Rieren hurried onwards, jumping over rocky shelves towards the source of the stream. The inclination grew higher on either side, steep hills giving way to sheer mountains. Already, her Godly Proprioception could detect movement rapidly closing in on her location. As long as she kept moving, however, they wouldn’t harm her Enchantment.

The end came into sight all too soon. A short tree jutted from atop a rock, black-barked instead of grey this time, golden leaves wafting by themselves in the windless air. Rieren had reached the birthplace of the system—the Tree of Creation.

“Too late,” said the god standing at its feet.

A mortal flashed into being to Rieren’s right. She caught mere flashes in the split-second before their exchange—golden armour underneath a red tabard, long blond hair streaming behind his head, the gleam of a deadly black blade.

She swerved under his swing so that his momentum carried him past her. By the time Rieren was upright, her sword was out. She had just enough power to use Enchant on her blade, turning it into a Stormborne Greatsword. Then, she used Heaven’s Arc. The god’s Chosen turned only to face the full brunt of her skill.

Her blade sliced the man in half, the shockwave from the sword’s tip cleaving the mountain behind him in two.

“Do not assume your true victory will be as easy.” The god’s words punctured the crash of the collapsing mountain as he stared at the man’s remains with distaste. He met her eyes. “Or achievable at all.”

Rieren wished she could cultivate and let her inner harmony still her. Of all the divine twits to meet her at the end, it had to be Akohr.

The Crescent Moon God stood resplendent in his silver chased black armour, his scorpion-tail helm adorned with a shining crescent behind it. His three-pronged spear—the crescent blade joined by the pointed spear blade at the centre—slowly lowered to aim right at Rieren. “Are you prepared, upstart? Death comes, Bladed Goddess Arianaele!”

Rieren glanced briefly at the cooling corpse. A mortal fool who had been happy to let the rest of his race rot all so he could claim the heavens, though he hadn’t even attained a godly name for himself. Not that she could claim to be innocent of delivering death and subjugation to those she deemed deserved little better.

The difference was that she was simply better at achieving her goals.

She turned to face the Crescent Moon God. “I am ready to win, Akohr.”

The god frowned at the use of his name. His eyes flashed with baleful golden fire.

Around them, the movement that had been drawing closer now halted in the distance, likely around the mountaintops. Other gods and their servants, other former mortals ready to serve and die if needed. They couldn’t interfere in the battle without infringing upon Akohr’s honour. A minor blessing Rieren could make use of.

“You have this, Crescent Moon?” another god asked. Her shimmered into being to their left, thick arms crossed over his green-armoured chest. Two handles of two greataxes peeked out over both shoulders. “Or do we get to stab this heretic together?”

A different god replied before Akohr could, her words smooth as silk. She materialized to their right, shrouded in a robe the colour of rose petals, the tips of her shoulder-length golden hair the only things visible under her hood. Well, apart from her pale chin and lips. “Now, now. We’ve come to observe the end of this farce, not partake in it.”

The Crescent Moon God wasn’t pleased at the veiled insult. He struck the butt of his spear into the stream. “Enough. Bear witness, Brethren, as I cull the last of those who would stand before us.”

The battle didn’t last long. Reduced of much of her power, harried by all the godly, monstrous, and mortal obstacles she had been forced to navigate in the Celestial Realm, Rieren was far from her peak strength. Even then, facing off against a god who had reached the Late Primordial stage, one stage above her own, would have been difficult at best.

It was a good thing Rieren had her class as her saving grace. Thanks to one of the perks of Divine Bladereaver, her wounds fed her stats, beefing them up a certain percentage the more injured she was.

It wasn’t enough to fight the Crescent Moon God, especially not in her condition. But it sufficed to get past him.

The rain of his blows came in thick and fast, her sword barely keeping up to parry each strike. She might block the crescent spear from harming her, but every clang of the blades struck like pikes driving into her ears. Every blow made the spear blade glow brighter too, the strength of Akohr’s strikes rising in tandem. Even the surrounding area was slowly turning dark.

Akohr was summoning his Domain.

Rieren was caught at times as well. A part of her ear was sliced off with one slash, and one of her wounds turned livid with agony Akohr managed to stab in with the crescent spear.

But patience—and proficiency with her sword—finally gave Rieren the opening she needed. As his slashes weren’t killing her quickly enough, Akohr made a sudden switch to a stab. Just the move Rieren had been waiting for.

A quick step back and twist of her body allowed her to rapidly stomp on and trap the stabbing spear. She couldn’t keep it that way for long, of course. But the surprise of her move—hilariously, a basic manoeuvre taught to fledgling beginners—caught Akohr off guard, giving her the window she had been seeking.

Rieren couldn’t open her Domain, but its basic constituent was all around her. The stream under her feet, the blood dripping off her, the fluids she had been drenched with, they all had one thing in common—water.

Using the split second that Akohr was surprised, she swung her sword up after dragging it through the water. A wave leapt up and slammed into the Crescent Moon God.

That opened her next window. The one Rieren needed to use Swift Wind Passage.

The movement skill was excellent at getting her through nearly any obstacle for about three dozen paces. Just the right distance to reach the Tree of Creation.

Its tip wasn’t much taller than Rieren. If she reached up, she could touch the highest bough with ease. But it wasn’t the peak she sought. With a quick jab of her hand, she punched into its trunk.

The tree screamed. It was an unearthly sound, stabbing into everything with such intensity, it seemed that the world itself would crack. Her ears cringed. Sadly, of all the things she had expected and planned for, a screaming tree wasn’t one. Monkey’s balls, they didn’t even have mouths.

Rieren corrected her reaction quickly, but the Crescent Moon God had caught up. Akohr’s Domain bloomed into being. Darkness blotted out the rest of the world as Rieren’s field of view shrunk to just herself, the shrieking tree, and a circle of water two paces wide around her.

Less than a moment later, Akohr materialized to her left. She raised her sword just in time to parry the swing of his moon-bright spear.

Problem was, the glow had grown so powerful that it was impossible to look at directly. Akohr’s power had burgeoned like a building tidal wave. While Rieren still blocked it with her blade, the mountainous force behind it threw her off her feet.

She burst through the Crescent god’s Domain as though shattering through glass, bouncing off one of the rocky shelves once before crashing down near her Enchantment with a blast of rocks and water.

It was a good thing she no longer had to breathe. Both her lungs had collapsed, her shattered ribs stabbing inwards. One of her arms had been twisted at a horrific angle and her lower back had been crushed so she could no longer feel her legs. She coughed out more blood. That Crescent Moon bastard had got her in the end.

But not before she had pulled out the tree’s heart.

Rieren grinned. The Enchantment was working already. Her red-gold blood had more auric twinkles now, the glow spreading throughout the stream. With the last of her strength, she crushed the Tree of Creation’s dried, wooden heart, letting the splinters trail into the stream.

“What have you done?” Akohr asked quietly.

Rieren couldn’t move her head anymore, but her eyeballs could still rotate enough to catch him standing on the edge of the rocky shelf just beyond her own. One, as-yet-unruined side of her mouth twitched up.

“Welcome to the real end, Crescent Moon God,” she garbled out.

Great. Even her throat was too damaged to talk properly. A part of her wanted to give Akohr even a small taste of what she was experiencing, but it didn’t matter. Victory was hers, and the dawning realization etched on his face was all the sweet satisfaction she really needed.

“You couldn’t have…”

“I have. I did. The tree’s heart was the last ingredient I needed. The most important one.”

“You stole the system!” Akohr visibly mastered his feelings. His anger had been rising, and though he was still furious, he had managed to affect a steely calm demeanour. “What reason could you possibly have for doing this? Spite? All mortals are already dead. You’ve lost, thief. Your corpse will wither and rot, and the Tree of Creation will be whole again in time.”

“On the contrary, I’ve won.”

“I care not what you define as victory.”

Despite the pain, Rieren’s smile grew wider. Akohr had no idea what was going on. None of his so-called Brethren did, either. Around Rieren, the water started frothing and sloshing, as though a storm was roiling across its surface. “Regressor’s Last Wish.”

Akohr froze. “Impossible.” He was properly agitated now, a tremble coursing through his whole body. “Impossible.” Rieren’s Proprioception alerted her of the agitation of the other gods at Akohr’s reaction. “I won’t let you, harridan!”

“Too late,” Rieren said.

As the Crescent Moon God leapt at her with a scream, an orb of darkness forming over them as he brought his full power down to bear, Rieren laughed. She was certain that forcing out laughter through her broken throat was what killed her before the puffed-up Moon idiot could even reach her.

But, as she had planned, death didn’t truly take her. Not with her precautions.

Bright blue words popped up in the formless, painless darkness that claimed her. An unrelenting void that was beyond life or death.

[Congratulations! System Regression has been activated.]

You have successfully completed a Grand Feat—spreading the System’s influence to all sapient beings without exception using the Lifegiving Stream emanating from the roots of the Tree of Creation. Beware the far-reaching consequences. For now, you have earned one reward to take to your next life.

Selectable Rewards

• Class: Divine Bladereaver
• Skill: [Pick any; stackable with starting Class skill]
• Perk: [Pick any; stackable with Class perk]
• Title: [Pick any]

It was sad that the system hadn’t offered Rieren anything from her cultivation. But that was fine. It made the choice easier, at least. After she picked her class to carry forward as her reward, the void began to fade, though she still frowned in thought at the talk of consequences.

For now, though, there were other matters to attend. Rieren was about to be reborn.