Evolving My Undead Legion In A Game-Like World

Chapter 1322: Seventh Round

Now that he was more knowledgeable, Timi had some ideas about these prophets that he suspected were close to the truth.

Perhaps they were truly servants of a higher race or civilization that wanted to bring Earth under its rule.

He didn’t believe in the whole "the world is in danger" nonsense. Since the apocalypse, when had the danger ever ended? Even now, he felt these prophets and their masters were the true danger to Earth, just like the demons that crawled out of those cracks.

Marcus leaned slightly forward.

"We’ve tried our best to keep those creepy bastards away from the estate. But lately, they’ve stopped being satisfied with preaching."

His aged fingers stopped tapping against the desk.

"They’ve been getting more aggressive."

Timi’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Marcus continued.

"Three of our brothers have disappeared over the last two weeks. All of them were experienced and had some power, so I don’t believe they were simply caught off guard by monsters."

"And it isn’t only them."

"A few young girls have disappeared as well."

Timi’s gaze sharpened.

"From inside the settlement?"

"Some disappeared while outside. At least one was last seen inside."

"Any bodies?"

"None."

Marcus shook his head.

Timi leaned back slightly.

"And you think the prophets did it?"

"I don’t know."

Marcus answered immediately.

"If I knew, I’d have already sent people to deal with them."

Timi believed him.

Marcus might be a bastard, but he was possessive of the settlement and everything within it. People disappearing without his knowledge wasn’t something his personality would tolerate.

"There isn’t enough evidence to blame them," Marcus continued. "But the disappearances started around the same time those freaks became more persistent."

His eyes settled on Timi.

"So be careful when you’re outside. You’re strong, but strength makes young men careless."

Timi resisted the urge to remind the middle-aged man who looked seventy that he wasn’t actually his grandfather.

"I’ll be careful."

"Good."

Marcus nodded.

"And if you see any of those prophets behaving strangely, don’t confront them alone. Come back and tell me."

"Understood."

Timi stood.

"Is that everything?"

"For now."

Marcus smiled again.

"Don’t disappear for too long this time."

Timi gave a small nod.

"I won’t."

At least that part wasn’t entirely a lie.

Soon, he wouldn’t need to disappear anymore.

He simply wouldn’t be living here.

Timi left the office.

His gaze briefly passed over the hallway where the girl from earlier had disappeared, but he didn’t stop.

He left the residence and walked through the estate.

He didn’t return to his apartment.

Instead, he headed directly toward the settlement entrance.

The guards allowed him through without questioning him.

Once outside, Timi maintained an ordinary pace for several minutes.

He passed several survivors and continued along the ruined road until the estate disappeared behind trees and abandoned buildings.

Only then did he accelerate.

His body shot forward.

The surrounding scenery blurred as his speed rapidly increased.

Within a short time, Timi reached the wooded area less than two kilometers from the estate.

He slowed only after disappearing beneath the cover of the trees.

His completely black eyes swept across the forest as he continued deeper into the woods.

It was time to finish what he’d returned to Earth for.

As Timi went along with his plans and Lily continued waiting for him in the Origin Battlefield, Michael watched with a frown as the seventh round of Lily’s tribulation was about to begin.

Compared to the previous tribulation to rank 4, the interval before the seventh round was considerably longer.

The difference had become noticeable after the first few rounds.

The tribulation did not simply descend again the moment the previous lightning disappeared. Instead, the enormous sea of dark clouds above Lily would churn for an increasingly long period, drawing in more energy as countless streaks of multicolored lightning moved through its depths.

The rounds were slower.

But their intensity was far greater.

The first round had barely troubled Lily.

With her powerful physique and Law, she had remained seated beneath the lightning as the surrounding mountains collapsed and the earth beneath her shattered.

The second and third rounds had been stronger, but Lily had still endured them without needing to move from her position.

That changed with the fourth.

By then, the lightning had become powerful enough that relying solely on her physique and passive use of her Law was no longer enough.

Lily had finally opened her mouth.

Her Devouring Law didn’t actually require her to devour something physically through her mouth. As long as it fell within the influence of her Law, she could consume and transform external energy through other means.

However, physically devouring something remained the most efficient method.

When the fourth round descended, a considerable portion of the terrifying lightning had been dragged directly toward her mouth.

The sight had been bizarre.

A heavenly tribulation that should have existed solely to destroy her was instead being eaten.

The violent energy entering Lily’s body was broken apart and converted through her Law, becoming energy she could actually use.

Part healed the damage inflicted on her enormous body.

The remainder strengthened and replenished her, allowing Lily to continue facing what came afterward in a far better condition than she otherwise would have.

It was precisely through this method that she had survived the fifth and sixth rounds.

Unfortunately, there was a problem with this method.

This wasn’t the first time Michael had witnessed Lily using her Devouring Law against a heavenly tribulation.

Every time she did so, the tribulation appeared to react badly.

Whether the heavenly tribulation possessed anything resembling awareness was impossible to determine, but the pattern was difficult to ignore.

Whenever Lily devoured its lightning, the rounds that followed became noticeably more violent.

The current tribulation was no exception.

By the sixth round, the lightning descending from the enormous cloud sea had already surpassed what Michael initially expected by a considerable margin.

Perhaps if Lily hadn’t used her Devouring Law, the later rounds wouldn’t have become so powerful.

However, that possibility was ultimately meaningless.

Without devouring the lightning and converting it into energy to restore herself, it was questionable whether Lily would still be in such good condition.

It was a vicious cycle.

Devouring the tribulation allowed her to endure it.

But devouring it also seemed to provoke it into becoming even stronger.

Now the seventh round was gathering.

Michael remained suspended far above the devastated island, a frown covering his face.

Below him, the region surrounding Lily had become almost unrecognizable.

Several mountains had disappeared entirely.

Others had been reduced to broken slopes and enormous piles of shattered rock. Forests extending for kilometers had been destroyed, while deep cracks spread across the earth in every direction.

At the center of all that destruction remained Lily.

However, unlike during the first few rounds, she no longer appeared untouched.

Large sections of her body were charred. Several wounds remained visible despite the continuous recovery provided by her Devouring Law, and residual strands of multicolored lightning crawled across her skin.

The illusion technique Michael had taught all of his undead to clothe themselves in the absence of actual clothing was also gone.

Lily was indeed facing the tribulation with everything she had.

Even so, her condition remained remarkably stable.

Above her, the cloud sea continued contracting.

The multicolored lightning that had once spread across an enormous portion of the sky was being compressed toward its center.

They intertwined continuously.

Yet nothing descended.

The seventh round was taking its time.

The longer it gathered, the more terrifying the pressure became.

Even the atmosphere across that section of the Mausoleum seemed to grow heavier beneath it.

The island itself was no longer complete either.

A massive portion of it was simply missing.

This destruction, however, had nothing to do with Lily’s heavenly tribulation.

It was Michael’s handiwork.

Before the fourth round had begun, he had used his authority over the Mausoleum to forcibly separate the section occupied by Spartan from the rest of the island.

The enormous landmass had been split apart, and the section containing Spartan was moved far away.

Michael had no intention of taking chances.

Spartan was currently undergoing his own changes, and the brilliant crimson pillar surrounding him had yet to disappear. If Lily’s heavenly tribulation somehow recognized Spartan’s presence and dragged him into it as well, Michael wouldn’t even know where to cry.

One undead facing such a terrifying tribulation was already enough.

There was absolutely no need to make it two.

Fortunately, his control over the Mausoleum made separating them relatively easy without causing the tribulation to react to his interference.

The distance between both sections was now enormous, and whatever was occurring around Spartan had shown no signs of interacting with Lily’s tribulation.

Michael could therefore concentrate entirely on Lily.

Time continued passing.

Eventually, the seventh round descended.

Michael watched everything from above.

The heavenly tribulation that had begun after days of gathering was finally approaching its end.

While Lily fought through the final portion of her advancement, events elsewhere had continued moving as well.

Back on Earth, Timi had already completed what he had returned for.

His subsidiary station had been established.

He was ready to return to the Origin Battlefield.