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Haru was already gone from the third layer. He, Celestia, and Yvonne had passed through to the fourth layer before the cheering started, and the contrast hit immediately. After the sulfur, blood, and abyss-rot of the layers above, the fourth layer felt like stepping through into somewhere else entirely.
Here in the fourth layer, living green stretched in every direction—trees, flowers, clean air thick rich in nature element mana. The kind of ambient energy that made breathing feel like cultivation. He stopped for a moment and just inhaled.
"My Lord." Celestia kept her voice low, and pointed in a direction, "This planet's laws are roughly 5.6 million kilometers ahead."
Haru looked. His gaze pushed through the distance until he found the nine-colored sphere of light. It was vast, luminous, and beautiful the way only things carrying enormous power can be.
Wrapped around it, like a parasite that had been working for tens of thousands of years, were the blood-red threads of the Eye of the Abyss.
The threads weren't just touching the sphere. They were inside it, interwoven through its deepest layers, patiently rewriting the Laws of an entire planet from within. Given enough time, the Eye wouldn't just influence the Laws, it would become the Laws.
Haru folded space, with just one casual gesture and the three of them stood beside the sphere.
Behind them, Phoebe emerged from the passage moments later. She spotted the others already near the laws, and something in her chest tightened. The bad feeling she'd carried since entering the fourth layer hadn't faded. If anything, it had sharpened. She flew toward them anyway, but kept a careful distance—close enough to engage, yet far enough to react.
Haru noticed this, but didn't comment.
"The Eye has weakened since we started the campaign." Celestia said, studying the threads carefully, "But it hasn't stopped. It's still trying to finish the assimilation of the Laws." She paused, "A direct contest would be messy — the Eye is still stronger than the Laws on their own. But if we reinforce them from the outside while it pushes back from within, we can contain the Eye long enough for you to act."
"Then that's what we do." Phoebe arrived at their side, her expression composed, eyes watchful, "Is there something I can do?"
"Four Supreme Gods working together…" Haru said, "…will make this considerably cleaner. Are you willing?"
The bad feeling pulsed even further, but when Phoebe looked at the blood-red threads coiled through the heart of her planet's Laws, she nodded.
"I'm in."
…
Inside the sphere, something that had spent tens of thousands of years being patient felt the trap closing and did not respond with dignity.
A bright, clear voice rang out from deep within the light—the Spirit of Arboriel's Laws, sounding less like an ancient cosmic entity and more like a teen who had been waiting a very, very long time for a rescue that was frankly overdue.
"Finally. Your Majesty Haru! Please destroy this filthy piece of shit. It has been torturing me for tens of thousands of years. I am begging you!"
Haru stared at the sphere.
"…Tens of thousands of years?"
"TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS, YOUR MAJESTY."
The voice caught Haru off guard. He'd known that a planet's Laws had a spirit, in theory. While actually hearing one speak was something else entirely. It was young, almost crystalline, and conjured the image of a girl no older than sixteen or seventeen. The spirit of Arboriel's Laws has barely existed for tens of thousands of years, while the spirit Endless Continent's Laws had been born millions of years ago, back in the era of the Throneveil Shrine.
Then the other voice cut in.
It came from the blood-red eye at the heart of the light sphere, the Eye of the Abyss, and it sounded like every negative emotion that had ever existed had been wrung out and given a throat. The particular ugliness of something that knows it's losing.
The threads had nearly finished the job. Just another decade and it would have consumed Arboriel's Laws entirely, replaced it, and ruled the planet from the inside. That window had closed the moment Haru's Imperial Army took Tenebris. It knew that and that was exactly why it was screaming.
"Your Majesty Kazehaya." The Eye's tone shifted, wrapping itself in something that passed for dignity, "I am an artifact forged by His Majesty, the Demon Emperor himself. To sabotage my work is to declare war on—"
"A mere spirit of an artifact dared to threaten me?" Haru said and moved to expel it, "Interesting."
"The Burning Legion will march on the Endless Continent." The Eye's voice cracked like a whip, "The Twelve Demon Monarchs and even His Majesty, the Emperor himself, would descend this time. Every living thing in your empire, your people, and your territory, will be turned into ash and ruin. Help me complete my work here and you would walk away. You can still earn His Majesty's forgiveness."
The Divine Power threaded through those words was real and dangerous. It was calibrated to destabilize—strong enough to shake a weak-willed Supreme God's resolve and even outright enslave a High God. The native Gods couldn't even approach the light sphere safely. Phoebe was the only exception, as her will was strong enough to resist the pull.
Haru felt nothing. He was an intermediate stage Supreme God and not an ordinary one at that. The Eye wasn't built for someone like him.
He looked at the blood-red eye and said, "When I'm done with you, I'll purify the evil out of you and put you to work for my empire."
The silence that followed was very satisfying, at least for Arboriel's Laws.
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