Chương 858

"What are you talking about—" Ava yells back in response, then sifts through her spectate feeds to see exactly what he's speaking of. The outside of the entire Citadel starts to crack from the pressure that builds up in the center. Not only do cracks start forming around all of the Citadel's outer walls, but the barriers made of thick ether protecting the citizens of the Grand Citadel from the auras clashing down below are starting to weaken.

Fractures are surging through them, as two auras at the peak of the High Noble Vibration threshold clash over and over, pushing upward against it. More and more of the Grand Citadel's ether stores are getting absorbed by the Rising Emperor's Astral form, and in turn, the suppression arrays above have less and less energy to pull from to strengthen them.

The final trigger of this Royal Bloodline Transformation, releasing a wave of vibrations even stronger, sharper, and colder than anything this battle has seen before, begins breaking through the barriers put in place. Everyone in the stands below knows of the battle taking place, but very few are strong enough to have the mental capacity for understanding exactly how powerful and deadly the wave of energy that is threatening to break through and wash through them would be. It would be horrific.

If one's avatar somehow did not get shredded to microscopic pieces from the impact of the shockwave alone, their mind would be scrambled and melted beyond saving. Only a handful of the Elites in the crowd of hundreds of millions even have the perception and mental processing speed to see in real time that the white barriers below them are even cracking. One Elite in particular finally gives in and mentally submits to a link of loyalty to the Rising Emperor in order to break out of their chains.

It is an elegant griffin that has stubbornly waited, even after the convincing words of the human posing as a demon, or the actions of the goblin queen that has freed over a hundred million Lords, and even the small white-haired humanoid creature working with them that does not give off the same vibrations as any race this griffin has met in the past. The prideful half-lion, half-eagle was content to watch the realm go up in chaos around him, rather than be tricked into submitting to a demon in disguise.

Yet, now, it appears the best option to not die in the next few seconds... Deep down, this monster from the star system of elites in the Lower Realm hopes everything this human says is true. For tens of thousands of years, it's watched more and more 1st Class and near-maturity Noble Grade worlds be systematically taken over by the demons. Their forces have been dwindling, and at the same time, the demons have only become stronger and more sophisticated.

A bright burst of white-hot energy bursts out from the stands as the griffin joins the worldwide connectivity system, has its avatar rewired, and is able to break free of this suppression. It jumps upward while activating its greater energy form and path's vibrational aura to its max. The beautiful creature flies upward, past all of the other Lords attempting to fly away as well—just far faster. This monstrous force is stronger than any of the Obsidian Clan Berserkers.

They would have won the entire arena event if the Rising Emperor did not participate afterall... It makes it out of the large hole in the top of the dome to breathe a breath of fresh air, but sees the clash of a Noble Demon and a Goblin Queen just above it. Many others trying to make their way upward and escape certain death are too suppressed by the shockwaves coming off this clash in the sky. Though, one Lord does not try to run at all. Ren is having flashbacks of a time far too long ago...

on a home world that has been taken over and long forgotten by time. Only a small few in the Dark Blue zones and above even remember its name. A bright white elven energy form made from light magic and the vibrations of a Noble Elven path leaks out, and this old soul lifts their hands in the air, letting them glow white with ether. The elf remembers the last time they used this technique, everyone died anyway... But—they have no choice but to try again.

Ren's hands are thrust downward once they reach their full luminosity, and burst outward with a hot white array of ether and light-imbued soul energy. It spreads downward in an upside down dome shape, creating a layer of energy that grows and expands over the last layer of suppression commands made by this Citadel. The small elf is nowhere near strong enough to pull off this feat.

In fact, in a one-on-one fight against some of the elite Berserkers, Golems, Mammoths, and Mantis Lords that are flying upward to escape, they probably wouldn't win. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Yet, through the cracks that are forming in these defenses, the elf feels the presence of something millions of kilometers below... clashing deep down at the bottom of the Realm beneath the Citadel. The Rising Emperor was telling the truth.

The Fallen One has returned, so they must survive one last time. — The cause of this massive increase in aura may be intense to those above, or even outside the Citadel, but they are the most terrifying to me. My eyes widen at the absurd power surging outward from this Demon. My last defensive array shattered again while watching the final buff [Royal Bloodline Transformation] activate on its status, and I'm blown flying backward again across the entire Grand Citadel.

Massive cracks in the wilderness have made it lopsided, and as I fly over it again I absorb even more, breaking all of the commands keeping it together and growing my Astral Form. I surge up to 500 kilometers tall, and my ether pools have over tripled since the start of this battle. My soul sword's appetite is being fed, as enormous amounts of the Citadel are being consumed and the amount of blade copies I can summon, along with their strength, is increasing. My links of loyalty are skyrocketing as well.

Millions more worlds come flowing in every millisecond. In fact, my levels even start rising. The threshold of hitting 100 million worlds has given my generals a new perk, and thousands of levels worth of experience is surging into me, and not stopping... Even with all of these massive simultaneous power increases surging through me, the red and purple energy surging outward from Miriel's eyes makes me shiver with fear.

Even over half a million kilometers away, as I watch him follow after me, I can still feel the activation of this power surging through the entire Citadel and far beyond. It feels like cold shadows are surging out, vibrating with a foreign energy more powerful than I ever believed possible. As the tendrils of corruption surging out from his back begin to be flooded with this new frequency of vibrations, I even see the monster's flesh growing and its muscles bulging outward.

A natural aura of intimidation ripples outward, and the cold, suppressing, domineering presence of a True Royal begins to make itself known. It almost knocks the breath out of me when the first shockwave of its presence hits my body and ripples through not only my cores, but my psyche. I feel the purple ring tremble on my finger, and my system flicker off and on. I only remember feeling this way two times before.

The first being my first interaction with a Noble Demon, Draco Vermillion, out in the Desert of the Dark Continent on the human world. The second being when I answered a call from Miriel Vermillion when I first reached the Upper Realm, and felt his High Noble Vibrations when I first used my Noble Body. I feel inexperienced... and weak. There is a creature before me a full path realm above these High Noble Vibrations.

I thought they were my trump card, but in the face of this monstrosity, I see the difference is still as vast as a 5th Class Lower Race to a Noble Demon. Not to mention it is using Celestial Energy, and a Corruption armor that disintegrates anything that touches it. I can kind of defend, but whenever I truly try to plunge my sword into this dangerous black liquid, it just begins tearing my soul sword's ability to access the system away. Miriel Vermillion is a true monster. He is a Royal Family Head.

One of five, in fact... A Demon that is trusted to guard and rule over an entire zone of the Upper Realm. Maybe the fact that I was able to move around without being detected wasn't entirely because he was a thoughtless demon blinded by pride... It could be because no matter what happens, or who betrays him, he is quite literally too strong to care... My eyes open wide as I try to change my momentum and watch the black, red, and purple demon's corruption tendrils around him grow larger with his body.

It keeps getting more massive, and the cold aura continues getting stronger. This is all happening so fast, and the scale at which he is growing in size and strength is unbelievable. The Demon matches my size, 500 kilometers, then passes it with ease. He grows to 1, 000 kilometers toe to horn just as fast, he lets out a loud, low, and anger-filled laugh. The cracks in the Citadel grow larger and more destructive. Then he surpasses 2, 000 kilometers.

The entire outside of the Citadel shatters, my system flickers more and more, and I slip in and out from trying to keep my consciousness from being torn from me. My level surges upward a few thousand between every flicker. I catch a few readings at [Lv. 56, 992], then [Lv. 61, 728] and [Lv. 68, 340]. It passes 70 thousand, but I can't continue keeping track. There are still 20% of stats being used by my generals that I can steal from right now...

but I know that they're in just as important battles as me at the moment.

"I need to hold on. Just... a little longer..." I grit out, summoning walls and walls of soul swords, along with elemental magic, mana manipulation, and every mass summoning true core ability I have in my mental capacity. This is because the Demon on the other side of the Citadel does not stop growing in size and power. Miriel passes 4, 000, then 6, 000, even 7, 500 kilometers, becoming a truly unfathomable shadowy cold, long horned force of dominance.

His laughs feel like they're blaring deep into my eardrums, shaking the entire Grand Citadel, despite the fact that he's still 300 thousand kilometers away. I watch a single one of his tens of thousands of tendrils of corruption come flying down at me, able to attack even from this distance. It slams against the massive defensive wall I created in preparation for a direct attack when he actually got over here. Yet, it's not even necessary.

The layers of pure mana, soul energy, water, earth, fire, ice, wind, lightning, metal, dark, light—even gravity from manipulated layers of thick divine threads. That, and over 45, 000 soul swords, and the strongest hexagonal defensive array I've ever summoned. It's all shattered like frail glass. An explosion of my defenses erupts into the air, but the coiling tendril of corruption, over 100 kilometers thick, smashes through without any noticeable damage.

It collides with my true Soul Sword at the back of the array and pushes it aside despite pushing back with all my strength. The tendril of corruption crashes against my chest. This exo-suit of green armor is created from layers of Citadel mass, 50% of the Inner City, and over 15% of the wilderness, all layered and compacted together to strengthen my Astral Form. Yet, they are no match for the impossibly cold Royal Vibrations surging through this corruption.

On contact, the flickering system goes dark, and I'm slammed downward, making a human-shaped hole in the Citadel Floor, creating an explosion so massive that a sizable chunk of the Citadel's side is blown off. I'm sent flying downward through the dense Citadel mass. My flickers of reality become far less consistent. The next visuals I see are of even more corruption tendrils following me downward, and my level continuing to rise a few thousand...

The small increases in power are not going to be enough to face off against this monstrous force... Before I'm knocked out and lose access to the system again, I activate [Mind Palace].