A faint, barely perceptible golden glow radiated from the surface of Asia's soul, stretching toward the distant horizon. The light was sacred and dazzling, similar to what Cid had once seen on Angels, yet even purer.
He instinctively glanced at Asia. With her soul now stabilized, she looked dazed and unfocused. After a brief silence, Cid shifted his attention back to that thread of golden light.
Following it, his vision extended forward without end. Magical Power surged through his body into his right eye, causing his crimson pupil to grow even more vivid.
At last, tracing the light into a small world, Cid saw a massive white gate.
The gate was inscribed with layers of defensive and anti-detection spells, but they were meaningless to him. Cid passed straight through without resistance.
Beyond the gate, the sky shimmered with white radiance. White stone slabs paved a road across the ground, leading to rows of white buildings in the distance. Strange structures stood upon drifting clouds, while Angels with pure white wings flew back and forth across the sky.
So this is… Heaven?
Taking in the scenery, Cid understood within seconds that he had entered a small world belonging to the Biblical God Faction, the First Heaven of the Seven Heavens.
After briefly admiring the view, he continued upward, following the stream of light within Asia's soul.
The Second and Third Heavens were nearly identical. The only notable difference from the others was their sheer size. Just how vast, Cid couldn't be bothered to find out. As for the scenery, compared to the other layers, it was fairly unremarkable.
The Fourth Heaven resembled a vast garden courtyard, filled with all kinds of flowers and plants. However, there was nothing particularly striking about it. The only things that stood out were two withered apple trees. In a place so full of life, the ground around those two trees alone was steeped in deathly stillness.
The Fifth Heaven felt like a technological research park from the real world, filled with buildings clearly meant for study and experimentation. The scenery was terrible. A complete disappointment.
After passing through five gates in succession, Cid arrived at the Sixth Heaven.
The Sixth Heaven gave off a strange impression, imposing on the outside, but hollow within.
Staring at the sacred and magnificent temple in the distance, Cid arrived at that conclusion with some confusion.
The golden halo behind the temple continuously released a sacred aura strong enough to instantly kill a former Great Satan of the Underworld. And yet, for some reason, the temple itself felt weak to him.
Forget it. It had nothing to do with him. Why overthink it? If not for the unusual nature of the seventh gate, he wouldn't have stopped here at all.
Putting the temple out of his mind, Cid turned his focus to the spells engraved on the seventh gate.
The surface-level spells weren't particularly difficult. While he couldn't understand most of them, he grasped the core well enough to figure out how to bypass them.
The real question was, could it really be this simple?
These so-called simple spells were still powerful enough to annihilate several of the world's top fifteen. But compared to the tens of thousands of spells he had seen in the World of Life's Norms, the ones carved onto this gate felt almost childish, like something hastily thrown together in a rush.
Still, why think so much about it? Even if there was a trap, so what?
Here, as long as his Magical Power held out, he could create as many camera-like projections as he wanted. What could they possibly do to his real body?
And even if they traced it back to him, what then? Heaven didn't have a single fighter worth mentioning.
The only reason those countless spells in the World of Life's Norms could hold him in check was because of the God of the Bible. But Angels?
What were they, really? Not even worth considering as a threat.
Having made his decision, Cid stepped straight into the pure white gate before him, the Seventh Heaven.
It had to be said, the thickness of this gate was absurd. He had already advanced at least two hundred meters, yet he still hadn't passed through it.
Fortunately, he could already sense the intense fluctuations of light energy ahead. If nothing unexpected happened, it would take no more than another two hundred meters to reach the Seventh Heaven.
"Snap!"
Well, that was unexpected.
Cid glanced back at the transparent thread behind him, now cleanly severed in two, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
Honestly, the God of the Bible, a being who was obviously a master of magic, actually using a trap that looked like something a child would come up with just to detect intruders? And even more ridiculous, he actually fell for it. For a moment, Cid didn't even know how to begin criticizing it.
As the thread snapped, Magic Circles lit up across the space ahead, hovering over the remaining path. At a glance, they looked extremely dangerous.
Well, unexpected, but still within reason.
Rationally, Cid knew the best course of action was to withdraw the Magical Power from his right eye and let the projection dissipate. It wasn't worth turning Heaven upside down just for Asia, let alone risking waking the God of the Bible, who was sleeping in the World of Life's Norms, midway through a fight.
But emotionally, Cid felt this was just too cool to pass up.
Whether it was having the projection crush the Angels and declare they weren't even worth his true self making a move, or provoking the God of the Bible to appear so his real body could fight him and satisfy his thirst for battle, either outcome would be a huge win. If he won, he might even gain another Eminence in Shadow as an ally.
This fight had to happen.
With his mind made up, more Magical Power poured into his right eye. The projection, which had previously functioned only as a form of long-distance sight, began to manifest as a faint phantom in reality. A surging battle intent gathered within it.
The fight he missed last year could finally be made up for today. Just thinking about it was exhilarating.
As his fighting spirit peaked, Cid stood still, waiting for the Magic Circles ahead to activate.
He waited… and waited…
More than ten seconds passed.
Why hadn't they attacked yet?
Another ten seconds went by.
The fighting spirit inside him was already starting to fade.
After a brief silence, Cid slowly stepped forward and reached out to touch one of the glowing Magic Circles.
The moment his hand made contact, all the Magic Circles pulsed once. When that fluctuation touched him, they vanished completely.
Cid fell silent.
Something rather absurd had just happened. In that brief fluctuation, he had received a message.
"Welcome back, God of the Bible."
Forget what he said earlier. These Magic Circles weren't dangerous at all. They were probably just so old and poorly maintained that they couldn't even recognize the right target anymore.
Ridiculous.
Grumbling inwardly, Cid didn't slow down at all. Now that he knew these spells were basically broken from age, he didn't even bother avoiding them. He just walked straight through them.
The fact that he, someone known as the "God of Magic," had actually gotten excited over a bunch of worn-out Magic Circles made him feel deeply embarrassed.
If anyone had seen that, what would they think? That the great God of Magic couldn't even tell whether a Magic Circle was broken?
Thankfully, no one was around to witness it. Otherwise, it would've been completely embarrassing.
He even found himself hoping that at least one or two Magic Circles along the way would actually work, just so he could erase that embarrassing moment.
Unfortunately, no matter how carefully he examined them, he couldn't find anything wrong with these spells. Yet every time he touched one, it simply dissipated after sending out the same message, "Welcome back, God of the Bible," without having any effect at all.
Even after he had run into every single Magic Circle along the way, the result remained the same without exception.