Awakening：The Infinite Evolution of My Talent as a Low-Level Awakener - Chapter 518

Chapter 518: Chapter 518: The Drama King Takes the Stage, A Perfect Curtain Call!
A fierce hurricane roared past, scattering countless grains of sand across the earth. In this moment, everything returned to stillness—dust to dust, earth to earth.

Diana finally closed her eyes, her consciousness slowly slipping away… or so she thought.

“Is this… death? Why does it feel so empty, so devoid of sensation?

So this is what true death feels like. That’s good, I suppose. Hades must not have felt any pain either. He passed so quickly, after all.”

She murmured to herself as she felt her awareness gradually descending. Her body seemed to grow lighter, almost ethereal. In her heart, she clung to one comforting thought: she was a god, and so was Hades. If even mortals had the chance to ascend to the heavens after death, then surely she and Hades would meet again in the divine afterlife.

But… why did it feel like someone was standing beside her?

“Stupid girl, are you so eager for me to die?”

Suddenly, a large hand wrapped around her slender, delicate waist and pulled her forcefully into a solid embrace.

Diana’s entire body jolted. That voice—it was familiar, impossibly so. A voice she should never have been able to hear again. Could it be… Hades? Had he come for her?

“No, no, this must be an illusion,” she muttered to herself. “I’m a god. Even if my soul is fading, there’s always a transitional phase before complete annihilation. This must be my heart’s deepest longing playing tricks on me. But it’s all a dream… Hades is gone.”

She sighed sorrowfully, yet something didn’t add up. In this supposed “illusion,” why did the voice seem to echo right next to her ear? And why did the familiar sensation of that hand around her waist feel so vividly real?

Confused, Diana slowly opened her eyes. What greeted her was not a dream, but a pair of eyes—Sterl’s eyes—gazing at her with a mix of warmth and a look that could only be described as seeing an idiot.

“So, this is what gods are like? Turns out, they can be idiots too,” Sterl said, exasperation coloring his voice. Was this a universal thing with women? He’d seen this kind of reaction far too many times before.

As Diana remained in a daze, her face full of disbelief, clearly still questioning whether this was reality or an illusion, Sterl raised his hand high into the air. Without hesitation, he brought it down in a firm slap on her soft, round behind.

Smack!

The crisp sound echoed through the quiet surroundings. Diana’s shapely hips, struck with such force, deformed momentarily under the impact, bouncing and rippling like a springy jelly. The sight was almost enough to tempt someone into delivering another blow, perhaps with something far more direct.

Before long, the skin beneath the thin fabric began to flush a vivid red, swelling slightly from the sting. The sharp pain shot through Diana’s nerves, snapping her out of her daze.

This wasn’t a dream. This wasn’t an illusion. It was all real!

She looked up, stunned, at the tall and imposing figure before her. It was Hades—his towering frame casting a shadow that completely enveloped her, as if shielding her from all the harm in the world.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, she felt safe. Like nothing could reach her so long as he was there.

A faint divine radiance enveloped the figure, casting a dreamy glow that seemed almost surreal. Watching this scene unfold, Diana was momentarily transfixed. A profound sense of loss and recovery surged through her heart, overwhelming her emotions.

“Don’t fall for me. I’m just a legend,” Sterl thought smugly to himself, barely holding back a laugh. He had waited patiently for this perfect moment to execute his grand entrance. The timing was impeccable, and the effect? Absolutely flawless.

His gaze swept forward, landing on Boris, who was frozen in place with a face full of disbelief. Boris raised a trembling hand, pointing at him like he was staring at an unfathomable demon god.

“H-how… how is this possible?!” Boris stammered, his voice quivering. “It’s you?! You’re supposed to be dead! Didn’t we kill you together? How can you still be alive?!”

Boris’s expression went through a masterclass transformation: from stiff shock to doubtful disbelief, then gradually twisting into terror and utter dread. If there were an award for divine acting, Boris would have swept it effortlessly. Compared to him, the so-called Oscars were mere trinkets for amateurs. Boris wasn’t just an actor—he was a seasoned veteran, a true master of the craft. His performance couldn’t have been more perfect.

The other gods, equally stunned, fixed their eyes on Sterl, who now stood beside Diana. The gods from the Ashen faction began to panic.

Where had this man come from? Hadn’t they collectively annihilated him just moments ago? Even if they hadn’t outright killed him, surely he’d have been gravely wounded and forced to flee. Yet here he was, not just alive but seemingly in perfect condition, as though he’d just finished watching an action movie rather than surviving an epic battle.

On the other hand, Morette and the other Orichalcum gods froze for only a second before erupting into unrestrained joy.

They had known it all along! With Hades’s strength, how could these despicable worms possibly kill him? Their pitiful tricks couldn’t harm him in the slightest.

As expected, here he was, once again appearing at the most critical moment, making his dramatic and invincible entrance to overturn everything.

At this point, Boris let out another piercing cry, though this time his words bordered on nonsensical.

“No! No one can survive an attack from ten gods! Not even a high-tier divine authority! Who are you?! Are you an avatar of one of the chief deities?!

How can someone like you exist—so powerful, invincible, domineering, beyond comprehension?! This defies the boundaries of the world, surpasses all rules of reality! Could it be… are you aiming to become a chief deity yourself?!”

Sterl’s commanding, imperious expression faltered ever so slightly, his brow twitching as black lines metaphorically appeared across his forehead.

He had just been admiring Boris’s acting, and now this fool had completely overdone it. What was this nonsense? It wasn’t even exaggeration anymore—it was outright incoherent praise. Sterl silently groaned to himself. This was amateurish flattery at its absolute worst.

Boris seemed to realize his earlier misstep. A shiver ran down his spine, and he quickly twisted his face into an expression of seething anger.

“Hades! You dare appear before me again? I swear I’ll drag you down with me, even if it costs me my life!”

With a furious roar, Boris summoned all his strength and launched himself recklessly at Hades, throwing another ferocious strike with everything he had.

However, at that moment, Sterl raised a single finger and casually pointed forward. It was as if some unseen, inexplicable force coursed through the air. Boris’s body convulsed violently. The next second, as if struck by an invisible hammer, he spat out a mouthful of blood and was hurled backward at incredible speed.

His form tumbled uncontrollably through the air until he disappeared from view, only to crash heavily into the ground far in the distance, kicking up an enormous cloud of dust. His aura immediately plummeted, leaving him feeble and lifeless.

This explosive turn of events stunned everyone present into silence.

Hades had grown even stronger during his brief absence?

Could Boris’s earlier words have been true? Was Hades truly some avatar of an unimaginably powerful chief deity, descending to this world merely for amusement and to experience mortal life for a time?

“Retreat!”

“Use the Shielding Power!”

Ashen’s last remaining god with dual divine authorities shouted with no hesitation. In his desperation, he even willingly took a direct blow from his opponent, staggering as he turned to flee without so much as a glance behind him. After putting some distance between himself and the battlefield, he immediately activated Shielding Power in a frantic bid for safety.

The remaining eight gods, including the Goddess of Seduction, followed suit, scattering in panic. They had no desire to stay any longer.

What they had just witnessed was pure madness. None of them had even seen how Hades attacked. There had been no perceptible aura, no buildup—nothing. All they saw was Boris, a powerhouse wielding three divine authorities and the strongest in the Nation of Orichalcum besides Eterna, being blown away like a rag doll. His fate was now unknown, and he might even be dead.

This power went far beyond their understanding of minor divine authorities. It was unmistakably the kind of strength only a high-tier divine authority could wield—if not greater. To encounter such overwhelming might here, in this place, was beyond unfair.

Fear had utterly consumed them, draining their will to fight. All they could think to do was run.

Morette and the others initially considered giving chase, but the fleeing gods quickly activated their Shielding Power, vanishing without leaving behind even a trace of their presence or aura.

Sterl, however, wasn’t finished. His eyes lingered on the space where the Ashen gods had disappeared. Slowly, he lifted his foot and then, in an instant, vanished from his spot.

Moments later, from the empty sky in the far distance, a sudden, agonized wail echoed through the air. A surge of Divine Power rippled outward, accompanied by the sound of blood erupting like a bursting balloon.

Not long after, another explosion of blood occurred, followed by the fleeting trace of an Ashen god’s aura—which then vanished entirely, as if the god had been utterly destroyed.

To the onlookers, it seemed as though Sterl had turned even the fleeing gods into nothing more than a memory.

After several more bursts of blood explosions, Sterl reappeared before Diana. Standing tall with his hands behind his back, his golden hair danced wildly in the air, and his overwhelming aura filled the heavens. To Morette and the other gods, only two words came to mind: invincible power.

“Unfortunately, they ran too fast. I only managed to take down five of them. Sadly, Boris escaped, so I couldn’t avenge you,” Sterl said softly, his tone carrying a trace of regret. As he spoke, he gently caressed Diana’s smooth, delicate cheek, his voice calm and composed.

Diana, however, was completely stunned, her gaze fixed on him in awe. Her heart swelled with boundless joy, as though wrapped in the warmth of the sun. Of course, her hero would never abandon her. But then, she realized that everything she had done earlier—all of it—had been seen by Hades.

At that thought, her cheeks flushed crimson, resembling a ripe peach so tender and inviting that it seemed irresistible.

Meanwhile, Morette and the other gods, who had barely survived the ordeal, were growing numb to Sterl’s words.

Did he just say he managed to kill five gods despite them using Shielding Power to flee? How was that even possible?

Surely, this had to be cheating, right?

And, as it turned out, they were correct. Sterl was indeed “cheating,” using a combination of omniscient vision and god-level tracking, rendering all attempts at disguise and concealment entirely useless.

Of course, the truth was slightly different. Sterl hadn’t actually killed those fleeing gods. Instead, he had only injured them, as they were all marked with his follower imprints. They were his loyal subordinates, after all, and killing them outright would be counterproductive.

His real motive was twofold: first, to deceive the Nation of Orichalcum into believing their gods had perished, and second, to test if he could claim some extra contribution points for their “deaths.” After all, no one could prove whether they were truly dead or not.

As for the escaping Ashen gods, they had initially intended to send a warning to the Terran faction. However, with a subtle activation of their follower imprints, Sterl erased this thought from their minds entirely.

Of course, he didn’t fully activate the imprints. With so many marked followers, doing so could risk attracting the attention of higher-tier divine authorities or even more powerful beings.

Sterl, as always, moved carefully, every action part of a larger plan.