“It can amplify the said debuff to absurd levels in two ways,” Lily said. “First, by sacrificing the special currency of us Regalons, Spirits.”
“Second, by how much chaos there is in the target done by us. This includes debuffs, as well as severed attributes and veiled aspects done by Rift of Axion Severance.”
Achromatic Progenitor blinked. “No wonder…if that debuff can be amplified to powerful extents, then this is indeed very powerful.”
“And debuffs can be anything you desire…” Achromatic Progenitor wryly smiled. “Yeah, I have no choice but to believe your Regalon geneline truly has tremendous potential.”
“Of course,” Lily said with a prideful smile. “Anyway, now that I am done. Let’s start the next step.”
“Show me your Garden of Achromatic Shrine ability tree. I’ll understand your conceptual power as much as possible so I can digest your Legacy fully.”
…
In one of the three thousand cosmoses of the third layer’s cosmo ring, one was occupied by the Big Ten of the second layer.
While being big players in the second layer, they were nothing much in the third layer.
Even in the Abyssal Grim Tower, they were on one of the lower-middle floors and struggled to become a true Mid-tier familia.
Out of those ten, only one was close to being a Mid-tier familia—the Bralamir Clan. Still, they were just close, but not nearly good enough to be mid-tier.
While Regalons were training, the Big Ten in the second layer made contact above.
The leaders of all ten clans in the garden of Arcadia Spectrum saw a screen displaying a man wearing a butler-themed outfit.
“Pray, tell. What made the ten of you contact us together?” the butler politely asked.
“As per the policy of our alliance, we hereby invoke Code White,” Zerphos clan’s leader spoke.
Hearing Code White, the butler raised his eyebrows. “So, there is a Geneline worth including in the Gene pool of our alliance?”
“Absolutely. We will halt their growth here, but if they were allowed to grow further, the Big Ten here would likely cease to exist eventually.”
“Given such potential benefit in front of us, we wish to invoke Code White.”
“Hmm, so when will the leader of this clan ascend here?” the butler asked.
“Two more years, he would participate in the Ascension Games and win. He would be ready to ascend and take his whole clan with him.”
“What about his ascension anchor?” the butler asked. “Will you be able to convince him to choose Reiulan Cosmos of the third layer?”
“Yes, of course. We plan to suppress this clan fully and make sure they are dominated by us.”
“Even without having a Geneline, they were as strong as us. Once their leader develops further alongside their clan, there’s no doubt they will surpass us. Since we know this, we will make sure they stay suppressed under us.”
“Alright. Prepare the bodies. The White Knights will descend once you give the signal,” the butler said. “How many do you want?”
“Just one from each of our clans is fine.”
“Alright. Contact me once the bodies are ready.”
To prevent another tragedy of clan erasure in the second layer, Code White was created.
By preparing peak Supreme Emperor bodies using resources, the powerhouses who had yet to enter God-rank in the third layer could descend into those bodies.
Naturally, the powerhouses descending would be those with strong combat power.
“Let’s start preparing the bodies. After that, we will rattle Regalons a bit after some time and see how they are doing.”
“Sounds good.”
…
On the other hand, Regalons invoked phase 2 of the chaotic dimension. Its nexus was unearthed as everyone was transported to different locations automatically inside a large, exotic dark forest.
[ This is the Dark Forest of Harrowing Phantoms. You must survive from phantoms and earn rewards. Every hour survived will grant you a reward, as well as increase the prowess of the phantoms. ]
[ Every twelve hours, you can take a five-hour break of five hours in a pocket dimension with other survivors of this forest. ]
[ To end the survival, one must survive for 100 hours, not counting the break-time, and after that, race to the peak of Dark Mountain that will manifest upon the 100th hour.]
[The first one to reach the peak of the mountain will acquire the Grand Treasure Chest.]
While the Regalons began wandering the dark forest, Big D began the stream.
Every device in the third layer handled by a living person got a notification from Big D’s stream with the title—[ Look who is back in action! ]
People started the stream and saw a bunch of sections, each one displaying a member of Regalon wandering the dark forest.
[ Holy crap, it’s Regalons! ]
[ It’s been a year, man! ]
[ Hey, they look different! What’s that on their foreheads? ]
[ It looks like some sort of symbol. Damn, it’s clear that all of them have gotten powerful. ]
[ Fuck, they got so many Immortal Kings and Immortals now! And that King Regalon reached Immortal Emperor! ]
[ Hahahaha, Big Ten is so fucked if they try to mess with them. ]
[ Y’all seriously underestimating Big Ten. ]
[ Man, I’ve been on Earth for the past year, but I’ve yet to become a Regalon. That King Almond isn’t growing his clan as much as others. ]
[ Yeah. Even the natives who ascended are not all Regalons. Still, the governing people and many others are Regalons. ]
[ Actually, there’s a list of people wanting to become Regalons, and King Almond looks at it every few months and turns the batch into Regalons. However, not all of them become Regalons. The AI here gathers data on everyone, and King Regalon also makes his own observations. This is what I found out from my year-long stay here. ]
[ Looks like it’s pretty strict there, eh? ]
[ Yeah. There are stupid people who do stupid things like in everywhere and commit crimes, but the crime rate is utterly low, and punishment is extra hellish here. The AI Astra of House Regalon is quite badass on top of being very advanced and capable. ]
Big D was watching the stream and flow of comments. He also connected it to Arcadia Spectrum, as Supreme Emperors there saw the stream on various screens available.
But who are the so-called spectators of the third layer that casually give away rewards like Wish Stones?
Third Layer, Upper floors—Sanctum of Primes.
Sanctum of Primes was a location only available for the families who had crossed the 90th floor of the Abyssal Grim Tower.
They were the uppermost elites, and all families below them were nothing but entertainment.
Although the most authority of the Grimworld belonged to the Seven Thrones and their families, the families that crossed 90 floors, who were on the upper ten floors also had some authority.
One of them was the authority to observe the first and second layers via mediums—like streams.
And they could also set conditions and give things. For instance, granting a challenge to someone with a reward upon successful completion of the challenge.
At the moment, many bored people were watching Big D’s stream as it started.
At one of the places on the 7th floor, a group of Godking-rank powerhouses, who were members from different families, had gathered for a Forbidden Boss Fight in a secret area that had been spawned yesterday and had just succeeded in slaying the boss.
As they were taking a break, they got Big D’s stream notification as subscribers.
“Hey, look. It’s that clan again.”
“Oblivion’s clan, heh.”
“Let’s see how powerful they became.”
“It’s been a year.”
“Well, we’ve already established that, given the potential they displayed, especially with their leader having comprehended the power of the Maw of Forgotten, they might eventually reach the upper floors.”
“But breaking through to the 90th would be hard.”
“Who knows? What we are watching right now is also not their full potential, after all.”
“Indeed.”
“The rules of this nexus exploration are quite familiar, haha.”
“Haha, yeah. Look at that guy. He’s got three Phantoms behind him. Since he wants to do that, let’s spice things up.”
Adrian was getting chased by three Phantoms, but not because he was afraid. Instead, it was because he wanted to gather as many Phantoms as possible.
“Come on!”
Suddenly, Adrian heard Big D’s voice and saw a screen appearing in his mind.
[Hey, brat. Someone put up a challenge for you. Take a look.]
Adrian looked below at the challenge, and his eyes almost popped up. ‘Are you kidding me?’
[ Hey, brat. Since you are gathering Phantoms, why don’t you gather them until this hour is over? If you survive, you’ll get a wish stone. ]
Adrian blinked and glanced at the Phantoms. He was flying at Hyper Speed 1, and so were the Phantoms.
But his max speed when going all out had reached Hyper Speed 2.
‘This is going to be an easy win. It’s been ten minutes, and I got three Phantoms behind me. In that case, I would get a maximum of 18 to 20 Phantoms at most. Heh, with the new abilities of Geneline, this will be easy.’
As time passed and the fourth phantom arrived, something strange happened. All five Phantoms merged together to become a bigger and stronger Phantom with four arms and a beastly maw!
Each phantom was black and like an ethereal shadow, but had distinct forms. It could be humanoid or monstrous.
And now that those five phantoms merged together, the empowered Phantom’s speed increased!
‘What the fuck?!’ Adrian burst out with flames from his pores as he turned into light, increasing his speed to reach Hyper Speed 2.
‘Is this like a hidden rule or something?!’
Meanwhile, most of the others had managed to kill the Phantoms as they ambushed them.
Some other Regalons also gathered Phantoms since they wanted to experiment with something about their combat powers, but got the same nasty surprise as Adrian.
Well, all in all, this chaotic dimension had a pretty good activity to increase combat ability with this mechanism of wandering in the large and exotic dark forest with strange Phantoms attacking them out of nowhere.