The Grand Sage hovered in the center of the arena.

His physical form had discarded the illusions of mortality.

He was no longer a man in robes; he was a tear in reality.

His body was composed of shifting, purple-black matter that seemed to pull the light from the stadium.

This was not the power of an Immortal King.

This was something that had long ago stepped across the threshold.

He was a fully realized Transcended Being, a monster that had hidden in the shadows of the Chaos Temple for ten million years, waiting for the universe to "ripen."

Behind him, the eighteen other sages of the Temple moved in unison.

They reached for their faces and tore away their masks.

Underneath, there was no flesh, only the same swirling void-matter.

Nineteen "Void Eaters" now stood before the gathered races of the universe.

The pressure they released was absolute.

It was a physical weight that hammered every living soul into the dirt.

The Dragon Emperors, the Spirit Emperor, and the thousands of elite warriors in the stands all collapsed.

Their knees cracked against the stone.

Even William and the other eleven Generals of Earth, beings who had just seemed invincible, found their movements locked.

Their muscles refused to obey.

Their very souls felt as though they were being squeezed by a giant, invisible hand.

"Sir, let's devour this universe," one of the sages hissed, his voice sounding like grinding metal.

"It has ripened enough. All these souls, all this cultivation... it is the perfect meal. And then, we shall take this human's 'Key' and enter the Realm of Infinity. I am getting a thrill just thinking about what kinds of delicious feasts are waiting for us there."

The Grand Sage didn't look at his subordinate.

His hunger was focused on one point, the VIP tower.

He looked at Noah.

"I am giving you a chance, human," the Grand Sage said, his voice vibrating through the bones of everyone present.

"Merge with me willingly. If you do, you won't have to witness the torture I am about to inflict on your people. You are the ruler of this universe now, aren't you? A king should protect his subjects from unnecessary pain."

Noah remained sitting on his throne.

His posture was relaxed, his chin resting on his hand.

He looked at the nineteen monsters as if he were watching a particularly dull play.

He didn't speak.

He didn't even blink.

The Grand Sage frowned.

He assumed the pressure of his aura was so great that Noah's vocal cords were paralyzed.

With a flick of his wrist, he retracted the specific pressure surrounding the throne.

"There. You can speak now. Answer me."

Still, Noah said nothing.

He simply watched with cold, bored eyes.

"Hmph! Stubborn," the Grand Sage spat.

"Then let's see if a 'benevolent ruler' can maintain that silence while he watches the sufferings of his people."

He turned his gaze toward the arena floor.

His eyes landed on Fiona, the Light General.

She was still standing near the center, though her legs were shaking under the divine pressure.

"Go," the Grand Sage commanded three of his sages.

"Ravage that little girl. Let the universe see what happens to the generals of the 'Great Ruler' when they face true divinity."

Three sages blurred into motion.

As they moved, they reshaped their void-matter into bulky, grotesque human shapes, their faces twisted into lecherous, cruel grins.

They began to stalk toward Fiona, who was struggling to lift her spear.

In the stands, Liara felt her heart breaking.

She had spent her life as a Queen, always in control, always the strongest in the room.

But now, she was pinned to the floor like an insect.

She looked at Noah, the man who had changed her world in a matter of days.

She saw him sitting there, seemingly helpless, while his loyal General was about to be humiliated and destroyed.

The thought of Noah being devoured, of his empire falling to these shadows, triggered something deep within her DNA.

No, she thought.

Not him.

Not today.

For millions of years, the Phoenix Race had carried a legend of a "True Ancestor", a being whose flames didn't just burn, but purified existence itself.

It was a bloodline so rare it was thought to be extinct.

Suddenly, a golden-red light erupted from Liara's chest.

The void-pressure around her shattered like glass.

She stood up, her eyes turning into burning suns.

With a scream of pure emotion, her body was engulfed in a pillar of fire that reached the top of the stadium.

When the flames dissipated, a majestic Phoenix stood in her place.

Her feathers were made of liquid gold, and her wingspan dripped with white-hot embers.

She looked truly divine.

This was her secret, the True Phoenix Bloodline.

She had hidden it because she knew the greed of the universe.

If the Emperors knew she possessed the path to transcendence in her blood, they would have hunted her down to claim her through force or marriage.

The sight of her form momentarily stunned the stadium.

"Wha..." the Fire Dragon Emperor gasped from his knees.

"The Phoenix Queen... that form is so pure. It's as if the path of transcendence is calling to us through her."

The Grand Sage stopped laughing.

His eyes widened with greed.

"Hahahahaha! Today is truly the luckiest day of my life! I didn't imagine one puny human empire could bring this many rewards at once. A Key to the Infinity Realm and a True Phoenix Bloodline? I am truly grateful to you, Noah. I'll take care of this girl for you after I'm done with your empire."

"Shut your filthy mouth, vermin!" Liara's voice echoed, no longer sounding human.

She opened her beak and fired a beam of white-hot celestial fire directly at the Grand Sage.

The heat was so intense that the air itself turned to plasma.

But the Grand Sage was a true Transcended Being.

He didn't move.

He simply opened his mouth and swallowed the beam of fire as if it were a light snack.

"Tasty!" he mocked, licking his dark lips.

"Give me more! Your struggle only makes the bloodline more delicious."

Liara was desperate.

She fired beam after beam, diving at the monster with her talons.

But she couldn't even scratch his void-skin.

She was close to the transcended level, but in the world of cultivation, "close" was the same as "nothing."

Meanwhile, the three bulky sages had reached Fiona.

They reached out their dark, clawed hands to grab her.

Fiona's eyes were wide with terror, her light-energy flickering like a dying candle.

Liara saw this and tried to fly toward the arena to save Fiona.

But the Grand Sage appeared in her path instantly.

"Hehe, your bloodline is mine," he whispered, his aura flaring to its maximum.

"Why not have some 'fun' before you lose it?"

The full weight of his Transcended Aura slammed into Liara.

Her wings buckled.

Her flames began to flicker out.

She began to fall toward the ground, her majestic form shrinking as her energy failed.

Just as the Grand Sage's hand was about to touch Liara's golden feathers, and just as the three sages were about to touch Fiona, the world stopped.

It didn't just get quiet.

Time itself seemed to stagger.

A supreme aura, higher and more ancient than anything the Grand Sage possessed, gushed out from the VIP throne.

It wasn't a heavy pressure; it was a fundamental change in the laws of physics.

The purple-black void energy in the air didn't just push back.

It evaporated.

Noah slowly stood up from his throne.

As he rose, a dark purple crown materialized on his head.

It wasn't made of gold or jewels.

It was made of pulsing annihilation power, the kind of energy that exists at the end of the universe.

His white robes didn't flutter.

They remained perfectly still, as if he were the only solid object in a world of ghosts.

"How pathetic," Noah muttered.

His voice wasn't loud, but it reached every corner of the star system.

"I am so bored, I could die."

He took a single step forward.

He didn't fly.

He didn't blur.

He simply was no longer at the throne.

He appeared instantly in the arena, standing directly in front of Fiona.

The three bulky sages didn't even have time to look up.

Noah casually waved his hand, like a man shooing away a fly.

Fwoosh.

The three sages, beings that could have destroyed galaxies, turned into glowing cosmic particles.

They didn't scream.

They didn't resist.

They simply ceased to exist, their void-matter erased from the timeline.

Then, Noah disappeared again.

He reappeared in the sky, positioned precisely between the falling Liara and the stunned Grand Sage.

He reached out a hand and caught Liara, his touch instantly stabilizing her flickering flames.

He looked at the Grand Sage, his eyes filled with a terrifying level of indifference.

"She is mine," Noah said coldly.

"Begone."

The Grand Sage backed away, his void-body trembling.

"You... you were hiding your power? No... this isn't possible! This universe cannot support a being of your level! You should have been rejected by the Heavens!"

Noah tilted his head, a small, mocking smile playing on his lips.

"The Heavens? I don't follow the rules of the Heavens. I am the one who writes them."

Noah let go of Liara.

She hovered in the air, staring at his back with a mix of awe and complete devotion.

"Rudi!William! Fiona!" Noah called out.

The pressure on the Generals vanished instantly.

They stood up, their eyes burning with renewed vigor.

"Clear out the trash," Noah commanded, gesturing to the remaining fifteen sages.

"I'll handle the 'big' one."

"As you wish, Your Majesty!" the Generals roared in unison.

The Grand Sage shrieked in fury.

"Don't look down on me! I am a Void Eater! I am eternal!"

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