Chapter 513 |
The mages were dazed.
Previously the mages’ knowledge of the Third Epoch came from ruined planes and residual civilizations — but those fragments were already castrated versions of the true Third Epoch.
Now, what the Primordial unfolded inside his domain was the genuine Third Epoch tableau.
Though it was, strictly speaking, an illusion, the cycle it displayed — birth, evolution, flourishing, decline — still contained invaluable information.
Astonishingly, the Primordial revealed all of this without reservation and played it out before the mages’ eyes.
Laura asked Prometheus, “That kind of power?”
Prometheus understood what she meant. Seeing everyone’s curiosity, he answered, “I grazed the edge of tenth-tier. What the Primordial is showing now far exceeds tenth-tier — perhaps that was his true strength during the Third Epoch. But this is an abnormal burst. After this, he will either ascend or perish. He won’t linger in the Aetheric Void.”
“Why do it at such extremes?” someone asked. “Even if the immortals of the Immortal Realm couldn’t help him, with his power he could create a new world again. The Fourth Epoch won’t face a Destruction Cataclysm for a long time yet — he has plenty of time to find other methods. Why go to such extremes?”
Prometheus said, “Maybe because he is dying.”
While they spoke, the visions in the domain reached their most crucial stage.
Energy resources in the Third Epoch simulation dwindled; each Super-Void Lifeform grew stronger and stronger. When their survival space shrank to the point where even turning over was dangerous, the most brutal conflicts between alliances inevitably began. The illusion couldn’t fully convey the cruelty of those battles, but the mages could see Super-Void Lifeforms falling one after another, and from those corpses enormous energy burst forth, temporarily delaying the epoch’s collapse.
But such scraps were only the struggles of trapped beasts. When the Third Epoch was reduced to a single biological alliance, and their slaying needs turned inward, the Destruction Cataclysm truly descended.
The Third Epoch collapsed at an unfathomable speed. Those Super-Void Lifeforms prepared for mutual slaughter, then abandoned the urge to kill each other and instead clustered at the edge, using their bodies and strength to resist the compressing void. The mages could imagine the terrifying heat produced by entropy and the massive quantities of energy evaporating under those high temperatures.
The Destruction Cataclysm reduced the Third Epoch beings’ strength with a merciless logic. The mages watched the sizes of these Super-Void Lifeforms shrink; they tried to flee, but there was nowhere to run. The void barriers thickened to an unimaginable degree and could not be broken.
The mages did not know how long this period lasted in real history, but the Primordial held the scene for a full hour. Then, like a sphere collapsing, the Third Epoch’s void contracted violently and a great number of Super-Void Lifeforms perished outright — gone without a trace.
The survivors scrambled to devour the fallen to replenish themselves, but under the Destruction Cataclysm their once-proud strength became a joke.
Soon a more terrible scene unfolded.
The Destruction Cataclysm, as if tired of stalemates, revealed another method.
It’s hard to imagine without experiencing it: existence seemed confined to a two-dimensional plane, and some cosmic eraser scraped away the resistors bit by bit.
The remaining Super-Void Lifeforms fell into despair. Then one began to self-sever — cutting off external attachments as Daoyuan had done earlier. That action had some effect; the eraser hesitated. Seeing hope, others followed suit.
It helped a little, but only a little. The Destruction Cataclysm pressed on. The once-clear visions blurred and dissolved into ambiguity; the Third Epoch contracted to a point — and that final point vanished as well.
Randolph suddenly stepped forward, staring fixedly at the vanishing point. His eyes lit with unprecedented clarity. Energy surged uncontrollably within him as he gleaned astonishing knowledge from that micro-instant.
That point’s existence was fleeting — a mere instant — and then a terrifying detonation began.
Void reappeared, but only in a narrow region. This was a dreadful ultra-energy domain. The twenty Super-Void Lifeforms who had survived became the first conscious beings of the Fourth Epoch; instinctively they began to absorb energy — but that energy behaved like poison, worsening their wounds.
Even knowing they were drinking poison, they dared not stop, because genuine Fourth Epoch native beings had just been born. There were nine in total; each newborn’s strength surpassed the True Spirits. They immediately fought — the cramped Fourth Epoch bubble expanded through their war. Each death on either side accelerated the Fourth Epoch’s growth.
Ten Super-Void Lifeforms fell in the conflict and paid a bitter price to annihilate the original beings. By then the Fourth Epoch void had expanded abnormally large. The remaining ten survivors scattered across the void and fell into slumber.
It turned out that every Super-Void Lifeform the Mage World had discovered before were recuperating — they perhaps did not lack the will to seize Fourth-Epoch civilizations, but lacked the ability. They were even rejected en masse by the Fourth Epoch expansion itself. For the mages, the Aether — their fundamental resource — was now invading and destroying those Super-Void Lifeforms.
The first to awaken was the Primordial himself. He appeared on the verge of death, drifting silently in the void for a very long time. Then he severed himself again, opening the ascension gate. His Primordial Spirit rose into it, but like Daoyuan, he was expelled — and his injuries were even worse.
Meanwhile his body began to decay. He was forced to split himself into five parts and fling them as far as possible. Yet he could not entirely abandon his flesh; he needed his body to act as a filter, converting the hostile Aether that swarmed his way so that he could cling to existence.
Thus he was compelled to remain permanently in the Immortal Realm, unable to move a single step.
After that, the Immortal Realm itself was born — Ninth-tier immortals came into being.
“So that’s it. He didn’t want to stay in the Immortal Realm; he simply couldn’t leave. He had been walking toward death all along. Immortal civilization was his last hope to save himself.”