“W-What happened, Mr. Almond?” Augaran asked, sweating bullets.
Suddenly, everyone felt death itself for a brief moment, and then they saw one presence in the area disappearing.
Augaran was shattered into a million pieces as they floated and began spreading out slowly.
Everyone’s heart turned cold.
Garoyan was about to speak but shut his mouth, his sweat beads increasing.
But in the next moment, Almond’s eyes flickered as Augaran’s million pieces flashed and he conjoined. Revived.
His eyes trembled intensely, and his breathing turned chaotic as he touched himself and looked at himself, sweating all over.
“Next time you say anything stupid, the darkness of death you felt will become permanent.”
‘What?!’ Garoyan was shocked. ‘What was that? How did he revive him?’
‘A pure conceptual power that can fucking revive people after killing them?’ Garoyan’s soul shook. ‘And that too, an immortal emperor…’
But who would tell him that this was a part of Almond’s magnum opus? An execution using Riftveil Grimblade’s Unbound Eyes to completely scan the target’s existential data and using Spirit Animation to use that data and memory for metaphysical conversion.
As long as he kept the target’s soul from getting sucked by the Grimworld Tree, which he could if he killed the target himself or saw a target getting killed in his presence, he could revive them!
By now, the Immortal Emperors of the Darton clan were trembling in fear while the Supreme Emperor Tarondal was squeezing his brain to make the situation better.
“Did you hear what he said?” Lily coldly said as she saw Augaran starting to act from initial shock and disbelief. “Behind that smiley face, you are one hell of a rotten trash, and you know that.”
Augaran looked at her; anger surged initially, but that was only briefly because of his instincts before intense fear settled in upon a reminder of what just happened to him.
“Bring our people right now,” Admiral Rudra spoke, his expression flat. “It’s for your own benefit. We’ve gone through enough already, and Almond here has no tolerance anymore when it comes to others harming our people.”
“And frankly speaking, I don’t think you can leave a scratch on us, let alone defeat us.”
“Five seconds,” Almond uttered, his patience running thin. “Open the goddamn portal to their location right now!”
His voice literally trembled the space and atmosphere as his overflowing will suffused into it, shaking everyone to their souls.
“Stop!” Tarondal shouted, his face ugly yet fierce. “If you do anything to us anymore, I assure you that you will never find your people. They will-“
Almond’s eyes flickered as he instantly reduced Tarondal’s stats by 70% using Unbound Hack, his will decimating Tarondal’s as it was one stage lower.
He also signaled others to make their moves, as he was tired of the Darton clan’s bullshit. He had other ways to get the location.
Tarondal was in disbelief as he felt severely weakened, and Almond had also hacked his senses away on top of that, but he only felt this briefly before death embraced him.
This time, Almond erased this Supreme Emperor into not millions, not billions, but trillions of motes and scattered him away while forcefully converting his soul into his metaphysical data, turning him into a true spirit.
Lily used Achromatic Domain over everyone, disabling them before cutting off Augaran’s limbs, while Spirit Lords automatically entered competition mode, which Asura the Doom Bringer won as he killed six Immortal Emperors at once before anyone.
As Almond’s strongest Spirit Lord, Asura was the third most powerful existence in the House of Regalon, right after Almond and Lily.
Everything happened in milliseconds, at Hyper Speed 3.
The only ones alive were Augaran and Garoyan, though other Immortal Emperors were also semi-alive as Almond kept their souls for now instead of turning them into true spirits.
Admiral Rudra didn’t even do anything except keep an eye on Garoyan and shatter his abilities in case he interfered with his Time power as Garoyan had Time elemental mastery on top of having that Time-attributed artifact.
But Garoyan was wise and stayed obedient while his mind was whirling. ‘This is crazy…they are more powerful than expected. This Almond especially… such powerful summons, on top of…what did he even do to Tarondal to kill him that fast?’
His heart was filled with genuine fear after seeing how fast Almond killed Tarondal. Granted, Tarondal was not that strong of a Supreme Emperor, and neither of the Supreme Emperors here was qualified for Ascension Games, but they were Supreme Emperors for fuck’s sake! They had reached peak stats, Ability Tree development, one or more elements, one or more Intents, and at least 8000 in Arcane Constitution, which was the entry-level for Supreme Emperors!
But these three were freaking Immortals!
‘That old guy might not be able to beat a Supreme Emperor, though. His will is on par with mine at best, but he is lacking in other aspects, except for Intents, which he has two at peak. But his potential is powerful precisely because of that. Once he develops more, he will become as terrifying as these two.’
‘Hmm? What is Almond doing?’
Almond’s palm was half a meter away from the limbless Augaran, who was completely restricted by Lily’s dreadspire debuffs and achromatic domain, while his stats were drained as he just helplessly floated.
His senses were robbed, so he couldn’t see, speak, hear, or feel anything.
But Almond was reading his memories forcefully while making sure Augara felt as much pain as possible.
“Found them,” Almond said before his eyes turned a degree icier and he waved his hand, scattering Augaran into mist, keeping his soul, and turning him into a true spirit.
“Let’s go,” Almond said as he put Spirit Lords back into Spirit Realm and waved his hand, creating a portal leading to the location he acquired from Augaran’s memories.
But before entering, he turned to Garoyan and flatly said, “Don’t leave my presence yet. Don’t even think about it if you want to continue living.”
“Of course,” Garoyan said with a weak smile. “I am not foolish enough to oppose you.”
“Go in first, then,” Almond gestured at the portal.
Garoyan gulped and nodded as he entered first, followed by Almond and then the rest of the gang.
They arrived in an underground area, a moderately sized hall with three doors in the middle, leading to pocket dimensions.
That female Supreme Emperor’s presence lingered here, meaning she came here after losing her fight.
“It’s the third door according to Augaran’s memories,” Almond hurried in as he felt the feedback from Natalia, Marcus, Maya, Emma, Kira, and Noah weakening further.
Everyone swiftly entered the door, with Garoyan entering last, but the moment he entered, a killing intent exploded so strong that even though it wasn’t directed at him, he felt like he was standing amidst the ocean of blood with mountains of corpses in the surrounding and cracked sky, a scenery Almond had created during his trial of Paradise of Nightmare by killing enemies to survive.
‘What?! What happened?!’ Garoyan had to focus as he slapped himself and looked ahead.
Instantly, his heart turned cold. The raging murderous intent was overflowing from not just Almond, but also Lily and Admiral Rudra, as they saw Natalia and others in a chamber, their skin peeled, naked, and tortured, while Supreme Emperor Feliona stood nearby, covered in their blood with pieces of flesh stuck in her extended nails, and Bryan, the guy responsible for this mess, was in the process of removing his pants while facing Natalia, who was being healed so that he could ravage her.
Feliona and Bryan froze as Almond and others entered.
Garoyan felt his heart trembling, his eyes on Feliona and Bryan. ‘Your clan is so fucked…’