People. People everywhere. Torren could never have imagined, even in his dreams, that one day he would see so many people.
The populations of the towns and villages surrounding the Black Castle continued to pour in, quickly placing a terrifying strain on public order and the environment.
The grain provided within the city was extremely limited, forcing the refugees to fend for themselves. Barely a day went by without a body being carried out of the refugee camp.
Under this terrifying ordeal, Torren waited another half month before his group was finally called.
"Listen well! On the other side lies the divine realm of our lord, Ilmater, the God of Suffering. You must obey the commands of the Heroic Spirits and the Petitioners..."
A bishop who was obviously a person of great importance stood atop a raised platform, beside which towered a massive gate shimmering with golden light.
Under the church's arrangements, the refugees managed to form a ragged line, inching forward with great difficulty.
"Beyond that gate — is it a world of endless fertile soil, free from plague and famine?"
Torren stood in line, gazing at the golden gate ahead, his eyes filled with longing and yearning.
Finally, the end of the crowd reached him.
"A new life — here I come..." For reasons he couldn't explain, Torren's eyes suddenly grew moist.
But just as he drew a deep breath, prepared to bid farewell to the old era, a terrifying earthquake struck without warning.
"What's happening?!"
Torren was hurled to the ground, staring blankly at the scene before him.
The earth began to sink into darkness, and in the void above, a colossal nine-headed winged serpent blotted out the sky, casting down a terrifying shadow.
The entire Material Plane trembled. The gods roared and bellowed in fury. The connection between the divine realms and the Material Plane was severed in an instant.
Watching the golden gate crack and crumble with a thunderous crash, Torren let out a desperate scream: "No!!!"
……
Chapter 477. The Endless Hell, Part 2 In the endless hell, within Linley's Divine Realm.
Sha'er slowly walked into Linley's temple, gazing at the Chip Avatar enthroned high above.
"I've completed the core of the Shadow
The clever and spirited young girl handed a mass of dim, purple radiance over to Linley.
Even though the being before her was merely an avatar, the power it possessed was in no way inferior to her own, making Sha'er keenly aware of Linley's true strength.
"The core of the Shadow Weave?!"
The Chip Avatar accepted it with an ambiguous smile, sizing up the former deity before him.
Originally, Linley had thought Sha'er might be somewhat resistant to the Wizards once again initiating the Final War, but now it seemed she harbored little sentiment for her homeland. Or, to put it another way, she was filled with a certain desire for conquest—especially the wish to inherit the legacy of her former mortal enemy.
"Well done..." A blue light flickered in the Chip Avatar's eyes as the entirety of the Shadow Weave became clear to him at a glance.
Then, under Sha'er's surprised gaze, he directly tossed the Weave core back to her.
"Rebuilding the Weave, using the shadow to replace the former divine portfolio... Your experience in this far surpasses mine..."
The Chip Avatar looked at Sha'er with a smile. "Therefore, this task, as well as the job of bringing the remaining Wizards under our banner, I'm entrusting it all to you!"
"...!" Sha'er looked at Linley with a complicated expression.
Rebuild the Weave! Unify the Wizards!
Even a brief consideration revealed the terrifying amount of power that could be gained from these two tasks alone!
Even though the Shadow Weave was far from as powerful as the Weave forged jointly by all the gods, and even though the
And it was precisely this kind of immense authority that Linley was now granting without the slightest hesitation.
"Your true body... I assume it must be on the verge of reaching the peak of the Eighth Order?" Sha'er was silent for a moment before suddenly asking a counter-question.
"The Path of Original Sin holds no further mysteries before me..." Linley's reply was deeply meaningful.
"Go… gather the remaining mages under your banner… Be careful not to absorb too much divine faith. Otherwise, once your essence transforms into that of a true deity, that would be something none of us wish to see…"
In the end, Linley still offered a word of warning.
Sha'er nodded and walked out expressionlessly, leaving only the gaze of the deity still fixed upon the phantom shimmering on the horizon.
With Sha'er's identity, inheriting
After all, Sha'er had once held divine authority over both the Shadow Weave and the office of mages in the ancient era, and possessed an unparalleled understanding of the
Moreover, although the mage class was currently in dire straits, the knowledge and experience they had accumulated over the ages were all genuine, along with their extensive practical expertise in spell-slot casting — a considerable fortune in its own right.
Given their desperate circumstances now, all Sha'er would need to do was toss out a few scraps, and they would come scrambling like starving stray dogs.
It had to be said that these people still possessed real strength — once they recovered a portion of their spell slots, they would be a formidable force in the Prime Material Plane.
Linley's true body was already on the verge of advancing to the peak of the Eighth Order — equivalent to the Greater Deity tier of the World of Gods.
Once that advancement was complete, he would fully join the Final War. His avatar, naturally, needed to make preparations for what lay ahead.
……
Deep within the fathomless subterranean expanse of the Divine Kingdom.
"Hsss… hsss…"
The phantom of the Nightmare Hydra coiled and hissed without cease. Countless strands of negative emotion — the essence of 'evil' — were continuously drawn forth from the hearts of the masses by the nine grotesque serpent heads. The dense emotional energy condensed into dark, heavy black mist, wrapping layer upon layer around the surrounding space.
At the core of that black mist, the sheer intensity of the emotional force began to liquefy on its own, forming a dense veil of dark vapor. At the very center, it had crystallized into a colossal mountain of black crystal.
Within the heart of the crystal mountain, Linley's eyes were faintly shut, and the aura emanating from his body had grown even more profound and abyssal.
"The Path of Original Sin represents all the evil in the world…
A sensation of perpetual, ineffable enlightenment bloomed around Linley's body.
BOOM!
Behind him, the Path of Original Sin erupted into manifestation, like the convergence of every conceivable sin in the world — filled with a sense of terrible, absolute perfection.
"Hsss... hisss..."
The Nightmare Hydra let out a rasping hiss as a mote of amber light shot forth from between its serpentine fangs.
At the center of the amber, a great devil brimming with the essence of evil — as if born from the very origin of all demons, a being intimately connected to the Nine Hells of
"The core of the Seven Deadly Sins... the final shred of evil essence needed to complete my Path of Original Sin...
Linley murmured, and the Path of Original Sin surged forward with a thunderous roar, swallowing Asmodeus whole in the blink of an eye.
"No..."
In the final instant before his complete annihilation, the lord of the infernal realms unleashed a last, furious roar — though it accomplished nothing whatsoever.
The ultimate power of Original Sin melted Asmodeus down completely, breaking him apart, stripping away every impurity, until that single spark of abyssal light — the purest essence of evil itself — slowly dissolved into the Path of Original Sin.
Ding!
The Path of Original Sin was instantly perfected, suffused with a quality of absolute flawlessness, while Linley's Original Sin True Spirit roared forth and merged completely with the Path.
"Now!!! Nightmare Power!!! Refine!!!"
The pinnacle ascension of Dream Power — the fundamental force of the world that only the Dream
Vast quantities of Nightmare Power, carrying a heaviness sufficient to bear the weight of all things, poured into the Path of Original Sin.
Linley's physical body — a Rule Body that had been tempered through a thousand trials, one sturdy enough to withstand the assault of Primordial Force — began to slowly dissolve as well, sinking into the Dao that loomed behind him, a Dao that seemed to embody the world itself.
"From this day forth... I am Original Sin. As long as the Path of Original Sin endures, so shall I!"
Whoosh...
The flawless Path of Original Sin roared, transforming into a colossus that towered between heaven and earth. Its features were faintly those of Linley, and upon its back was tattooed the Nightmare Hydra, each of its rule-bearing serpent heads rendered with vivid, lifelike detail. Its entire being radiated the essence of law and power as it unleashed a roar that shook the entire multiverse.
[Ding! Host's Path of Original Sin perfected! Advancing to the Eighth-Level Limit!]
[Ding! Anomaly detected in Host's soul. Initiating passive System upgrade!]
......
The Chip, unified with Lei Lin Farrell's soul, emitted a segment of information, then sank into a long silence.
It seemed like a day had passed, yet also as though years had gone by before the Chip's prompts refreshed once more.
[Ding! System upgrade complete. Rule database perfected. Beginning to interface with the laws of space-time...]
[Ding! Anomalous fluctuation detected — subject has advanced to Eighth-Level Limit Wizard! All data indices fluctuating abnormally. Re-collecting...]
In that instant, Lei Lin Farrell's database was updated accordingly: [Lei Lin Farrell — Wizard, Eighth Level (Limit State)
Bloodline: Nightmare Hydra (Complete Form) Strength: 90 Agility: 100 Constitution: 130 Spirit: 200 Soul State: Original Sin True Spirit (Peak) Rule Comprehension: Devouring (100%), Slaughter (100%),
Abilities: Dream Sight, Legendary Primal Energy Sense, Illusion Mastery, Reality Alteration, Transcendent Slaughter, Decree of Death] Lei Lin Farrell only gave the stat panel a brief glance — his numbers had already far exceeded all reasonable limits, surpassing even the might of a Greater God.
What caught his attention far more were the annotations the Chip had posted alongside.
"Every stat is either at its apex or at perfection... does this mean I've reached the end of the Wizard's path?"