Chapter 328: Two Gods Arrive… and Luke Is Caught in the Middle!

Crack!

The very thing Luke had been dreading finally happened as the crimson throne beneath Selene’s Blood Sovereign form shattered into fragments of condensed blood, leaving her exposed directly inside the jaws of the gigantic serpent, whose fangs were already closing around her body.

"Selene..." Luke muttered worriedly, his eyes remaining fixed on the scene despite the fact that he still couldn’t make his Void Step work.

With no other option available to him, Luke stared intensely toward the serpent’s mouth, silently hoping that Selene would regain control of her body before those fangs reached her.

But something completely unexpected happened instead.

The instant the serpent was about to close its jaws, the entire Heaven’s Crucible suddenly trembled as though a high-magnitude earthquake had erupted throughout the entire space.

"What’s happening?"

"Is Heaven’s Crucible breaking?"

The Sunborn warriors immediately became startled, their previous focus on the battlefield disappearing as they began looking around in confusion, desperately trying to determine where the strange disturbance had originated.

Even the Empyrean Academy representatives wore ugly expressions as they looked around, because everyone understood the danger of something happening to Heaven’s Crucible itself, and if this place truly began collapsing, they could all end up being buried inside it.

Then, above the sky of Heaven’s Crucible, something appeared.

A pair of enormous crimson eyes slowly opened.

The moment those eyes became visible, everyone who looked at them became completely mesmerized, because they were so beautiful and strangely captivating that controlling themselves became almost impossible.

One by one, the spectators stood from their seats as though their bodies were moving without their permission, and while their gazes remained locked upon those crimson eyes, thin streams of blood slowly began flowing from their own eyes.

Yet even as the blood continued trickling down their faces, none of them looked away.

It was as though even death itself could not force them to blink.

"Ughh..."

Luke was also staring toward the crimson eyes, but unlike everyone else, his reaction wasn’t quite the same.

His eyes merely became bloodshot, and although his vision was filled with red, no blood escaped from them.

The pressure on his mind, however, was completely different.

It felt as though his consciousness had been thrown inside a gigantic drum while a small hammer repeatedly struck its surface, sending violent waves of sound through his mind until his thoughts themselves began shaking apart.

"What’s this?" Luke muttered in confusion as he held his head, trying to withstand the pressure invading his consciousness.

At that moment, Sevaroth, who was floating beside him, stared toward the crimson eyes with an equally confused expression before quietly speaking the possibility that had just crossed his mind.

"A Demi-God?"

"O-O."

Luke’s eyes immediately widened, and his mouth opened completely upon hearing those words.

"A Demi-God here?"

He stared intently at the crimson eyes, unable to process what was happening, because never in his wildest expectations had he imagined that a Demi-God would actually appear within Heaven’s Crucible.

Not while Peiro was still here.

Yet before Luke could think any further, the crimson eyes shifted.

Their gaze moved away from the specters and focused directly upon the spectral serpent that had frozen in place from fear, with Selene’s Blood Sovereign body still trapped within its mouth.

The next moment, a pair of beautiful, mesmerizing lips manifested beneath those enormous crimson eyes.

Then a sweet, melody-filled voice emerged from them.

"A pet of Iveron~"

"Fufu~"

"But Iveron, don’t you think it’s too early to intervene?"

The instant those words were completed, the very space of Heaven’s Crucible shattered like glass.

TINK...

KRRRK...

KRRRRAAAAAASH!!!

A gigantic spatial crack tore across the sky, and from the broken space beyond it, a crimson hand made entirely from solidified blood slowly emerged.

"The fck!"

Luke had finally recovered enough from the pressure affecting his ears and mind to speak clearly again, and he stared at the scene with wide eyes, because the appearance unfolding before him looked almost like the beginning of the world’s destruction.

Even Sevaroth became curious, because while everyone else was overwhelmed by what they were witnessing, he felt something different from the crimson hand, something that didn’t quite match the power level he had initially assumed.

Then another voice came from above.

"Sigh, I am getting rusty, that now even Demi-Gods are able to shatter Heaven’s Crucible’s space."

As those words spread through the arena, Peiro’s gigantic body suddenly began expanding.

His previous form grew until he became a ten-thousand-meter-tall blue spirit, and after reaching that size, he slowly lowered his enormous blue hands toward the approaching crimson hand and attempted to break it apart.

However, the instant Peiro’s hand touched the crimson hand, something completely unexpected happened.

His blue hand began turning crimson.

The color spread rapidly from the point of contact, covering more and more of his hand as though the crimson power were attempting to flow directly into him.

"Huh?" Peiro’s eyes widened.

"Divine Blood!"

Without hesitation, he severed his own right hand before the crimson substance could spread any farther throughout his body.

BOOOM!

His enormous detached hand crashed into the ground, shattering the earth beneath it and creating a gigantic crater.

Yet Peiro didn’t even look toward his fallen hand.

His widened eyes remained fixed on the crimson hand, which continued moving forward without the slightest interruption, completely ignoring his previous attempt to stop it as it reached toward the frozen spectral serpent.

"You are not a Demi-God!"

Peiro’s voice became serious.

"But a GOD!"

The words escaped his mouth, and the crimson lips immediately curved into a small, amused smile.

"Fufu~ Peiro, you have now become an ancient antique after your master used all your power during that day."

Peiro’s expression became ugly upon hearing those words, because he knew she was telling the truth.

He was no longer at his prime.

The nearly infinite amount of power he had once possessed had already been exhausted during that distant event, and the being before him clearly understood exactly how much weaker he had become since then.

Yet before Peiro could respond, the crimson hand continued forward and finally reached the spectral serpent.

Its fingers closed around the serpent’s head, completely trapping it within the crimson palm.

"Cutie, you shouldn’t have touched my descendant~" the mysterious woman said playfully, her sweet voice carrying an authority that made the surrounding space tremble.

With a simple movement of her hand, she broke the spectral serpent’s head apart and separated it completely from its enormous body.

Kshk!

BOOM!

The gigantic headless serpent body immediately dropped from the air and crashed into the ground, creating another crater beneath its enormous weight.

The crimson eyes, however, were no longer interested in the corpse.

Its attention shifted toward Selene’s Blood Sovereign body.

"Sigh, you are too weak to use its real power," the woman muttered with a trace of pity.

The next instant, the seven purple omen symbols embedded within Selene’s Blood Sovereign body suddenly disappeared.

At the same time, Selene’s gigantic Sovereign form reverted to her normal appearance, leaving her unconscious body resting within the crimson palm.

Yet before the mysterious woman could do anything else, her crimson eyes suddenly narrowed.

She looked toward the opposite side of Heaven’s Crucible.

"Peiro, it seems anyone can enter your little home nowadays~" she said playfully, and the teasing tone of her voice made Peiro’s already ugly expression become even darker.

He had felt it too. Someone else was coming.

And then it happened.

Another fracture appeared on the opposite side of Heaven’s Crucible, and just like the previous one, the surrounding space cracked apart as though made from glass.

KRRRRAAAAAK!!!

From within the broken space, a gigantic flaming hand emerged.

Above it, another pair of enormous eyes formed, followed by a mouth.

The newly arrived being slowly looked downward at the gathered specters, then shifted his attention toward Peiro, and finally toward Brynessa’s body lying within the arena.

His gaze remained upon her for a little longer than the others before finally turning toward the crimson eyes.

"Lilith, I didn’t expect you would come for your descendant."

The voice carried through the entire Heaven’s Crucible before the another amused voice came.

"And I also didn’t expect that you would come for your little toy."

"..."

Iveron’s mouth immediately closed.

There was no response.

But neither of them noticed that a small being was still present within the specter seat, fully awake, silently listening to every word they exchanged.

’Lilith? Iveron?’

Luke remained completely still, although not because he wanted to remain that way.

He simply couldn’t move.

Two different pressures were now bearing down upon his body, and each one was so powerful that merely existing beneath them made him feel as though his body could be crushed at any moment.

The same was true for every other specter.

From the Empyrean Academy representatives to the Sunborn warriors, from Mella to Marrec, none of them were spared from the overwhelming pressure radiating from the two divine beings.

Fortunately, Heaven’s Crucible was still protecting them.

Without Peiro’s protection, he was certain that the weaker spectators would have already been crushed into nothing more than meat paste merely by remaining within their presence.

Sevaroth, however, continued floating beside Luke as though nothing had happened, and after observing the crimson eyes carefully, he slowly nodded.

"No wonder she felt different earlier; she is a God, not a Demi-God."