NOVEL NEXT Chapter 168: Forced To The Plane
The world turned white for him when Azel normally used Star Strike.
Channeling the power of the stars was no easy feat. Every time he used that technique, it felt like borrowing a piece of heaven itself.
According to Kyone, the blinding light came not from pure brightness but from speed — speed so immense that normal eyes could never track it.
The body moved in harmony with starlight, faster than thought, faster than sound. To the untrained eye, the world simply vanished into pure white.
But that didn't make the strike invincible.
Azel knew that better than anyone.
Against a Rank 2 monster? Impossible.
Against someone faster than him, sharper than him, or simply stronger? It would fail.
There was always someone stronger — that was the law of the world. No matter how high you climbed, the heavens would always hold another peak above you.
Still, as he focused on the whiteness expanding everywhere, he realized this wasn't like his Star Strike at all..
It wasn't that Azariah was moving too fast for him to follow. No — something far stranger had happened.
All the colors of the world had been ripped away.
The snowy clearing where warriors clashed, the ice-titan that towered over them, even the faint red stains of battle as well as the corpses, all of it had drained into black and white.
It was like watching reality itself repainted in ink, stripped of its life, leaving only shadow and light.
It was horrifying yet beautiful at the same damn time.
Azariah stepped forward.
The Patriarch of the clan swung his blade, it was a simple motion.
Yet in the silence of that black-and-white world, it felt like the judgment of a god.
At first, nothing happened. It was just a man cutting through the air, and the whistle of steel as well.
Then the earth roared.
The crater around the Frost Juggernaut deepened in an instant, its icy foundation collapsing under invisible pressure.
Azel staggered as the ground shuddered beneath him, his lungs tightening. The air itself had grown heavy, so dense it resisted his breath.
And then —
The cut revealed itself.
A slash carved straight through the Juggernaut's massive form, splitting the titanic body like soft clay.
Its frozen flesh cracked apart, a death-scream lost beneath the thunder of breaking ice. But the attack did not stop there.
The blade's path stretched beyond the monster, ignoring all laws of distance and resistance. The "world-cutting" slash extended outward, carving the very air, the storm, the blizzard.
And still it pressed on.
It reached the mountains that stood like eternal guardians in the distance — mountains of frost that had towered for seemingly centuries.
And it cut them.
Azel's eyes widened.
His mind could barely accept it. Peaks of solid ice and stone, taller than what he had ever laid eyes on, were cleaved as though they were paper.
Entire ridges collapsed, avalanches rushing like tidal waves, the land itself splitting open in a quake so vast the warriors fell to their knees.
The Juggernaut had been strong enough to crush armies. Yet compared to this single swing, it was nothing.
The Patriarch's strike killed it in an instant.
Azel swallowed hard, his throat dry.
'This is the power I must reach…'
Azariah only exhaled, lowering his blade. The steaming swords hissed as they touched the snow. Color bled back into the world slowly, as if reluctant to return.
Reds, blues, greens appeared as life trickled back into reality.
"That's a nice way to get energy out of my system," Azariah muttered. His voice was calm, unbothered, as though he had simply lifted a heavy barrel, not cut through mountains.
He rolled his shoulders, stretched his arms, and sighed like a man easing out tension after a day's work.
Azel couldn't believe it.
Before Azel could dwell on it, the world began to change again.
At first it was small — the trees at the edge of the clearing began to fade, their shapes thinning like mist.
Then the mountains collapsed into haze, vanishing from sight. Even the warriors around them started to blur, their forms melting away as though painted on water.
Azel blinked.
'What now…?'
When the survivors opened their eyes again, they were no longer in the battlefield.
They stood outside the Divide.
But the Divide's usual emptiness was gone.
In its place stretched a vast forest.
It was beautiful and eerie at once, with pale trees that glowed faintly in the dark, branches curling in unnatural shapes.
The air was heavy with quiet, as if every sound was muffled.
Azel knew this forest.
His stomach tightened.
It was the very same place where he had taken trial minutes ago.
'What the fuck?'
Before he could voice his confusion, voices echoed in his mind.
[ESTEEMED HUSBAND! CAN YOU HEAR ME?]
[SAY SOMETHING, PLEASE…]
Kyone's voice.
Nyala's voice.
Both of them overlapped, frantic, echoing with worry.
'Yes, I can hear you,' Azel thought quickly, trying to calm them.
The voices quieted, though their emotions still pressed against his soul.
[DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED WE WERE?] Kyone's tone snapped sharply, though it trembled with relief. [WE SUDDENLY COULDN'T SEE THROUGH YOUR EYES, COULDN'T HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS AND COULDN'T DO NOTHING EXCEPT WORRY! I'M BRINGING YOU OVER RIGHT NOW.]
"Wait—" Azel tried to protest, but the words never left his lips.
A system message appeared across his mind's eye.
[Your soul has forcefully been pushed to the Plane of the Goddesses.]
Azel's vision blurred.
His body dropped limply to the ground, and the last thing he saw was Medusa rushing forward, panic in her eyes as she caught him.
'I'm seriously going to be clung to after this,' Azel thought bitterly as his consciousness slipped. His soul, weightless, drifted away from his body and toward the divine plane.
…
When he opened his eyes again, warmth enveloped him.
He was cradled in the clingy embrace of two goddesses.
Surprisingly, they were far more coordinated than when they had first met, no longer competing for space but surrounding him in gentle unity.
Nyala sat behind him, lowering his head carefully onto her lap. Her body radiated a soothing heat, her hands brushing through his hair.
Above him leaned Kyone, her touch cool but tender, patting his face as though to make sure he was real.
"I think you're fine," Kyone murmured. Her hands slid over his chest, down his abs, inspecting him with divine thoroughness. "Yes, you're fine. Don't scare us like that anymore. And tell us what happened inside… please."
Her voice softened at the end, the sharp goddess of ice betraying a flicker of fear.
Both of them looked at him with wide, eager eyes.
They wanted to know everything.
Azel drew in a breath, then nodded. "I will."
But first —
A flash of light appeared in his palm. From it, a pair of earrings materialized.
"Do you know what these are?" Azel asked, lifting them up. "I found them inside…"
Kyone's expression shifted instantly.
Her eyes widened, shimmering with recognition. And then, to Azel's surprise, her face broke into pure, unrestrained happiness.