"In the civilizations of the gods, the hierarchy of divinity is incredibly strict, with an immense gulf between each level far beyond what ordinary people can comprehend. Proto-gods, demigods, true deities… every tier is a near-insurmountable chasm,"
Qi's voice was low and distant as he slowly lifted his gaze, the reflection of old battlefields flickering in his eyes.
He once belonged to a civilization that waged a legendary war against the divine an epic conflict that shook the very foundations of a powerful realm.
Though they were ultimately defeated and his civilization destroyed, that experience had given him a deep understanding of the divine hierarchy.
"If we compare it to the wizarding system,"
Qi lowered his eyes slightly, a contemplative glint in his gaze.
"A Tier-Four Morning Star Wizard would, in my view, be roughly equivalent to a proto-god in the divine hierarchy."
"A Tier-Five Morning Star Wizard has already touched the threshold of demigodhood, possessing partial divinity and a fragment of authority over certain laws."
"As for a Tier-Six Morning Star Wizard…"
He paused, his eyes narrowing as if peering across dimensions toward the high plane where gods resided.
"They are true equals to deities beings who have formally stepped into the divine realm."
When his words fell silent, the room was momentarily wrapped in stillness.
Lynn was shaken to his core, feeling as if the veil over his understanding of the world had been suddenly lifted.
Then Qi's voice sounded again, with a hint of uncertainty:
"The true form of the Goddess of the Weave is a major deity by definition, a being far above common gods."
"But the one present in this world is not her true body, only a projected avatar... At most, she should only be able to exhibit the strength of a demigod."
He paused, his brows furrowed as if recalling and calculating at the same time:
"Yet that aura she released just now… it skirted the boundary of true divinity. That's not something a mere demigod should be capable of. Something's off…"
At this point, Qi fell into deep thought, unease, and doubt flickering in his eyes.
He muttered to himself, as if voicing thoughts meant more for his understanding than for Lynn.
Meanwhile, Lynn narrowed his eyes slightly, fingers unconsciously tracing the surface of the table.
His mind was rapidly spinning, absorbing new knowledge about the civilization of the gods.
A civilization capable of interacting with the wizards was not to be underestimated the complexity and scale of their divine hierarchy far exceeded what he had previously understood "godhood" to mean.
Tier-Four Morning Star Wizards were merely proto-gods.
Tier Five was comparable to demigods.
And Tier-Six Wizards were the true threshold stepping into the realm of deities, wielding oppressive laws imbued with divine authority.
As for the true body of the Goddess of the Weave, she belonged to the terrifying level of major deities…
In wizarding terms, Lynn's mind immediately conjured a title:
Radiant Moon Wizard.
That was the level beyond Morning Star a true step into the domain of "Mystical Immortality."
A wizard of such rank could determine the fate of an entire realm, and effortlessly reshape the order of a world.
His thoughts wandered, drawn to distant memories of ancient tomes he had once studied.
Those texts made veiled references to a legendary figure
The wizard who quelled the Southshore War and opened the Nightmare Rift was rumored to be a Radiant Moon-level wizard.
"The Radiant Moon is eternal; the Morning Star is the path."
This wasn't just an adage in the wizarding world it was a distant peak that countless wizards pursued their entire lives but could never reach.
A thought emerged silently in Lynn's mind:
"If the Goddess of the Weave can truly unleash near-divine strength through just an avatar, then our only hope... lies with the City of Machine having a Tier-Six Morning Star Wizard."
He lowered his head, mind awash with swirling thoughts.
This was no longer a mere military conflict it was a clash of apex powers at the top of both civilizations.
At the same time, on the other side in the deepest part of the goddess's domain, atop the Divine Mountain
The once radiant, holy temple bathed in divine light now stood stripped of its sacred glory.
The sky was dark, the ground fractured, and divine light had faded away as if even the concept of light itself had abandoned this place.
The air was heavy with suffocating fluctuations of law, as though the fabric of the world's order had been torn apart by this apocalyptic battle.
On one side was the mysterious, elusive Lord of the City of Machine his envoy: the shadowy metallic figure forged of alchemical alloys.
His form was sleek, angular, and radiated a cold black sheen that shimmered with embedded runes. Every movement of his limbs brought surging waves of crushing energy.
On the other side stood the avatar of a higher being the Goddess of the Weave.
Though merely a projection, she was wrapped in divine brilliance like a living decree from heaven. Her platinum robes fluttered ethereally, and her long silver hair danced to the rhythm of her divine will.
Her eyes were cold as frost, emanating majesty and otherworldly calm that defied mortal logic.
The clash between these two apex entities had long since shattered the rules of nature.
Boom!
The heavens trembled, the earth quaked distant peaks were shredded like paper.
Countless divine spells and advanced sorceries collided mid-air, forming a maelstrom of destruction that swept in every direction.
With a single gesture, the goddess unleashed a torrent of divine radiance like a falling star river, submerging the entire mountain in a flood of white-hot annihilation.
But the shadowy metal figure moved like a ghost swift and elusive. He dodged strike after strike with uncanny precision, as if blessed with foresight. His combat instincts were cold, ruthless, and deadly accurate.
And yet, the tide of battle was slowly turning.
After all, the metal warrior was not the Lord himself merely a distant battle projection sustained through arcane sorcery.
When facing a true demigod or worse, an avatar nearing godhood this fundamental gap in power was hard to ignore.
The goddess's projection, meanwhile, exuded strength beyond typical demigods. It was clear she had stealthily crossed the threshold into godhood.
At first, the two sides exchanged blows evenly.
But as time passed, the metal shadow's tempo faltered. The clashing echoes of metal rang endlessly as cracks began to form on his alchemical body.
"Binding Spell."
The Goddess of the Weave's lips parted lightly, inscribing a divine rune into the void.
"Meteor Burst."
A second spell descended an illusion of falling stars that rained down from the heavens.
"Solar Flare."
The third divine spell, blazing white like the sun, descended like a falling god star, scorching all space it touched.
Her fair, jade-like hand waved gently graceful as a dancer's motion yet with it, she seized complete control over the battlefield.
Divine spells wove a net across the sky, instantly trapping the shadowy metal figure in mid-air.
His alchemically forged body trembled violently. Protective runes shattered one after another, and the alchemical shell cracked inch by inch.
But at that moment, a calm, deep voice echoed from the expressionless metal face:
"Your power… is off."
"You… are not an ordinary projection."
He didn't struggle. There was no fear in his voice only calm analysis.
The Weave Goddess merely smiled, as if she'd already foreseen the schemes of the wizard.
"The stronger I am," she said softly, her tone serene yet piercing, "shouldn't that make you all… happier?"
Her words unveiled a hidden truth.
"You're lucky… In several other worlds, my projections truly are only 'demi-god' level."
"But in this world… I've stepped one level further."
"If you can take down this projection of mine, your war merit may surpass that of all other participants."
She smiled faintly, her eyes like cold moons beautiful, but utterly devoid of emotion.
Even as a projection, she now stood like a true deity overlooking all beings, watching from above with chilling detachment.
"A true divine level…" came the shadowy metal man's faint voice amid the thunder of spells.
His body was already riddled with damage. Over seventy percent of the alchemical metal structure had disintegrated, and only the core remained, barely holding its form in mid-air.
Arcs of electricity danced across his shattered frame. His energy circuits flickered erratically like the labored breathing of someone near death.
And still, he spoke with her.
Though calm on the surface, hidden beneath his voice was the faintest, suppressed tremor a ripple of fear he could no longer conceal.
"…Afraid?" she asked with a gentle tone.
Before the words even fully landed, her porcelain finger lightly pinched the air. A heavy crack sounded the space itself seemed to shatter.
The shadowy metal form jolted violently. A fresh wave of alchemical fragments peeled off like meteors, falling toward the ground below.
His body was now on the brink of destruction.
"Haha… no, no…"
From his battered face came a light, amused chuckle.
"I'm not afraid… I'm excited."
"If those other cities had sent someone, dealing with you might've truly been troublesome…"
He murmured, voice tinged with amusement, "But us mech-wizard… we're different."
"Who knows… maybe the opportunity I've been waiting for to reach Level Six… lies in you, Goddess."
As the final word left his lips, his tone suddenly dropped.
Before the Weave Goddess could act again, his broken form detonated in a blinding blast!
BOOM!!
A scorching burst of light erupted in the sky like a newborn sun. A massive blossom of metal fire bloomed outward. Alchemical fragments spun into the air, unleashing a storm of chaotic energy that surged in all directions.
The Weave Goddess narrowed her eyes, her long lashes trembling slightly.
She didn't immediately suppress the explosion's aftershocks.
Because in that final sentence, she heard something unusual something that demanded caution.
She exhaled gently, her gaze growing cold. A divine glow flickered beneath her eyes, sweeping across the heavens and earth.
In the next instant, her divine senses detected a strange fluctuation.
She suddenly looked up, her gaze piercing through the void to the distant edge of the sky.
There, high above, amidst roiling clouds and flashing lightning a massive war fortress hung suspended in the heavens like a floating iron citadel.
From the fortress's deepest core came an immense and boundless wave of will cold and commanding, like an emperor surveying the chessboard of the world. The sheer pressure of that will alone seemed capable of making all beings bow low.
It was the true master of the City of Machines: the Lord of the City himself!
His presence had not descended… and yet, it already blanketed the entire firmament, vast as mountains and seas.
"…The big fish has taken the bait."
His voice echoed from the sky like a divine decree emotionless, yet chilling to the soul:
"It's time to draw the net."
On the surface, the army from the City of Machines had come to conquer this planar world.
But in truth, they had only one target the Weave Goddess.
The ownership of this world meant nothing to them.
Not only had this world already been reshaped by the Weave Goddess, transforming it into a domain attuned to her divine kingdom…
Even if it hadn't been altered if it had remained in its original, untamed state the wizards still would have had no interest in claiming it as their own.
In other words, to capture the Weave Goddess, they wouldn't hesitate to reduce the entire world to dust.
That drawn-out struggle with her divine legions what appeared to be a brutal stalemate was nothing more than a ruse.
From the very beginning, they were waiting.
Waiting for the true will of the Weave Goddess to descend… waiting for her to awaken completely from her slumber… waiting for the moment she stepped onto the battlefield in person and revealed all the fluctuations and fundamental nature of her divine power.
And now, she had finally shown herself.
Which meant… the time for disguises and waiting was over.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Deafening thunder exploded like celestial drums, shaking the very foundation of the entire planar world.
As the emotionless, commanding voice of the City of Machines' ruler echoed through the skies
In the Thirteenth Planar World, across all four major war zones, the various wizard factions moved in unison.
In the western war zone, beneath the metallic mists in the high skies, the Morningstar wizard in charge of command received the mental order without a flicker of expression.
He immediately relayed it down through layers of mental links, and the entire battlefront responded like a massive mechanical construct humming to life.
In the southern war zone, mechanical floating islands slowly rose. Countless armed alchemical colossi awakened from beneath the earth. The Morningstar wizard looked up at the sky and murmured:
"We've finally reached this moment…"
In the north, anomalies stirred as well. Amid the snow-covered mountains, where icy fog veiled the land, an elder sitting within a sorcery array suddenly opened his eyes and smiled faintly:
"She's awakened… Then it's time for us to begin too."
Throughout the long invasion of this world, the wizards had buried an untold number of interplanar purification devices deep within the planet's core.
The project team that Lynn had previously taken over had been responsible for just one part of this grand undertaking.
They had been modifying the purification devices into versions more resistant to divine civilizations.
Lynn had always wondered why his project didn't seem to have made much difference once he arrived in this world.
In truth, the devices on the surface were not so different from the others.
Because the true purpose of his research only became apparent near the planet's core.
Those purification devices lay dormant below the surface like ticking time bombs, waiting for the awakening of a god.
And now, with the divine presence revealed, it was finally time to activate them.
Everything up until now the stalemates, the feigned desperation had been elaborate deception.
They had deliberately appeared weak, luring the goddess deeper into the battlefield.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
One earth-shattering explosion after another roared through every corner of the Thirteenth Planar World!
From deep underground, countless silver-white lights surged upward like awakened rune dragons, twisting and rising toward the heavens.
These lights were not the soft, holy glow of divine magic but distorted, cold, and saturated with an energy of rejection, causing the very air to hum in resistance.
To the wizards, this energy was familiar and comforting, giving them the upper hand.
But to gods… it was like poison intolerable, and the longer it lingered, the more dangerous it became.
As the lord of the City of Machines had declared:
Had this been the City of Elements or the City of Bloodlines those neutral cities of the wizard civilization they might have been capable of devising large-scale interplanar tactics.
But to carry out such a forbidden project one that fundamentally rewrote the foundation of a world only the City of Machines had the means.
They didn't just have the theory. They had the tools.
Through meticulous calculations, tight-lipped secrecy, and years of infiltration, those purification devices had already reached deep into the planetary core of this world.
No longer surface-level tactical modifications but a planar-level rewriting of the world's very foundation!
From this moment on, the Thirteenth Planar World was beginning to transform into a stage tailor-made for the mechanical wizards.
Rewriting of laws… updating of order… a shift in the world's entire conceptual framework…
This was the deepest, most concealed trump card of the City of Machines.
The plan that had been in the making for years…
They called it The Poison Pill Protocol.
As the world's fundamental rules underwent a violent upheaval, the Thirteenth Plane seemed to experience a full-scale reset and reshuffling.
The sky turned cold and silent. The once-lively wind elementals no longer sang in whispers they now flowed mechanically, as if constrained by code.
The earth ceased to nurture divinity and began to resonate with arcane harmonics instead.
The flow of time, the coordinates of space, and the dominion of laws all began to quietly tilt in favor of the mechanical wizards.
All living beings, even without a battle, were already beginning to lose their "protection under the rules."
The knights' battle aura turned sluggish, and the mages' magic became chaotic.
They felt as if the world itself had grown "unfamiliar," as if an invisible hand was slowly pushing them away from the embrace of their original reality.
The creatures of the divine civilizations were horrified to realize they no longer belonged to this world.
Not only were the laws that favored divine systems stripped away, but even the neutral domains had been severed.
This new reality was a realm forged entirely by the arcane laws of wizardry a world that existed solely for "rationality and knowledge."
And those who were once blessed by God's faithful followers, warriors, priests, and clergy had now all become aberrations "outside the rules."
Under the new laws of this world, they were seen as heretics, as parasites.
They were being suppressed, repelled, and even rejected by the world itself.
Southern front, northern front, western front…
No matter the battlefront, no matter friend or foe, everyone sensed the sudden shift in the world's order.
Chaos began to spread, and the rhythm of battle began to collapse.
And on the eastern front on the battlefield where Lynn stood the same was happening.
The earth trembled, the elements spiraled out of control, and countless soldiers looked up at the heavens in fear, sensing an unbearable "pressure of world will."
"Looks like... that powerful wizard has won," Qi said, sensing the change in the world's laws, a smile tugging at his lips, though a hint of gravity lingered in his expression.
Lynn nodded slightly, remaining silent, though doubt swirled in his heart.
Was it over? Had the Weave Goddess truly run out of options?
The current plane of reality had fallen completely into the hands of the mechanical wizards it had become their domain of arcane law.
Under these conditions, could she still fight back?
But just as Lynn's thoughts hadn't fully settled
Heaven changed.
BOOM!!
A divine roar exploded from the depths of the sky, like an invisible chime reverberating through the world's very veins.
In the next instant, divine power surged holy radiance flooded like a sea!
Above the heavens, a brilliance of overwhelming sanctity pierced the steel-and-logic-woven night like the dawn tearing through shadow.
Lynn's eyes flew open, heart tightening as he blurted out, "Crap… don't tell me I jinxed it?"
A graceful figure slowly emerged from the heart of the light.
She wore a flowing black gown, the hem dancing to the rhythm of the world's laws;
Her bare feet stepped upon the air, her skin paler than snow, her face cold yet breathtakingly beautiful;
Her gaze seemed to pierce through realms and glimpse fate itself with just one glance, any who looked upon her felt an irresistible divine pressure.
The Weave Goddess had appeared suddenly and without warning!
"Call my true name with devout faith, and you may enter the divine realm," she spoke gently yet her voice thundered like a storm across the heavens, resonating directly on the level of the world's laws.
BOOM!!
A radiant golden vision of her divine kingdom descended from the sky, spanning thousands of miles its presence transcended physical dimensions and directly touched souls and the fabric of law.
It was like the gate of heaven had opened upon the mortal world. The battlefield was swallowed in divine gold in the blink of an eye.
The laws of this world were still being slowly rewritten by the purification devices of the mechanical city into those of the wizarding world.
But before that transformation could be completed, this plane's existing laws still belonged to "Kingdom Skyrealm" not the arcane civilization.
Thus, the Weave Goddess had first traveled through the Ether Plane, crossing the vast distance between outer planes to reach this battlefield.
Then, she summoned her divine realm.
That's right the Weave Goddess was no longer a demi-god, but a fully ascended deity.
Which meant she possessed the power to open higher planes and summon her divine kingdom.
Her divine realm existed in the upper dimensions of the real world it could not be erased by merely altering the physical plane.
The "Poison Pill Plan" of the mechanical city might taint the material world, but it had no power to influence the foundation of her divine realm.
As the golden light spread, the Weave Goddess's divine kingdom descended forcefully into the world.
Contrary to the mechanical wizards' expectations, the battlefield was not crushed beneath their so-called Poison Pill Plan.
Within the confines of the physical plane, the wizards had indeed won.
But the Weave Goddess had not lost.
She had opened her divine realm and stepped into the outer dimensions.
She was now closer to success than ever before.
Because when her divine kingdom descended it also enveloped the entire eastern front of the battlefield.
Including Lynn and Qi whom the Weave Goddess had been tracking all along…
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