Deep within the cracked Ice and Fire Seal Rift, there was silence for three breaths.
Then--
Thump!
A heavy heartbeat, so heavy it shook the entire Flame Frost Continent, came from the deepest part of the earth. On the boundless plains, the undying divine flames suddenly rose tens of millions of meters, transforming into howling fire serpents. Countless spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface of the absolute zero frozen realm, emitting a deafening roar as glaciers shattered.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
My heartbeat grew faster and louder, like the beating of war drums.
"Death? To become a part of you?" A deep, hoarse, yet still domineering voice, like the clash of iron, rolled up from the depths of the rift. "I am the Ancestor of Knights! Lord of all armies! The emperor who has conquered countless planes and established an unyielding Knight Empire! Lord of Endless, you are nothing but a petty man who stole the fruits of victory from the Flame Frost Continent while I was severely injured by the power of the Astral Realm Judgment. Do you even deserve to let me 'become a part of you'?!"
Before the words were even finished, the rift valley began to collapse.
It wasn't a physical collapse, but rather the breaking of the seal.
The sealing runes that Logo had personally inscribed, which were maintained by absorbing the energy of both ice and fire and the power of the Flame Frost Continent, became loose after Logo's departure. They were later struck by Emperor Augustus and became cracked all over. In the end, like chains that were torn apart from the inside by an invisible force, they snapped, shattered, and turned into light dust one by one.
The moment each rune chain snapped, it erupted with blinding light and Berserk energy turbulence.
The ice and fire energies, now unrestrained, collided, annihilated, and exploded wildly within the rift valley, forming a series of energy storms stretching for hundreds of millions of kilometers.
From the eye of the storm, a giant hand covered in jet-black armor slowly reached out and gripped the edge of the rift.
That hand, just the width of its fingers, was as large as a towering mountain range.
The surface of the jet-black armor was covered with marks left by sword cuts and magical attacks, but each mark exuded a chilling aura of war.
The fingernails were dark gold, with edges as sharp as divine weapons, easily shattering the earth's crust composed of divine flame crystals and Eternity ice.
"Crack--Boom!!!"
The entire edge of the rift valley collapsed completely, and a gigantic figure rose from the Abyss.
Emperor Augustus, the Ancestor of Knights.
His towering height allowed him to maintain the peak warrior form of the Barbarian Soul Race even after being severely injured and suppressed.
On the surface of his Immortal Body, the exoskeleton transformed into jet-black armor. The armor was not inanimate, but rather breathed and writhed slowly like a living being. Dark red, vein-like patterns occasionally appeared on its surface, representing the battle spirits of the millions of knights who had followed him in his conquests, now permanently imprisoned within the armor.
The helmet was full-coverage, revealing only two slits for the eyes burning with crimson flames. At the top of the helmet were three backward-curving, crown-like black horns, each tip of which pierced a miniature, shattered crown phantom.
Of course, the most eye-catching items are the two Supreme God Artifact held by Emperor Augustus in his hands.
"Spear of Order" and "The Deathbringer: Dusk of the End"
The former possesses absolute penetrating power, while the latter harbors the terror of Great Destruction.
Emperor Augustus stood in the collapsing chasm, with boiling divine flames and exploding frost beneath his feet. The sheer domineering pressure emanating from his very existence caused the space within a radius of billions of miles to distort and groan.
"The Knight Empire!" Augustus roared to the heavens, his voice creating sonic waves that tore through the clouds. "The Knight Empire! The kingdom I built with my own hands has betrayed me! The Barbarian Soul Race has abandoned its former glory! From the moment I was sealed away, I have been gathering my fury! Lord of Endless, today, I will seize your throne! I will annihilate all the traitors and rebuild the glorious Knight Empire atop the ruins of the Flame Frost Continent!"
As Emperor Augustus spoke, he raised the greatsword of the Deathbringer, its tip pointing directly at Lancelot, the Lord of Endless, in the sky.
This single action alone triggered phenomena that were enough to make even True God tremble.
Behind Emperor Augustus, countless phantom knights appeared in the space. They were clad in armor from different eras, wielding lances, greatswords, and warhammers. They roared silently, their battle intent coalescing into almost tangible crimson smoke that soared into the sky.
Beneath his feet, the Flame Frost Continent began to reverse its transformation. The divine flames became Berserk and chaotic, and the melting frost did not become water, but turned into pitch-black, corrosive blood of Destruction. The life force of countless living beings was rapidly drained and transformed into pure Destruction energy.
The sky was dyed dark red, and countless phantoms of shattered battle flags, broken swords, and tattered armor appeared and fell in the clouds. Each phantom that landed caused a small-scale disruption of the laws of nature. This was Augustus's "Knight's Domain" forcibly covering reality.
This commotion also attracted the attention of many powerful Astral Realm from the Flame Frost Continent and beyond.
A variety of gazes, some subtle and some overt, came from all directions.
"Emperor Augustus has broken free of his seal?"
"That's the Lord of Endless? He's still alive and kicking! Has the damage the Sun God inflicted on him been healed so quickly?"
"Something's not right. How can Emperor Augustus's aura be so powerful? Given his injuries, he shouldn't still possess such imposing presence!"
One powerful figure after another communicated remotely.
Many people have expressed their doubts.
Lancelot naturally noticed that something was amiss.
Emperor Augustus's strength should not have recovered so quickly.
What happened?
Could someone be helping us secretly?
No wonder the seal that Logo set up broke so quickly.
Lancelot had been puzzled.
Even though Logo's will was burned out to help him fight the Sun God, the Rune Sealing he left behind relied on the power of the Flame Frost Continent to operate. Even if Emperor Augustus could break free of the seal before he was suppressed, it would be millions of years later.
In such a short time, to restore Emperor Augustus to his current state after being suppressed and severely injured, without anyone noticing and without triggering the sealing barrier, is something even a peak Astral Realm should not be able to do.
Could it be that some advanced civilization has intervened?
In that instant, a multitude of thoughts flashed through Lancelot's mind.
However, he did not show it on his face.
It is important to never let your enemy know what you are thinking.
Since that unknown force chose to secretly help Emperor Augustus, it means that this force does not want to have a direct conflict with Lancelot.
They also didn't want Lancelot to become aware of their presence.
They wanted to remain hidden in the shadows.
Similarly, Lancelot didn't want to alert the enemy.
So they chose to pretend they hadn't noticed anything.
"A commendable will." The Endless Divine Lord finally spoke, his voice still calm. "The suppression of the primordial power of the entire Flame Frost Continent has not diminished your domineering nature; on the contrary, it has refined it to a higher purity. Augustus, you are indeed the most suitable vessel for the divine authority of one of the two Pillar God of the Endless Pantheon, the ' God of Destruction '."
"Pillar God? Destruction Divine Authority?"
Emperor Augustus first narrowed his eyes beneath his helmet, then suddenly laughed.
"Hahaha, since when have I, Augustus, become prey in the eyes of others...?"
Emperor Augustus laughed maniacally, his emotions transforming into dark purple mental fluctuations that spread uncontrollably in all directions, sweeping across the land like a mental tidal wave.
Berserk, savage, and violent... yet incredibly powerful.
Emperor Augustus seems to be affected by some unknown factor, his Divine Power is in a frenzied state, his strength has greatly increased, but his condition is somewhat unstable.
Lancelot keenly noticed this.
Thus, for the first time in a true sense, this Lord of Endless who had just completed his Nirvana and transformation "moved".
Lancelot did not grow larger, nor did he reveal his Endless divine body; he simply maintained his ordinary human form and took a step forward.
It's just one step.
The entire Flame Frost Continent suddenly fell into a state of stillness.
The boiling, undying divine flames solidified in the air, like red amber. The shattered frost fragments were frozen in the instant of their splash. The Destruction blood tide unleashed by Augustus maintained its surging posture but no longer flowed. Even the phantom of the battle banner falling in the sky seemed to be nailed to a canvas.
Time Stop? No!!
Augustus's bloodshot eyes twitched wildly. He found that he could still think and "feel," but his body was completely paralyzed.
It wasn't that he was bound, but rather... the "Space-Time segment" in which his body was located was cut off, stripped away, and fixed separately from the normal flow of time.
"What kind of method is this?!" His mind roared, but no sound came out.
But at that moment, Lancelot, the Lord of Endless, calmly walked up to him and hovered in front of his helmet.
The difference in their physical size was like that between an ant and a galaxy, but their auras were completely reversed.
It was as if Lancelot was the vast, boundless sea of stars, while Emperor Augustus was merely a speck of dust within it.
Such a contradictory, abrupt, bizarre, and incomprehensible contrast made many spectators feel so uncomfortable they wanted to vomit blood.
"This is not the power of time." Lancelot seemed to hear the consciousness of Emperor Augustus, and calmly explained, "It is the ' Matter Imprisonment ' that is jointly cast by the Endless Gods related to 'space and dimension' within my body, plus the seven hundred Endless Gods of 'sealing and imprisonment'."
Lancelot raised his right hand and gently touched the center of Augustus's helmet with his index finger.
"Your so-called domineering, your so-called Knight Divine Realm, is essentially 'forcibly covering reality with one's own will,' a path reliant on external forces." Lancelot's fingertips touched the black armor. "But this kind of covering, this kind of dependence, is nothing more than a child's graffiti on the beach before me, not worth mentioning."
"Now, let me see your true nature."
As he finished speaking, light shone from Lancelot's fingertips.
It wasn't a blinding light, but a silvery-gray light that seemed to penetrate everything. This light spread rapidly throughout Augustus's body through the gaps in his earth armor.
The next second, the peeling began.
Emperor Augustus's colossal Knight True Body began to become transparent.
Through the armor and body, countless fragments of memory scenes could be seen floating inside, rapidly circulating like a carousel.
During his Barbarian Soul Race, Emperor Augustus fought against ferocious beasts in the wilderness, awakening the fighting talent in his bloodline for the first time.
In his youth, wielding a rough iron sword, he led three hundred tribesmen to conquer their first rival tribe and hang the enemy leader's head on a flagpole.
They then established a knightly order, created Dou Qi cultivation system, and trampled one civilization after another with their iron hooves.
Later, he was crowned emperor, and amidst the kneeling adoration of millions of knights, he donned the "Crown of Ten Thousand Kings," forged from the melting down of his enemies' crowns.
During the heyday of the Knight Empire, tens of thousands of planes and civilizations of all sizes around came to pay tribute, with gifts piling up like mountains.
At this moment, Emperor Augustus's cultivation reached the level of Supreme God, and from this moment on, he attracted the attention of the Ancestor of Knights.
The latter set his sights on this outstanding younger knight.
On the one hand, it was to eliminate potential threats and prevent later generations and the Ancestor of Knights from vying for control of the Great Dao of Knights.
On the other hand, there is greed. The Ancestor of Knights wanted to devour Emperor Augustus, to make the latter a part of his power, and even to seize Emperor Augustus's potential to lay the foundation for ascending to the Realm of Eternity.
However, the meticulously planned Ancestor of Knights still failed. Emperor Augustus fought a bloody battle and, in a dark corner, ultimately devoured the Ancestor of Knights, separating a part of his own soul and merging it into the Ancestor of Knights, turning him into his own clone.
After doing all this, the Ancestor of Knights sat for a very long time atop the Spine Mountain Range, facing the wind and snow.
No one knew that his most admired person was the Ancestor of Knights.
No one knows the sorrow and anger Emperor Augustus felt when he discovered that the Ancestor of Knights wanted to devour him, his junior, and absorb his power.
That is the sorrow of being betrayed by the person you admire most.
It's the anger that comes from being stabbed in the back.
From that moment on, Emperor Augustus's personality changed. He went from being outgoing and generous to becoming taciturn, and his divinity gradually overwhelmed his humanity.
Then, his life began to darken, Emperor Augustus's life goals became obsessive. In pursuit of "Realm of Eternity," he began to do all sorts of things that he would never have done before.
As the Ancestor of Knights, he collaborated with a group of malevolent dark Mage to devour all knights, instigating the "Dao Devourer Rebellion," igniting chaos in the Astral Realm, and causing the powder keg to explode.
But Emperor Augustus could never have imagined this.
Just as his plan was about to succeed.
A young man who inherited the legacy of the Lord of Source Fire suddenly appeared, and together with the Lord of Ice Origin, he shattered all of his plans and drove him out of the Flame Frost Continent.
Thus, all the plans came to naught.
All the past events seemed like a joke, constantly mocking Emperor Augustus.
It gnawed at his heart.
This also spurred Emperor Augustus to launch his second operation, taking advantage of the situation to seize the Flame Frost Continent.
As a result, this time, he was once again suppressed by Logo with his Flame Frost Body.