Decades flowed excruciatingly slowly for those surviving in the war.

Each day was a blessing and each night slept well and without worries was worth celebrating.

With mounting battles and increasing deaths, though the number of cultivators and their ranks rose, the resources were depleted at a greater rate.

Those who did not die in battles were forced to fight with starvation.

New generations born and grown old in this cosmic war thought it normal, but the cultivators who had survived for the past century knew better.

They had seen peaceful times and nothing could be more depressing than the dystopian reality they were witnessing with their own eyes.

Among all the realms, however, the only being who wasn’t affected by the length of this long and excruciating period of war was trapped inside the Abyssos Prison.

Inside, he had regained thoughts.

For a century, he had remained motionless and without consciousness.

His body had been continuously siphoning the darkness all around him, picking it apart only to absorb the essence that was useful to him.

As he grew quietly and without conscious effort, the thoughts and awareness that had been sealed began to surface.

’Where am I?’ Ozul occasionally asked, his thoughts flickering before he dozed off again.

Time and time again he would muster up some strength to groggily ’wake up’ to question his surroundings, but the lethargy overwhelmed him.

It wasn’t that he was still tired after sleeping for so long, but the restraints of this place which did not allow anything to remain conscious in this space.

If not for his peculiar traits and strange abilities, awareness in this prison would’ve been impossible.

Still, the little autonomy he had regained wasn’t enough.

Before he was able to make any conscious moves, he was forced back into eternal sleep. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

To anyone else, even a second of consciousness would have been enough, but Ozul who found comfort in this place needed a lot more time to process everything.

. . .

A century of war.

It was easier to read and write about, but difficult to live in.

People like Raven, Blaze, Zier, and Vesta were rare. They were thriving due to the chaos.

After having established proper ways of communication and travel, Raven first quietly established the Hidden Eyes network across the Realms.

Once that was done, she even expanded the influence of the Wandering Sellswords to the other Realms!

Before long, mercenaries were hired from across the dimensions and sent to battles for the right price.

With the four of them quietly stepping into the Realm of Empyreans, they were unstoppable.

Sages had begun to gather under them, and Transcendent subordinates were numerous.

In Phoenix City, only Rai had been able to step into the Empyrean Realm during these times, but an additional Empyrean was sent by the Lord of Shadows. A force of 3 Empyreans and the Celestial Phoenix had made it a stronghold.

On the other hand, the Coalition also gained two more Empyreans through the natural effort of their Elders. With an additional Empyrean sent by Kami, their total had reached 5.

Effectively, there were 12 Empyreans in the Realm of Abezan!

A century ago, it would have sounded unbelievable, but the reality couldn’t be denied anymore.

The increase in the quality of Spiritual Essence had made it easier to cultivate. The never-ending battles in the blood of hundreds of cultivators had a profound effect on their cultivation.

The City of Refuge which began with a few Transcendents was now a force that could rival even the Coalition and the Phoenix City.

They didn’t have armies or the support of Heavenly Virtues and Celestial Beasts, but 4 Empyreans could still shift the scales of war.

Unfortunately for both sides, they didn’t involve themselves with either side.

Once at the rank of an Empyrean, the four of them personally never took any mercenary tasks. The Sages under them were earning more than enough to run their operations.

Despite having established the only organizations that worked across the Realms, excluding the one completely under Lord of Shadows’ control, Raven was not satisfied.

They had begun their search for the dark bead that had consumed Ozul but had yet to find any traces of it.

In one of the battles, they had even found and confronted Old Gu, who sighed helplessly before admitting that he had thrown it randomly inside the fracture of space.

He apologized once again and explained that it could have ended up anywhere and that they should consider him as good as dead.

Blaze was not satisfied with that explanation.

Yet, against a Heavenly Virtue, he was still powerless.

The strength of an Empyrean had given them the opportunity to talk with him, but making him pay for what he had done was beyond their collective ability.

In the end, they could only continue their hopeless search of a single dark bead across multiple Realms.

Even the Hidden Eyes network, which had grown to some of the Broken Worlds as well, was not enough for a task of this scale.

Having become Empyreans, they all had their personal following as well.

Blaze was able to completely absorb the legacy of the Ice Monarch, becoming one himself. All the rare treasures and artifacts collected by the previous Ice Monarch were at his disposal now.

Zier, on the other hand, had started teaching people about medicine.

As he traveled a lot, many who had seen or heard of him in other Realms thought of him as a doctor instead.

They didn’t know that the reason for his travels was mostly to discover new potent ingredients he could use in his poisons.

His research in medicine was more about refining his own poisons than to cure people. Teaching was just one of his passions, and he picked it up along the way.

Meanwhile, Vesta had the greatest following among the Beastkin.

Once she regained her true form of the nine-tailed beast, her physical appearance matched exactly that depicted in the legends.

Seeing how the Beastkin and Humans lived in harmony under her rule in the City of Refuge, many more gathered seeking the same treatment.

After all, it could be seen that despite the Wilderness and the Immortal Sect maintaining their alliance for over a century now, the two sides continued to treat each other with caution.

A century was a short time in the face of millennia of hatred and oppression.

But among everyone, Raven had the most power in the City of Refuge.

Not only was the Hidden Eyes organization completely under her command, but the decisions of Wandering Sellswords were also made mostly by her.

To the people of the City of Refuge, she could be considered the City Lord.

Having never cared for these things, Vesta did not contend with her for rule. They seldom had any disagreements which helped maintain their relationship.

Raven had occasionally wondered what made the former sovereign of their Broken World stick with them. The only agreeable conclusion she could reach was Ozul and the fact that they were all from the same Broken World.

Whatever it was, the addition of Beastkin to her forces added a nuanced set of abilities that Humans had a hard time imitating.

To establish trust, she gave one of the two Vice Leader positions to the Owl Beastkin Sage. The other one was held by Rameel, who too had stepped into the Sage Realm not too long ago.

Meanwhile, Alden, the fangirl who had followed her here from the Broken World was trusted with the operations of Hidden Eyes. A task she took very seriously.

...

While all of that was happening, the two major forces were unmoving in their stance.

Kami still wanted to behead the Lord of Shadows and offer it to his father in hopes of gaining his approval and subsequently, the throne.

Meanwhile, the Lord of Shadows still seemed to be waiting for the Heavenly Emperor to make a move while slowly weakening his enemies.

One major event that had shaken everything was the all-out fight between the Lord of Shadows, Kami, and all of the Heavenly Virtues.

For the first time ever, the Virtues had witnessed the strength of the Lord of Shadows.

Without a doubt, it was established quickly that the only being who could take him down in an individual battle was the Heavenly Emperor!

Kami was thoroughly defeated that day.

The battle had destroyed a distant Realm completely. Millions of lives were lost as the entire Realm collapsed on itself, unable to bear the burden.

Frustrated and ashamed, Kami had to change his plans completely.

Previously, he thought the Lord of Shadows was in the same league as the Heavenly Virtues, but the reality couldn’t be more different.

With that strength, it finally made sense to everyone that he was so blatantly opposing the Heavenly Emperor’s rule.

Unable to think up a solution against him, Kami had begun to pester his father to step up if he wanted to stop the suffering of the innocent.

. . .

With the addition of a few more decades, the situation inside the Abyssos Prison had shifted.

One day Ozul woke up long enough to remember what had happened. That he had been sealed inside this place.

He couldn’t put a finger on how much time had passed, but it didn’t matter. He had to escape quickly.

’Wait... I should make use of this first,’ he paused, his senses all tingling at the sensations wrapping him like a warm hug.

His 6th sense was sure that he wouldn’t find this kind of opportunity again.

And so, in the confines of pure darkness, Ozul began to refine the very space that imprisoned him.