"Haha, don’t be afraid; I will not harm you all, at least not at the mont. But it will depend on your choice." The cloaked leader said with a calm and chilling voice as he was deciding their fate.
The banquet hall fell into a deeper silence.
The cloaked leader’s voice echoed softly—but each word struck like a blade on the soul. It wasn’t rely the weight of power behind the words—it was the certainty. The finality in his tone. As if fate had already been written, and he was simply informing them of the page they were on.
Even the ancient races who had greeted his arrival with excitent now wore solemn expressions, as though they too understood that what ca next would reshape everything.
Apollo’s eyes narrowed slightly.
’Hall of Hell... sanctum... traitor...’
He recalled that mont long ago—when his Eternal Sword Rule had moved on its own, sensing a presence that should not exist. And now it moved again.
His fingers tightened briefly on his armrest.
’Could it be... soone of the sa origin? Or sothing even worse?’
Apollo remained still, but his interest deepened. Whatever this being was, he did not belong to Rion... or perhaps not even to this universe.
The cloaked figure scanned the room slowly, and though no one could see his full face, all could feel the invisible string tightening around their throats.
"You all know", he continued, "that the world is changing. The secret realms are awakening; ancient forces are stirring... And soon, this little planet will be no longer just Rion."
"Already many ancient races have awakened, and so even stronger ones will soon awaken. When that happens, the Seal on Rion will be lifted, and those ancient races will finally be able to regain their true strength, and you all should know what your situation will be at that ti."
The cloaked leader’s words crashed down like a storm cloud over the banquet hall.
His voice was neither loud nor aggressive, but it didn’t need to be. Every syllable carried with it the weight of inevitability—like the toll of a funeral bell. Final. Inevitable.
The cloaked figure took a single step forward. The ground beneath him groaned, not from weight—but from truth.
"And when that happens... you must ask yourselves this: What will your place be? The noble clans? The empires? The sects? Even your so-called Void Gods—how long do you think you’ll stand when those who once ruled in the past take the sky again?"
A deathly silence followed.
So among the newer clans clenched their fists in anger or fear. And others—those who had walked through a hundred years of blood and fire—simply lowered their eyes, already seeing the battlefield ahead.
Apollo’s eyes narrowed as he leaned back, the calm in his deanour never faltering. He already noticed this when he entered Rion, and after carefully feeling the seal, it was indeed weakening.
’It won’t hold much longer,’ Apollo thought. ’At most a few years... maybe less.’
In fact, most of the upper-rank people naturally understood that the power structure of Rion was already broken and they were barely maintaining their status.
For now, they still held authority. They still ruled cities, commanded armies, and walked as giants among n. But that was only because the Seal still shackled the true monsters beneath the surface.
Without it?
The empires, sects, and noble families who reigned over Rion would crumble like sandcastles before a rising tide.
It wasn’t a question of if. It was a matter of when.
And when that mont ca... Only the truly strong would survive.
The cloaked leader continued, "So if you all wanted to survive, you all have only one choice: to join other ancient powers, and I today ca here to give all of you that chance. Because only by joining us can you all survive and even reach a higher stage that you all never thought of."
The words dropped like thunder in the silent hall.
"Join us... or be swept away." A simple ultimatum—calm, clear, and terrifying.
The cloaked leader’s gaze swept across the hall again and was filled with a more powerful aura. Though his face remained hidden, the weight of his presence bore down on the guests like a collapsing sky. Many of the younger cultivators looked pale. Even seasoned elders clenched their fists beneath their sleeves.
The aning of his words was clear, and his crushing aura was for them to understand the difference in strength between them.
Apollo’s eyes glinted, the corners of his lips curling ever so slightly in amusent.
So that’s your ga. Consolidation through fear. Control by promise. Submission in exchange for survival.
It wasn’t a new tactic. Throughout the universe, countless rising forces had done the sa. Invite allegiance under the banner of protection, then devour all resistance from within. Once you accepted that kind of "offer", your future no longer belonged to you.
Apollo’s voice was low, but it cut through the tense silence like a blade.
"What happens to those who refuse?" He finally made his move as if his guess was correct and this group had a connection with that weird power; he needed to take care of it, otherwise it would be troubleso.
Not to ntion because of the seal, they all have their strength suppressed at the peak of the void god realm, and it was a perfect chance for him to eradicate them, as he wasn’t afraid of even ancient beings in the sa realm.
The hall went deathly still.
Apollo’s words echoed like a distant thunderclap — quiet, but carrying a force that shattered the silence and shook the hearts of many present.
All eyes turned toward him.
Even the cloaked leader’s figure stilled. His black, abyss-like eyes turned fully toward Apollo, and for the first ti... there was a pause. A flicker. A ripple in the calm composure he had maintained until now.
"You..." He imdiately noticed sothing as they t one another, and the soul-suppressing aura seed to burst out from him, trying to suppress Apollo.
Both of their auras seed to collide, and the atmosphere within the hall seed to change instantly.
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