A punch at the absolute peak!
As he threw it, Shawell was utterly certain—he had reached the pinnacle of his life!
He had gathered every last drop of his strength, all his passion, all his emotions, and channeled them into this single punch, carrying the hopes of Croweye, Borti, Clive, and everyone else!
If Croweye had been the one to strike, there might have been a better chance, but Shawell understood all too well that he couldn't possibly stop the Life Light Tree.
If their positions had been swapped, he might not even have gotten the chance to throw this punch!
He would have been finished by the Life Light Tree in an instant, and Croweye would have lost any opportunity to attack.
That was why Croweye and everyone else had staked the last hope of saving the world on him!
Having realized this, Shawell now poured everything he had into this punch. He was even confident that if a fortress made entirely of steel stood before him, he could reduce it to ruin in a single blow!
Clang!!
His fist struck the outer surface of the pearl, producing a dull, heavy sound, but the surface remained completely intact.
"No!" Shawell roared, raising his fist once more.
Unfortunately, the enemy gave him no second chance. A terrifying wave of energy slammed into his back, and his body crumpled helplessly.
"No!!! Has everyone's sacrifice, all their effort, and the entire world—has it all been for nothing?"
Shawell was consumed by utter despair.
He gazed at his sister, who still seemed to be sleeping within the pearl, and desperately pleaded in his heart: "Leilin!!! Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents!!!! I know you can hear me—please, I'm begging you! I'll pay any price!"
But in the next moment, he felt a horrifying net close around him. The sensation of his soul being seized made his thoughts begin to freeze.
Just before darkness consumed him entirely, he looked up at the girl in the pearl and whispered, "I'm… sorry…"
The girl in the pearl was still sleeping, but suddenly, her brow twitched—and her eyes snapped open. Dark pupils locked with Shawell's gaze.
"That's… wonderful…"
A faint smile crossed Shawell's lips, and then he sank into absolute darkness.
What he failed to notice, however, was that the girl's eyes held not a trace of emotion. She looked at him as though he were a complete stranger.
"Heh heh heh… The meddlesome ants have finally all been eliminated."
The Life Light Tree continued to swell, and the blood-red burls growing upon it became even larger. Emperor Aragorn laughed with wild elation.
"I poured every last drop of my effort into this place—how could it possibly be broken so easily? Little girl, he seems to be your kin? He certainly tried hard enough to save you."
"Now it's time to put you all to use. Being awake is even better—purify these filthy things for me."
The terrifying Life Light Tree had already extended its tendrils across half the empire, and the soul energy it harvested was staggering in volume.
Countless dark, frenzied motes of light were greedily absorbed by the tree's roots and tentacles, then funneled into the Type Twelve Converters.
The sheer number of them overwhelmed even the countless needle-like siphons. Tumor after tumor swelled up and was continuously fed into the pearls.
The twelve pearls blazed with brilliant light, endlessly converting those evil and maddening thoughts into pure power that was channeled into the Soul Light Tree—especially into the blood-red burls.
"Haha! Excellent! Just like this! Just like this! In the end, I shall become a god!!!"
From within the burls came Aragorn's ecstatic emotions.
"You are no god—you are nothing more than a mortal."
A cool, clear voice rang out from within the pearl. Jia'er gazed coldly at the burls, a hint of mockery in her eyes.
"How is this possible? You're transforming souls—how can you still speak?!"
The massive burl shrieked, and Aragorn's face surfaced upon it—his features twisted and distorted, even dissolving into a shifting mass of smoke.
"A trifling amount of evil influence—how could it possibly overwhelm me?"
A cold smile curled Jia'er's lips. "Only a mortal like you could lose their sense of self from absorbing too many souls. Pathetic!"
"Mortal? Who are you?????"
Aragorn's voice turned shrill and piercing.
"Me? Haven't you been trying to resist me this whole time?" Jia'er's aura shifted in an instant. Her eyes shone like stars, radiating an ancient, piercing wisdom.
"The Night Lady!!! You're the Night Lady!!!!" Aragorn wailed like a mouse that had seen a cat.
"Surprised? I discovered your pathetic little scheme long ago—but I chose to ignore it, letting you play your petty games."
"You wanted to become a god? Wanted to resist me? In truth, that was all part of the plan. Without that motivation, how could you have worked so diligently to complete the task?"
Jia'er's smile widened further. "And you even graciously gave me the chance to control you—how utterly foolish!"
A tremendous will descended without warning.
Though the Type Twelve Converters were still operating, something had subtly changed. A stream of pure white soul energy flowed through the network and into the blood-red burls, forming an immense web that began to devour Aragorn's power.
Meanwhile, in the other eleven pearls, the girls all opened their eyes simultaneously, each wearing the same mocking smile.
"The only one who can ultimately control a thinking entity—is me!"
With that declaration, the twelve girls' bodies turned ethereal, seemingly breaking through the barrier between matter and consciousness in an instant, transforming into flows of energy.
Through the converter network, the twelve girls—bearing immense soul energy—surged through the central metal tower and into the burls.
"No—I still have the protection of Kale and the Mermaid's will—I haven't lost yet!"
Aragorn's twisted, crazed face emerged from the burls, already blurring at the edges.
Around him, the twelve girls stood hand in hand, chanting a strange, otherworldly hymn as they encircled him completely.
When competing in a battle of wills against an eighth-level existence—absorption and sheer endurance—Aragorn didn't have one hundred-millionth of a chance.
As the mysterious chanting that seemed capable of soothing souls filled the air, the dark red burls gradually turned pure white, shrinking in size until they finally merged into the Life Light Tree.
Thump! Thump!
The instant the burls vanished, the crown of pearls came to a complete halt, and hairline cracks began to spread across their surfaces.
Upon the highest throne, Aragorn's desiccated body cracked apart inch by inch, crumbling into a pile of dry ash.
From within the ash, two streaks of light shot forth, stirring up terrifying vortexes in midair.
"Kale! Haikouer! Do you still insist on opposing me?"
In the flickering Shadow
In response to Shar's accusation, the two vortexes grew even larger. Beneath their subtle pulling force, threads of bloodline power were drawn out from every corner of the imperial palace.
"Your descendants' bloodline? And the power of their resentment—so that's it. Ten Thousand Serpents?"
Shar bit her lip.
Two phantom figures stepped from the vortexes. Even after the passage of countless ages, the overwhelming presence of beings who had once embodied natural law still radiated from them.
"Shar, we were wrong once before—we refuse to make the same mistake a second time!"
The Prophet Kale was an old man radiating an aura of deep wisdom, while Haikouer appeared as a mermaid, the waves of the great ocean surging beneath her.
In a villa on the outskirts of the imperial capital, where nothing seemed to have changed at all.
Leilin placed his final piece, bringing the game to its close.
"So that's how it is. They used the death and resentment of their descendants' bloodline to awaken the last remnants of these two ancient wills—some kind of ancient ritual sorcery."
"But the versions of them awakened this way could never reach their former peak strength—so, you're going to make your move now?"
"I've waited long enough. Today, everything comes to an end!"
Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents nodded, and with a single step forward, she shattered the void!
Whoosh!
Amid the terrifying spatial turbulence, the band holding the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents' hair came undone, and countless strands swayed and danced, transforming into the colossal serpent forms of her various descended bloodlines.
Beneath her, a serpent-sphere blazing like a star materialized, carrying an enormous reservoir of bloodline power.
At last, the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents revealed her most powerful form to the world. Far from diminishing her allure, the numerous fearsome serpent heads only added to her air of wildness and mystery.
Viewed from the Astral Plane, within the Shadow World, a titanic tree radiating incandescent white light had grown to towering proportions, on the verge of merging with the entire world.
And a serpent-sphere nearly the size of the world itself tore across the void, its massive serpent heads roaring and hissing at the light-tree.
"The Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents."
Shar showed no surprise at the Mother's arrival. "A conflict that has spanned tens of thousands of years—today, it can finally be brought to an end."
"But the victor will be me! Your horrific control is nothing less than the destruction of the world!"
The Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents struck back without hesitation.
At the same time, two pillars of purple-red light shot from the serpent-sphere and pierced into the bodies of Kale and Haikouer.
Empowered by the vast bloodline energy, these two existences' auras deepened dramatically—they had finally stabilized their strength.
"What a pity. If the Eye of Judgment stood with you as well, the three of you would surely bring about my downfall today."
Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents and the other ancient Shadow World existences stood shoulder to shoulder—three beings radiating overwhelming pressure.
Moreover, they were the native inhabitants of this world. In the primordial age, before the world's will had been subjugated, a mere contest of world authority alone would have determined the outcome!