Beyond the Apocalypse

The eyes of the Devil Paragon widened as he saw the spear emerge from his chest.

For a fraction of a second, Baal could not comprehend what had happened. The weapon had pierced cleanly through his body, its radiant tip erupting from his sternum as divine energy flooded his veins like molten light. His instincts screamed at him to retaliate, to release his power, to crush the one who had dared strike him—but before he could act, another force followed.

A devastating wave of psychic might and soul-sundering power surged through the spear.

It did not merely wound his body.

It reached directly into his soul.

"—!"

Baal’s consciousness trembled as the attack tore through the core of his existence, shredding the very essence that sustained him. His soul—vast and ancient, forged across millions of years—fractured under the overwhelming assault.

Then it collapsed.

"BOOOOOOM!"

The death of a Devil Paragon unleashed a catastrophic shockwave that rippled through the void itself. Space twisted violently as the Law of Gravity momentarily spiraled out of control after losing its most powerful vessel. Invisible tides of gravitational force surged in every direction, distorting the darkness like waves spreading across an endless ocean.

For a brief instant, the universe itself seemed to shudder.

Vlad’s eyes remained cold and focused as the radiant spear of Longinus dissolved into particles of light and vanished. Without hesitation, he caught Baal’s falling corpse before it could drift away.

Immediately, he activated the Law of Life.

A gentle emerald glow spread across the body of the fallen Paragon, sealing the damage and stabilizing the corpse. Vlad ensured that neither the bloodline nor the body suffered any further degradation.

Capturing Baal alive would have been ideal.

But Vlad and the White Death had both understood the risk.

If they had hesitated—even for a single second—Baal could have chosen to self-destruct. A Paragon’s suicide would have annihilated his body, shattered his bloodline, and possibly devastated the surrounding region of space. The opportunity to obtain a Paragon-tier bloodline would have vanished forever.

Fortunately, Baal had never been given that chance.

Slowly, satisfied smiles appeared on the faces of both Vlad and Alexandro.

They had not merely killed a Devil Paragon.

They had secured a Paragon-tier bloodline from Hell—an irreplaceable treasure and a core component for the Unification Project. With it, Vlad could potentially forge another Half-Step Empyrean Bloodline, pushing their faction’s power to an entirely new level.

Yet the victory was not without cost.

Vlad turned his gaze toward Terra.

His expression darkened.

The damage left behind by the battle was catastrophic.

Terra had grown into a Supreme World, reinforced by countless formations and nourished by decades of evolution. Its foundations were far stronger than those of ordinary worlds. But even so, a battle involving four Paragons was capable of collapsing entire layers of the Abyss.

And Terra had paid the price.

From orbit, the planet now resembled a scarred and broken sphere.

Across every continent, massive shockwaves had devastated the surface. Entire mountain ranges had been flattened. Cities had vanished beneath craters or been swallowed by titanic fissures in the crust. Volcanoes erupted across half the world, flooding the land with rivers of magma and clouds of ash.

Every vertical structure had collapsed.

Every great city had fallen.

The continents themselves bore the marks of unimaginable violence.

Powerful Sages and Legends might survive in such an environment, but the rebirth of a true civilization was impossible—at least not for centuries.

"War requires sacrifices."

The calm voice of the White Death echoed through the void.

Vlad slowly nodded.

It was painful to see Terra reduced to such a state. This was the world where he had built his kingdom, where he had met his wife, where he had led his people and watched them grow stronger.

But it could have been far worse.

If Vlad had not anticipated the possibility of a direct invasion, billions of lives would have been lost today.

He inhaled slowly and then released Overlord.

The True Depravita of Pride emerged beside him, his expression completely calm as he observed the ruined planet. Even though his evolution had granted him the ability to experience genuine emotions, he rarely allowed them to surface.

Without speaking, he glanced at Vlad.

Vlad gave a small nod.

Overlord opened his mouth.

The vast Nightmare Universe—the dark cosmic structure that had surrounded Terra—began collapsing inward, shrinking as it was drawn into Overlord’s body like a devoured star.

There was no reason to leave such a powerful construct behind. Terra would remain uninhabitable for a long time, and allowing the Nightmare Universe to linger here would only waste its potential.

But that did not mean Vlad intended to abandon the world.

Once the Nightmare Universe had been fully absorbed, Overlord merged back into Vlad’s body.

Vlad and the White Death exchanged a glance before both unleashed their soul force.

Their consciousness expanded outward like an invisible tide, spreading across the entire planet until every inch of Terra lay within their perception.

Then Vlad’s Quantum Eye began to glow.

Power surged through his body as he pushed the Law of Space to its limit.

The surrounding void trembled.

Space itself seemed to transform into a vast ocean, its currents flowing around Terra in endless waves. The fabric of reality folded and twisted as the dimensional pressure increased.

Slowly, the ocean of space swallowed the planet.

And then—

Terra vanished.

An overwhelming exhaustion struck Vlad immediately after. His body had already been pushed to the brink during the battle, and performing such a feat drained the last of his remaining strength.

But when he saw the empty void where Terra had once been, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

The world had not been destroyed.

Vlad had simply moved it.

Terra now rested within the dimension between layers of space, hidden from the universe. There it would remain safe from enemies, concealed in a realm where even powerful beings would struggle to locate it.

Of course, the planet would constantly endure violent spatial storms, making life impossible for now.

But those storms would not destroy it.

In time, Terra would stabilize.

And when that day came, Vlad intended to retrieve it and continue evolving the world until it became a realm so powerful that not even Empyreans could threaten it.

"I suppose you’ll be returning to Hell," The White Death said calmly.

The Xaos King nodded slightly.

"Then I should move to the Abyss."

"There’s no need for that," Vlad replied with quiet confidence.

"The wounds I inflicted on Demogorgon and Abaddon reached their souls. Even if they recover quickly, they won’t be able to fight at full strength for some time. Brightkin, Orkin, and Merlin can handle them."

He glanced at Baal’s corpse.

"You should remain in Hell. The essence of that plane will help while you assimilate his bloodline."

Alexandro followed Vlad’s gaze to the fallen Paragon.

A thoughtful light flickered in his eyes.

"Gravity... and Entropy."

The potential synergy between those forces was obvious.

Though the final result was impossible to predict, Alexandro could already sense the profound connection between them—and the tremendous power it could produce.

After a moment of consideration, he nodded.

"Good," Vlad said.

"Once we recover, Jormungandr will help you with the assimilation."

His gaze sharpened slightly.

"And after that... we need to figure out how to obtain the essence of a Demon Paragon."

Although Vlad would have liked the bloodline to go to one of the True Depravitas, the White Death was one of the two pillars of the Six Sun Alliance, and the benefits of his undergoing the Unification were far greater. With everything decided, the duo left the void and marched back toward Hell.

The White Death headed to the Fourth Layer. The Xaos King broke the fusion, revealing the True Depravitas so they could move freely while crossing the infernal realm.

The First Layer of Hell still resembled a vast, fiendish wasteland of death and agony. That was understandable—after all, a few attempts at terraformation could not erase eons of devilish influence. The air carried the lingering weight of corruption, and the ground remained scarred by ancient wars and rituals.

Yet Vlad soon marched past those desolate lands and set his gaze upon something unexpected: massive domes, each large enough to encompass small continents. They were protected by several fields that bent light and perception, making them impossible to detect unless one stood directly before them.

Inside those domes was life.

Lush vegetation spread across fertile plains, and forests thrived beneath artificial skies. Rivers flowed peacefully, and animals roamed freely—flora and fauna that would normally exist only in a world governed by the Laws of the Light. And within those enormous sanctuaries lived tens of millions of people.

Beelzebub and Baal had planned to strike the people of the Xaos Kingdom. Yet what none of them could have ever imagined was that those same people were currently living inside Hell itself.

Instead of crossing galaxies or employing mind-bending formations capable of twisting the very laws of the universe, their targets could have simply been found in the First Layer. The solution was so simple that it bordered on genius—so straightforward that even the Alien Powers had never suspected it.

Vlad soon entered one of the domes. His gaze drifted upward toward the golden sphere of plasma suspended in the ceiling of the artificial sky.

That sphere was pure, concentrated Divine Power—the core component behind the alteration of the local laws. It maintained the environment within the dome, shielding its inhabitants from the corruption and pollution of Hell while allowing life to flourish peacefully.

Vlad concealed his presence as he walked through tranquil gardens and elegant pathways until he reached a quiet pavilion beside a clear lake.

There sat a gorgeous woman.

The moment Vlad saw her, pure love and devotion appeared in the eyes of the True Depravita of Wrath. He approached silently before sitting beside Freya, gently taking her hand in his.