Chapter 579: A New Battle Begins
Loren stood at the forefront of the group, his white clothes fluttering in the wind, surrounded by a faint silver-white temporal glow as he calmly replied,
"Earth has not reached its destruction node. By arbitrarily handing over the Planet's coordinates to Galactus and using external force to destroy civilizations, you yourselves have violated the so-called universal order you always speak of."
"If you wish to judge, you might as well come in person instead of relying on puppets to put up a front."
"Obstinate and unyielding."
As the cold judgment fell, the divine fire in the eyes of the five gilt-constructed guards surged violently, their chest crystal cores spinning at high speed as rich golden energy rapidly gathered.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Five thick and dazzling golden stellar energy cannons simultaneously bombarded the manor's temporal barrier.
The cannon light distorted space along the way, and the rune power continuously eroded the surface of the barrier, attempting to tear open the defense and invade the interior of the manor.
"There is no need to go all out in a hard fight. Keep your trump cards, take turns to hold them back, and figure out the combat pattern of the puppets!" the Commander Whitequickly issued her command.
"Sif, Number 18, and Tsunade will take on the first wave of attacks head-on. Crystal and Daisy will stabilize the defense line, using elemental and seismic powers to dissipate the energy Impact;
the rest of you wait for an opportunity to find the weak points of the puppets' runes, and do not use your ultimate trump cards!"
As the command landed, everyone moved synchronously.
Sif, the Goddess of Asgard, surged with divine power, unfolding a golden divine realm barrier in mid-air to meet one of the energy cannons head-on;
Tsunade stepped through the air and charged forward, her fists covered in thick Chakra as she fiercely smashed apart the incoming golden beam;
Number 18 released multi-layered energy shields, steadily withstanding the other two cannon strikes.
Rumble!!!
Continuous explosions erupted outside the spacetime barrier, and the sky-filling golden energy Impacts spread in all directions, causing ripples to appear in the void.
Crystal manipulated the four major elements of Earth, Water, Fire, and wind, intertwining them into a giant elemental net to catch the scattered energy aftermath;
Daisy released high-frequency shockwaves, continuously impacting the gilt runes on the surface of the constructed guards, constantly interfering with their remote reception of the Celestials' commands.
Seeing that their first round of shelling was easily blocked, the five constructed guards immediately changed tactics.
Their soles stepped on the void as they rapidly surged forward, their giant gilt fists wrapped in stellar power, taking turns to smash toward the temporal barrier.
At the same time, their arms deformed, extending sharp alloy bladelets to continuously cut through the spatial barrier.
"The bodies of these puppets are hard, and the runes are their energy cores, but their movement patterns are very rigid."
Hinata's Byakugan clearly saw through the energy flow inside the puppets, constantly transmitting intelligence to everyone.
"There is a gap in the conducting runes of the crystal core on the chest of the third puppet on the left. Continuously attacking the same position can temporarily paralyze it!"
Having obtained accurate intelligence, 2B's figure flashed, and taking advantage of the spatial fluctuations generated by the energy explosion, she briefly rushed out along the gap in the barrier.
Her pure white longsword condensed a moderate intensity of spiritual power, and a clean slash accurately struck the gap in the target puppet's runes.
Clang!
Sparks splashed everywhere, the action of that constructed guard suddenly stagnated, and its energy operation experienced a brief stutter.
A2 seized the gap and followed closely behind, her heavy blade sweeping horizontally, the huge Impact forcing this puppet back dozens of meters.
The two sharp blades were one dexterous and one fierce, constantly roaming and harassing; Mai Shiranuimanipulated the sky-filling flames to burn the surface runes;
Mei Terumi released high-density water mist, isolating the Celestials' remote energy transmission channel; Hancocktimely released a weak petrification power, intermittently solidifying the puppet's joints.
Hancock stood in mid-air, intermittently releasing Conquerors Haki to shake the void and interfere with the internal rune circuits of the puppets;
Gwen threw out a large amount of Silk, weaving a huge binding net in the air to restrict the surrounding formation of the five puppets;
Marie Rose moved flexibly, looking for angles to launch surprise attacks and harassment.
Wanda only released a medium-intensity Chaos force field, distorting the energy beams fired by the puppets.
She deliberately refrained from using her full strength which could directly rewrite the rules, to prevent her trump cards from being fully recorded by the Celestials.
The Silver Surfer did not immediately join the battle, floating on the side of the airspace, his gaze locked tightly on the direction of the dimensional rift.
His task was not to destroy the puppets, but to guard against hidden moves by the Celestials in secret, preventing the opponent from taking advantage of everyone's entanglement to stealthily deploy a second wave of probing troops.
The battle continued methodically.
The five Celestial constructed guards had fierce offensives and balanced offense and defense, and their rune power was able to adapt to most conventional attacks.
However, under the tacit cooperation and restraint of the twenty powerhouses of the heavens, they were never able to break through the temporal barrier.
Puppets were constantly hit in their weak points, and their actions were temporarily paralyzed, making it difficult to form an effective encirclement.
Deep within the dimensional crevices, several huge Celestial figures quietly observed the battlefield, continuously receiving the battle data transmitted back by the puppets.
"The cooperation level of this group of foreign variables far exceeds expectations, their tactical division of labor is clear, and their offense-defense system is complete."
"Chaos Magic, Asgardian divine power, superpower energy, the origin of the Ninja World, mechanical spiritual power... their power systems are complex and diverse, with extremely strong complementarity."
"That master of time has not gone all out yet, retaining most of his combat power, clearly perceiving that we are gathering intelligence."
"This batch of constructed guards is unlikely to force them to use their true trump cards."
A Celestial slowly spoke: "There is no need to rush to recall the puppets. Continue to apply pressure, extend the battle duration, and continuously collect samples."
"At the same time, initiate the second probing plan."
"A single combat puppet is not enough to force out their limits. We need to disturb the ancient spacetime relics slumbering deep within Earth to create secondary disasters, forcing them to split their forces to deal with both ends."
The command was secretly transmitted through the void.
The offensives of the five gilt puppets engaged in fierce battle outside the barrier suddenly surged again, crazily and recklessly impacting the defense line, attracting everyone's attention.
Everyone instinctively focused their eyes to deal with the frontal enemy, and no one noticed that an extremely covert golden energy quietly penetrated deep into the Earth's continent along the crustal crevices.
In just a short moment, far beneath the Earth's continental plates, the ancient strata that had been dormant for hundreds of millions of years began to vibrate.
The underground energy of multiple dormant volcanoes became restless, plate junctions trembled violently, dozens of fault zones began to become active, and large-scale earthquake disasters were quietly brewing.
The first to notice the abnormality was Loren.
He had been simultaneously monitoring the battle outside the manor and the temporal veins of the entire Earth, instantly capturing the abruptly appearing energy imprint of the Celestials deep within the crust.
"Not good! They are making a feint to the east and attacking in the west!" Loren's voice suddenly raised, "The puppets are just a smokescreen. Other energy has sneaked into the depths of Earth's underground, disturbing the plate structure. Large-scale earthquakes and volcanic eruptions will break out immediately, and countless ordinary people will fall into danger!"
Natasha's expression changed, and she immediately adjusted her tactics: "Split up manpower to go to Earth for disaster relief! Hinata, Crystal, Daisy, Gwen, set off immediately to stabilize the crust and evacuate the people in the disaster-stricken areas! Everyone else continues to hold back the puppets; we cannot let them take the opportunity to break through the defense line!"
The four of them did not hesitate, immediately tearing open secondary spacetime channels and rushing swiftly to various geologically unstable regions on Earth.
Chapter 580: Dimensional Aberrant
As the defenders' manpower plummeted drastically, the five construct guards seized the opportunity and jointly unleashed a combined ultimate move.
The five golden energy beams fused together, transforming into a kilometer-wide giant pillar of light that fiercely slammed against the Power of Chronology barrier.
Spiderweb-like cracks instantly spread across the surface of the barrier.
"Hold on!" Sif erupted with her divine power to the fullest, stepping forward side by side with Tsunade and No. 18 to withstand the impact stubbornly.
Within the dimensional rift, the Celestials silently observed the situation, and their cold voices sounded once more:
"Forces have split up, and weaknesses are exposed. The opponent needs to balance the defense of Zhutian Manorand the safety of Earth mortals, making it impossible to fully commit to the battle.
Continue to increase the pressure and see if the master of chronology will personally step down and go all out."
Loren frowned deeply.
The Celestials' scheme this time was extremely vicious.
On one hand, they used combat puppets to continuously apply pressure and hold back the main force; on the other hand, they manufactured geological disasters to force everyone to split their forces.
Protecting ordinary people was an inescapable responsibility for everyone, which meant passively falling into the opponent's game trap.
He knew that continuing to respond passively would only mean being led around by the Celestials.
Loren slowly raised his hand, and the silver-white Power of Chronology no longer merely maintained the defensive barrier.
Thousands of chronology threads pierced through the void, bypassing the head-on battling puppets, and stretched directly toward the edge of the dimensional rift.
"Since you are all bent on probing my bottom line, I might as well respond once."
Countless chronology threads intertwined, transforming into a huge chronology mirror that was directly projected into the dimensional rift where the Celestials were hiding.
Loren's figure appeared through the mirror, his gaze calm yet carrying an unquestionable coercion.
"Your tactics of relying on puppets and borrowing disasters to probe for intelligence end here."
"I do not want to actively start a cosmic-level celestial war, but if you continue to harass Earth by any means necessary...
Next time, I will not merely repel the invaders; instead, I will trace along the energy trajectory straight to your hidden dimensional stronghold and initiate the TVA's highest-level chronology lockdown."
"Weigh the cost carefully."
As his words fell, the chronology threads vibrated violently, and an extremely strong chronology impact inversely struck into the dimensional rift along the energy conduction path.
The bodies of the Celestials within the dimensional rift trembled simultaneously, feeling the chronology deterrence that directly struck their origins, and their expressions changed one after another.
They did not expect Loren to be able to directly cross the battlefield and reversely lock onto their hidden location.
After a brief silence, the Celestials issued a retreat order.
The light on the surface of the five gilded construct guards that continuously impacted the barrier rapidly dimmed, their chest crystal cores stopped operating, and they slowly retreated backward along the spatial rifts.
The golden light disappeared bit by bit, the spatial rifts slowly closed, and the judgment aura shrouding the airspace gradually faded away.
The crisis was temporarily resolved.
The tense atmosphere above the battlefield slowly relaxed.
A2 put away her heavy sword and let out a foul breath: "These Celestials are far more insidious than Galactus.
Galactus is a straightforward frontal attack, while they only know how to hide in the dark and pull tricks."
2B gently wiped the remaining golden stardust on her sword blade, and said softly: "Today is merely the first round of probing.
This time we barely managed to cope with it, but next time, they will definitely prepare more thorough methods."
The Silver Surfer flew back down to the lawn and said in a deep voice: "The Celestials master many ancient cosmic ruins and lost astral creations, and the methods they can use in the future are countless.
Natural disasters, alien monsters, void monsters released by dimensional rifts... Anything is possible."
Loren withdrew his Power of Chronology and looked toward the direction of Earth.
The Crystal Four had already stabilized the crustal fluctuations, calming the impending geological disaster, and countless ordinary people escaped a catastrophe.
"A brief peace has arrived once more, but we cannot relax." Loren looked at everyone.
"The Celestials have figured out some of our tactical habits and know that we need to protect the weakness of Earthmortals.
Next, we must adjust our deployment, arrange fixed personnel to garrison Earth long-term to deal with sudden disasters, and avoid being distracted by the enemy's feint of attacking the east while striking the west again."
Wanda walked to Loren's side: "Chaos Magic can build a long-distance early warning network covering the inside and outside of Earth's atmosphere. As long as the Celestials' energy penetrates in again, we can detect it at the first moment."
"I will cooperate to conduct deep space patrols." The Silver Surfer volunteered, "I will go and investigate the surrounding dimensional rifts, try to find traces of the Celestials' temporary strongholds, and grasp the approximate location of their hiding place."
Everyone successively discussed the subsequent defense plans and redivided the tasks of duty watch, cultivation, and reconnaissance.
The setting sun slowly sank, dusk enveloped Zhutian Manor, and warm yellow lights lit up one by one.
Having just ended a dangerous probing clash, everyone did not immerse themselves in luck.
Everyone knew in their hearts that the Celestials would not let the matter rest, and a new round of even more dangerous layouts was quietly brewing within the dimensional rifts.
Deep within the distant dimensional rifts.
The surviving construct puppets were recovered and repaired, and several Gods quietly reviewed all the intelligence just collected.
"The master of chronology has the ability to reversely track our coordinates, so we cannot continue to lurk and observe at close range."
"Simple construct puppets and geological disasters cannot force the opponent to use all their power."
"Initiate Plan Three, awaken the dimensional aberrant sealed within the abandoned Nebula, and drive it toward the Solar System.
The aberrant feeds on Planet energy and possesses void corrosion capabilities. It can both attack Earth and force the opponent to expose more rule-level methods."
The cold plan was finalized, and invisible instructions crossed the starry sea, transmitting toward the desolate and abandoned distant Nebula.
A new crisis had slowly awakened within the endless dark starry sea.
The Celestials' plotting within the dimensional rifts quietly landed, and invisible instructions crossed hundreds of millions of light-years of cold starry sea, passing into an abandoned Nebula that had long been dead.
This Nebula was far from major civilization stellar regions; hundreds of millions of years ago, a tragic cosmic war broke out here, shattering countless stars and destroying civilizations.
Thick void radiation and dissipated energy accumulated over many years, breeding countless twisted and eerie dimensional aberrants.
The Celestials discovered this place very early on, imprisoning the entire Nebula with ancient seals as a natural cage and arsenal.
It was rarely used in the past; only when there was a need to probe the combat power of strong enemies on a large scale would part of the seals be undone, driving aberrant creatures to rush to the battlefield.
Deep within the dim Nebula, the layers of circulating golden seal runes slowly lost their luster, and huge spatial rifts tore open one after another.
Pitch-black twisted tentacles danced wildly from within the rifts, and giant monsters that were deformed, amorphous, and flowing with void black mist on their surfaces broke free from their restraints.
They had no unified form; some were like surging pitch-black colloids, some grew thousands of compound eyes flashing with crimson light, and some had bodies intertwined with broken star wreckage.
The aberrants instinctively craved Planet origins and the vitality of living beings. Wherever they passed, energy would be frantically plundered, and space would continuously decay and collapse.
Void toxins could pollute abilities, divine power, and Chakra, continuously dissolving the power foundations of strong individuals.
Chapter 581: Battling Aberrant Creatures
A massive aberrant Commander White was positioned at the center of the tribe, its body comparable to a small satellite, surrounded by over a thousand secondary aberrant monsters.
The void black fog spread outward like a tidal wave, and the entire dead Nebula completely churned.
Following the directional traction instructions issued by the Celestials, the massive aberrant tribe changed direction, turning into an overwhelming black torrent and migrating toward the Solar System at high speed.
They lacked the ability to travel faster than light, but they could burrow into the void interlayers between fields, bypassing conventional starry sky monitoring and silently continuously approaching the Earth stellar region.
Inside Zhutian Manor, everyone completed the defense adjustments according to the previously discussed plan.
Hinata, Crystal, and Daisy took turns garrisoning Earth, ready at all times to deal with geological disasters and extraterrestrial raids.
The Commander White took the lead in improving the joint combat contingency plan, dividing the twenty people into three mobile squads, with offense and defense, containment, and long-range support each performing their respective duties.
Norrin, the Silver Surfer, continued to patrol the outer deep space, expanding the reconnaissance range and exploring the hidden dimensional strongholds of the Celestials.
In the afternoon, the courtyard still maintained a rhythm of combining work with rest.
Tsunade pulled Mei Terumi, and Mai Shiranui sat around a table together, not forgetting to divide a plate of freshly baked honey pastries amidst their game.
Hancock quietly accompanied Loren, listening to everyone's small talk while silently tending to a bunch of starlight flowers picked from the starry sky.
2B and A2 sparred and drilled in the training ground, combining the high-speed grappling techniques taught by the Silver Surfer to constantly hone the skills of slashing and locking onto spatial coordinates.
Wanda sat upright beneath the wisteria trellis, weaving a crisscrossing perception network with Chaos Magic, covering the entire airspace of the Solar System and building a global early warning system.
Loren resided in the study, with thousands of chronological projections suspended before the window, continuously sorting through the spacetime intelligence compiled by TVA.
The Celestials were erratic in their movements, accustomed to moving within dimensional crevices, making it difficult to lock onto exact stronghold coordinates.
He continuously deduced the opponent's subsequent feasible offensive methods and geological disasters.
Construct puppets were only a superficial probe; next, the opponent would inevitably release threats with stronger lethality and wider coverage.
Just at this moment, an urgent message from the Silver Surfer patrolling deep space was transmitted into the manor through the spacetime channel.
"Deep space west, large-scale void energy anomalies have been detected in the direction of the abandoned Nebula! A large number of dimensional aberrant creatures have broken free from their seals and are moving toward the Solar System, numbering in the thousands, with an aberrant Commander White present. Their void corrosion characteristics are extremely strong!"
As soon as the message fell, the chaos early warning network woven by Wanda vibrated violently in sync, and countless early warning signals lit up one after another.
"Target confirmed: the black void torrent is sneaking through the void interlayer and will reach the periphery of the Solar System in at most three days!"
Wanda immediately stood up, her expression solemn as she strode toward the study.
"The Celestials unsealed the Nebula and drove the aberrant tribe to attack. These aberrant creatures lack intelligence and act purely on the instinct of devouring, making them suitable for consuming our combat power on a large scale."
Loren slowly stood up, his white clothes brushing across the edge of the table, and chronological shimmering flowed in the depths of his eyes.
"Sure enough. The Celestials are unwilling to engage in a frontal battle personally, using naturally cultivated void monsters as cannon fodder. The void toxin of the aberrant creatures is extremely threatening; once they break through the defense line and descend upon Earth, cities, living creatures, and the natural environment will all suffer continuous pollution, and ordinary people simply cannot resist the void corrosion."
Before the voice finished, the manor's early warning bell rang melodiously.
Everyone immediately stopped the trivial matters in their hands and quickly gathered toward the central lawn.
In a moment, twenty figures lined up neatly, their fighting spirit soaring.
The Commander White quickly organized the intelligence and synchronized the information with everyone.
"Enemy characteristics: The group size is huge, relying on the void black fog to erode all energy systems. The aberrant Commander White's strength is close to a lord sentinel, possessing assimilation abilities to continuously devour weaker aberrant creatures to strengthen itself. Weaknesses: It fears primal fire, pure light power, and stable rule imprisonment. Shortcoming: Its thinking relies on instinct, lacking precise tactical coordination."
"The battle plan is divided into two layers."
Loren quickly finalized the deployment, "The Silver Surferwill first delay the aberrant torrent in the outer deep space to stall their advancing speed. Sif, No. 18, Tsunade, 2B, and A2 will form the vanguard squad and immediately rush to the void interlayer entrance to intercept the main force. Wanda, Medusa, and Viper will be responsible for rule suppression, disintegrating the void black fog with chaos, petrification, and toxins. The remaining people will build multi-layered defense lines to block scattered individual breakout aberrant creatures, strictly preventing any single aberrant creature from breaking into Earth's atmosphere. Hinata will remain behind to guard Earth's airspace; once there are any fish that slip through the net, she will mark and intercept them at the first time."
"Remember, we still cannot exhaust all our trump cards. The Celestials are highly likely hiding in a distant dimensional crevice, continuing to watch the battle and collect combat data on our resistance against the void aberrant creatures."
"Understood!"
Everyone responded in unison, their auras all soaring up.
The Silver Surfer no longer waited, stepping on the silver flying board and turning into a stream of light rushing straight into deep space.
The power of hundreds of millions of stars burned fiercely on the surface of his body, and the silver light wave spread out a barrier in advance to block the void black fog from spreading outward.
Not long after he arrived at the entrance of the void interlayer passage, the pitch-black torrent in the distance had already come into view.
Overwhelming aberrant monsters surged over, black fog rolled, and the floating meteorites along the way instantly dissolved upon contacting the black fog, turning into nothingness.
The massive aberrant Commander White was at the center, hundreds of twisted tentacles waving wantonly, emitting a silent void shock.
"This ends here."
Norrin shouted in a deep voice, the energy of hundreds of millions of stars condensing into a silver light blade up to a kilometer long, slashing through the air toward the forefront of the black torrent.
"Clang!"
Silver light and the void black fog collided violently, and a fierce energy Impact swept across the entire void interlayer.
The bodies of dozens of secondary aberrant creatures struck by the slash instantly disintegrated, turning into dissipating black fog.
However, the remaining aberrant creatures were fierce and unafraid of death, charging one after another against the starlight barrier.
The black fog continuously eroded the surface of the light blade, and energy was consumed at a rate visible to the naked eye.
The aberrant Commander White let out a muffled void roar, and several hundred-meter-long pitch-black tentacles wrapped in thick toxin lashed fiercely toward the Silver Surfer.
Norrin flexibly dodged on the flying board, continuously releasing starlight Impact to clear monsters.
Relying on his own speed advantage, he constantly maneuvered and delayed, tightly dragging down the entire aberrant torrent while waiting for the manor's vanguard squad to support.
In just half an hour, deep within the void interlayer, five dazzling lights and shadows tore through space and galloped over.
Sif's divine domain blazed with golden light, and her divine combat blade lingered with the light of purification.
Tsunade clenched her fists tightly, and Chakra surged turbulently.
No. 18 had high-density energy barriers stacked layer upon layer around her body.
2B and A2 were on the left and right, their two slashes traversing the void.
"Support has arrived!"
Sif charged first. The divine domain's power of light naturally restrained the void aberrations.
Wherever the golden light passed, the black fog rapidly dissolved, and aberrant monsters' bodies immediately festered upon touching the divine light.
Tsunade leaped into the swarm of monsters, her heavy fists continuously shattering one aberrant creature after another.
Her fist wind shook the void, scattering the gathered black fog.
No. 18 continuously released large-scale energy artillery fire, clearing out patches of weak aberrant creatures surging over.
2B's sword light was nimble and precise, specializing in attacking the energy cores of the aberrant creatures.
A2's heavy blade swept across violently, tearing apart a large patch of black fog with a single strike and severing the tentacles extended by the aberrant Commander White.
Chapter 582: Taking the Initiative
The five of them coordinated with Silver Surfer, instantly stabilizing the battle line.
However, the number of aberration entities was simply too massive, pouring out endlessly from the depths of the void interlayer.
The black mist left behind after the small-scale aberration entities were defeated would still converge with each other, continuously nourishing their remaining companions.
That giant aberration Commander White kept devouring its fallen kind, growing increasingly massive, while the void corrosion power around its body continuously strengthened.
"At this rate, we will fall into a protracted war, and our energy consumption is too fast!" A2 swung her blade to chop off a thick tentacle, shouting aloud, "We must prioritize restricting the aberration Commander White and cut off its way of absorbing black mist to assimilate itself!"
"I will seal off the void energy around it!" 2B immediately grasped the intention, holding her longsword high as pure boundary-breaking spiritual power wove into a circular cage, firmly trapping the airspace around the aberration Commander White and blocking the convergence of the black mist.
At the same time, all members of the rear defense line arrived at the outer starry sky one after another.
Wanda deployed her crimson Chaos Domain, and the disordered rules constantly distorted the characteristics of the void black mist, making it difficult for the corrosive toxins to stably form.
Medusa scanned the battlefield with cold eyes, continuously releasing large-scale petrification power. Charge after charge of advancing aberration monsters were solidified into pitch-black rocks, then shattered with a loud crash.
Viper prepared special toxins that restrained void energy, transforming them into a sky-filling mist sprinkled across the battlefield to continuously weaken the activity of the aberration creatures.
Mei Terumi spread out a boundless water realm, and the water vapor isolated the spread of the black mist.
Mai Shiranui ignited a prairie-wide blazing flame, its high temperature scorching the floating void residues.
Gwen and Marie Rose relied on their flexible footwork to roam everywhere, hunting down scattered aberration entities that broke through the defense line.
Crystal mobilized the Five Elements elements to construct an isolation barrier, dividing the battlefield area to prevent the black mist from spreading toward the inner side of the Solar System.
Hancock released Conquerors Haki, shaking the chaotic instincts of the aberration creatures and briefly delaying the rhythm of their charge.
Within the vast and cold deep space, various radiances and pitch-black black mist engaged in a sustained fierce battle.
The sounds of explosions rose one after another, and the shattered monster remains and collapsed energy waves surged everywhere in the void.
The battle lasted for a full day and night.
Everyone took turns resting in rotation, maintaining the defense line so it would not be breached.
The void black mist continuously eroded everyone's protective energy, and quite a few people were stained with faint decaying black Qi, continuously suppressing the hidden dangers by relying on the antidote potions prepared in advance by Viper.
The aberration Commander White tried many times to break through the encirclement and breakout towards Earth, but every time it was intercepted by the vanguard team with joint efforts.
It could clearly perceive the rich life origin of the azure Planet, becoming increasingly violent as countless tentacles frantically bombarded the layers of barriers constructed by everyone.
"The time is almost ripe! Jointly inflict heavy damage on the aberration Commander White and scatter the clan order!" Commander White seized the gap and ordered loudly.
Silver Surfer urged his origin with all his might, condensing a silver stellar spear that pierced through the starry sea; Sifpoured all her divine domain's divine power to bless the tip of the spear;
Wanda mobilized Chaos Magic to lock onto the body of the aberration Commander White, restricting its movement;
Loren stood high above the defense line, quietly releasing dense chronological silk threads to briefly freeze the void around the Commander White.
"Do it!"
The stellar spear sped through the air, carrying the triple forces of light, chaos, and time order, fiercely piercing through the massive body of the aberration Commander White!
Rumble!
The huge body twisted violently and convulsed crazily, its core origin suffered heavy damage, and the black mist around its body collapsed on a large scale.
Losing the Commander White rule, the remaining aberration entities instantly fell into chaos, no longer charging in an orderly manner, and floated aimlessly in all directions within the void interlayer.
Everyone seized the opportunity to advance across the whole line, partitioning and mopping up the scattered aberration monsters.
Lacking the Commander White nourishment, the combat power of the scattered aberration creatures dropped significantly, and they were soon purged one by one.
The surviving void black mist was continuously purified by Sif's divine domain light and Mai Shiranui's flames, no longer possessing any corrosive threat.
The fierce battle came to an end, and the entire void interlayer returned to peace, leaving only scattered dissipating energy aftermath.
Everyone adjusted their breathing on the spot, clearing out the residual void toxins in their bodies. The auras of quite a few people were noticeably floating and weak, as the prolonged confrontation with void corrosion brought considerable losses.
Silver Surfer patrolled the surrounding airspace, carefully capturing faint energy traces, and returned a moment later with a solemn expression.
"I captured the residual golden energy fluctuations in the distant dimensional cleft. The Celestials watched from the periphery the entire time, witnessing the entire battle completely."
Loren nodded slightly, having long anticipated this outcome.
"As expected. In this battle, our methods of countering void aberration entities, power restraint relationships, and team rotation tactics were all recorded by them. It is just that they still have not figured out our limit combat power, and have consistently dared not show up for a direct confrontation."
"This batch of aberration clans is only the first batch," Wanda said softly, "The Celestials hold a large number of ancient sealed ruins in their hands and can release more similar void monsters. Relying purely on monsters to consume us is just one type of method."
"Their level of probing is constantly escalating." Commander White calmly reviewed the battle situation.
"Construct puppets were a probe of frontal combat power; geological disasters utilized our weakness of protecting mortals. The void aberration clan was used to test our large-scale stellar combat capabilities. Next, the opponent is very likely to try a scheme of alienation, or leverage the sleeping ancient powers native to Earth to cause trouble."
"We cannot passively wait for the opponent to make a move all the time." Loren's gaze looked towards the deep starry sea.
"Norrin, next you continue to expand the deep space reconnaissance range and try to locate the temporary observation stronghold of the Celestials. Once you find the general location, do not rashly attack, and transmit back the intelligence at the first moment."
"Understood." Silver Surfer solemnly took the order.
"At the same time, adjust the duty schedule," Lorencontinued to arrange, "From now on, at least two people will be maintained to garrison the outer deep space of the Solar System for a long time, patrolling uninterruptedly; multiple early-warning barriers will be deployed inside Earth to prevent enemies from bypassing the outer defense line to directly raid the surface, and everyone should seize the time to digest the gains of this battle."
After a brief rest, everyone set off to return to Zhutian Manor.
When stepping into the space-time channel, everyone knew clearly in their hearts that repelling the aberration torrent was merely another phased victory.
The Celestials hiding in the dimensional cleft were like patient hunters, continuously throwing out all kinds of chess pieces to test the bottom line, step-by-step deducing everyone's weaknesses.
Returning to the manor full of blooming flowers, the warm breeze and floral fragrance temporarily diluted the biting cold of the deep space slaughter.
Hinata had long prepared ample spiritual healing soups and meals to soothe everyone's damaged origins.
On the terrace in the evening, everyone sat around chatting and reviewed the shortcomings exposed during the battle.
Tsunade rubbed her somewhat sore arm and sighed, "These void aberration creatures are truly difficult to deal with. Their toxins are imperceptible, and if you are not careful, they will erode the Chakra inside the body. If a large batch of monsters raids a city, ordinary people simply have no power to protect themselves."
"The most troublesome thing has never been the monsters themselves," 2B spoke softly, "It is that the Celestialsalways hide behind the scenes, and we can never pre-judge what form the next crisis will take."
A2 leaned against the railing, gripping the hilt of her heavy blade tightly: "Instead of constantly defending passively, it is better to find their observation stronghold and proactively make a move to disrupt their layout. Constantly being led by the opponent rhythm is far too passive."
Upon hearing this, Loren slowly spoke: "Launching the initiative is feasible, but the timing is not yet ripe. The Celestials are powerful in strength; if we have not figured out their specific participating numbers and trump card creations, rushing blindly into the dimensional cleft will easily make us fall into traps laid out by the opponent in advance. We still need more intelligence."
Just as everyone was conversing, the imprint on Lorenwrist flowing with chronological light suddenly flashed.
TVA transmitted a cross-dimensional intelligence warning, and a fragmented space-time image unfolded in mid-air.
Chapter 583: Spacetime Phantoms, Flames of War on Three Fronts
Within the projection, the figures of the Celestials gathered before a dilapidated ancient ruin, atop whose stone platform rested a dim spacetime fragment.
"The Void Aberrant failed to force the other party to use their ultimate power." A Celestial said in a deep voice, "Initiate Plan Four. Awaken the ancient Spacetime Phantoms within the ruins.
This entity can traverse all timeline tributaries and simultaneously attack the three nodes of the past, present, and future, directly harassing Earth's different temporal sequences and leaving the enemy unable to attend to everything at once."
"The Master of Temporal Sequence is best at controlling time, but if countless Spacetime Phantoms penetrate multiple timelines simultaneously, even with the temporal sequence origin, it will be difficult to block them in all directions. Taking this opportunity, we will spy on the limit of his temporal sequence abilities."
The projection suddenly dissipated at this point.
Upon the terrace, the atmosphere instantly chilled.
Loren's expression was solemn: "They can shuttle through different timeline tributaries while simultaneously attacking Earth's past, present, and future. Once they penetrate multiple timelines simultaneously, Earth's temporal sequence will experience large-scale disorder, and countless causalities will conflict with each other."
Wanda frowned tightly: "The enemy has already started making moves at the time level. This precisely touches the hardest-to-defend part of our defense line."
Everyone stood up, looking toward the distant pitch-black starry sea and the crisscrossing, invisible thousands of timeline tributaries.
A new game of chess was about to unfold upon the River of Time.
Within the ancient ruins where the Celestials were hidden, an ancient and cold ritual slowly initiated.
The crack-filled spacetime fragment in the center of the stone platform trembled unceasingly, and grey-white mist continuously rose from the crevices, interweaving with countless shattered images within the mist.
The moment of a civilization's annihilation, the afterimages of collapsing stars, and the mournful cries of countless living beings before their demise.
These were the Spacetime Phantoms, weird spiritual entities born in the cracks of time. They had no fixed entity, survived by relying on scattered time fragments, and possessed the innate talent to shuttle through temporal sequence tributaries.
They did not possess destructive energy bursts, but they mastered the most tricky abilities.
Freely roaming the three trunk temporal sequences of the past, present, and future of the same Planet.
Ordinary defensive barriers could only guard the space of the present and completely failed to stop sneak attacks coming across time.
Several Gods stood tall around the ruins, golden runes continuously pouring into the spacetime fragments along their arms.
"Scatter and rush to all temporal sequence nodes of Earth. There is no need to destroy the Planet; continuously create temporal sequence conflicts and disrupt the causal chains."
"Focus on probing the power upper limit of the Master of Temporal Sequence, and observe whether he can simultaneously attend to the defense of multiple timelines. Once multiple temporal sequences collapse synchronously, the causal backlash will be enough to severely damage his origin."
The grey-white mist surged and spread. Thousands of Spacetime Phantoms broke free from the fragments' shackles, transforming into countless hazy phantoms that plunged headfirst into the crisscrossing River of Time, which was dense like rivers, and galloped separately along different tributaries.
One portion headed straight for the modern main timeline currently guarded by everyone, another portion pushed forward toward the abandoned doomsday timeline where Jean Grey had once tampered with history and the lord sentinel was born;
And yet another portion went upstream, rushing to the ancient branch timeline decades ago when Mutants had just risen and conflicts from all sides were first appearing.
One present, one future wasteland, one distant past.
The three-line simultaneous trouble-making forced Lorenand the crowd of Guardians to divide their troops across three fronts, making it difficult to attend to both ends at once.
Within Zhutian Manor, upon the terrace, the shattered projection cast by the TVA had just dissipated, and the temporal sequence veins of the entire independent spacetime began to produce subtle, chaotic oscillations.
Countless fine-grained time ripples emerged out of thin air, and the originally smoothly flowing time experienced a brief stutter.
Hinata fully activated her Byakugan, her veins covering her eyes, doing her utmost to gain insight into the abnormal movements of the timeline tributaries. Her voice was urgent and solemn.
"Countless unfamiliar temporal sequence spiritual entities have invaded the River of Time! They split into three routes, simultaneously attacking Earth's three critical timelines! The past, present, and future have all been penetrated!"
The Commander White quickly withdrew the relaxed posture of casual conversation, her brain deducing the pros and cons at high speed, and she immediately spoke: "The biggest problem lies in the division of troops.
Our numbers are limited. If we concentrate our strength to guard the modern main line while the other two timelines are destroyed, the resulting temporal sequence paradoxes will still reversely impact the real World.
Cause and effect are interlinked; if any trunk temporal sequence collapses, everyone will suffer from the backlash."
The Silver Surfer stood stepping on the air, silver flowing light circulating around his body, and voluntarily requested: "I am familiar with starry sky shuttling, but my experience in cross-temporal sequence combat is insufficient. I can act as mobile support and rush to the timeline tributaries where the battle situation is critical at any time."
Loren raised his eyes. Thousands of silver-white temporal sequence threads emerged from the void, unfolding a three-dimensional and vast time map. Three light bands of time with varying thicknesses clearly appeared, and a large number of grey-white phantoms, like an ant colony, were continuously penetrating inward along the light bands.
"The abacus calculations of the Celestials are very clear," Loren said in a calm tone, yet carrying a solemnity that could not be relaxed.
"They are forcing us to divide our troops into three fronts and scatter our combat power, thereby observing my limit in simultaneously maintaining the stability of multiple temporal sequences.
They do not pursue destruction in a single blow, only seeking to continuously create temporal sequence chaos and wait for us to reveal flaws."
"Now, let's assign combat sequences."
"The main timeline, which is the present where we are located, has the greatest number of enemies. As the main battlefield, I will personally oversee and coordinate it.
Wanda, 2B, A2, Hancock, and Medusa will stay behind at the manor and modern Earth to construct temporal sequence barriers and intercept the Spacetime Phantomsinvading the present.
Wanda's Chaos Magic can distort local temporal sequences, perfectly subduing the characteristics of phantoms operating by relying on time fragments."
"The abandoned Sentinel doomsday timeline, that sealed future branch where the lord sentinel was once born.
It is handed over to Tsunade, Number 18, Sif, Mai Shiranui, and Mei Terumi.
That timeline's temporal sequence itself is unstable, and the energy of a large number of surviving Sentinel remains can easily be utilized by the phantoms. Remember not to arbitrarily alter the local cause and effect; only purge the phantoms and stabilize the temporal sequence foundation."
"The ancient branch line, the era of Mutant budding decades ago.
Hinata, Crystal, Daisy, Gwen, and Marie Rose will rush to support.
That timeline has a huge number of mortals, so large-scale battles cannot break out on the surface. Try to lure the phantoms to uninhabited wastelands before purging them to avoid changing the original course of history."
"Norrin, you maintain mobility. If the pressure on any front suddenly increases, teleport to reinforce immediately. Always keep an eye on the direction of the dimensional cracks; the Celestials are extremely likely to seize the opportunity while we are deeply entangled in the temporal sequence battlefield to launch a new round of surprise attacks."
Everyone responded in unison without the slightest hesitation. After several consecutive confrontations, everyone had long since become accustomed to quickly executing tactical deployments.
"Be sure to remember the bottom line: only annihilate the Spacetime Phantoms, and forbid actively interfering with the native history of each timeline.
Arbitrarily altering the past will breed more temporal sequence paradoxes, playing right into the hands of the Celestials," Loren solemnly urged at last.
Three temporal sequence channels slowly formed above the manor, respectively connecting Earth across three different eras.
The figures of the teams stepped into the channels one by one. With a flash of light, they instantly disappeared into the manor's airspace. In the large manor, only the people stationed in the main line remained.
Chapter 584: Must Strike Directly at the Source
Almost at the exact moment the team completed the cross-temporal teleportation, spatial rifts across the firmament tore open one after another.
Countless grey-white Spacetime Phantoms surged out from the rifts, their hazy bodies flickering constantly—sometimes appearing above the city, and sometimes teleporting out of thin air to the periphery of the estate with completely erratic movements.
Ordinary energy attacks landing on the bodies of the Spacetime Phantoms merely passed through a patch of mist, unable to inflict substantial damage.
Only temporal power, the origin of chaos, and moves capable of binding rules could shatter the time fragments upon which they relied for survival.
"Defensive line, deploy!" Wanda's crimson Chaos Domainrolled out with a booming roar, enveloping the entire periphery of the estate.
The disordered chaotic power distorted the local temporal flow rate around them, causing a large number of Spacetime Phantoms attempting to raid the estate to instantly fall into temporal disorder, their movement trajectories constantly chaotic.
2B's long sword was drawn from its scabbard, pure white spiritual power attached with a faint temporal shimmer, and the sword light accurately slashed across a Spacetime Phantom.
The mist-like body instantly split apart, turning into dissipating time fragments; A2's heavy blade swept horizontally, and a large-scale vibrational shock dispersed the clusters of incoming phantoms in one go.
Hancock's gaze was cold and clear, her power of petrification precisely released.
Unlike ordinary combat against enemies, she deliberately adjusted the intensity of her power, merely solidifying the time fragments carried by the Spacetime Phantoms to avoid excessive power triggering temporal fluctuations.
The solidified Spacetime Phantoms resembled grey-white sculptures, completely disintegrating moments later.
Spacetime Phantoms operated purely on instinct, and coercion at the spiritual soul level could briefly stall their offensive, creating a window of opportunity for the rest.
The flames of war on the modern main storyline battlefield rapidly spread.
Clashes of light and shadow constantly flashed across the sky above the city; while intercepting the Spacetime Phantoms, everyone carefully avoided residential areas to prevent the aftermath of the battle from harming innocent civilians.
On the other side, the sealed Sentinel apocalyptic timeline.
The barren and shattered wasteland ushered in turmoil once more.
Countless Spacetime Phantoms attached themselves to the remaining metal wreckage of the Sentinels deep underground, absorbing the residual temporal energy, and their bodies continued to grow stronger.
Tsunade trampled across the shattered concrete ruins, her majestic Chakra gathering in her fists, smashing a large group of Spacetime Phantoms entangling the Sentinelwreckage with a single punch;
Android 18 continuously released waves of energy, sweeping away the wandering phantoms all around;
Sif's divine realm golden light rolled out, purifying the restless and disordered time fragments.
Mei Terumi unfurled boundless water mist, blocking the channels for the Spacetime Phantoms to merge with one another;
Mai Shiranui raised blazing flames across the sky, scorching the drifting time mists.
This timeline was originally a sealed, abandoned branch, and its temporal foundation was fragile beyond endurance.
Every time a Spacetime Phantom collapsed, it would stir up a circle of temporal ripples.
Everyone raised their vigilance to the highest level, holding back their strength when striking, clearing out the enemies while stabilizing the temporal barriers that were on the verge of loosening.
"Never destroy the remaining Sentinel wreckage! Once a large amount of wreckage is destroyed, this timeline will produce a violent paradox!" Tsunade shouted loudly to remind her companions.
Everyone strictly restricted their attack range, targeting only the bodies of the Spacetime Phantoms while constantly avoiding touching the native causality.
The distant ancient Mutant branch.
Between heaven and earth, peace still prevailed, and the urban layout was drastically different from modern times.
Hinata's Byakugan continuously scanned the entire domain, precisely locating every hidden Spacetime Phantom.
"Twelve Spacetime Phantoms have appeared in the valley on the left! Crystal, construct an elemental cage to restrict their movement!"
Crystal immediately mobilized the earth and wind dual-element forces, intertwining massive rock walls and whirlwinds into a sealed cage, trapping the Spacetime Phantoms within the uninhabited valley.
Daisy's high-frequency shockwaves continuously washed inward, disintegrating the time fragments;
Gwen's spider Silk intertwined across the sky, sealing off the Spacetime Phantoms' spatial jump routes; Marie Rosenimbly roamed about, capturing the scattered phantoms attempting to break through.
The historical nodes of this timeline were crucial; any minor alteration could potentially be transmitted along the causal chain to modern times, triggering unpredictable changes.
Throughout the entire process, everyone isolated the battlefield in the wilderness, absolutely refusing to let the battle affect the towns.
The three timelines were engaged in fierce battles simultaneously, with thousands of temporal ripples continuously spreading outward.
Loren stood at the intersection origin of the River of Time, his white garments fluttering in the air as hundreds of millions of temporal threads extended outward, simultaneously maintaining the stability of the three time channels.
A steady stream of temporal energy was continuously delivered to the three battlefronts, supporting everyone's cross-temporal combat.
Seemingly methodical, the immense load was constantly eroding his origin.
Connecting and maintaining three trunk timelines simultaneously, while continuously conducting power, consumed a terrifying amount of mental energy for the Master of time.
Fine beads of sweat quietly seeped from Loren's temples, and the silver-white temporal light around his body faintly flickered with subtle flashes.
The Celestials, hiding deep within the dimensional crevices to observe the battle situation, clearly captured this scene.
"The load is beginning to manifest; the temporal controller is maintaining three time channels simultaneously, and origin consumption continues to climb."
"Continue to drive the remaining Spacetime Phantoms to apply continuous pressure, and do not give the opponent any breathing room."
"Get ready; once his power shows a clear decline, we will immediately release our backup plan—the Temporal Plunder Array—and seize the opportunity to intercept a portion of the TVA temporal origin."
Secret commands were transmitted along the void, and the offensives of the Spacetime Phantoms scattered across the three timelines suddenly became several times more violent, beginning to impact the various temporal barriers regardless of losses.
Within the abandoned Sentinel timeline, dozens of Spacetime Phantoms merged with one another, condensing into a giant Spacetime Phantom whose size far exceeded ordinary phantoms, violently assaulting the defensive line constructed by everyone.
In the ancient branch, a large number of Spacetime Phantoms clustered together, attempting to impact the temporal barriers and wishing to flow upstream towards the even more distant past; in the modern main storyline, groups of Spacetime Phantoms concentrated their forces, launching fierce attacks on Wanda's Chaos Domain on the periphery of the estate.
"The pressure has skyrocketed!" Wanda's brows furrowed tightly as ripples constantly appeared on the Chaos Domain, pushing it to the brink of being breached.
"Master, your consumption is too great; prioritize securing the other two time channels! I can hold out here briefly!"
Loren forcefully suppressed the fatigue brought by the origin tremor, rapidly adjusting his power distribution and increasing the temporal energy delivered to the other two battlefronts.
Just as the defensive line was about to reach its limit, a stream of silver light tore through the temporal channel.
The Silver Surfer took the lead in rushing to reinforce the Sentinel apocalyptic timeline, which was under the greatest pressure!
Norrin stepped on his surfboard, the power of hundreds of millions of stars pouring out as silver light waves swept across all directions, instantly defeating that merged, giant Spacetime Phantom.
"I will hold this battlefront; you can take turns rotating to adjust your breathing!"
Tsunade let out a long breath, seizing the gap to quickly adjust her breath and suppress the restless aura within her body.
After briefly stabilizing one side of the battlefront, the Silver Surfer did not linger, tearing through space-time once more to rush to the ancient Mutant branch for support.
With the Silver Surfer maneuvering back and forth to reinforce them, the pressure of the three battlefronts teetering on the verge of snapping was barely rebalanced.
But everyone knew clearly that such a stalemate could not last forever.
The Spacetime Phantoms were endless, pouring endlessly from the dimensional crevices into the tributaries of time, continuously consuming everyone's stamina and Loren's temporal origin.
Dragging this out for long would make defeat only a matter of time.
Loren focused his mind to ponder countermeasures, his gaze looking towards the depths of the River of Time.
Merely passively clearing out the Spacetime Phantomstreated the symptoms rather than the root cause; the source lay in the ritual set up by the Celestials, which released the ancient space-time fragments of the phantoms.
To end this cross-temporal offensive, they must strike directly at the source.
Chapter 585: Chronology Imprisonment Formation
"Norrin, take a moment to look out for the coordinates of the dimensional cracks. I need to lock onto the exact location of that ancient ruin belonging to the Celestials."
Loren transmitted the message via the Power of Chronology, "Merely splitting our forces into a three-line defense will only result in continuous depletion. Only by finding the source can we cut off the supply of the Spacetime Phantoms in one fell swoop."
While clearing away the incoming Spacetime Phantoms, Silver Surfer split his focus, spreading his stellar perception toward the surrounding dimensional gaps to search with all his might for the golden God origin fluctuations.
A moment later, a message was transmitted back: "Stable golden energy signals captured! The coordinates of the ancient ruin are roughly locked onto, hidden in an interlayer dimension outside the intersection of the three timelines. That very place is where the ritual is being conducted and the spacetime fragments are stored!"
A flash of sharp light crossed the depths of Loren's eyes.
The opportunity had arrived.
He immediately adjusted his deployment, synchronously transmitting the chronology message to the ears of everyone across the three battle lines: "Everyone, continue to hold the defense line and stall the remaining Spacetime Phantoms.
Norrin, hold down the patrolling God construct guards in the distance. Once I stabilize the chronology channel, I will personally head to the interlayer dimension, destroy the spacetime fragments releasing the phantoms, and interrupt the ritual!"
Once the ritual at the source collapsed, all the Spacetime Phantoms scattered across the three timelines would naturally disintegrate and dissipate upon losing their energy supply.
Within the dimensional cracks, the Celestials sensed Loren's intentions and immediately grew alert.
"He wants to proactively head to the ruins! We cannot let him approach the core of the ritual! Activate the formation defense, pull away the garrisoned construct guards, and intercept him with all our might!"
Within the interlayer dimension, countless gilded runes suddenly lit up, and a large batch of standby God construct guards awakened, lining up to guard the outer perimeter of the ruins.
On one side was the ceaseless chronology slaughter across the three timelines; on the other was the impending frontal raid in the interlayer dimension. A new round of decisive battle spanning the river of time and the void dimensions was poised and ready.
Above the estate, Loren anchored most of the chronology threads, barely maintaining the continuous connection of the three channels. Having finished everything, he lifted his foot and stepped into the spacetime rift leading to the interlayer dimension. Silver-white Power of Chronologyblazed brightly around his body, facing the Celestials who had been lurking behind the scenes for a long time.
"Having lain dormant for so long, it is finally time for us to formally meet."
The flames of war across the three timelines remained locked in a fierce stalemate.
Countless gray-white Spacetime Phantoms rushed forward wave after wave, like an inexhaustible tide, washing over the chronology defense line constructed by everyone time and time again.
They felt no pain, harbored no fear, and knew no fatigue. Relying solely on their root-embedded erosion instincts, they frantically tore at the gaps in the time barriers, attempting to rip open fatal cracks within the three main chronology lines.
Yet at the source of all the warfare, the interlayer dimension independent of the three time tributaries had already become thoroughly chillingly solemn.
This dimension had no sun, moon, or stars, nor heavens, Earth, mountains, or rivers. All around was merely gray void fog, and layers upon layers of ancient golden runes floated and circulated, weaving into a gigantic sealing formation that enveloped the entire space.
Right at the center of the formation stood an ancient stone ruin precipitated by hundreds of millions of years of time. Upon the mottled and heavy stone platform, that broken fragment that spawned endless Spacetime Phantoms was still trembling slightly, continuously spitting out mist-like chronology evil spirits.
Loren's figure, stepping on the chronology glimmer, landed steadily outside the ruins.
The airflow throughout the entire interlayer dimension instantly stagnated.
More than a dozen God construct guards, gilded all over and standing a hundred zhang tall, formed ranks to garrison the four sides of the ruins. Their rune battle armors shone brilliantly, and their astral energy cannons were all fully charged and locked onto the newcomer.
Compared to the five puppets that previously harassed Earth, this batch of garrisoned guards was the direct elite of the Celestials. They possessed integrated offense and defense, formation blessings, and endless stamina, with combat power several times more formidable.
At the very top of the high platform of the ruins, four truly towering Gods whose bodies were shrouded in sacred golden light quietly looked down upon the youth in white who had broken into the dimension.
They did not strike, nor were they enraged; there was only extreme indifference and scrutiny, just like the Creator high above, gazing at the minuscule variable that had crossed the boundary.
"Chronology transgressor, you actually dare to proactively break into the interlayer of our divine domain."
The leading God slowly spoke, its voice shaking the entire dimension and carrying an innate judicial authority, "We originally intended to proceed step by step, exhausting your Power of Chronology and probing the limits of your abilities. Now that you have delivered yourself right into our net, it saves us a lot of trouble."
The auras of the four Gods stacked layer upon layer, and the vast, sacred power of rules suppressed downwards.
This was the rule of creation far surpassing Galactus's origin of destruction. The Celestials governed the birth of the Universe, species iteration, and civilization judgment. Their power did not focus on destruction, but rather on defining, rewriting, and adjudicating the meaning of all things' existence.
If it were an ordinary cosmic powerhouse, under the suppression of this rule, their origin would have shattered and their Dao heart would have been extinguished long ago.
But Loren stood unmoving, the silver-white Silver Superman power rising steadily around his body. Thousands of chronology threads crisscrossed, condensing into an impregnable rule barrier around him.
"You use despicable means to stir up chronology, pollute the river of time, and plague mortal civilizations. You hide behind the scenes manipulating chess pieces and wantonly probing and killing."
Loren raised his eyes, his cold gaze piercing through the all-encompassing golden light to face the four ancient Gods directly, "You boast yourselves as the masters of universal order, yet what you do is even more underhanded and unbearable than Galactus's pure destruction."
"Order is originally defined by the strong," a Godindifferently replied. "Weak civilizations are inherently expendable materials for the Universe's iteration, and heterodox variables should be cleared to zero in the first place. You go against the trend to protect mortals and privately wield chronology; that is the true transgression of the heavenly Dao."
As the words fell, the four Gods raised their hands simultaneously.
The golden runes throughout the entire interlayer dimension instantly went berserk, and the gigantic formation was fully activated. Countless golden rule chains emerged from the void, densely entangling and coming over to lock down all of Loren's dodging space.
"Chronology Imprisonment Formation, rise!"
What the Celestials excelled at most was rule sealing. Instead of launching direct, forceful attacks to kill, they attempted to seal Loren's chronology authority, strip away his ability to control time, and completely imprison this master of chronology within this interlayer dimension for permanent suppression.
Once the Power of Chronology was sealed, the three-line battlefield would lose its core support. The defense lines of the three timelines would instantly collapse, and a massive amount of chronology paradoxes would backlash against Earth. Without them needing to lift a finger, the entire Planet would experience chronology collapse and civilization destruction on its own.
Such ruthless calculation and vicious layout fully displayed the gloomy astuteness of the Celestials.
"Do you think you can trap me with merely rule sealing?"
The chronology glimmer in the depths of Loren's eyes surged violently. Not only was his body—entangled by thousands of golden chains—not trapped, but it instead erupted with an even more vast tide of chronology.
"What you control are the rules of universal creation, while what I wield are the chronology causes and effects of the heavens."
"All things can be created, all things can be destroyed; only time cannot be reversed, and cause and effect cannot be severed!"
Boom——!
The ultimate Power of Chronology erupted with a crash, the silver-white wave instantly washing over the entire dimension.
The moment those imprisoning golden rule chains made contact with the chronology wave, fine cracks appeared on them one after another, freezing, retreating, and shattering!
Time was briefly retrograded, the operational rhythm of the formation was forcibly disrupted, and the sealing force that had originally tightened layer by layer was forcefully halted by the origin of chronology!
The expressions of the four Gods changed slightly, finally thoroughly facing the human before them squarely.
Chapter 586: Break for Me!
They knew that the Power of Chronology could restrain the rules of all things, but they hadn't expected Loren's control over chronology to have reached the point of shaking the God formation.
"Do it, execute the variable!"
No more probing, no more imprisonment—four Gods struck with their full power simultaneously.
The golden beam of judgment, the power of creation annihilation, and the laws of dimensional adjudication—four top-tier Universe rules crushed down together, covering the entire void and sealing off all of Loren's retreat paths.
At the same time, more than a dozen elite construct guards charged simultaneously, astral energy cannons fired in unison, and gilded battle blades split the void, forming an inescapable, all-encompassing encirclement assault.
A full-strength strike from the Celestials was enough to crush galaxies and rewrite the rules of star fields, far more terrifying than the single-target destruction of Galactus.
Loren's expression was grave, yet he didn't retreat in the slightest.
He knew very well that he couldn't kill four ancient Gods in one go.
This group of primordial Universe deities was rooted in Universe rules and coexisted with heaven and earth; just like Galactus, they belonged to the primordial source of the heavens that could not be completely annihilated, and forcibly fighting to the death would only exhaust his own origin and fall into their trap.
His goal was never to slaughter Gods, but rather to break the formation, destroy the fragments, cut off the source, and force back the Gods!
"Chronology All Things, Spacetime Dislocation!"
Loren formed hand seals with both hands, and the Power of Chronology around his body instantly twisted and flowed.
The space and time where he stood were forcibly dislocated; the God's judgment beam and the construct guards' fierce attacks all missed, bombarding the void afterimages and exploding into a sky full of residual energy waves, yet they couldn't touch him by a fraction.
Taking advantage of the brief dislocation opening, Loren's figure flashed, turning into a silver stream of light, ignoring all obstructions, and heading straight for the spacetime fragment in the center of the relic stone platform!
"Don't even think about destroying the ritual core!" The God was furious, instantly urging the formation to mobilize countless rune barriers, tightly protecting the stone platform. "Even with your exquisite chronology, you still can't break through the core defense of the God formation!"
The rune barriers were as thick as mountains, stacking hundreds of millions of layers of creation rules, truly the hardest defense barrier to break in the Universe.
But Loren's gaze was firm, and the Power of Chronology at his fingertips was condensed to the extreme; instead of a large-scale eruption, it condensed into an extremely slender and sharp chronology light blade.
Large-scale rule hedging consumed energy and effort, but precise chronology cutting specialized in breaking all formation nodes!
Snap, snap, snap—!
Dense rune nodes were precisely severed, and layers upon layers of barriers disintegrated.
Under the ultimate cutting that insighted the chronology flaws, the seemingly indestructible God formation quickly cracked open a passage leading directly to the core.
At the same time, the pressure on the three-line battlefield surged instantly.
In order to stop Loren, the Celestials spared no effort to draw rule energy from the interlayer dimension, frantically blessing all Spacetime Phantoms.
The evil spirits within the three timelines instantly became several times more violent, densely covering the entire spacetime, frantically impacting the defense line, and countless chronology cracks rapidly spread.
On the modern mainline, Wanda's Chaos Domaintrembled violently, a trace of blood overflowing from the corner of her mouth as she forcibly stabilized the twisted chronology: "Everyone hold your ground to the death! Loren is cutting off the source; we absolutely cannot collapse!"
2B and A2 joined forces with their dual blades, rapidly clearing out the sporadic phantoms that broke through the defense line; Medusa petrified the entire area to solidify the spacetime fissures; Hancock used Conqueror's Haki shocks to suppress the violent assaults of the evil spirits, with the five of them desperately withstanding the most intense mainline impact.
In the Sentinel wasteland timeline, Tsunade, No. 18, and Sif used their physical bodies to fiercely resist the wave of violent evil spirits, fist blades intersecting and divine light filling the sky, stubbornly guarding the abandoned chronology on the verge of collapse; Mei Terumi and Mai Shiranui intertwined water and fire, purifying the chronology black mist filling the sky and preventing the evil spirits from merging and growing stronger.
In the ancient Mutant timeline, Hinata used her Byakugan to exhaust all insight, precisely marking all hidden phantoms.
The four of them cooperated tacitly, pursuing and intercepting them, absolutely refusing to allow a single evil spirit to break into human towns and tamper with historical nodes.
The Silver Surfer turned into a global mobile fulcrum, shuttling rapidly between the three time channels, rushing to wherever was on the verge of being lost, filling the defense line loopholes with the power of stars, and stubbornly holding back the endless tide of evil spirits.
Everyone was gritting their teeth and holding on, knowing that every second of persistence at this moment was buying time for Loren to break the game.
Interlayer dimension, relic core.
Loren had already penetrated all the rune barriers, facing the spacetime fragment that continuously bred phantoms head-on.
The four Gods recklessly swooped down, pouring out all their rule forces in an attempt to forcibly suppress him.
Loren did not dodge or evade, raising his hand with a single palm strike as the origin of chronology erupted with full force!
"Chronology Retrospection, Origin Stripping!"
The supreme Power of Chronology, which neither belonged to an attack nor to imprisonment, instantly enveloped the entire stone platform.
He didn't shatter the fragment, but instead forcibly traced back the activation process of this fragment, stripped away its rule binding with the God ritual, and severed the energy source from which it spewed evil spirits!
This was the safest and most thorough way to break the situation; shattering the fragment would easily trigger a chronology mega-explosion, backfiring on the three timelines, whereas stripping the binding and terminating the ritual could painlessly end all chronology chaos.
Hum—!
A violent spacetime tremor sounded, and the spacetime fragment that was originally gray and continuously spewing black fog instantly dimmed and lost its color, all restless energies completely subsiding.
The supply of evil spirits spanning the three timelines was instantly, thoroughly, and completely cut off!
Within the three tributary streams of the distant past, present, and future, the endless Spacetime Phantomsinstantly stagnated like powered-off phantoms, then disintegrated inch by inch and turned into nothingness, the black fog of erosion filling the sky quickly dissipating, and all restless chronology cracks healing rapidly.
The three-line fierce battle came to an instant conclusion!
On the battlefield, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, their tense bodies suddenly relaxed, filled with exhaustion yet with bright eyes.
"The source is cut off!" Gwen exclaimed in a low voice, filled with the joy of surviving a catastrophe.
"Loren succeeded!" Marie Rose's eyes lit up with brilliance.
The residual phantoms of the three timelines completely dissipated, the restless chronology completely stabilized, and all time barriers on the verge of collapse quickly returned to their original state, completely resolving the chronology crisis that had troubled everyone for a long time.
Within the interlayer dimension, the ritual completely collapsed, and the formation completely failed.
The four Gods looked at the completely silent spacetime fragment, looking at the hunting chessboard deployed over countless years collapse overnight, their eyes churning with monstrous anger and deep dread.
They had laid down a series of probing games, from puppet sneak attacks, geological disasters, void distortions, to chronology phantoms, progressing step by step and calculating every move, all just to figure out Loren's trump cards and consume his origin, yet in the end, they were single-handedly intruded upon by him in the divine domain interlayer, breaking the game in one fell swoop and shattering everything completely!
What made them most fearful was that from beginning to end, Loren hadn't used all his trump cards or displayed his limit combat power, yet he had already cracked the Gods' multi-layered layout.
"You ruined my major event, destroyed my ritual, and disrupted the judgment layout of the heavens!" The leading God shouted sternly in anger, golden light soaring to the skies as he prepared to fight to the death.
Loren stood atop the relic stone platform, his white clothes untainted by dust, with chronology micro-lights surrounding his body. Calmly overlooking the four enraged Gods, his tone was cold and resolute: "Today, I break your formation, cut off your source, and scrap your layout.
I will permanently ban your dimensional stronghold, freeze all your permissions for cross-border operations, strip away all your rule authority in this star field, and make you completely lose the ability to set foot in these heavens."
Every word was clanging and resounding.
It was not a threat, but the verdict of established rules.