[Allocated time remaining: 00:00:01]
[Ding! The allocated time has elasped!]
[Ding! You have gained the Supreme General’s recognition!]
[Ding! You have levelled up!]
[Ding! You have levelled up!]
[You have obtained the hidden piece (True Origin)]
[Synchronizing...]
[Synchronization successful!]
[The hidden piece (True Origin) has been activated.]
Michael raised his brows in confusion as a series of system notifications continued to appear before him.
The Supreme General had remained motionless ever since the allocated time elapsed, but in the next moment, his body suddenly dissolved into a mist of dark energy, which spread in every direction before rapidly gathering around Michael.
Within seconds, the dark energy formed a dome that completely enclosed him inside.
"Huh?" Michael found himself in what appeared to be another dark void. However, this time, he could feel the blood flowing through his veins and the signals from his neural receptors reaching every part of his body.
He could feel his heartbeat and the air entering his lungs. There was no doubt about it. He was alive and breathing.
"What is this?"
The next second, the Supreme General appeared before him several feet away, kneeling before something in the darkness.
Michael stared at him in confusion.
Something felt strange about it, he couldn’t sense the Supreme General’s presence, nor could he feel the overwhelming power that had radiated from him earlier.
It was as if the Supreme General was there, yet at the same time, he wasn’t. He didn’t seem to exist in either a physical or astral form, leaving Michael unable to understand what was happening.
[The hidden piece has been activated.]
"The Elves have been eliminated, dragon kind has perished, three of the five realms has collapsed, and soon the mortal realm shall join them. It’s far worse than we could have possibly imagined, my Lord, what are we going to do my Lord?"
The Supreme General began speaking, his head slightly lowered as he addressed someone in front of him.
However, there was absolutely nothing there. No figure, no presence, nothing. Michael stared, utterly dumbstruck, he didn’t know who the Supreme General was speaking to or what he was even looking at.
"It’s nothing my Lord, your unmatched greatness always seems to overwhelm me. It’s just like you predicted before, the balance of the world has shifted, the divine has descended, and mortal kind has paid the price for it. What are you going to do my Lord?"
The Supreme General continued speaking, but every few moments, he would say something completely different, with no connection to what he had said before.
It was almost as if what Michael was seeing wasn’t a conversation at all, but rather a recollection.
"Okay, what the hell is going on here!?" Michael snapped, unable to bear the confusion anymore.
"Because you are my, the Supreme Ruler’s greatest soldier, I can only entrust you with this mission, Supreme General Agnes."
"Huh?" Michael’s attention was suddenly drawn to a completely different and unknown voice. He froze, his eyes darting around the dark void as he tried to locate its source.
"What mission my Lord?" The Supreme General spoke.
"Millions, no, billions of years maybe? Who knows how much time will pass, but there are consequences to rewrite what was already preordained. I will reset the nature of what was and what will be, but just as myself, the other Sovereigns were created directly from the hands of the Absolute being. It doesn’t matter if everything is reset, they are impervious to the influence of time. Therefore, my actions now isn’t to prevent the Great catastrophe that awaits humanity, it is to contain the other Sovereigns in order to prevent them from betraying the divine order."
"The Sovereigns? The Absolute being?" They were all concepts that was absolutely new to Michael the more he heard it.
The unknown voice got clearer and clearer, but even at that, Michael still couldn’t see who the Supreme General was speaking with.
"Like I said, there are consequences to rewriting what was preordained. Even if I manage to contain the Sovereigns, I cannot override the divine order that brings them into existence. Because of that, they will be unleashed into another era that neither I or Chronos can see."
"So what are you going to do my Lord?"
"I cannot stop what will happen, but there is a way, so I ask my greatest general. Will you serve me till the very end?"
The Supreme General raised it’s head for a moment, then with a firm fist to his chest, he declared. "My Lord, I will serve you for eternity."
"... Very well."
The Supreme General froze, almost as if someone had paused him like a video. He remained completely still for a few moments before his figure slowly disappeared into the darkness.
The unknown voice grew completely silent as well, leaving Michael alone in the endless, dark void.
The dark void suddenly began to dissipate into trails of dark energy, and in the next moment, the entire dome surrounding Michael disappeared, returning him to the darkness of the Abyss.
Then, the trails of dark energy soon began swirling right in front of him before gradually coming together and taking the shape of the Supreme General.
"The Supreme Ruler?" Michael held his chin, sinking deep into thought. "That’s it... I get it now, this is the Supreme general memories? That means the voice that was speaking was the Supreme Ruler’s?"
The more Michael thought about it, the more everything began to make sense. He slowly lowered his hand from his chin as a realization struck him.
The voice that had spoken, along with the strange darkness that had surrounded him, felt oddly familiar. Then, his eyes widened as the answer finally dawned on him.
"That’s right... The one other place I’ve heard that voice... Was exactly here." And by there, he meant the dark void.
Moments before his death, after he had been sentenced to death in the Abyss, the same mysterious voice had spoken to him. It was the very voice he had heard in that strange void, the one that had spoken to the Supreme General.
"I am he who was there in the beginning, and I am he who will be there at the end." He called the exact words of the entity.
"So that means... That entity... Was the Supreme Ruler?"
What became more alarming was the conversation the Supreme General had with the entity.
From their conversation, Michael surmised two things.
First, he realized that the events he had witnessed had taken place millions, perhaps even billions of years ago. The conversation was so ancient that it predated anything he could have imagined.
The second thing that caught his attention was the issue of the Sovereigns. Michael still didn’t fully understand what had happened, but one thing seemed increasingly clear. Whatever had happened to the Supreme Ruler, it had all been done to prevent the Sovereigns from descending.
But the Supreme Ruler feared that no matter how much time passes, the effect wouldn’t last long, and the Sovereigns would descend once again.
So he took measures to ensure that it would never happen, even after he was gone.
"I see..." He turned to look at the elevated throne which was the only remnant of the castle. "That’s why the system didn’t recognize it as a part of the Abyss, because it never was. The measure the Supreme Ruler took was to place his greatest general here if ever the Sovereigns should descend." Read the latest chapters at novelping dot com.
Still, there was some questions left unanswered.
"The second level had been cleared at least multiple times in the past millions of years, but no one has ever reported coming across a strange castle, does that mean it remained dormant till something awakened it?"
Micheal’s eyes shot open, and placed a hand on his chest, finally understanding everything.
The First Origin he had activated was a fragment of the Supreme Ruler, and the reason he had been unable to activate an Origin wasn’t simply because he was a Null.
The First Origin had remained dormant within him until he entered the Second Level of the Abyss, where the Supreme General was dormant.
[Ding! The hidden piece has been completed!]
[Ding! You have achieved the conditions for clearing the hidden quest!]
[You have obtained a fragment of the Supreme Ruler’s memory.]
[Your affiliations with the darkness has increased.]
[Ding! You have levelled up!]
[You have levelled up!]
The Supreme General remained motionless for a while before slowly opening his eyes. The eye slits of his helmet flared with bright purple light as he turned around and walked towards the elevated throne. After stopping a few meters away, he lowered himself onto one knee and bowed his head before the throne.
[You have extracted the skill (Supreme Legion)]
Just then, trails of dark energy began rising from the ground on both sides of the red carpet. One by one, the Dark Knights and Mobius Titans emerged from the energy, numbering up to fifty, the same fifty Abyssal Souls he had collected.
They marched forward before dropping to one knee and bowing their heads towards the throne. Soon, the both sides of the carpet was filled with kneeling figures, leaving only the red carpet itself untouched.
Michael’s eyes widened in disbelief, and his mouth fell open as he stared at what laid before him. But a moment later, he finally understood.
A soft smile spread across his face as he walked down the red carpet and climbed the elevated platform. Then he sat on the throne, crossed his legs, and looked down at the Supreme General kneeling before him.
[Ding! External Origin has been detected.]
[Ding! Origin Evolution System effect has been initialized!]
[Analyzing and extracting...]
[Analysis of A-rank skill (Supreme Legion) is complete!]
[Extraction and evolution of A-rank skill (Supreme Legion) is complete!]
[Ding! Conceptual limit of your skill has been overwritten!]
[You have obtained a fragment of the Supreme Ruler’s core, and now, from the depths of the abyss to the farthest reaches of existence, the darkness shall answer your call, and all who dwell within them shall comply before your absolute dominion.]
"Huh?"
Two more trails of dark energy swirled out from behind the combined fifty Dark Knights and Mobius Titans. The energy twisted and gathered before slowly taking shape, revealing the Abyssal Tyrant and the boss of the First Level of the Abyss, the Serpent King Naga.
"Those two are..." Micheal couldn’t believe his eyes.
The Abyssal Tyrant and the Serpent King Naga, stepped forward until they stood in line with the Supreme General. Then, they lowered themselves onto one knee and bowed their heads towards Michael, who sat upon the throne.
[You have obtained the Divine Grade Skill (Abyssal Order)]