Zeel awkwardly looked at Seth as he drank the blood from Ruri's severed head and then looked at the whisker he held between his fingers.

It was an awkward moment but Zeel still managed to react in time and store the whisker inside his Storage Dimension for later testing…

A normal person would have thrown the whisker away but Zeel's mind was far from 'normal'. Zeel didn't understand the concept of getting rid of a 'hot-potato'.

If the potato was too hot, then he would simply wait until the potato cooled down.

Of course, Zeel could only test the whisker in the very unlikely, highly improbable, almost impossible, scenario where he didn't die as the Time Shadow had demonstrated.

Zeel didn't even know why Seth didn't simply attack him until…

*plop*

Ruri's headless body dropped onto the ground, and like a signal of encroaching doom, Zeel instantly reacted and [Warped] a couple dozen miles away from Seth.

Zeel could feel something fundamentally wrong with the situation and it wasn't because of Seth doing something.

Still, as quickly as space bent and consumed Zeel's figure in a warp, Seth had just as quickly locked Zeel's spatial coordinates relative to his own.

Hence, when Zeel warped away, he brought everything within Seth's area along with him. It was almost as if Zeel had not changed location at all.

*crack*

Zeel heard a subtle crack and watched as the second bracelet on Ruri's right wrist shattered and her body disappeared from the battlefield like it was never there to begin with.

'Wait! It was never there!' Zeel realized, looking at Ruri's severed head that Seth was holding up like a trophy.

The illusion was blown away along with the winds as Seth realized what he was actually holding inside his hands.

It was no longer Ruri's head but an object that constantly beeped and gave out near-impossible levels of cosmic radiation.

The kind of cosmic radiation that was enough to kill Gods... maybe not Elder Gods but severely injuring an Elder God was also possible.

Zeel could sense the atoms within the object constantly shifting, colliding, and actually touching each other…

'The only places atoms behave that way is the sun,' Zeel thought and wondered if Ruri was truly so insane.

Zeel broke another self-imposed rule… only this time he had an amazing reason since Ruri had created an illusion that tricked Seth into activating a very unstable cosmic bomb.

The kind of bomb that was invented by an Ancient Civilization that was once enemies of The Homo-Superior Race.

It didn't take a genius for Zeel to figure out who the bomb would have initially been used on should Seth not have posed a greater threat at this time.

"[Dimensional Shift]" Zeel yelled, the void splitting apart and consuming him whole but it was a bit too late.

*BZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTT-BBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT-BBBBBZZZZZZZZZTTT*

*BZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTT-BBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT-BBBBBZZZZZZZZZTTT*

*BZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTT-BBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT-BBBBBZZZZZZZZZTTT*

Mid-shift, Zeel felt his left hand vaporized instantly but luckily, he was not pulled between Dimensions but directly into the nearest Dimension available.

[Dimensional Shift] was his most unstable ability so Zeel had no idea where he would have ended up if Ruri's Shadow Dimension wasn't so clearly distinguishable from other Dimensions.

"That was the wrong bomb," Ruri stated, looking at Zeel's missing hand with guilt on her face.

Of course, Ruri was not about to admit that she got that bomb specifically to kill Zeel should he have treated her unfairly when she was finally summoned.

Ironically, it was her Homo-Superior altered mind that urged her to have contingencies in case of outcomes of betrayal.

Zeel glanced around Ruri's Dimension and found that Alice, Elizabeth, Jenny, Nick, Ahmanet, and Himiko were also there.

Zeel figured that Ruri had pulled them into her Shadow Dimension Bead during his shared illusion with Seth.

"I would have brought you when I created the illusion but Seth had to think it was me," Ruri said nonchalantly, though she was anxious if Zeel would believe her.

After all, despite their 'Mate-Bond', Ruri knew that Zeel held the keys to her freedom at all times and she preferred not to be trapped inside the Shadow Dimension for all eternity.

"That is not enough to kill him… but it will weaken him by destroying a part of his Dimension," Zeel said a bit exhausted from the constant battling.

Zeel was a 1stStage God that was elevated to a 3rd Stage God by using his Ultra-Beyond Hybrid Rune.

If anything, Zeel's divinities were already strained so much that it would be surprising if he didn't die immediately after the battle was finished.

"We should head back there," Zeel said, not even resting his body a little.

Zeel knew that, given enough time, Seth could recover all the scars of battle received so far.

Even Zeel's vaporized hand was re-growing at a rapid pace so he could imagine Seth's recovery rate in a Dimension of his own.

"Why would we go back to a place where we are guaranteed to die?" Nick asked angrily as he pulled Jenny closer to his body.

Everyone could tell Jenny was in the processing of dying…

Ahmanet was too, now that she was also a mortal, but she was also a former servant of Seth so she was more accepting of the concept of Death.

No mortal could set foot into a Death Dimension without dying as a price. It was just one of those infallible rules of the Universe… or at least that's what they wanted Nick to think.

"I had three Pseudo-Dimensional Beads when this battle started and now I only have one remaining.

I shattered the first one to stop Seth's meteor attack and then I shattered the second one to cast an illusion strong enough to trick Seth.

Currently, we are in my third and last bead that hangs around my neck inside a necklace…

Should we remain here, The God of Death will eventually recover and come looking for us and the last of my power will be extinguished," Ruri explained to calm Nick down.

They didn't need The God of Death's Herald emitting an energy signature that could be tracked into this Pseudo-Dimension.

Ruri was also well aware of the pain of losing someone you love so she knew not to be too hard on Nick, especially with Jenny's deteriorating condition.

Zeel walked over to Ruri's side, making sure to avoid eye contact with Alice and the dying Elizabeth whose breathing was moments away from ceasing.

There was a time for love and a time for battle and Zeel knew that should he look at Alice right now, his resolve would falter and his death at Seth's hands would immediately follow.

'I need to activate all my Trump Cards immediately even if they're not ready yet,' Zeel thought, knowing that one of his Trump Cards could preserve Alice's life without an issue.

"Let's go!" Zeel commanded causing Ruri to flinch slightly since she had to follow all his orders if they were stated as 'commands' and not suggestions.

"[Exit]" Ruri whispered and everyone was pulled out of her Pseudo-Shadow-Dimension and sent back into Seth's Death Dimension…

Not that they had ever really left since Ruri's Shadow Dimension was just a bead around her Neck they used to ride out the Planet-Destroying Level explosion.

∞∞

Alice and Elizabeth Conversation

Alice and Elizabeth found themselves outside of Ruri's Dimension and back inside Seth's Dimension along with everyone else.

However, Alice only paid attention to Elizabeth and vice versa.

"I – I – I … a – am … d – dy – dy – dying," Elizabeth whispered painfully, using a combination of her voice, thoughts, and nanites recording function to speak.

Alice wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and crouched down to hug Elizabeth firmly in her arms.

Alice didn't care about the explosion or whatever else the others were talking about… all she knew was the fact that Elizabeth was scared… dying… and afraid to show weakness in front of Zeel.

Alice could feel Elizabeth wishing for death because she didn't want to be a burden to Zeel during his constant battles with Seth.

"Don't you believe in Zeel?" Alice asked coaxingly "He promised to save you… you will survive because I will take care of you alongside Zeel,"

"Hahaha…" Elizabeth laughed happily causing a couple mouthfuls of blood to spill onto her armor as she laid on the ground.

"I love Zeel… I loved him from the moment I first saw him… and I trust him so completely that I know I am stupidly in love with him…

All he does is lie and cheat and kill and suffer and fuck us and break us… but I still believe in Zeel the most…" Elizabeth said, this time using her and Alice's mind-link.

"Why?" Alice asked angrily "Why do you believe in him so much when you know that he doesn't really care if you live or die…?"

"Because I love you and Zeel equally… and I am sure that he will make sure you survive no matter what… well, according to the Time Shadow, he already has….

If the man I love is trying his best to make sure the woman, I love, survives… then there is nothing that will make me happier in this life…" Elizabeth shared via mind-link and passed out once more.

"I hope you were liste-"

Alice was about to confront Zeel since she was sure that he was listening to her and Elizabeth's conversation using his multi-dimensional mind but something strange occurred.

Alice found herself, Elizabeth, Himiko, Ahmanet, Nick, and Jenny warped thousands of miles away from their previous location, and then an explosion occurred far away in the distance.

Alice was used to the type of explosions Zeel would perform but this was on a totally different level – A planet-sized explosion slightly weaker than the one that Zeel used to destroy Mogador.

"Oh my God!" Alice said, surprised by the flames and smoke that appeared as if it would even reach the stars.

"We have lost!" Ahmanet said through gritted teeth while wondering if it was now time to put the contingency plan into play.

"Not yet!" Himiko said, gesturing to Seth's dagger clutched in Ahmanet's hands "It is not the time yet… The Homo-Superior is still alive… but extremely injured,"

"We are useless!" Ahmanet said through gritted teeth.

"No, we are not!" Himiko replied with determination in her voice "We can pray to him," Himiko added and knelt down in prayer to someone other than her God.

Rather… Himiko was praying to her new God – The God of Speed and Dimensional Travel…

∞∞

Zeel and Ruri landed back in Seth's Dimension expecting to see a land razed to the ground with flames, shattered debris, and an enormous crater that spanned hundreds of miles.

They expected to see chunks of land floating aimlessly in the abyssal darkness that existed outside of independent Dimensions…

They expected to see nothing but carnage, destruction and if they were exceptionally lucky… maybe even Seth's injured body floating somewhere in the void.

Yet, what they saw was the regular wasteland of The Death Dimension with nothing to indicate that an explosion of epic proportions had taken place.

"Are you sure we exited at the right location?" Zeel asked Ruri a bit doubtful of her navigation skills.

"My life in The Shadow Dimension depends on running away from the battle so I am sure of my navigation skills," Ruri replied with mockery lacing her tone.

An alarming premonition blared in Zeel's mind but he wasn't sure exactly where it was coming from… he only knew that something was wrong with the situation.

Another one of the issues of being able to 'sense' things… sometimes you could know that something was wrong but wouldn't be able to tell what it was.

Ruri also felt something wrong with the situation and decided to investigate a bit while Zeel worked out the math and clues inside his head.

"Huh? What is this?" Ruri asked, poking a lump of what appeared to be mud bubbles on the ground.

Zeel turned around and looked at what Ruri was doing.

'Mud Bubbles caused by escaping gas?' Zeel thought and finally put the dots together.

The land on which they stood seemed higher than the surrounding landscape which meant that the entire area was possibly just an enormous mud bubble of trapped gasses.

Or in this case… trapped explosion of catastrophic, extinction-level.

Seeing Ruri poking the mud bubbles, Zeel instantly created a huge warp that pulled Elizabeth, Nick, Jenny, Alice, Ahmanet, and Himiko through.

"Ruri… don't do that!" Zeel shouted as lightning flickered and he ran over to Ruri's side, pulled her into his embrace, and prepared to warp away as well.

Alas, he was too late and the mud bubble Seth had created could no longer trap the catastrophic explosion.

*BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*

*BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*

*BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*

*BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*

Zeel's entire armor peeled off his body and created a barrier that surrounded both himself and Ruri.

The armor flashed with Hybrid Runes of Protection and Density-Alteration.

Ruri's last Shadow-Dimension-Bead also shattered and the energy was released to reinforce the barrier Zeel had created from his armor.

The Crawford Family Gravitational-Balls and the Shadow-Dimension-Beads reinforced, interacted, and made a protective barrier tougher than the most complex human machines.

Yet…

Even with their defenses made up of the best efforts of two powerhouses, Zeel and Ruri could feel the searing heat of a planet-destroying explosion melting away their invulnerable skins.

Soon, Ruri and Zeel found the shield cracking…cracking…cracking… and then it shattered and they were consumed by the explosion to end all explosions.

Darkness… Silence… and an entire section of Seth's Dimension missing was all that remained after the doomsday level explosion…