Simultaneously, Rui cast Phantom Pain on all of them, increasing the amount of pain that they felt and making it impossible for them to continue their rampage against him.

Much to his surprise, they held on to their attacks on him, eager to try and kill him even as they experienced a tremendous amount of suffering. Some boiled alive while others froze. He even managed to alter chemical variables like salinity, acidity, composition, and other parameters to create the antithetical domains, leaving them suffering in their own personalized versions of hell.

And yet, with each passing moment, more and more of them reached from across the Great Nam Ocean. He couldn't possibly create domains for each and every single one of them in their own home court. The longer this went on, the greater the chances of his failure.

He closed his eyes as he recalled his battle with the Dragon Emperor.

He had created powerful models on the creature's very existence, whether it was SOUL, physical, or the patterns that comprised who Shenlong was as a being.

He hadn't had the opportunity to consume the beast to try and salvage the creature's Authority of Alpha, but he didn't need that. He dropped all other techniques, unshackling the beasts and monsters to continue their assault on him with full power.

"Mind Mask."

It was one of his lesser-known trump cards.

He put on a mask on his mind with misdirection and hypnosis.

A mask of the eldritch chimera, but also a mask of the Dragon Emperor.

He fused them into a single mask of Authority before roaring louder than he ever had before.

"R̷̡͑̃͊̀́Ö̴̟͇͖͇͉̹̩̳͕̞͇̜̝́̀̆͆̈̂̄̍́̅͒̽͝Ó̵̠̰̰͇̦̼̹̤̫͎͕̹̐Ö̶͙̗̹̹́͒̊̑́͘͜ͅǪ̶̛̛̼͈̰̞̾́̈̈́̇̂̈̍̈̿̕͠Ơ̷̧̨̬̯̝̻̳̈̄̊̄̉͘̚Ȏ̴̢̡͎͔̱͙̝͎͉̹̲͍́̉͊̋̿͑͗͆̔͘͝͠͠À̴̝̞͚̪̮̖̯̖͈̘̠͠Ä̷̮́͆̎̿̀͐̋̉̆̇ͅA̷̧͖͔̟̜̖̗͚̤͚̪̳̜̥̤̾͂̑̓́͂̆̔̕͘͠Ả̸̡̲̙͎̩̹̰͇̜̺̓͝ͅA̶͓̽̐̊́̅̒ͅÂ̵̢̬̜̭͉͉̪͜Ḁ̶̭͔̜̒̌̈͊̅̚ͅḀ̵͕̻̤̟̪̪̬̹̯̠̊̇͌͜Ą̶̡̭͍̫͉̊À̴̢͇͇̜̰͕̱̻͍̿̔̉̾̏̾̓͒́̊̚͘A̷̢̢͉͇͖̗̓̃̈̀̂͗̄͑̈́̄̎̐́̄̚͜À̷̝̉͒͑̐̾̓͛͋̽̇͠Ạ̵̽̌̈́̅̽̋̊̌̇͌͘͠A̴̛̦͍̟͕̬͖̬͓̰̘̖̰͉̝̓̋͆̍̈͛̃̔͜͠͠À̴͇͇̩̖̗A̷̢͕̣͚̪̘͊͊̐̓̇̽A̷̢͍͑̾Ả̸̢̫͉̽̈́͝A̶̛̭͈̓̒͂͐͐̂̈̋̇̆̒̉̓̚A̸̼͇͖̫̯͕̖͊͒̎̽̈̽̃̿̈́̕͘R̴͇͋͂̄̏͗̅̾͜͝͝R̴̛̯̱̫̞̱̲͆̾̓̊̃̔̚Ř̴̬̟̰̩̹̳͓̙͔͇̪̓̀́̆̎́̀́̾͝Ŕ̵̡̜͙̺̖̺̱̲̤̯̟̝̲͜R̵̺͑̈́̂̔̔͂͗̀͗͌́͗͐̒͜R̶̺̱̮̭̿͐̔Ŗ̷̧̫͚̻͉̮̬͚̰̮͈͉͋R̶̢͓͖̰̘͙̖̦̝̘̖̗̯͂͐͑͌̽̓͛̉̈́̎͗̒͝R̴̯̳̭̽̃͘R̴̙̔̑̃̓̐͛̅͂̅͑̊̒̉̚͝ͅR̵̨̞̱̗͈̮̹̮̙̘̞̘͗́͠R̶̻̼͛̕Ř̵͓̠͈͍͇̥͚͚̪̖̟̳̟̋ͅR̶̨̭̳̩͗R̷͍̘̠̩̍̓̋̐̀̚R̸̥̙̂̒̂͌͒͋̑̋̽̽̑͋͆͜͝R̷̜̭̩̪̯͕̦͍̣͇͙̞̄̄̆R̸̡͇̗̦̥̫̞̈̿̕͜ͅR̸͚̋̀̍Ṟ̷̨̗͔̱̞̪͈͎̇̊͜͝R̷̢̝̿́͜R̸̥̉͒̐͑̃̊͋͌́̈́̉̚͝͠R̴̪̣̯̟̠̜͌̃̊̇̾̿͐̆͆̊Ṛ̵̍̈́̋̓̽͌̽̋̋̂R̵̢͎͎͉͋!!!!"

The monsters and beasts froze as the combined authority of the Dragon Emperor and the Eldritch Chimera narrowly exceeded a certain threshold, causing the psychogenetic parameters in their neurology in relation to hierarchy to awaken, demanding subservience.

RUMBLE…

The quaking waters, battered by countless Sage-level attacks, began finally calming down as the quasi-Transcendent monsters and beasts shuddered with the changes that occurred in their minds.

Changes that shook them to their very core.

And then, the changes settled, taking root.

Their behavior visibly changed, causing them to change their demeanor and their body language, adopting a more deferent and docile manner of behavior before him.

They lowered themselves before him.

All life in the ocean bowed to him.

He could feel himself sitting on a metaphorical throne.

Donning a metaphorical crown.

He could feel the authority vested in him.

The responsibility and power that came with it.

Together with his personal power and the power that he had on the Panama Continent among civilization and the Beast Domain, he was one of the most powerful beings in the entire world.

It was a profound sensation.

One that was as freeing as it was burdening.

It was the paradox of power.

'You succeeded.'

The voice of Jormungandr echoed in his head.

Rui turned to gaze at the silhouette of the serpent in the distance of the pitch-black darkness of the ocean. He couldn't even see the serpent very well due to the darkness, but he could sense the hint of relief from Jormungandr.

From this point on, the world serpent was only responsible to himself. Rui could also sense a hint of hope from a creature that had previously accepted its fate to remain paralyzed for the sake of all life, for the sake of Gaia.

Rui gave him hope.

He understood that now that he had chosen to give him hope, he couldn't not live up to his promise. It would be too cruel to a creature that was perhaps the kindest being he had ever met in his entire life.

He couldn't think of a single person who had gone through so much voluntary suffering to protect all life. He wasn't sure he would have made the same decision to protect life the way that Jormungandr had. He most likely would have chosen to destroy all life if that was what was necessary for him to fulfill his agenda in life.

"Thank you, Jormungandr," Rui replied. "For everything."

Rui's tone was sincere and grateful. He knew that the World Serpent was putting a tremendous amount of trust in Rui and showing a great deal of goodwill by simply relinquishing his authority over the Great Nam Ocean to Rui.

'I will hold you to your promise.'

Rui nodded. "I have no intention of going back on it. I will set you free. With negatron matter or otherwise. I already have some ideas in mind beyond just negatron matter."

He thought back to the Dragon Emperor's compressed body. The creature had the mass of ten thousand mountains compressed into a creature the size of a small building.

From what he had heard from Amare about Lord Vakratunda, the elephant lord was the same, and even the other converged beasts had some similarities to a lesser extent.

This showed that this wasn't a miracle exclusive to the dead Dragon Emperor.

The therianthropes had mastered matter implosion biotechnology, which allowed them to compress a tremendous amount of organic matter at unfathomable levels of density that would not have been physically possible under normal circumstances.

Rui was confident that, in combination with negatron matter, it should have been possible to create a space-time version of such a technique and compress the serpent's body into a much smaller volume where he wouldn't displace entire planets with each motion.

Of course, with his body, it would require a tremendous amount of negatron matter to replace his body with enough matter to ensure ocean levels remained constant.

But it was not impossible.

'I will look forward to it.'

Rui's expression grew complicated. "It will take a long time, Jormungandr. I don't think this is something I can fulfill in a year or two. It might take decades or even a century."

'I do not mind,' the serpent replied. 'I have waited a long, long time already. As long as you fulfill your promise, I do not mind.'

Rui smiled at him. "Rest assured, then, that as long as I'm alive, I will fulfill my promise to you."

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