The night shrouded the silent, soundless world. The phoenix that had lost half of one wing still wore a crown atop its head that shone as brilliantly as the sun, while the golden flames deep within its eye sockets remained unextinguished.
Gregace looked toward the starry sky obscured by the night, toward the Twilight Giant wielding a massive sword and preparing to sever her head, and toward the Southern Continent that was being scorched everywhere by heavenly fire.
Gregace let out a painful cry, accompanied by a mocking sneer.
"Badheil, you will pay the price tonight for foolishly trusting the Evernight!"
"You will bring destruction upon yourself for provoking the Stars!"
"I have already seen the scene of your Twilight Palace shattering. You will be swallowed by the night even before I am."
Gregace's words earned only a single response from the God of Combat, Badheil, followed by another relentless assault.
"Under the witness of the Seven Gods, Evernight will not be the one to break the oath."
He dared to act precisely because tonight's divine battle was jointly witnessed by the Seven Gods. Whoever broke the oath would face the collective crusade of the other gods.
The Evernight Goddess could not leave the confines of Her divine kingdom. At most, She could descend through a divine descent to provide assistance. This was the prerequisite for His intervention.
At the same time, the God of Knowledge and Wisdom was stationed outside the Evernight Goddess's divine kingdom to prevent Her from violating the oath.
On His side, He had also secretly arranged for the Earth Mother to safeguard His divine kingdom to prevent any other accidents.
This was a risk He had no choice but to take. If He chose not to act against this newly ascended Death tonight, then His position and the Evernight Goddess's would be reversed.
The one hunting down this newly ascended Death would then be the Evernight Goddess. Once the Evernight Goddess successfully killed Death, She would obtain the Uniqueness of the Death pathway, leaving Him in an extremely unfavorable position.
Likewise, if He killed Death, then the Uniqueness of the Death pathway would become His spoils of war, and the Evernight Goddess would instead fall into an unfavorable position.
Thus, He chose to become the one who took the initiative to attack.
"Heh, you're still too foolish."
Gregace sneered and said nothing more. While suppressing Salinger's desperate counterattack as he neared his end, she dealt with Badheil's attacks, but her gaze remained fixed on the starry sky overhead.
She was indeed facing a desperate situation. Having only just resurrected and returned, it was impossible for her to simultaneously withstand Salinger's backlash and resist the combined assault of the God of Combat and the Evernight Goddess.
She had already seen this scene in advance. Since the future she had seen was through the Stars, naturally, she needed the power of the Stars to break free of it.
Therefore, to ensure that she could safely survive this predicament, she chose to offer her faith to The Stars.
As early as when the contract was signed, she had known that her awakening this time was precisely due to the summons of the Sovereign of the Stars. It was His summons that had awakened her after she had lain dormant for countless years.
Since she could no longer sever her connection with the Sovereign of the Stars, she might as well completely throw herself into the embrace of The Stars and allow Him to shelter her.
For this reason, she issued a divine oracle ordering all believers who worshiped Death to instead become believers of The Stars and, tonight, from this very moment onward, devoutly pray to The Stars.
And she herself was likewise a believer of The Stars.
"O Guide of the Endless Stars,
Master of the Ancient Starry Sky,
The One Who Returns the Stars to Their Positions, your believer Gregace beseeches Your aid.
Please descend Your mighty power, tear apart this dense night, and let the radiance of the Stars once again shelter every believer."
Gregace's resounding prayer echoed throughout the entire night.
The God of Combat, who was attacking with all His might, suddenly felt an inexplicable panic well up within Him. Even the massive sword in His hand seemed to grow heavy at that moment.
Crack!
It sounded as if something had been torn apart.
The God of Combat instinctively looked toward the source of the sound.
It came from the starry sky overhead.
The world that had originally been enveloped by the dense night was like a black garment embroidered with countless stars. At this moment, an immense force forcibly tore open a gap in it and reached inside.
First came a single beam of light, radiance from the stars in the cosmos. Then came a second beam, a third, a fourth... Thousands upon thousands of beams pierced through the world of night.
At this moment, the radiance of the Stars once again broke through the restraints of the night and revealed its traces in the starry sky.
The night could never bind the Stars, nor could it conceal their radiance.
The starry sky could exist without night, but it could not exist without the brilliance of the Stars.
At the source of those countless rays of starlight, a dazzling starry sky lit up, and an ancient, mysterious palace emerged amid the accompanying starlight.
The Hall of Stars completely revealed itself beneath the gaze of all observers tonight.
Tonight, the Hall of Stars had truly manifested rather than existing in an illusory state.
Azik, the Evernight Goddess, the High-Dimensional Overseer, and Adam were observing the scene firsthand. Hidden in the shadows were the True Creator, the Primordial Demoness, the Hidden Sage, and others, along with several other True Gods stationed at the cracks in the Original Barrier.
Beyond the starry sky, Outer Deities and Great Old Ones such as the Mother Goddess of Depravity, the Mother Tree of Desire, and the Supernova Dominator also cast their gazes over.
Together, they witnessed this scene.
The Stars were inside the Original Barrier!
Adam and the Evernight Goddess subconsciously furrowed their brows. This was not good news.
A Great Old One had actually already penetrated the Original Barrier and descended into the real world!
Being outside the starry sky and being inside the Original Barrier were two completely different concepts.
Just how powerful was a truly awakened Great Old One?
Perhaps even the combined strength of the Seven Gods would be unable to oppose Him. More importantly, as long as He wished, He could attack the Original Barrier from within at any moment, coordinating with the Outer Deities and Great Old Ones outside the starry sky to assault it from both sides.
This was an enormous threat!
"I now believe that the Stars truly have the ability to send our complete selves inside the Original Barrier."
A meaningful smile appeared on the High-Dimensional Overseer's face. He stood up and looked toward the solemn-faced Adam.
"You've provoked the Stars like this. If He becomes enraged and brings an Great Old One here from beyond the starry sky, I wonder if you'll still be able to calmly sit here and watch?"
Adam said nothing. He merely continued staring at the Hall of Stars. Yet even He could not penetrate that starry sky at this moment, much less see through the Hall of Stars and glimpse the One Who Returns the Stars to Their Positions within.
"He won't act that way." Adam slowly withdrew His gaze.
If The One Who Returns the Stars to Their Positions truly wanted to destroy the Original Barrier and bring about the prophesied apocalypse ahead of schedule, then He could have done so long ago.
His stance was not completely aligned with the Great Old Ones beyond the starry sky.
"Perhaps He wouldn't before, but from now on, who knows?"
The High-Dimensional Overseer chuckled. The surrounding space-time suddenly shifted, and He instead trapped Adam within a chaotic space-time turbulence.
"Regardless of whether He needs my help, I still have to make my position clear. Now, it's your turn to quietly remain a spectator."
"I have always been a spectator." Adam remained indifferent, unconcerned by the High-Dimensional Overseer's sudden change of attitude.
"I'm very interested in the true face you're hiding."
The High-Dimensional Overseer smiled as He summoned a chaotic expanse of space-time and smashed it toward Adam.
Beyond the starry sky, the disturbed Supernova Dominator extended a gigantic palm comparable in size to a star. He seized a nearby star in His palm, kneaded it briefly, transformed it into a platinum-white sphere of light stimulated to its utmost limit, and hurled it toward the Original Barrier.
The Mother Tree of Desire also demonstrated Her stance through action. She stopped the Mother Goddess of Depravity, who had intended to take advantage of the chaos to intervene.
After confirming that the Stars were inside the Original Barrier, their attitudes underwent subtle changes.
The aura emanating from the Hall of Stars proved that the Stars were fully capable of sending them inside the Original Barrier ahead of time!
Even if it were only one day early, they would still gain the greatest possible advantage in the final struggle!
When the platinum-white sphere of light thrown by the Supernova Dominator was about to reach the Original Barrier, it suddenly disappeared.
The next moment, that platinum-white sphere of light appeared outside the gates of the God of Combat's divine kingdom and swept forward with unstoppable momentum.
Rumble!
Even though this was merely a star casually manipulated by the Supernova Dominator, and the attack had been weakened to a certain extent, it still easily destroyed the God of Combat's divine kingdom.
A giant clad in decaying armor, holding a longsword and bathed in twilight, now stood amid His shattered divine kingdom, letting out furious roars one after another.
Even the Supernova Dominator was surprised by this development.
His attacks could not penetrate the Original Barrier and damage the divine kingdoms of the Seven Gods.
Otherwise, the divine kingdoms of the Seven Gods stationed at the cracks in the Original Barrier would have been razed to the ground long ago and could never have endured until today.
There was only one explanation.
The Stars had guided His attack to the gates of the God of Combat's divine kingdom and borrowed His power to destroy it.
The Supernova Dominator pondered for only a moment before extending His star-sized palm again and consecutively hurling three more stars that had been stimulated to their utmost limits.
In this matter, He did not mind acting as The Stars' hired muscle.
He only hoped that The Stars would spread the favor around a little and guide part of His offensive toward the Eternal Blazing Sun's divine kingdom as well.
The Stars seemed to hear His thoughts and guided one of the three stars toward the Eternal Blazing Sun's divine kingdom.
Even though the Eternal Blazing Sun was prepared, His divine kingdom still collapsed by more than half amid an enormous roar, and even He Himself was affected.
As for the God of Combat, His situation was even more difficult. Having received special attention, He could no longer concern Himself with fighting Gregace. He wanted to return to His divine kingdom and deal with the Stars' targeting.
This time, however, Gregace blocked His path.
Gregace sneered.
"Even if the Evernight Goddess benefits tonight, I will still make sure your divine kingdom is completely shattered!"
Badheil was furious, but for the moment, He was unable to break free from Gregace's entanglement.
Beneath the night sky, the Evernight Goddess, standing beside Azik, slowly raised Her eyes and gazed toward the God of Combat's divine kingdom.