A silent, calm sea.
Gu Qing Shan, Zhang Ying Hao, and Ye Fei Li stood on the boat, waiting for a while.
Nothing occurred.
Everything on the remote island was exactly as it was before.
“Oi, where’s that Apocalypse you mentioned?” Zhang Ying Hao spread his arms and shouted towards the remote island.
It remained exactly the same.
Gu Qing Shan pondered for a bit before manifesting a small piece of ice from the void of space and flicking it away.
The piece of ice instantly flew the long-distance towards the island’s beach.
It crashed into one of the relatively smaller rocks.
Klink!
Numerous cracks appeared on the piece of ice.
It shattered.
At the same time, the entire remote island gave off a series of busy and heavily suppressed noises.
Zi zi zi zi zi zi zi zi zi zi zi zi———
The entire island abruptly shattered.
It didn’t shatter like a piece of glass into numerous pieces, it simply disappeared.
This disappearance was so sudden and quick that a large vortex was created in the water at its previous location.
A large amount of sea water rushed towards the vortex in order to replace the empty location of the island.
Water was rushing from every direction.
The two Crossing Fish boats were pulled in by the waterflow, unable to move forward for a short while.
It was only after the water surface had settled down that the wooden boats were able to move forward again.
“I’ve never seen this kind of Apocalypse before” Zhang Ying Hao said with a solemn tone.
“Right, it was probably triggered by either the sound waves or the impact, the two objects that caused the impact would be instantly destroyed, then spread in all directions until everything is reduced to fine dust” Ye Fei Li commented with furrowed brows.
——–for the moment, he couldn’t come up with any solutions for this Apocalypse.
Gu Qing Shan closed his eyes to examine the residual fluctuations in the void, then muttered: “This power is extraordinary, it can destroy an entire world in the blink of an eye. Quite fortunately, it was limited to the vicinity of that remote island, otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
“With your current strength, can you stop this Apocalypse?” Zhang Ying Hao asked.
At this point, Gu Qing Shan had fully absorbed the power of three dragons, so he mused: “If I use everything I have, I can probably stop one such attack, but if it’s consecutive, I wouldn’t be able——”
He suddenly shut up.
Both Zhang Ying Hao and Ye Fei Li didn’t try to pursue the question.
All three of them were looking in the direction of the remote island.
They heard a faint sound of someone singing, resounding from the boundless surface of the sea.
A blurred shadowy figure was standing motionlessly at the original location of the island.
It was singing.
——-following its singing voice, the seawater retreated in every direction.
The remote island once again reappeared.
However, the island that appeared this time was alive.
It seemed to be the disguise of some sort of creature that silently climbed out from the void of space into the spot left for it in the ocean, then remained still.
No matter how they looked at it, it seemed like a remote island, the exact same remote island they were on before.
The shadowy figure didn’t bother to look at the remote island and looked towards the direction of Gu Qing Shan’s group.
It tried to fly towards them.
Bam!
A thick layer of transparent barrier prevented that.
——the same barrier around the remote island from before!
Gu Qing Shan had tried turning into a bird to fly out from the island; and so did the Raging Flame Traveler, both of them were struck and forced back.
The shadowy figure continued trying for a while, but found that it couldn’t leave, then finally landed on the remote island.
It continued its distant song of emptiness.
At this point, Gu Qing Shan’s boats had already moved a long distance away from the remote island.
They had finally left.
None of the three people on the boats said anything.
Zhang Ying Hao wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and commented: “That thing just now was terrifying, I felt like I would die just by looking at it”
“Same” Gu Qing Shan calmly replied.
He casually formed a hand seal to dry off the layer of cold sweat all over his body.
Ye Fei Li suddenly asked: “Then, what exactly was it?”
“Who knows, but do you still remember the Game of Eternal? I assume that it was the same kind of existence as the mastermind of the Game of Eternal”
“Then, the Apocalypses were actually being controlled by some sort of entity?” Ye Fei Li asked.
Gu Qing Shan replied: “Not sure. I think the chance to observe a kind of Apocalypse at such a close distance was also a kind of reward for us from [Chaos]”
Zhang Ying Hao said: “You mean——-”
“Indeed. Normally, who would ever have a chance to see the true face of an Apocalypse? Including the Game of Eternal, even with it being infinitely weakened compared to before, we never truly witnessed the masterminds behind it” Gu Qing Shan replied.
Zhang Ying Hao shrugged: “Then, in the end, we still don’t know what kind of existence was behind it”
Gu Qing Shan said: “Just wait, I’m sure the path that [Chaos] had prepared for us isn’t going to be a smooth one. We’ll probably come across and discover quite a few secrets after this”
Zhang Ying Hao clapped his hands, then said: “Do you still remember the notification at the start? Every hour, one kind of Apocalypse would descend, which means that we might still have a lot of chances to face more Apocalypses”
Suddenly, Ye Fei Li chimed in: “If this power was to descend on our world…”
The three of them went silent.
A few moments later lines of grey text appeared in front of their visions at the same time:
[From outside the infinite void]
[All calamities and Apocalypses cannot enter the Reality Gate]
[However, some minor Apocalypses would occasionally, be able to infiltrate the void where we are present]
[Apocalypses that could be killed have already been eliminated, Apocalypses that cannot be killed are being imprisoned in a mysterious dimension, while the irresistible Apocalypses are still at large]
[What you witnessed was one kind of Apocalypse, a convict of Chaos]
Ye Fei Li opened his mouth wide, quite reasonably confused: “Apocalypses can be imprisoned?”
Zhang Ying Hao was thinking much further than that and muttered: “If [Chaos] was impressive to this degree, how come it had been gone for so many years until the Soul Shrieker began to spread it again, that doesn’t make any sense…”
—-convict.
Gu Qing Shan repeated this term.
He was sure that he had heard this use of the term ‘convict’ before.
I think…
Lin once mentioned this.
But Lin also didn’t know about the secret of the convicts.
…
At another location.
The God of Life stood on the highest point of the sunken remote island, her guard up as high as godly possible.
It had been several minutes since the Apocalypse was supposed to descend.
But nothing had happened yet.
She continued to wait until the sun was about to set and finally sighed in relief.
『 It must have been a virus-type Apocalypse or one that required more than one person to trigger, or wouldn’t affect a Deity like myself 』
『 It makes sense, the Apotheotic Combat had only just begun, it wouldn’t release too many Apocalypses, nor one too powerful to test us 』
She took one step forward.
This step changed everything.
The sound of something shattering resounded throughout the entire island.
Zi zi zi zi zi zi zi zi zi zi———
『 OH NO! 』
The God of Life’s expression warped.
She released all of her black tentacles to wrap around herself, forming a black barrier.
At the very moment that she reacted; the entire remote island vanished from the surface of the sea.
Everything on it had turned to fine dust.
—–only the God of Life remained.
『 Aaargh! 』
The God of Life exuded a resounding scream of pain.
This attack was so terrifying that she became injured despite reacting to it as quickly as she could.
Large blotches of blood spurted from her black tentacles, they were also falling apart in large chunks.
But the God of Life didn’t care about these tentacles.
She was deathly fearful.
『 There are no mistakes, this is… that thing! 』
『 Damn you Soul Shrieker…』
『 ——convict! A convict is coming! 』
The God of Life muttered in disconnected, frightful words.
All of a sudden, the sound of faint singing resounded from above.
The God of Life started to display a frenzied expression and mumbled to herself: 『 I want to live… I have to live! I can’t die right now! 』
She abruptly thrust one hand into her heart cavity.
A still-beating heart was extracted from it.
Badum! Badum! Badum!
It was beating loudly.
The God of Life looked at this heart and madly roared: 『 Death God! Before you disappeared, you once promised me to use all of your divine power to condense a heart, substituting me in death one time! 』
She crushed the heart.
Immediately, another God of Life appeared from the void of space.
『 Ahahaha, I’m saved! Hurry! Quickly transport me back! 』
The real God of Life laughed.
A flash of light descended from above, enveloped her, and whisked her away from this world.
Through the fog, God of Life was continuously flying forward.
She was traversing through the long years and space to return to the place she was summoned from.
—–the battlefield between the Wraith realm and the Eternal Abyss.
She originally led the carriers of [Chaos] to participate in a war against the Abyss.
『 Saved… I’m saved… I can continue to live 』
The God of Life whispered to herself in delight.
She looked around the battlefield.
Several powerful carriers of [Chaos] respectfully remained around her.
『 How long was I gone for? 』the God of Life coldly questioned.
“True Deity, you only disappeared for around 5 minutes” one carrier of [Chaos] replied.
『 How is the battle? 』
“It will soon come to an end, the Abyss is powerless to resist at all, the people of the Wraith realm had already made their way into the frontlines, while our people remained behind without your orders”
『 Hm 』
The God of Life nodded.
Before she left, the Wraith realm and carriers of [Chaos] had already taken full control of the situation and would soon deal the final blows to the Abyss.
From the looks of it, everything had gone exactly as they all expected.
—–the Apotheotic Combat is truly a path of death, summoning a convict right at the beginning like that, no one could ever win against that.
Regretfully, neither the Soul Shrieker nor its challengers have lived long enough to understand what a convict is.
All of them will die.
The only one who survived will have been me.
While the God of Life was feeling glad about her survival, two carriers of [Chaos] walked up to her and reported:
“True Deity, the Wraith Lord of the Wraith realm had requested an audience”
『 Ah, invite him in 』
“Yes”
A few moments later, the loud sound of laughter resounded.
“Ahahaha, Deity of [Chaos], you truly are our reliable allies, part of the contributions for this great victory certainly belong to you”
The Wraith Lord had come into their camp with a few dozen subordinates.
He tossed something over to her.
The God of Life received and examined it, only to see that it was a faintly glowing yellow crystal that was covered in natural Divine Script.
This was a Divine Crystal!
Even in the world of the past, this was a great treasure!
The God of Life was silently delighted and asked: 『 Thank you, Wraith Lord. For what did we owe the pleasure of your sudden presence? 』
“It’s like this, the Tomb of Myriad Beasts had taken advantage of when we attacked the Abyss to suddenly ambush us, I can’t help but return immediately to deal with them”
『 The Tomb of Myriad Beasts? 』the God of Life pondered.
“It is part of the Samsara, a powerful one, not any lacking compared to us” The Wraith Lord replied.
The God of Life immediately understood and continued: 『 Ah… then you are suggesting…』
“This place had essentially been dealt with, the Abyss only has the last bit of forces left, so I want you to take control of the final clean-up campaigns while I return for the battle on the other side” the Wraith Lord replied.
The God of Life released her telepathy and scanned through the entire battlefield at once.
The corpses of Abyssal monsters laid all over.
The wraiths had won.
Even the carriers of [Chaos] on my part of the battlefield had begun to rest.
This is no issue at all.
The God of Life stroked the Divine Crystal in her hand, thought briefly, and replied: 『 Very well, leave this place to me 』
The Wraith Lord clasped his fist: “Thank you, after I kill of those invading beasts, I’ll surely send over other forms of thanks”
『 The Wraith Lord is too formal 』the God of Life smiled and said.
“Then I hereby officially transfer my commanding authority to you” the Wraith Lord also smiled and replied.
『 Thank you 』
The Wraith Lord had his orders relayed.
The wraiths on the battlefield began to silently retreat.
While the God of Life commanded the carriers of [Chaos] to take over the entire battlefield.
The Wraith Lord exchanged pleasantries with the God of Life just a bit more before he led the wraiths and slowly retreated.
A group of subordinates followed the Wraith Lord into the space vortex, then released a skeletal airship and all boarded it.
The airship gradually sped up and flew away from the battlefield.
It was only after he had left the God of Life’s range of perception was the Wraith Lord unable to hold himself back any longer and abruptly spat up blood.
“Wraith Lord, sir!”
His subordinates rushed over.
The Wraith Lord wiped the blood from his mouth and asked in a low voice: “How much further until our warp point?”
A subordinate answered: “Sir, we’re still 13,000 miles away from it”
The Wraith Lord panted heavily: “Ignore everything else, we can speed up now—— fly at full speed, we need to leave this place as soon as possible, hurry!”
“Understood!”
The skeletal airship began to exude an emerald glow from the top of its mast while also giving off a loud vibration.
It had begun to fully accelerate.
