The power of the secret realm’s heavenly punishment was indeed extremely formidable. That bolt of lightning, several metres in diameter, struck the devil squarely on the head. Amid the dazzling white light, only the devil’s furious roar could be heard.
It attempted to resist the rules of the secret realm, enduring the thunderbolt that fell from the sky!
But it was clearly very difficult for him. Ye Dui and his companions retreated another dozens of metres, shielding their eyes with their hands. They vaguely saw and felt the immense power of that colossal thunderbolt that seemed to pierce heaven and earth, evoking a sense of endless might.
Serti hid in Debbie’s arms, exclaiming repeatedly, “This is divine domain heavenly thunder. How could such a thing appear? What have you done? How did you trigger this thunder punishment?”
The secret realm’s rules had been modified by the spirit god king Zaguras, so Serti did not recognise the current scene of thunder punishment.
Debbie quickly explained the secret realm’s rules to Serti and mentioned that the three people thrown at the fourth prince devil earlier were originally his guards. He had triggered heavenly punishment by violating a taboo. Evidently, the divine domain heavenly thunder in Serti’s words was the secret realm’s heavenly punishment.
The secret realm world itself was a fragment of the divine domain, still retaining part of its power. Once Serti understood, he raged, “Zaguras could never control divine domain heavenly thunder with his own abilities. He used my head to modify the rules here!”
As he spoke, the secret realm’s heavenly punishment had already lasted over a minute.
Ye Dui had previously witnessed the power of the secret realm’s heavenly punishment and even used it to attack the ferocious spirit god. But those two thunderbolts had each fallen once and ended in a few seconds. This time, the devil killed three guards, triggering a more intense heavenly punishment. The lightning continued for a full minute, with its power multiplied several times.
Ye Dui even noticed that when the thunderbolt ended, the already overcast sky seemed even dimmer. The lightning flashes in the grey chaotic space grew somewhat quieter.
“This time, it should kill him, right?” Debbie craned her neck to peer towards the large pit. The power of this heavenly punishment was no less than a nuclear strike missile. Most importantly, its endurance was astonishing. Lasting a minute, its destructive force was absolutely sufficient.
Ye Dui continued casting [Temporal Gap]. This terrifying spell required a long preparation time, so he did not interrupt it to guard against surprises. At the same time, he flipped open his iPad spellbook with one hand, found the game map, and scanned the image on it.
The devil appeared as red on the map. Now, the map still showed some scattered red dots, those being the godfolk guards not yet dead. But the enormous red dot representing the devil had vanished.
Had the devil been blasted to death just like that?
Ye Dui frowned, sensing that things would not be so simple.
At that moment, he suddenly saw a small red dot on the map rapidly flying towards them. That red dot was originally normal-sized, but in an instant, it grew immensely large. Its speed was truly swift. Ye Dui hurriedly looked up, shouting, “Watch out.”
Before his words finished, a red shadow had already rushed before them.
It was the devil.
But now, it was covered in wounds, looking utterly wretched. One of its long horns on the head was broken, its black wings on the back torn with gashes, many red scales on its body fallen off, and its tail behind charred to a crisp.
It arrived before the group almost instantaneously. When Ye Dui had just managed to shout “sm” in “small”, it stopped in front of Debbie. A rotten, decayed claw reached for Serti, who was held in Debbie’s arms. The secret realm’s heavenly punishment, divine domain heavenly thunder, was a power only the gods’ clan could wield in the divine domain. Five thousand years ago, when devils invaded the divine domain, they first sought ways to suppress the divine domain heavenly thunder’s outbreak, allowing them to defeat the gods’ clan in one stroke. Just now, struck by divine domain heavenly thunder, this terrifying attack instinctively linked it to Serti in his mind, assuming the thunder was Serti’s doing.
Of course, if he could calmly think it over, he might realise it was related to the three guards he killed. But rage had already clouded his thoughts.
After the thunder ended, his first target to eliminate was Serti.
Serti was being held in Debbie’s arms.
Debbie was a summoner. Though she usually stayed by Ye Dui’s side joining all sorts of reckless adventures, in terms of physical combat, she was not much stronger than an ordinary young girl. If the devil’s claw grabbed Serti, it would inevitably cause her massive harm too!
“Car”
Ye Dui’s shout had just ended. He was too late to pull Debbie and Serti away.
Seeing this, he swiftly released the magic array he had just condensed to over ninety percent completion.
[Temporal Gap]
Mystical mist instantly enveloped the devil, also covering Debbie and Serti within.
Posri, Xilesi, Reisha, Guni, and Green all assumed attack stances. But before them, the devil had vanished, Debbie’s figure gone too. A pool of white mist appeared in their vision.
Calling it mist was not quite accurate. It merely looked like mist, but its actual composition was far more profound: vision could not discern what was there, only capturing blurry phantoms, and those phantoms defied description in words.
That was the gap in time.
Ye Dui used the spell to freeze the moment when the devil was about to touch Serti in the temporal gap.
This too was a seal, a seal of time.
“This is time magic?” Posri widened her eyes, saying in astonishment.
Reisha asked Ye Dui with concern, “Little brother, what happened to big sister? Where is she now?”
“Guild leader, will Miss Debbie be alright?” Green asked hurriedly too.
Ye Dui shook his head, explaining, “Just now, the devil was about to attack Debbie and Serti. I could not defend in time, so I used [Temporal Gap] to seal Debbie, Serti, and the devil together inside. Right now, time in the [Temporal Gap] is looping endlessly, repeating that instant when the devil is about to attack them!”
Ye Dui had experienced the time rift curse that afflicted Greenleaf Village together with Debbie.
That time rift encompassed a full day, causing the elf queen to loop endlessly through the day before the wolf bandits and devils attacked, cycling for five thousand years. Ye Dui’s time magic was of course not as powerful as the elf queen’s. He could only cast it over a few metres radius, and the time loop lasted only a few seconds.
“Miss Debbie and Serti are sealed together too? Then, then what do we do now?” Xilesi asked worriedly.
Ye Dui felt it somewhat tricky too, but he did not hesitate. He took a deep breath and walked towards the dense time mist.
“I will go bring them out!”
……
In the temporal gap Ye Dui had created.
This place seemed like a world unto itself. Time here looped repeatedly, stuck in less than a second.
Debbie held Serti’s head, her face rapidly showing surprise. Serti’s mouth opened, as if about to bellow in anger.
The devil’s figure rushed swiftly from afar to before Debbie.
But just as its palm was about to touch Serti in Debbie’s arms, time rewound. The devil’s figure returned to the distance, Debbie’s and Serti’s expressions reverting to before they saw the devil approaching.
Everything restarted.
Looping endlessly.
Time here was trapped in that fleeting instant of less than a second.
If no one interrupted this cycle, they would be confined in this time rift forever.
Ye Dui’s figure appeared beside Debbie. As the spell’s caster, he was unaffected by the time loop in the gap. He glanced at the situation in this gap world, pondered briefly, then a time magic array appeared in his hand. He gently placed it on Debbie’s shoulder.
The next moment, Debbie cried “Ouch” and freed herself from the time loop, leaping backwards into Ye Dui’s arms. Serti’s startled cry followed, “Damn. Huh? What happened here?”
Debbie curiously surveyed the surroundings. In her mind, she had just seen the devil charge at her suddenly, and the next instant, her vision shifted here. The devil’s figure still kept repeating the motion of rushing from afar, over and over.
“Time magic!” Before Ye Dui could answer, Serti immediately realised with astonishment what was happening. She strained to turn her head towards Ye Dui. “Where did you learn this magic? This is Lier’s specialty!”
“Lier? You mean the goddess, the elf queen?” Debbie understood too. She explained to Serti, “Ye Dui learned the magic from her. She is our daughter now!”
Serti: “……”
Ye Dui briefly recounted what happened in Greenleaf Village. Serti’s face showed some sadness. “She chose to reincarnate as Panier… And you two are her new parents. It seems the gods’ clan has truly ended.” Then Serti’s expression brightened. “Since Lier chose you as her parents, where is she now? Why did you not bring her into the secret realm world together?”
“We did bring her.” Ye Dui pointed at his spellbook. “She is in my [Storage Space] right now.”
“I carefully planted her in a flower pot, watering and sunning her every day!” Debbie added quickly.
But Serti was stunned. “Planted in a flower pot… Watering and sunning?” She took a deep breath, then roared, “Are you kidding me!? Treating the elf queen like a plant in a flower pot? As parents, do you have to be this ridiculous!!!”
Debbie felt her ears ringing painfully and rubbed them, saying, “She appeared as a seed. If not like this, how else to plant her?”
“That is an elf! A royal elf at that…”
Serti was so furious she could hardly speak. The elf queen did indeed reincarnate as a seed via Panier, but she needed to root in the vast earth to grow. Not like Ye Dui and Debbie, who just potted her like that?
She was utterly speechless towards this pair of absurd parents!
Lier’s previous generation parents, the god of gods and the goddess of wealth (actually the goddess of wisdom), were mere small figures when they received Lier, but even they knew elves must be planted in the broad earth, not directly in a flower pot like ordinary flowers, right?
At that moment, Debbie suddenly noticed something and let out a “Yah” of surprise, shifting closer to Ye Dui. When Ye Dui looked at her questioningly, she pointed at the repeating devil and said, “Is it my imagination? It… It used to repeat right upon reaching here, but this repetition, it seems closer to us…”
“Not your imagination. It is gradually breaking the time rift step by step.” Ye Dui frowned.
The time rift was originally unbreakable, but with Debbie and Serti also caught in it, Ye Dui freeing them created a crack in the rift, preventing it from fully containing the devil.
Ye Dui grabbed Debbie’s shoulders, trying to leave first. But he soon discovered with surprise that he could no longer open the time rift to exit.
“It is useless. The temporal gap is a very powerful time magic. You sealed the devil, Debbie, and me together here. To leave, you must return us to the seal, or it will cause time misalignment, preventing a smooth exit!” Serti explained. Though she did not know time magic, as a member of the gods’ clan, she understood it better than Ye Dui.
“No, I came here precisely to take you away. How could I reseal you?” Ye Dui immediately shook his head in refusal.
“Is there another way?” Debbie asked Serti somewhat distressed.
The devil drew a few steps closer.
It originally looped in a mere second, but now, using its own power, it was gradually extending the loop time in this world. Soon, it would gain enough time to attack Ye Dui, Debbie, and Serti.
Debbie’s question to Serti was mostly casual. Such a tricky situation could not be resolved easily. Yet, to Ye Dui and Debbie’s surprise, Serti replied, “Normally there is no way, but now there is the best possible method.”
“What method?” Debbie pressed.
“You just said Lier is in your spellbook now? And planted in a flower pot?” Serti said with a smile. “The elf clan innately possesses infinite life, and the elf queen Lier is even more special. She also masters the eternal life rules, immune to any time-related effects. The time misalignment from the temporal gap is naturally no issue. She can directly absorb this entire temporal gap, along with the devil, as power until nothing remains!”
