In front of Alice lay a crevice of incomprehensible scale; even if her eyes were closed she had that incredible “sensory aura” that was progressively getting more mighty the longer she used it. It was not a linear growth either. Since, the area she was able to witness grew along with the level of detail, she was able to increase the rate of her growth logarithmically.

Yet (even after pushing her aura as far as she could while still utilising the seal on her eyes) she was unable to cover the entire length of the fissure. Not only that - she couldn’t even find any sign of it tapering off within the range of her aura. That meant she wasn’t even viewing half of it’s length.

This fracture didn’t just have scale, however, as she noticed that the earth inside of the cut appeared devoid of any connection to heaven. Usually everything held at least a miniscule amount of heavenly qi due to its connection with the very karma of the universe as a whole. A form of judgement that nothing could escape as it was simply a part of nature - like the animal judging if it’s prey or the tree judging the right time to spread its seeds - that would be summarised to decide it’s fate.

Even that connection was gone from the rock surface; that face being smoothed down to the point of shimmering with the sunlight shining down from the cloudless sky above.

“GRAAAAWWWR!” <Female Drake>

Of course, this was no timeskip, this was just after the little titan decided to try her hand at creating a whole new technique to deal with such situations. The result of her first test was the very gash in the planet which she was studying. This was not a result of her putting all her strength in either so she couldn’t help put her hand over her mouth in faint shock.

“Ara ara… I did restrict myself to a little bit of strength however it seems that I may need to consider placing more seals upon myself. Perhaps a limit of one percentile in this form should help me avoid possibly damaging unintended targets next time?” <Mother>

Tilting her head as she continued to study the effects of her blow; this time turning away from the hole to instead look towards the victim of her experimentation. That female drake had actually been able to react to her attack (after all it didn’t focus on speed nor did she swing it seriously) however that was akin to saying you saw the rain coming. Although you saw the clouds that meant nothing if you could not do anything to halt them.

Similarly to the metaphor, she attempted to avoid a direct attack, having listened to her instincts she made no attempt to continue pushing forward. However - the result was far from ideal - all that allowed was for her to keep her life. A life with an entire chunk removed from her left side. This included one half of her face (including a horn) as well as both limbs on that side of her now profusely bleeding body.

Those large lizard pupils contained none of their earlier arrogance - looking toward the newly promoted Mother as if she was looking at some horrifying monster.

She desperately tried to claw at the earth; practically throwing herself into the dirt beside the crevice. The result of this was outside her or anyone else's expectations. That “powerful” earthen drake was unable to make the ground heed her call which made it seem like she was just slamming her body into the ground.

A trail of draconic blood made her desperate path to escape quite obvious nevertheless it was clear that hiding her tracks was the last thing on her mind. Then again, it was hard to say if there was any thoughts left in that mind of hers, she only let out wails of pain and desperation. Never had she expected to be beaten so soundly nor mercilessly.

Beyond that she feared the resulting realisation that the single attack had somehow severed her ability to commune with her element. Every single dragon (as well as many other spirit beasts) held a special connection to at least one or maybe more elements. This connection was something that allowed them to wield their attribute as if it were another limb or perhaps even greater than that.

Alice obviously watched all this happen with great interest as she came upon the true terror of the sword art she was creating.

She hadn’t figured it out yet but [Deciding Draw] did not merely cut flesh; it was made to be the most lethal first strike possible. To achieve that it developed the ability to sever not only the flesh but the soul - a fact that would make regeneration through normal means impossible. Only someone who could heal a soul could restore their body thus that one wood drake was unlikely to reattach his arm.

Meanwhile [Earth Rupture] did not have such an effect, howbeit, it also had been developed to deliver a completely different solution to her problem. No matter how little time was used to create it. The purpose of her second sword art was to counteract the enemy utilising the powers of nature as well as prevent it.

This resulted in an insidious effect; allowing her to sever the ability to connect with the attributes hence prevent them from relying on anything other than their body to fight. This was why the crevice was devoid of qi and unable to gain any karma. It literally had its connection to heaven and this was not something that a normal god could simply “fix” making it far more terrifying that [Deciding Draw] in the long term.

There was actually nobody who could solve this type of disconnection from her perspective - not even her uncle or that little black cat possessed the skills needed… Except for herself.

<Perhaps that traitorous Azure Dragon could theoretically allow one to reconnect due to being the physical manifestation as well as ruler of the heavens. However I doubt there will ever come a time when he would consider helping out anyone. Regardless, I do not think it is an easy task from what Cheshire said about those currently ruling over existence… Although it seems pretty easy to solve for me.>

Not that she cared to test that right now (it wasn’t as if a drake would quickly die from an injury like that).

“Well that doesn’t matter; it appears that I have won our duel in a rather abrupt yet undoubtedly resolute manner ohohoho~” <Mother>

That laughter brought everyone out of their bewilderment & shock - turning away from the destruction to fall onto the cause - as Alice just stood there with her usual warm smile. She did take a cloth from inside her clothes all in order to clean her blade. Promptly wiping the entirety of her dull sword before returning it to its sheath in a practised manner.

Turning her head, even if it wasn’t necessary, to look back towards the group of hoomens & drakes who seemed quite happy to jeer mere moments ago. Obviously trying to find themselves on her good side when she inevitably took over… So now they found themselves quite blanched in the face.

It took little time for those hoomens to dive onto the ground (proving that they clearly weren’t really listening to her previously) with obvious intentions. Even the drakes seemed to sheepishly back away with their snouts pointed to the ground - inverse of their usual nature of pushing forward with their noses high in the air. Seeing that made the goddess unable to not let out a deep sigh.

“We beg you for your forgiveness!”
“I had faith you’d succeed all along!”
“Our belief has been reinvigorated by your tyrannical strength!”
“There was no choice; they forced us to forsake you!”

“Praise be, we witnessed!”
“Praise be, we witnessed!”
“Praise be, we witnessed!”

<I really don’t care about this sham… It’s clear they were more than willing to jump ship if it seemed like it had better benefits for them; an occurrence which is common in nature. Even mothers will abandon their ill children since it would be more advantageous to just use the time taken, to raise a weak child, to find a new mate to produce a new infant. Same with replacing a lover for one who can provide more security for her as well as her children or can produce better children for him. These hoomens really are annoying with how much they posture unnecessarily yet I suppose spirit beasts are worse in their own ways.>

Still she realised that hoomens weren’t useful for their smarts, clearly they had none, but instead were utilised by the majority of spirit beast races for their sentience that led to many advantages.

First of which being their ability to use tools despite being overall weak. That weakness also being noted as yet another advantage when allied with their usage of tools allowed them to accomplish things that required a far finer touch. Their low physical abilities allowed them to also be easy to control.

Of course the beasts could do anything which these hoomens could - they just didn’t want to get dirty or put in the time needed to master them.

So she simply smiled.

“Which way to the ocean, please?” <Mother>