Awakening：The Infinite Evolution of My Talent as a Low-Level Awakener - Chapter 619

Chapter 619: Chapter 619: Evolution Complete, Is the Mother Entity the True Threat?
“Petty tricks,” Sterl scoffed coldly. If this fused monster had achieved a High Divine Authority level of strength across all aspects, he might have faced a challenging battle.

But with only its speed reaching the High Divine Authority threshold, while its other abilities fell short of even an ordinary god, it was nothing more than a fragile shell.

Furthermore, while its speed was impressive—so fast that even Sterl’s eyes struggled to track it—his powerful soul perception rendered every move it made vividly clear in his mind.

“Seal!”

With a single utterance, Sterl activated his mastery over the Temporal-Spatial Laws, unleashing a dual suppression of time and space. As an advanced Law Power, its strength was immense. Even though the fused monster was shrouded in the gray energy that could bypass Laws and Divine Power, its speed drastically slowed under the combined effect.

Sterl wasted no time. Without giving the monster a chance to recover, he activated Phantom Purgatory, forcibly dragging the creature’s soul into the purgatorial dimension.

A second later, when the monster’s soul returned to its body, it had already endured 20% damage to its essence.

Combined with its previous injuries, the fused monster’s soul had now suffered a total of 40% damage.

While that figure might not seem significant, soul damage affected the very core of existence. For most gods, such a degree of soul damage would render them incoherent, incapacitated, or even comatose for decades, if not centuries.

Although the fused monster was unique, possessing a soul but no will, the damage impaired its ability to function as an extension of the mother entity’s consciousness.

The result was clear: the creature now staggered like a drunkard, its movements erratic and sluggish. Its combat effectiveness plummeted by an order of magnitude.

Sterl remained calm and composed. Although the monster was no longer a threat to him, he had already observed that as long as the souls of these creatures remained intact, the mysterious gray energy surrounding them would persist.

This meant that, even with its diminished strength, there was still a slim chance the gray energy could injure him if he was careless.

Taking no chances, Sterl paused for a few seconds to fully recover his soul energy. Then, he unleashed Phantom Purgatory once more.

With its soul already severely weakened, this time the purgatorial attack inflicted an additional 30% soul damage.

When the fused monster’s soul finally re-integrated with its body, it was left completely incapacitated. The once-deadly creature now stood motionless, its body slack and unresponsive, as though frozen in time.

The severely damaged soul was no longer capable of receiving or processing any information. Once his soul energy had fully recovered, Sterl struck again, completely erasing the fused monster’s soul and turning it into a new puppet within his Purgatory Space.

“This can’t go to waste. I have to thank you for giving me such a powerful minion,” Sterl muttered as he looked at the now lifeless, soulless body of the fused monster. He was ready to transfer it into his Small World for safekeeping.

The monster’s capabilities had been made clear to him—its speed rivaled that of a High Divine Authority, far surpassing many so-called gods of speed or assassination. Even without the mysterious gray energy that could bypass all Divine Power and Laws, its sheer velocity alone made it an invaluable asset.

If deployed on a battlefield, it could create chaos among weaker gods with Minor Divine Power, forcing them into a constant state of fear and vigilance. Such a tool would be invaluable in Sterl’s conquest of the Alpha 8 World.

But before he could act, the fused monster’s body began to dissolve, melting into a pool of dense, silvery liquid that quickly flowed back into the grotesque worm mother.

“Hmm? It didn’t leave a body behind this time. Could it be because of the mother entity?” Sterl’s brow furrowed slightly. Still, he wasn’t overly concerned—he had already claimed its soul, which was what mattered most.

After all, the soul of the fused monster wasn’t just comparable in quality to a High Divine Authority, but its sheer size was equivalent to a tenth of such a being’s soul. Even as a simple soul puppet, it would possess formidable combat capabilities.

Moreover, soul puppets attacked directly on the spiritual level, making their strikes nearly impossible to defend against. Against gods, such an assault could potentially be even deadlier than the original fused monster.

Sterl turned his attention back to the worm mother, and his pupils narrowed.

It had taken him less than thirty seconds to deal with the fused monster, but in that short time, the hundred-meter-long grotesque worm had undergone a dramatic transformation.

The worm had shrunk to just over ten meters, and the energy stored within its body was rapidly reconstructing its form.

Without hesitation, Sterl unleashed Destructive Light toward it. A dazzling beam of light pierced through the worm instantly, its destructive energy radiating outward.

But as the power of the Destructive Light began to spread, a dense gray mist erupted from the worm’s body, enveloping the energy and devouring it entirely.

The attack seemed to provoke the worm, accelerating its transformation. In mere moments, a crack appeared on its grayish-black, wrinkled skin, peeling back to reveal something beneath.

…

A torrent of mucus erupted, and from within emerged a grotesque creature, pitch-black and shrouded in thick gray mist, slowly stepping out.

Sterl took a deep breath as he observed the enigmatic black entity, and an instinctive sense of unease welled up within him.

There was no doubt in his mind—this creature was incredibly powerful. It exuded an aura comparable to that of the Silver Moon Wolf God, if not more potent.

Coupled with the mysterious gray energy that surrounded it, the creature radiated an overwhelming sense of danger.

What unsettled Sterl even more was the realization that he had assumed the fused mantis was the worm mother’s final trump card. He hadn’t anticipated that the mother entity’s own power would surpass that of its guardian.

The thought was chilling—imagine a world invaded by these entities. Even if the strongest defenders of that world managed to fight through legions of enemy forces and reach the mother entity, they would first face a powerful guardian like the fused mantis.

After paying a tremendous price to defeat the guardian, they would think they had achieved victory—only to discover that the mother entity itself was the true and ultimate threat.

Such endless despair could instantly shatter any resolve, extinguishing hope and willpower alike.

“Can the gods really withstand a calamity like this?” Sterl couldn’t help but wonder.

What he was witnessing was only the tip of the iceberg, yet the sheer power on display was terrifying. What horrors would the full force of such a disaster bring?

Fortunately, Sterl had mentally prepared himself for this possibility. He had already elevated these creatures to the status of near-apocalyptic threats in his mind. While the sight of this being was shocking, he quickly composed himself.

The creature stood an imposing five meters tall, humanoid in posture. Its face was featureless except for a pair of glowing crimson eyes, set against a smooth, black, keratinous surface.

Its physique was robust and imposing. Its lower body consisted of four massive legs, each formed from black, root-like tendrils, anchoring it firmly to the ground.

Its upper body was insect-like, a single seamless carapace that appeared both highly durable and brimming with terrifying physical strength.

The creature had six arms, evenly distributed along its sides, resembling six enormous industrial pile drivers poised and ready to strike.

Terrifying. Mysterious. Overwhelming.

These were the words Sterl found himself using to describe the entity. Its grotesque appearance was strangely harmonious, like a meticulously crafted work of art designed for destruction.

Sterl activated Star Insight in an attempt to analyze its attributes. But the result was nothing but a series of question marks.

Even the basic attributes showed no definitive values, only vague approximations, as though the creature had transcended the realm of [Transcendence] and stepped into a reality beyond comprehension.

Sterl activated Soul Insight again, and, as before, the entity’s soul was an immense amalgamation of countless souls from hellish beings.

What truly unsettled Sterl was the realization that such a chaotic and cumbersome soul could sustain a body of such extraordinary power. It was undeniably unnatural.

The fully evolved mother entity surveyed its surroundings, appearing momentarily unfamiliar with its new form. However, within seconds, the awkwardness vanished completely.

It slowly raised its head, locking its crimson compound eyes on Sterl, who was observing it from above. Those blood-red eyes grew even brighter, sending a chilling sensation coursing down Sterl’s spine.

Without warning, the mother entity launched an attack. Its speed—remarkably—was even faster than the fused monster from before. It had unquestionably reached the level of a High Divine Authority!

“Freeze!”

Sterl hastily activated the Temporal-Spatial Laws, imposing an immediate suppression on the mother entity. Simultaneously, he triggered the teleportation ability of his Boots of the Void, leaping a thousand meters forward just in time to evade the entity’s charged strike.

Boom!

The area within a hundred-meter radius shattered like a spider’s web, revealing gaping black voids of spatial rupture beneath.

The terrifying shockwaves surged outward in all directions, unleashing a ferocious hurricane that swept away everything in its path. Even Boris and the others, positioned far away, were sent flying by the sheer force.

“What unbelievable power!”

Sterl’s heart trembled as he processed what he’d just witnessed. The devastating strike had been executed with raw, unadulterated force—no trace of Law Power, no hint of any mysterious energy other than the omnipresent gray mist. All Sterl could perceive was an unparalleled purity of strength!

“With sheer physical force alone, it delivered an attack on par with a High Divine Authority?”

Sterl’s eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the aftermath. Not only was the punch devastating in power, but the precision with which the force was concentrated within a hundred-meter radius was extraordinary. It wasn’t flashy or outwardly destructive like many divine attacks but was far more dangerous due to its tightly focused intensity.

This was the first time Sterl had ever seen such an exaggerated effect achieved through raw physical strength alone.

Even the Frost Giant, which had fused with the golden [Transcendence] code, paled in comparison. If someone had witnessed this punch without context, they might have assumed it was the work of a god who wielded the High Divine Authority of Strength.

…