Rosen looked at the Sky Emperor. Sensing his gaze, the Sky Emperor gave a nod.
First, they would kill the fused Judgment Emperor and Blazing Eye Emperor, then eliminate the Holy Spirit Emperor, and finally determine the winner between themselves. This was the revised alliance strategy he and the Sky Emperor formulated after their previous fisherman plan failed. Now, it was time to end the King's Game.
Rosen regretfully put away the Star-Shot Crossbow—this Immortal God-Demon transcendent artifact was temporarily useless.
It was simply too powerful and too difficult to refine, and more importantly, he no longer had any matching bolts for it.
As for the Sword Emperor's memories, although he did everything he could to preserve them, he only managed to retain a pile of fragmented memory shards.
He would need to carefully sort through them to uncover the origins of the Star-Shot Crossbow.
The fusion between the Judgment Emperor and Blazing Eye Emperor centered primarily around the Judgment Emperor.
The Blazing Eye Emperor transformed into a vertical pupil that grew on the Judgment Emperor's forehead. Beneath this eye was a tiny mouth, and on either side of the vertical eye were two miniature ears. It looked somewhat deformed and grotesque, but their combined strength was anything but weak.
When the Blazing Eye Emperor sensed that the Holy Grail Emperor and the Sky Emperor were simultaneously approaching, he had already warned the Judgment Emperor.
The Judgment Emperor immediately returned to the fusion site of the Judgment Empire and Blazing Eye Empire. The merger of these two vast empires, covering territories of millions of miles each, was no easy task. Upon return, the Judgment Emperor quickly concealed himself within the Judgment Empire.
With two emperors attacking one, there was no longer any need for formal one-on-one duels.
The Sky Emperor immediately unleashed a meteor shower in the void—a meteor shower formed from transcendent stars.
Rosen too instantly transformed into the familiar Solar Dragon God, then became a transcendent star radiating sunlight over the Judgment and Blazing Eye Empires—except this sunlight was pitch black like ink, because he had opened the Dark Sun Eye located at his brow.
All living beings touched by the sunlight of the Dark Sun were gradually corrupted into followers of the Dark Sun.
In just a few moments, both the Judgment Empire and the Blazing Eye Empire had suffered heavy casualties.
The Judgment Emperor's attempt to hide could at best delay the moment of death.
But at that moment, both Rosen and the Sky Emperor simultaneously ceased their attacks and looked toward the far western void of the King's Continent.
Because they sensed that the seal jointly placed on the Holy Spirit Emperor by several other emperors had disappeared.
Though the seal was destined to be broken eventually as its creators kept falling one by one, the speed of its collapse was faster than expected. This meant the Holy Spirit Emperor's strength far exceeded their previous estimates.
The Sky Emperor was troubled. He didn't want to face the Holy Spirit Emperor, and he definitely didn't want to deal with the Holy Spirit Emperor after first killing Rosen.
Rosen felt the same. So they both began attacking the two empires with full force.
Rosen directly expanded his domain to envelop the Judgment Empire, and then invoked the Canvas Realm to bring the Horror Park into reality.
The Sky Emperor also conjured a bow and arrow in his hand. The moment he drew the bow, the sky over the Blazing Eye Empire vanished—as if the sky itself had been drawn into an arrow. Loosing the bowstring, the sky-turned-arrow shot toward the Blazing Eye Empire's territory.
Upon impact, the Blazing Eye Empire's land collapsed and shattered, breaking into pieces.
The Judgment Empire fared even worse. Rosen directly used his Original Painting Sealing Art—his collapsing domain dimensionally sealed the entire Judgment Empire into the Horror Park. Yet even as the empire was sealed, the Judgment Emperor never revealed himself.
Likewise, there was no harvest on the Blazing Eye Empire's side. Even after the Sky Emperor destroyed it, the Judgment Emperor was nowhere to be found.
It was as if he had vanished right under the two emperors' noses the moment he went into hiding.
Rosen immediately thought of several possibilities—perhaps he had escaped into a hidden realm like the Secret Bookroom, or into a transcendent artifact that housed a pocket world, or maybe he slipped into the Horror Park itself, or even hid within one of the still-living beings inside it.
It was clear the Judgment Emperor knew full well that appearing meant certain death.
So he spared no cost in hiding, all in hope of one day turning the tide.
One must give up something to gain something. The Judgment Emperor had decisively abandoned the territories of both empires, abandoned his imperial identity and powers, all without hesitation. A man capable of such resolute decision-making could not be underestimated.
With this threat quickly neutralized, Rosen and the Sky Emperor both breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as they could jointly slay the Holy Spirit Emperor, the final battle of the King's Game could begin.
The Holy Spirit Emperor's speed was fast, but not in the direction of approach; instead, it was retreating.
Sensing something was wrong, Rosen and the Sky Emperor pursued, eventually chasing all the way to the far edge of the void world where the King's Game was taking place. There, they saw the Holy Spirit Emperor modifying the game data. Through the game's permissions, they realized that the Holy Spirit Emperor was losing his player identity.
Before they could stop the Holy Spirit Emperor from leaving, he had already detached himself from the King's Game while simultaneously losing his player identity.
Since he had left the King's Game, the Holy Spirit Empire's territory remained behind.
However, there were no living beings left; all the subjects had already been moved away by the Holy Spirit Emperor.
Now, the entire Holy Spirit Empire was reduced to nothing more than the dwindling ember of a dying civilization, still in the hands of the Holy Spirit Emperor, but trapped within the game permissions that the King's Game had intercepted, along with the eternal game essence that the Holy Spirit Emperor had obtained by defeating his opponents.
Rosen, while trying to seize the remnants left by the Holy Spirit Emperor, couldn't help but reflect. It seemed the Holy Spirit Emperor never intended to finish the King's Game.
While others hid their true strengths, the Holy Spirit Emperor did not even try to conceal his overwhelming power.
This was what led other emperors to fear him from the start.
To Rosen, the Holy Spirit Emperor felt more like an audience member of the King's Game than a participant.
Now, the King's Game only had Rosen and the Sky Emperor left, but they didn't immediately engage in the final battle.
Because aside from each other, there was still the greatest threat to the King's Game that had yet to be dealt with.
The core area of the King's Continent, the Forbidden Zone left by the Fallen Empire, remained a constant looming danger.
"So, what do you think? Should we pay a visit to the Forbidden Zone?" the Sky Emperor suggested after seizing the last half of the Holy Spirit Imperial Capital.
"The source of the Fallen Scholars? I'm interested as well," Rosen nodded in agreement.
The two were not far apart, and soon they had reached the edge of the Forbidden Zone.
They were cautious, because if danger arose in the Forbidden Zone, neither would offer help, and both would likely seize the opportunity to strike against the other. So they were on guard not only against the Forbidden Zone itself but also against each other's hidden intentions.
Everyone knew the Forbidden Zone was dangerous—so why not win the King's Game first and then deal with it?
Rosen wasn't afraid of the contamination from the Forbidden Zone, as he had mastered some of the Eternal Fallen Essence through the Eternal Root.
As for the Sky Emperor, he had witnessed the birth of the Forbidden Zone on the King's Continent and was certainly more familiar with it than Rosen.
So the idea of exploring the Forbidden Zone together was a ruse. In reality, both of them sought to use the Forbidden Zone to kill one another.
On the surface, the entire Forbidden Zone seemed normal—a ruined imperial site scattered across the land.
However, as soon as Rosen stepped into the Forbidden Zone, three types of mindless monsters began to spawn around him.
These monsters were Fallen Scholars, Fallen Nobles, and Fallen Followers—seemingly transformed from the subjects of the Fallen Empire.
Rosen quietly observed the Sky Emperor, who was casually slaying the nearby Fallen Monsters.
Even the strongest Fallen Monsters were just gods and posed no real threat to them.
Still, out of caution, Rosen summoned the Apostles of Calamity to deal with these Fallen Monsters.
The Apostles of Calamity, accompanied by numerous Disaster Shadow Demons, exterminated all the nearby Fallen Monsters.
The dead Fallen Monsters vanished without a trace—no drops, no experience. Rosen could only sense faint traces of Eternal Fallen Essence attaching to him. Interestingly, the Apostles of Calamity and the Shadow Demons did not gain anything from their kills.
Rosen tried to control the tiny amount of Eternal Fallen Essence that clung to him, but quickly realized he couldn't.
The Eternal Fallen Essence he had previously controlled via the Eternal Root was unclaimed essence, but the essence from the Fallen Empire had an owner. Inside it, there existed an immortal will. Only by purging this immortal will could Rosen control the Eternal Fallen Essence.
Rosen tried it out. He found that his Eternal Holy Radiance could burn away this immortal will.
He then took action, relentlessly slaughtering the surrounding Fallen Monsters as he ventured deeper into the Forbidden Zone.
Meanwhile, the Sky Emperor had quietly begun retreating from the Forbidden Zone.
The Fallen Monsters that had been casually cleared by the Sky Emperor earlier now reappeared, materializing out of nowhere and gathering at the edges of the Forbidden Zone. Clearly, once the Sky Emperor had entered the Forbidden Zone, he hadn't killed a single Fallen Monster.
It looked like the Sky Emperor had been killing, but in reality, he had only trapped the Fallen Monsters—creating illusions so realistic that they were indistinguishable from actual kills.
The Sky Emperor watched Rosen's retreating back with a mocking gaze. All he had to do was wait for Rosen to die in the Fallen Forbidden Zone, and he would win the King's Game.
At this moment, Rosen had completely ignored the Sky Emperor, throwing himself into hunting Fallen Monsters with everything he had.
Slaughtering these creatures gave him an unprecedented sense of satisfaction and joy.
Rosen didn't think there was anything wrong with him. His divine nature wasn't corrupted, his body wasn't affected, and even the avatar stationed in the Divine Archive inside his consciousness saw nothing abnormal in his current state.
Thus, Rosen swiftly cut his way through half of the Fallen Forbidden Zone and reached the former imperial capital of the Fallen Empire.
There, new types of Fallen Monsters appeared—within the imperial capital, there were at least a thousand Fallen Kings.
Rosen stormed the city and began clearing these Fallen Kings—each one possessing the power of a true god—from the outskirts inward.
He discovered that hunting these Fallen Kings not only granted him Eternal Fallen Essence, but also strengthened his own King Sequence, enhancing his control over the King's Game permissions. Very soon, the Sky Emperor would be at his mercy.
Half a year later, Rosen had slain the last batch of Fallen Kings gathered outside the imperial palace of the Fallen Capital.
When he entered the palace, he found the final type of Fallen Monster: the Fallen Emperor.
The figure before him might very well have been the emperor of the Fallen Empire in ages past.
Rosen could sense that the seed of the Eternal Fallen Essence was within the Fallen Emperor's body.
If he killed the Fallen Emperor, he would gain a second Eternal Origin Seed.
Rosen unfolded his domain and brought down the Horror Paradise onto the Fallen Imperial Palace through his Painted World.
Currently, the Horror Paradise still held the sealed Judgement Empire and the Judgement Emperor. This was the perfect opportunity—he would let the Fallen Emperor eliminate the Judgement Emperor, while he waited outside, poised to reap the rewards.
After successfully dragging the Fallen Emperor into the Horror Paradise, no more Fallen Monsters refreshed in the Forbidden Zone.
Rosen sat upon the Fallen Emperor's throne and felt that the palace had never looked more pleasing to the eye.
He immediately transferred over a group of handmaidens from the Glorious Kingdom, and summoned Alicia, Li Shiqing, and Farah from the True Realm of the Old Gods. Ignoring Li Shiqing's protests and resistance, he surrounded himself with women and indulged in pleasure throughout the palace.
Li Shiqing bit her lip—after all, she had grown up in modern society.
Though that part of her life had been brief, it left a deep and lasting impact.
She understood that in the extraordinary world, the strong were destined to possess more, and Rosen was not a man of singular devotion.
Over time, she gave up expecting him to stay loyal. Her only insistence was that when they were together, it was just the two of them.
All these years, Rosen had never forced her. They often traveled the mountains and rivers alone, just the two of them.
But today… not only was there a third person, she could barely count them all on both hands.
Her heart was filled with grievance and pain—yet, strangely, also a touch of unspoken pleasure.
While Rosen reveled in indulgence inside the Fallen Palace, within the Horror Paradise, the Fallen Emperor had already destroyed the Judgement Empire, and shattered the King's Playground.
The Judgement Emperor, with nowhere left to hide, was forced to confront the Fallen Emperor.
Both were emperors. The Judgement Emperor possessed power equivalent to at least four Emperors combined.
The Fallen Emperor wasn't at a disadvantage at all. Their clash tore the miracle-grade painting, the Horror Paradise, to shreds.
The two Emperors burst out of the Horror Paradise, but didn't fall into the Fallen Imperial Palace, because the Horror Paradise existed within Rosen's sea of consciousness, which was merged with the Divine Archive. So, the two Emperors continued their battle within Rosen's mind.
Rosen wasn't worried in the slightest. In fact, he projected the scene from his sea of consciousness outward for Farah and the others to enjoy watching with him.
He didn't take the two Emperors seriously at all, only isolating and hiding the important things inside the Divine Archive.
In the end, the two Emperors perished together in a mutual defeat, completely unable to resist Rosen's judgment, empowered by the Fallen Holy Sword and the combined might of the Immortal Empire and the Glorious Kingdom. The moment both Emperors fell, Rosen unsurprisingly reaped tremendous benefits.
First, he gained the Civilization Sparks of both the Judgement Empire and the Fallen Empire. Then came the three Emperors—Judgement, Scorching Eyes, and Fallen.
In addition, there were many intact or broken Transcendent Relics, a considerable number of Miracle Treasures, and most precious of all, the Source Seed of the Eternal Fallen Essence. The moment he grasped the Seed, Rosen fully gained control over the Fallen Forbidden Zone.
As he thought about the Sky Emperor, Rosen glanced at the many beloved wives of various sizes lounging in the palace.
He didn't even need to choose. Let the Sky Emperor wait out there like a fool.
Here he was, drinking fine wine, feasting on delicacies, enjoying music, dance, and beautiful companions. Every bit of this was far more enjoyable than fighting to the death outside with the Sky Emperor. Thinking back on those past years, where time acceleration of a thousand years or more was the norm in his cultivation—he realized that wasn't a life any human should've had to live.
While Rosen was indulging in pleasure within the Fallen Imperial Palace, the Sky Emperor outside the Forbidden Zone was starting to grow restless.
There had been no signs of an Emperor-level battle erupting, which meant the Fallen Emperor had been directly trapped by the Holy Grail Emperor.
If the Fallen Emperor couldn't even break free of that imprisonment, he was most likely already dead in the hands of the Holy Grail Emperor.
Which also explained why the Holy Grail Emperor still hadn't stepped out of the Fallen Forbidden Zone.
For the King's Game, the Fallen Forbidden Zone was a bug—an error so entrenched it could only be left alone.
A player who stayed too long in the Forbidden Zone would gradually lose their connection with the King's Game.
The Sky Emperor had originally thought that he wouldn't need to do anything. If he just waited until the Holy Grail Emperor lost their link with the King's Game, he would automatically win by default. But as time passed, the connection between Rosen and the game showed no signs of weakening.
Even though he held the King Card, making him a VIP player, the King's Game should not have been so tightly bound to him.
The Sky Emperor's judgment wasn't wrong. A VIP player who remained too long in the Forbidden Zone would eventually lose their player status.
But Rosen was different. Using the Eternal Origin, he had permanently severed a portion of the King's Game and used it to construct a miniature King's Continent and a small King's Game inside his Old God's Mind Core. Even the external King's Game could not reclaim this part from him.
Unless the miniature King's Game within Rosen's Old God Mind Core was destroyed, his binding with the greater King's Game couldn't be undone.
In fact, even if the Sky Emperor killed Rosen and won the King's Game, that alone wouldn't be enough. He would also have to retrieve the power within the small King's Game and mini King's Continent in Rosen's Mind Core and reintegrate it into the main King's Game to truly claim full victory.
The Sky Emperor couldn't wait any longer. With no choice, he cautiously infiltrated the Fallen Forbidden Zone.
But Rosen had fully mastered the Forbidden Zone and sensed his intrusion immediately.
Still, he didn't attack. With a single thought, he absorbed the entire Fallen Capital into the Horror Paradise and retreated into the Divine Archive.
The Fallen Capital fused seamlessly into the Horror Paradise, which not only helped restore the damaged painting, but also allowed Rosen to continue enjoying himself uninterrupted—and spared him the need to battle the Sky Emperor to the death. With one action, he achieved three goals. There was no hesitation; it came naturally to him.
No matter how the Sky Emperor searched, he could not find the Holy Grail Emperor. It was now confirmed—the Holy Grail Emperor had fully Fallen.
Falling was a terrifying power, because its essence never originated from external forces, but from the truest self. True Falling meant shedding all constraints imposed on oneself, abandoning all moral responsibilities, and living purely for oneself.
Because of that, Eternal Falling wasn't a negative or harmful force.
Instead, it was a positive power that helped life cast off moral shackles and fully reveal its truest self.
That's why no matter how cautious one might be, the moment they started killing Fallen Monsters, it was already hard to turn back.
The Sky Emperor had thought the Holy Grail Emperor was doomed, but never expected that even after completely freeing himself, the Holy Grail Emperor could still hide so well that he couldn't be found. If this went on for ten thousand or even eighty thousand years without him emerging, the Sky Emperor felt he would go insane.
He had to force the Holy Grail Emperor out. The Sky Emperor began pondering all the means at his disposal.
Even if he couldn't locate him, he needed methods that could still deal damage to the Holy Grail Emperor.
As long as he could force the Holy Grail Emperor to show himself, then in his current state—having completely Fallen and lost all ambition—he would surely die at the Sky Emperor's hands.
(End of Chapter)