Clyde could feel that whatever that entity was, it was coming soon. He gulped, sensing that this entity had already spread its influence too far, reaching every possible place. It had even infiltrated the world of the higher beings—Angels, Demons, and Celestials. At this point, there was nothing they could do to stop it because they didn’t even realize what was truly happening to them.
Those fragnts in their domain... how did they end up there so easily? Clyde pondered. It all seed too deliberate.
"Soone must have orchestrated this event from behind the scenes, allowing the influence of whatever lies beyond that Black Wall to infiltrate the domains of these higher beings. And whoever was capable of doing that must be one of the higher beings as well."
Clyde sighed slowly. He didn’t particularly care about those higher beings, but in this event, he was at the center of it all. As the Catalyst and the Shaper of the End—just like the anomaly had said. So, he was bound to take action.
Clyde resud his hunting. He had already explored the Ruin to its farthest point, even reaching the end of the desert, where he began to see green landscapes.
He figured he had slain thousands of monsters by now. But he still didn’t know when he should stop. How many more did he have to kill before he felt strong enough to stand at the center of this event?
A few minutes later, he decided to stop hunting monsters here. Instead, he chose to go to the Nexus of Creation—a place where the source of the Angels, Celestials, and Demons’ existence resided.
No one knew that Clyde had already discovered this place and had taken power from it. And that gave him a significant advantage.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t just take all the power stored there at once—his body wouldn’t be able to withstand it. So, he could only absorb it gradually.
Clyde took out his Transporter Amulet and channeled his magic power into it. The portal began swirling open before him. He stepped inside and vanished from the Ruin.
A second later, he arrived in Goddess Pele’s domain. His eyes darted around, searching for any sign of soone nearby, but he found nothing.
Without wasting any ti, he ran toward the gate leading to the Nexus of Creation. He didn’t want to linger here, as his energy could be detected and alert the other Celestials. He had no ti for that.
Clyde entered the gateway behind the mountain, feeling the pressure of energy as he crossed into the Nexus. A few seconds later, he stood before the Nexus of Creation.
He pushed through the swirling tornado of magical energy and entered the cave where soul orbs—the life source of Angels, Demons, and Celestials—were kept.
Clyde had already absorbed the power of so of them. But he knew the ones he had taken weren’t from the leading higher beings like Archangel Uriel or Demon King Asmodeus, only their subordinates.
But it was enough to grant him power that makes him as strong as himself right now.
"What the hell happened here?!"
Clyde’s eyes widened in alarm as he saw the current state of the orbs.
The orbs, once radiant and overflowing with divine energy, now appeared corrupted as if sothing had seeped into their very essence and twisting them from within.
Their once-pure glow, which had shone like miniature stars in the depths of the Nexus, was now muffled beneath a veil of sothing dark.
An inky-black mbrane clung to their surfaces and pulsatin as though alive. Tendrils of small shadowy mist slithered across the orbs, writhing and shifting as if resisting the light they once emitted.
So of the lights flickered as if their natural radiance struggling to break free but the corruption held them, choking out their divine essence like a parasite leeching off its host.
The power within them had not been drained but rather... twisted, reshaped into sothing foreign and ominous.
Cracks had begun to form along so of the orbs around him – which he thought was the orbs of so weaker higher beings – veins of darkness creeping through them like fractures in fragile glass. Small wisps of black mist occasionally leaked out, dispersing into the air before vanishing as if being absorbed into the Nexus itself.
It was as if the very foundation of creation had been infiltrated, its purity now tainted by an unseen force. A force that was not ant to exist within this place... yet had already taken root.
Clyde stared at the corrupted orbs, his mind racing.
"So it’s already this bad, huh... It must be the fragnt. It’s corrupting these higher beings without them even realizing it. What happens if the corruption fully spreads to their souls?"
He exhaled sharply. He never cared much for the higher beings. To them, anything beneath their rank was lesser, insignificant—re pawns to be used and discarded at their whim.
The Selection Stage was proof of that.
They had turned existence into a brutal ga, choosing warriors from the lower realms, forcing them into their twisted cycle of destruction and survival. Clyde knew firsthand how it felt. His life had been irreversibly changed because of them. Sure, his life had arguably improved—his old one had been dull, suffocating. But he couldn’t say the sa for everyone else. There were plenty who had lost everything—their families, their loved ones—just to fuel the higher beings’ endless hunger for war and entertainnt.
So... what should he do now?
Could he still absorb power from these orbs without succumbing to the corruption?
His instincts told him yes. The corruption wouldn’t harm him. It wasn’t just a feeling—it was certainty, woven deep into his very being. The entity, whatever it was, treated him differently.
It wouldn’t reject him.
Clyde decided to test it.
He reached out, fingers grazing the surface of one of the lesser orbs. The once-pure energy within had undoubtedly changed — warped in so way. But there was no sense of danger. No pushback. No rejection.
So he continued.
The power flowed into him, surging through his body like a familiar current, a force he had long since grown used to. There was no resistance. No pain. No warning signs.
It was just like before.
The corruption didn’t hinder him. Didn’t poison him. Didn’t twist him into sothing monstrous.
As if...
As if it was already a part of him.
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