Ashlock's focus returned to Red Vine Peak. Through his vast ethereal root network, which was interlaced with the World Tree's roots, he could feel it. The earth was rising.
Yet, for those living around Red Vine Peak, beside a slight tremor coming from deep underground, they would have no idea what was happening. The leaves of his offspring rustled a little, and he could feel their flood of excitement and fear through his network.
"No problems here so far," Ashlock mused and rushed toward the west. He kept going until he saw it in the distance—a great fissure forming as the World Tree's vast root rose from the depths to lift the earth into the sky. It was a cataclysmic scene, with flocks of birds fleeing while the shifting earth swallowed monsters and animals.
Ashlock could only hope there were no sects or mortal settlements built along the ridge. As the world split further and the leyline began to rise, Ashlock was relieved to confirm that his ethereal roots continued to function across the rift.
"I think I see why the Celestial Empire was so hellbent on keeping the World Tree restrained," he muttered. This scale of destruction wasn't something another cultivator could cause or stop. Should the World Tree decide to tear up all of the ninth layer, there was nothing anyone could do about it.
His vision blurred as he went to check on the eastern side of the leyline and came upon a shocking scene.
The ocean.
Spreading to the distant horizon was a sparkling blue expanse, islands scattered across it like specks. His roots had finally grown far enough east to reach the mythical ocean he'd only ever heard about.
"Are those the Island Nations with the Abyssal Tide Sect?" he wondered. They looked so peaceful...
Then a vast mass rose from the water.
It surged upward like a tsunami in reverse, a swell racing outward toward the distant islands. The mass was the World Tree's root—it had lurked partially beneath the ocean all along. As it heaved free, water sheeted off its sides in falls miles wide, crashing back into the sea, while the ocean itself rushed in underneath and drained toward the chasm splitting the earth.
"She's about to carve out a whole new ocean."
And in that moment, he understood not only how insane the World Tree truly was, but the sheer scale of what he'd asked of her. She wasn't just moving a root.
She was reshaping the world for him.
***
Douglas was aboard Geb, enjoying some lunch with his twins. Talon sat stoically still across from him, eating his sandwich with careful bites while Hazel had already devoured hers and was now running circles around the table.
"Hazel, sweetie," Douglas said, his tone half serious, half playful. "Can you sit down like your brother?"
She responded by shaking her head with a cheeky grin and slingshotting over toward Geb's golem that stood like a statue before the spirit tree.
"Gebby!" Hazel called out. "Pick me up!"
Life sparked in the golem's empty eyes, and the towering statue crouched down and lowered its open palm for Hazel to jump onto. She took the offer, leaping onto it with confidence.
"Up, up!" she insisted.
The golem slowly stood up, careful not to drop Hazel and casting featureless glances Douglas's way as if asking how to proceed. Douglas just shrugged, leaving Hazel to her fun.
Chuckling to himself, Douglas picked up his half-drunk cup of spirit wine and was about to take a sip when the clouds fell on him.
"Diana?" he called out, glancing around as the deck of the Radiant Dawn was shrouded in the thick fog of clouds, only for the fog to wash over the side.
He looked up. The sky was suspiciously clear.
Douglas frowned and set his wine down. After eyeing it suspiciously as if his light day drinking was enough to make him hallucinate falling clouds, he stood up and strode over to the edge of the flagship. Peering over, his eyes widened in shock.
The ground was rushing toward them.
"Geb!" he shouted as he looked out across the fleet of airships parked over the wilderness surrounding Desolark City in case of another attack. The ground was rapidly rising toward them through the clouds. "What's happening?! Get us airborne—"
There was a loud crash as one of the lower floating airships impacted the rapidly rising ground.
Douglas tapped into the power of his crown and issued a mental command. "To Mudcloaks aboard airships! Have the airships rise and don't stop until the ground has stabilized!"
He had no idea what was happening, but all he could do was react and protect their new airship fleet. It was hard to see what was going on below due to the fallen clouds, but he couldn't see any cracks in the earth, so how was it rising? Or was the sky falling?
The Radiant Dawn roared to life, and he felt the Flagship begin to climb.
Fishing into his suit pocket, he pulled out his communication jade and debated who to call first. "Darn it all," he muttered and decided to call his wife first.
"Elaine? Honey, are you all right?"
"Douglas? Is something the matter?"
He blinked. Was this a local issue? "Where are you?"
"Red Vine Peak to prepare for the return of my students, why?"
"Are you outside?"
"No, I'm in Ashlock's Inner World. What's wrong? You sound stressed. Are the kids fine?"
That made sense. If there was a safe place to be, it was in Ashlock's Inner World.
"The kids are fine. Just... stay there, okay? I'm taking care of it." Douglas swapped the call to Diana. "Hey! The fucking sky is falling over here, what's going on?"
"Language, Douglas," Diana replied calmly.
"Right—sorry, Grand Elder," Douglas quickly corrected himself while scowling. Now was hardly the time for pleasantries. "Is there a reason for this?"
"I know about as much as you, though from where I'm standing in Empyrea, it doesn't appear that the sky is falling. The earth is rising into the sky."
"But why?"
"The World Tree seems to be raising her root out of the ground. I believe Ashlock or Stella may have the answers you seek."
"Ash doesn't have a communication jade, and Stella never answers my calls," Douglas lamented.
"Then just handle the situation like you always do. I'll try and deal with the chaos on my side," Diana said, and Douglas felt the connection cut.
"Fuck sake," Douglas swore, barely managing to restrain himself from hurling the communication jade over the edge.
"Frick sake," Hazel parroted at his side.
Douglas's eyes widened, and he spun to see his daughter standing behind him. "Since when were you standing there?" He scooped her up and held her tight. "The edge is dangerous, you know?"
Hazel nodded. "But Daddy's here," she buried her head into his chest. "So Hazel is safe."
Douglas stood there, stunned. He felt his heart melt, and determination flared across his face. If everyone saw him as reliable, he would get the job done despite the world-altering circumstances.
"Geb! Keep us rising and bring up the shields," Douglas commanded, retreating from the edge with Hazel cradled in his arms. "Talon—"
The boy glanced at him from the table, sandwich still in hand, seemingly unfazed by the situation.
"—er, keep enjoying your lunch," he said, then used his Nascent Soul Realm cultivation to float into the air above Geb to get a better overview of the situation.
Why is the World Tree raising her root? Did Ashlock ask her to do this? His mind raced, but he couldn't make sense of the situation. Maybe he angered her, and she's going to fling us into the void?
It was a crazy idea, but not impossible considering the current situation.
Geb's shields flared to life, and a dome of earthen Qi overlapped the Radiant Dawn. He felt safer with it active, but he couldn't drop his guard.
If there were a time for the other egos or rebel Monarchs to strike, it would be now, during this confusion.
"Hey, Geb, power up your artillery too," he commanded as he scanned the horizon. "There may be a fight."
***
Stella stood on the edge of the island where her parents had held their first proper meeting and watched in awe as the outcome of their discussions unfolded.
In the wilderness, beyond the edge of Floridawn, she could see the earth rising, curling upward, and breaking through the clouds as if a great, slumbering beast were awakening from below.
"Is it difficult for you to do this, Mother?" Stella asked.
"A little," the World Tree admitted. She communicated through raw emotions, which Stella had to strain her bloodline's capabilities to understand. "I imagine it's like trying to pull your foot free from hardened clay. I've also been restrained for so long."
Stella slowly nodded. "That does sound rather difficult."
"Though it helps that the ninth layer is so devoid of Qi," the World Tree continued. "It makes reality far more brittle when met with my Qi-filled roots. Reality can do little to resist me."
"I see," Stella mused. "I believe it was the same for Ash when drowning Floridawn in desolation Qi. That would have been far harder on a higher layer of creation, though the sheer scale of what you're doing is on another level."
"Scale is relative," her mother replied. "When compared to the heavens that built reality, the scale of change I can inflict is inconsequential." Amusement crept into her tone. "Though I admit it's nice not to be chained down by weaklings anymore."
"How did they chain you down in the first place?" Stella asked, genuinely curious how a being that could split the realm like this could be contained.
Her mother was silent for a long moment before finally answering.
"I was tricked," she explained, her mood darkening. "The Chairman was once a god and claimed to have been sent down by the Heavens to grant me divinity and initiate the Era of Ascension. I eagerly agreed. He had a grand formation constructed around me that was supposed to increase my cultivation speed and prepare me for the ascension. I didn't bother to question its true purpose as I was hungry for power, like any sentient being, and was blinded by his false promises. I later discovered he hadn't been sent here to help me. His mandate from the heavens was to restrain me. I only managed to regain some semblance of self when that fool got blinded by his own greed and went against the heavens by trying to initiate his own Era of Ascension. Now a fallen god, the formation restraining me weakened over time without the Chairman's divinity feeding it."
Stella frowned. "So that's why you warned Ashlock against chasing the Divine Fragments and initiating the Era of Ascension."
"The greed for power is heaven's greatest weapon," the World Tree explained. "We fight and kill one another to satisfy our selfish goals rather than work together to live cooperative lives. But, Ashlock does have a point," her voice took on a somber tone. "The cycle has to be broken, and I'd rather you and him be the ones to do it than me."
"No, Mother," Stella shook her head. "We are doing it together. Without you doing this," she gestured vaguely in the direction of the rising horizon. "Ash would never be able to reach Monarch Realm without bringing about even more death and destruction..."
Stella paused as she felt the World Tree's spiritual pressure flare.
"Did something happen?"
"Not really," the World Tree murmured. "I just have a distaste for saltwater wetting my roots."
"Saltwater?" Stella muttered, tilting her head.
"The ocean," the World Tree added. "It's flooding into the chasm I've created and is rushing this way. I might need to reinforce the area with Qi to stop the ninth layer of creation from shifting out of orbit with the other layers due to the amount of water moving so suddenly..."
Stella blinked. Did her mother even realize how insane that was?
***
It took three days and nights for the World Tree to move the world. She'd spent the first day raising her root high in the sky. Over the next two days, the leyline swept across the east, bringing the region with Ashlock and his cities curling toward her.
On the dawn of the fourth day, Ashlock could finally see the World Tree's towering form in the distance. Despite being both spirit trees and standing a realm of power apart, the stark difference between them was clear.
He had spent a decade growing, and after his recent slumber, his height had surged to nearly five hundred meters. Back on Earth, he would have dwarfed most skyscrapers. But against the World Tree, he was nothing. Her roots alone resembled mountain ranges, rising thousands of meters to meet a trunk so vast it was easier to see her not as a tree at all, but as a vertical plane of existence.
Stella had returned to Red Vine Peak to watch the approach with him, alongside Elaine, Diana's main body, and Magnus Redclaw.
"So that is the Celestial Empire and the World Tree," Elaine muttered in awe, having to tilt her head up to take in all of the World Tree's canopy, which was like another realm high in the sky. She hadn't fought like the others at the ballroom, so this was her first time laying eyes on the location of the largest battle likely fought in the history of the ninth layer of creation.
"It's a breathtaking sight indeed," Magnus Redclaw said. His hands were behind his back as the ferocious winds played with his hair despite Ashlock's efforts to reduce the howling winds by mixing his desolation Qi with his recently acquired wind law.
To protect all of the cities equally, he had to spread himself rather thin. Without him, homes would be destroyed, and people would go flying. He had also called on the assistance of Zephyrine and the recently tamed Griffin that had once belonged to the Chairman, who flew overhead. The proud Griffin had actually beaten Zephyrine during their brawl but had pledged its allegiance to Ashlock upon the Crowned One's death.
"Any sightings of the rebels or egos?" Ashlock called out to them.
"None," Zephyrine replied via the wind.
Ashlock felt uneasy as they honed in on the Empire.
But it had to be done. Not only for protection from the tribulation and Era of Ascension, but by bringing himself and his cities to the Celestial Empire it would consolidate the Ashfallen Empire's power in a single region rather than being spread thin.
Diana had complained to him enough about how difficult managing such a large area was while he was asleep, and it reminded him of how the great Roman Empire had fallen in his last world. It grew too large for its own good, which allowed the barbarians to force their way in.
By midday, the leyline carrying Red Vine Peak passed over the border of Floridawn, drowning half the entire city in darkness. The World Tree's golden canopy sparkled overhead, and beams of warm, reflected light danced across Red Vine Peak and the surrounding cities.
Ashlock could only begin to imagine what the mortals of his cities were feeling right now, as, besides the wind and tremors, it might not have been obvious what was occurring under them when they saw the World Tree approaching them in the distance.
The true size of the leyline became clear as Ashlock saw it looming off into the distance, past the World Tree's eastern flank. She had basically curled her root inward and sent it off in another direction so that Ashlock's region that had sat about halfway along the length of her entire leyline could be positioned perfectly under her canopy.
It took another few hours to pass over Floridawn and reach Empyrea. Once the World Tree's bark eclipsed his view, she called out to him, her voice a wave of raw emotion that crashed down upon them but didn't feel suffocating.
Instead, it felt welcoming, like a warm summer breeze.
"Ashlock, Stella, and members of Ashfallen," she addressed them lightly. "Welcome to your new home."
"Thank you for doing this," Ashlock said honestly. He already felt safer under the vast canopy overhead and was relieved that they had made it without incident. The rebels and egos hadn't struck, nor had the move caused mass destruction or loss of life as he had feared.
His ethereal roots had stretched with the moving earth, and he was still connected to all his Bastions.
The question was, what now? Red Vine Peak was tall compared to the surrounding cities, but not tall enough to poke through the World Tree's canopy while still shielding the mortals. The World Tree's root, while vast, came with the downside of giving her limited mobility.
If he wanted to benefit from his ascension and form the strongest cultivation base, he had to face the heavens' wrath head-on. He had to crest the canopy.
Glancing at his list of skills, there was one that might offer him the solution. A skill he had been wanting to upgrade but had never had the chance.
[Directly upgrading {Skyborne Bastion [SSS]} to {Mythical} grade will consume 13,846 credits. Proceed?]
He had been saving his credits just in case some emergency occurred, but now that they were seemingly safe, he was able to consider this upgrade.
"This many credits isn't enough to mark Red Vine Peak as a Bastion, so I can only hope this upgrade will give me something usable for my situation," he mused. "If not, I'll have to invest far too many spirit stones into creating the same style of levitation formations the floating islands around the World Tree use or come up with another plan."
Either way, the Era of Ascension would open up access to the next layer of creation, and if he wanted to benefit from it, he needed a way to invade.
His Bastions would be the answer.
"Yes, I wish to upgrade."
His vast forest of sacrificial credits withered in an instant, and the system answered his sacrifice with his first Mythical-grade skill.