The sky above the Blackwood Estate was no longer a breathtaking canvas of violet and gold nebulae. It was black.

But it wasn’t the darkness of night. It was the suffocating shadow of thousands of massive star-forged warships blotting out the light.

Arthur Sterling stood on the grand balcony of the estate’s highest spire. His dark coat whipped in the violent winds generated by the fleet’s descent. Sylvia, Morwenna, and Lyra flanked him and looked up at the massive fleet.

"This is bad," Lyra muttered as her violet eyes frantically darted between the colossal dreadnoughts. "That’s the combined Vanguard of the Silverleaf, Ironhorn, and Sunforge families. And that massive ship in the center? That’s the Silverleaf flagship."

"Let me guess," Arthur said lazily and leaned against the balcony railing. "It has a really big gun."

"It’s the Genesis Cannon," Lyra corrected. Her voice trembled. "It doesn’t shoot energy Arthur. It shoots localized gravity wells. It’s capable of erasing this entire island from orbit. They aren’t going to send troops down here to fight us. They’re just going to glass the continent."

"Cowards," Morwenna sneered. Her newly acquired Divine abyssal aura leaked from her skin and corroded the marble railing. "Just let me fly up there. I will rip their ships apart with my bare hands."

"No," Arthur said and raised a hand. "You don’t fight a tank with a knife. You just take away their gas."

Arthur reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the Prismatic Orb.

The multi-faceted sphere glowed with intense spatial energy and warped the air around his fingers. He had looted it from Lyra and now it was time to put the company’s new asset to work.

"System," Arthur commanded. "Link the Prismatic Orb to my Divine Lord core. Feed it the Primordial Flame."

[Ding!]

[Linking Artifact: Prismatic Orb...]

[10,000x ROI Multiplier Activated on spatial generation!]

"VRRRRMMMM!"

The orb in Arthur’s hand screamed and emitted a blinding kaleidoscopic light.

Arthur pushed his vast hyper-dense mana into the artifact and forced the Primordial Flame into its core. The orb couldn’t handle the sheer volume of power. It didn’t just activate. It violently erupted.

A wave of transparent rippling spatial energy exploded outward from the balcony.

It expanded at the speed of light, shooting up into the atmosphere and stretching across the horizon. In a fraction of a second, the entire sky was swallowed by a massive invisible dome.

Arthur had just generated a pocket dimension large enough to envelop the entire Apex Council fleet.

[Pocket Dimension Established.]

[Host possesses Administrator Rights within this dimension. Please set the foundational rules.]

Arthur looked up at the thousands of glowing warships. Their weapon systems hummed as they prepared to fire the Genesis Cannon. He smiled like a dark predatory shark preparing to gut his competition.

"Rule one," Arthur whispered. "Disable all external technological weapons. Kill the engines."

[Rule Applied: Technological Nullification.]

The effect was instantaneous and catastrophic.

High above, the glowing thrusters of three thousand warships abruptly died. The humming energy shields vanished. The massive terrifying glow of the Genesis Cannon sputtered and faded into nothingness.

The Apex Realm relied entirely on their advanced magical technology, their starlight engines, and their automated defense arrays. Without them, the ships were just millions of tons of dead metal hovering in the sky.

Gravity took over.

"Brace yourselves," Arthur said casually.

"CRACK! BOOM! KRAA-THOOM!"

It rained warships. Thousands of colossal dreadnoughts plummeted from the sky and slammed into the celestial city below. Massive towers of crystal were instantly crushed.

The ground shook violently as ship after ship impacted the estate. They plowed massive trenches through the manicured gardens and shattered the gold-laced courtyards. The sound of rending metal and screaming alarms echoed across the floating island.

Arthur watched the devastation with a look of absolute boredom. The vaunted Apex Council, the untouchable Gods of the multiverse, had just been grounded by a single rule change.

"They rely too much on their tech," Arthur scoffed and shook his head. "Their actual combat skills must be dull as dirt. You strip away their fancy toys, and they’re just heavy rocks falling from the sky."

Down in the courtyards, the hatches of the crashed warships were forcefully kicked open. Thousands of elite Apex warriors, stripped of their ship’s weaponry, began pouring out into the ruins. They drew their physical broadswords and halberds. They looked confused, terrified, and furious.

Arthur turned to his three women. Sylvia’s icy eyes were gleaming with lethal intent. Morwenna’s claws were fully extended and dripped with void matter. Even Lyra had drawn a pair of jagged starlight daggers. Her fear was completely replaced by the intoxicating thrill of Arthur’s absolute dominance.

"I have cleared the runway," Arthur told them and gestured down at the thousands of grounded Gods. "Go farm my EXP. Leave the commanding officer for me."

"With pleasure Emperor," Sylvia purred.

The three women leapt over the balcony and plummeted toward the chaotic battlefield below.

Arthur watched his system interface light up like a slot machine. The moment Sylvia froze a squad of Ironhorn soldiers, the numbers ticked up. When Morwenna cleaved a dozen Sunforge knights in half, the multiplier went wild. Lyra danced through the shadows, slitting throats and looting spatial rings before the bodies even hit the ground.

[Ding!]

[Bound Target ’Sylvia Thorne’ has eliminated 40 Apex Warriors.]

[Bound Target ’Morwenna’ has eliminated 75 Apex Warriors.]

[10,000x ROI Multiplier Activated! Host is receiving massive combat insight and passive energy.]

Arthur closed his eyes and savored the warm dense rush of power flooding his meridians. It was a beautiful business model.

"WHO DID THIS?!" a voice roared. It boomed with enough raw divine power to shatter the remaining glass of the spire.

Arthur opened his eyes. Down in the center courtyard, a man had just kicked the massive steel door off a crashed flagship. He was tall, clad in pristine silver armor, and radiated an aura of pure fury. He held a glowing silver longsword.

The Divine King of the Silverleaf family. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The King looked up. His blazing silver eyes locked directly onto Arthur standing on the balcony. The King’s eyes widened as he sensed the sheer density of the man above him.

"You..." the Divine King hissed. His voice echoed with horror and rage. "You are not a native of the Higher Realms! You are an anomaly!"

The King didn’t hesitate. Realizing the sheer threat Arthur posed, the Divine King raised his sword and slammed his free hand against his own chest.

His silver armor turned a bloody corrupted crimson. He was activating a suicidal blood-burn technique, sacrificing his own lifespan to temporarily push his power past its absolute limit.

The King shot into the air like a bloody missile and aimed directly for the balcony.

Arthur sighed and pulled his hands out of his coat pockets. The Ebonheart Cube resting on his shoulder instantly flattened and extended. It snapped into the form of a pitch-black longsword.

"System," Arthur said as the Primordial Flame ignited along the edge of his blade. "Let’s teach this King a lesson in market dominance."