Taka's strength was only at the second step, and this was even with the help of mana. But the domain helped to elevate her power to the fourth step instantly.
This caused her strength to soar from 5E to 2C. Her strength increased by nearly ten thousand times in a short amount of time. This was a remarkable increase in power, but it was not free of consequences.
The main price that she has to pay is that her life and power are now tied to the domain. If the domain becomes stronger, so will she. But if the domain is destroyed, she will also lose her life.
This cost is the main reason why Sword Flash chose an indigene of the world of Aries for the empowerment. Now that her life has been bound to the domain, she will have to do her best to ensure that the domain doesn't fall.
The second reason Sword Flash chose an indigene of Aries to become the Snow King was to encourage the indigenous people fighting on their side and prove that they were speaking the truth when they said that people would be able to advance to the fourth step in the future.
Never in the past had there ever been two Sovereigns at a time. The fact that there was a Sun King and a Snow King at the same time showed that the promises of the Blood Skull sect were likely to be true.
The fact that a new Snow King had appeared also encouraged the Tundra people to rally to support the Snow King, which in turn led to the Tundra people supporting the Blood Skull army. This was the reason why Sword Flash chose to elevate a Tundra, not a Vulcan.
The domain can elevate more than one person into the fourth step of ascension at a time. The stronger the domain becomes, the more people it can elevate. This is because the Ethera tree is stronger than the world spirit of Aries.
This time, Sword Flash to elevate a Tundra. But Sword Flash plans to elevate a Vulcan next so that the new Sun King would cause the Vulcan race to fracture and become indecisive about who to support.
As for the second price that Taka has to pay for this great power, it is that she can't leave the domain without the world spirit trying to kill her.
This won't be much of a problem if the domain eventually covers the whole world of Aries, and the world spirit is killed. But until then, Taka will be limited to the domain so that the world spirit won't try to kill her for her betrayal.
This change in the domain and the creation of a new Snow King clearly isn't cheap. But Taka is not the only one who has to pay a price. The world spirit has to pay a price, too.
The price that the world spirit paid was that it weakened. This weakening also led to the weakening of the Sun King, who was hiding at the South Pole.
This weakening is why the world spirit is so angry with Taka and will stop at nothing to kill her. Not that killing Taka will help. If Taka dies, the domain can just pick another person to elevate, and business will continue as usual.
This series of changes turned the tide of the war in favor of the Blood Skull army. The disease that they let loose broke the morale of their enemies, while the appearance of the Snow Kong increased the morale of their allies.
The disease killed many enemies and caused many of them that were still alive to give up. All of these, combined with the absence of the Sun King, reduced the resistance of the rebels.
The army of the rebels had fallen apart quickly. This wouldn't have happened had the Sun King stayed to support his people. At the very least, his presence would have stabilized the morale of his people and slowed down the collapse of the resistance.
The situation of the resistance was the opposite of that of the old nobles. The presence of the Snow King elevated the standing of the Tundra people as a whole.
According to tradition, every Tundra person was to obey the Snow King unconditionally. The Snow King called for the Tundra race to fight for her, so some of the Tundra people who didn't like what the Blood Skull sect had to come over to support them.
As the rebels fell in strength, the old nobles rose in power. All of these translated to a faster speed of expansion of the domain of the Ethera tree.
At the rate at which events were progressing, if nothing changed, the rebels and the new nobles were going to lose the war, and the world spirit was going to be killed. But the downfall of the resistance was stopped when the gem people's reinforcement arrived.
A month had passed since the Blood Skull army arrived in this world and killed the red and green gem kings. The reinforcements of the gem people to replace the two strongest gem kings that they lost finally arrived.
Five gem peak gem kings with power at 99C arrived ready to do battle. Their presence filled the Sun King with confidence. He finally stepped out of his hideout to join the fight.
The Sun King had been healed of his injuries more than a week ago. But he didn't dare to step out of the South Pole because he had lost 5% of his power when the domain covered 10% of the world.
His strength fell from 100C to 95C. This tiny reduction in his strength felt like a permanent injury to him. No matter what he did, he couldn't recover his full strength.
This permanent injury immediately reduced his confidence because he was sure that his enemies wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of his weakness. But now that reinforcement had arrived, he felt that it was time for him to appear and fight.