Keshav's gaze fell on the glowing notification icon hovering over the Creation Website interface:
> [World Invasion Vouchers: 2 Remaining]
One voucher had been awarded by the Divine High School, the other by the government for his rapid and stable world development. Both could only be used to invade worlds within a specific range—approved for student-level combat trials.
Now's the time to expand.
World fragments were the key to enlarging his god domain, and rare resources were the foundation of any future divine empire. He couldn't waste these chances.
He tapped into the Invasion Gateway.
A sprawling constellation of god domains bloomed before him—fragmented worlds like floating seeds waiting to be claimed. Many were abandoned or weak, remnants of failed awakenings. Others pulsed faintly with life, protected only by minor gods still in early growth stages.
> [Filters Applied]
• World Age: 10–300 Years (relative time)
• Not aligned with Divine Factions or Coalition
• Combat Rating: Balanced or Below
• Resource Category: Rich or Rare
• World Fragment Potential: Confirmed or Unclaimed
After some sorting, he narrowed it down to two promising targets:
---
World #017 – Elemental Plains
Biome: Mixed terrains dominated by elemental regions (Flame Ridge, Tidal Forest, Storm Basin)
Civilization: Spirit-based tribes, decentralized
Defenses: Weak against external coordination
Known Resources: Elemental Essence Crystals, Natural Mana Pools
---
World #029 – Gearspire Realm
Biome: Mechanical continent powered by arcane clockwork
Civilization: Autonomous construct cities, artificial cores, minor sentient AI
Defenses: Complex layered mechanisms, but low adaptability
Known Resources: Etherium Cores, Animaglass, Temporal Fragments
---
"These two will do," Keshav muttered, bookmarking both. "Resources first. Expansion next."
He tapped the voucher. A swirling seal of light formed above his screen.
> [Invasion of World #017 – Elemental Plains will begin in 24 hours. Prepare your forces.]
He stood and spoke into the void.
"High General Varnak, assemble the Vanguard Legion and three elemental response battalions. I want casters, aerial units, and siege-type formation mages prepped. We're raiding a spirit world."
A distant voice echoed in his mind. As you command, my god.
---
Meanwhile, in the Elemental Plains, far across the cosmos, shamanic seers began trembling in their temples. The skies whispered of a coming storm. Elemental altars flickered with unrest.
The tribal chieftains gathered, uncertain—but they all felt the same thing:
A god was coming.
----
Location: Emberheart Domain – Flamecall Basin
It began with a breach in the sky.
A jagged rip tore through the heavens, lined with fractal void-light, folding space like shattered mirrors. It made no sound. The stars around it flickered—then vanished entirely in a blink.
The shamans of the Emberheart Tribe had no words for what they witnessed. It was not flame, nor void, nor spirit. It was alien. And from it descended figures cloaked in starlight and shadow.
They were humanoid, but wrong.
Moving with impossible precision, their forms rippled subtly as if reality couldn't decide what shape to give them. Their armor shimmered in gradients of night, dotted with tiny galaxies that moved when you looked away. Some carried spears that split air and reformed space; others simply pointed, and fire bent away.
The Skyfolded Host had arrived.
Behind the space-wielders marched other invaders—fewer in number but terrifying still: water-sculpted assassins, razor-earth brutes, windblade archers, and even beings of fire... but tainted, their flames unnaturally silent, loyal to the invaders, not to the Flame.
---
The Emberhearts Rally
Vaelka, Heartspark of the Emberheart Tribe, rallied her kin atop the Ashen Ridge. Her staff flared with pure flame as she spoke.
> "They are not of this world. They are not born of the flame.
But we are.
We are the children of cinder, the breath of the core!
Let them feel what it means to steal fire!"
A wave of Ashborn and Sunforged warriors surged forward. Their flame-born weapons roared, crashing into the space-armored invaders. Explosions of light and heat tore through the battlefield.
For a moment, it looked like the Emberhearts would hold.
Then... space twisted.
One of the invaders raised both hands and folded the battlefield. Entire firelines collapsed inward, trapped in repeating loops of space where time flowed wrong. Fireballs blinked out of existence mid-flight. Warriors were crushed not by force, but by sudden displacement.
---
Shock and Confusion
To the Emberhearts, it was magic without soul.
Power without reverence.
They had never encountered anything like it.
Still, the tribes fought on—unyielding. Even as the first line fell, the second pushed forward with molten beasts and summoned flame storms. They would burn their home before letting it fall.
---
Unknown to the Elementals…
From his floating sanctuary in the god domain, Keshav watched the invasion unfold through a projection.
> "Their resistance is more instinctive than strategic," he noted. "But their synchronization is impressive... they've never seen spatial warfare before. Let's see how long they last without environmental control."
----
Unseen by most, the World Will stirred.
A primal intelligence woven from the lives, dreams, and struggles of every elemental in this realm—a guardian spirit of balance. Its presence grew stronger with every death, every cry of defiance. It recognized the foreign invaders, the precision, the unnatural constructs—and turned its attention to the greatest threat:
Keshav.
In his Command Dome, Keshav felt it.
A crushing force pressed upon him—like the gravity of a collapsing star. It was not magic. Not physics. It was law. The world's law.
> "Hostile Will Detected."
"World Will identified: Class II Guardian Instinctual Network."
"Combat suppression active. You cannot participate until mortal density reaches threshold."
> "Estimate: 67% of local life remains. Threshold: 35%."
Keshav clenched his fist. So, the world itself bars me from stepping in. I see.
"Fine," he muttered. "Let it try."
-----
Vaelka retreated briefly to rally her elders.
> "We may not match their strange art... but flame is eternal.
It is ours. Let them try to bend it."
They began new rituals.
Flame-channelers reshaped terrain with controlled volcanic bursts.
Ashcallers summoned blinding storms of cinders.
Molten warriors fused armor with living magma.
They fought not with precision, but with passion and chaos. The landscape itself became their weapon.
And for the first time since the invasion began—the invaders faltered.
-----
Keshav stood at the heart of his mobile command—an obsidian platform floating high above the battlefield, surrounded by floating crystalline interfaces displaying thousands of data streams. The war had gone exactly as predicted—at first.
He watched as the Emberheart warriors launched volcanic flares, blanketing the field in a chaotic storm of fire and ash. The precision of his Spatial Guard formations began to fray. Data blinked red.
> "Thirty-four percent formation integrity loss in Zone B,"
"Warp field destabilized—geothermal interference,"
"Enemy adapting rapidly. Primitive, but effective."
Keshav narrowed his eyes, arms folded behind his back. His silver-white uniform shimmered faintly with space-bound runes. This was no longer a resource sweep. The enemy had adapted faster than expected. They had will—and unpredictability.
"Bring the Minor Elemental Units forward. I want our fire and earth affinities anchoring the flanks. Recalibrate spatial corridors to cycle every 2.5 seconds. No static portals. They're using terrain memory."
Aide constructs obeyed without question, interfaces shimmering as commands cascaded into action.
----
As the battle entered its next phase, Keshav's forces restructured under precise commands. Space twisted and shimmered as corridor loops reformed—now pulsing and unpredictable, scattering his troops into optimal micro-squads. His fire and earth elementals had surged forward, pinning the Emberheart warriors from the flanks while the Spatial Vanguard continued their containment.
But the Emberheart tribe... did not break.
Instead, they grew more furious. The land beneath them responded—fire geysers burst through cracks in defense lines, and molten rivers shifted courses mid-battle, as though the world itself fought beside them.