"Not so eager to strangle me now, are ya?" Arnold had a smug look on his face.

With Abdiel around him, none of the roots was even able to get close to him now, forget about touching him. Arnold wasn't planning to use the guardian angel so soon as having Abdiel around him would cost him a tremendous amount of mana, but he was left with no choice. The roots were on him and had he hesitated for a mere moment before activating, he would have been dead by now.

"Talos, how long!?" Arnold roared over the comms.

"We're about done here!" Talos roared as with a loud explosion, the summons managed to uncover the heart of the tree, "Wait, it's done already, master! We have made a hole within the heart."

Everything was in place now. It was Arnold's turn to shine. He let go of the swords, leaving Abdiel in charge of defending him and took out a weapon he had, had for a while but never used till now. The Sniper rifle he had created to kill demigods and lesser gods was finally being put to some use.

However, now it was time for him to use it for a different purpose altogether. Since the weaker concentration of bullets from earlier worked on the roots, then the concentrated form of god slaying bullet would definitely be able to kill it.

However, there was a slight problem. The devastation a single bullet could cause is monumental. According to what Arnold learnt about the bullets previously, a single one of them had the explosive power equivalent to a hundred times the nuke that Devon used on him. So yeah... quite a destructive force.

Arnold was planning on using the sniper rifle once he was flying on top of Scylla. But summoning her out now wouldn't be a good idea with all the roots around. While he was able to survive the carnage of the roots thanks to Abdiel, she would definitely not. Thus, he had no other way but to take the shot while he was on the ground. Moreover, he would probably only get this one chance, if he screwed up now, the entire world would be doomed.

On the other hand, Arnold was thankful that the bullet would not create an unstoppable nuclear fission reaction, but a more controllable and concentrated nuclear fusion reaction. Thus, Arnold would have a bit of control over the explosion.

Another problem, as system sama informed him was... to maintain a safe distance from the explosion. If he was too close while firing the weapon, he would end up getting incinerated along with the tree and system sama had also warned him that not even the Sacred Protection would be able to protect him from such a devastating force.

Thankfully Arnold already had a plan to tackle that situation. he would press the trigger and leap into his domain without worrying about anything else. If he survived, he would be able to look at what happened afterwards. But first, his survival was necessary.

In the meantime, Abdiel was taking hit after hit and as a result, Arnold's mana was decreasing rapidly. His guardian won't hold out for longer, yet Arnold couldn't pay attention to all these useless problems. His eyes were only fixed on what he was going to do next.

[Remember. Press the trigger and jump back to your domain!]

Arnold had already emptied his mind. he didn't need anything else to distract him. And that included System sama as well. He had already helped Arnold enough, and now was the time to shut up. System sama took the hint and went silent.

"Everyone, step back. Run as far as you can!" Arnold yelled as he angled the Dragon Bone sniper rifle while lying on the ground, with his one eye focused on the prize while the other was closed, "Steady your breathing... sense the wind direction... no problems..."

-BANG!-

The moment he pressed the trigger, everything went slow motion. Arnold could see the bullet speed out of the sniper rifle as the rifle's barrel split open like a flower. The bullet made its way towards the small hole in the heart of the world tree, followed by a fiery trail. Then he felt a similar sensation once again... the one he had felt in the swamps all those years ago. 

Abdiel's ultimate defence finally gave in to the reckless bashing of the roots. But surprisingly, they didn't attack Arnold anymore and stood still, as if they knew it was the end of them. The bright sky turned dark crimson as the clouds started swirling around like a tornado accompanied by thunderous sounds as if heaven itself was falling down.

Arnold had never imagined what the world's end would look like but now he knew for sure... if it would ever happen, the sight would be something similar to what he was witnessing now. It all seemed to happen over a duration of minutes, however, not even a second had passed since Arnold took the shot.

[WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GET INSIDE YOUR DOMAIN NOW!]

Arnold didn't waste another moment romancing the beginning of the end anymore and slipped into the portal. As soon as the portal closed behind Arnold, numerous notifications popped up in front of him informing him about the summons he ended up destroying. There were a lot more than he had expected. Even a few of his elite summons ended up getting destroyed.

While Arnold was sitting in his domain, waiting for System sama to give him the green signal to explore the outside once again, he couldn't help but think about what-ifs. The biggest and most concerning one amongst them all was what if he failed? What would he do next? This was his final plan, he had no clues what he would do next.

A couple of hours passed on the outside when System sama told him to go outside. Arnold wore the protective suit and on top of it, he also increased the density of the mana shield around him as soon as his mana recovered. 

"Oh my god... it's still alive..." Arnold mumbled before clasping his fists together in rage.

It wasn't just that the core of the tree was still alive... the world tree was now in front of him. It was so huge, all Arnold could see was the trunk of the tree. Its branches were mixed with the blackened, thundering sky above.

It looked like what he was thinking to be the heart of the tree... was actually just a seed. And the explosion triggered its evolution to the next stage. However, the bullet seemed to have worked to some extent because at least the roots that were spreading like cancer had all withered away.

[The Immortal one is intently watching your next action.]

[The Arrogant one hopes you die here.]

[The Mischievous one agrees with the Arrogant one.]

[The One with pleasureful eyes wishes for your safety.]

[The Raging minotaur wishes you all the best for your future.]

"What is going on here?" Arnold mumbled as continuous notifications flashed above his eyes, "What's up with all these names?"

[Just seeing one of the names is enough... but to think all of the gods have their eyes on you...]

"What is going on?"

[The war of the worlds... has been started early.]