Tristan Blackwood ran. The arrogant and untouchable Young Master of the Apex Realm was sprinting for his life like a frightened rat. He viewed mortal lives as nothing more than numbers on a ledger but now he was the one running.

Every step sent agonizing spikes of pain through his shattered jaw and broken ribs. He just needed to reach the spatial tear. He just needed to touch the edge of his Ancestor’s cosmic portal and he would be pulled back to the safety of the Higher Realms.

"Just a little further!" Tristan gasped. He extended his trembling and blood-soaked hand toward the swirling vortex of starlight.

"Whoosh!"

A sudden displacement of air ruffled Tristan’s pristine silk robes. He did not even see the movement. One microsecond the path to salvation was clear and the next a towering figure stood directly between him and the portal.

Arthur Sterling did not look exerted. He was not breathing heavily. He just stood there with the Ebonheart Sword resting lazily against his right thigh.

"Where are you going?" Arthur asked with a smooth and icy drawl. "You have not paid your severance fee."

"No... NO! ANCESTOR, SAVE ME!" Tristan shrieked. His voice broke as he scrambled backward and slipped on his own golden blood.

Above them, the colossal face of Patriarch Blackwood twisted in absolute panicked fury while peering through the jagged tear in reality.

"MORTAL! IF YOU STRIKE HIM, I WILL BURN EVERY SOUL IN YOUR DIMENSION TO CINDERS! I WILL WAGE A MULTIVERSAL WAR UPON YOUR EXISTENCE!"

Arthur slowly tilted his head and looked up at the sky-sized God. He did not show an ounce of fear. He looked at the Patriarch with the exact same expression a CEO gives a rival company threatening a lawsuit they both know they cannot afford.

"I welcome the war," Arthur stated plainly. "Bring your fleets. Bring your armies. Bring every single piece of overvalued aristocratic trash in your entire realm."

Arthur stepped forward and his heavy boot pinned Tristan’s leg to the marble floor. Tristan let out a pathetic wail and clawed desperately at the stone.

"Because," Arthur continued as his eyes locked onto the Patriarch’s. "I need the capital."

Arthur did not raise his sword high. He did not make a grand dramatic gesture. He simply flicked his wrist.

"Squelch."

The pitch-black blade of the Ebonheart Sword passed cleanly through Tristan Blackwood’s neck. There was zero resistance.

The Young Master’s head detached from his shoulders. It spun through the air for a brief second before hitting the gold-laced marble with a sickening thud.

It rolled to a stop right at the edge of the arena. His aristocratic face was frozen in an expression of absolute uncomprehending terror.

"NOOOOOOOO!" The Patriarch’s scream physically shook the cosmos and tore at the edges of the spatial portal.

Arthur ignored the screaming God. He reached down and plunged his bare hand directly into the bleeding stump of Tristan’s neck.

"CRACK!"

Arthur ripped his hand upward. He pulled a glowing and violently vibrating orb of concentrated golden energy from the corpse.

It was Tristan’s Ascendant Core. This was the foundational accumulation of decades of upper-realm resources, divine laws, and stolen mortal life-force.

[System Status]

↳ Target Tristan Blackwood eliminated.

↳ Item Acquired: Peak Ascendant Core.

↳ Consuming Core...

↳ 10,000x ROI Multiplier Activated!

Arthur threw his head back as the pure unadulterated essence of the core flooded his system. His veins glowed with blinding light.

The sheer density of the energy was staggering. It violently pushed his internal reserves to the absolute breaking point.

[System Alert]

↳ Host’s internal energy has been maximized.

↳ Critical Alert: Mandatory Dimensional Ascension countdown accelerated.

↳ Time remaining until forceful expulsion from The Mortal Domain: 1 Hour.

"One hour," Arthur muttered. He rolled his shoulders as the golden glow faded beneath his skin. He turned his back on the screaming Patriarch and walked away as the spatial tear finally began to close.

The talisman’s energy was entirely spent.

"I will find you, Arthur !" the Patriarch’s voice faded into a distant rumbling echo. "I will hunt you across the infinite void!"

The sky snapped shut. The dark bruised clouds of the Mortal Domain rolled back in and sealed the world off once more.

Arthur stood in the center of the ruined floating arena. Sylvia and Morwenna walked up to flank him. The Arch-Mage and the Demon Empress looked at him with a mixture of profound reverence and lingering shock.

He had just executed a God and declared war on the heavens. Yet he looked like he was ready for a coffee break.

"Emperor," Sylvia spoke softly. Her eyes flicked to the system interface only Arthur could see. She could feel the violent shifting instability of his aura. "The world is rejecting you. You are too heavy for this realm."

"I know," Arthur replied. He pulled out the glowing Apex Coordinate Crystal he had looted earlier. "The system is kicking me upstairs. But I am not leaving my assets unprotected while I am gone."

"System," Arthur commanded. "Activate the Dimensional Anchor. Use the two million points. Tie this entire rock to my personal system space."

[System Processing]

↳ Processing Dimensional Anchor...

↳ Deducting 2,000,000 System Points.

↳ Linking The Mortal Domain to Host’s personal void.

"BOOM!"

A massive invisible pulse of pure Order energy erupted from the ring on Arthur’s finger. It shot down from the floating arena and washed over the ruined Vanguard Bastion.

It swept across the oceans, the mountains, and the sprawling cities of the continent.

Every living being on the planet felt a sudden and profound shift in the air. The suffocating feeling of being watched by the Apex Realm vanished entirely.

The sky shimmered. A faint geometric grid locked into place across the atmosphere. Arthur had literally taken the planet off the multiversal grid and shoved it into his own back pocket.

If the Apex Realm wanted to glass the planet, they would have to break through Arthur’s own soul to do it.

Arthur looked down over the edge of the floating arena. Far below amidst the rubble of the academy, Caden Cross was looking up at him.

The boy was battered and entirely exhausted. However his eyes burned with a fierce protagonist loyalty. He had just watched Arthur shield their entire world.

Arthur dropped down from the arena and landed softly on the cracked marble mere feet from Caden.

"C-Commander," Caden stammered. He hurriedly tried to bow despite his broken ribs.

"Stand up, kid," Arthur ordered. Caden instantly straightened.

Arthur looked the boy up and down. Caden was a perfect self-sustaining battery. He was driven, righteous, and completely oblivious to the fact that his every struggle fueled Arthur’s empire. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"I am being transferred to the upper office," Arthur said. He tapped the side of Caden’s shoulder. "I am leaving this branch in your hands. You are the Vanguard now."

"Guard the realm. Hunt down the stragglers. Keep pushing your limits."

Caden’s eyes went wide with sheer awe. He was being entrusted with the safety of the world by a literal God.

"I will not fail you, sir! I swear it on my life!"

"I know you will not," Arthur smirked. He was already seeing the passive EXP rolling in from the boy’s sheer determination.

Arthur turned away and looked up. Sylvia and Morwenna gracefully dropped down from the arena to stand beside him.

The air around Arthur was beginning to violently warp. The physical laws of the Mortal Domain were screaming. They were trying to forcefully eject his mass from the dimension. Sparks of spatial lightning cracked around his boots.

"Hold on tight," Arthur said as he reached out.

Sylvia stepped to his right and wrapped her arms firmly around his waist. She pressed her face against his chest. Morwenna stepped to his left with her slender arms locking around his neck. Her abyssal aura intertwined with his.

"We are breaking the sky," Arthur declared.

He did not wait for the realm to push him out. He bent his knees and his Dimensional Breaker Physique flared with absolute unrestrained power.

"BOOM!"

Arthur launched himself upward. The kinetic force of his jump completely obliterated the Vanguard Bastion’s courtyard and turned the remaining marble into fine dust.

He shot into the air like a localized nuke. He carried the two most powerful women in the world with him.

They tore through the atmosphere at blinding speed. The sky did not just open for them. It physically shattered like a pane of glass.

[System Status]

↳ Initiating Dimensional Ascension.

↳ Target Destination: The Apex Realm, Prismatic Domain.

Arthur grinned as the world faded to a blinding chaotic white.