Xakira and Rhazor didn’t start fighting right away. They looked down at the battlefield spanning several thousand kilometers, trying to see how it would evolve.

Rhazor spoke calmly. "Queen Xakira, even if your strength is enough to keep me at bay, my army will shatter yours."

Xakira, holding her aethermancy staff with a rotating gem at the top, spoke with a chuckle. "It seems there has been some kind of misunderstanding."

Rhazor frowned, looking over.

"I am not the leader of this army, just another citizen in Liu Shu’s domain. After all, within Tianlian Liu Shu’s domain, she is the absolute ruler who decides about the outcome of the battlefield."

Rhazor looked at Xakira’s confident face, and his heart thumped once. If Xakira were a Level 199 powerhouse, he would’ve only felt derision about her words. However, Xakira was a Level 200 powerhouse. Her horizons were not less than his own, and yet, Xakira spoke with confidence.

’What might be the trump card of this World Tree?’

It was then that Liu Shu, for the first time since the war started, truly manifested her entire strength. Rhazor saw thousands of roots manifest from the depths of space, each of them carrying strength no less than an average Level 200 fighter, and then slapped them down onto the ships.

BOOM! BOOM!...

A muted explosion echoed, the sturdy starships of the Nexus being blown by the impact on their shields. The perfect formation was thrown into disarray in a single attack, but having spread out her energy so wide, the effect was more focused on pushing power than damage.

However, for Liu Shu, this was not a problem. She just didn’t want to lose too many of her so hard-earned starships. With the starships changing their focus onto her roots, Liu Shu chanted silently. "<World Tree Calling>."

Rhazor finally saw the infamous Arboreal Winged Serpents that his general spoke about manifesting. Ophion led the charge out of the massive portal, the army of 110 Arboreal Winged Serpents entering the battlefield like slaughter gods among people.

Instantly, Rhazor understood. ’...My army will be at a disadvantage.’

So, he turned and looked at Xakira, drawing his sword. "<Essence Splitting Sword>."

Xakira, having never lost track of Rhazor’s movements, waved her aethermancy staff. "<Royal Frenzy Mantle>."

The scattered Aether hornets she summoned gathered around her body, forming a powerful shield.

BANG!

The sword slash caved the shield in, revealing Xakira’s figure for a moment, something Rhazor didn’t miss. His body moved forward incredibly quickly, arriving in front of Xakira before she fully reacted. "<Essence Splitting Sword>."

Xakira clicked her tongue. "Is that skill the only one you have? <Flashwing Transportation>."

Lightning hornets latched onto her wings, and Xakira’s movement speed increased steeply, avoiding the sword and flashing several kilometers away.

Rhazor didn’t answer, following after her and raising his sword again. Xakira naturally would not allow herself to be pushed into a defensive battle. "Rushing forward so aggressively is not a good idea~. <Queen’s Piercing Verdict>."

The lightning hornets condensed against each other, forming a compact spear. Then, wind hornets rotated around the spear, an arc of lightning igniting the back of the spear as it tore through the void toward him.

Rhazor quickly dodged, but the cutting wind hornets forming the aura scratched him, slicing a few hundred Phoer Cores that quickly healed. His eyes sharpened, but Xakira was far from done. "One of them is easy to dodge... How about a thousand of them?"

Lifting her staff, Xakira summoned over a thousand of them and shot them ten at a time for perfect accuracy control. Rhazor quickly transformed into a blur, his sword slicing all the incoming spears with relative ease as he closed the distance.

Xakira admitted it. Rhazor was exceptionally strong. His equipment, his battle techniques, and his ability to manipulate essence and move through the battlefield. Everything was, much to her annoyance, worth praising.

Compared to her, someone who had just entered Level 200, she was far inferior. ’I have Liu Shu’s buffs, and even then, I can only keep a stalemate. At this pace, I would take quite a long time to defeat him if he doesn’t defeat me earlier.’

Her <Aether> had been boosted to the 10,000,000 mark through Liu Shu’s buffs, and should’ve overwhelmed Rhazor’s main 9,000,000 stat points. Yet, Rhazor’s swordsmanship was exquisite to the point that, even when her attacks were stronger, he had the advantage.

As they fought back and forth, her compound eyes gave her a wide angle of vision. She could see from her side vision the development of the fight, and once she noticed that all armies were about to collide, she sighed. "Rhazor, you are admirable. Sadly, you choose the wrong opponent."

Rhazor frowned, and then Liu Shu’s presence tore through the void as Aether Mana, Anima Energy, and even Phoer Body Essence stirred as if boiling. The universe around them shrieked for a moment, as if it wanted to deny the power being manifested, but it was unable to stop it.

Then, the World Tree finally showed her trump cards, her voice descending like judgment to those who offended her.

"All of you, fall into the quagmire of Eternity. <Acceleration Domain>, <Slow Domain>."

Eternal energy pulled on the immovable strings of time, twisting them to its whims, and Liu Shu’s energy took hold of the entire battlefield.

Both sides, who were about to collide and start slaughtering each other, suddenly felt a ridiculous shift.

For those on Liu Shu’s side, the enemy suddenly became half as fast, while their everything accelerated by 50%.

For those against Liu Shu, it felt as if every single individual around had suddenly become superboosted, their action speed increasing by nearly three times.

Then, both armies finally collided at the frontline.

Explosions spread out in succession, weapons clashing, while ranged attacks from both sides tore into each other’s armies. However, the difference between the sides was too tragic.

Rhazor, who had similarly been affected, saw how his army’s frontline was turned into pieces, the enemies dodging attacks and slipping past the gaps as if they saw the world in slow motion while they themselves moved straight.

"Whereareyoulooking?"

Xakira’s voice, several times faster than before, reached his ear, and he tried to turn to look, only to find a spear right in front of his face. He barely managed to move his essence to protect his face before the spear slammed heavily into his helmet.

BANG!

[-13,450,000,000]! (-134,500)! (1.3)!

His body flew back, and even through his thick defensive items and personal durability and resistances, Xakira’s attack managed to deal over a Phoer Star in damage. ’What!? How did she become so fast so suddenly?’

He quickly looked at his own System Interface, and he noticed a very prominent debuff. ’Slow Domain? What does...’

However, with everything slowed down, including his reaction and reading speed, Xakira’s attack managed to reach him before he could fully check, making his face change to one of surprise. "How?"

He drew his sword as fast as he could, barely deflecting the other side’s attack through sheer instinct.

CLANG!

Xakira, perfectly knowing about what was happening, stepped forward into melee range, her abdomen shining with electric and purplish currents. "<Thundersting Execution>."

Rhazor tried his utmost best to dodge the attack that made his hair stand on end, but his body had still not adapted to the utterly crippling effect of <Slow Domain>.

Like a phantom, Xakira managed to appear behind him, and a meter-long sting manifested from her abdomen, striking at Rhazor’s back armor. Rhazor could feel the powerful sting pierce his proud armor, and he quickly sliced back. "Back out!"

Xakira actually didn’t move away, trying to stay as long as she could within range. It was only after Rhazor’s sword landed on her chest plate, slicing through and pushing her back, injured, that her sting left Rhazor’s body.

Rhazor saw a terrifying message appear in front of him with blood-red letters, clearly a danger warning.

[You’ve been hit by <Thundersting Execution>! You are losing 10,000 Body Cores per second! Duration: 30 seconds.]

[One stack added!]

[One stack added!]

[One stack added!]

[One stack added!]

[You are losing 50,000 Body Cores per second!]

Coupled with the 1.5 Phoer Stars of damage from the sting itself, Rhazor found out that this one attack would slice over 16.5 Phoer Body Star Essence! That was over 10% of his sturdy vitality gone in just 30 seconds.

Instantly, he knew something had gone absolutely wrong, so he shouted through the earpiece. "High Bishop! Activate it now, or we’ll be annihilated!"

In the depths of space, High Bishop Nysera was startled because the person speaking on the other side sounded... slowed down. ’Did the device glitch?’

Of course, that was not her priority. Instead, she stepped into a complex ritual made out of arrays and runes, and she changed loudly. "Essence of the World. Disaster of Eras. Life will curl. Bewitch her as if you were Cinyras! <Corruption Of Stars (S Rank)>!"

Liu Shu, who was focusing on the battlefield, suddenly felt a terrible chill creep up her spine. Her roots paused, her essence similarly being disrupted as if she knew what was about to hit her.

Then, an extremely piercing pain reached her from several locations around the Solar System, tearing a scream out of her. "AH!!!"

The World Tree’s wail echoed throughout the entire Solar System, and simultaneously, Liu Shu’s energy supporting the <Acceleration Domain> and <Slow Domain> got disrupted.

In the battlefield, nothing changed much for a few more seconds, making the Nexus suffer countless casualties. However, after those seconds passed, time took control back from the eternal energy pulling its strings, and Rhazor noticed the change instantly. Together with the scream he heard, his lips arched. "So, Nysera’s boastful words were not for nothing."

Xakira, having heard Liu Shu’s scream, glared at Rhazor. "What did you do!?" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Rhazor was about to answer when his pupils constricted as he looked at a certain part of the battlefield. There, four auras suddenly surged like absolutely terrifying demons being awakened from deep slumber.

In the next instant, tempest, life, harmony, fire, and ice suddenly tore through tens of thousands of people as four transformed Sylvans manifested in the middle of the battlefield with strengths that resembled that of a World Tree manifested.

Verdantia’s energy was like a torrent of life as countless beings were summoned around her. "You dare make my Liu’er scream in pain!? I will use your children as fertilizer, you disgusting creatures!!"

Tempestria spread out her arms, a hurricane manifesting around her with the strength of a <Second Ascension> powerhouse. "Turn back to dust so I can sweep your ashes to feed my children."

Cinderielle’s left half was currently rising in temperature, while the other side was absorbing heat and lowering everything to terrifying levels. Her eyes were like torches as she swung her staff and tore through enemy ranks. "I’ll make heat a privilege you can’t control. Die screaming, or I won’t be satisfied."

Behind the three, Harmonixia pulled the strings of her instruments, the sounds making thousands of soldiers throw their hands to their heads as they screamed in pure agony. "Let me harmonize your souls with destruction. That way, your filthy souls won’t be able to enter reincarnation through Liu Shu’s roots and smear her purity."

What was worse for Rhazor was that, around his army, the void had suddenly been shattered into countless holes. From there, Rhazor saw a single insectkin appear together with a fairy on her shoulder, both their faces utterly cold and terrifying.

"Go, children. Devour those who hurt your eldest sister."

From the holes, over 2,000,000 ants poured out, each of them with auras no less powerful than both armies.

Liu Shu’s scream awakened something Rhazor didn’t want to stir awake, but there was no turning back.