The Judgment Empire, along with its people and territory, had been completely obliterated, but the Holy Grail Empire wasn't much better off.
The half of its territory closest to the Judgment Empire had been directly shattered by the aftermath of the war.
Millions of surviving Holy Grail Legion bloodline knights, having lost their enemies—prey to absorb blood and self-heal—were soon drained dry by their own bloodthirsty frenzy, becoming mummified corpses. What awaited them now was resurrection at the Holy Grail Altar.
Rosen flickered into the void to appear before the Holy Grail Legion. There were no mountains of corpses or seas of blood—only an endless tide of negative spirituality.
The bodies had all been vaporized by the shockwaves of war. Only the shattered divine essence still lingered in the void, reluctant to disperse.
Rosen transformed into a twelve-winged Holy Angel King, took out the Cross of God, and donned the Ring of Glimmering Light to sense the scattered spirituality in the void. Infinite brilliance illuminated tens of millions of miles of space as he unleashed Angel's Resurrection to revive his fallen troops.
The twenty million bloodline knights who had died in battle were completely annihilated, beyond any means of resurrection.
But those who died after the battle, turned into dry corpses, could still be revived using the enhanced Angel's Resurrection with the Ring of Glimmering Light.
Technically, the Holy Grail Altar could also revive them, but the price of resurrection was steep.
The strength gained during their lives by slaying enemies, fighting monsters, and leveling up wouldn't be retained upon resurrection. Instead, they would return to the strength they had when first summoned. These citizens born of the Holy Grail Altar might look human, but in essence, they were closer to NPCs.
Soon, millions of bloodline knights rose from the dead. Though their numbers were only a fraction of before, their overall combat power had increased rather than diminished.
Originally, most of the 20 million were Sequence 3. Now, almost all of the few million were Sequence 1.
Rosen left the post-war affairs to Farrah and returned to the Holy Grail Castle to gather his spoils of war.
The Judgment Throne and Judgment Demon Sword were the biggest prizes of this battle.
Then there were the Eternal Game Source and Immortal Source. As for the Flame of Civilization, it had already been devoured by the Flame of Miracles upon the Judgment Emperor's death. A portion of the Immortal Source was used to revive bloodline knights until their numbers returned to the full twenty million, after which it ceased.
There was still a large reserve of Immortal Source, which could be saved for reviving fallen bloodline knights in the future.
As for the Eternal Game Source, Rosen refined all of it and set it aside for consuming during game authority usage.
If he were willing to use up this source entirely to alter the game data, not to mention reviving the entire Judgment Empire, even reviving the Judgment Emperor alone wouldn't be a problem. If he used the source on himself, he could easily resurrect several times even after death.
This made Rosen realize—his most troublesome opponent ahead was likely the Sky Emperor.
That one also held game authority. Once they obtained enough Eternal Game Source, killing them completely wouldn't be a matter of one or two kills—it would take at least three to five times to truly eliminate them.
So, his current strength was still insufficient. Each of the seven victorious emperors would receive significant power boosts.
The Judgment Demon Sword and Judgment Throne were powerful items, but just because they suited the Judgment Emperor didn't mean they suited Rosen.
Rosen injected the Eternal Root Source into both transcendent artifacts, beginning to refine and purify their essence through the Eternal Root.
Worried the nutrients weren't enough, he added more materials.
He placed his treasured blocks of black iron, silver, and gold—all rare metals—together with the Judgment Throne.
The Eternal Root Source sprouted and took root, not sparing even those metals.
As for the Judgment Demon Sword, Rosen added all the royal authority relics from kings he had slain over the years, allowing the Eternal Root to use them as nourishment to sprout and bear fruit. Thus, the two artifacts began their slow transformation.
Even with a thousandfold time acceleration, they would not bear fruit quickly.
Rosen's gaze followed the Omniscient Demon Eye, silently shifting to the other six battlefields of the King's Game.
The Sky Emperor's progress was second only to his own—because the prey chosen by the Sky Emperor was none other than a clone of himself.
Thus, the Blue Moon Emperor of the Blue Moon Empire, essentially his own fragment, didn't resist and willingly died at his hands. The Sky Empire directly inherited all of Blue Moon Empire's legacy.
Though they were both parts of the same entity, they still chose mutual slaughter.
The reason wasn't hard to guess—none of the emperors were easy to deal with. If the Sky Emperor and Blue Moon Emperor chose to fight another emperor and lost, all of their possessions would become the victor's spoils. The Sky Emperor clearly wasn't a gambler.
So, better to sacrifice one and let the survivor inherit everything from the discarded pawn.
Although Rosen had destroyed the Judgment Empire, his gains were less than half of what the Sky Emperor acquired.After all, war claims lives, war destroys territory—what one truly obtains is only a portion of an empire's legacy.
Thus, after this first round, the Sky Emperor undoubtedly reaped the greatest benefits.
First, his legions doubled in size. Second, his territory expanded twofold. And finally, his number of citizens also doubled. These enhancements brought by the empire's strength were enough to let the Sky Emperor match the unfathomably deep Saint Spirit Emperor in terms of power.
Rosen continued observing the Sword Emperor. Things on that side weren't going particularly smoothly.
Because of their ability to revive the Tomb Legion, the Sword Empire excelled in protracted warfare.
However, on the other side, the Dusk Empire only appeared to field normal human transcendents. In reality, hidden in the darkness were countless undead beings transformed from humans—the sheer number of such troops far exceeded that of any other empire.
If comparing the two nations' armies head-on, the Dusk Empire absolutely crushed the Sword Empire.
Were it not for the Dusk Emperor's fear of the crossbow in the Sword Emperor's possession, he wouldn't have avoided direct confrontation. This gave the Sword Emperor repeated opportunities to strike at the Dusk Legion. Without that edge, the Sword Empire might not have lasted this long.
Rosen turned his attention to the Saint Spirit Empire. Just as he looked over, the battle there had already ended.
The Saint Spirit Empire had completely overwhelmed their opponent—after all, hundreds of thousands of saints were just too terrifying.
But the fact that the Saint Spirit Empire displayed such power without restraint—weren't they worried that the other six empires might join forces to annihilate them?
One must know: the Saint Spirit Empire's overwhelming might posed a fatal threat to the others.
It was hard to divide the seven empires into stable groups. But if the Saint Spirit Kingdom were eliminated, wouldn't everything be much easier to split?
So, by common logic, the Saint Spirit Empire shouldn't have revealed their strength so recklessly.
Unless the Saint Spirit Emperor was absolutely confident—even against all six, they would not falter.
Rosen continued watching the last three groups of empires. Among the top seven, two had already seized the advantage. Unexpectedly, the final group was being suppressed by the Flash Spirit Empire, which had ranked dead last. It was clear the Flash Spirit Emperor was very skilled at playing the pig to eat the tiger.
Day by day, time passed. Of the seven empire wars, six had already concluded.
Only the Sword Empire and Dusk Empire were still locked in a stalemate—neither side able to determine victory in the short term.
This deadlock was extremely uncomfortable for both the Sword Emperor and Dusk Emperor.
They feared that if they kept tangling too long, the other six emperors would form three groups of two and proceed without waiting for them to finish. If that happened, even if they survived by luck, they would still have to face three emperors who had already grown stronger by another round—creating an enormous gap in power.
Both sides began accelerating the pace of war, and the Dusk Emperor finally stopped hiding and emerged.
Seeing that the Dusk Empire housed countless undead, it was easy to mistake the Dusk Emperor for one who wielded the Law of Necromancy.
But in truth, what they wielded was a self-created Law of Dusk—a fusion of the Law of Undeath and the Law of Night. A true god must create their own law to become a Great True God. However, a new law formed through the fusion of other laws also counted as a self-created law.
At that moment, with the Dusk Emperor going all out, the entire battlefield was completely shrouded by a dark sky curtain.
Everything on the battlefield vanished under the black canopy.
Moments later, the citizens of both the Sword Empire and Dusk Empire began dying in droves.
Clearly, both sides were enduring the consequences of the emperors' redirected attacks. When the last undead of the Dusk Empire fell, the Flame of Civilization of the Dusk Empire began to collapse. Rosen flashed through the void and snatched it up.
If he didn't take it, the Sword Emperor wouldn't have the means to do so either.
On the contrary, if the flame went unchecked, the backlash from the collapse of civilization would turn the Dusk Empire into a sea of flames, incinerating everything.
Thus, when the Sword Emperor tore through the curtain of darkness and stepped out, he had no objections to Rosen's actions.
Instead, he focused all his strength on absorbing the benefits gained from destroying the Dusk Empire.
Half a month later, the Sword Emperor finally emerged from seclusion.
Not everyone was like Rosen, capable of quickly digesting the spoils after conquering another empire.
This was also why none of the emperors wanted a chaotic free-for-all—because after finally managing to win a hard-fought battle, they still had to guard against other emperors exploiting their weakness. And sure enough, just as the Sword Emperor exited seclusion, the Saint Spirit Emperor was already surrounded.
While waiting for the Sword Emperor, Rosen and the others had already agreed to kill the Saint Spirit Emperor first.Even when surrounded by six emperors, the Saint Spirit Emperor showed no sign of nervousness.
He merely took out a trace of Eternal Game origin and openly began modifying game data.
Rosen and the Sky Emperor almost instantly eased their killing intent.Because just now, the Saint Spirit Emperor had locked onto the two of them—if they continued the siege, even if the Saint Spirit Emperor died, he would undoubtedly drag the two of them down with him. Moreover, from the way he altered the game data, it was clear that the Saint Spirit Emperor had far more control over the game than they did.
The other emperors also noticed something strange, which only made them more wary of him.
If six against one still couldn't take down the Saint Spirit Emperor, then who could win against him in the end?
At this point, trying to kill the Saint Spirit Emperor would only force him to drag others down with him.
No one wanted to be the ones buried with him. Since they couldn't kill him, sealing him was the only option.
After a brief exchange through divine consciousness in the void, all six emperors moved together to seal the Saint Spirit Emperor.
The Saint Spirit Emperor offered no resistance, because the game data he had just modified was meant to send himself into slumber.
Falling into slumber once more, the Saint Spirit Emperor manipulated the Saint Spirit Empire's territory to retreat deep into the void before sleeping.
With one emperor out of the picture, the remaining six could now form groups without worrying about a third-party fishing in troubled waters.
Ultimately, three victors would emerge, each to face off against the Saint Spirit Emperor one-on-one.
After the first round's destruction of an empire, all surviving emperors had experienced significant power growth.
After the second round, the gains would be at least double that of the first round.
Even though the Saint Spirit Emperor was powerful, missing out on the equivalent of two rounds of empire-conquest rewards—if they still weren't confident in beating him, then there was no point in fighting to the death in the King's Game. They might as well all perish together with him.
This time, there was no need to draw lots. The Sky Emperor directly approached Rosen.
The Flash Spirit Emperor challenged the Judgement Emperor, leaving only the Blazing Eye Emperor for the Sword Emperor.
The four directions of the void—excluding the direction of the Saint Spirit Empire—just happened to split perfectly into three pairings.
As the Holy Grail Empire and the Sky Empire distanced themselves from the others and the King's Continent, their prepared legions began clashing at the borders. In the blink of an eye, the battlefield was filled with the thunder of war and rivers of blood.
Within the depths of the void, inside a palace-like divine transcendent artifact, Rosen and the Sky Emperor sat facing each other.
On the table between them, a projection of the battlefield played out in real time.
"'Rivers of blood' feels a bit too fake. Should we make it more intense?"The Sky Emperor suggested.
Rosen nodded in agreement. This wasn't a battle between mortals—only rivers of blood could reflect the brutality of war. If an imperial war only led to rivers of blood, that meant fewer people had died and less power had been committed. A true all-out war would result in total annihilation, leaving no rivers of blood at all.
Six emperors, split into three pairs—three would survive to face the Saint Spirit Emperor.
If the Saint Spirit Emperor didn't possess game control privileges, this outcome would've been acceptable.
But both Rosen and the Sky Emperor knew—possessing game authority and sufficient Eternal Game origin meant the Saint Spirit Emperor could modify the data and resurrect endlessly. Facing an enemy who could revive multiple times, both Rosen and the Sky Emperor felt a deep threat.
So, after that, the two temporarily formed an alliance and struck an agreement.
They would pretend to fight one another to the death, but in truth, they'd sit back and watch the other two groups tear each other apart. When the victors emerged and were still digesting their hard-earned wins—at their weakest—the two of them, still in peak condition, would each pick off one weakened emperor and reap the benefits.
It was the Sky Emperor who first proposed the alliance. After consideration, Rosen found no downside and agreed.
Still, he had a feeling—reaping the rewards might not go so smoothly.
Because if they could come up with the idea of temporary alliance and fishing for gains, wouldn't the other emperors also think of the same thing?
Sure enough, when Rosen used the All-Knowing Demon Eye to peek at the other two battlefields, he discovered the other four emperors were also holding back. Both sides were staging fake battles—it was obvious the four had also formed two pairs and were lying in wait to reap the benefits.
Though he realized this early, Rosen didn't expose it.
Because stalling for time worked in his favor—his power growth hadn't stopped yet.
In the blink of an eye, three months passed—accelerated by the Small World Tree, that equated to ninety thousand years.
The two transcendent artifacts left behind by the Judgement Emperor had already been refined into Origin Fruits through fusion with the Eternal Root and various materials.
Rosen had long since left a clone to continue exchanging polite pleasantries with the Sky Emperor, while his true self had been cultivating in seclusion within the Mysterious Study Room.
His self-created skill, Hunter's Contract, allowed for comprehensive growth upon successfully selecting and hunting a target.
Ordinary characters brought negligible growth.
Even killing those kings didn't bring much gain, as their great divine power didn't truly belong to them—it was external power derived from royal authority and kingly sequence. So despite having slain many kings, his divine origin had only increased slightly.
But the Judgement Emperor was different. Even without the empire's power, he was still a Great True God.
Thus, after hunting the Judgement Emperor, the Hunter's Contract granted Rosen significant all-around growth.
His divine origin increased by two points, reaching 162. Even his life origin grew by one point, reaching 161.
It might seem like only one or two points of growth, but at this level, each point meant a 15% comprehensive increase in strength compared to the previous. 161 was 15% stronger than 160, and 162 was another 15% stronger than 161.
All in all, after killing the Judgement Emperor, Rosen's fundamental power had grown by at least 50%.
He was drawing closer and closer to the full cap of 165 points.
Rosen was now eager—impatient—to hunt the other emperors.
He took out two matured Origin Fruits and crushed one, from which a throne dropped.
[Throne of Radiance: Transcendent Artifact][Level: Great True God][Attribute: Able to gather the power of all territories under its rule, enhancing the dominion of imperial laws][Emperor Trait: Invulnerability to All Laws, Damage Transfer, Suppression of National Fate]
Even the Judgement Throne didn't have the "Suppression of National Fate" trait, yet the Throne of Radiance did.
This was partly due to the contribution of the Eternal Root, but the greatest credit belonged to the three special metals—Black Iron, Silver, and Gold.
These were relics that once carried the legacy of three kingdoms and civilizations, each inherently capable of suppressing civilization's flame.
Now, with the "Suppression of National Fate" trait activated, as the Throne of Radiance appeared in the True Realm of Ancient Gods, within Rosen's body, and in the Holy Grail Empire—gathering the power of all governed lands—it had reached a level of invulnerability beyond that of a Great True God.
Because Rosen's body had been transformed from the fusion of a divine domain and the Dragon Realm, his physical form itself was a world—his territory.
Moreover, the Mysterious Study Room also counted as his domain.
This amounted to an empire and a kingdom, plus the defenses of two immortal worlds—all now integrated into the Throne of Radiance. Even if faced with the Sword King's ballista, Rosen no longer felt a trace of fear.
He crushed the second Origin Fruit, and from it emerged the Radiant Sacred Sword, transformed from the Judgement Sacred Sword.
[Radiant Sacred Sword: Transcendent Artifact][Level: Great True God][Attribute: The Radiant Sacred Sword can command the Laws of Royalty and the Laws of the Emperor][Emperor Trait: Imperial Judgement]
The attributes and traits were simple, yet holding it, Rosen felt it was many times more powerful than the Wrath of the Dragon God.
Wielding the Radiant Sacred Sword felt entirely different from the Imperial Sacred Sword formed through the King's Card.
Both allowed control over laws and the gathering of empire-wide power.
The Imperial Sacred Sword could only gather all the power of the Holy Grail Empire—at most a portion of the Radiant Kingdom's strength.
But the Radiant Sacred Sword could gather it all. And with its emergence, the flame of civilization within the Radiant Kingdom became even more refined. Rosen had a hunch that once his true self advanced to Great True God, the Radiant Kingdom could be elevated to the Radiant Empire.
Rosen didn't attempt to use Imperial Judgement, as activating this trait required a very specific and difficult condition.
The empire had to face absolute peril—on the brink of destruction. Only then could Imperial Judgement channel the power of all the dead into a final, devastating strike. It was the last-resort counterattack in the face of annihilation.
(End of Chapter)