Dimensional Keeper: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 1230  Ascension?

Max remained completely silent for several moments after hearing Blob's explanation. The air around him felt suddenly heavier. His mind replayed every detail Blob had shared about the Devouring Spirit—its hunger, its nature, its purpose, and its history of erasing entire worlds without leaving a trace.

If even half of those ancient stories were true, then Acaris was not facing a disaster; it was facing the end. No army, no hero, no divine being could stand against a calamity that devoured the foundation of creation itself.

"Damn… this is bad," Max muttered, his expression growing darker and more serious. His voice carried the weight of a man who had fought gods, demons, and Nulls, yet now stood before something far beyond them.

Blob stayed quiet beside him. His spiritual form flickered slightly as the memories of his bloodline surfaced again. Those fragments had spoken of Devouring Spirits swallowing star systems, reducing living worlds to dust, leaving behind only silence.

But none of those ancient memories had ever mentioned a solution. There were no tales of how to stop one, no record of a Devouring Spirit being sealed or defeated. Only stories of what followed after it had awakened—obliteration and emptiness.

Max finally turned toward Blob, his eyes sharp. "Is there really nothing we can do about it?"

Blob hesitated. The red sky seemed to dim as his voice lowered. "If you manage to leave the planet before she consumes everything, you might survive. That is the only certainty these memories give. When a Devouring Spirit awakens fully, no one can stand against it—except hunger itself. Once it grows satisfied, it leaves and moves on to the next world."

Max shook his head slowly. That was not the answer he had been seeking. If survival had been his priority, he could have left long ago. Ever since he returned from the secret domain, he had felt something strange—an invisible pressure around Acaris, a distant but powerful force pushing against his very existence. It was as if the world itself no longer wished to hold him.

And because of that force, he knew that leaving would not be the problem. The problem was everything else.

"I'm not asking about saving myself," Max said quietly. His voice carried a firm, determined edge. "I'm asking if there is anything we can do to stop her."

Blob drifted silently, his eyes dimming further as he thought. The red clouds rippled in the distance, and Mimi's faint silhouette continued to walk at the heart of the devouring storm, unaware that she was tearing the world apart with every breath.

The silence stretched heavily between them.

Blob finally spoke in a soft, almost regretful tone. "The memories I inherited never spoke of a method to stop a Devouring Spirit. They only speak of running… and watching worlds disappear."

Max's jaw tightened, and his hands curled into fists.

If that was the truth, then this world had no hope—and neither did the girl trapped inside that monstrous hunger.

'If only leaving the world could solve everything,' Max thought with a long sigh. The idea seemed simple on the surface, yet it carried no real solution for anyone except himself. Escaping now might save his life, but it would not save Acaris, it would not save the people still fighting for survival, and it would certainly not save Mimi from her fate as a Devouring Spirit. The more he considered it, the heavier his heart felt.

Max lifted his gaze toward the red sky. He could feel the repelling force more clearly than ever now. His strength had grown to a level that matched Lucien and Mark. Because of that, this world was rejecting him in the same way it rejected them. He was no longer someone who belonged to Acaris. The world's very laws pushed against him, urging him upward toward ascension.

Yet ascension was no longer as simple as breaking through the sky and entering the Divine Realm.

Thousands of years ago, when the demons first invaded, the ascension tunnel of this world had been shattered. The pathway that once connected Acaris to the Divine Realm was reduced to pieces, leaving only broken fragments floating in the void between the realms.

Because of that destruction, any being who ascended from Acaris would no longer rise into the Divine Realm. Instead, they would be spit into the endless chaos that surrounded the world—an infinite space filled with storms, darkness, and the remnants of destroyed realms. No being could survive there for long, not even those on the brink of divinity.

For most people, that meant ascension was equivalent to death.

But for Max, the path was different.

He lowered his gaze to his chest, sensing the faint pulse of something ancient and powerful hidden deep within him. Lady Virelia, the mysterious woman he had met in Obsidian Dragon City, had gifted him an anchor called the Realm Binding Pearl. It was a small, unassuming object on the outside, but it carried the authority of a higher realm within the Divine Realm.

She had explained it to him clearly:

Since the ascension tunnel of Acaris had been destroyed, any being who tried to ascend would be thrown into endless chaos. But if someone possessed a binding anchor—an artifact that marked them as belonging to a specific realm—then the Divine Realm would pull them directly into that realm instead.

The Realm Binding Pearl inside Max's body carried the seal of Lady Virelia's realm. It was an anchor tying him to her divine territory. If Max were to ascend now, he would not be cast into the chaos outside Acaris. The Divine Realm would draw him straight to the realm that Lady Virelia ruled over.

It meant Max had a safe path upward.

But safety for himself meant abandoning everything behind.

He looked toward the distant red cloud where Mimi was still walking, devouring the land with every step, and his fists tightened.

Ascending would save him.

Remaining here might mean his death.

But leaving this world now would condemn everyone else without even a chance of salvation.