Chapter 584: Cataclysm & Era
Although the phantom immediately begged for mercy, desperately clinging to the slightest chance of survival, Liora appeared not to have heard him.
Not only did her movements not stop, but they became even fiercer.
The cosmic dust continuously ground away at the phantom’s body, tearing off fragments of his soul and drawing out agonized screams.
Only when his body had bee so faint that it looked like a flickering candle did Liora finally stop.
She did not withdraw the cosmic dust.
Rather, she condensed it into a prison that pletely sealed the phantom.
Then, looking at it, she finally took the initiative to speak.
“What do you mean by ‘Era’?”
“And who erased the information about it?”
Her words brought the phantom back to reality. It recovered almost instantly from the previous torture.
As it looked at Liora, its eyes turned bloodshot.
Not from hatred or fear, but from the madness born from endless years of solitude.
“End… of an Era…”, he muttered absentmindedly before suddenly raising his voice.
“If… if you want to know… then promise you’ll let me live…”
“Otherwise… I won’t say anything…”
The man didn’t show the slightest sign of dignity.
It was as though the torture he had just suffered had never happened, and he immediately chose to beg for mercy.
This was quite different from Liora’s image of cultivators.
In her mind, cultivators should have been wise, detached, and posed.
Yet she quickly understood.
The terror of death was universal.
Under the pressure of ining death, even the most prideful and mighty expert would eventually cast aside their dignity.
Their identity didn’t matter. Whether it was cultivators, Awakeners, or even Devils, the chances of begging for mercy were all the same.
“This man has remained trapped here for billions of years. Before me, no one had entered the Heavenly Armory Pavilion.”
“Similarly, once I’m gone, perhaps no one ever will e here again.”
“In a sense, this is his only opportunity to leave this place.”
Liora silently organized her thoughts.
In the end, she nodded solemnly.
“As long as you’re willing to tell me everything you know, I have no reason to kill you.”
“I’m not a Devil after all. Killing you won’t make me any stronger.”
Liora sighed softly as though slightly disappointed by the fear in the phantom’s eyes.
Whether her acting had improved over the years or the phantom simply refused to let his final chance slip away, he appeared to believe her.
He nodded repeatedly before hurriedly speaking.
“Hehe… in truth, this knowledge was fairly mon in my era.”
“It’s only because your era has only just begun that you’ve yet to uncover this world’s true secrets.”
“Era…”
The phantom repeated the word softly.
For a brief moment, the madness faded from his crimson eyes, replaced by an unusual clarity.
“Given your strength, you’ve probably already realized that worlds beyond this one exist.”
“I’m not referring to secret realms or pocket dimensions created by powerful experts. I’m talking about worlds equal in level to ours.”
Liora was somewhat surprised that this was the first topic he chose to discuss.
Even so, she simply nodded and didn’t deny it.
The strength she had displayed earlier had already surpassed Rank 10.
Someone at that level knowing about other worlds was only natural. Admitting it would not expose her identity as a Devil.
Sure enough, the phantom showed no surprise upon seeing her agree. It swiftly continued:
“What you may not know, however, is that every one of those worlds is alive.”
“Ours included!”
“I know it sounds unbelievable. But generation after generation, my civilization’s cultivators worked tirelessly to verify this truth.”
“In the end, everything points to this fact. The world is alive. And just like any living being…”
“…it possesses a finite lifespan.”
The statement directly contradicted Liora’s own understanding and the knowledge she had collected through her journey.
In her view, worlds did not naturally die.
They were neither invincible nor eternal in the absolute sense.
Rather, as long as sufficient World Origin remained, a world could continue existing indefinitely.
bined with their characteristic of being able to absorb it for the Origin Sea, a world without external disturbances would seldom be destroyed.
“If a world reaches the end of its lifespan, then the problem lies with the world itself. It’s either that it has lost the ability to convert World Origin, or that its expenditure of energy is far too great…”, Liora concluded inwardly.
Still, she did not immediately dismiss the phantom’s words as baseless.
This person had once been an expert of an ancient civilization. It was highly unlikely he would make such a fundamental claim without reason.
Sure enough, only a moment later, the phantom continued.
“Once the lifespan of a world reaches its end…”
The phantom raised both hands before him, making a gesture through the air as though fireworks were exploding.
“Boom!”
“The entire world will be destroyed!”
As he uttered those words, a trace of fear flashed through his eyes, as though he were witnessing that apocalyptic scene all over again.
“Thankfully, anything that lives possesses consciousness—even if it is still immature.”
“And so, the world came up with a way to protect itself.”
“Every time before it…”
The phantom opened his mouth and clearly uttered a set of words. Yet no sound emerged.
At first, he didn’t even notice.
Only several moments later, when he saw the strange look in Liora’s eyes, did he finally realize what was happening.
He coughed awkwardly before posing himself.
“Every time before it… ‘Booms’, the world carries out its own plan.”
“Rather than allowing its own lifespan to end naturally, it chooses to destroy itself first. We believe this is a way to preserve as much of itself as possible, leaving behind a spark from which a new world can eventually be born.”
“After enough time passes, the newly born world will replace the previous one.”
The phantom shook its head.
“For the world, this is merely a transitional stage. But for the countless creatures living within it, it is certain extinction.”
“If one wishes to survive, one must…”
His voice abruptly cut off once again.
The phantom frowned and instinctively looked toward the sky. Annoyance flashed across his face, and he felt unfortable to have part of his own words censored.
Even so, there was nothing he could do.
At his peak, he had been powerless against that existence. Now, reduced to nothing more than a lingering soul, resistance was even more impossible.
After remaining silent for a moment, he continued, pretending that nothing had happened.
“The period between a world’s rebirth and its eventual destruction is what we refer to as an Era.”
“No one knows how many Eras our world has gone through.”
“Dozens, hundreds, perhaps even thousands. The truths of this universe have long since been buried with the passage of time.”, the phantom sighed.
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