The Obelisk Tower had originally been a seal.
When Shi Feng shattered the sealing crystal ball, the seal was broken.
What had been sealed inside the Obelisk Tower was terrifying — though players only realized this later. The sealed entity was called an Awakener, something akin to an anomaly among monsters. But while anomalies mutated from monsters, Awakeners mutated from NPCs. The probability of this happening was vanishingly low — even Shi Feng, who had played Divine Realm for ten years, had never witnessed one in person, though he had heard whispers.
Every appearance of an Awakener was a catastrophe. In his previous life, the Star River Alliance had accidentally triggered this disaster, resulting in the deaths of over a hundred thousand of the guild's elite members. Even Xinghe Wangxi hadn't escaped.
Compared to anomalies, Awakeners were far more terrifying. They possessed innately extraordinary intelligence and were the enemy of all living races. Moreover, an Awakener's life level was absurdly high — comparable to a Fallen Angel — and their combat power was overwhelmingly strong.
The one sealed inside the Obelisk Tower had originally been a fifth-tier Holy Archmage. Because it was also an Awakener, its strength rivaled that of a Fallen Angel of the same tier. Only a sixth-tier deity could suppress it.
Fortunately, the Awakener's body had been completely destroyed — only its soul remained. Even after the seal was broken, it could only possess an NPC's body. It had now seized the body of the second-tier mage Sereya, devouring her soul and becoming the new master of that vessel.
Its current combat power had undergone an earth-shaking transformation, nothing like the Sereya of before.
"Do we move now?"
Watercolor Rose's beautiful eyes were wide as she stared at the great leader Sereya hovering in the air far off, instinctively holding her breath.
The Sereya before her was nothing like the level-60, second-tier NPC she had been. She had now become a true monster — and just watching from this distance made every instinct scream to run.
Sereya (Awakener), Warlock. Level 50, HP 30 million.
The suddenly rejuvenated Sereya had not only changed in appearance — her stats had undergone a complete upheaval. Though her level had dropped considerably, her HP had been fully restored, and she was now a third-tier Warlock. Her power had increased beyond measure.
A third-tier NPC was equivalent to a Grand Lord–level monster of the same level, and a third-tier Awakener possessed strength comparable to a fourth-tier NPC. They were simply not something current players could contend with.
Members of every major guild who had been attacking frantically froze in their tracks.
Sereya stretched her body, and the air around her began to tremble. She raised one finger toward the sky, and countless bolts of lightning gathered at its tip, coalescing into a sphere of lightning the size of a two-story building.
"Everyone, dodge carefully! There are enough of us — we can take down even a third-tier Warlock!" a level-29 Elementalists who was directing the fight bellowed.
But the moment the Elementalist finished speaking, Sereya pointed at him. The massive lightning sphere transformed into a surging torrent, swallowing all the players in an instant.
Under the effects of the third-tier spell Lightning Devour, not a single player survived within a 15×100-yard area.
Hundreds of players were wiped out in a single heartbeat.
But Sereya wasn't satisfied. She unleashed several more third-tier spells in quick succession — players, NPCs in Stone Forest Town, none were spared. Third-tier magic in her hands was like a toy; she could cast it without even incanting, giving no one time to dodge.
In just a short while, despite the players being spread out, Sereya had killed five or six thousand of them. The players' counterattacks couldn't even break through her Mana Shield, let alone deal any damage.
Stone Forest Town fell deathly silent — the earlier fervor was completely gone.
"Run!"
"Everyone, retreat from here — now!"
Finally, many guild leaders snapped to their senses. The third-tier Warlock Sereya was not an opponent they could fight. The only option was to flee, or they would all die.
"Guild Master, that monster is too terrifying. Look — the other guilds are all retreating. If we charge in now, it'll be certain death." Watercolor Rose didn't believe they could defeat such a powerful Sereya. Their fate would be no different from the other guilds.