Awakening：The Infinite Evolution of My Talent as a Low-Level Awakener - Chapter 752

Chapter 752: Chapter 752: Calm and Inadequacy
After releasing the Star-Bone Body, a faint sense of weakness surged within Sterl. Even with his immense stamina, he felt a hint of fatigue.

“Still not strong enough.”

He looked upwards, his gaze seemingly piercing through dimensional space, seeing the covetous and greedy eyes of the upper realms.

This time, he had won. But only he knew the risks and dangers involved.

Especially the dozens of soul spears Tosman had unleashed, which had nearly killed him in Star-Bone Body and even damaged a fragment of his soul’s origin. If his soul hadn’t been strong enough, he would likely have been severely wounded.

Moreover, neither Artigas nor Tosman had yet unleashed their full strength. If it hadn’t been for the burst of twenty thousand high-level soul power, the outcome might not have been certain.

“I need to speed things up. This time, I’ve managed to intimidate them, but the people of the Kingdom of Orichalcum won’t just back off. The next attack will be even fiercer. Not to mention the impending catastrophe.”

Taking a deep breath, Sterl couldn’t help but feel weighed down.

He had thought that with his current strength, he had earned the right to resist anything, but now he realized he was far from ready.

Just the retaliation from the Kingdom of Orichalcum nearly cost him his life.

And that’s not even counting the Wings of the Divine Kingdom watching him or the hatred from enemies beyond the realms.

Now, he had no choice but to keep moving forward, fighting against the current. Otherwise, once he lost his footing, everything related to him would vanish.

Of course, he wasn’t completely helpless. Repelling the upper realms assault from the Kingdom of Orichalcum had proven his current strength.

He couldn’t claim to dominate everything, but at least he now had the capital to resist.

Shaking his head, Sterl focused his thoughts and began refining the remaining soul puppets from Purgatory Space, absorbing their power into his body.

Once he had absorbed the remaining soul power, the subtle weakness and mental fatigue were largely alleviated.

At least, the next time he faced an attack, he wouldn’t immediately fall into a disadvantage.

Standing high in the air, he looked around, observing the severe damage to the vast royal city.

Even with the kingdom’s strong defenses, the battle between several powerful Divine Beings was bound to cause significant destruction.

However, as long as the city hadn’t been completely shattered, it would recover quickly, though the resources and energy needed would be much greater.

The truly devastating damage, however, had been done to the Legion of Hell.

Sterl had originally thought that the strength of this army would be enough to delay or even resist one or two powerful Divine Beings.

After all, with hundreds of thousands of demigod-level soldiers, hundreds of divine-level beings, and nearly twenty high-ranking divine authority entities, this was an army powerful enough to overturn worlds.

Especially with the previous battle between the Kingdom of Orichalcum and the Ashen Temple, which had left a strong impression on him.

But now, it seemed that he had overestimated the situation. The tactic of overwhelming numbers worked wonders against ordinary gods, and even high-ranking divine authority had some surprising effects. However, when facing powerful Divine Beings, it proved rather ineffective.

From beginning to end, the only one who had actively attacked the Legion of Hell was the Ancient Behemoth, Fay. The rest of the damage was just collateral from the battle.

Even so, the casualties within the Legion of Hell were severe.

Nearly half of the demigod-level soldiers had fallen, close to a hundred divine-level beings were lost, and several pseudo-high-ranking divine authority entities had perished as well.

The rest, even if they hadn’t died, were heavily injured and would take a long time to recover.

The most grievously wounded was Kun, who had taken two direct hits from Fay.

Facing the force of Fay, even Kun, whose power was top-tier among high-ranking divine authority, couldn’t withstand the impact.

He was now lying in a deep crater, his bones shattered, nearly destroyed in an instant. He was hanging onto life only by his remaining vitality.

Seeing this, Sterl’s expression darkened as he looked toward the Plaza of Glory.

At the center of the square, behind the massive statue, Augustine shuddered, feeling as if a savage beast had locked its gaze onto him, sending a chill down his spine.

His instincts told him that if he stayed there, the next moment would be his death.

“Master… Master.”

He shakily emerged from behind the statue, looking up at Sterl, whose expression was indifferent as he hovered in the air. His legs trembled uncontrollably.

He had witnessed the entire battle. From the moment Fay had descended, he had seen the devastation wrought upon the Legion of Hell.

As he was debating whether to go out and face his death, Sterl finally made his move.

And from there, the situation developed in ways he could never have imagined.

Especially when Artigas and Tosman had arrived. Augustine had already been filled with despair. What he hadn’t expected was that Sterl, facing such overwhelming odds, had managed to turn the tables and drive away three powerful Divine Powers.

Now, he was filled with both awe and fear—awed by Sterl’s strength, which far surpassed anything he had imagined, and fearful because he had contributed nothing to the battle. If he had angered Sterl, even if he had ten lives, it wouldn’t be enough to save him.

Furthermore, the image of Artigas, reduced to tears by an ability, was burned into his mind. He had never seen a being of such power brought to tears.

“Augustine, it seems you’re quite free.”

Thud.

As soon as the words left Sterl’s mouth, Augustine immediately dropped to his knees.

“Master, please spare me! I was just… I was just so afraid, I’m so afraid…”

He buried his head deeply into the ground, too terrified to look into Sterl’s eyes.

“Look up.”

Augustine broke into a cold sweat, trembling with fear as he looked up at Sterl hovering in the air.

In an instant, his body froze. A pair of deep, penetrating eyes immediately imprinted themselves onto his soul.

At that moment, it felt as though a pair of rough, powerful hands were violently tearing at his soul.

From a soul’s perspective, one would see countless Ghostly Eye Soul Threads wrapping around Augustine, continuously draining everything that belonged to him.

His expression, initially filled with terror, gradually dulled, eventually turning into an empty, soulless gaze, as if he were already a corpse.

This was clearly the second ability of Soul Prison’s Eerie Eyes, which could absorb all the memories from a living being’s soul.

[II. Soul Absorption: Generates countless Ghostly Eye Soul Threads, absorbing the soul of any living being. The absorbed being will gradually lose skills, combat techniques, memories, and knowledge… At the same time, the absorber gains the knowledge, skills, combat experience, and even memories of the absorbed being. The absorption speed is between 1% to 100% per second (depending on the relative strength of the souls involved).]

(Effect influenced by unknown forces; +1 to the user’s rank during judgment.)

“I don’t need trash.”

After absorbing all of Augustine’s memories, Sterl spoke calmly.

He had kept Augustine alive for two reasons: one, because the man held many unknown secrets, and two, because of his decent strength, which could have made him useful as a mount.

But now it was clear—he was nothing more than a weak-willed, useless being, despite his strength.

Sterl had thought that planting the followers mark would allow for a quick assimilation, but due to Augustine’s ancient and powerful bloodline, the process was too slow.

And when faced with strong enemies, Augustine had chosen to hide.

Such a worthless being was an embarrassment to keep.

After having all his memories absorbed, Augustine didn’t die, but from now on, he would become a puppet with no thought ability, forever incapable of advancing further, even losing his sense of self.

Sterl didn’t immediately check Augustine’s memories. Instead, he made his way directly to the place where Fay had disappeared.

In the enormous, massive crater, a blood-red lake had formed.

This was the blood Fay had spilled after being split in half by the Sword of the World, and it contained some of Fay’s vital essence.

As a powerful divine level beast, each drop of his blood was infused with immense power and ferocity, an energy too dangerous for mere gods to touch.

If not for the severe damage, such a massive loss of vital blood wouldn’t have occurred.

Coupled with the overwhelming shadow Sterl cast over Fay, during his escape, he had been too panicked to collect it back.

“A decent trophy, I suppose.”

Looking at the blood lake beneath him, the value of this lake was comparable to that of some ancient treasures. If used properly, it could yield unexpected results.

If left unchecked here, the area within a thousand miles would become barren, and any living creatures that approached would be corrupted by the blood energy.

Perhaps, in thousands or tens of thousands of years, it could give rise to a powerful race.

This was the power of a mighty Divine Being: when the god falls, all life is reborn.

With a wave of his hand, the blood in the lake quickly began to condense, and within moments, the vast blood lake had transformed into a blood orb the size of an egg.

Holding the blood orb, it seemed as though a blood beast inside it was roaring and thrashing, attempting to break free from Sterl’s control.

However, if Fay himself couldn’t even stand against Sterl, this tiny blood orb was no challenge.

After collecting the blood, Sterl dispersed the blood mist lingering in the air with a single palm. The mist would slowly be absorbed by the world, eventually turning into the world’s nutrients.

“Now’s the time to fully corrupt the core of the royal city. This way, even if the Kingdom of Orichalcum comes for another assault, we can withstand it to some extent.”

After securing the blood orb, Sterl looked around at the injured Legion of Hell. He took the last bit of soul power and squeezed it with force.

Instantly, the soul power transformed into countless soul fragments, which then entered the bodies of the soldiers and followers.

With the nourishment from this soul power, although it wouldn’t fully heal the soldiers and followers, it would accelerate their recovery speed.

After this battle, Sterl no longer sought to grow the power of his followers too much. Even if the Legion of Hell grew ten times its current size, it would still be no match for the three mighty Divine Powers.

The gap between them was beyond what numbers could make up for.

Of course, it was possible that their numbers were still too few, but creating a force capable of combating powerful Divine Powers wasn’t as important as focusing this energy on enhancing himself.

However, the Legion had its purpose. At his current level, he couldn’t handle everything on his own, and as he expanded into more worlds, the importance of such a legion became even more clear.