Mystical Journey

The main trait of the Demon Lords was that they had many Soul Seed Rings. Soul Seed Rings structured this way, known as Soul Rings for short, could allow Demon Lords to reach their strongest state quickly and inconspicuously within a short period of time whenever they invaded a world.

But now Garen only had one Soul Ring, and according to his estimates, it was highly likely that powerful Demon Lords would have multiple Soul Rings. That way, once they entered a new universe with new rules, they would be able to integrate into the new power system there quickly, using the power of the Soul Rings to level up rapidly and eventually controlling the strongest power there.

That was the true terror of the Demon Lords. They were the real pillar in the fight against the Void Creatures.

"I don't have a Will, so I can only rely on my soul's special transmigration quality and the condensation power of my Soul Seed to sustain my existence. If I want to continue living for a long time, I'll need to find a new body as soon as possible, and…"

With a loud crash, Garen felt as though the whole palace gave a huge tremor.

A tremor?!!

He was instantly shocked. Putting aside the question about whether or not anyone in the White Royal Palace had the power to shake the whole palace, there was also the Dark Shadow Dragon's Void Crystal that he was trapped in to consider. It had the Conceptual Essence to swallow and confine all forms of power, so a low-level power like a tremor should not be able to reach him inside.

He looked at the White King outside the crystal, but the latter seemed completely oblivious.

Roar!!!

There was a monster's howl, faraway and deep, reaching Garen's ears from a distance. And the White King still showed no signs of hearing it, which clearly meant he did not hear these sounds at all.

"This is…" Garen's eyes grew dead serious, "... the tremors from the Soul Seed!!!"

According to his Energy Machine Imprint's quick calculations and derivations, as well as the innate understanding of the Void Creatures' language that he had acquired by becoming a Hellfrost Peacock Queen, he soon understood what that roar meant.

That roar represented danger! Greed!

Garen quickly looked at one of the icons on his Status Pane.

On the pane that said 'Potential Quality -- Void Pursuer', there was a bright and blinking red light, and some Ancient Endor symbols appeared behind it.

The translated meaning of the symbols was:

'Warning! A giant threat in the form of a Void Creature is approaching, Level: Army. Race: Void Thane. Twelve in number. Please evade them immediately, the best method would be to enter the Mother Stream in order to escape.

'Please beware, your position as a Soul-Ring-Level Void Pursuer will greatly increase your chances of being pursued by Demon-Lord-Level beings from the Void, please be constantly vigilant.'

Garen immediately remembered the enormous Ancient Endor Creatures with countless Soul Seeds that he had encountered when he first came to this world. They swam at the edge of the Mother Stream, like fishermen out fishing, always prepared to hunt and kill any inheritors of the Ancient Endor civilization who happened to float past.

"I lured that Army-Level Ancient Creature here?" Garen's heart began to pound. He knew very well that only the weakest of the Void Creatures waiting beside the Mother Stream were Army Level, the normal ones were all Demon Lord Level without exception. And because they had several dozen Soul Seeds, even if these were not condensed into Soul Rings, they would still be able to squash him effortlessly.

Even as a Void Pursuer, the one he had lured here was the weakest.

"Looks like I really can't stay in one place for too long…" Garen knew that he had no other choice.

Giving the White King outside one last look, Garen sighed inwardly.

He had come to this world, but he never thought that he would eventually leave like this. He had not found any more information about Ancient Endor, but instead he had collected enough technological knowledge, all sorts of the highest-end technological skills, and the Hellfrost Peacock Queen Soul Seed that he had formed at the very end.

"It's time to leave…"

Garen had no more regrets, his body immediately leaving his body. Like shapeless mist, it flew out of the top of the crystal, and flew silently back down the direction he had once arrived from.

This was not weaving through dreams like before, this time he was truly dying. Garen's soul left Nonosiva's body of its own accord, and floated toward the direction of the Mother Planet, where he had come from.

Soon, a Void Black Hole appeared abruptly, sucking Garen's soul inside, and jumping toward the direction of the Mother Planet.

The White King did not stop him, as the Crystal King, Garen had the ability to weave through dreams, so even if the White King stopped him, he could instantly weave into the body of a Scarlet Snow Alliance member before breaking away. It would be meaningless to try.

He just raised his head to look at the Jumping Black Hole, motionlessly, and Garen could not tell what he was thinking.

The Crystal King, the King of Lies, from the beginning to the end, he only lived for a mere few centuries, as dazzling and short-lived as a firework.

Standing in front of the crystal, the White King stayed silent for the longest time, until he sensed that the Spatial Black Hole that Garen had jumped into was completely gone. Only then did he slowly turn around and leave.

And the Void Crystal grew stronger and stronger, constantly increasing its Confinement and Devouring Essence. This Void Crystal would one day become an unprecedentedly terrifying black hole.

A black hole was more than just a natural phenomenon, any natural phenomena that had a powerful gravitational force, such that it could even devour light, could be called a black hole. Because there was no reflection of light, it looked completely black. But no one knew what was inside, it might be caused by the collapse of a star, or the self-detonation of a Perpetual Motioner, or it could be many other things.

Humans just called anything that looked black and had terrifying gravitational attraction power 'black holes'.

But be it the White King or Garen, neither of them had any interest in these things. The general trend was set, and they had each accomplished their own goals and missions. Everything else was of no more importance.

*******************

Edge of the Mother Planet

The star infinitely emanated golden light, and in a patch of black space by the border, as a few meteors were pulled by the gravitational force toward the sun and swept past this area, a hint of distortion appeared in this part of space.

Hiss!

Suddenly, a black crack opened up in this area of the Void, and wisps of an eerie shapeless aura flew out from inside. It was a form of soul, unseen to the physical eye.

Garen flew out of the crack, carefully calculating the spatial point of the Mother Stream that he had broken out of when he arrived here earlier.

The Mother Stream flowed through the entirety of space, connecting countless universes, parallel ones and perpendicular ones, ones of every shape and size, they were all connected like countless branches to the entire Mother Stream. And what Garen needed to do now was find the tiny hole in space that he had created when he came here, so he could use this hole to rush back again, leaving this world.

The Energy Machine Imprint spun at high speeds. As the person at the pinnacle of the Energy Machinists, Garen's Energy Machine Imprint had already reached an unprecedented level, and his computing power was equal to the Human Alliance's strongest quantum calculator. Of course, once he activated it, it consumed a shocking amount of energy and Willpower, so only a peak-level existence would be able to withstand such a heavy cost.

Garen was beginning to understand some Essences, and he could even use his Confinement Essence to devour the dark energy directly. While the Void Crystal merged with his Devouring talent, he had also been integrated with some of the Void Crystal's special ability to absorb dark energy with the Void attribute. He no longer needed to rely on the power of the Dark Shadow Dragon Whelp to first convert the dark energy into a material object before he could absorb it.

'Target found.' Soon, the Energy Machine Imprint came up with a result, the spatial point was in the Void nearby.

There was no research regarding the soul in this world, the closest thing to the soul was the Will, but that was only the external aspect of the soul, and the surface level of that as well. Perhaps many, many years later, the studies would finally involve the true, essential soul, and maybe they would be able to find this spatial point then, maybe they would discover the existence of the Mother Stream. But that would be a very long time from now.

The V-shape on Garen's brow blinked with a faint white light, his gaze locking onto that hole in the distant Void.

He did not act, because he did not know how to activate this hole. If he applied his power wrongly, it was very likely that he could destroy the hole, and then he would be in real trouble.

So the best way would be to open it from the inside, facing outward.

That was why Garen was waiting.

Waiting for the instant where the hole was opened from the inside. He could sense that the Void Creatures in his Soul Ring probably also existed on the soul plane, so normal people could not see or touch them. Only other souls would be able to sense them.

Garen had already sensed that there was a Void Creature with an Army-Level soul here, and there would certainly be a similar one on the bank of the Mother Stream. So what he had to do now was release his scent, waiting for these Void Creatures in soul form to appear and open the hole for him.

Time ticked by.

Garen stayed completely motionless, in the middle of the same action and the same stance.

One day passed, two days passed… A month passed…

In space, nothing much would have changed at all within a month. The only thing was that some of the nearest planets changed their position somewhat, but everything else was just as before, with nothing at all out of place.

Roar!!!

All of a sudden, the roar of a beast reached him faintly from a distance.

Garen finally perked up, concentrating.

With a tear and a yank, transparent ripples rose around that Void point, spreading in all directions. A giant black panther with ox horns slowly poked its head out of the ripples.

Roar!!!

He roared at Garen, and the purely soul-form soundwaves traveled past the long distances in an instant, reaching Garen's ears.

"It's finally here…" Garen advanced instead of retreating, his soul turning into a white thread that shot at the black ox-horned panther.

An enormous image of a peacock appeared behind him, whoomph!

The peacock's sharp beak pecked forward, as fast as lightning. The beak, that was only several thousand meters long at first, instantly grew until it was several tens of thousands of meters long. It bit down hard, grabbing the blank panther and tossing it out.

Rawwr…

The panther wailed, but it was only Army Level, so it could not resist Garen's power. As a Demon Lord Level, Garen was no longer someone an Army Level could hope to face. He applied force with his Soul Seed Ring directly, emanating pure Soul Energy.

The Hellfrost Peacock Queen's top half pulled back, and it actually pulled the panther out of the ripples as though it was pulling out a carrot. Then, it threw its head back and swallowed it.

The bottom half of the Peacock Queen was connected to Garen's tiny body, so the image looked completely off-kilter, as though it was Aladdin's genie lamp, but infinitely magnified. The panther that had been devoured also disappeared without a trace, as though it had gone into an abyss.

In the Void, after the panther was dragged out, the ripples instantly got even faster, smaller, more hurried, as though they were about to close in on themselves.

Garen jumped in, head-first and without hesitation.

The peacock behind his whole body faded and vanished, and his soul body vanished into the ripples as though it had dived into the water but created no splash at all.

Blurb-blurb…

Bubbles floated out from the corners of Garen's mouth.

He was surrounded by a familiar green liquid, that was the water of the Mother Stream, filled to the brim with life force. This was the River of Life, the beginning and the end of all things.