HPxLOTM: A Wizard's Path to Divinity-Chapter 719: Opening the Barrier

At this moment, within the star-filled void beyond the barrier, numerous colossal Outer Deities lingered around the rift, raging as they attempted to tear it open once more.

Grisha Adam and the Evernight Goddess—these two so-called "Half-Great Old Ones"—were, of course, utterly incapable of blocking them by sheer power alone. What truly infuriated the Outer Deities was that the pair had cleverly made use of both the barrier itself and the power of the Sefirot. This left the Outer Deities seething with hatred and fury yet utterly helpless, able only to prowl and roar outside the barrier.

A massive tree composed of flesh and countless grotesque tumour-like growths abruptly burst forth from the barrier itself. Its trunk was entwined with innumerable thorn-covered vines, each bearing a twisted, ferocious face, along with terrifying patterns so dreadful that even gods dared not gaze upon them directly.

The Mother Tree of Desire had struck first.

Those vines lunged like vicious venomous serpents, drilling frenziedly toward the crack in the barrier. Yet the instant they made contact, the immense backlash of power instead inflicted severe damage upon the Mother Tree of Desire itself.

Even so, it did not retreat.

Whether it was its instinctive, bone-deep craving for the Sefirot within Earth, or the faint yet persistent mysterious voice echoing deep within its consciousness, all of it urged the Mother Tree of Desire to seize this once-in-an-epoch opportunity at any cost.

Next, a gigantic, ash-white soft-bodied worm emerged—its surface flickering with illusory light, its form resembling an enormous planet. This was Primordial Hunger.

Immediately after, a thorn ring-shaped arcane symbol descended—profound, complex, seemingly in constant motion, composed of indescribable substances. This was the Circle of Inevitability.

Following that, the Inextinguishable Ravings, the Goddess of Fate, the Supernova Dominator, the Monarch of Decay, and other Outer Deities launched their own all-or-nothing, life-or-death assaults against the crack in the barrier.

With a resonant hum, the Mother Goddess of Depravity—who had previously chased Christine deep into the cosmos—once more transformed into a surging tide of blood and rolled back in. This time, however, She swept past the location of the crack without stopping, heading in an entirely different direction—

At this moment, within the Astral World, Cheek—Mirrored Original Creator—stood within the decaying divine kingdom of the God of Combat. Looking up at the heavens, She smiled faintly.

"Heh. Breaking this barrier from the outside is indeed extremely difficult," She said softly. "But from the inside? That's much simpler."

"One crack isn't enough? Then I'll open another one for you."

As the words fell, She once again transformed into a colossal gorgon. Raising a finger, She rapidly condensed the power of Apocalyptic Chaos, directing it straight at the barrier.

"Distortion!"

A figure clad in black armour and wearing a jewelled crown flashed into existence. Roselle appeared, first twisting the trajectory of Cheek's attack so that it was redirected toward himself. Then, with a snap of his fingers, he further distorted the surrounding region, forcibly peeling it away from the Astral World.

Unfortunately, the separated region was annihilated in the very next instant by Cheek's reclaimed control over Apocalyptic Chaos.

Cheek's long, narrow, alluring eyes fixed unblinkingly on the Black Emperor, who had repeatedly bribed, weakened, and thrown reality into confusion around Him. In a soft, coquettish voice, He said, "Roselle, I know you. I've heard that you have a rather…unique interest in witches. Perhaps I could satisfy even more of your desires~"

Roselle's face darkened instantly.

Slander! This is pure slander! This dead freak is slandering me!

"Die, you damn ball-loving corpse hermaphrodite!"

At once, he took control of the order and rules surrounding Cheek, rendering Her body completely immobile, as though shackled in place by invisible chains. Then, Roselle carried out another distortion at the level of rules themselves—

He distorted the very reality of Cheek's continued existence, forcing Her to die on the spot.

Snap.

Cheek's body shattered and vanished.

Yet in the very next second, countless layers of endless silver mirrors materialised, hanging throughout the entire region. Within each mirror stood Cheek in a different pose. Then all the mirrors spread outward and fused together, transforming into a deep, mirror-bound world that rapidly devoured reality itself.

Roselle attempted to distort the speed at which the mirror world consumed its surroundings, but the results were minimal. With a sweep of his hand, he pulled a longsword from the void—one grown from the fusion of order and chaos. As he swung it, the blade expanded into a towering phantom thousands of meters long, slamming viciously into the mirror world.

In an instant, the enormous silver mirror shattered.

But shattering was not the end.

Every fragment transformed into a dim vortex devoid of rules and order, scattering throughout every corner around Roselle, blocking the path between him and Cheek—an insurmountable divide.

Cheek stood calmly on the other side, lips curved into a faint smile, preparing to once again damage the barrier.

At that very moment, a scroll-like projection—seemingly thin and flat—unfurled between Roselle and Cheek. The scroll carried within it the enlightenment and development of civilisation and human society across different classes, bearing the weight and breadth of tens of thousands of years of history.

It formed a road leading straight to the opposite side.

Roselle raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Stiano, you're quite something," he said. "You were at odds with me just a few days ago, and now you're my ally."

The God of Steam and Machinery, Stiano, stepped forward with a massive hammer in hand, his expression cold and indifferent.

"I never intended to be your enemy."

"Tch."

Roselle raised his middle finger at him, then stepped onto the road formed by the scroll and charged straight toward Cheek. The black sword of order and chaos in his hand—enhanced, magnified, and distorted by multiple overlapping effects—shot toward Cheek at a speed surpassing light itself.

"Again!"

———

The Outer Deities' desperate, all-out assaults caused the sutured crack to show signs of collapsing once more.

Adam stood beneath the rift. Radiance from Genesis flowed across His priestly robes as an exquisite quill pen suddenly took shape in His hand. He swiftly wrote characters from Hebrew that predated the First Epoch directly into the void. With the fall of each letter, a star detonated within the depths of the cosmos, unleashing terrifying shockwaves that continuously battered the Outer Deities.

At the Evernight Goddess's feet, a black river abruptly began to flow. The starlight reflected by Her black gauze dress scattered dazzling brilliance across the surface of the water. She bent slightly and retrieved from the river a black notebook formed from coiling feathered serpents.

Grisha Adam paused in His writing. Gently, He tossed the quill, which landed upon one of the Evernight Goddess's arms. He gave a slight nod, and She used the quill—condensed from the Chaos Sea and the authority of the Visionary—to write upon the "Death Note" formed from the River of Eternal Darkness, inscribing one Outer Deity's honorific name after another:

"Mother Goddess of Depravity…

Primordial Hunger…

Inextinguishable Ravings…"

Each stroke was written painfully slowly. Black veins bulged beneath the skin of Her face and hands, as though She were enduring agony that even a god could not withstand. Part of this suffering came from the pollution and corrosion of Outer Deity power, but the greater cause lay in the backlash from forcibly accommodating the authorities and Sefirot of three major pathways within such a short span of time.

Even so, the written honorific names could not inflict any fundamental harm upon the Outer Deities. At best, they could only temporarily interrupt the rhythm of their attacks, buying time for the barrier to be fully repaired.

The Eternal Blazing Sun, the Lord of Storms, the Ancient Dragon of Wisdom, and the God of Steam and Machinery also pushed their divine authorities to the absolute limit. Blazing flames, an expanding sun, lightning and storms, skies filled with mechanical constructs—

All of it was brought to bear in a desperate effort to block the Outer Deities' intrusion.

As for Edward, he knew all too well that as a Sequence 1, he was fundamentally incapable of playing any decisive role in this battle. Even if he reversed [Degeneration] and temporarily ascended to Sequence 0, at best he could only achieve a one-for-one exchange like before when facing Cheek—and there were eight or nine Outer Deities.

That said, it wasn't as though he did nothing.

He manifested one illusory door after another, layering and assembling them into a vast obstruction beneath the rift of the barrier—

These illusory doors were not formed purely from abilities. Each door was, in fact, a Worm of Star. The first few hundred were manageable, but as the process continued, every additional Worm of Star extracted became a torment inflicted upon his body, soul, and mind alike.

He could only dull the pain through grafting, soothing, and similar methods. Yet the unrestrained separation of Worms of Star did not merely cause pain—it drained his very vitality.

His hair gradually lost its lustre, turning sallow and withered, then grey, and finally snow-white. His skin shrivelled and slackened. Waves of stabbing pain radiated from his sunken chest, making even breathing an arduous task.

"No…there's still one-third left."

Edward forced his increasingly blurred eyes open, staring at the portion of the rift that remained uncovered. Gritting his teeth, he once again separated more than ten Worms of Star, transforming them into illusory doors and casting them skyward.

But at this moment, his body, spirit, and spirituality could no longer endure it.

Suddenly, a powerful and vigorous surge of life force poured continuously into his body, rapidly restoring the vitality and spirituality that had been completely drained.

He turned his head and saw the Earth Mother—or rather, Lilith—gripping a dark-brown wooden staff as She infused him with life force. Upon Her giant, voluptuous body, flowers, grass, and mushrooms withered and died in rapid succession.

"Thank you."

Edward bowed slightly and once more began relentlessly extracting life force to separate Worms of Star and create illusory doors. They spread like an inverted sea of stars hanging from the firmament. Each door shimmered with faint starlight, and behind them came low whispers of time and space, as though countless worlds were colliding and intertwining beyond their thresholds.

"It's still not enough…"

Edward clenched his teeth. Even as Lilith's life force continued to pour into him, the damage to his very origin could not be repaired. His fingers trembled slightly, the starlight at his fingertips dimming as though it might extinguish at any moment.

"Hold on!" the Earth Mother Lilith's voice sounded by his ear.

Her body had already begun to wither. Cracked lines appeared across what had once been plump flesh, like parched land splitting under drought. If She were whole, this would never have happened—but not long ago, She had been cleaved in two by the God of War and was still grievously injured.

Outside the rift, the Outer Deities were tearing at the barrier in a frenzy. The Mother Tree of Desire's vines, Primordial Hunger's gaping maw, the symbols of Circle of Inevitability…Their attacks crashed down like a violent storm, relentlessly battering the barrier's weakest points.

Adam's pale-golden eyes fixed steadily upon Edward. After a moment, He let out a deep sigh. His hands wrote rapidly in the void once more, Hebrew letters transforming into golden chains that wrapped tightly around the edges of the rift.

The Evernight Goddess's six arms moved in unison. The black waters of the River of Eternal Darkness turned into countless fine threads, winding themselves around Adam's golden chains.

"Mother Goddess of Depravity…Primordial Hunger…Inextinguishable Ravings…"

The Evernight Goddess's voice was like a whisper from the River Styx itself, growing heavier and deeper with each name. Cracks had already spread across the hem of Her black gauze dress, starlight flickering within them as though it might shatter at any moment.

At that instant, the Mother Tree of Desire's vines in the starry sky suddenly swelled explosively. Thorn-covered tendrils pierced through the rift of the barrier, the ferocious faces upon them releasing piercing shrieks.

"Distortion!"

Roselle's voice rang out abruptly.

His figure flashed into existence as the black longsword in his hand traced a sweeping arc of light, severing the Mother Tree of Desire's vines. The severed tendrils twisted in midair, transforming into mangled lumps of flesh and blood that fell onto the Astral World below.

Roselle's face darkened. Cracks riddled the black armour covering his body as he shouted anxiously, "Edward! I couldn't stop Cheek—the barrier over by the God of Combat's divine kingdom has been torn open as well!"

The moment his words fell, the Outer Deities outside the rift let out a thunderous, earth-shaking roar in unison. The Mother Tree of Desire, Primordial Hunger, Circle of Inevitability, Inextinguishable Ravings—They seemed to abandon their attempts to tear this barrier apart and instead turned toward another direction.

"Damn it!"

Edward clenched his teeth. Driving both hands into the void, he separated a massive number of Worms of Star in one final act. Silver gates flared brilliantly across the heavens, and the layered illusory doors finally completely sealed the rift of the barrier.

He drew in a deep breath and spoke rapidly, "You two—right now, immediately—open the barrier's rift!"

———

[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.