Chương 869

All of my senses become covered in a bright white light. I feel my extremely refined ether pool grow hotter. It has already been tethered to the system via my mana pool, to create Celestial Energy; but the moment this upgrade is triggered, something shifts deep within my soul. My Soul Energy Core contracts, then pulses outward like a beating heart. The shockwaves of white Celestial energy that pours out, floods out to finally push back the corruption that surrounds me; letting my Sacred Body grow outward.

Though, into the physical Realm is not the only area this upgrade spreads. I watch my Celestial Grade Absorption skill change color on my status, to begin glowing with a hot white essence. Instead of stopping there, the pulse of Celestial Energy that ripples through my status begins mutating every single one of my skills. Dinging sounds echo in my mind while all of the skills, buffs, and even blood bonded gear on my status shimmers with a celestial glow.

All of my skills instantly upgrade from their current states to [Celestial Grade]. Even my unique human-only skills, some that have been stuck at [No Grade] since the day I received them. My elemental skills all shimmer with hot white Light too, forcefully upgrading to [Celestial Grade]. Countless new movements and mental techniques float from nowhere up to the surface of my mind. They become instinctual and second nature, like I can activate them as easy as taking a breath.

This feels similar to when I awakened my first True Core's divine abilities, as when I used new skills, they would have additional strength and characteristics amplified by my divine core. Yet, the feeling comes from my soul energy core this time. All of my skills, buffs, abilities, and soul itself has strengthened to a new level.

This, paired with the fact that I'm actively trying to activate my Sacred Body, and break through to release my Royal Vibrations; all adds to the rush of power that streams through my mind and body. When my Sacred Body is rebuilt again, it is still a pristine Celestial White... but it looks like it has a blood red metallic shimmer to it. Depending on the angle, it even glimmers darker to create simultaneously a dark black metallic hue.

This is the result of the Royal Vibration's awakening, and pulsating out from all three of my cores. It is not a true color, but for those that can sense the awakening of a path, the frequency that vibrates out gives off these strange color readings. To anyone below the Noble Grade mental capacity, I appear bright blinding white. Though, it's not like anyone can see me anyway...

My Sacred Body is being rebuilt in the center of a compressed orb of corruption, and even still, the single point where the corruption flows out continues to build the pressure inside this creation of soul swords and defensive arrays I've built. The pulse of Celestial Energy outward becomes visible on the 1 million kilometer wide orb, as it's strengthened and grants me even more time. Yet, at this rate it's still going to break open if I don't contain this corruption.

My arms, legs, heart, and head are regrown, and my shimmering white, red, and now metallic black soul sword starts to circle around me slowly, causing the corruption in the dome to spin too. My form grows even larger than it did during my battle, now standing over 15, 000 kilometers from head to toe. However, my Royal Vibrations are still quite suppressed... half of them are still at the rank of a High Noble, and others are dense enough to strengthen my body enough to withstand the Royal Waves leftover from Miriel.

There is still something holding me back from fully breaking through, yet, figuring it out is not the highest priority. It is an overwhelming sensation of wanting to adapt my body and mind further to the environment I'm in. This is what my Soul craves right now. These are raw instincts that I can fight, but they do grow with hunger as my absorption skill desires to adapt and absorb everything at my fingertips to create more power and abilities for myself.

Yet, the energy in the air is far too dangerous to allow molding completely with my Sacred Body. My Celestial Grade Foresight skill gives me every single mental and biological danger sign not to accept it. The mutated corruption is programmed to tear apart and eliminate everything it touches. Even the outer layers of my Sacred Body now are constantly being attacked, devoured, and rebuilt. The cracks in the zone don't stop getting larger...

and the pressure buildup on the outer walls of this array feels as though they're going to burst within the next few fractions of a second despite the new strengthening of their defenses. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. I run through hundreds of millions of scenarios in my head using Celestial Foresight, and almost all of them lead to me succumbing to the corruption; or surviving for a few more seconds by sacrificing the entire green zone...

The longer I wait, the more visuals of everyone dying over and over I see, and still no ways to save the zone. The hundreds of thousands of years of this corrupted Demon's life are still fresh in my mind, and I can feel his built-up resentment and rage in every new pulse of corruption that pours out from his shattered Royal Demon Core.

"He really did plan for everything..." I murmur to myself, while beginning to see new future paths in my mind.

"But maybe... our goals aren't so different... You can't have my body or soul, but if your desire is to kill and destroy the Royal Family Heads too, then so be it." I plunge my Sacred hands forward, deep into the point at the center of where the corruption waves come out. Just like any other demon core, I let it fall into my palm.

My sole focus is to use my Celestial Grade Corruption, budding royal Vibrations, and resonance with my own Demon Core; paired with my Absorption skill's divine and Celestial attributes; and give this unstoppable force a vessel with the same desires. All of me cannot accept this path, but a part of me can. In this moment, I truly believe absorbing this deadly Royal Grade bomb into my Demon's Core is possible. With now hundreds of millions of other options ending in failure in my subconscious, this is the only way.

My intent, and willpower to do so is heard by reality itself, and dense black tendrils of corruption begin seeping into my palms. Instead of corroding my Sacred Body on contact like usual, they stream toward my chest, and begin to pool up in a dense black ball within my Purple Demon's Core. – Outside the sphere of Celestial Energy, High Noble, and Royal Vibrations; the rest of the green zone feels as though it's gone silent.

The abrupt shockwaves coming off the human and Demon's duel is now completely contained, and no longer ripples to the outer edges of the Green Zone. Above this dense white floating orb, there is a greater form of an Elf Lord, that since borrowing 1% of the stats from over 1 billion worlds; has now grown to be over 1, 000 kilometers tall.

The thick barrier of ether and mana, held together by an ancient light elven technique was enough to block any harmful debris on the hundreds of millions of Lords above the Citadel. Ren's flashbacks of failing to save their homeworld are not repeated. The elven Lord is experiencing a rush of endorphins and satisfaction from protecting these Lower Races this time.

Yet, as soon as the shockwave passes, a wave of fatigue rushes through the white haired Lord's body, and the transition back to a dormant state begins to occur. The protective barrier starts to weaken, but the elf looks downward, past the massive Celestial Orb in the sky, toward the Realm's floor. At the same time, high above even this, there are still two Noble Demons that have managed to survive the chaos. They are both the strongest remaining Noble Demons left behind by the Morvale family.

Yet, both have activated their cyan defensive arrays. While normally a life-saving item used in large scale battles, they have both sealed their fates and created prisons for themselves. Zashen, the Scarlet Berserker is millions of kilometers in the air, hundreds of thousands of slashes into using this Demon as his personal pinata. The Scarlet aura around him only grows hotter and hotter as small heat waves of vibrations make their way through.

In fact, after completely refining his Low Quality ether with the elixir Ember shared with the warlords, and this real-time breakthrough of his Scarlet Clan's path evolving and fully awakening to the strength of a High Noble; glimmers of Celestial Energy form in the tips of his sword strikes.

Zashen cannot cut through the cyan threads, as it is impossible to do so in this zone, but waves of High Noble equivalent vibrations suppress this demon's system, and celestial energy seeps into his consciousness, melting his unguarded mind. There is nothing this demon can do, but slowly feel himself die at the hands of the last Scarlet Berserker; knowing he has failed his family head. Still, even as he meets his end, a visual hologram of everything below him in the green zone is transmitted back to his leader.

The Demon's mind goes black, and the cyan array deactivates upon his death, allowing for Zashen to slice the Morvale Demon into pieces, and let out a satisfying roar high above the realm. At the same time, Ava uses the spark of Celestial energy all of my generals shared during my rank up; and slams her hammer against the Noble Demon's chest. Waves of white energy ripple through the cyan barrier, and it is pushed upward through the air. She doesn't stop at just one, and waves of warm aura surge out from her chest.

It is her own path, one she inherited from a tomb back on her home world. Yet, now with 4% of over 1 billion worlds' stats flowing through her, it finally is able to unveil its true power. The Demon that was overpowered cannot believe what it is seeing, one of the lowest tier races, a goblin; wielding such unfathomable power, Celestial Energy, and using an ancient path that hasn't been in the Upper Realm since the era of the elves.

The readings from Ava are extremely confusing, as they're mixing and resonating with the path of a real elf far below. Yet, it too knows it's failed, and as its mind is battered and broken, all it can do is send these visuals and data readings back to its family head. Another explosion of white and green energy lights up the sky once it dies, and its cyan barrier fades with it. Ava lands the final hit, and slowly releases the 4% of stats she's borrowing back to the Rising Emperor once they are no longer needed.

The only eyewitness to this display is the Griffon that managed to escape the Grand Citadel on its own before the explosion. Its eyes are wide, in disbelief at the total annihilation of the Vermillion Family. One of the Great Royal Families has just been toppled... and Noble Demon's are being tossed around by lower races.

"This does not make sense... how... can this be possible...?" It whispers, flapping its wings slower to stop flying upward, and takes in the vast open view of the green zone in silence. – As these stats are added to the Rising Emperor's pool, they are added to the massive Sacred Celestial Dragon now standing on the Realm's floor. Below Ember, the remains of a dead Demonic Dragon are melted and burned to the rocky floor of dead worlds.

Far off in the distance, is the massive black structure that still holds the reactor that connects the zones of the Upper Realm. But—Ember only smiles, looks up in the air at the massive floating sphere. The enormous Celestial Dragon deactivates the weak silver threads that kept him alive long enough for this battle to finish the way he needed it to. Ember's Sacred Body deactivates as well, and the celestial energy making it up all flows back into his soul.

The black and red dragon shrinks back down to his hybrid form, then finally back to his 2 meter tall frail red-haired human state. Ember falls over, lying on his back, taking one last look up at the massive ball of Celestial light. He smiles even wider once he looks past it, to see a familiar elf, then closes his eyes to fall fast asleep at the very bottom of the Lower Realm.