At war's end

The roar of the mighty beast caused cracks to spread from its location, extending through the surrounding space. The demigods and gods alike were left in awe once again, witnessing Fenrir’s sheer power and terror.

Just like everyone else, Seth was left in awe, wondering if there was even a limit to the chaos beast’s power.

‘Am I wrong… or does it seem even stronger now?’ asked Seth, noticing the peculiar space cracks created by the beast’s roar alone.

< That’s the most likely conclusion. Fenrir’s power has always increased as she got to consume more energy. With you having served it an entire world on a plate, it makes sense for its power to receive a boost.>

While Seth was speaking to the system, Hollie’s voice resounded in his ear, “Should we retreat?”

Seth turned to look at the fighting that had once again stopped. Noticing Hollie and the rest of his wives all looking at him with the same worried look, Seth’s lips arched into a wide smile.

“Why should we? We’ve just won.”

As the worried expressions on the girls’ faces turned into confusion, Fenrir’s eyes flashed red, and it dove right back down toward Yggdrasil.

A loud noise followed its departure as the shield covering Yggdrasil’s body shattered into pieces, baffling everyone present.

While everyone was wondering what was happening, a massive ray of destruction pierced the world tree’s trunk from its back, exiting to the front and passing by Fenrir as it continued into the distance.

Two massive crowns could be seen at the center of the destruction ray, even when surrounded by all that concentrated destruction energy. A pure white divine crown circled opposite an eerie green divine crown, both levitating around a strange, crystalline vortex.

At the origin of the destruction ray, a second Seth stood, its body no different from the main one.

Under the assault of the destruction attack, both divine crowns only lasted for a few moments before cracks appeared all over them. Following the cracks covering the crowns completely, a sound akin to a human heartbeat entered the ears of every entity in the simulation.

Fenrir also stopped in its charge, the red color in its eyes fading momentarily and being replaced with a pure black one.

“Impossible…” muttered Gaia, her entire being shuddering with the sound of that heartbeat. She understood that Yggdrasil’s existence was about to be erased by Seth.

Seth’s smile grew, but a change happened before he could rejoice in his victory. The crystalline vortex between the two crowns exploded with a transparent energy that pushed his destruction away, covering the two almost destroyed divine crowns.

Surprise flashed in Seth’s eyes as he tried to pull his avatar back, but it was too late.

A needle-sized attack left the crystalline vortex, moving through the ray of destruction and piercing the forehead of his avatar. In the next instant, Seth’s double vision returned to normal, and he completely lost his link to his avatar as a horrible pain spread throughout his soul.

<Soul damage at 34%>

The notification in his vision informed him of the cause of the pain, and Seth pulled himself back, preparing for what would happen next.

“Damn it, the crowns were almost destroyed,” cursed Seth under his breath, wondering why the Spirit Well would act against him.

As Seth and his wives were left wondering what would happen and Gaia rejoiced in Seth’s attempt to destroy Yggdrasil failing, no one paid any attention to the wolf suddenly frozen in the distance.

Its eyes alternated between a bright red and a deep silvery-black, emotions of struggle and pain conveyed inside them. Suddenly, the red color disappeared completely, as did the usual hunger and wildness inside them, replaced with a look of intelligence and glee.

Out of everyone’s expectation, the wolf’s size increased, growing larger than Yggdrasil and Gaia’s world combined.

Seth, who was forced to drift back from the expanding body of the wolf, suddenly received a notification.

<It plans to consume the tree.>

The message was short, but Seth quickly understood what the system was trying to warn him about and opened his link to his women, ‘Henrietta, break your spikes. Teleport everyone from Endora away now.’

Before Seth’s words were even over, the loud sound of ten spikes shattering resounded throughout the universe, and every Endora ascended felt space and time twist around them.

Seth also followed through with the teleportation, everyone arriving far off into the distance only to see the massive maw of Fenrir encroaching over Yggdrasil’s body and Gaia’s planet.

Explosions of energy kept hitting the beast’s maw, a futile struggle from the demigods who could not leave the area of Fenrir’s attack, trying to prevent the wolf from consuming them alongside their world.

Their struggle ended with the loud sound of Fenrir’s jaw snapping closed. Fenrir had utterly destroyed the enemy troops in a few moments.

Henrietta, panting while being supported by Seth, looked at the show and exclaimed, “If I had only been a fraction of a second too late… I don’t think I would have been able to move my energy out of that vortex….”

Seth nodded pensively, “I also didn’t realize in time. The system did. If it didn’t warn me, I hate to think of what might have happened...”

“Does this mean we’ve won?” asked Maya from the side, watching Henrietta and Seth with a slight pout.

Seth shook his head, “I don’t know… depends on what that wolf decides to eat next…”

“Can we even fight that thing?” asked Lisa.

“Fight? Definitely no. Consuming my world already made it extremely terrifying, but I don’t even want to imagine its strength after consuming two divinities….”

<Seth, remember the Spirit Well link. It has also been devoured by it. It was the main link to the outside…>

‘Wait… does that mean?…’

<Indeed. No more souls will be naturally born in the entire simulation. This world is officially a dead one now.>

Seth frowned but figured he could take everyone outside, so he didn’t pay it too much mind, instead moving its eyes away from the wolf in the distance, searching its surroundings for something.

“Did any of you spot Gaia anywhere?” asked Seth after not finding her.

The girls also realized they had somehow forgotten about Gaia amidst the chaos and were about to search for her when a soft and melodious voice resounded behind them.

“No need. I got Gaia.”

Seth recognized the voice and turned to spot Water materializing behind them. Once Water created a replica of Razim’s body, she joined everyone in simply staring at Fenrir.

“I found Gaia’s divinity drifting sourceless and injured away through energy and sealed it. It will take a little while before my energy brings it here. What did I miss?”

Seth shook his head and returned to watching Fenrir, who remained unmoving for quite some time.

“Nothing much. Fenrir got out of control and consumed Yggdrasil, Gaia’s world and her source, along with all the demigods, ascended and mortals under their command.”

“Oh,” exclaimed Water with a nod. “Will it turn against us as well?”

“We don’t know. That’s what we’re waiting to find out. What about Razim? Why did she separate her divinity?”

“We won the war against Dukbium and his armies, but the bastard used the Tower to escape, and Razim followed him. She also separated her source from me since I would be useless inside the Tower.”

Seth sighed and nodded, understanding the reason behind Razim’s actions immediately. She did it to ensure Dukbium won’t use the Tower to move here and maybe ruin their plans.

Following Seth’s nod, Water extended a hand and delivered a small orb of water energy to Seth, “Here it is. Gaia’s divinity.”

Seth grabbed the divinity and allowed it to sink into his body for the moment, planning on handing it to Aleena later.

An oppressive silence fell on Seth’s group and the ascended behind as everyone remained staring at the mighty wolf.

“Shouldn’t we run? In case it turns against us?” asked Rebecca with a strange expression, breaking the silence.

“We can’t. Whatever that thing plans on doing, we need to know before leaving,” said Seth, turning to look at the nervous ascended behind, as well as Rebecca and the rest of his wives that didn’t already have a divinity.

“But you’re right. Anyone without a divinity won’t be able to do much either.”

Seth knew Henrietta was still shaken after her sudden teleportation outside the boundaries of time and space. Still, he also knew keeping all the demihumans around was pointless and might even become a detriment later.

“Hollie, send my voice to everyone.” After a quick nod from Hollie, Seth continued, “Everyone is to return to Henrietta’s inner world and wait for news from me. If we end up having to fight against the wolf, everyone without a divinity will be nothing but sacrifices to increase its strength, so it’s meaningless for all of you to remain here.”

Following Seth’s words, Henrietta used her divinity to open a wormhole leading to her inner space, and the demigods, under Blair’s command, started entering it one by one.

With the demigods leaving, Seth turned to the rest of his wives and said, “I’m also going to need you to go inside. It’s simply not safe for you here any longer.”

While the rest nodded in understanding, Maya immediately objected, “I’m not leaving to let you fight that thing alone. No way.”

Seth smiled at her and shook his head, “I’m sorry, love, but I won’t allow you to risk your life. Henrietta.”

To Maya’s shock, Henrietta gave her a wry smile and teleported her away forcibly before she could say another word.

“She’s going to be pissed,” exclaimed Hollie, coming to sit by Seth and Henrietta’s side.

“That’s fine. I could feel through the link Maya would not leave no matter what I tried. Having her pissed at me is better than her dying here,” said Seth with a sigh before using his link to Leora to inform her of the change in the situation and telling her to send the armies toward Endora.

Following his instructions, it took only a short time until Leora appeared from the depths of space as a ray of light, stopping and materializing by Seth’s side.

She first noticed the giant wolf, and her face twitched as she asked, “Are we fighting that?”

Seth smiled wryly. “Fight? I hope not.”