Invasion!

The Abyss Prison had been invaded?! The Ice Curse God Tablet had been shattered?!

Star Remnant... Isaiah had done it?!

Upon hearing this news, the Warden no longer cared about the hidden danger in his body and immediately sat up.

"What exactly happened? Explain clearly!"

"Y-Yes." Carter said, "Warden, half an hour ago, Star Remnant's Sorcerer corps, led by Isaiah, breached the Ice Curse God Tablet. They have now entered the Abyss Prison. The Guardians are resisting, but Isaiah is simply too powerful, and we are severely understaffed..."

"Are you certain it was Isaiah?"

"We are. We saw him with our own eyes."

The Warden clenched his fists, and the chains on his body rattled incessantly.

Isaiah... How dare you? How dare you?!

What exactly are you trying to do?!

The Warden knew that question was pointless. After all, what else could one seek by invading the Abyss Prison except that thing?

But the reason the Warden was still so shocked was that, in his view, the Abyss Prison could not possibly be breached.

Even if the attacker was Isaiah, even if Isaiah had already broken through the Ice Curse God Tablet, as long as the other three God Tablets remained intact, Isaiah could not advance any further. In the end, he would only be crushed by the Guardians once they reacted.

So Isaiah was practically committing suicide.

Why had he gone this far?

The Warden could not help pondering the question, but Carter gave him no time to think and made another plea. "Please activate Obedience of Heavenly Voice immediately and erase Isaiah!"

The Warden snapped out of his thoughts, then nodded. "Activate it."

Since Isaiah had already acted, there was nothing more to say. Whether he had obtained the Three Corpse Pieces or not, his ending had already been decided.

The Warden followed Carter out of his residence and hurried toward Obedience of Heavenly Voice. At that moment, the Guardian captain under his command rushed over as well, confusion written across his face.

"Warden, what happened?" the Guardian captain asked. "Why are we suddenly activating Heaven's Obedience?"

The Warden frowned deeply. "What are you standing around for? Don't you know Isaiah is attacking the Abyss Prison?"

The confusion on the Guardian captain's face turned to shock. "The Abyss Prison is under attack? When did that happen? I didn't receive any alarm."

His words halted the Warden in his tracks. Only then did he realize that the camp was abnormally quiet. There had been no alarm at all.

Logically, the camp and the Abyss Prison shared the same alarm system. If the Abyss Prison came under attack, this place should have received word immediately. The message should have come from the Guardians stationed there, not Diana's servant.

Thinking of this, the Warden immediately turned to Carter behind him, his gaze murderous. "What exactly is going on?!"

"It was Isaiah. He used the Star Secret Art to completely sever all connections with the Abyss Prison!" Carter said. "All magical signals have been cut off. I am the only one still able to receive messages from my master."

The Star Secret Art...

If it was Isaiah, then he really could have accomplished that.

And that explained why Isaiah had dared to attack the Abyss Prison. If the Ring Finger's contract had not been immune to all spells, he might really have completed this invasion without anyone noticing.

Fortunately, the contract was in their hands.

The Warden felt relieved, yet that relief was tinged with irony. He had never expected that, in the end, the power protecting Contract Land would be Visas's.

Never mind. Now was not the time to think about that.

The Warden gave the Guardian captain an order. "Use Obedience of Heavenly Voice."

Now that there was an explanation, the Guardian naturally did not hesitate and immediately acknowledged the order.

Yet as he watched the Guardian captain leave, the Warden felt his earlier doubts rise again—why had Isaiah done this?

Didn't he know that even after making so many preparations, his chances of breaching the Abyss Prison were practically zero? Why take such a risk?!

Could it be... because he had driven Isaiah into a corner?

But was this really a dead end? Isaiah could have completely...

The Warden's pupils suddenly contracted. Only then did he realize that Isaiah's previous situation had truly been a dead end. Unless he found Ulu, there was nothing Isaiah could do to prove his innocence.

Seen that way, he really had driven Isaiah onto a dead-end road.

But why had he only thought of this now?

Why, when he had made that decision, had he failed to consider the consequences of driving the strongest beneath the gods into a corner?

Before the Warden could find an answer, an enormous boom rang out, and the earth began to shake.

He raised his head and saw the divine creation that stood between heaven and earth rapidly gathering power.

Obedience of Heavenly Voice... had activated.

The tentacles that had slept for so long awakened. They roared and shrieked, desperately trying to crawl upward, trying to approach the statue at the very top. Yet only the thickest among them succeeded. They devoured the weak, slaughtered their equals, and tore apart the strong, all for the sake of climbing higher. Recklessly and bloodily, they drew closer to that sacred statue.

Yet no matter what they did, they could never truly approach it. The closer they got, the weaker they became.

Even the strongest would rapidly wither once they entered a certain range, as if every drop of blood in their bodies had been drained away. In the end, they became dried corpses and fell, only to be devoured mid-fall by other tentacles climbing upward. It was as if the only thing they pursued so desperately was that very fall.

And amid the annihilation of countless tentacles, the statue grew ever stronger.

The energy the tentacles gained through devouring and slaughtering one another all became offerings, pouring into the statue.

Thus, the statue no longer slept. It slowly opened its pupil-less eyes and stared at the world in an extremely eerie posture.

Under that godless gaze, everyone lowered their heads without prior agreement.

Obedience of Heavenly Voice had been activated, and the Warden had no time to think about anything else. He said in a low voice, "Begin."

It was time to offer up the name.

He watched the Guardian captain stand beneath Obedience of Heavenly Voice and struggle to spread his arms, as though offering himself as a sacrifice.

"Please listen! Please judge! Please erase!"

He heard the Guardian shout.

The statue received the request and slowly opened its mouth.

Its mouth opened wider and wider, and then a withered giant hand stretched out from within.

Beneath that giant hand, a wordless pressure surged into everyone's hearts, making them wish they could bury their heads in the ground.

Even the Warden could not help lowering his head.

No matter what Isaiah's purpose was, now that things had reached this point, there was no turning back.

That was what he thought.

Then, he heard the Guardian captain shout.

"The target you are to erase is..."

"Xin De!"

...Xin De?!

That familiar yet unfamiliar name made the Warden freeze.

That was... his name!

How could this be?!

The Warden abruptly raised his head and stared at the Guardian who had spoken that name.

Only then did he realize that it was not his Foreman Guardian, but another familiar face—Carter.

The Warden saw Carter smiling at him, that smile carrying an exceedingly feminine charm.

...Diana?!!

How could it be Diana?!

A tremendous shock struck the Warden's heart, but he no longer had time to understand any of it.

Because the withered giant hand had already pointed at him.

He opened his mouth, but before he could say a single word, his soul and body turned to ash and scattered with the wind.

He, Xin De, Warden of the Abyss Prison.

Had been erased by the gods.

The Warden abruptly opened his eyes. Before him was a familiar ceiling.

"You're awake, old friend." A familiar voice, familiar words.

The Warden turned his head and saw a familiar rotting corpse smiling at him.

"Luer, why are you..." he instinctively began, but stopped halfway through.

He seemed to have said those words before.

"You summoned me here." Luer said with a smile. "Have you forgotten?"

The Warden fell silent for a long while before slowly speaking. "I think I had a nightmare."

"A nightmare?" Luer's expression did not change, but surprise colored his tone. "Can someone like you still have nightmares?"

"I don't understand it either."

"What did you dream about?"

"I... can't remember." The Warden said painfully. "I only know it wasn't a good dream... You are an expert in this field. Do you know what is happening?"

"I can only assume there is a problem with Spirit Summoning." Luer said. "But logically, you and I are already dead. There shouldn't be..."

Before Luer could finish, hurried footsteps came from outside.

When the Warden raised his head and saw who had arrived, he felt a wrenching pain in his chest despite having no heart left.

"Warden! Star Remnant has invaded the Abyss Prison! The Ice Curse God Tablet has been shattered!"

Carter shouted.

"Please activate Heaven's Obedience immediately!"

Abyss Prison.

Diana watched the setting sun slowly descend and silently calculated the time in her heart.

It was almost time.

Before long, her plan would begin.

Diana gently closed her eyes. She could clearly feel her heart pounding like a war drum struck by heavy hammers.

She was deeply uneasy.

"How is everything on the Warden's side?" Diana asked in her mind.

"Reporting to Master, everything is normal." Carter's calm and respectful reply sounded in her mind. "The Warden has remained inside his residence and has not left."

"Was he alone?"

"Yes, he was alone." Carter said. "He only had a brief conversation with Luer, messenger of the Nether Path, last night. He spent the rest of the time by himself."

"What about that messenger of the Nether Path?"

"He has already left." Carter replied. "Only the Guardians remain in the camp now. The delegations from the various churches have all departed."

Diana nodded slightly.

For the moment, everything truly was normal.

The Warden had been the same way in the Abyss Prison. He never interacted with others, and for the vast majority of the time, he locked himself alone in his residence. Without special circumstances, he would not show himself even for more than a decade, as though he were dead.

If not for this incident, each generation of Contractors would only have two chances in their lives to meet the Warden. One was when they received the finger and became Contractors; the other was when they surrendered the finger and ceased to be Contractors—after all, the Warden needed to know who each generation of Contractors were.

Therefore, there was nothing unusual about the Warden locking himself alone in his residence and seeing no one now.

But... why?

A powerful unease still lingered in Diana's heart.

She always felt that something was wrong, that everything was progressing too smoothly.

So smoothly that it felt strange.

It was as if she was not the one arranging all of this, but the one being arranged. Another invisible hand was controlling everything, yet she could not find the slightest trace of it.

Why was that?

Just then, a thunderous boom interrupted Diana's thoughts.

Feeling the violent tremor beneath her feet, Diana's first reaction was that her servants had begun acting.

Well, the time had indeed come.

Diana took a deep breath and arranged a fitting expression to face the Guardians below, who had poured out in response to the violent shaking.

Things had come this far. There was no turning back.

That was what Diana thought.

Yet she still felt that... something was wrong.

Hurried footsteps rang out. Diana saw the Guardian on duty rush toward her, his face filled with panic.

"Contractor! The Storm God Tablet has been destroyed!"

Diana revealed a suitably shocked expression. "The Ice Curse God Tablet was... what?"

After a brief stunned pause, her feigned shock became genuine astonishment.

"Which God Tablet did you say?!"

"The Storm God Tablet!"

How could it be the Storm God Tablet?!

...Isaiah?! Isaiah had truly come?!

Before Diana could make sense of it, another Guardian rushed over.

"Contractor! The Ice Curse God Tablet has also been destroyed!"

...Damn it! The timing was too perfect. There was no time to make them stop!

They had directly lost two God Tablets. This...

"Contractor!" Another Guardian arrived. "The Golden God Tablet has also been damaged!"

Diana's face was filled with disbelief.

The Golden God Tablet?! The one Rhine created?!

Why was that destroyed too?!

How could Isaiah possibly destroy two God Tablets in succession?!

Diana could not make sense of the situation at all.

But it was not over, because she soon saw a fourth Guardian arriving with a report.

"Contractor, we have lost contact with the God Tablet of Slumber."

Diana no longer knew what expression she should make. She was almost numb.

Ever since she obtained Ring Finger, she had always been the one controlling and commanding others.

But now...

Another rumble came from the heavens.

Diana raised her head.

She saw that the sky, which should have been at dusk, was now black as ink, with only stars filling the heavens.

Beneath those countless stars, Diana felt a profound sense of helplessness.

"Contractor! We've lost contact with the Warden!"

That was the final report.

By then, Diana's face was filled with bitterness.

So this was Isaiah's handiwork? The four great divine steles had been destroyed at once, and Abyss Prison had been enveloped by the Star Secret Art, becoming an isolated island.

This was the man ranked first beneath the gods.

Diana had actually believed herself to be the Hunter. Compared to Isaiah, she was nothing more than weak prey.

But... it wasn't over yet.

Diana gently stroked Ring Finger, a trace of coldness flashing through her eyes.

Your secret art cannot cut off my rules.

Carter rushed into the Warden's residence.

"Warden! Abyss Prison has been invaded by Starfall! The four great divine steles have been shattered!"

He shouted at the enormous sleeping figure.

"Please activate Heaven's Obedience immediately."

Then, those abyss-like crimson eyes slowly opened.