Is That A Wisp?

Zule sighed before explaining.

"As one of the necessary keys to open the four doors, the key has tremendous power. Back then, it was the key's power that guided my own son to this place. However, the Mortal Realm Universes aren't as stable and resistant when compared to the two upper realms. Because of that, the Universe it fell into, the Lokrathos Universe, received a great blow due to its arrival."

"From what I understand, my son used his bloodline connection with me to revert the power of the key into the almost collapsing Lokrathos Universe foundation. I checked it as well. The foundation is being held by the key's power alone. Of course, that made the Lokrathos Universe's foundation stronger than any run-of-the-mill Universe out there. However, if the key is removed, the Lokrathos Universe wouldn't last even a day."

Luvile didn't seem to care too much about it.

"Then the answer is simple. Move everyone out of the Universe and take the key after that. With Soren and me working together, it wouldn't take more than a month or so to do it. If these descendants of yours help as well, it will be even faster."

Unsurprisingly, Arminia's group felt like killing Luvile.

"You want to destroy everyone's ancestral grounds, their history, their lives, just like that? Do you think any of us will permit that?"

Luvile snorted at those words.

"I couldn't care less about any of that. You should be happy that I'm even willing to bring all sentient lives out before doing it. That's already very benevolent on my part."

The killing intent surrounding Arminia's group increased as all of them gathered. Even if they had to fight to the death, they wouldn't allow Luvile's group to take the key. 

Feifei then looked at Zule before asking.

"Zule. Didn't you tell them why we need the key?"

"I haven't. In fact, I wouldn't even tell them that the thing was a key if they didn't know about it already. When I left my will within the key those years ago, my original body left an order behind. I should not talk about this issue with anyone other than Krune. That was to prevent any mishaps from happening."

Arminia didn't seem to care, though.

"Even if Spacetime God had told us about the use of the key, we wouldn't allow anyone to take it anyway. There's nothing worse than losing our home forever."

Krune shook his head before explaining.

"I'm not like the others. I never had too much of an attachment with a place before, even the Universe I was born in. I won't blame you for doing so, though. However, there's a big issue here. If we don't take the key, you will still lose your Lokrathos Universe either way."

Arminia's group was taken aback.

"Do you think we will believe that?"

With Zule here, the order where he could only talk in Krune's presence was achieved. That said, he could finally explain everything to his descendants.

"Krune's not lying. If they take the key, the Lokrathos Universe will collapse. If they don't take the key...all Four Realms will collapse, Lokrathos included."

"What?!"

Krune then looked at 'Zule.'

"Is it okay if I tell them everything?"

"Yes, go ahead."

Krune nodded.

"It goes like this..."

Krune then explained the entire situation. How the doors to go out of the Four Realms are connected to the Four Realms' foundations. How the gods of the God Realm were planning to break through it even if it means the Four Realms' collapse. How it would be impossible to stop all of them. Krune explained that they needed the key to open the four doors and prevent the four realms from disappearing in the process.

"Without the Mortal Realm Key, the Mortal Realm would be destroyed together with the rest. As terrible as the idea of destroying the Lokrathos Universe might seem, the loss of all Four Realms far exceeds the importance of a single Universe. Please understand. We really don't want to force anything."

Arminia's group felt terrible. 

"Spacetime God, no... Ancestor Zule. Is it really true?"

Zule confirmed.

"Yes. That's the absolute truth. Whether you want to believe it or not won't change anything. Also, I'm the owner of the key to start with, so I've been waiting for Krune to arrive ever since. There's no point in you defending it since I would use my own power to take the key out of the foundation."

"This..."

Arminia's group felt even worse. That basically settled everything. Whatever they did, the Lokrathos Universe would fall either way. Well, it's not like they had much of a chance with Luvile and Soren here. Even Krune, Feifei, and Heavin would already be very hard to deal with. After all, without Zule's help to use the black hole's power, they weren't much stronger than ordinary cultivators and demon beasts.

Heavin looked at their gloomy faces and couldn't help but ask.

"Zule, is there no way of taking the key without impacting the Lokrathos Universe?"

"If I had my true body here, it could be done. However, not only can't I contact it, you know very well that the Four Realms can't withstand its existence. There would be a need for a power strong enough to substitute a Universe's Foundation. Unfortunately, you definitely won't find it in the Mortal Realm or the Godly Path Realm either."

"The God Realm might have some products with such power, but I can guarantee that you won't be able to send it down to the Mortal Realm either. First of all, the Mortal Realm would definitely reject such a thing. Trust me, I've been thinking up of a solution ever since I arrived, but there's simply nothing."

Krune couldn't help but ask.

"Can we at least take a look at the foundation where the key is present?"

"No problem."

That distortion of space in the middle of the hall began to change. Suddenly, it increased several times before a Spatial Gate appeared inside it. It was directly connected to the foundation of the Lokrathos Universe, so everyone could see the other side.

  It was the first time Krune, Feifei, and Heavin had seen one, so they were really surprised by the view. 

The Universe Foundation looked more like a gigantic spiderweb. It extended to all corners of the Universe, keeping everything together. Of course, it wasn't easy to see it. It was because Zule was here that it became this simple. That's because all Universe Foundations were located in a different plane of the same size as their own Universes. It wasn't wrong to think about the foundation as a mirror image of the Universe itself. 

Of course, there were no such things as planets, suns, galaxies, etc. Only the foundation and the core. Zule had opened a passage directly to that same core of the foundation. Krune's group then came inside of that plane, where Zule's will was actually located. Arminia and a few of the elders also followed, just in case.

They could see something that looked more like a translucent rainbow crystal at the very center of the core. Its size was enormous, larger than an entire planet. Of course, considering the scale of a Universe, this was very small. Nonetheless, Krune's group could feel just how powerful the energy inside was.

Luvile couldn't help but comment.

"Even when I was at the peak of my strength, I wasn't as powerful as this thing."

Soren nodded.

"Indeed. Saying that we're fireflies in front of the moon is already be an overestimation of our powers. This is truly impressive."

Krune agreed with them.

"That's incredible. However, Luvile should know one thing that has surpassed this thing's power."

Luvile bitterly smiled. He was there with Krune when Zule's Primordial Kun-Peng body awoke. Sure enough, this gigantic crystal still paled in comparison with Zule's real self.

Krune then sighed as he looked at Arminia and the elders on her side.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to take a look to see if I could think of a way to take it out without damaging the Universe Foundation. However, I really can't think of anything capable of taking its place. The crystal is completely fused with the foundation, which makes things even worse for your Lokrathos Universe."

Arminia sighed as she looked at it. Even she had only seen the crystal a few times. Still, she knew that Krune wasn't lying. Where the hell would you find something like this to replace the crystal? First of all, even if you did, how would you expect to move it? No Spatial Ring in existence would ever be able to hold such a thing inside. Its power alone wouldn't make it possible to push it through a Spatial Gate either. It was really a dead end.

Feifei pondered for a bit before asking Krune through a Divine Sense message.

'We can't prevent the Lokrathos Universe from collapsing, but we can at least help their people and beasts. They are not part of the Universe Powerhouses' alliance. That being said, wouldn't it be okay if we delivered everyone to Dalin? At the very least, that would be a much better place to start again.'

Krune was taken aback by Feifei's idea. However, he had to admit that she was right. Due to Dalin's special traits, it was several times bigger than common Universes. Holding a single Lokrathos Universe population wouldn't make too much of a change to it.

'That could work. However, we would need to make sure that no one knows what we're doing.'

Feifei nodded as the couple looked at the crystal. They really liked the idea.