Whoosh!
The moment Aeon spoke the command, dark shadows materialized beneath him, behind him, and all around his position.
The shadows rippled with a deep black and purple hue, manifesting into colossal maws lined with rows of long, razor sharp teeth perfectly designed for devouring things. The terrifying constructs hovered silently before him.
This was the first active effect of his Infinite Void Devouring Physique, the [Infinite Void Glutton].
Aeon smiled, and with a simple mental thought, he commanded the maws to devour the golden water beneath them.
Instantly, the shadow maws plunged downward, sinking their massive mouths directly into the golden ocean as they began bottomlessly drinking the liquid essence.
Because it was an extension of his own physique, Aeon could feel it immediately. He felt the exact texture of the golden water and its potent effects as if he were drinking it directly instead of the maws.
He closed his eyes and initiated the internal refinement. The primary Rune of Absolute Destruction hovering near his dantian began to forcefully absorb the ambient cosmic energy around him, alongside the dense vitality of the golden water, starting the cycle.
With an immediate, violent vibration and a deep dark-purple glow, Aeon’s cosmic core was violently atomized. The moment the core was destroyed into absolute dust, the black hole-like circle at the center of the rune completely absorbed the remnants.
Then came the creation phase. The Rune of Cosmic Genesis emitted a brilliant white silver glow, instantly utilizing the pure cosmic energy and the dense life essence siphoned from the golden water to recreate a brand new, completely perfect core that was noticeably larger than before.
The Rune of Infinite Evolution glowed right after, forcing the exact same destructive process to happen again and again, while the Rune of Primal Life anchored his vitality, keeping him alive and reducing the trauma of the pain.
Aeon gritted his teeth, hardening his will as he endured the relentless cycle. This time, the sensation wasn’t quite as blindingly painful as the skin or blood refinement; it was far less demanding on his nerves.
"Arrrgh, damn it. I think I’m going to develop actual PTSD at this rate," Aeon muttered through his teeth during a brief pause in his focus. "I really wish I had a pain resistance skill or something right now... nngh!"
.....
One full month later, Aeon remained sat cross-legged on the water. The shadow maws devouring the golden ocean finally stopped their consumption, slowly fading away into particles of mist until they disappeared entirely. Aeon’s eyes flustered slightly before they snapped open.
"Huh... finally, I managed to catch up to the rest of the stages," Aeon exclaimed, letting his body drop backward to lay flat on the water as if it were a solid glass floor.
"Man, I am completely spent. I need something to eat."
For one uninterrupted month of internal time, he had focused his mind entirely on refining the core, and his agonizing hard work had finally paid off.
His cosmic core was now vastly larger and more compact, bearing absolutely no resemblance to how it had looked before.
It manifested as a flawless, blindingly white round ball that was roughly the size of a massive mountain.
Yet, the interior of the core was completely empty. A total void devoid of any internal energy.
For standard cultivation techniques found on Nexos Earth, the core refinement stage was an arduous, step-by-step process. A regular warrior had to slowly drain the existing cosmic energy inside their core, empty it out completely, and let fresh ambient energy enter.
Some would refine that energy, empty the core again, and absorb a new batch to repeat the process. Others would intentionally empty the core and draw in a massive influx of raw power to forcefully expand the walls, making the core a few millimeters larger than before. While there were thousands of different manuals, they all shared the exact same fundamental concept: the existing cosmic energy had to be emptied first.
As for Aeon, because his runic matrix had aggressively destroyed and recreated his core every 0.1 seconds, his core hadn’t even had the physical time to absorb ambient energy into itself during the loops.
But the moment Aeon allowed himself to rest, the dense cosmic energy in the atmosphere reacted violently. It was rapidly absorbed straight into his navel, rushing down his internal meridians like a torrent toward his empty core.
Whoosh!
Sensing the sudden, tremendous influx of energy filling his holistic core, Aeon sat up in shock. Once he checked his internal pathways and verified that the rushing power wasn’t causing any anatomical harm, he smiled and let out a light laugh.
"Haha, sorry for keeping you hungry for so long."
The mountain-sized core, which had been completely starved and subjected to non-stop runic torture for a month, was now passively drawing cosmic energy from the domain like a bottomless vortex.
Bright golden energy began to flood the empty void of his core immediately. Within a mere ten minutes, the colossal, mountain-sized cosmic core was completely packed with highly compressed energy.
Aeon happily nodded at the result, taking a full hour to eat a hearty meal and rest before he initiated the final step of his mortal refinement.
Once his hour of rest concluded, Aeon cleared his mind, preparing to trigger one last, monumental body-tempering cycle.
"Alright. This time, I will simultaneously refine all nine body components at once. Meaning even the Cosmic Core will be included in the loop. Furthermore, I will adjust the operational speed of the matrix, accelerating the time of each repetition down to exactly 0.0001 seconds per refinement. This way, I will comfortably reach the absolute peak of the mortal realm within one month."
With a definitive mental push, Aeon activated the catastrophic technique. The golden water of the ocean immediately rose up, completely surrounding his cross-legged form like a dense cocoon.
Within the span of a single millisecond, his entire physical form was completely disintegrated and recreated from scratch.
Because his nervous system had already been refined more than 25 million times during his previous trials, his heightened perception was fully capable of processing the rapid, non-stop sensation of his own death and rebirth.
It occurred at such a ridiculous velocity that Aeon actually felt a tinge of pity for the Reaper due to his relentless, fake death calls.
Whoosh!
Without him even noticing it, the golden water forming the cocoon began to condense and harden rapidly, shifting its structure until it took the physical shape of a giant, metallic dragon egg.
Deep inside the protective shell, Aeon’s biology began to shift. He unknowingly began transforming directly into his true draconic form. His original white blue dragon skin slowly began to mutate, altering in color, cellular shape, and physical scale.
Aeon was undergoing a profound evolutionary ascension.
.....
One month later.
Resting quietly on the boundless expanse of the Ocean of Eternal Genesis was a colossal, eighteen meter tall golden dragon egg.
Once in a while, the massive shell would emit a low vibration, absorbing waves of dark-purple energy as the entity resting inside took a deep breath.
Crack!
Suddenly, a sharp fracture line cut across the smooth surface of the egg. The initial small cracks rapidly expanded across the shell, spider-webbing outward until the entire golden structure violently detonated from the inside out.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The moment the shell shattered, a fierce, soul-crushing roar echoed throughout parts pocket Omniverse. The sheer, unbridled kinetic pressure of the vocal shockwave was so devastating that the planetary bodies and stars floating near the Ocean of Eternal Genesis plane were instantly atomized into dust, only to be flawlessly rebuilt a second later by the absolute laws of the domain.
RRRRROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRR!
Aeon, now standing proudly in his true dragon form, stepped out from the remnants of the shell, his roar vibrating the fabric of space. Intense waves of black and purple energy rolled off his massive, fifteen meter-tall draconic body.
He looked like a colossal, apex predator, outfitted with magnificent wings and a long tail that seemed to be filled with the depth of the starry cosmos itself. His scales were intricately etched with dark runic patterns that resembled permanent tattoos, and his head was crowned by four sharp, black dragon horns arranged like a royal diadem.
Sharp, golden spikes lined his body from the top of his head down to his tail and elbows, perfectly matching his lethal golden claws. His draconic eyes glowed with a deep, gold and purple light of absolute power.
Aeon looked down at his clear reflection in the golden water, thoroughly amazed by his appearance.
Picture here
"Huh... I look absolutely amazing and terrifying," Aeon laughed softly, his voice a low rumble that revealed rows of sharp, white draconic teeth as he grinned.
With sharp, mechanical chime that immediately echoed in his mind, the System window appeared before his eyes.
[DING]
[Congratulations, Master. Through your absolute mortal breakthrough, you have unlocked one of the hidden effect from your Infinite Void Devouring Physique.]
[Effect 4: Void Sovereign]
[Rank: Infinite]
[Description: The supreme master of the Void, possessing absolute, uncontested dominion over the endless emptiness that exists beyond the boundaries of reality. The bearer can freely create, shape, expand, compress, or entirely erase the concept of the Void at will, swallowing physical matter, raw energy, local space, linear time, and entire dimensional planes into infinite nothingness. Within the boundaries of the Void, your authority is absolute, rendering you an untouchable force whose control recognizes no limits.]
Aeon carefully scanned the description before checking his updated combat power level. A tiny system notification popped into view directly before his glowing eyes.
[Combat Destructive Level: Star Level]
A wide grin spread across his draconic face. "Damn... that is so incredibly overpowered."