Chapter 1248: Chapter 1249: Agitation (Speed Reduction Alliance)
Standing there in dead silence, Green was dull and rigid.
Ten years, a hundred years of slumber, Green could endure, but spending time in units of millennia, sinking into sleep again and again—Green could not do it!
Thus, from the Matrix Guardian hidden beneath the Temporal Fault under the Skeleton Land, he came to the surface, gazing at the boundless, empty expanse of bone and earth, and let out a sigh.
Compared to the Piercing Gate, this place was far too vast and desolate.
"Wizard World..."
An indescribable yearning stirred in his heart.
He had been away from Wizard World for far too long, so long that the actual years Green had now experienced surpassed some Ancient Wizards; after this Civilization War, it would not be an exaggeration to call Green a Prehistoric Wizard.
"No higher pursuit, not even the ability to sleep... This irritable urge toward self‑destruction—who knows if it’s a biological instinct, or one of the Dimensional Esophagus’s own digestive rules..."
Pacing, Green walked around the Coffin of Hope Gathering Place.
With Green’s powerful biological fluctuations, as long as he released ripples that could influence the Dimensional Esophagus Mist Rule, every few years he could fairly easily draw over a crack in the Dimensional Esophagus Sealing Technique. Even without sacrificial summoning, it counted as a bit of ornament to life, a chance to spy on the splendor of the Endless World and enrich Green’s experience.
In this way, as time flowed, Green became a roaming Casket Ascender, or rather, a Casket Ascender who remained awake for long stretches.
...
A thousand years later.
More than three hundred exiles once again, in accordance with the rules of the Coffin of Hope Gathering Place, converged here from all directions to witness the strength of the Casket Ascenders and challenge for ascension.
"Ha..."
The Poisonous Flame Centipede made a yawning gesture. Brief awakenings once every thousand years, endless cycles of sleep—these passively evolving creatures could rely on such instincts to extend their lives, but in Green’s view, it was nothing more than a different form of suicide.
"Mm, quite a few exiles have gathered this time. Although there’s no one absurdly powerful, there are a few worth noting. At least the Casket Ascenders added in won’t be too bad."
The Poisonous Flame Centipede muttered to itself, then suddenly realized no one was answering. It glanced to either side; apart from Green and the Demon Doll, the Paper Man was gone.
And these two monsters were unimaginably strong, their temperaments far from gentle; the Poisonous Flame Centipede had no desire to provoke them in the slightest.
"How do you replenish the missing Casket Ascenders?"
Strangely, Green picked up the conversation, startling the unprepared Poisonous Flame Centipede, who then chuckled dryly and explained, "Naturally they fight among themselves to decide the strongest. They can also challenge the Casket Ascenders. There are no fixed rules, and no need to bring down the Dimensional Gap Rules. As long as there are four left standing at the end, those four are the Casket Ascenders. That’s how I got my place."
Green nodded and fell silent.
In the gradually more monotonous years, Green grew ever more nostalgic for that warm, united, ideal‑filled, vibrant life in Wizard World, longing for it intensely.
...
A few Hourglass turns later.
After the Poisonous Flame Centipede finished explaining the rules for this round of Casket Ascender replenishment, the many exiles, who had already prepared themselves for a Dimensional Gap Rule challenge, were all stunned.
Indeed, by comparison, the Coffin of Hope Gathering Place’s famous Dimensional Gap descent and selection was too renowned, at least in the surrounding regions.
"No one’s made a move yet. Let’s start clearing the field."
The Demon Doll looked at Green and spoke in this low voice.
With so many powerhouses gathered, if it were a fixed challenge it would be one thing, but a free‑for‑all required careful consideration. The one who first ignited the melee would pay a heavy price.
"Fine."
A cold, indifferent voice.
As it spoke, light and darkness interwove. Green pointed the extreme abyss magic staff in his hand, crackling, as the Arc of Oblivion released a high‑frequency ripple that stirred restlessness and unease, flashing out in an instant.
"You..."
A Bone Wing Scaled Monster tens of thousands of meters from Green, wreathed in faint, ominous red smoke, thick liquid dripping ceaselessly between its scales—on the battlefield of the Wizard World Civilization War, it would undoubtedly be a terrifying existence on par with an elite crystal terminator, perhaps even stronger.
Yet beneath Green’s hand, under a single strike of the Arc of Oblivion, it was nothing more than something easily erased.
The creature’s movements were quite agile; it attempted to evade via Blink, but under the precise premonition and judgment of the Green Truth Mask and the exquisite control of the Arc of Oblivion, its struggle was meaningless. It only managed to release one last, brief will before being pierced through by Green’s Arc of Oblivion and annihilated in an instant.
Immediately afterward, the Arc of Oblivion still retained considerable residual power. Under Green’s fine control, it chased toward a clump of white cloud‑like elemental lifeform, and moments later there was another scream.
He failed to kill it, but Green erased nearly half its body.
The great battle was on the verge of eruption!
Aside from the chaotic melee at the far edges, there was no question that Green, as the first to strike, drew the enmity and attention of many powerhouses. Attacks came sweeping down on him from all sides.
"Repulsion!"
Beneath the Face of Truth, the Three-Colored Light Eyes and six pairs of compound eyes, in the same instant, each eyeball looked to a different direction. One bizarre, mysterious, and violent attack after another was analyzed and synthesized.
Crackle!
Borrowing the explosive impact of Repulsion, Green easily slipped free from layer upon layer of locks. The next moment, light and darkness flickered, and he appeared in midair behind a Crystal Giant more than ten meters tall.
In the Dimensional Esophagus, countless small, hidden Temporal Faults existed; unless the Endless Dominators descended, the longer a powerhouse lived, the more they would compress their own size, reducing unnecessary bulk. This brought no increase effect to their Material World size.
Beneath the Face of Truth, though this Crystal Stone Giant’s whole body was glowing red‑hot, Green’s Petrification Eyes pinpointed a weak point: an area near the center of its spine, almost dark‑red like blood!
Bang!
This Crystal Stone Giant, famed for its powerful defense, collapsed at once into uniformly fine powder, utterly shattered.
Immediately afterward, Green flashed again, using Elemental Teleport to appear in the midst of the chaotic energy ripples between two powerhouses fighting high in the sky. He manifested at a spot judged by the Face of Truth to be a weak zone of aftershock. Under the horrified gaze of a long‑nosed humanoid flesh‑and‑blood creature and a black‑and‑white‑spotted Minotaur, nine hundred and ninety‑nine Infernal Soul Bird Heads formed of pure black flame dove down on them in a sky‑filling torrent, completely submerging and tearing them apart.
On the other side.
The Demon Doll was like a Trick Crystal Terminator, half its body flickering on and off, nearly a semi‑illusory form. It showed few methods, or perhaps had never encountered an opponent worthy of its true means. With the one remaining arm on the intact half of its body, a casual point of its fingertip unleashed a column of black light hundreds of thousands of degrees hot—and intertwined within it were the rules of the Ashen World!
After a few strikes, the exiles all realized how powerful the Demon Doll was and hurriedly avoided it.
In the surrounding sky, as chaotic, violent energies surged, the Demon Doll stared at Green in astonishment.
Not because of Green’s strength, but because Green was relentlessly hunting down the exiles around them, treating this place as a battlefield of war, unleashing the instincts of a Dark Wizard, slaughtering all enemies in sight!
"Oblivion Sorcerer!"
The Demon Doll personally stopped the Dark Wizard, who was flickering between light and shadow in a continuous killing trance.
"Our goal is to leave the Dimensional Esophagus."
Long estranged from emotion, the dull, flavorless existence had driven Green into a frenzy of irritability. He was becoming indifferent and numb toward everything, approaching the ideal combat state of a pure Dark Wizard within the light‑and‑shadow Sorcerer’s Rule, yet drifting ever farther from the Wizard’s ideal real‑world goals.
"Mm."
Green stopped, reflecting deeply on his own state—whether he could still hold on any longer.
Now, with the Paper Man he deeply feared no longer here, only the Demon Doll and two not‑too‑strong Casket Ascenders remained...
A few days later.
A green Water Elemental Lifeform, as the fourth survivor of the melee battlefield, joined the Casket Ascender Guardian camp. Some distance from Green, it listened as the Demon Doll briefly explained the rules of the Coffin of Hope.
