Volume 5 Chapter 0075: Stagnation of Time in the Main Material World - I, The Dragon Overlord

The Goddess of Misfortune was taken aback as she gazed at the sudden pillar of light descending from the heavens, feeling the immense energy contained within. Even as she was on the verge of achieving intermediate divine power, she was astonished. This was an unprecedented form of attack for a newly-emerged deity like herself. The convergence of thousands of beams into a single radiant light embodied energy potent enough to obliterate the Prime Material Plane!! How powerful must this energy be to break through an entire dimension in an instant? Such an energy flow defied mortal comprehension. However, this energy seemed somewhat primitive. In an instant, the Goddess of Misfortune's divine essence calculated the energy level of these light pillars. It was akin to a legendary-level mage executing a large-scale magical ceremony capable of destroying a dimension. While the total energy was high, its quality fell short, not even remotely comparable to true divine power. Though this attack might deplete much of her avatar's divine strength, the notion of annihilating the avatar of the Goddess of Misfortune with such an assault seemed laughable. Indeed, while quantitative change can trigger qualitative transformation, this mere aggregation of energy could never transform into divine power. In that instant, Benshaba, the Goddess of Misfortune, was filled with indignation, feeling it an utter humiliation for the Goddess of Misfortune to be enveloped in the cloak of 'misfortune', to encounter such an absurd situation. Irritated, she instinctively activated the simplest divine shield each deity possesses, protecting against this blow. It would draw upon a portion of her avatar's divine strength but would inflict no real harm. The initial surprise aside, Benshaba quickly regained her calm, feeling a touch of disdain. Attempting deicide with such power was simply naive. She stood unfazed, awaiting the descent of the light pillar, already contemplating how to unearth and punish the transgressor to regret provoking the Goddess of Misfortune. "Not good!!" But as the light pillars contacted Benshaba's divine shield, the goddess sensed something amiss. Her beautiful, venomous visage shifted drastically. Astoundingly, upon contacting her divine shield, the light pillars began to diffuse. The parts touching her shield melted instantly, whilst the diffused beams threatened to plummet towards the Prime Material Plane below. The energy within these light pillars was sufficient to trigger an apocalyptic crisis upon the Prime Material Plane. While the Plane's inherent resilience wouldn't ensure complete annihilation, the columns' descent would ravage it, rendering its surface and underdark inhabitants vulnerable to devastating harm. Although narrow-minded, Benshaba was indeed a responsible deity. She was well aware of the consequences of such destruction: with no followers remaining, gods would face a dire crisis, soon dragged into the Starry Sea to meet an eternal end. Apart from deities of great and some intermediate power who might survive due to numerous devotees in their divine realm, minor deities like herself faced near-certain demise. No, for today's gods, even powerful deities might face downfall. Today's deities, both newly emerged and those awakened from ancient slumber, found their millennia-long accumulations obliterated during the 'Epoch of Catastrophe' some thirty thousand years ago. In their present state, neither they nor the gods of intermediate power could endure another prolonged conflict. "Could these be entities from those ancient god-referenced otherworldly civilizations?!" In an instant, the Goddess of Misfortune realized the truth. Regardless of her nature, she resolved to make a sacrifice. This was merely an avatar—its loss insignificant. But should the Prime Material Plane be obliterated, she faced a timeless finale! Having recently attained divinity less than a century past, she had no desire to embrace demise so swiftly. Soon as the thought formed, Benshaba's avatar prepared to unleash her divine power without reserve, invoking her extraordinary divine skill to curse the dispersing beams with 'misfortune', ensuring none would strike the ground. Yet, she hesitated for a fleeting moment, as the beams plummeted towards the surface with greater speed than anticipated. At that moment, ticking sounds reverberated through the Prime Material Plane's void, and a faint outline of a quartz clock appeared in the sky. Vast divine power vibrated, causing the clock's second hand to halt, suspending time across the Prime Material Plane in an instant! The beams, poised to impact the ground, froze in mid-air, trapped in the paralysis of time. "The Dragon God?!" Benshaba instinctively named the deity responsible. Though primarily lord of dragons and slaughter, He wielded dominion over time itself—an ability with remarkable auxiliary combat applications, exemplified by this command over the Prime Material Plane's time. Simultaneous to the cessation of time, countless divine energies emanated from distant voids, casting rays of dawn, the grim reality of war, a silver moon's canopy, protective earth veils, magical elements roaring, even enigma-saturated night tides. In this unity of purpose, even gods typically at odds—Silver Moon and Night, Dragons and Earth—banded together without hesitation to contain the beam cluster imperiling the Prime Material Plane. Survival is the intrinsic impulse of humans and immortals alike; facing existential threats, divinities shed raw emotions to collaborate earnestly. In unison, the gods obliterated the potentially world-ending energies without effort, rolling divine forces inward through the void, into rifts torn open in space. Dawn radiated, and moonlight flourished, while transcendent divine powers tore through the emptiness, annihilating the transport fleets lurking within the rift, their streamlining and futuristic shapes hinting at systemic destruction capabilities. Deities possessing foresight, destiny, and tracking powers sought the enemy fleet's origin. Yet, no valuable insight emerged, as the direction led to another crystal sphere. As the vast rift in the sky sealed shut, it appeared as though nothing had transpired. When time resumed across the Prime Material Plane, perhaps none but the demigods among mortals realized they'd just escaped extinction, nor did they know the gods had cooperatively staved off apocalypse. However, this was far from over. The resurgence of the otherworldly civilization plunged all deities into vigilance and dread. In the astral realm, a colossal temple descended as several powerful deities initiated a divine gathering, activating the 'Pantheon'!