Ery strained against the chains once more. The tal groaned, frost cracking along their surface.
For a fleeting mont, raw fury threatened to take over.
But Ery forced the rage back.
This prison was layered with formation seals that intertwined physical restraint with soul confinent. Every reckless burst of power would only feed the prison further.
No.
The answer lies in the soul.
Closing his eyes, Ery steadied his breathing and expanded his divine sense. Earlier, he had managed to create a hairline crack-just enough to glimpse the outside world through a narrow window in the pagoda's structure.
That confird just like any formations, it has the a core.
Now he needed to find it.
He withdrew a purple gem pendant from his domain and the artifact unfolded at his command, reshaping itself into a hovering cube of radiant geotry.
The Astral Link.
A high-grade tier-seven artifact left behind by Randhal, designed not for battle, but for perception and soul synchronization. As it activated, Ery felt his soul power expand and refine, his consciousness sharpening as if the universe itself had been brought closer.
The world changed.
Layers upon layers of formation lines revealed themselves across the chamber walls-interlocking seals, reinforcent matrices, suppression arrays. Each formation eye was buried beneath multiple layers of protection.
Breaking those would take hours, maybe days.
He shifted his focus.
Sweeping upward, he finally saw it-the weakest convergence point, cleverly disguised beneath overlapping formations rather than reinforced. Directly above him.
The ceiling.
No-more than that.
It was a passage. A stairway, linking this floor to the one above.
That's it.
With his physical body still chained, Ery made his decision without hesitation. He severed part of his consciousness, projecting it upward as the Dao of Heaven and Earth ignited within his soul. The Astral Link flared, amplifying the projection into a focused lance of will that pierced toward the formation eye.
The resistance was imdiate.
Cold slamd into him, biting and corrosive, as if his soul were plunging into glacial depths. The formation retaliated, compressing space around his consciousness, attempting to crush and erase it.
Ery endured.
He pushed forward, carving microscopic fractures into the formation's structure.
Then-
CRACK.
The formation eye shattered.
Ery's consciousness burst through-not into freedom, but into another chamber.
Cold mist swirled around him, thick and suffocating. The temperature plumted instantly, carrying with it a pressure that coiled like a living thing. A whispering sound echoed.
From the mist erged a massive serpentine figure, its azure scales shimring with divine frost, eyes burning with ancient malice.
VIA's warning rang out instantly.
[Azure Tyrant Serpent]
[Classification: God-Level Beast]
The serpent thrashed, ice flooding the chamber, its roar sending waves of soul-chilling force crashing against Ery's consciousness.
Fortunately, the beast was bound by the sa limitation as he was-it existed only in soul form, without Its true god-level physique.
Elysian roots ejected forth from the void, thick and radiant, coiling around the serpent's body to restrain its movent. At the sa ti, a blade of pure nothingness ford along Ery's arm, the void blade humming as it carved into the creature's azure scales. Sparks of frozen soul energy scattered with every strike.
The serpent hissed in fury.
The temperature of the chamber plumted again, an overwhelming chill flooding the space as layers of ice-law suppression pressed down on Ery's movents, attempting to freeze his soul in place-yet the Dao of Heaven and Earth surged in response, stabilizing his core and shielding him from cold.
With a sharp roar, Ery tore free.
"BREAK!"
He burst through the freezing pressure and drove the void blade straight through the serpent's skull. Not stopping there, he charged forward, his body slicing cleanly through the creature's massive soul-form, splitting it in two
from head to tail.
The serpent let out one final, distorted shriek before collapsing into countless motes of pale-blue energy, its soul dissolving into the void.
At the sa instant, Ery felt it-
One chain around his physical body snapped.
Only one.
Out of many.
Understanding dawned imdiately.
So that's how it works.
The Demon-Sealing Pagoda was not powered by formation energy alone. Each layer was reinforced by a bound god-level soul. To weaken the prison, he had
to destroy them-floor by floor.
No shortcuts.
Without hesitation, Ery drove his consciousness upward again. The Astral Link spun faster, burning brighter as it smashed through the next seal.
The path to the second floor opened.
This ti, the chamber was colder.
Two identical Azure Tyrant Serpents erged from the mist, their combined presence dragging the temperature down to an even more oppressive extre. The freezing pressure doubled, frost spreading like poison through the
chamber.
Ery narrowed his eyes.
"Bring it on."
He surged forward-and then a whisper echoed inside his mind., a female voice.
Ery twisted mid-motion, narrowly avoiding one serpent's strike as his divine
sense flared outward.
"Who are you?!" he demanded, dodging another attack as ice shattered where
he had been a mont earlier.
The voice did not co from the chamber.
It ca from above.
From within the pagoda itself.
A soft chuckle followed.
Ery's irritation flared sharply.
He had no patience for gas.
The Dao of Heaven and Earth roared within him as he forcibly shifted elents, igniting fire-aspected energy through his cultivation. The void blade
blazed brighter, tearing free from the serpents' constriction as he struck
decisively.
One serpent fell.
Then the other.
Their soul-forms shattered into light, dissolving into the void.
the voice echoed again, laced with amusent.
The girl...
Ery's mind snapped instantly to Klea.
She was here.
She was trapped in this thing.
His gaze lifted toward the higher floors, burning with challenge.
"Tell who you are!!!" he shouted upward.
Another chuckle answered him, calm and confident.
"You'll know... if you can reach the top floor.... In fact... I'll even make it easier
for you."
This ti, the seal above shattered on its own.
The path to the third floor opened willingly.
But before Ery could advance, three Azure Tyrant Serpents descended at
once, their presence plunging the chamber into lethal cold. The restraints on his physical body loosened slightly-yet the freezing suppression intensified, threatening to grind his soul down through sheer attrition.
Ery wasn't worried.
He was furious.
Enough was enough.
He made his decision instantly.
He access the Khaos hub.
Stood in front of the Famine Gate
Instead of stepping through and use his only chance of escape, he reversed the
flow.
He summoned his Light Avatar.
The rift tore open, and the avatar descended in a blaze of Killgragah's flas,
carrying with it every fragnt of law comprehension it had accumulated
across Gaia.
The effect was imdiate and overwhelming.
Ery's soul ignited.
Power surged back into him like a tidal wave.
Flas clashed against ice, obliterating suppression, it wrapped around his
form as he charged forward, annihilating all three serpents in seconds, their
god-level souls disintegrating under absolute dominance. The room shook violently.
"Stop wasting my ti," Ery snarled. "Bring them all out."
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