"I told you—you would definitely fall here today!"
Rayden regarded the black skeletal frame before him, particularly the crimson ghostly fire flickering within the skull, and spoke unhurriedly, as though stating nothing more than a simple fact.
"Ahhh… Nightmare Warlock!!!! I curse you! In the name of Calamity!!!!"
The black skull kept clacking its jaws, and violent soul fluctuations emanated from the true spirit within.
"After using Final Decay, all you have left is this negligible curse ability? Truly disappointing…"
Facing the surging tide of calamity and curses, Rayden waved his hand casually. Whoosh!
The origin force of the entire dreamscape surged wildly, transforming into endless bolts of annihilating lightning. The devastating power of the thunder swept through, extinguishing every trace of the curses.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Almost the instant the curses were broken, Rayden and Celusius moved simultaneously. The two silhouettes dissolved into endless streams of light, clashing at velocities that surpassed the speed of light.
The entire space twisted in an instant, and in a mere fraction of a ten-thousandth of a heartbeat, Rayden and Celusius had exchanged millions of blows.
The opponent's black bones, constructed from the Laws of Calamity and Decay, possessed a hardness that surpassed every metal in existence—enough to endure the relentless bombardment of annihilating lightning without so much as a flinch.
The red runes on Rayden's body densely surfaced, radiating vivid luster and vaguely forming a suit of dark-red armor. The origin force of the entire dreamscape howled upward; as long as the dreamscape hadn't been fully depleted, his defenses would never be breached—even losses would be rapidly replenished.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
In an instant, when their speed transcended all limits, Rayden and Celusius vanished from the dreamscape and arrived somewhere far stranger.
"A space near the River of Time and Space? Only here could endure the full force of our wrath—and it makes for the perfect burial ground for you…"
Crack! Crack!
A black bone hand tore through Rayden's chest. The dark-red armor shattered in an instant, then instantly reformed.
After the dreamscape origin-force armor was broken more than ten times, the crimson glow within Celusius's skull also grew dim. Cracks began to appear across the surface of the black bones.
"So when beings who exist as rules clash, it ultimately comes down to a contest of reserves and origin force? It seems I need to prioritize crafting origin-force weapons…"
Rayden stared gravely at his opponent.
Even trading blow for blow, the origin force he'd expended had reached terrifying levels. Had the dreamscape not been footing the bill, he would have suffered total energy depletion — his very consciousness drained dry.
Yet with the dreamscape world bolstering him from behind, Rayden had still driven Celusius, this Calamity Lord, into a dead end.
[Ding! Origin-force weapon mimicry construction complete! Trajectory correction in progress!]
After millions of exchanges, the Chip had finally locked onto Celusius's movement patterns. The dreamscape world roared, and a pale green longsword materialized directly in Rayden's hand.
Condensing origin force into a weapon! This wasn't the origin-force weapon he'd originally intended to forge, but it had already taken a basic shape!
"Dust to dust, earth to earth — your glory was born of the dreamscape, and so shall that glory be returned!"
Rayden murmured, and the longsword in his hand thrust forward along a bizarre arc!
Clang!
In a fraction of one-millionth of a heartbeat, the green origin-force longsword pierced clean through Celusius's defenses, striking the center of its forehead.
That area had already been Rayden's primary target — fine cracks had long since appeared across the bone. Now it shattered outright.
Tinkle… A chain reaction seemed to take hold. The remainder of the opponent's black-bone body exploded in succession, each fragment crumbling to powder, then dissolved by the annihilating snow that followed.
"No! How can I perish here? I am Celusius, Lord of Calamity, King of Decay…"
After the last of its physical form was destroyed, a single point of crimson rule-law consciousness emerged from the endless explosions, radiating the laws of calamity and decay.
Separated from its fleshly vessel, the rule-law consciousness now seemed even more terrifying. It ignited without warning, its form swelling in an instant — transforming into a blazing white-hot star.
The colossal star shuddered, then hurtled toward the River of Time. And the vast river itself seemed faintly drawn to it, the entire flow beginning to emit an eerie pulling force…
"You are dead! Your time has ceased! Stay right here…"
Rayden would certainly not let Celusius slip away. In its current state, even if it willingly cast itself into the River of Time, it could likely amass enough power to be reborn within mere thousands of years.
With a thunderous roar, the vast, sky-blotting phantom of a Taglian Winged Serpent materialized behind Rayden.
The runes of the Nightmare Energy-Absorbing Physique surfaced across the Winged Serpent's body, merging with the Devouring Rule to form an even more powerful black hole. The invisible force of constriction instantly spread onto Celusius's true spirit.
"This is… the attraction of Dream Primordial Force! Damn it…"
The colossal stellar true spirit roared as countless scars surfaced within it — aftereffects from the use of the Dream World's primordial force, all erupting at once in a single violent outpouring.
As a native of the Dream World, Celusius stood absolutely no chance of resisting this fundamental attraction.
At the edge of the River of Time, an eerie scene materialized — the white-hot star reluctantly altered its own traces, slowly reversing course, while within the fading brilliance, the withered, raging silhouette of a figure faintly emerged.
The brilliant radiance of the mighty star was relentlessly devoured by the black hole, ultimately forming a funnel-shaped distortion of light.
In the end, the illusory stellar true spirit was completely consumed by a black hole tens of thousands of times smaller in volume, without so much as a single sliver of light escaping.
"Ugh…"
The dark crimson patterns on Rayden's body writhed instantly, like steel on the verge of melting. Countless cracks split across his skin, and his body grotesquely swelled up by another size.
**[Ding! Host has ingested an extremely powerful energy source! Intensity: Tier 8!!! Rule Body collapsing! Countdown…]** The Chip now flashed blood-red warnings, and even the surrounding curtain of light began to look abnormal.
"As expected… a Tier 8 existence is simply not something I can devour in my current state. Forcing the attempt leads to only one outcome — being stuffed to death!!!"
Rayden's expression shifted repeatedly. "If not for the Dream World…"
With that thought, he wasted no further hesitation and activated the power of his bloodline, instantly returning to the Dream World.
**BOOM!!!** The World's
At the epicenter, Rayden sat with both eyes shut, clearly locked in some mysterious state. His original body, towering ten meters tall, was steadily shrinking.
Waves of world primordial force, intermingled with the remnants of Celusius's power, emanated from his body and flowed back into heaven and earth, undergoing a complex process of conversion.
……
Rayden had also entered a strange dream.
The master within the dream was none other than Celusius himself — except in this incarnation, the being had not yet become a Calamity Lord. At best, it was merely a transcendent creature possessing a sliver of rule power.
After observing for a while, a cold smirk appeared at the corner of Rayden's mouth.
"You've already fallen, yet your will still writhes in defiance? What a pity… My bloodline ability happens to be the perfect counter for this!"
"Bloodline Talent — Dream Devouring!"
Blood-red eyes opened behind Rayden, devouring everything the dream had to offer.
The sky shattered, the earth collapsed, and at the heart of the boundless void, a blood-red crescent moon materialized — within it, a withered, sunken eye was faintly visible.
"Found it!"
Rayden let out a long cry and stomped the precursor transcendent creature from Celusius's memories flat beneath his foot. His entire body shot upward with explosive force.
"Perish!"
A fist of annihilation charged with surging primordial force crossed the boundaries of time and space, landing directly upon the blood-red crescent moon.
Amid deafening roars of pain and despair, the crescent moon detonated, and the withered eye was obliterated along with it.
The fragmentation of the entire dream accelerated tenfold, its energy ceaselessly consumed and absorbed by Rayden's Dream Devouring power.
By the time Rayden's consciousness returned to his original body, he had already reverted to his normal human form.
[Ding! Energy source dissipating! Main body recovering!]
[Ding! Devour Rule activated. Main body has obtained partial rule power data. Digitizing…]
Then the Chip refreshed Rayden's current data once more.
[Rayden · Farrier — Warlock, Seventh Level Bloodline: Taglian Wyrm (Seventh Level) Strength: 257.71 Agility: 200.01 Constitution: 350.98 Spirit: 611.27 Soul State: Rule Spirit Rule Comprehension: Devour (100%), Slaughter (58%), Disaster (27%), Decay (15%), Curse (1%) World Primordial Force Saturation: 27.99%] "Disaster, Decay, and Curse?"
Rayden stroked his chin. At his current level of comprehension in the first two rules, it would already be enough to activate Divinity in the
"Although it's much better than that Dream Spirit's will from before, consuming an eighth-level Calamity Lord and only gaining this much… the World of Gods is still the more profitable arena."
Rayden shook his head with a hint of helplessness.
In truth, he was very aware that the Dream World’s will had contributed the most this time and had received the most substantial reward.
The Origin Power consumed earlier had been provided by the Dream World, and the lion’s share of what was gained from devouring Celusius had been taken by them. He himself had only obtained a partial comprehension of the Rules.
Of course, a portion of Celusius’s power that did not belong to the Dream World had been intercepted by him, resulting in an enhancement to his attributes.