The Sorcerer World…

The First Acraepoid King was having a hard time gathering the souls around the altar. He squinted his blue eyes as he tried to prevent the connection from a total collapse.

“To instill fear even in what’s known as the God amongst Gods, the Eternal Spring World… The Sorcerer World must be something unmatched by the Acraepoid World. Well… it seems that the only way is to speak to the powerful, wealthy god who recently owes us a favor. I’ll have to ask him to prod around the other great existences and find information regarding this Sorcerer World”

As he pondered on, he amassed a small hill of high-powered energy crystals on top of the altar with his will. Then, he solemnly took out a pale gold crystal from his sleeve.

The crystal was in the shape of a diamond, emitting an aura of unwavering resolve.

Holding up this golden steel, the First Acraepoid King recalled decades ago when he was in the powerful Goldsteel World, where he was called on to fight alongside ten World Lords under a summoning pact.

The enemies of the Goldsteel World were equally powerful to their own.

Both of them had been fighting each other for the sovereignty of a world for close to a century, which then finally succumbed to the Goldsteel World. From then on, they have had total domination over the rich resources of the vassal world.

The First Acraepoid King was instrumental to that victory.

Before the pact was made, the First Acraepoid King was able to get one of the World Lords of the Goldsteel World to grant him a favor.

Gritting his teeth, the First Acraepoid King sighed in a low voice, thinking that this was not worth it, as he threw the pale gold crystal into the black flames of the altar.

Plop!

The mystical energy flashed for a moment. After patiently waiting for a while, an obscenely powerful will of a distant world was connected.

“Hahahahaha, First Acraepoid King, you’ve just left the Goldsteel World recently. Are you thinking about coming back? If you’re feeling bored with your world, I can give you a good price and make you the thirteenth Goldsteel God.”

There were twelve World Lords in the powerful Goldsteel World!

The altar of the Infernal Spirit World had yet to conjure up a full picture of the powerful will of the Goldsteel World’s image. Yet, the will had arrived sooner than the image, as the brash laughter filled the place.

It was a warm ordeal as if he were an old friend of the First Acraepoid King.

The First Acraepoid King shook his head. The powerful World Lord of the Goldsteel World was quite looking forward to the exchange. He had tried to persuade him a few times before.

“Well, as you know, I still have my tens of millions of citizens with me. Though the Acraepoid World is not as powerful as the Goldsteel World, we are still one of the forces to be reckoned with in this small world cluster.”

The First Acraepoid King’s voice was filled with pride as he politely turned down the invitation of the powerful Goldsteel World Lord.

“Hmph, then why are you summoning my will! You are going to waste quite a lot of energy contacting me across this boundless space… hmm? Damn it, the summoning energy on your side is rather weak!”

The First Acraepoid King was in shock.

He had used up so many souls, yet the will of the powerful World Lord could not be stabilized.

He placed a soul crystal that had many souls stored within it on the altar. The crystal melted away on the altar, releasing tens of thousands of souls. At the same time, he released some principal energy of the dark flames. The massive soul energy began to wrap around the thousand-meter tall altar. Powerful shockwave was released from the soul energy, shaking the whole altar.

At last, the descending will of the powerful Goldsteel World began to stabilize.

Rumble… rumble…

The altar was shaking continuously. It seemed to be unable to take any more from the descending will of the World Lord known as Power Supreme.

The thousand-meter tall body of the Goldsteel’s will was completely made up of golden crystals. He exuded an aura of indestructible toughness, looking brash and reckless. His two feet deftly stomping on the altar.

The Goldsteel Giant surveyed around the altar. He appeared to feel cramped. He tried to relax to reduce the consumption of souls in the altar.

“Say it, what is it that made you summon my will?”

The powerful Goldsteel entity’s body was a little hunched. Although the Temple of the First Acraepoid King was huge, it was still small compared to the powerful will of the Goldsteel entity.

Standing beside the powerful World Lord, the First Acraepoid King’s three-hundred-meter tall black flames seemed weak and powerless.

Raising his pair of blue eyes, the black flames surrounding the First Acraepoid King’s body were wavering as he tried to keep up with the summoning power of the altar.

“The Infernal Spirit World has unintentionally made an enemy out of a powerful world. I was hoping that you could get in contact with other powerful World Lords, or even the Eternal Dominators to look for any information regarding this world. As for the price…”

The First Acraepoid King pointed at the mountain of high-powered crystals underneath his feet on top of the altar.

“Those are the reward you gave to me for the pact, along with your promise of a favor!”

The First Acraepoid King glared at the Power Supreme with his pair of blue eyes. He was waiting for his reaction.

There was not much reaction. Power Supreme collected the mountain-pile of treasures and laughed raucously.

“Hahaha! I’ll say this first: though the Goldsteel World maintains some communication with Gods among Gods, as well as some Eternal Dominators, but to be noticed by such great existences, they would need to be a world with certain power within their surrounding world clusters. If you’re asking about a weak little world, I will not have the time to entertain your request.”

The First Acraepoid King was happy.

“It’s no weak little world! It’s a powerful world that rivals the Goldsteel World, there might even be Eternal Dominators or God Among Gods in that powerful world!”

A powerful world with Eternal Dominators?

Power Supreme’s expression became solemn. “How did your world manage to make such a powerful enemy? Hmph, give me the name of the world and I’ll see if I can find out more for you.”

The First Acraepoid King nodded and said in a low voice, “The world is known as the Sorcerer World!”

“The Sorcerer World?”

Power Supreme pondered for a while and shrugged. “Never heard of it. Must be a new world around your world cluster. I’ll ask around from the other World Lords or some Eternal Dominators. I’ll get back to you in fifty years.”

Power Supreme was not comfortable in the tight space. He could not wait any longer and dispersed his own body.

“After this, our soul pact is done.”

Poof! Millions of souls dispersed in a weak wail as they vanished mid-air.

Looking at the vanished soul energy broke the First Acraepoid King’s heart slightly.

“Hmph, damn it! I’ll have to get Darkborne, Lightglow and the rest of them to help pay for the price of starting up this altar. Hopefully, Power Supreme will have returned with some good news by then.”

***

Fifty years later.

In the thousand-meter tall mystical altar, tens of millions of souls were wailing continuously as they circled above the altar. The black flame in the middle of the altar was burning furiously, emitting a mysterious pressure from the center of the altar.

The First Acraepoid King was bewildered as he exclaimed. “How could it be, something’s trying to intercept my connecting will?”

Still, there were many souls that were gathering around the altar. Obviously, Power Supreme over at the Goldsteel World was not giving up on making the will connection. The punishment from defying a soul pact is not something to be trifled with!

There was no escaping fate.

The price to pay for defying the soul pact would seem almost coincidental, even natural. The punishment would come back ten-fold of what was promised. It was one of the basic principles of trade between the boundless worlds.

“Growl…”

The sound of a beast moaning in pain came through. Power Supreme managed to conjure up an image of a head in the Infernal Spirit World.

The head appeared to be suffering from an unimaginable distortion. His face was hideous.

“The Sorcerer World is a powerful world that had fled to your part of the world cluster from an unknown world cluster! The great immortal entity said… said…”

As if he was struggling with something, Power Supreme, the World Lord of the Goldsteel World enunciated each word with all his might.

“Hmph!”

A wrathful voice came from a distance. With an explosive sound, the thousand-meter tall altar which was burning profusely and had tens of millions of souls circling around it shattered.

Power Supreme, who only managed to conjure up a head, moaned painfully.

“Argh…damn! You’re on your own now…”

The will of Power Supreme vanished.

In his utter disappointment, the First Acraepoid King suddenly sensed something. He flew out from the temple and looked at the sky which had suddenly turned dark.

A thousand-meter long arm was covering what was originally a blue sky above the First Acraepoid King’s Kingdom. The hand that covered the sky was being enveloped and stopped by natural principles of the world which had manifested into physical forms.

The thousand-meter long arm that blocked out the sun was made completely of a mixture of energy, flesh, and metal.

Behind the palm stood the Seven Rings Celestial Sorcerer, whose body was being obscured by the unknown voids.

“An Eternal Dominator… an Eternal Dominator actually came through here! This…”

An apocalyptic scene was brewing in the Kingdom of the First Acraepoid King.

Boom!

Suddenly, in a thundering roar, another thousand-meter long arm appeared and swept down from the sky!

Seeing this, the First Acraepoid King was terrified out of his wits. He teleported into a deep enclave of the Infernal Spirit World.

Rumble!

As the huge hand reached to swipe, half of the First Acraepoid King’s palace was leveled to the ground.

In an instant, the Kingdom of the First Acraepoid King was being torn apart. Lava shot out from the ground. Rays of dimensional ripple mixed in with time warp triggered an unending elemental tide.

There was a hurricane within the elemental shock, blowing vegetation right off from the ground.

A palm-mark spanning ten-thousand meters was impressed on the ground of the kingdom. A shockwave spread across each direction. The Infernal Spirit World was on the brink of destruction.

“Ugh…”

At the same time, the body that was obscured by the unknown void let out a painful moan.

A medium-sized world was the toughest place for an Eternal Dominator to descend upon. The price to pay for descending upon a medium-sized world heedlessly was something that even the Seven Rings Celestial Sorcerer was unwilling to withstand.

The Eternal Dominator could descend upon a small world at will and a huge world without much resistance.

The principle will of the Infernal Spirit World was resisting the foreign entities. It manifested into chains that sliced into the huge arms that were reaching into the Kingdom of the First Acraepoid King. Huge pieces of flesh that were made up of high-powered energy and metal were falling off from the arm.

With a painful moan, the Seven Rings Celestial Sorcerer gradually retracted both his hands. The kingdom, which was on the brink of destruction, became ‘peaceful’ once again.

***

More than thirty years later.

As six blood moons appeared in the skies of the Infernal Spirit World, an ominous, sinister, and commanding air covered the whole Infernal Spirit World.

Like an elegy before the apocalypse!

The Five Great Kingdoms.

The elites’ discussion almost always revolved around the world gate cataclysm a century ago and the blood moons that had descended upon them.

Beneath the Five Great Kingdoms.

In the Dark Destroyer Kingdom that had been reduced to rubble, underneath the seal of the blue ice flame. As the will of the world passed through, tens of millions of blood-red eyes opened up.

They were the final stand of the world that had been kept by the Infernal Spirit World, the soul slaves.