6 Chapter 6: The Forsaken Realm

Three hours before Alex found the Golden Cloud Palace in the sky..

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?" The Golden Palace Lord, Aslan jumped up from his seat when he heard the words of Elena, the Lightsword Goddess as he looked at her with trepidation and shock.

"It's true, I have fought him for a round, and you know the result. Even after using the heavenly rule with my technique, I didn't left him as little as a scratch. I emptied my immortal essence reserves from that attack and lost consciousness. When I woke up, he disappeared like he has never been there. If not for the lingering heavenly rule and the aftermath of my attack from that place, I would have thought it as a dream."

Elena replied as she looked at Aslan in defeat, shook her head with her hands still trembling from the memory.

Aslan looked at her and said "How can you be sure that person is a deity?" To which the Lightsword Goddess replied abruptly with wide eyes in horror

"Deific manifestation!"

"When I used my ultimate attack, his aura rose all of a sudden as he pointed a finger which diffused all the strength of my attack. You can't believe what I've seen. H-his aura formed into.. no no.." with tears bursting from her eyes, she clenched her head with her hands, trembling as if remembering the most traumatic experience she got even after living as a Supreme Ruler.

"Deific manifestation!" Aslan repeated the words as he slowly fell on his butt. Just those two words crumbled the world view of the Golden Palace Lord. Even as a Supreme Ruler living for thousands of years, he only heard those words from his ancestor as he remembered the story that was spoken from him.

It was about the time of the ancients and archaic beings. The ancient humans and archaic beasts were bound in a full scale war ever since the beginning of time. The two opposing forces were in a stalement for billions of years, each having their own millions of powerhouses as casualties. Supreme Rulers like them were only footmen of the war, even as utilitymen. The core fighting force of the two sides were the Almighties, many realms higher than a normal deity. Even some deities were treated as cannon fodders of the war.

The stalement ended when an ultimate powerhouse from the primordial realm descended to the deific realm, which they now refer to as immortal realm. With a swing of a hand from that powerhouse, all deities and above, up to Almighties turned to dust. Before leaving, the powerhouse sealed the realm, trapping all the deific essence beneath. That seal acted as a grinder, slowly destroying all of the lingering essence of the war and storing it's residue. As all the essence have been broken, the seal also slowly lost it's power. Like that, the realm underwent a reconstruction due to the lack of essence. Because of the seal, the core of the realm was unable to replicate the deific essence, only producing the lower type of essence from it's subordinate realms, the immortal essence.

As time passed, the seal was also deteriorating that most of it's stored residue leaked to the former deific realm. Using that residue, Supreme Rulers could use the now heavenly rule, a broken down deific essence. With this, they can emit half-deity powers even for an instant, with the consequence of the immortal essence drained from the body due to opposive effects. All the immortals born from the new era were bathed in immortal essence, therefore, even a little residue of deific essence will destroy their body immediately if their spirit can't handle it's burden. As such, only those immortals with the strength and spirit of a Ruler can counteract the effect of the heavenly rule.

This resulted to numerous Supreme Rulers emerging but unable to ascend due to the seal. They were trapped, unable to ascend any further due to lack of deific essence. As such, most of them could only stay and build their foothold in this realm, preparing for the complete destruction of the seal.

As for the 'deific manifestation' recorded from the ancient times, they could only dream on it as half-deities. Only pure deities and above, or someone born from the primordial realm can execute it easily. Throughout the history after the 'War of the Ancients', there isn't a single immortal that became a deity. Just counting on all the years, numerous Rulers already walked the realm, some of them are still alive and referred to as the old monsters of the era.

"And the only way for us to become deities is, wait for the total eradication of the seal, collect and combine the residual essence it stored and use it as a springboard to ascension. The reason it was a taboo to use heavenly rule was that it will enrage other Rulers as it is limited in quantity. Therefore, a pact was created to regulate it's use. The pact consist of the usage of heavenly rule up to three times in their whole lifetime." was the last words the little snotty kid from before heard from his great ancestor.

That snotty kid is now Aslan, who is telling Elena about the history of the world. Elena on the otherhand, trembled as she remembered, that she already used it the 4th time. The first three was of course to improve her cultivation, but of course, with little to no effect. Three strands of rule was never enough for a supreme immortal to become a deity.

"I've really broken the taboo.." Elena spoke fearfully as she slouched in her seat. As a newbie ruler, she only new about heavenly rules being limited, but not into three strands which is extremely low.

"Elena.." Aslan looked at her with pity, yet he shook his head and turned stern. "I advise you to quickly leave this place. I'll order someone for you to use the transportation portal in the west wing of the palace. Be careful."

Aslan then quickly left the room leaving the crestfallen Elena, until a knocking sound woke her up from her stupor.

"Your highness, Lightsword Goddess, I am the 3rd prince Adeno and the one assigned to guide you to the.." before he could finish, he saw a beam of light which he hurriedly followed.

"Lead the way."

The two arrived quickly on the place. Buzzing sound of essence was heard from the elliptical shape vortex situated above the platform.

3rd prince Adeno respectfully asked Elena. "Your highness, to where?"

"Ranford Empire"

"As you wish." Replied Adeno as he started to chant for the coordinates of the Ranford Empire. Only Emperors and above are eligible to know the chant of the transportation portal, since it required complex immortal runes to activate. As Elena slowly stepped and went face to face with the vortex, Adeno solemnly said

"The transportation coordinates are ready, your highness, please be careful on the way."

As Elena entered the vortex, she felt the space distort and saw cracks near her. The platform is attacked!

BOOOOOOOMMMMMM!

All personnel of the platform died, excluding Adeno which has the highest combat strength among them. Yet he sustained heavy injuries that would deter him to ascend to higher realms. Before he passed out from pain he shouted with all his might.

"Enemy attack!"