At the entrance to the Sub-Realm, one could see the hovering mountainous demon beast, the sole individual in the region at present. All it did was keep its eyes closed while seemingly in deep thought. Though, once one looked at it closely, one would actually notice that it was...sleeping.
The overseer of the Sub-Realm wasn't monitoring the conditions within but was instead taking a peaceful nap.
Suddenly, it was startled for a moment, shooting up in alarm upon seeing the clouds above condense rapidly and darken instantly. Bolts of lightning flickered around as the cloud was building up power.
Then, followed by a flash, a bolt of lightning struck down, coming to a stop before the mountainous demon beast's face. It lacked the power and grandeur of a normal lightning bolt. Nevertheless, the mountainous demon beast took on its most respectful posture, acting subserviently.
It, a grand and mighty Primal God, was acting humble before the tiny lightning bolt. There was silence in the area as the two entities remained in the same posture for a couple of days.
Eventually, the lightning bolt morphed into a human figure, speaking with such a slow pace that it took an hour to utter a word. "The cultivators with Spiritual Incarnation had subpar performance until now."
The mountainous demon beast also replied as slowly as the other party, taking an hour to utter every word. "They have been moving cautiously all along. But I'm certain that they'll be going all-out from here onwards. In any case, the real fun begins when they reach the first layer."
"Overall, I'm quite enjoying this. It was a worthwhile investment. I'm entertained." Saying its piece, the bolt of lightning soon disappeared.
The mountainous demon beast bowed with a smile as he responded, "It is my honor that this Sub-Realm hasn't bored you."
…
"What the…NONSENSE is this, ghridhsyrnfhi!" Krune screamed as he collapsed into an ocean, drowning immediately. He instantly used his Divine Sense, relaxing when the Calamity Laws didn't give him any warning.
Unfortunately, the intended response didn't happen. His Divine Sense didn't even activate. Surprisingly, he couldn't even summon his Godly Energy. Krune flailed his hands as he regained his posture in the ocean. His earlier outburst caused the water to gush into his mouth, almost suffocating him.
At present, he was no different from…
A mortal!
Krune was unable to swim, having lost his breath as he was steadily sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean. Right at this moment, a tail shot forth in the water and arrived before him. Instinctively, Krune grabbed hold of the end of the tail, watching his body being pulled up immediately.
"Guah!" He surfaced, hoarsely coughing as he felt mild pain in his stomach. He then saw the Escapist, the one that had saved him. It seemed that its streamlined flat body allowed it to float on the water.
Krune barely managed to climb aboard it and lay flat, coughing a couple of times as he muttered in confusion, "Just…what happened?"
What he and the Escapist had experienced were the same. But now, both of them realized a certain fact…
They could no longer use Godly Energy.
Krune tried to use his Mental Energy, immediately suffering from an intense headache that seemed like it would split his mind apart. He instantly stopped using it soon after, realizing that the Law of Cause and Effect he had observed before was in greater concentration here.
With that, even using Mental Energy was no longer possible. Krune was still able to sense his subspace and the clones within. His shared thoughts with Little Krune weren't affected. But at the moment, Krune was unable to even sense his godly meridians.
It was as if he had become a human, a mortal human in the truest sense of words, one that wasn't even able to cultivate.
It wasn't something he had ever experienced. But now, it seemed as if the concept had become a reality. Krune soon clenched his fist, feeling incredibly weak. His current strength had regressed to the same level as a human mortal, one that was in their late teens.
It was incomparable to his superhuman physique, one that was further enhanced after obtaining his Spiritual Incarnation.
'Hmm, does my Spiritual Incarnation still work in this case?' Krune thought to himself, frowning as he wasn't able to sense anything related to his body. Though, he soon realized a shocking detail. The reason he was able to sense the subspace wasn't because it was a part of him.
Instead, all he could perceive in it was the shared thoughts of the five Little Krune fragments inside. Therefore, he wasn't able to sense his subspace either. At present, all Krune was capable of sensing was more or less what an ordinary teenager was capable of.
'This is completely horrible.' Krune mentally cursed. Even the Immortal Severance Zone was thousands of times better than this. After all, in that danger zone, he was still able to use his Godly Energy and Mental Energy. That gave him enough of an advantage to stand above his peers and protect himself.
But now, every advantage Krune had accumulated so far was perfectly suppressed. At present, Krune wasn't even sure if he would revive upon death. He didn't know how much of a suppression now had on him.
'Right, the tablet,' Krune thought as he tried to summon the tablet. Sadly, nothing happened. There wasn't any reaction from the dot in his glabella either. Well, to be honest, he couldn't even sense it now.
Thinking for a moment, Krune tapped his glabella once, noticing that nothing happened. Frowning, he double-tapped it, sighing in relief as something condensed before him, turning into the tablet a second later.
[Layer 3: Double Ocean]
[Total Participants: 341,533]
"That's…" Krune frowned, recalling the crowd in the plains when the entrance to the Sub-Realm opened. Estimating the losses that might have happened in Layer 4, the current number displayed on the tablet should be the total people in the Sub-Realm.
"Wait…Double Ocean… don't tell me." Recalling the odd feeling he had been having since the start, Krune looked up immediately, cursing aloud, "Fuck!"
After all, just above him was another layer of water, one that expanded as far and wide as the one he was currently floating on. An ocean on the bottom, and an ocean above him. There was only a gap of three meters between the two ocean surfaces. It was barely anything, making him feel like the sky was pressing down on him.
Moreover, it seemed that gravity was reversed from the mid-point, about 150 centimeters from the ocean surface of either side. Krune then stood up on the Escapist's back as his head and shoulder crossed the mid-point of the air layer, immediately feeling the pull on his body change.
From below his shoulder, he was acted upon by his weight, pulling him down. But above that, he was being pulled up. The sensation his head felt was as if he was standing upside down, a perfect contrast to what his body currently felt. If Krune made a jump now and more than half his body weight crossed to the other side, he would surely plunge into the ocean above. On top of that, his perspective would be reversed.
The ocean above would look normal, while the one he was currently in would look like the sky was covered by water.
In the mid-point of the air layer, someone kept a mirror and made a mirror image of the ocean below. With that, it created two regions.
If Krune wasn't careful while moving and jumped by mistake, he would crash into the ocean flowing overhead. It was a simple layout but established a complex dynamic. A lot had to be considered before one took any action.
"Just like before, I have no idea as to how to obtain any Godly Points. I don't even know how I can use the Godly Points I have accumulated here," Krune sighed as he muttered, scratching his head as he looked at the tablet.
It was already unresponsive back then when he was able to use Godly Energy. But now, he couldn't even control it using his thought. Krune eventually double-tapped its surface, watching it turn into a dot and disappear into his glabella.
He then repeated the same action, taking out the tablet and retracting it to familiarise himself with the action. Krune looked around, noticing how there wasn't anything within the range of his vision. For as far as he could see, there was only the ocean and the churning waves.
Thankfully, the waves weren't that strong, at most spanning 10 centimeters in height. Nevertheless, the constant shaking was making his stomach feel a bit odd.
Even then, Krune was thankful for the fact the Escapist was present in the scene. If he had retracted it, then he would have no other choice but to swim through the ocean, an action that was bound to tire him out immediately. After all, he wasn't a good swimmer.
Well, to be more exact, he had Spiritual or Godly Energy to use. So, in any action he performed, he could supplement himself with them by activating a couple of suitable techniques. But now, all he could rely on was his incredulously nerfed body.
Without any energy to bank upon, he didn't have much choice in the matter. It was a stroke of luck, but he had been riding the Escapist all along. Which was why it was transported along with him.
Whatever the laws that worked to achieve that, it had sensed that Krune and the Escapist were a single entity. And hence, they were transported as one. Krune tried a couple of times to summon the Pestlor from his subspace, though nothing happened. To add even more insult to injury, his storage rings were no different from metal rings at present.
Krune didn't even have any weapon to defend himself from the threats of the place. He was completely helpless. The Escapist wasn't any different from him. At the very least, it was able to brandish its claws and use its powerful jaw to attack.
There was at least something he could rely on for protection. Though, as a faint wind blew through the place, Krune trembled. His head hurt while he began to sneeze. He hadn't dried himself yet. Not long after that, his face paled as he spotted a shadow move past in the ocean above him.
The shadow was…massive. It was akin to a blue whale in size, an enormous existence to his current mortal form. Even the Escapist, after it was turned into its mortal self, was only two meters in height.
It was thanks to its wingspan of four meters it was able to remain afloat, even with Krune on its back.
"Well...I'll be damned," Krune muttered helplessly.
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