Everyone felt a chill run down their spine. But... Camille noticed that Darian was staring at that terrifying enemy without any emotion at all.

"Missionary... you think I care about losing a little just to kill you?" A very loud, guttural voice echoed.

"You acted bold the whole time, thinking you were unbeatable until the end. Do you really think those two together would last even a single exchange against me?"

Darian didn't reply, but everyone heard that and forgot to breathe. They hadn't seen much of the Enfield, but with the Divine Dragon they managed to get a decent idea of his strength. And... everyone understood.

Those two had been corrupted or killed. Their power wasn't even 5% of what they had when alive. Meanwhile, the Celestial Shadow was at around 80% of his strength, and with his corruption, he possibly had power close to the Divine Dragon at its peak.

So, his words weren't meant to intimidate. Those two now were nothing compared to him.

Even so...

"Seriously? How amazing, huh?" Darian's mocking voice echoed.

The Celestial Shadow's eyes narrowed. He felt something shift in that figure slightly, but since he couldn't see anything inside the missionary's soul, he had to judge based only on fluctuations. Which was impossible...

After all, Darian was using his curse, something completely outside his knowledge.

Darian nodded, activating his domain. Then...

**BUZZZZ!!**

Suddenly, a very strong tremor shook everyone.

This time, the scale was immense, as if time and space were vibrating... no! The entire world and the Array were thrown into chaos!

The Celestial Shadow's eyes changed. He had no time to realize or react. His gaze shot upward... and there he saw something that made him tense.

The spatial runes of this small stable world completely shattered, creating an opening to the array. With that, the defense mechanism identified this place and reacted.

But how? This place was created by Enfield with his power. After his death, it should still hold for a while. This missionary shouldn't have the strength to do any of this, unless...

Darian smiled inwardly. The Enfield had created this little place intentionally unstable so they wouldn't be found. And before dying, he told him exactly where the unstable spatial runes were. So it was simple to break them with his domain.

And luckily, that wasn't all the Enfield had told him. He created the entire Array, and Darian knew every detail of how it worked.

"BRO!"

A sharp scream echoed from above as the world kept trembling nonstop.

Coming from outside that world, Lucy and the entire army that was fighting a war of attrition suddenly leapt into the abyss. They crossed through the opening and landed on the ground, joining the entire army quickly.

Niara turned to Lucy, seeing her radiate a fierce and intense aura. She fought and fought with all her will against terrifying enemies, ones with power equivalent to those with nine elite rings of the universe. Even so, her entire army was alive, proving her success.

Everything happened very fast. Then suddenly...

**RUMBLE!**

A colossal thunderclap echoed, and a radiant light illuminated that place. It was a white lightning bolt that suddenly fell and struck the Celestial Shadow!

That figure roared and activated all his power to block it.

*BOOOOM!*

The ground cracked with massive fissures spreading like spiderwebs. But...

**RUMBLE!**

The skies seemed to be collapsing, with endless bolts of lightning falling only on the Celestial Shadow, one after another.

He roared furiously, and an absurdly dense black aura flowed like a mantle around him. It blocked the lightning, but he was clearly feeling the impact.

"Oh? Where's that great power of yours? Come on, come on, fight with everything you've got!" Darian's voice echoed, making that figure almost spit blood.

*BOOM!*

The power of each lightning bolt only grew stronger. That was, precisely, all the power accumulated in the Array condensed offensively. But in truth, that was just an appetizer meant to distract the detected enemy.

Because... in that moment, all five worlds were completely collapsing.

There was no turning back now. The maximum defense mechanism had been triggered, and the Array intended to bury all the enemies inside along with it.

It was important to understand that even an immortal could die if swallowed by total spatial collapse. It wasn't for nothing that spatial power was one of the most complex and powerful that existed. This level of destruction was indescribable, incredibly dangerous to anything alive.

Of course, there were many ways for someone at the immortal level to survive. The simplest one was...

**FUCK!!**

Suddenly, the Celestial Shadow roared with world-shaking fury. In that instant, his entire body pulsed, and a maximum corrupt force erupted, flowing upward.

Instantly, all the lightning stopped.

That was the simplest way to solve this problem: he just had to use all his power to freeze the collapsing space temporarily, then escape before the imminent end.

But... as soon as he did that, that colossal figure trembled from head to toe. Then he opened his mouth and spat something green — almost like blood.

Primordial Beasts didn't have blood. That was the Divine Dragon's power inside his body, lingering as a curse; or more simply, the remnants of the wound he received from her in the final battle. And now that the Celestial Shadow was forced to unleash everything he had, his wounds reopened completely, injuring him deeply.

In that exact moment, he didn't notice, but a Dragoness was sneaking carefully behind him.

Niara smiled as she found two small glowing runes between his scales, close to the spot Darian had pointed out to her.

*BANG!!*

Niara struck with all her strength and, in the moment of the Celestial Shadow's vulnerability, his scales gave way, releasing those things from his body.

"HOW DARE YOU!!!"

The Celestial Shadow roared and tried to strike her with his body, but hit nothing. Niara struck him and vanished almost like a ghost.

Then... she appeared beside Darian with a wide smile on her face, holding the primordial essence and the material essence — the two primordial hearts that were being used by the Celestial Shadow until they interrupted him.

Darian sealed and stored both quickly in the inventory.

"You little shit! You think you're taking me down with you by any chance? I already told you before, I don't give a damn about losing a lot if it means killing a missionary. I will leave, and I'll make sure you get buried here!"

The Celestial Shadow's voice, completely overflowing with hatred, echoed. Then his body slammed violently into the ground, and he shot upward, piercing space and disappearing.

He didn't even bother fighting to recover the two primordial hearts. That's because he was nearly out of strength and didn't want to risk anything. He froze space for just a few seconds, then vanished, returning to the universe and abandoning this Array for good.

But now, outside, he would definitely summon all his Risen Lords, surrounding every inch around the entrance of this world. Even if Darian used some trick to leave, he wouldn't be able to escape.

After the Celestial Shadow fled, the Array lost its target, but the self-destruction process continued. There was no turning back anymore, because it was clear that this place had been invaded and could no longer be allowed to benefit the enemies.

Everyone felt the world spinning and a palpable feeling of death enveloping them.

Darian ran toward everyone, who stared at him, tense and anxious... but when they saw his calm expression, they felt relief and a strange sense of security they couldn't understand.

Darian took a deep breath and then turned to Niara.

"You're our salvation now."

She nodded, understanding part of his plans. In that moment, Darian grabbed her hand firmly and focused.

"We have to make it. Now, you're completely connected to this universe, being one with it. That gives you a direct connection to the world's laws, no matter where you are..." Darian explained quickly, as directly as he could.

"Remember, Painita. She also fused with a universe just like you. But she was born in another universe, so she still had a tiny connection with it active. Because of that, she gained the power to move between those two universes whenever she wanted, without restrictions. She used the connection of the world's laws to create a channel."

In short, whenever someone is born in a universe, they stay eternally connected to that place. Even when a Spiritual Sovereign fuses with another universe, that previous connection isn't lost. That's why Painita and the others could move between two universes freely.

Darian continued: "You were born here, so you only have a connection with this universe. But the two of us are partners, and we have an extremely powerful and peculiar contract. I can use everything of yours, and you can use everything of mine. It's always been like that for us."

Niara nodded. The other Spiritual Guardians and their partners had a far weaker version, something ridiculous compared to theirs. That's because Darian made the contract back then using his own power without knowing exactly what he was doing; so he ended up creating something absurdly abnormal without realizing it.

Right from the start, Niara could use his black and white power, and later, Darian noticed he could also perfectly use her draconic Bloodline. Now, with the new power she had obtained...

"I'll use you to open a channel to my universe," Darian finished calmly. "But first..."

He turned and gestured, pulling in dozens of spatial runes from the chaos around them.

These runes approached him, and everyone immediately noticed something different about them. Darian's eyes gleamed as he linked them in a circular formation, as if the pieces were fitting together perfectly, forming a small circular diagram.

*Click*

Suddenly, with a soft snap, a yellowish light flowed from the diagram.

Darian focused... then his eyes narrowed.

"Shit, I didn't have time to go to the other two worlds and leave my power in the other treasures... well, three is good enough." He muttered painfully.

With a wave, everyone watched the diagram increase in size, turning into something circular spanning several meters. From within, a grayish light flowed... it was the power of chaos.

The three treasures buried in the Root World, Trunk World, and Leaf World — where Darian had time to reach the places connected to them and leave his chaos power prepared — could be drawn in and brought to him.

That diagram was something Enfield had also taught Darian. Like a command key from the Array's creator, impossible for anyone else to know how to activate. It gave him the power to move some pieces between worlds, but with major limitations — and now he realized he could only retrieve what already held his power in the other places.

In two minutes, the treasures were moved, and Darian stored them.

**KBOOOM!**

A colossal crash echoed, leaving everyone in the army pale.

That was the most terrifying sound they had ever heard in their lives: the entire world was only minutes away from exploding violently. Everything would turn to nothing and vanish forever; even that terrible enemy had to flee, but they...

"Let's go." Darian said calmly.

He focused, asking Niara to activate all her new power.

She didn't need to understand the details — and didn't want to — but activating what had awakened inside her was simple.

Inside her soul, a small pulsing light lit up.

Darian felt it within her, recognizing the Immortal Chaos Essence, which had become a kind of power core for her.

He tried to move it inside her with his will alone... and found no rejection, exactly as he expected. In a second, Darian's soul connected completely to Niara and to the Immortal Chaos Essence.

Then... he simply thought of his home, and his will was enough for the world's laws to shift in understanding.

*Buzz*

Before everyone's trembling eyes, a distortion in space appeared in front of the couple.

It stabilized quickly, revealing a portal... but one that radiated a power unlike anything they'd ever felt.

"Everyone, get in, this will take us to the Universe of Heaven's Will."

When Darian said that, all the Mannaz and those of the Blood Race felt their hearts stop. They... were really going to another universe?

Even the Spiritual Guardians were stunned. Were they really going to return home like this? Using the body of another world? What would happen afterward?

There were countless doubts. But the main one was...

If this couple could open a passage to there... could they do the opposite whenever they wanted? If so... the relationship between these two universes would change forever.

"Why are you wasting time?! Hurry!" Darian exclaimed seriously.

Everyone snapped out of their shock and ran through the portal.

In seconds, everyone was gone.

Then, Darian and Niara, still holding hands, took light steps forward, side by side. They stopped one step before crossing, then exchanged side-smiles full of meaning.

"Ready? Now everything will be easier." He said softly, looking into her eyes.

"You planned this from the start?" She asked, remembering he had already said he'd bring her to his universe with her body long before this.

Darian murmured honestly: "You know I'm not as amazing as I pretend to be. I had a plan, yeah, but the odds of it working weren't even 50%. But in the end, everything unfolded for us to get here..."

Niara smiled faintly. "If you're not amazing, no one in the world can dare be called that." Then she took a deep breath, showing a rare nervousness.

"Let's go... Painita, Lucy, Lucius, and everyone want to meet you fully now." Darian murmured gently, pulling her forward with a soft motion.

And so... the two vanished into the portal, and in the same second, everything disappeared.

...

That Array and the five worlds that existed inside it would, from now on, exist only in the legends of this universe.

But this place would never be forgotten, even after billions of years.

The main reason for this... was that its end would also mark the Dawn of the Great Renaissance of the Divine Protection Universe.