[Ash POV]
I didn’t wait for the Angel in front of me to realize what was happening. I wanted to take advantage of her surprise and shock at seeing a member of the Devil Race and kill her quietly before she could even react.
That was also the reason I used the Runic Energy of the Runes of Death, Space, and Harmony, intending to snuff the life out of the angel in a single strike.
If I were being honest with myself, I could probably kill a Peak God Rank being with relative ease. The only condition was that I would likely have to use the Runic Energy of all my Runes and fuse them together, just like what happened with Orien when he tried to use force against me.
Although my mana veins had disintegrated back then, I was certain something like that wouldn’t happen to me anymore.
What I wasn’t sure about... was the one who would have to face that attack.
There was also a chance that everything related to that person would simply cease to exist, even the Inner World they carried within themselves.
I didn’t have the slightest idea where the ceiling of the Runes’ power truly lay, but I was certain of one thing.
I couldn’t actually kill a Celestial.
Though... maybe I could injure one?
That certainly sounded like a possibility.
Thus, I appeared beside the Early God Rank Vice Commander and drove my devil hand straight through her heart. The Runic Energy didn’t take long to do its work before the light in her eyes faded away completely.
I immediately cut off the flow of Runic Energy because using it consumed far too much of the energy within my Inner Universe, although the results were more than worth the cost.
As soon as the Angel died, my consciousness delved into the area around her stomach and found a golden, radiant Inner World, nearly ten times larger than that of an ordinary person’s.
Cracks had already begun spreading across its surface.
Seeing that... I activated Runic Energy once more, but this time it was the energy of the Rune of Life.
Of course, it was a gamble.
If the energy of Life could keep the world from collapsing for even a few more seconds, then my task would be a success.
Otherwise, I would have to experiment with the energies of the other Runes I possessed.
Though... that would lead to a few more deaths before I reached a conclusion.
My perception remained fixed on the collapsing Inner World as the energy of Life reached it, slowly seeping through the cracks covering its surface and...
The cracks stopped spreading.
A bashful smile blossomed across my face as I immediately contacted Eva.
{That’s great. On my end, the skill is complete as well.}
A faint smile crossed my lips as I heard Eva’s reply. Everything had fallen perfectly into place.
Without wasting another moment, I raised my free hand and condensed a small sphere of ordinary Life Energy.
It looked almost identical to the Runic Energy of Life, radiating the same gentle emerald glow, but the two were fundamentally different.
Runic Life Energy was an existence on an entirely different level. It possessed overwhelming vitality and restorative power capable of interfering with the very laws governing life itself.
Ordinary Life Energy, on the other hand, was exactly what its name implied. It was the natural life force found throughout the universe, far weaker, yet perfectly stable.
For what I was about to do, stability was all I needed.
The emerald sphere hovered quietly above my palm, releasing a soft, rhythmic pulse like the heartbeat of a living being.
Once I confirmed everything was prepared, I finally activated my skill.
[Swap]
Space rippled without making the slightest sound.
The first activated.
The sphere of ordinary Life Energy vanished from above my palm and appeared inside the Angel’s collapsing Inner World, occupying the exact position where the Inner World had existed.
At the same time, a small spatial pocket containing the Angel’s Inner World appeared in my hands.
Almost at the same instant...
[Swap]
A second spatial ripple swept through the area.
This one was activated by Eva.
The two skills synchronized with near-perfect precision, leaving almost no interval between them.
The Angel’s Inner World disappeared from my hands.
At that exact moment, the Inner World within my grasp was replaced by the Dark Void Energy of my Inner Universe, seamlessly exchanging their positions.
Everything happened in less than a fraction of a second.
**
[Eva POV]
As soon as the spatial pocket containing the Inner World appeared inside Ash’s Inner Universe, the spatial pocket itself vanished entirely, and cracks immediately began spreading across the surface of the giant Divine World.
With a deafening explosion, the world burst apart into pure World Energy, which spread throughout every corner of his Inner Universe.
{The attempt was successful and I think the next part is fairly easy. You can start collecting more Worlds from both the Abyss and Heaven.}
After saying that, Eva focused solely on the World Energy that was now spreading in every direction, while the other clones got back to their work after the initial confirmation.
Under Eva’s control, the scattered World Energy suddenly began flowing in reverse, as though time itself had started rewinding. The countless streams gradually converged until a massive cloud of World Energy gathered into a single condensed spherical mass.
{Perfect.}
From the very beginning, stealing someone else’s Inner World was impossible.
After all, when a person awakens, a separate pocket space would appear within their body, a place where the Energy Core was located. That very same pocket space also housed the Inner World at later stages.
The pocket space wasn’t merely a storage space. It also acted as a natural barrier, preventing the Energy contained within the Inner World from dispersing.
However, the moment a person died, the Inner World would begin to crack.
As the cracks spread, the resulting instability eventually caused the surrounding pocket space to collapse as well.
Once the pocket space was destroyed, there was nothing left to contain the World Energy, allowing it to explode outward and disperse into the surroundings.
That was exactly why obtaining someone else’s Inner World had always been impossible.
Ash had delayed the collapse of the Inner World itself by using the Runic Energy of the Rune of Life.
During those precious few moments, he used to exchange the entire pocket space containing the Inner World before it could collapse.
Of course, the greatest credit for this operation belonged to Eva, who had created the skill for this extremely unique purpose. Without that skill, the entire plan would have been impossible.
The only downside of the skill was its energy consumption.
The amount of energy required to use it was so enormous that only a single clone could use it at any given time.
Fortunately, a complete recovery of the energy required only two seconds, making it an incredibly worthwhile trade-off.
Once someone’s Energy Core and Domain fused together to form an Inner World, all of the energy within the Energy Core would transformed into World Energy.
Of course, one could still use ordinary mana, but that mana was merely a diluted form of World Energy.
World Energy was what truly separated Demi-God Rank beings from God Rank beings.
In a sense, Runic Energy was even superior to World Energy.
However, Ash’s comprehension of the Runes was still insufficient to create an Inner World through that path alone.
There was another main reason behind this action of Ash and Eva.
The energy signature of Ash’s Inner Universe was fundamentally different from the energy signature of the World Energy that originated from a different universe.
That was precisely why he couldn’t directly absorb external World Energy to create a new Inner World.
Firstly, he didn’t possess an Energy Core. Secondly, even if he had one, an Inner World couldn’t be created without World Energy.
Both were indispensable.
Even now, the gathered World Energy remained chaotic. It couldn’t naturally merge with Ash’s Inner Universe because the two possessed completely different energy signatures.
If forced together without preparation, they would simply reject one another.
{Sending streams of the Runic Energy of the Rune of Harmony...}
That’s when the Runes came into play.
The Runic Energy of the Rune of Harmony would slowly alter the foreign World Energy, allowing it to gradually adapt to the energy signature of Ash’s Inner Universe without damaging either side.
The process wasn’t changing the energy itself, but harmonizing its signature until it was accepted as part of Ash’s Inner Universe.
Once the World Energy had completely adapted to Ash’s Inner Universe, it could then be safely used to create a brand-new Inner World.
As for the Energy Core, it could be obtained through a similar method.
Unlike an Inner World, if the Energy Core had not yet transformed into a world, changing its energy signature without causing it to collapse was something Eva could accomplish with relative ease, due to difference in power.
As the World Energy continued adapting, another spatial pocket suddenly appeared within the Inner Universe and...
Another explosion echoed as yet another Inner World shattered apart, releasing an enormous amount of World Energy into the surroundings.
Without wasting a moment, Eva gathered the newly released World Energy into another condensed sphere before fusing it with the previous mass, making the already enormous cluster of World Energy grow even larger.
{No abnormalities detected.}
{Using the chaotic World Energy to temper the body...}
**