Chapter 427: One Slumbers, One Wanders

Chapter 427: One Slumbers, One Wanders

Ramsa was hovering in the vastness of space, far away from Earth, when she saw a purple flash in the distance swell into a colossal star of obsidian, immolated in soul flames. In that instant, a spark of awe appeared in her eyes.

Somehow, even with its dim and peaceful presence, the star seemed even grander than the sun she represented. The sun was an arbiter of life, but this black star was an arbiter of creation. She could barely believe the heights that her child had reached, but the more she looked at it, the more she thought it fit him.

It was like her mind was automatically associating two shapes that complemented each other. She had never witnessed anything of that sort on a living being before.

She smiled and clasped her hands. "I indeed saw your signal..." She whispered and her wings were unfurled. Her golden wings shone under the sunlight and began to grow bigger. If one looked from the right distance, her six wings would be perfectly encased in a circle formed by the sun.

Solar Energy pooled around her terribly fast, and even the sun itself seemed to respond to her call as its light blinked faintly. Though, Ramsa actually wondered if her Domain was simply answering her command... or if it was bowing down to the Great Star in front of them.

* * *

Soma spread his arms whilst floating far above the Moon and Earth. He smiled at the emergence of the Obsidian Star and glanced at Ramsa's location where he could see the metaphorical orange flames mixing with the white radiance of raw solar energy.

"Aah... I must deliver as well," he muttered to himself and both his eyes and hair began to glow; a light blue hue radiating from their silver color. On cue, the moon began to tremble and the smaller versions scattered nearby also tilted.

Lunar energy erupted from Soma as sweat flowed down his face. As Rakna had once been told, a Full Moon is akin to a spell cast on the world. Normally, it occurs following the laws of nature, but when forced to do so, the cost must be paid like any other magic.

Soon enough, one of the smaller moons under his control completed its spin and the first Full Moon was active. Instantly, two surges of lunar energy occurred: one in Soma himself, and the other right below the giant Obsidian Star.

The Moon God chuckled as two more moons were spun into place. "I hope you're happy..."

* * *

"There we go," Rakna grinned as his body began to expand, his attributes tripling as the first of the full moons' glow reached him. His tails grew longer as they sucked in lunar energy and at about the same time, a giant but harmless beam of sunlight swallowed the Earth.

The Obsidian Star's flames eagerly started absorbing it while Rakna's wings grew larger, hoarding the solar energy and promptly accelerating all rates of regeneration; especially his soul power.

"Now, everything's ready," the werewolf looked up at his Manifestation. His summoned wolves all rejoined around him without needing to be ordered to and before the demons could raid him, he manipulated the lunisolar energy to ignite his aura-augmented soul power.

"Burn," he spoke and in the blink of an eye, the Obsidian Star became dazzling. Rakna poured every ounce of lunar and solar energy he could from his wings and tails into it.

❮ ◈ ❯

Lunisolar Dominion has leveled up!

Lunisolar Dominion has leveled up!

...

Wisdom of The Soul has leveled up!

❮ ◈ ❯

Soma and Ramsa's power continued to flow in, with more Full Moons peaking every second, and in no time at all, the Obsidian Star turned into a white sun half-encased in silver crystals.

"{...you are incorrigible,}" Fray muttered as he stood inside his library while the entire Soul Realm quaked from literally being squeezed dry; the Soul Sea was receding, the stars oscillating, and the flower petals aflame.

The Stellar Sage's Aura made sure to maintain the potency of the Soul Power by overworking the other Internal Powers, including large amounts of mana. And the Sunshine of The Ten Suns kept replenishing his reserves in a loop.

"32%. That's the percentage of people they lost," the werewolf stated and Soma winced.

"Quite a lot," he sighed. "They have always had higher population than us but turning into demons lowered their birth rate a lot. The number of years it will take to make up for this loss..."

Rakna huffed as he sensed several portals form on the surface of the Earth after he had gotten rid of the 'miasma' blocking all communication. It seemed Lilith and the other commanders had been quick to notice it.

"More importantly, what are we going to do with that?" The werewolf inquired, shouldering Sonata with a pop of his neck, not even bothering to clarify what he was talking about since there was no way to mistake it. "If my Lunisolar Star couldn't purify that thing, it doesn't bode well."

Soma hummed. "We could try a Ritual. With all three of us combining our forces, we could try and erode its defenses bit by bit."

"..." Ramsa remained silent, her eyes locked onto the scarlet land.

On the other hand, Rakna snickered. "Yeah, right. How much do you believe in those words?"

The Moon God smiled helplessly. "Not much."

"Frankly, I considered actually blowing up the planet and not just purifying it," the werewolf added with a scowl. "But then I realized, I might just be prematurely opening the 'cage' of something... To be exact, my instincts told me not to."

Soma's expression twitched. "If it's your instinct speaking, it's not good..."

"Nope."

"...the worst has yet to come."

Rakna snorted in amusement at that and then quietly waved his hand, calling all the purple ashes left behind by his flames to his hand. When he was about to absorb them back, he stiffened when a crackle echoed in his mind once again.

'Outer... Puppet...' He reiterated the first words, which he had already heard the last time. The new ones came afterward, 'Dreamer... Family... Lost... Sleep...' There was one last word, but the moment he tried to listen to it, a headache assailed him and he reflexively clenched his head.

"Rakna?!" Ramsa's worried voice sounded as he noticed the blood trickling down his nose.

"That... wasn't the Fiend," the werewolf muttered to himself with a frown.

* * *

At the same time, unbeknownst to Rakna, an unknown creature stirred from within a 'bottomless pit'. In a place without matter or even any form of light, a hazy shape shifted, and dozens of eyes of different sizes, colors, and patterns opened with a snap.

They looked back and forth in all directions until settling on a certain artificial dimension, one that appeared as a small orb of energy in a sea of millions more. Each of them was tinier than even the smallest of the thing's eyes.

After a short moment, the hidden creature closed its eyes once again.

* * *

"...something changed..." A feminine voice whispered inside the emptiness of Meuro. Glowing eyes full of geometrical intricacies fluttered and their owner stopped hugging herself, turning her head toward a place that didn't even exist on a physical level.

"The Dreamer... moved?" She muttered, more curious than anything else. And as her perception dug deeper into the matter, she paused.

"...cousin?"

The Téras Empress... began to wander.