Deep within the desert of Buserite, a majestic and magnificent ancient city reappeared under a long-standing mysterious power. Above the sky of this ancient city from thousands of years ago, two extremely high-level and profound powers of this world were clashing at this very moment.
Under the thick, rolling thunderclouds, Yunina, flying in the air, looked at the familiar yet strange figure in the mirror of flowing water before her. Her eyes widened involuntarily, and an expression of disbelief appeared in her pupils.
"You... what did you do?! How could you... how could you turn my noble form... into... into this disgusting and blasphemous appearance!" In a trembling voice, Yunina stretched out her shaking hands, touching her wide-eyed face, and grabbing her luxurious and solemn robe, the strong force seemingly wanting to tear it completely apart.
After seeing her appearance in the water mirror, Yunina seemed extremely agitated.
"It seems... you're not satisfied with this appearance? Why? Isn't this also you... Four hundred years ago, you looked exactly like this... Do you perhaps want to deny it?"
Suspended in the distance before Yunina, Dorothy, who had transformed into the Judge of Heaven, looked at Yunina before her, murmuring silently. Her eyes behind the mask stared coldly at her body.
"Stop talking nonsense! Quickly undo this boring trick of yours!!"
Listening to Dorothy's words, which seemed to carry a hint of mockery, Yunina said furiously. Then, with a wave of her hand, she tried to summon Blood Snakes to strangle Dorothy, but after she finished waving, nothing appeared. The Blood Snakes she had casually created earlier seemed to have completely vanished without a trace.
"What..."
Seeing this scene, Yunina looked at her hand with considerable surprise, while Dorothy on the other side spoke softly.
"In this state, favored by the Cup Mother, you seem to have been transformed into a pure path where the "Cup" is supreme, thus able to perfectly guide and apply the Cup Mother's power... But four hundred years ago, you weren't like this, were you? At that time, it seems it would have been somewhat difficult for you to use your current power..."
Looking at Yunina, who couldn't unleash her abilities, Dorothy said slowly. Then, with a casual wave of her hand, she summoned a thick bolt of lightning from the sky and struck Yunina.
Amidst a rumbling peal of thunder, a thick flash of lightning struck down from the clouds in the sky, directly hitting Yunina.
Before this, Dorothy had directly hit Yunina with lightning attacks multiple times, but the wolf mouths that grew on Yunina's body had directly devoured the lightning, so the effect of the electric shock was almost nil. No matter how strong the current created was, when it hit Yunina, let alone damage, it couldn't even cause stiffness; it was almost useless.
However, the situation was different now. When Dorothy's lightning struck Yunina, she immediately let out a scream. Her clothes were directly scorched, and her skin was charred by the electricity. She couldn't help but tremble continuously in spasms.
Next, Dorothy continued her relentless barrage, continuously summoning lightning to strike Yunina. As a result, Yunina was repeatedly sent flying under the powerful lightning strikes, and while letting out waves of miserable screams, her limbs were shattered!
At this moment, Yunina's state had been regressed to four hundred years ago, when she was still one of the Seven Saints of Holy Mountain. She had completely lost the power of the Golden "Cup" under the previous divine blessing, making it difficult to resist Dorothy's enhanced lightning. She could only be repeatedly hit and sent flying in the sky like a ball.
"History Overwrite" is the ability currently held by Dorothy, who possesses the divinity of the Judge of Heaven. Dorothy can regress the history of a certain... or a certain thing, overwriting the current state with the state from a certain historical stage in the past, covering the reality. The current Yunina has been regressed by Dorothy to her state four hundred years ago; at that time, she was far from as powerful as she is now.
Although the ability of History Overwrite is very powerful, it also has some limitations. Firstly, if the regressed entity itself resists, the longer the time regressed, the more difficult it becomes. Secondly, this regression ability requires the user to know the history of the target; if their history cannot be known, the effectiveness of the ability will be greatly reduced.
Finally, if the person on whom the ability is cast has been involved with powerful legal principles in their history, the effectiveness of the regression will be easier. Thus, powerful legal principles can be used as an anchor to forcefully pull the regressed person back to the past. Conversely, if the regressed person's past did not involve any powerful legal principles and they were an unknown solitary individual, the difficulty of regression will also increase accordingly.
The length of time regressed, the degree of historical knowledge, the strength of historical legal principles, and the strength of one's own divine power – these four points determine the strength of the History Overwrite ability. Besides divinity, which is necessary, the other three conditions do not necessarily all have to be met; the more that are met, the better. The more conditions are met and the more fully they are satisfied, the stronger the effect after the ability is used.
Yunina is roughly four to five hundred years old so far. This age is quite high for ordinary people, but it is still too young for Extraordinary above the Scarlet. Her time as a Saint of Holy Mountain was only four hundred years ago from the present. If she wants to regress history, she only needs to go back four hundred years. This level of historical regression is not long for the divine ability of the Judge of Heaven.
Furthermore, regarding Yunina's history, Dorothy knows it. First, Dorothy has read Yunina's secret transmission. Awei also knows what state Yunina was in four hundred years ago. The last point is the issue of legal principles; there's even less need to mention this. The Church's legal principles are definitely the strongest legal principles of this era. Yunina, who once served as a Saint of the Church, had too great a connection with the Church's legal principles. Dorothy can easily use the Church's legal principles as an anchor to pull Yunina back to the past.
Upon closer inspection, Dorothy's ability to overwrite history had an almost perfect effect when used on Yunina. As a result, after the entire ability was applied, Yunina directly reverted to her state during her time as a Saint. Her strength plummeted significantly, making her completely no match for Dorothy, who was currently empowered by the divinity of the Judge of Heaven and the legacy of Viagetta.
Amidst the continuous roars in the sky, Yunina's body was struck by one bolt of lightning after another. Her charred body continuously disintegrated, and under the continuous strikes, she could barely even fight back. But even so, she still didn't die; the powerful regeneration ability from within her body was still maintaining her vitality.
In a brief gap between lightning strikes, Yunina found an opportunity and unleashed her Path of Redemption ability towards Dorothy, intending to detonate all the subtle damage within Dorothy's body and kill her directly.
Yunina's ability successfully took effect. Within Dorothy's body, various cellular-level problems, which everyone has but are usually minor, began to deteriorate drastically. Various microorganisms and bacteria started to grow rapidly, the immune system attacked normal cells as if gone mad, and various cancer cells also instantly proliferated rapidly in the frenzy.
Under the attack of various lesions within her body, Dorothy's whole body began to go wrong. Blood even started to seep out massively from her skin. This blood emerged from inside her, permeated her robe, and flowed out in large quantities. She might die instantly.
However, just as Dorothy was about to truly die, a faint purple light suddenly flashed around her body. Immediately after, her entire being instantly returned to normal. The bleeding stopped, and all the various cells... and the immune system inside her body also returned to normal. The rapidly proliferating cancer cells also completely vanished. Feeling the opponent's instant recovery, Yunina, whose half-face was shattered, couldn't help but widen her eyes.
"What... this kind of recovery..."
Yunina hadn't expected that Dorothy's "enlightenment" recovery ability would be so powerful, healing herself of so much damage instantly. Moreover, these injuries were all extremely difficult to diagnose and treat, such as malicious cell proliferation. This wasn't something that just any healing ability could cure. Forcing healing energy into such damage would only have negative effects.
In fact, what Dorothy had just done wasn't healing at all, but still overwriting. Dorothy overwrote her injured self with the history of her undamaged state from a few seconds ago, restoring her injuries through regression, thus instantly healing herself. Because the principle of this healing is similar to loading a backup save, Dorothy didn't need to consider how to perform the healing at all.
After neutralizing Yunina's counterattack, Dorothy intensified her attack on Yunina. After another bolt of lightning sent Yunina flying, she quickly pointed her fingertip at the opponent and emitted an incredibly dazzling electric arc from it, directly hitting Yunina.
This time, the electric arc directly emitted by Dorothy didn't disappear in a flash, but continued to be maintained. The electric arc from Dorothy's fingertip flickered continuously, keeping Yunina in a state of being electrocuted and roasted, constantly letting out screams under the dazzling light. This wasn't over yet; Dorothy then summoned hundreds and thousands of lightning bolts from the sky to fall one after another, fiercely striking Yunina's body. For a time, the roars between heaven and earth became even louder, and flashes of light erupted everywhere.
Dorothy continuously output power, wanting to completely annihilate Yunina with divine lightning under numerous blessings. Yunina trembled and convulsed under the continuous shroud of electric light, her outer skin constantly turning into charred fragments.
Under this continuous destruction amplified by divine power, even the current Yunina, being a Golden Tier Saint, wouldn't be able to last long. But Yunina stubbornly held on. Amidst the endless electric light, her body continuously disintegrated and then continuously regenerated. In terms of total mass, Yunina's body had already been completely annihilated countless times, but this still didn't cause her to turn completely to dust. Her body continued to shatter and regenerate within the electric light.
Although Dorothy regressed Yunina's history to a state where she didn't have divine power, the divine connection wasn't so easily severed. In the current state, although Dorothy's ability could affect Yunina, it wasn't enough to affect the Cup Mother herself. Therefore, Dorothy couldn't completely cut off the Cup Mother's divine supply to Yunina.
The current Yunina has only lost the qualification to be a divine container and can no longer freely use divine power. This doesn't mean she has completely lost the Cup Mother's divinity, nor does it mean the Cup Mother's divinity is ineffective within her body. To be able to survive under this level of thunderous storm, Yunina is still relying on the Cup Mother's divinity to sustain her life. No matter what she becomes, as long as the Cup Mother's divinity remains, she will absolutely not die.
"Ugh ah ah ah... In... Interesting... This lightning... This ability... Is very strong... Worthy of being... The power that dominated the First Dynasty...
"However... this still cannot kill me... Mother's milk is still... still nourishing me... Sucking this blessed milk... I shall be immortal..."
Amidst the continuously roaring and flashing lightning, Yunina's intermittent words, filled with obvious pain, echoed continuously in the space. Listening to these words, Dorothy spoke with a serious expression.
"Do you think you can keep holding on like this?"
"Then... why not...? Mother's great power is endless... Why can't it... continue forever... As long as I don't give up, I can always remain immortal..."
"Mother's great power is boundless... She gives birth to worlds... Her power is even vaster than the seas and stars... As for you... an antique from who knows how many thousands of years ago... Your God... has long since fallen... What you can rely on now... is just a wisp of His residue... How long can you maintain yourself with this wisp of residue?
"While you... still have the ability... escape as soon as possible. As long as you hand over this holy land, hand over that little Sister you're protecting, and Awei, I won't bother you and will let you leave..."
Yunina's response continued to resound in the space. Although her tone was intermittent and contained pain, it actually carried a hint of mockery.
Yunina could feel that although the opponent seemed capable of manipulating history or time, this ability was far from being able to influence divinity itself. In other words, the time ability used by the opponent could not affect the divinity that generated this ability itself. This meant that the opponent's power was not infinite, and the ability released by the opponent relying on divinity could not last forever.
Facing Yunina's mocking words, Dorothy paused slightly, then let out a light laugh and spoke.
"Heh... quite a big tone. You're so certain... that the Cup Mother's favor will always be upon you?"
"Otherwise... Perhaps... you think... you understand Mother's love for me better than I do?"
Yunina continued speaking, while Dorothy responded.
"'Love' or whatever... I'm not quite sure, but my understanding of the Cup Mother is probably a bit more than you imagine.
"I'm sure the Cup Mother loves you very much, otherwise she wouldn't have worked so hard, tearing through such powerful layers of restrictions, painstakingly sending the 'lotion' to you. This 'lotion' wasn't just fed directly into your mouth for no reason... The Cup Mother must have put in a lot of effort to bestow this grace upon you."
With a hint of playful expression, Dorothy said directly to Yunina. After listening to Dorothy's words, Yunina couldn't help but be startled, then she spoke with a serious tone.
"You... what do you know!?"
"Me? Although you always said I was an old antique before, I'm not the kind of recluse who is completely out of touch with the world. I know far more than you imagine... Always overly attached to her mother, 'daughter' yo..." Dorothy said calmly, and what she got in return was a moment of silence from Yunina. Seeing that Yunina didn't reply immediately, Dorothy looked up at the constantly thundering sky and continued speaking slowly.
"I can see... the Scarlet Cup Mother is deep within the other side of the world, restricted by powerful constraints, sealed, and imprisoned in a 'cage'. The lotion she sent to support you is her utmost effort to break through the restrictions, tear open the cage, and send it to you through a crack in the wall..."
Dorothy continued to speak slowly. Listening to her words, Yunina's silence deepened for a moment. After a long pause, she spoke in a strange tone.
"What... what did you see?"
"I saw the Scarlet Cup, in its frenzy, impacting the restrictions surrounding It, trying its best to send you the lotion. I also saw the firm counterattack of the restrictions that are holding Her captive against this action of Hers.
"Your mother is currently a kind of 'prisoner', and at the same time, there is a force acting as a 'jailer' watching over the 'prisoner'. The Cup Mother's act of feeding you milk is, to some extent, 'breaking out of prison'. The restrictions, acting as the 'jailer', are fully restraining Her, and now, they seem to be slowly gaining the upper hand..."
Still with a playful tone, Dorothy said to Yunina. After hearing Dorothy's words, Yunina paused slightly, then said somewhat through gritted teeth.
"What... what do you mean by saying all this!"
"I don't mean anything else... I just wanted to mention that although the Divine Master has fallen, your Scarlet Cup Mother is far from being in a state where She can exert Her full power. After the Divine Master fell, at least he left me with true independent divinity. The power of this divinity now belongs to me.
"But you are different, Sister Yunina. You yourself do not possess divinity. Your divinity comes entirely from the Cup Mother, and now, She is also giving you the power of divinity flowing out by breaking through restrictions. While I cannot use the Divine Master's divinity infinitely in a short time, can the Cup Mother maintain this state of breaking through restrictions infinitely?"
Dorothy continued to speak earnestly to Yunina. Although both possessed divinity, Dorothy and Yunina's situations were different at this moment. Dorothy's divinity was a part of the Judge of Heaven's complete divinity directly separated as independent divinity. Yunina, on the other hand, simply obtained the power of divinity from the Cup Mother. Strictly speaking, Yunina herself did not actually possess divinity.
If divinity were analogous to Spirituality, Dorothy's divinity here was like her 'enlightenment' main Spirituality; it had a fixed upper limit, could recover a certain amount each day, and could slowly recover after being used up. Yunina herself did not have this; all her divinity came from outside and she did not hold any herself.
And now, while Dorothy's divinity carried the risk of being used up in a short time, Yunina's divinity also carried the risk of an unstable external supply channel.
"You... are questioning Mother's power..."
In a low voice, Yunina said to Dorothy, and Dorothy continued to reply calmly.
"No, I don't doubt the Cup Mother's power. I am merely stating the facts... As for whether these facts are true, I think you know better than I do. I don't think anyone can feel the fluctuations of the bestowed divine power more clearly than you can..."
"Even if you are right... then... what?"
"What? Since the restriction limiting the Cup Mother is currently in a strengthening phase, it means that the channel through which the Cup Mother bestows divinity will eventually be interrupted. Therefore, what you said about being indestructible is completely unfounded; you are not qualified to threaten me to do anything." Dorothy said directly and seriously. Listening to Dorothy's words, Yunina fell silent again. If Dorothy could see Yunina's expression at that moment, she would surely find it extremely unpleasant.
Seeing Yunina's silence, Dorothy did not stop but continued to speak further.
"So... now you want to try and see whose divinity can last longer between you and me, whether it's this part of the Divine Master's legacy that I have, or that part of your Cup Mother's grace. Of course, the outcome of losing the bet is tragic. Neither of us can win this duel without the blessing of divinity. It's just that I, who have the advantage now... have a little bit of redundancy..."
Dorothy continued to speak seriously to Yunina. Although both sides were in a losing situation without divinity, Dorothy actually had a slight advantage. With the multifaceted blessings of historical information and legal support, Dorothy's historical overwrite on Yunina was very perfect.
Under this perfect historical overwrite, Dorothy completely suppressed Yunina in the lightning cage. Under the continuous bombardment of endless divine lightning, once Yunina lost the protection of divinity, she would instantly die, with no room for error whatsoever.
In contrast, Dorothy's situation was different. In her advantageous state, even if she lost divinity first, she could use her previous advantage to gain some maneuvering space and attempt to escape. In Yunina's eyes, Dorothy at this moment was an ancient Golden, and this was still her territory. Speaking of fault tolerance, Dorothy was definitely much higher than her.
Another more important point was that Dorothy's divinity was her own, so she knew exactly how long it could last and could easily plan her subsequent actions. Even if she judged that she couldn't hold on, she could save the last bit of divinity and escape in advance. However, Yunina's situation was different. How long her divinity could last depended entirely on the confrontation between the Cup Mother and the restrictions imprisoning Her, and exactly when those restrictions could completely block the Cup Mother's interference with the current world.
And this kind of problem was extremely metaphysical for Yunina. The outcome of the struggle between those two forces was completely unknowable to Yunina. In this situation where the specific outcome was unknowable, Yunina had far fewer strategic choices compared to Dorothy.
After careful consideration, Yunina realized that while Dorothy said she was gambling, in reality, she was the only one gambling... Dorothy could completely stand in an invincible position...
The enemy's advantage in the current situation, plus the uncertainty of the Cup Mother's divinity supply, these factors combined made Yunina realize that the situation was not very favorable for her side. In addition, this was the enemy's holy land, and due to the holy land's suppression, she couldn't unleash large-scale power to perform operations like spreading flesh and blood land.
In fact, after witnessing the power Dorothy displayed, Yunina no longer had the intention of completely defeating her and seizing her divinity. She had just wanted to intimidate Dorothy, forcing her to yield Vanya and Awei, and abandon this holy land located in North Wu, which was threatening the Placenta forces in South Wu. Otherwise, this trip would be a waste. But given the current situation, not only could this intimidation not be achieved, but she might even be in danger herself.
Finally, Yunina made a decision in the lightning. After a light laugh, she spoke.
"Heh, remnants of 'enlightenment'... This time, you win, but don't be complacent. Ancient beings who have lost the favor of the gods, merely relying on a little spark of legacy, cannot make waves in this era...
"This time you sheltered those two Lights, I tolerated it, but I must also warn you not to interfere with the great cause of us Scarlet followers in the future. The tide we are raising under the gaze of the great Mother will irresistibly engulf this world.
"No matter how high Light rises, it will eventually be drowned by the blood tide. As the remnants of a bygone era, you cannot change any of this. Either hide well in a corner and don't come out, or choose the right direction..."
Yunina murmured softly in the lightning. After her final words fell, her body in the lightning seemed to lose the support of regenerative power and instantly vanished into gray smoke.
After this, a violent impact erupted from the lightning, directly dispersing the lightning that Dorothy had continuously maintained and rushing in all directions. Dorothy turned into electric light and retreated a great distance to avoid the impact before she could finally stop.
After that impact, a red halo suddenly contracted sharply, and after a spatial distortion, it disappeared into nothingness. Immediately afterwards, the entire world returned to silence, Yunina's figure completely vanished, and Dorothy could no longer perceive Yunina's presence in the holy land of Heopolis.
This was Yunina using the power of the Cup Mother to escape into the inner world. This escape directly broke free from the restrictions of Heopolis, seeming as if Yunina had performed some kind of "return" to the Cup Mother, and the Cup Mother had taken her away.
However, this return also consumed all the divinity that Yunina had remaining in this area. Even the divinity she had originally used to erode the false history and remained within it was completely consumed without a trace. Without residual divinity, it meant that Yunina could not return here directly in a short time, just like the situation when Yunina faced the Four Pharaohs, where her body was completely destroyed and reborn, could no longer happen.
"Phew... She's finally gone..."
Looking at the situation before her, Dorothy sighed slightly and said that her initial goal was not to kill Yunina, but to drive her away. Yunina's divinity supply was unstable and gradually weakening, and her own situation was not much better.
What limited Dorothy's use of power was actually not the Judge of Heaven's divinity, but the final buff that Viarjeta gave Dorothy. Dorothy was, after all, a Crimson Tier, and could not actively exert the power of the Judge of Heaven's divinity to this extent as she was doing now. This was the result of Viarjeta's dying buff briefly boosting Dorothy's adaptation to divinity to that of a Golden.
The duration of Viarjeta's buff was actually much shorter than the usage time of the Judge of Heaven's divinity. Therefore, Dorothy couldn't last much longer either. If Yunina could be as impulsive and reckless as the Fearful Demonic Wolf, stubbornly fighting Dorothy head-on, Dorothy might not necessarily win. The reason Yunina thought she couldn't beat Dorothy was largely because Yunina treated Dorothy as a normal Golden who possessed divinity.
Just like the other four Pharaohs, Yunina directly regarded Dorothy as an old monster from the First Dynasty who had survived from seven thousand years ago, just using some method to avoid becoming an undead.
Of course, seeing the holy land capital of the First Dynasty suddenly reappear, and then seeing a person who was the same model as those Pharaohs, even higher-grade, coming out of the holy land and using the mysterious 'enlightenment' divine power, it was hard for Yunina not to mistake her. She directly regarded Dorothy as a Golden old monster.
In that situation just now, if Dorothy hadn't been able to mislead Yunina into retreating on her own, Dorothy would have had to drag her into the depths of the false history to see if adding another layer of false history isolation could cause the Cup Mother's fragile divinity supply channel to be cut off due to excessive restrictions and isolation. Of course... the success of this backup plan was extremely questionable.
"Finally... gone far away?"
On the streets of the holy city, a quiet, elegant beauty dressed in a luxurious robe slowly opened her eyes and looked at the high sky where the battle had subsided.
'The successor chosen by the Divine Master seems to be a very interesting person...'
Looking at the only figure left in the sky, Shepsuna thought to herself. The important information Dorothy used to formulate her combat plan, regarding the state of the Cup Mother and the fluctuations in the divinity supply, was discovered by Shepsuna. Dorothy gave her a little bit of precious divine power to restore her to her former state precisely to use her power to spy on the enemy's weakness.
"The evil cup mother goddess is trying to break free from her cage? It seems that the great changes of this epoch are about to arrive..."