What Aldrian saw was the horrific condition of the Pride devil. There was no trace of his once handso, youthful face. His head was already bald, covered in severe burn wounds, and his face was disfigured in the sa way.
As for his body—
He had already lost the lower half, and burn wounds covered his entire skin. Even his flesh looked cooked under the heat of the fla. He had also lost one of his arms from the shoulder.
Seeing the Pride devil’s condition, Aldrian knew the man was dying. He would die on his own soon unless he could heal himself, which he doubted.
"This man truly used everything until the end. He even resorted to his forbidden technique, breaking his limit at the cost of damaging his dantian," he thought.
He could sense that the Pride devil’s dantian had already been shattered, causing him to lose all of his cultivation. Until the end, he kept destroying that colossal rock, even though he had already used every last bit of his energy.
Just before the impact, he had activated every defensive talisman he possessed by crushing them. Those talismans were the only reason he wasn’t instantly obliterated.
The Pride devil’s closed eyes began to open, though only one managed to do so. The other had been ruined, disfigured by the burn wounds. His remaining eye gazed at Aldrian, who stood beside him, and with great effort, he opened his mouth to speak.
"Wha... what... ar... are... you?" he asked, his voice soft and hoarse, stripped of all power.
Aldrian did not answer. He simply looked at the Pride devil’s eye as it slowly closed—only to stop halfway. He had finally died, his fatal injuries and the loss of his cultivation leaving no chance for survival.
Aldrian stared at the corpse for a few monts before shifting his gaze to the surroundings. The flas that still burned across the area began to fade, gradually dying out before disappearing completely. He had extinguished the fire within his domain, intending to rest here.
His headache still lingered, and he knew he couldn’t continue in this condition. He had no idea what tricks the Devil Lord might have, and he would need to face him in his pri state.
He sat not far from the Pride devil’s corpse, took a ditative position, and finally began to recuperate.
-----------------------------
At the location of the alliance troops, they had just managed to defend themselves from the shockwave caused by the impact of the colossal rock. When they saw the rock vanish, all of them let out a sigh of relief. It was one of the most unbelievable things they had ever witnessed—a massive rock appearing in the sky and crashing to the ground, causing widespread destruction.
Many began to wonder who could have executed such a technique. But soon, all their thoughts turned to the sa person, the only one they believed might be capable of creating sothing like that.
"Was it Lord Aldrian?" soone from the troops asked.
No one answered, but they all thought the sa. For him to unleash a technique powerful enough to affect the entire continent was beyond anything they had ever seen or even heard of. It was different from Aldrian’s overwhelming sword will, which could influence swords across the continent, this ti was on another level entirely.
This kind of technique had the potential to destroy the entire continent in a single impact. If Aldrian could unleash sothing on this scale while still at the middle Grand Duke stage, what would happen if he reached the peak Emperor stage?
Just imagining it made them shudder.
The leaders of the major territories thought the sa. But they were also relieved, the stronger Aldrian was, the better their chances of survival in the future.
Even so, the scale of what he had done this ti was unlike anything from the past. He had absorbed earth energy from such a distance that the surrounding earth elent disappeared entirely for a while.
They could only wonder, what were the limits of Aldrian’s absurd ability and strength?
"Is everyone okay?! Is anyone injured?!" Emperor Ladwin called out as he looked behind him, where the troops stood.
"No, Your Majesty, we’re okay."
"All of my n are fine too."
"No injuries."
The responses ca from the troops, and the emperor gave a nod.
Sylphia, who stood not far from her father, gazed at the horizon. She couldn’t help but send a voice transmission.
"Dear, can you hear ?" she said to Aldrian.
A response ca two seconds later.
"Ah, yes, I’m okay. I’m just in the middle of recuperating, so you don’t have to worry, my love. Those devils really went all out to stop , but I’ve already taken care of them."
Hearing his response, Sylphia let out a sigh of relief, though worry still lingered. She asked again.
"Recuperating? Were you injured anywhere? Don’t push yourself if you’re hurt. You can stay there or wait for reinforcents to arrive. We’ve already reached the fog wall, if we move quickly, we can reach your position soon."
"Ah, don’t worry. I’m not even slightly injured, just a headache," Aldrian replied. "I just need a bit of rest before I’m back to my pri. Anyway, sorry that what I did affected all of you. It was my first ti using a technique like that."
His words made Sylphia smile.
"No problem. We’re all okay here. I won’t disturb you anymore—just focus on resting as much as you need," she said.
"Yes, Your Highness."
With that, the communication ended, but Sylphia continued to smile even after the connection was cut.
"Ah, my daughter must be communicating with my son-in-law. How is he? Is he okay?"
The sudden voice beside her made Sylphia slightly stunned. Since when had her father been standing there?
Emperor Ladwin looked at his daughter with a smile. He already knew that his daughter had a special communication thod with Aldrian, she had told him about it before. And there was only one person who could make his daughter show that kind of expression.
Still blushing slightly, she answered him.
"He’s okay," Sylphia replied. "He said he’s already taken care of all the devils there. It seems they went all out to block him, and he had to use that technique just now to deal with the situation."
Emperor Ladwin raised his eyebrows and nodded. As expected, that technique had been Aldrian’s doing. That son-in-law of his never failed to bring surprises.
He then inford the other leaders about Aldrian, which led them to decide to continue moving forward. The World Tree group and the wyvern group, who brought the team responsible for building the teleportation portal, took the lead, as they were the fastest among them. The main force remained behind to wait for the portal’s construction.
-------------------------------
Two days later, the situation on the continent was still tense. The topic of war remained the main focus of conversation for many people. After what happened in the devil territory when the colossal rock fell, many people talked about who could have done sothing as absurd as that.
Many had agreed that the sudden phenonon of the disappearance of earth-elent energy had sothing to do with it.
Many also agreed that soone had caused it, and many couldn’t help but think of Aldrian. He could have done this, because as far as they knew, he was the only one who had many absurd abilities and techniques all this ti, and this might be one of them.
However, besides the talk about the colossal rock, panic among the populace also rose when they saw that the portal in the sky had begun opening much faster after the event.
They did not know if there was any correlation, but ever since the rock fell, the portal had been opening more rapidly. At this point, the skies of both the Doria and Vindas Empires were already engulfed by it.
The portal had also already engulfed parts of the skies above the Atria Empire, the Ivory Empire, and the Everlasting Silent Forest. The chaos it caused had beco much more frequent compared to the past few days. So people even began to believe they should surrender to the devil god, thinking there was no hope left.
No matter how strong Aldrian was, they believed there was no way he could fight a god. This kind of thinking wasn’t surprising, as many had already fallen into despair, looking up at the portal that now covered their skies. The sense of hopelessness weighed heavily on them.
These movents were, of course, suppressed by the enforcers, but they had begun to gain more sympathy as ti passed.
While the situation across the continent was getting worse, Aldrian was finally nearing his destination, as he could now see a large and vast structure coming into view.
In the middle of the vast land, he saw a massive castle dominated by the color black. The top of the castle was shaped like a colossal altar, with six towering pillars pointing toward the sky. This was the structure he had seen from afar a few days earlier.
The black pillar that had beco his target also originated from there, with the terrifying black light at its base, so dark and oppressive, rising from the altar itself. The overwhelming aura and divine energy of Tarius could be felt most strongly in that place.
The castle also appeared to be protected, its defensive formation already activated, as the barrier could be seen clearly from where he was in the air.
As he continued approaching the castle, he noticed that the ground below was scattered with skulls and bones. A large number of them had clearly been dead for a long ti, but there were just as many that looked like they had only died recently.
Still, he ignored them and continued drawing closer. He chose to fly rather than teleport, so he could observe his surroundings in more detail and avoid missing anything. It was a precaution, in case the Devil Lord had set a trap for him.
But even as he neared the castle, he found nothing unusual. He stopped flying only when he reached the barrier, hovering just in front of it. He observed it for a mont, when suddenly, a voice called out.
"You finally ca."
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