Chapter 152: The Ancient Roots and the Descent of Divinity (Part 1)
The Plaza of Origin was steeped in a silence so thick it seemed to possess physical mass. Dante, the Rank 1 of the infantry, and the "New Stars" like the Paradox Twins, had retreated toward the flanks of the immense dais. Their newly acquired weapons shone with latent lethality, and their ranks, burned into their minds, filled them with a fierce pride. They felt strong. They felt invincible.
Yes, they had received artifacts that defied common sense and techniques that erased mortal boundaries.
But when those same young geniuses, drunk on their new power, looked up toward the Upper Palace and observed the figures waiting motionless, they felt a biological shiver run down their spines. It was a primal terror, encrypted in their DNA. It was exactly what a proud, bloody alpha wolf feels when it looks up and sees a Primordial Dragon blotting out the sun.
Samael Morningstar, standing before his Obsidian Throne, did not look at the new talents he had just forged. His gaze, burning with the Violet and Crimson vortexes of the Eye of Destiny, rose toward the architectural shadows looming behind him.
But just before he opened his mouth to summon his generals, the fabric of reality in his Sea of Consciousness froze.
A holographic screen, unlike any other, of a dazzling platinum color with obsidian borders, blocked his vision. Time itself seemed to halt its march as the System manifested with supreme authority.
[DING! Hidden Mission Detected and Completed with Absolute Success.]
«Mission: "The Forge of Absolute Loyalty".»
«Victory Condition: Reward, arm, and evolve the entire base of a Legion with high-level resources, permanently altering the collective destiny of over a thousand souls without demanding anything in return other than their loyalty.»
«System Evaluation: Transcendental. You have acted not as a simple leader, but as the Creator God of a new martial era.»
«Reward obtained: [Mystery Arsenal Chest (Unknown Grade)].»
Samael held his breath. In his dimensional inventory, a massive chest made of stellar wood and golden runic chains materialized. The chains broke on their own with a thunderous sound in his mind.
«Opening chest... The user has received multiple Sacred Artifacts, Saint Grade and Fragmented Divine Grade Weapons, and a compendium of Saint Grade and higher Martial Arts. The Sovereign's Vault has been stocked with the arsenal necessary to arm an Imperial Court.»
Samael smiled. A predatory, sharp, and satisfied smile. If a second ago he wondered if his reserves would withstand the weight of rewarding the Sequences, now the System had handed him the keys to the armory of the heavens themselves. His power was justified. His wealth was now infinite.
The Sovereign looked down at the infantry.
"You have seen the talents of this war born," Samael said, his deep voice, heavy with the weight of the Throne of the War Gods, resonating directly in the spinal cord of each of the thousand present. "You have seen the scum ascend and the geniuses evolve. But all of them... are just new branches. Sharp leaves of a newly planted tree."
Samael raised his right hand, clad in the Void Dragon Armor, and pointed toward the summit.
"An Empire that aspires to devour the universe cannot be sustained by new leaves alone. It needs ancient roots. Deep, gnarled roots that have pierced bedrock. It needs those who drank my blood when we were absolutely nothing. Those who ate raw meat in the deserts of exile, who broke their own bones a thousand times just to earn the right to be reborn at my side."
The sky of the Realm of the Eternal Dawn seemed to darken in response to his words.
"Imperial Sequences!" Samael roared, and his voice sent tremors through the jade waterfalls. "Children of the Dragon! The mortal world is too small for you! Come out of the shadows and descend to claim your divinity!"
From the firmament, ten figures descended.
They didn't jump. They didn't fall. The scene was deeply disturbing to the physics scholars present. Gravity itself seemed terrified by their presence, moving aside to let them descend. The air condensed beneath their feet, forming invisible steps.
They landed on the immense dais before Samael in absolute silence. But the impact of their arrival was devastating: the sacred marble, indestructible to mortals, cracked, forming spiderweb patterns beneath their boots. Their auras were not bursts of bright colors like the youths'; they were dense, oppressive, saturated to the limit with compressed Qi and terrifying Half-Dragon blood.
Samael looked at them and, with a simple thought, activated the command in the System.
[Update: Imperial Sequence Executed].
A colossal pillar of golden and violet light fell from infinity, enveloping each of the ten warriors. The light didn't heal them; it rewrote their existence at the cellular level, adapting their Half-Dragon bodies to withstand the Saint Grade treasures they were about to receive.
"Sequence 21 to the front!" Vexia ordered, her own voice strained from the pressure. "Varian Morningstar, Eagle Eye!"
A man of slender and painfully wiry build took a step forward. His face was sharp as a razor blade, crowned by messy dark green hair. Varian slowly pulled his hands away from his face. His emerald eyes vibrated at an unnatural frequency, his pupils dilating and contracting like the lens of a divine camera, capable of focusing on the atomic structure of a blade of grass fifty kilometers away.
Varian was an absolute perfectionist, patient and introverted. He hated to miss. To him, the battlefield wasn't a place of honor or passion; it was a cold geometric equation. He only had to draw a straight line between his intent and the opponent's heart. He didn't speak, preferring his bowstring's sonic snap to speak for him.
Samael reached into the newly stocked inventory and pulled out a bow that defied sanity. It was crafted from ivory-white Void Dragon Bone, with an asymmetrical, wild, and aggressive structure. In the center of the grip, an orb of liquid crystal spun constantly, emulating the pupil of a primeval predator. The bow had no physical string; the space between the limbs vibrated with an air distortion that seemed to melt light.
Samael handed him the bow [The Eye of the Falcon].
Next, Samael pulled out a strand of pulsing golden light that emitted the sound of a cosmic heartbeat. It was the [God's Nerve String (Saint Grade)].
He installed it on the bow.
"Your vision is anatomically perfect, Varian," Samael said. "You see the future of the enemy's movements. But your physical arrow remains a slave to friction; it remains slow. With this, we have murdered the law of causality."
Varian took the weapon. The instant his fingers touched the dragon bone, the air around him lost pressure.
"The Saint Grade breaks physics, hunter," the King continued. "By joining the Eye of the Falcon with the God's Nerve String, the act of 'shooting' and 'hitting' cease to be a temporal sequence. They become a single instantaneous event. The string has Reverse Causality. Your arrow will strike microseconds before you physically release the string."
Varian nodded slowly. He drew the air, and the golden string appeared. It did not stretch by mechanical force, but by his will.
"The target is already dead, Patriarch," Varian said, his voice dry and devoid of inflection. "The universe just needs a couple of seconds to realize the mistake and let it drop."
[CLAN INVESTMENT SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
«Investment: Eye of the Falcon Bow + God's Nerve String.»
«Critical Probability: ABSOLUTE.»
«Critical Reimbursement x10,000!»
«You have received: [Eye of Providence (Myth Grade - Conceptual Artifact. Allows the user to see and cut the lines of cause and effect of any event within a 1,000-kilometer radius)].»
"Take these techniques, Executioner," Samael said, sending two emerald light spheres into Varian's mind. "They are Saint Grade. To make the equation perfect."
The techniques entered his mind: [Zenith Judgment: Execution by Synchrony], a conceptual offensive where the arrow bypasses the air and manifests directly inside the target's organs, bursting into thousands of green plasma blades; and [Veil of the Curved Horizon: The Eye of the Storm], a defense that refracts air pressure so enemy attacks slip and bend around him like a mirage.
Varian gave a slight nod, his emerald eyes already processing the trajectories of the sweat drops falling from the recruits' faces.
[CLAN INVESTMENT SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
«Investment: 2 Conceptual Martial Arts (Bow/Space).»
«Critical Probability: HIGH.»
«Multiplier Obtained: x450.»
«You have received: [Primordial Wind Essence (Supreme Cultivation Material - Upon absorption, it purifies and expands the meridians, massively accelerating the cultivation of wind-attribute users)] and [Ocular Art: Pupils of the Star-Devouring Eagle (Saint Grade - Passive technique that improves dynamic vision and allows seeing Qi knots in the air)].»
"Sequence 20!" Vexia announced, and the weather suddenly turned icy and heavy. "Elian Morningstar, The Mercury Tide!"
Elian stepped forward. Unlike Vexia's rigidity or Varian's tension, Elian possessed an unusually fluid posture, relaxed to the point of indolence. He was of medium height, but his presence was suffocating. His silver-blue hair always looked wet, plastered to his pale face, and his deep eyes reflected light like liquid metal.
Elian was adaptable, passive-aggressive, and deeply terrifying. He was like water in its darkest state: seemingly harmless on the surface until the currents dragged you to the bottom. He never attacked first. He let the enemy approach, tire themselves out, spend their Qi, and then suffocated them with inescapable pressure.
Samael extracted from the vault a liquid orb that had no defined edges. Its surface shed black drops that orbited around it like satellites. It was the [Heart of Mercury]. Then, Samael pulled out a tiny drop of black liquid that made his own armor creak from the effort of holding it.
"Elian. I grant you the [Neutron Star Tear (Saint Grade)]. A single drop weighs more than an iron palace. Fuse it with your orb."
Elian reached out, and the Tear sank into the Heart of Mercury. Instantly, the orb began to pulse with a dark purple glow that made the light around it curve in tight spirals.
"Make your defense impenetrable through sheer, absurd density," Samael ordered. "You are the bearer of the abyss's inertia. When you release your Half-Dragon blood, this orb will absorb your fluids and multiply them. The air will cease to be gas and behave like Heavy Water. You will immobilize entire armies under a pressure of millions of tons before they can draw their swords."
Elian looked at the orb floating above his palm. The drops of silver sweat falling from his forehead merged with the artifact, producing a metallic hiss.
"I will suffocate them without moving a single finger, my Lord," Elian said, with a languid, bored smile. "Their skulls will collapse from the pressure before their filthy weapons manage to touch the fabric of my clothes."
[CLAN INVESTMENT SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
«Critical Probability: ABSOLUTE.»
«Critical Reimbursement x10,000!»
«You have received: [Domain of Liquid Gravity (Divine Grade - Effect: Authority Capacity to convert ambient air and oxygen into super-dense liquid at will, drowning or crushing armies on a continental scale)].»
"Complement that pressure with martial dominance." Samael shot the light spheres toward Elian.
They were the arts of Critical Mass: [Judgment of the Abyss: Collapse of the Stellar Column], which allowed him to concentrate his immense inertia into a punch or a mercury spear, liquefying the air in front of him to strike with the force of a lead tsunami; and [Event Horizon: The Mantle of the Dead Sea], a stasis technique that drastically slowed any incoming arrow or magic, making them fall to the ground as if they weighed tons upon touching his aura.
Elian nodded slowly, his veins shining with liquid silver beneath his skin, as the gravity around him stabilized through pure willpower.
[CLAN INVESTMENT SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
«Investment: 2 Critical Mass and Gravity Martial Arts.»
«Critical Probability: EXTREME.»
«Multiplier Obtained: x480.»
«You have received: [Heavy Abyss Lotus (Supreme Cultivation Material - Condenses the user's Sea of Qi into a super-dense ocean, multiplying energy reserve capacity a thousandfold)] and [Defensive Technique: Liquid Neutron Armor (High Saint Grade)].»
"Sequence 19 to the front!" Vexia shouted, instinctively taking a step back from the wave of dry heat that swept the stage.
The man who stepped forward was brutalism made flesh. Bren Morningstar, the Seismic Behemoth, didn't walk; he made the dais tremble. He was tall as a tower, immensely muscular, completely bald, with thick eyebrows and fierce brown eyes that burned like those of a beast cornered in the center of a forest fire.
Bren was the ultimate archetype of the physical cultivator. A destroyer by nature, a lover of bloody battles, and an insatiable glutton. He despised complex strategies and illusions. His philosophy was poetically simple: if a problem wasn't solved with a punch to the face, it was solely and exclusively because the punch hadn't been hard enough.
Samael didn't hand him slender swords or subtle orbs. He pulled out massive knuckledusters that covered halfway up the forearm, crafted from matte black Tectonic Obsidian that seemed to breathe. They were the [Volcanic Vajras: Knuckles of the Behemoth Core (Mid/High Saint Grade)]. On the back of each hand pulsed the [Heart of the Red Mountain], a sphere of crystallized magma that emitted a suffocating heat.
"You are a born destroyer, Bren," Samael said, handing over the immense armor pieces. "Your brute strength lacks refined technique, so we will stop pretending. We will turn it into a pure cataclysm. This weapon is not a tool; it is an exhaust valve for the nuclear heat and tectonic pressure your bloodline generates."
Bren inserted his enormous arms into the knuckledusters. The internal conduits locked into his veins with a sickening crunch, sucking his magma blood and overloading the obsidian cores until they turned incandescent white.
"Every strike you deliver will release a blast of pressure at solar temperatures," the Patriarch explained. "The metal's resonance will bypass the enemy's armor and send the high-frequency pulse directly into their vital organs, liquefying them. If the earth beneath your feet doesn't break, Bren, punch it harder."
Bren slammed his fists together in front of his chest. The impact generated a sonic wave that lifted the jade tiles of the dais and caused a micro-earthquake in the plaza. He threw his head back and let out a hoarse, maniacal laugh, black steam escaping his teeth.
"HAHAHA! I promise you, Sovereign, I won't leave a single mountain standing wherever I go! I'll crush them until the world is flat!"
[CLAN INVESTMENT SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
«Critical Probability: ABSOLUTE.»
«Critical Reimbursement x10,000!»
«You have received: [Gauntlets of the Titan Atlas (Divine Artifact) - Effect: Passively multiplies the wearer's base physical strength by 100. Capable of lifting entire mountain ranges with brute muscular force].»
Samael injected the corresponding techniques into him. [Hammer of the Cataclysm: Core Fracture], a short-range strike that injected nuclear heat and liquefying vibration simultaneously, and [Fortress of the Mantle: The Solid Magma Dome], a reactive defense where his own evaporated blood melted any projectile or sword that tried to graze him.
[CLAN INVESTMENT SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
«Investment: 2 Tectonic Resonance and Magma Martial Arts.»
«Critical Probability: HIGH.»
«Multiplier Obtained: x490.»
«You have received: [Crystal of Absolute Earth Marrow (Sacred Cultivation Material - Upon being absorbed into the Dantian, telluric energy permanently increases bone and muscle density, making flesh resistant to holy weapons)] and [Body Sutra: "Indestructible Body of the Earthquake God" (Mid Saint Grade)].»
"Sequence 18!" Vexia's voice cut through Bren's laughter. "Lirael Morningstar, The Broken Moon!"
The contrast was absolute. Behind the magma monster stepped forward a vision of sinful, lethal beauty. Lirael was tall, long-legged, and possessed an immensely seductive figure, with wide curves at her hips (pear shape) and a voluptuous chest (C-Cup) that defied the military discipline of the surroundings. Her hair was a deep orange, falling like liquid fire over her back, and her amber eyes shone with an icy cunning.
The warriors in the lower ranks swallowed hard when they saw her. She was hypnotic. But Samael's Eye of Destiny saw the truth beneath the flesh: Lirael was manipulative, sadistic, and lethal. She used her body and beauty as a minefield, drawing weak warriors like moths to a candle, only to decapitate them the very instant they thought they were about to be kissed.
"You are the queen of illusion and assassination, Lirael," Samael said. "You lower their defenses with your beauty, and when they blink, they no longer have a head. But depending on natural light is a rookie mistake."
Samael pulled out a cloak woven with what looked like collapsed stardust and void spiderwebs, along with a curved sword of Lunar Shadow Steel.
"The [Veil of Eternal Night (Mid Saint Grade)] and the [Moon Fang]," Samael presented. "In total darkness, you are invincible. So, with this cloak, it will always be night around you."
Lirael placed the Veil over her shoulders. In a microsecond, the sunlight of the Eternal Dawn was blotted out within a fifty-meter radius. A dome of conceptual darkness formed that no torch could pierce. The Moon Fang sword, which had Negative Photonic Synchronization, became literally invisible to the naked eye.
"I will embrace them in the shadows of ignorance, my Patriarch," Lirael whispered, her voice coming from all directions at once within the dark dome, husky, sensual, and deadly. "And when they feel my lips on their neck... they will already be bleeding out on the ground."
[CLAN INVESTMENT SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
«Critical Probability: ABSOLUTE.»
«Critical Reimbursement x10,000!»
«You have received: [Mirror of Destiny (Myth Grade - Conceptual Artifact. Allows reflecting the energy or intent of any attack directed at the wearer, returning it to the source with double the destructive power)].»
Samael transmitted the martial arts of illusion to her: [Execution of the Fragmented Mirror: A Thousand Cuts of Dusk], which allowed her to use particles of her own blood as invisible micro-mirrors to attack the enemy's reflections, shattering their real body without physically touching it; and [Veil of the Waning Moon: Mercury Displacement], to create illusory clones that exploded in blinding light if struck, while the real Lirael emerged from the opponent's shadow.
[CLAN INVESTMENT SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
«Investment: 2 Photonic Synchronization and Illusion Martial Arts.»
«Critical Probability: ANOMALOUS.»
«Multiplier Obtained: x500 (Maximum Limit Reached).»
«Generating Multiple Reimbursement...»
«You have received: [Mirror of the Night Goddess (Fragmented Divine Grade Artifact - Being incomplete, it operates at the limit of High Saint Grade. Allows creating deadly illusory labyrinths on a city scale. Requires assimilating the 3 remaining fragments scattered across the universe to restore its original Divine Authority)] and [Tear of Pure Yin (Supreme Cultivation Material - Violently expands the capacity limits of the Dantian for dark and lunar attribute cultivators)].»
Samael's heart leaped upon reading "Fragmented Divine Grade." That was a seed of power that could engulf entire continents in the future.
Lirael's dome of darkness dissipated as she channeled the Veil inward, returning to the ranks with a smile of pure sadistic satisfaction.
"Sequence 17!" Vexia called, catching her breath. "Joren Morningstar, The Zephyr Banshee!"
The warrior who advanced was the personification of the void. Joren was tall, with light brown hair and an athletic build, but what defined him was his absolute lack of presence. He was the classic assassin taken to the extreme of Cosmic Laws. Unlike young Ciro, who joked while killing, Joren operated in a clinical, professional, and sociopathic silence.
Samael pulled out a pair of black blades that looked like cutouts in reality, two-dimensional flat ink stains. They were the [Absorbent Void Daggers (Saint Grade)]. In their hilts pulsed the [Stone of the Banshee's Scream], a purple crystal containing the agonized face of a spectral entity.
"Ciro is exceptionally fast," Samael said, observing Joren. "But you, Joren, are pure non-existence. Your weapons do not cut flesh by force; they suck matter and energy toward their center through negative void pressure. And this stone... will directly attack your enemies' vestibular fluid using infrasound."
Joren took the daggers. The hiss of the void devouring the air filled the dais.
"Human equilibrium is fragile," Samael whispered. "If they cannot hear your footsteps through the void, and they cannot feel gravity because you have collapsed their inner ears... their brains will shut down from panic before you rip their heads off."
Joren gave a rigid, military bow.
"They will die deaf, blind, and feeling like they are falling eternally into the abyss of their own broken minds, Patriarch."
[CLAN INVESTMENT SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
«Critical Probability: ABSOLUTE.»
«Critical Reimbursement x10,000!»
«You have received: [Wind of the End of Times (Level 1 Law Seed - A conceptual wind that ignores defenses and disintegrates physical matter at the molecular level)].»
Samael concluded the delivery for this block by transmitting his sensory extinction techniques to Joren. [Apex Execution: The Beheading of Nothingness], a sonic blink that liquefied the space in front of him for a zero-pressure cut, and [Phantom Hurricane Waltz: Infrasound Displacement], a movement that left echoes of the void behind him, emitting infrasound in all directions to collapse the minds of an entire squad as they futilely tried to track him.
[CLAN INVESTMENT SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
«Investment: 2 Acoustic Void and Infrasound Martial Arts.»
«Critical Probability: HIGH.»
«Multiplier Obtained: x475.»
«You have received: [Soundless Void Lotus (Exceptional Cultivation Material - Upon consumption, the user's Qi evolves, mutating its frequency, becoming permanently undetectable to the divine senses of enemies)] and [Assassination Art: "The Blind Reaper's Step" (Mid Saint Grade - Movement technique that eliminates the user's karmic trace when executing an attack, preventing revenge through divination)].»
Joren stepped back in total silence, melting into the shadows cast by the gigantic statues on the dais.
The Plaza of Origin had become a canvas of conceptual chaos, barely contained by Samael's iron will. In one corner, space curved and suffocated under Elian's gravity. In another, the jade tiles bubbled beneath Bren's boots. Varian altered temporal perception with his mere presence, Lirael devoured light photons, and Joren was a black hole of silence.
They were monsters clad in human skin. They were the Imperial Sequences.
Samael Morningstar leaned back slowly on his Obsidian Throne, his mind processing the incalculable mountain of wealth, sacred cultivation materials, and cosmic law seeds the System had reimbursed him in the last ten minutes. The Emperor's Harvest pulsed warm and powerful in his veins, connecting him to every sadistic heartbeat of his new demigods.
"Half of the Imperial base has claimed its crowns and domains," Samael announced, his voice dropping to a dark, promising tone, addressing the five warriors who still waited. "But there are still five Monsters left in this first block."
The Primordial Sovereign leaned forward.
"Sequences 16 to 12! Step forward and show the skies of this realm what true and absolute terror is!"