The god's corpse had barely vanished when the throne room erupted into whispers, panic, rising arguments and frantic checks of one's own soul. The Dynasty Monarchs were already testing the limits of what remained of their power.
It was Monarch Meriz Starisnova who broke the chaos with a burst of shimmering starry light. The tall Celestial descendant raised his hand and the fabric of space rippled. A sphere of space bent around his palm.
His Divinity of Space answered him.
"It functions," Meriz said sharply. "It's here. I can feel the Divinity itself but my Gecisia gifts are silent."
Beside him, Monarchess Quasa lifted her hand. Her Space Divinity flared too.
"It works," she confirmed. "But the moment I reach for an Enlightenment Power… nothing. It's dead."
Gasps rose.
Natalis Andelaris stepped forward and tried to form a holy sphere. A faint outline appeared. Denisia gritted her teeth and tried it too. It had tame result.
"It's like our Divinity is on life-support," Denisia muttered. "Just the bare bones."
Across the room, the Demonic Monarchs tested theirs. Monarch Xeltor Ceres snapped his fingers and shadows erupted. Monarchess Vistenea's aura flared opposite his with thick tendrils of demonic fire unfurling and licking the floor.
"We still reign in Wisterix," Vistenea said confidently, despite the exhaustion creeping along her gaze. "Our Divinity hasn't left."
Kazrion Skyrover slammed his fist into his palm, lightning crackling across his body like a violent storm. Varmina Fedres morphed her arm into that of a beast before returning back to normal.
"Still good," Kazrion muttered. "But weaker. Gecisia has collapsed."
Then, Xander Fedres cracked his neck and let Adaptation bloom across his skin. His muscles reshaped, eyes sharpened with his bones reinforcing with every blink. He exhaled steam.
"I'm still good," he said, rolling a shoulder. "Divinity's in but weaker."
Farrynelle Skyrover followed with a wave of electricity flowing down her arms. The arcs danced between her fingertips easily.
"Same here. Divinity's fine. Gecisia is dead though."
Mintheris was next.
Dynasty Monarch Veylonar placed his palm on the ground, and roots burst through the marble instantly, pulsing with the World Tree's gentle hum. Celadille Mintheris touched her husband's shoulder, her Nature Divinity intertwining with his in a blooming glow.
"It is weaker as they say."
Eldrigan Hanabas rolled a shoulder, cracked his knuckles, then casually detached his arm and reattached it with a wet snap. Even without Enlightenment, his Divinity of Dismemberment hummed.
"Still works and so are my base Divine Enlightenments, but I can't use my Gecisia. Those are dead."
A heavy moment passed. It all became obvious. The Dynasty Rulers and subordinates alone kept their Divinities.
Everyone under them was powerless except for their Base Tethers, like the world got thrown back several eras.
There was no more Gecisia Scaling or Enlightenment Powers. It was just raw Divinity and only for the Monarchs and the Sentina Erideae. For those who completely lost their Divinity, their psychical bodies were still at the Divine Rank.
And that's when Leones finally had enough. She clapped her hands sharply, her voice rising above all the noise with command that rivaled her mother's.
"Alright. Enough. The party's over."
Everyone froze. Leones rarely yelled. Her eyes glowed in a gold hue.
"We've got Divinities flickering, an entire world falling into chaos and half of you barely standing because your soul lattices just got shattered. Standing here crying won't fix anything. You all return to your Dynasties, now."
A thick silence fell over the Monarchs. She wasn't wrong. Without Divinities, countless cities were about to collapse. Divine barriers across continents would fail. Krepsunas would break loose. Realms linked to Divinity would destabilize.
They had to move.
"Go. Handle your internal disasters before they spread."
Portals opened one by one.
Starisnova's portal swirled like a galaxy falling inward. Andelaris glowed like a holy fracture in the sky. Ceres burned with black fire. Skyrover crackled like a storm tearing reality. Fedres shimmered with morphing light. Hanabas tore his open like ripping skin. Mintheris grew theirs from roots and blooming blossoms.
Elyonari approached hers but stopped. Veylonar reached for her.
"Elyonari, you should come home. It will be… chaotic."
But she shook her head.
"No, brother. The Richinaria Palace is stable. It's safe."
Her eyes drifted to Vastarael's throne, which was empty.
"I will stay."
Celadille gave her a knowing look but said nothing. Veylonar hesitated, then nodded, stepping back into the portal. The Mintheris Dynasty vanished. One by one, the Monarchs vanished through their exits. The Starisnova portal closed last with Meriz and Quasa vanishing in swirling space as Narisva stared away.
The throne room fell silent after a while. Only ten remained:
Adelasta, Narisva, Phaenora, Asenane, Elyonari, Leon, Leones, Anamorsia, Shimmer and Runner.
And the silence was weird.
Adelasta finally exhaled, rubbing her temples.
"Well, this escalated way worse than expected."
Phaenora sighed dramatically.
"No kidding, Veneri is gonna be pissed when he hears what he missed."
Narisva didn't respond. Her stars were still spinning too fast.
Shimmer leaned onto Runner's shoulder. Runner wrapped an arm gently around her, squeezing silently. Asenane sighed with her hands shaking slightly from exhaustion. Elyonari walked to her side and offered silent support.
The throne room felt less like a palace and more like the eye of a hurricane.
Shimmer spoke with a sigh.
"So… what now?"
They were all thinking it. None of them wanted to be the first to say it. They had just watched Spheraphase lose its Divinities like somebody flipped a cosmic switch, and now the fate of entire Dynasties was just hanging by a thread. Narisva crossed her arms and groaned.
"What next? We deal with the fact that we might be the only ones who didn't get gutted."
Everyone stared. She flicked her fingers, conjuring a small black hole.
"See? Divinity's still here. The Enlightenment Powers are gone. Gecisia Levels are gone too but my Divinity is very much alive. I don't feel affected at all."
Shimmer let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. Runner quietly nodded, hugging her own arms. Narisva shrugged with a very blunt tome
"Honestly? We sucked at using our Enlightenment Powers anyway. We brute-forced ninety percent of our problems. Losing them is annoying but not lethal."
Phaenora shot up at that. "Yeah, see, about that..."
They all turned toward her. And Phaenora, for the first time, looked genuinely shaken, like she was about to confess something she probably should've said earlier.
"You're all stable because of me."
Silence.
"World System Axia and Spheraphase caused this. The entire Richinaria Dynasty and Sentina Erideae are bound by me, not Spheraphase. That means the purge didn't hit you as hard as everyone else."
That landed like a meteor. Leon blinked. Leones froze mid-step. Elyonari's eyes widened. Even Adelasta's perfectly cold expression cracked enough to show she was startled. Phaenora went on, rambling now because the shock in the room made her anxious.
"I mean yeah, you lost Enlightenment Powers, right? And your Gecisia Levels? Gone. But the weakening barely touched you. You're operating at—what—like ninety to ninety seven percent baseline?"
Shimmer's jaw dropped. Runner almost fell backward. Narisva's pupils brightened, connecting the dots instantly. Phaenora pressed a hand to her chest. Her breathing stuttered.
"And the other Sentina Erideae must have noticed the difference."
Then her legs just gave out. She dropped to her knees so fast that Leones had to catch her before she toppled. Everyone rushed toward her.
"Phae!" Shimmer gasped, kneeling beside her.
Phaenora laughed shakily, wiping at her eyes in a frenzy of relief.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm just... thank the Primordials I didn't introduce Enlightenment Powers early. If I did and you guys became dependent on them like the other Dynasties…"
Her voice broke.
"You'd be in deeper shit right now."
Adelasta touched Phaenora's shoulder. Elyonari held her hand and squeezed gently. Even Narisva, who was still radiating fury, bent down and inspected Phaenora to make sure she wasn't actually collapsing from damage. Then, holograms flickered alive above them. Lines of blue light converged into a status projection. Phaenora's eyes widened.
"Veneri's awake."
Everything stopped.
Shimmer and Runner froze like statues. Elyonari's head snapped upward. Asenane jolted so hard she almost tripped. The siblings went completely still. Adelasta's er icy composure cracked into a brief, sharp rush of fear and relief tangled together.
Narisva hissed through her teeth.
"Right. Him. We should have checked on him sooner. How was he affected?"
No one waited for an answer. No one even said "let's go."
They just moved.
Every single one of them bolted out of the throne room at the same exact moment. Because if the world lost and entire Dynasties were collapsed into powerlessness, then whatever happened to Vastarael mattered more than anything.