isolated within the gate, I focused every ounce of brainpower on my divinity, and tried to 'slow' it. *vwoom*

-H..huh?- But rather than slow to a halt like I expected, its speed remained nearly completely constant, and rather than slowing down, it sped up by a nearly unnoticeable amount. -But I definitely...-

And that was when I finally looked at it from the outside.

When I slowed time around me, it meant that I was accelerating time for myself, and in turn, the divinity which flowed at a 'constant rate' in its own space would speed up by the time dilation between the observer, in this case, my brain, and my reserve.

The whole time I had it backward, believing divinity was a dial I was turning, when in fact, it was something I had never questioned existing.

It was a particle, not of space or matter, but of time.

-And that's why crystallized divinity is so stupidly strong...- Because while the particle wasn't matter and was so small it didn't have mass, it was frozen in time, making the only thing that could cut it be other divinity that had the same or a larger time dilation.

In an instant, the countless theories I had been cobbling together finally clicked into place.

The perfect joining of countless ideas and theorems.

All to form a piece of artwork...

A piece of artwork I would come to call the Realm of Gods.

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