Silver, gold, purple—three colors of pure cosmic authority danced around her figure, weaving into her bones. Her bones cracked. Her muscles tore. Then regenerated instantly. Her bloodline was transforming. Her child pulsed again, pushing a warmth of energy through her, resulting in hee stabilisation. Without the unborn baby, she would have died instantly. From the moment Angy had began the ritual, reality trembled. The airless vacuum of deep space warped around her suspended form as tendrils of silver-white radiance burst from the bottles containing Gustav's scattered essences. The light spiraled in wide arcs, pulling inward like a cosmic whirlpool and sinking into her body in heavy pulses. Her veins glowed like molten starlines as a metallic disk platform was created beneath their feet. The first wave of energy wasn't quiet. It wasn't subtle. It roared through the universe like a cosmic scream. A ripple dense enough to crack asteroids and sharp enough to slice comets, shot outward in every direction. Universes away, stars flickered. Nebulae contracted. Cosmic storms paused mid-swirl. The vacuum vibrated like a struck drumhead. And in the Domains of the Deities… Eyes snapped open. Dozens... hundreds... of ancient beings froze mid-movement as the sensation tore through their senses. Many lifted their heads at once, peering into the distance beyond mortal vision. A powerful deity carved from red stone, seated atop a throne of burning space-dust, narrowed his eyes. "The Outworldly…?" he murmured. A beast-like goddess wrapped in storm clouds surged to her feet with lightning dripping from her claws. "That energy… Impossible. That monster died." Across the divine realms, each deity felt it. And they began to move. Screams rose from enslaved galaxies as divine beings tore across the cosmos, streaking through space at speeds beyond time, ripping holes in starfields as they flew. But among them, one presence shook the ether harder than the rest. A colossal shadow tore out of a fractured moon over a hundred galaxies away. Nocturnis true form. His body was a towering mass of darkness, shaped vaguely like a humanoid silhouette with countless shifting limbs. Eyes that were too many to count, opened one by one across his shifting form, all turning toward the source of the surge. He felt his heart jolt in his chest. He could finally sense the presence of his son in the cosmos again but it wasn't just that... there was something else. Something he recognized. "You insects…" his voice echoed across the broken star systems around him as he growled. "You dare… meddle with the Outworldly's remains?" He blurred and vanished, rupturing the galaxy he'd been standing in. The chase was on. --- Meanwhile... Endric knelt at the heart of the barrier with sweat pouring down his face. Around him, more than thirty mixedbloods and alien survivors floated in a circle, each with a palm extended toward him, funneling their energies into his core. It was like trying to hold back an ocean with bare hands. The telekinetic barrier around them was a shimmering dome of thick distorted space—denser than neutron-star metal, more rigid than any physical substance ever known. Angy, hovering at the center of the platform, didn't hear anything outside her own mind. Her Universal Enlightenment bloodline was stretched to its absolute limit. Her unborn child emitted a faint warmth inside her, stabilizing her body, enabling her to take in energy that would have incinerated any other living being. She gritted her teeth, breaths coming shallow and rapid. She felt Gustav's essence swirling, merging… She felt him. But she didn't stop. She couldn't. All of a sudden, the stars behind them exploded outward as a dozen multicolored streaks barreled into the corrupted region of space. Then dozens more. Then hundreds. Every mixedblood inside the barrier felt their hearts freeze. Falco whispered, "…they're here." Even though he was weakened and injured, he instinctively moved between the barrier's weak point and Angy with shadows curling around his arms like protective serpents. E.E's channeled his spatial bloodline. Aildris gathered swirling colors around his limbs. Sersi and Ria exchanged a terrified look. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦 Xanatus swore under his breath. Then— BOOM. Like a harbinger of doom, Nocturnis appeared first. His massive shadow-wreathed figure stopped a few kilometers before the barrier as darkness expanded around him like a tidal wave. His countless eyes glowed as they narrowed on the figures inside the dome. His gaze first found Angy. Then Endric. Then… Falco. A deep, reverberating voice rolled across the barrier like a thunderquake. "How… did you escape my senses this whole time?" Falco's eyes narrowed but he didn't speak. Nocturnis drifted closer, inspecting the barrier, studying the thickness, the density and the construction with his gaze. A faint smirk rose on what passed for his mouth. "So this is what you've built to hide from me," he said softly. "A telekinetic cage? Using that boy as the core?" His eyes turned colder. "You think this can protect you?" Endric didn't move a muscle. His entire consciousness was focused on keeping the barrier intact. Angy didn't even blink. Her body was now glowing so brightly she looked like a burning star from within. Falco stepped forward and spat, "We don't need to run forever." Nocturnis' grin widened. "Foolish child." Then he raised a hand. A blue-black sphere of energy dense enough to collapse a moon, gathered. And he hurled it. KRRRRRRAAAAMMMM!!! The blast hit the barrier like a planetary collision. The shockwave rocked everyone inside, throwing several mixedbloods off balance. The rebound flung distortions of space outward like shattered mirrors. Dust and cosmic debris clouded the area. And then… The smoke cleared. The barrier still stood. Perfectly intact. There was a brief silence after this. Then— A deep, rumbling laugh echoed behind Nocturnis. A massive deity shaped like a bronze colossus crossed his arms and smirked. "Losing your touch, are we, Nocturnis?" A female deity composed entirely of spiraling galaxies, hovered beside him, amused. "He expected that to work? How embarrassing." Murmurs spread across the divine crowd. Several chuckled. A few scoffed. Others looked entertained, like they were watching a comedy performance. Nocturnis' eyes pulsed dangerously. He lifted his hand again. But before he could unleash a second blow, the bronze deity stepped forward. "Allow me."