C2080 Sky Fiend Exchanging the Heavens
At the bottom of the burning pond, the purple hue had vanished, along with the aura of the realm's Primal Soul.
Cao Jiaze, now possessed, had eyes of greenish-black. They would never return to their former purple.
The Primal Soul of this realm had been devoured by the Primal Soul of the Abyss, not merely tainted.
The two had become one.
Henceforth, the Abyss, Origin Realm, and Wasteland would share a single Primal Soul.
"You're doing well."
Through a spiritual sense, it had commandeered the body of Cao Jiaze.
Speaking as if to an old friend, it murmured, "It's over. You've met my expectations. Only you possess the skill to aid me in this unification." Its tone and expression conveyed genuine appreciation.
For years, it, alongside Yu Yuan's dominant soul, had been confined within Yu Yuan's mind.
It was the root of all beings in the Abyss and the creator of humanity. Yu Yuan was the culmination of its wisdom, the most satisfactory embodiment of its will.
Yu Yuan, an eleventh-level Solar Spirit, had previously restored the power of Primal Blood and the missing elements of the cosmic giant beast, leaving his mark within the Heart of the Everlands.
Though Yu Yuan had managed to break free, his power had been augmented.
Now, Yu Yuan, newly anointed as the Undead Sovereign and an eleventh-level God of Ghosts, approached with a sense of wonder.
He gazed intently at Yu Yuan.
Yu Yuan, having ascended to the eleventh level, had his meridians and the arcane secrets of Primal Vitality, hidden along the Path of Undead, drawn out and absorbed into the depths of his gaze.
Suddenly, beneath the greenish-black expanse of the soul sea, the depths of the pond were lined with gray-white streaks.
Each streak represented a rule governed by Primal Vitality, long coveted but never before acquired.
Through the Root of the Lunar Meridian, it had accessed only a third of the arcane knowledge comprehended by Primal Vitality.
Yu Yuan's rise as a Demonic Vessel had inadvertently delivered a substantial gift.
And it was graciously accepted.
Under the intense gaze of its dark green eyes, Yu Yuan, who had undergone a transformation into a Lunar Spirit, felt utterly overwhelmed, as if his very soul had been pinned down.
Standing before the Heart of the Everlands, Yu Yuan's newly attained form as an Undead Sovereign seemed to be encased in ice.
Rip!
Cao Jiaze, now possessed by the entity, experienced a weaving of blood light deep within his heart. The true essence of Yu Yuan's Primal Blood was being imprinted within Cao Jiaze's body.
At the Heart of the Everlands, Cao Jiaze's body became a nexus for surging energy.
However, Cao Jiaze's physique was too frail, and since the entity required his body for an extended period to manifest its power, it had to make some minor modifications.
The current Cao Jiaze was not the ideal vessel for showcasing its power after possession.
Yet, it was essential for Cao Jiaze to remain alive.
The entity did not wish for Cao Jiaze to be overwhelmed by its will, resulting in his body shattering and his Soul Pillar crumbling.
"From now on, all beings of the Abyss, the humans, and the Sky Fiends of this realm will be one family," it declared to Yu Yuan.
Yu Yuan grasped the profound implications of its statement, a chill spreading through him as he realized that calamity was imminent.
...
The fierce flames that once engulfed the Everlands receded.
Those remaining in the Ashlands, like High Priest Reid, Youqian, the Abyssal Leviathan, and the little spinosaurus, gazed at the Everlands in astonishment, puzzled by the sudden extinguishing of the flames following Yu Yuan's entrance.
Soon after, they noticed that the trembling Evil Temple had also stilled.
An eerie quiet pervaded the Everlands.
Within the Evil Temple, the colossal remains of the Evil God were strewn about.
Encased in refined iron armor, the mighty Demon God Bertain wielded his Devil Soul to master various Spirit Magic techniques, battling the still-living Evil God.
Hiss!
Bertain's Soul Power and profound Spirit Magic filled the Evil Temple, leaving deep traces on the walls, columns, and the myriad skeletons of the Evil Gods.
The weaker Evil Gods were effortlessly extinguished by his piercing Soul Light.
The formidable Evil Gods met their demise at his hands, using the Spirit Magic he had mastered to transform into various novel forms for the kill.
A colossal wheel, crafted from Bertain's Soul Power, rolled through the hall like a deep purple mass of refined iron, crushing several Evil Gods before flattening them into meat patties.
The sinister purple Shadowblooms, also refined from Bertain's Soul Power, devoured an Evil God whole.
There were demonic eyes of purple, formed by Bertain's magic power, spinning internally like millstones, exerting a deadly force.
The Realm Devourer, resembling a vast green leaf, had once unleashed a massacre in the Brugeth Astral Domain. Now, he was being consumed by the demonic eyes.
Within the bloody realm inside the demonic eyes, the millstone turned slowly, grinding the once-dominant Realm Devourer, a top contender of the Abyss, into oblivion.
The Realm Devourer had previously transformed into a gaunt Shadowkin male, contributing to the creation of the Tree of Life.
He was also the one who seduced Diggs into forming the Evil Temple, sacrificing countless lives to amplify his power in the illusory Origin Realm.
Yet now, this Realm Devourer had fallen to become just another soul under Bertain's command.
Bertain, housed within the armor, wielded a demonform. The souls he had dispatched had already claimed the lives of more than a dozen Evil Gods.
This demonform, manifested from the armor, wreaked havoc in the hall, smashing through the bodies of several Evil Gods.
The surviving Evil Gods looked upon Bertain with eyes filled with terror.
Even the guardian's heart sank as he too felt the daunting force of Bertain's power.
Suddenly, the purple devil soul within Bertain's armor began to be enveloped by strands of greenish-black soul light.
This dark green soul light spread over Bertain's devil soul at a remarkable pace, turning him a shade of greenish-black.
The guardian was invigorated by this change.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The devil souls that Bertain had released returned, merging with the dominant soul within his armor, also taking on the greenish-black hue.
Bertain ceased his assault on the Evil Gods. His possessed armor stood still, as if deep in thought, passively undergoing some transformation.
Seeing him appear suddenly foolish, the Evil Gods bolstered their courage and readied themselves to strike.
The Guardian, with a commanding tone, said, "Stop."
The assembly of Evil Gods was at a loss.
“He's already one of our own.”
The Guardian, overwhelmed with emotion, explained, “The Primal Soul that spawned the Star-Spawned Terrors has been devoured by it. Bertain, who was amassing Soul Power in the shadows beneath the Abyss, has been gradually succumbing to its depths. Henceforth, he will be the focal point for all Star-Spawned Terrors in the Origin Realm.”
The words of the Guardian left the Evil Gods, confined to the hall, utterly dumbfounded.
They soon pieced together the situation.
The Primal Soul of the Origin Realm had been consumed by the Primal Soul of the Abyss, forging a profound link between all Star-Spawned Terrors and it.
Even Bertain's soul had shifted in hue. What chance did the other Sky Fiends stand?
...
Reid and Youqian, the formidable Demon Gods among the Star-Spawned Terrors, noticed a subtle shift in the dark fire within the depths of their eyes.
It had darkened to a black hue.
The soul marks within the two Demon Gods appeared to have undergone a radical metamorphosis.
Their origin, once deemed the ultimate sanctuary by all Star-Spawned Terrors of this realm, had ceased to exist.
"High Priest!"
"Youqian!"
Both Demon Gods were taken aback by the other's altered devil soul, and they instantly realized they were affected as well.
Simultaneously, across Zionidall and the starry expanses frequented by Sky Fiends beyond the Ashlands, transformations were underway.
Even the most minor Sky Fiends, the little devils, were changing.
"How could this happen?"
Kaiya, feeling her devil soul morph and watching it turn a dark black, was suddenly adrift, bereft of direction and purpose.
She could sense that as her devil soul transformed, her power paradoxically surged.
This boost in strength was due to her corresponding source becoming more potent.
Yet, it was no longer the one she knew.
The ambitions that she and her father had strived for were now unattainable.
The creator of the Sky Fiends, the Primal Soul of this world, had been assimilated and refined by their archenemy.
Their very origin had morphed into the entity they most despised and sought to destroy.
Most distressing and horrifying of all, the shift in their origin meant they were gradually losing their aversion to the malevolence of the Abyss, instead beginning to feel an innate kinship with it.
