At that moment, Herder stood at the highest point of the Demon Realm, watching the distant starry sky.
By her estimation, the golden planet Tebols would pass within the Demon Realm's reach by dawn.
The reason these planets drifted close to the Demon Realm was straightforward: they had originally been born from the same source, split away from Terra Star long ago. Bound by the pull of power, they would eventually converge back. Herder's original plan had been to destroy the apostles, harvest their strength, and use it to draw those fractured planets home — return them to their origin, and break through the ceiling that had kept her strength pinned for so long.
Then an unexpected variable appeared.
A god she could not resist.
*Well... it doesn't matter. Whatever path I took to get here, the result is what I wanted. Close enough.*
Herder smiled.
The shining planet in the sky drew closer and closer. Something in her chest loosened, grew warm.
"Is it awake?"
Kahn spoke with a frown. "It can't break my barrier at all, so that's not an issue. But why do the sacrifices need to happen on Tebols? Can't we use the Demon Realm itself?"
Herder gave a contemptuous smile. "The difference between a high-quality offering and a low-quality one is enormous. Think about it."
She had studied the matter thoroughly.
The higher a goddess's standing, the greater the power that returned through sacrifice.
Take, for instance, the younger sister of Ye Laohei — a woman who crossed between worlds, formidable enough that her entire piece of starry sky could not surpass her. She had elevated someone to the lower tier of divinity.
Or consider Guanyin Bodhisattva from Yang Jian's world — exceptional in both cultivation and presence.
True, Shilock had been sacrificed by others rather than by Herder. But that didn't mean Herder couldn't find fine offerings herself. Lower in raw power, perhaps — but quality of form would not be lacking.
The sacrifices currently in Herder's keeping: Celestial Queen Alizee. The Jurgen bloodline's direct daughter, Marianne. One apostle's power core. And a complete, living Prey.
Beyond that — Alexandra the Skybow of Tebols, and Placer, the Queen of Flowers.
With this, they would certainly earn the favor of the gods.
The two of them stood in silence and watched the golden sphere grow in the darkness — a faint point of light at first, swelling steadily until it settled into orbit near the Demon Realm.
*Boom.*
Kahn didn't wait. He launched himself skyward, and Herder followed.
Less than a minute later, both of them had descended on Tebols.
The planet had been thoroughly corrupted by Isis's presence. The creatures here had fallen long ago. Upon seeing powerful strangers arrive — and finding them not to be their Lord Isis — they erupted into furious resistance.
A storm of arrows and cannon fire swept toward them from all directions.
"Pathetic." Herder's eyes shifted a fraction.
Every projectile was destroyed.
If she weren't concerned with preserving the combat strength of this world, everyone firing at them would already be dead.
Then a single arrow tore through the barrage — trailing interwoven ice and fire, its speed ten times that of anything else, its destructive force on a different level entirely.
Herder was already gone.
"Where did she—"
Alexandra the Skybow of Tebols spun around, her sharp eyes sweeping every corner of the sky.
A delicate fragrance reached her.
*Boom.*
The tip of Herder's staff connected with the back of Alexandra's neck.
"Ah—"
Alexandra's cry cut off as the force hit her. She collapsed instantly, unconscious.
Herder glanced toward the distant explosions blooming across the sky and shook her head slowly.
"What a brash man. No elegance whatsoever."
She tucked the unconscious Alexandra under her arm and drifted toward the noise.
Kahn had already sealed the Queen of Flowers within a containment field and was returning. He had not touched her with his bare hands.
She was an offering for the gods. He didn't dare risk contaminating her.
"Done? Then let's go, quickly—"
He handed Placer over to Herder, barely able to contain his impatience.
"Let's go."
---
The Demon Realm was blazing with light.
The mechanical altar-throne built by Luke's automatons had been completed in full. The deranged old man, upon hearing Herder's final declaration, could no longer pretend otherwise. He understood clearly: if he kept feigning ignorance, the only thing waiting for him would be Kahn's arrival. Given that, how could he dare play games?
Luke's people knelt the moment they saw the two apostles descend.
"We greet Lord Herder. We greet Lord Kahn—"
Herder ignored the display and walked straight to the mechanical altar. She laid the Queen of Flowers and Alexandra the Skybow upon it.
Prey watched his own people being bound and arranged around him. Fury cracked through his voice.
"You're beneath contempt. You have all this power and you're out here bullying *children*? What did you do to Tebols? Did you destroy it?!"
Herder glanced at him. Her voice came out cold and flat.
"You talk too much. As for why we took them — they're beautiful, and they're pure enough. That's sufficient. Foolish bird. Prepare yourself to welcome the coming of God."
Kahn and the others had already taken their positions before the altar and knelt.
The Khaxu faction's entire territory had been absorbed. Close to a million Demon Realm natives had gathered in this place — some brought by force, others already under Herder's sway. Under Luke's oversight, all of them had learned the Eternal Meditation Sutra and been welcomed into the faith.
Herder removed her mask.
She raised her face toward the sky and called out:
"All believers — prepare to receive the true God."
Prayer filled the air.
The divine patterns etched into the mechanical throne began to glow.
Countless voices erupted in reverence.
Prey stared at the throne beneath him in mounting dread. Something terrible was about to emerge — he could feel it in his bones, in the dropping pressure, in the trembling of the world around him.
*Does God actually exist?*
He had always doubted it. He still doubted it now.
But half an hour later, every last divine pattern blazed white, and a pillar of light punched through the sky.
The Demon Realm — always shrouded in darkness — lit up entirely.
The scale of this sacrifice dwarfed anything from Katie's ceremony. All of Arad felt it. The Heavens felt it. The Demon Realm felt it. Even Tebols, still drifting close, was shaken.
The star curtain tore.
Nine-colored divine clouds poured into the starry sky. A presence — mysterious, noble, absolute — washed over every living thing and pressed them downward.
On the Arad continent, Katie and the others felt it arrive. So did the Butterfly Ninja, who had not yet departed.
"It seems the high priest isn't entirely without sense after all." The Butterfly Ninja, dressed in her floral gown, bid farewell to the Night Elf Empire without ceremony. She became a streak of glazed light and punched straight through the spatial barriers, hurtling toward the altar.
Across the Arad sky, Lu Xueqi did the same.
Because this time was different from the last.
Liu Che himself had descended.