The Divine right of Deities lay in how they were able to condense an assortment of concepts beyond typical Divine combatants.

They were able to condense their Broader Existences to the point where solid, mystical matter called Fated Reefs formed, allowing them to create worlds and metaphysical territories in the great void.

Some were able to concentrate Amras to the point where it became extremely destructive to any and all forces, depending on the user – Zu’sse.

It didn’t stop there. There were tiers among Deities. The stronger ones, those who, on a general level, were approaching the league of the Primeval Deities, were able to transcend three-dimensionality. By increasing their Ascension Status – the depth and width of their Broader Existence – they were able to become a higher-dimensional being. This was only one of the ways to accomplish this, but all the same, it allowed Deities to transcend to a point where they interacted with all three-dimensional matter differently, space, in particular.

Ciumin had reached this level upon crafting a Higher Fundamental Barter that allowed him to steal the faith of living beings on many other worlds, far and far away from Aigas. He had reached the limit of what he could absorb from them all, but he retained the benefits of what he had achieved before the process ceased entirely.

<This is it! This is how a broader, greater being takes in the world!> he thought to himself as the darkness and space around him began folding, slipping away from his body like oversized clothes. He could choose not to be restricted by things existing within three dimensions. For how powerful the Labyrinth of the Yoke and its mechanics were, they did not transcend the three-dimensional space.

This was why Skullius had not needed the Voiding Key to slip into the Labyrinth!

Indeed, he also had full access to such power.

It was possible for all kinds of odd beings in Reality to passively acquire snippets of the |Greater Cosmic Law|. One of these ways was by climbing up the ladder of Divinity. The Liches of Deadmanland had seen their fair share of such beings since they roamed Reality the most out of all things as a collective. That was why Souran had not been surprised when Kenno had gotten an inkling about Eklhesh – an aspect of the Law governing space and distance.

As it happened, Ciumin was tapping into it as well.

He strengthened his influence on the world around him as Skullius watched, appraising his powers. Suddenly, the folds and seals all around the Labyrinth fell away, and the expansive layout of the glorified prison appeared as four hundred miniature cages all around the Deity and the Authority of the Null Verse.

’So, this is one of the uses of this power, huh?’ thought Skullius, taking in the view.

Nothing was hidden away from his or Ciumin’s eyes now. He could see everything within the Labyrinth.

The first three Layers were reserved for low-level prisoners, each of them divided into little rooms, with yokes binding them, like Sila had been back then.

The Hall of Fulgardt was in the middle, with all its immortal inhabitants. Skullius could see Arch-Mage Remos and the rest. Better yet, he could see the divisions between their blood cells, their muscles, and even the compositions of their souls. He could see the dimensions of their mana, each individual strand of its potential, and even more...

They were open books to him.

Below the Hall were several more layers with high-value prisoners – those Fulgardt had captured during the Second Grand War and a few he had stolen from other worlds. It was a collection of the strong.

’Could Sila’s old comrades be among those?’ Skullius thought, and he continued searching through the layers.

Finally, he saw Fulgardt’s body – the one he’d been met with right before he took possession of the Fruit of World Myths all the way back then. It was Fulgardt’s old Divine vessel. Skullius realized only now that the reason it had looked so battered was because, as Fulgardt had said, he had been blasted to near extinction by one of the Primeval Deities. The reason it was even somewhat restored was because of the mechanics of the Labyrinth: those who challenged the Labyrinth and made it to the place where it was stowed, were stripped of the earnings of Insurgent Magnus power they absorbed along the way. That power was then used to repair it somewhat.

’He was serious. Once it fully recovered, he meant to have it destroy Aigas.’ Skullius found that funny. How petty.

Below the walking corpse, on the very last layer of the Labyrinth of the Yoke, was Fulgardt’s younger brother, bound by bonds of darkness.

That was also where Fulgardt was.

He was reflected in all four hundred Labyrinths around Ciumin and Skullius, and in all of them, he was watching them. He couldn’t see the way they could, but he could sense what they were doing using the darkness in the Labyrinth.

<What are you waiting for?> Ciumin addressed the Immoral first. With his new state of existence, his voice could reach the Immoral no matter what.

Fulgardt didn’t answer. He wasn’t even surprised.

True to his standard of living, he had already adapted to every recent development – to Skullius’ new powers; to Ciumin’s ascension as a Deity; to the fact that his enemies existed on a higher plane than he did.

He’d officially become the weakest of the three, but he wasn’t daunted.

Skullius was looking forward to what Fulgardt came up with. For now, however, he turned to Ciumin.

"This is everything, right? I graciously waited for you to get your cards in a row," he said.

<You have my thanks...> said Ciumin... and he ignited his Amras into Zu’sse. Suddenly, he became an even more horrifying existence than Quintess had ever been. The Labyrinth split in half, four hundred times over from the sheer, insurmountable pressure of his Zu’sse!

<...and my condolences!>

Skullius grinned, even as blood began trickling from his nose. Even for him, Zu’sse pouring from a fourth-dimensional being was too much to take... without guarding to his absolute best.

"Good," he said to the Deity. "To make things fair, I’ll fight on similar terms with the nature of your powers. Wouldn’t want to overwhelm you before you exhaust everything you can conceive of with your abilities."

Ciumin flared from within, but he seethed when Skullius continued.

"I’m merciful, but not patient. I’ll give you five seconds to give it a go with everything you’ve got," he said, swiping the blood from his nose and surging his Amras. "Then you die."

<You’re only temporarily a broader being like me, aren’t you? Yet you have the nerve to speak to me that way?> Ciumin made the space around them twist – the Labyrinths twisted into knots, cracking and shattering. <Know your place.>

Skullius laughed. One of his hands swiped above his head, and darkness lathered Tycha in an instant before causing it to vanish from sight. The darkness hid things, after all.

"Survive this, and I will consider it."

...And it was then when Ciumin felt the absolute approach of death, disregarding everything, every power he had obtained!