Just when most of the candidates were still shocked by the sheer perverseness of Cillian's divine realm, he had already begun the second assessment,barely a day after clearing the first. If he succeeded again today, his advancement speed would break another long-standing record at Grimstone.
Cillian sat cross-legged in the center of the formation, eyes closed, already manifesting his divine realm. The moment the phantom of his world appeared, every instructor in the hall turned their attention toward him.
"Get ready, Cillian. The second assessment is about to begin," one teacher said, approaching with a golden beam in hand.
This beam was different from the one used in the first round, it was thicker. Embedded in it were more golden light spots than before. These spots represented biological traits that exceeded their stage.
Cillian cracked one eye open, glanced at the beam, and sighed internally. "Tch. Not many strong ones in this batch."
Anyone else in his place would've jumped for joy. Fewer powerful opponents meant an easier test. But Cillian wasn't like the others. He didn't care about clearing the exam,he wanted to force his world to evolve. He needed stronger threats, heavier pressure, sharper blades for his Abyss to sharpen itself against. For him a weak batch of invaders was disappointing.
"The world channel has been established!" the instructor called out.
The golden beam surged forward, connecting directly with the Endless Abyss. "The second assessment has officially begun! Invasion units are being deployed"
For a brief second, Cillian, with his will fused with the Abyss,felt a sharp external pressure bearing down. But just as quickly, it vanished. Replaced by something far worse: the creeping, crawling sensation of a foreign infection worming its way through the cracks of his domain.
The air above the blood-soaked plain, where countless orc corpses had been buried, was thick with ash. A lizardman soldier with cyan scales knelt before a group of towering, cloaked figures. "My lord, this is the world we've been ordered to invade."
"What's the environment like? Don't hesitate. Speak."
The lizardman trembled slightly . He raised his eyes to the dragon-blooded figure towering over him. Its pupils were narrow and glowing.. Every breath the figure took stirred the elemental forces around him,water, wind, fire. After all this his was no ordinary commander. Vaskar was a powerhouse among the lizardmen, bordering on legendary.
Nearly seven meters tall, armed with Dragon Language Magic, and steeped in bloodline power close to the pure dragons themselves.
The lizardman swallowed his nerves and continued. "The plane is unstable. Chaotic and irregular. There's toxin in the air, and the elemental balance is warped. The wildlife is… deformed, bloodthirsty and violent, No intelligent species detected so far."
Another dragon-blooded warrior furrowed his brow. "So, most of our magicians will be useless here."
He looked up at the dark blood-soaked sky with no stars to be seen. The crystal walls of the world were shattered, barely holding. "This realm doesn't feel natural."
Before the unease could spread further, Vaskar snorted coldly. "What does it matter? A broken world is easier to conquer. We came prepared,three thousand dragon blood slaves, two thousand warriors, one hundred mages. That's enough to rip this world apart and carry its core back to our Sacred Land."
The others nodded, their confidence in Vaskar absolute.
"If we succeed here, Lord Vaskar might even earn a full purification and ascend into the pure-blood dragon ranks," someone whispered.
Vaskar allowed himself a small smile. Becoming pure-blood was the dream of every lizardman after all.
What none of them seemed to realize however was that far beneath the sixty-six layered planes of this twisted world, something ancient opened its eyes. And in those eyes burned chaos and greed.
"Lord Vaskar! We've successfully defended against the third wave of counterattacks from this world."
Dragon blood warrior knelt before his commander. Dust and ash clung to his scaled armor, but his voice was steady.
"Okay. I got it," Vaskar muttered, barely glancing at the soldier as he touched the magic ring on his left hand, irritation flickering in his voice.
Three battles, not a single scratch. Vaskar had become a living symbol of invincibility.
His enormous frame,backed by his terrifying dragonic magic,tore through the creatures of the abyss like a war god incarnate. Be it twisted monsters, malformed horrors, or fang-ridden beasts born of chaos, none had pierced his scales. None had even survived the second strike.
No, that wasn't right.
There was never a second strike.
Blessed by a high-tier dragon bloodline and nearly at the tenth stage, Vaskar had become the perfect killing machine. Even abyssal creatures saturated in magic crumbled before him.
Among the thousands of dragon blood warriors, his name was being passed from mouth to mouth. Even the dozen other elite powerhouses within the expedition acknowledged his dominance. The entire force swept across the Abyssal Plain like an unstoppable tide, nearing the [World Core] Vaskar had sensed deep within this fractured world.
But despite their momentum..
"Okay, I got it…" Vaskar growled again, this time lower, tighter. He clenched his jaw as the soldier continued.
"In the third wave, we lost 432 dragon blood slaves. Seventy-two warriors also fell, and… one dragon blood mage died from a magical backlash. Cause still unknown."
"I see," Vaskar said, eyes narrowing.
"Our magic reserves have dropped by one-fifth. And—"
"I said I see." His voice sharpened, carrying a hint of suppressed fury.
"Also… our food and water supplies have been contaminated by trace toxins. Currently, the edible"
"I said I've heard you!!"
Vaskars pupils flared into vertical slits. In an instant, a furious, bone-deep roar burst from his throat. "I already KNOW!!"
No one had time to react.
"letni, sho'voth sia wistui."
With a roar of dragonic magic, Vaskar's mouth erupted in searing fire. The loyal soldier kneeling before him didn't even scream,he was reduced to ash within seconds.
Silence blanketed the army. A cold, eerie quiet swept through the troops like a gust of wind before a storm.
"Vaskar!" One of his comrades,rushed forward, grabbing his arm. "What's wrong with you!?"
Vaskar blinked. His eyes cleared for a heartbeat.
"I… what just happened?" His voice cracked. His skin paled.
He fell to his knees, eyes wide and locked on the sky of the Endless Abyss above. The others looked up too,and froze.
There, in the heavens of this chaotic world, a vortex had formed. Black and red. Shallow, but growing. Next to it, cracks shimmered with the chaotic light of a time-space turbulence, a rift in reality itself.
None of them could understand what they were seeing.
They didn't need to.
Because the deeper truth was worse.
The laws in the time-space turbulence had begun to unravel. The stronger the observer, the faster their minds began to slip. Those nearest to the vortex,the strongest among them,were the first to feel its pull.
Vaskar staggered, gripping his chest. "My blood… it's distorting!"
He ripped open his cloak, voice shaking with rage and pain. "I'm falling!"
His scales,once immaculate, dark crimson,began to twist. Patches of flesh swelled beneath them. Sarcomas spread like cancer across his skin.
"This damn world! it's twisting me from the inside out!" he roared.
"It wants to make me its slave!"
The change spread fast. Flesh bulged. His once-sharp face contorted with agony. His eyes darkened, shifting from bright orange to a deep, furious red,eyes not of a man, but of a beast.
The dragon blood warriors around him drew back in terror. Their war god, their unshakable champion,was mutating before their eyes. Above them, the red-black vortex spun slowly, but its pressure made it feel like the world was collapsing in.
What is this place…?
What kind of world have we invaded…?
while the soldiers froze in fear, deep below them, at the very bottom of the Endless Abyss,Cillian smiled.
"Good… good… good…" he muttered to himself.
His joy was unhidden, bright in his eyes.
"I didn't think the Endless Abyss would develop a bloodline-corrupting environment this quickly."
His gaze sharpened.
"The black-red vortex hovering above them… that's one of the manifestations of the [Extreme Chaos Rule]. Perfect."
"In the Abyss," he whispered, "nothing is fixed. Not even time."
He sat calmly, eyes closed in the real world, but inside his divine realm, his will turned like a tide. "And as for those fragile, diluted bloodlines…"
Each time one of those vortexes formed, the realm around it warped. The rules of nature twisted, and anything caught in its reach began to change. Just like Vaskar.
But unlike Vaskar, the abyssal creatures welcomed the distortion.
For creatures of the Abyss,already born from chaos,these corruptions weren't curses. They were catalysts. They didn't break,they evolved.
And evolution in the Endless Abyss was never peaceful.