Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Sky Blossom City

"Aqualas, where are you going? The Stone Supreme is still inside my body!"

Veerott cried out in panic. He had been waiting for Aqualas to expel Petra from his body. Instead, to his utter disbelief, she emerged from one of his body orifices as a stream of mist and fled.

For a brief moment, Veerott felt strangely abandoned.

"Relax," Aqualas replied aloud as she sped toward the basement of the TSR Tower. "Your resistance to the Stone Rule has increased considerably. There’s very little she can do to you now."

Then she added matter-of-factly, "Keep her busy. I’ll go kill Bloodette in the meantime."

Listening to the confidence in her voice as she abandoned him, Veerott froze. Even Petra momentarily paused inside his body. The statement was so absurdly Aqualas that neither knew how to respond.

As far as Aqualas was concerned, her original objective had never changed. She had intended to kill Bloodette from the very beginning. The death of Southern Hope had only strengthened her resolve. Now that she knew Petra could no longer seriously threaten Veerott, there was even less reason to delay.

Of course, that didn’t mean she had given up on forcing Petra out of his body. Far from it. Yes, Veerott had developed considerable immunity to Petra’s stone rule during their prolonged battle. But Petra still possessed countless ways to kill someone from the inside. Aqualas knew that and so did Petra.

Which was precisely why Aqualas was being so loud about her intentions. She wasn’t simply talking to Veerott. She was baiting Petra. Bloodette was one of the few people Petra genuinely cared about. If Petra feared for Bloodette’s safety, she might abandon Veerott’s body and pursue Aqualas instead.

It was a crude plan. But sometimes the simplest bait worked best. Inside Veerott’s body, Petra fell silent. Aqualas didn’t slow down. Whether Petra took the bait or not, she fully intended to carry out her threat.

"Hey, Aqualas!" Seraphina suddenly called out. Her voice carried an urgency that immediately caught Aqualas’s attention. "Try your celestial rule domain again!"

Unlike everyone else, Seraphina hadn’t stopped thinking about the earlier anomaly, the failed activation of Ocean World. It bothered her far more than Petra’s infiltration. A celestial rule domain wasn’t some ordinary ability that failed randomly. Especially not for a Supreme being.

If it wasn’t Aqualas, then either something was interfering with it or someone was. And Seraphina had a sinking feeling that the answer to that mystery lay with the late Southern Hope.

"No, I can’t. I’m unable to sense celestial force at all," Aqualas answered without giving it much thought and continued rushing toward the city.

Her words, however, struck Seraphina like lightning. Unable to sense celestial force at all. Seraphina’s eyes widened as a grim possibility surfaced in her mind. One so terrifying that the color drained from her face.

Meanwhile, Aqualas’s threat had achieved its intended effect. Petra abandoned Veerott’s body without hesitation. A cloud of stone dust and sand erupted from his orifices and shot after Aqualas at incredible speed.

Just as Aqualas had predicted, Petra chose Bloodette. The moment Petra left his body, Veerott immediately felt the difference. Thanks to his resilient Viltronian physique, the stiffness in his organs receded. His body felt lighter, healthier, and alive.

Without wasting a second, Veerott flexed his physique. His muscles contracted with tremendous force. The blood staining his skin, hair, and clothes was blasted away in an instant, leaving him clean as though he had never been injured.

He rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck preparing to pursue Petra.

"Veerott, grab Aqualas! We’re getting out of here now!" Seraphina suddenly barked an order leaving no room for discussion. The panic and urgency in her voice was unmistakable. There was fear in her eyes, real fear.

Veerott had heard that tone from her only a handful of times in all the years they had known each other. He didn’t stop to ask why or argue, he simply moved.

The space shattered beneath his feet. With Viltronian flight and speed, he transformed into a blur. In an instant, he overtook Petra’s sand cloud. In the next, he reached Aqualas. Before she could protest, he grabbed her and reversed direction. The world blurred. A moment later, both appeared beside Seraphina.

With her friends next to her, Seraphina immediately activated all her teleportation cards, layers upon layers of spatial escape mechanisms activated simultaneously, just like before.

Just like when she had fled Southern Hope’s celestial rule domain mid mission and abandoned her squad of demigods behind. Though to be fair, Seraphina had at least improved. This time, she remembered to bring her friends.

Meanwhile, Petra changed the direction of the sand cloud with the help of celestial force and rushed toward the trio.

The cloud itself had taken on her rough silhouette. From a distance, it looked like a giant sand giant sprinting across the battlefield, its body constantly collapsing and reforming as countless grains swirled within it.

She wasn’t about to let the people responsible for Southern Hope’s death leave so easily.

As the massive sand cloud rapidly closed the distance, Seraphina’s expression froze. She watched as layers upon layers of spatial escape mechanisms flickered weakly, like rows of candles being snuffed out one by one, as they died out completely. Every single teleportation card had failed, causing her heart to sink.

For all of them to fail simultaneously... Yet even then, her mind remained fixated on another question. Why could Petra still use celestial force while Aqualas couldn’t sense it at all? The discrepancy was too strange and too deliberate.

There was only one explanation and that was what finally confirmed her suspicions. Her worst fear was becoming reality. Realizing this, her face went pale.

"Seraphina, what’s going on?" The Ocean Supreme asked her in confusion. Aqualas didn’t even bother struggling free from Veerott’s grasp.

She had known Seraphina long enough to recognize genuine fear when she heard it. And right now, Seraphina sounded terrified. Yet that only made their current situation more absurd. If things were truly so urgent... Why were they doing nothing and just standing there? As though someone were patiently waiting for them to realize something.

"He isn’t dead. He’s alive and he’s playing with us."