Chapter 807: 807

The transition of power was as poetic as it was grotesque. Proud kings were forced to watch from their balconies as their elite legions were transformed into macabre displays, entire regiments became silent gardens of blooming flowers, while others melted away like flickering candles or dissolved into decorative fountains of water.

The cruelty of these new Sixth-tier beings did not stop at the palace gates. Driven by a paranoid hunger to preserve their supremacy, they moved to eliminate any potential rivals. They systematically hunted down every peak Fifth-tier existence, those who had refused to kneel or had remained loyal to the old regimes, snuffing out the next generation of potential ascendants before they could pose a threat.

In a final stroke of irony, the conquerors never actually sat upon the thrones they had seized. To them, the act of governing mortals, of listening to the mundane pleas of the "common" folk, was a task beneath their dignity. Instead, they installed their own family members or favorites as puppet rulers to handle the tedious labor of the state.

The true masters retreated into their own private domains, sanctuaries of refined power where they could observe their kingdoms from a distance. In that detached, silent vigil, watching the world move at their unspoken whim, they finally tasted what they had always craved. For the first time, they didn’t just feel powerful, they felt like gods.

The Origin Gods, in their omnipresence, watched every shifting shadow of the mortal realm. Yet, for all their new-found arrogance, the Sixth-tier beings were acutely aware of the celestial eyes upon them. They acted with a calculated restraint, moving within the silent boundaries set by the cosmos, careful never to overstep into true sacrilege.

Their purges and transformations, while cruel, did not threaten the fundamental stability of the world, nor did they infringe upon the divine laws of the Pantheon. Most importantly, they were meticulously careful to spare any mortals who bore the mark of divine favor or sincere worship. They offered no insults to the temples and shed no blood of the faithful, ensuring that no deity would find a legalistic excuse to descend and strike them down.

However, while most mortal kingdoms crumbled into puppet states, a rare few did not just survive, they thrived. In these select regions, the arrival of the Sixth-tier did not signal a collapse, but an evolution.

These were the pre-existing superpowers of their respective continents, nations that had already held the world’s respect long before the ascension. Even as the global hierarchy was rewritten in blood and law, these bastions of power held their ground. Rather than being dismantled by the new Tiers, they integrated them, maintaining their positions at the apex of the world.

The smaller territories surrounding these superpowers remained strangely stable, spared from the chaotic coups seen elsewhere. This wasn’t due to any lingering loyalty, but rather the crushing pressure exerted by the top kingdoms. While most nations struggled to produce a single Sixth-tier existence, these titans boasted at least three apiece. In the cold mathematics of power, even the most arrogant new "high being" understood that a three-to-one confrontation was not a battle, but an execution.

Yet, this stability was a facade that masked a frantic internal struggle. Within the halls of the top kingdoms, the hierarchy was being rewritten in real-time. Many of these newly ascended beings had previously held no title or real political standing, now their mere presence demanded a seat at the highest table.

The shifts were seismic. Former ministers and decorated generals, men who had spent decades climbing the ladder of bureaucracy watched in silent, bitter fury as their positions and statuses were handed over to those who now wielded the Laws of the world. No one dared to protest, to speak against a Sixth-tier being was to invite a reality-warping end.

Governance became a waking nightmare for the old ruling class. Every day was spent in a grueling, unending court session where laws were scrapped and registries were frantically rewritten. The kings of these great nations realized, with growing dread, the impossibility of leading a country where the scepter of absolute power was no longer held by a single hand, but divided among several entities who were effectively walking natural disasters.

While the human kingdoms buckled under the weight of their new "Paragons," the Godlings faced no such crisis. Their bloodlines and divine origins had already prepared them for this shift, in fact, eac Godlings race claimed the vast majority of the Sixth-tier beings currently walking the world.

For them, there was no bloody transition or shattered hierarchy. The five leaders of the godling races, for instance, ascended to the Sixth-tier in unison, their authority remaining as absolute as it had been for centuries. Their positions not at risk at being stolen instead they were simply reinforced by the Laws they now commanded.

The Vampires, held the fewest, with only four paragons among their ranks. The Apelings dominated the hierarchy with a staggering eight paragons. While the others held five each.

This numerical advantage of the apelings was no accident. It was the direct result of the Cursed Apeling Clans. Even at the Sixth stage, their specialized physiques provided a terrifying advantage, a cursed body that maximized a soul’s affinity for a specific element acted as a perfect vessel for their said laws.

Of the eight Apelings paragons, five hailed from the four Cursed Clans, while the remaining three represented the pinnacle of the Apeling Academy.

While the human kings scrambled to maintain a semblance of order through ink and parchment, the leaders of the Godling races were on a plane where physical distance had become an obsolete concept. To them, communication required no medium any longer.

With a casual flex of their newfound domain, the six leaders tore fragments from their personal domains and stitched them together, weaving a patchwork pocket dimension for their summit.

The atmosphere of this localized reality shifted violently from one seat to the next, reflecting the internal domain and law of each ruler.

Zephyr sat suspended upon a throne of condensed cloud, the air around him a perpetual, gentle vortex of mountain winds.

Kael sat crossed legs with wings spread apart within a terrifyingly sterile void of pure whiteness, a space devoid of shadow or distraction.

Wulv reclined beneath a localized night sky littered with starlight, a specific constellation pulsing directly above him. Drowz remained anchored amidst a chaotic sea storm, where dark waves crashed against unseen barriers and lightning brewed perpetually over his head.

Raina was enveloped in a sphere of deep, suspended water and swaying reeds. From her domain drifted a sweet melody, a sound that forced the others to strain their ears to listen, yet remained perpetually out of reach, teased but never fully heard.

Ethan sat at the center of a jagged landscape of blood-red crystals, his form resting upon a throne carved from a single, translucent crimson gem.

A lot has changed since they last spoke to each other, now they stood now upon a higher precipice, their perspectives warped by the vastness of the Law they commanded.

Ethan was the first to break the silence. Of all the sovereigns gathered, his throne was the most precarious. The Vampires had always been a race defined by a predatory hierarchy, and Ethan had carved his path to the top through a legendary display of cruelty and bloodshed. Back then, the power gap between him and the heads of the other Great Clans had been great. Now, that canyon has vanished. Three other Vampires stood as his equals in Tier, their eyes tracking his every move with old, rekindled grudges and hunger.

He knew the history of his race all too well, vampiric loyalty lasted only as long as the fear of the master’s blade. With Roth’s singular, obsessive determination to ascend to true godhood, Ethan knew his crown was little more than a target.

"Zephyr, you claim to have an answer," Ethan said. His voice, usually cold and dead, carried an edge of desperation that he couldn’t quite shave off. "Let’s hear it."

Zephyr, the Apeling leader, had always carried himself with a certain mischievous air, a smirk that suggested he was constantly three steps ahead of a joke only he understood. He was the type of man who would set your house on fire just to see what color the flames were. Something he may or may not have done.

But as Ethan’s words echoed through the space, that playful glint vanished. The winds around his cloud-throne stilled into an eerie, suffocating calm.

Zephyr did not raise his voice, yet the winds carried his words with such precision that he seemed to be whispering directly into each leader’s ear, bridging the gaps between their disparate realities.

"I indeed may have an answer," he began, "But I cannot claim these thoughts as my own. I have merely refined a path that was already paved before I ever took my first breath."

He extended his hand, and a wooden, glowing book manifested from the swirling currents of his domain. The grain of the wood seemed to pulse with a faint, rhythmic light, as if the object itself were breathing.