Chapter 227: Ascension To Godhood.
"H-husband? What are you talking about?" Seraphina blushed at mere sound of it.
"Yes. Your husband. You deserve the truth. All of it."
Her heart trembled as his words spilled forth.
"In another life, Seraphina, we already fought side by side. You were not just the Queen of Spirits—you were one of the pillars of my dominion. Together, with others who bore the same fire, we stood as Overlords. Not rulers for vanity, but guardians of balance across the Universe."
Her lips parted slightly, her breath catching as her own spirit resonated with fragments she could not remember, yet could not deny.
"You and I..." Igaris’s eyes softened. "We became more than allies. You became one of my life partners, a piece of my soul. We shared laughter, battles, dreams of a free cosmos. You held the Spirit Realm against the floods of corruption, while I shattered empires of false gods. Without you, Seraphina, the balance would never have lasted as long as it did."
Seraphina pressed a hand to her chest, emerald flames swirling faintly as buried emotions awoke. She whispered, almost breathless, "I... I can feel it. My spirit trembles... as if it remembers you."
"Yes. " Igaris nodded grimly, his tone turning darker. "But then came the Outer Beings. Horrors beyond the gods of Mythraldor, beyond demons, beyond logic itself. They descended when we had nearly won, when the false gods and demon lords were on their knees. Against them... even we fell."
Silence blanketed the chamber, broken only by the distant pulse of the Eternal Tree. Seraphina’s eyes grew wet with an unexplainable sorrow, the pain of a love lost across lifetimes, now remembered.
"And yet," Igaris continued, his hand gently brushing her cheek, "fate brought us back. Different time, different path, but the same purpose. To finish what we began. To destroy the gods of Mythraldor, and the demons who still conspire with them. To tear down every chain binding the Universe."
Her body shook, not with fear, but with overwhelming certainty. She placed her hand over his, emerald light entwining with his dark aura.
"If what you say is true... then this life, I will not fail you again. I will fight by your side, as I always have. As your Queen, your partner... your pillar."
A faint smile tugged at Igaris’s lips, rare and unguarded. "Then, Seraphina, let us make the stars remember us once more."
And so, in the hall of judgment, two fates that once died together were reborn, bound again not by chance, but by destiny.
The Eternal Tree loomed above the Spirit Realm like a guardian of ages, its branches stretching across heaven and earth. Its leaves shimmered with an emerald radiance, each one whispering secrets older than the gods themselves. Its roots dug into the very fabric of reality, binding the Spirit Realm to the laws of existence. For countless millennia, it had remained a silent sentinel, never once bowing to the whims of mortals, spirits, or even divinities.
Yet as Igaris stood before its colossal trunk, a ripple passed through the realm. The tree stirred. The leaves rustled, though there was no wind. The roots pulsed with light, like a great heart suddenly quickening its beat.
Seraphina froze. Even she, the Spirit Queen, could hardly believe what she felt. The Eternal Tree, sovereign of all spirit life, was not calling to her. Its call was for him.
The trunk glowed faintly, and a hollow opened within its bark, revealing a chalice of liquid so pure and radiant it seemed both flame and water. The divine essence shone with colors no mortal eye could name, shifting between liquid starlight and molten dawn. The mere sight of it sent waves of energy crashing across the realm, making the sky ripple and rivers hum with resonance.
"The Tree... it is repaying you," Seraphina whispered, her eyes wide in awe. "That is the Elixir of Genesis. A divine liquid, said to only appear once in a million cycles. Even gods covet it."
Igaris stared at the chalice. For a moment, silence weighed between them. Then he reached out, his voice calm yet heavy with resolve. "If this is what fate grants me, I will not waste it. This... will be my final push."
His fingers wrapped around the chalice, its warmth sinking into his bones. Without hesitation, he raised it to his lips and drank.
The taste was indescribable, at once searing and sweet, like swallowing both a newborn sun and the cool essence of moonlight. The liquid coursed through him like wildfire, unraveling barriers within his soul and body. His veins burned with power, his spirit howled with ancient hunger.
But with it came agony. His body convulsed, cracks spreading across his skin as if he were a vessel too fragile to contain what he had just consumed. The divine liquid sought to shatter him, to test whether he was worthy to hold godhood.
He closed his eyes, forcing himself still. "This is it. The barrier... the final barrier."
The Eternal Tree answered. One of its colossal branches bent low, cradling him like a throne. Slowly, it raised him upward until he sat upon its highest peak, a place where the Spirit Realm merged with the vast ocean of stars.
There, on the branch that touched the heavens, Igaris sat cross-legged. His aura flared like a tempest. His body became a battlefield. Flames of ruination clashed with laws of genesis, fire collided with space, and threads of time twisted into knots. His Saint Rank power erupted violently, threatening to tear his soul apart as it tried to evolve into something higher.
Below, Seraphina followed, standing at the base of the branch, her emerald wings unfurled. She raised her staff, spreading her protective aura across him. A radiant dome formed around his seated figure, shielding him from prying eyes and unseen threats.
Her eyes softened as she looked at him. The Igaris who had shaken the Spirit Realm with overwhelming might now sat vulnerable before her, locked in a trial only he could face. Yet even as his aura raged like a collapsing star, there was something steady about him, something unyielding that drew her gaze deeper and deeper.
Seraphina pressed a hand to her chest. Her heart pounded faster than she could understand. She had seen him as a stranger, then as a savior, then as a partner bound by fate. But now, watching him at the edge of divinity, she could no longer deny it. The way her breath caught when he grimaced in pain, the way her lips curved into a smile when he steadied himself, the way heat rose in her cheeks when his silhouette was cast in divine light... it was more than duty. It was more than admiration.
Her eyes softened with a tenderness she had long buried. "Igaris... do you even know what you are doing to me?" she whispered under her breath.
The stars above flickered as his ascension deepened. His body shook violently. The liquid of genesis burned him from within, each droplet a trial of countless lifetimes. In his inner vision, countless chains coiled around him, forged by the laws of mortality itself. Each chain represented a limit: the limit of flesh, the limit of soul, the limit of existence.
He bared his teeth and roared in his spirit. "Break."
Infinite Acquisition ignited, drowning his spirit in platinum moonlight. His body erupted with the flames of ruination, each ember carrying the destruction of worlds. Nuclear fire flared from his veins, burning the chains that bound him. Space-Time Domain unfolded around him, stretching and twisting, as though he himself were becoming the axis of reality.
"Humm!" The Eternal Tree resonated with him. The stars themselves shivered.
Seraphina gasped as she felt the pressure wash over her. She knew his power well, yet this was different. This was no longer the strength of a mortal saint reaching upward. This was something that forced the heavens themselves to bend.
But it was also dangerous. His body cracked again, blood spilling like molten crystal. She flinched, raising her hands to strengthen the dome around him. "You will not fall. I will not let you fall," she whispered fiercely.
Every so often, his eyes flickered open in the midst of his struggle, catching glimpses of her standing guard. Each time, Seraphina felt her heart race uncontrollably. In that fiery gaze, even through pain, she saw determination. She saw trust. She saw... love.
She turned her face away quickly, pressing her fingers to her lips, her cheeks burning. "Why now... why in the middle of everything... must I feel this way?"
Time passed differently on the highest branch. Moments stretched into eternities. His aura roared, then calmed, then roared again. Each wave of power threatened to crush everything around him, yet Seraphina held firm.
Finally, after what felt like days but could have been minutes, the chains in his inner vision began to shatter one by one.
"Crack, Crack, Crack!"
With each break, his soul and inner world expanded. His law comprehension increased rapidly, strengthening his body into something greater. Something indestructible.
His God Body was forged.
Very soon, his god body stabilized, his wounds knitting into radiant scars of divinity.
Then, at last, the final chain broke.
"BOOOOOM!"
A burst of light erupted from Igaris, shooting across the skies of the Spirit Realm. Every beast, every spirit, every elder felt it. The Eternal Tree shook, shedding countless leaves that rained down like stars.
Igaris opened his eyes. They no longer glowed with mere power. They burned with the authority of a God.