Orson finally had enough. With a cold glare, he unleashed high-tier magic to clear the field.
Awakened Judgment Flame!
Magic transformed by Dragon Curse!
A dazzling mushroom cloud erupted, annihilating thousands of Heaven Demons at once.
If low-tier Heaven Demons had emotions, this would've been the first time in countless millennia they'd felt the raw terror of humankind again.
He fought on from night into day. Even Aeloria, sturdy as she was, began to falter.
Many Heaven Demon species possessed flight, and Aeloria found herself constantly swarmed, forced to retreat back to Orson to recover.
But the tide of Heaven Demons was endless.
As long as they came, the slaughter would not stop.
Bloodshot lines spread across Orson's eyes.
The relic boosts meant his mana would never run dry, but at this level of relentless carnage, his stamina bar burned down frighteningly fast.
He swung his staff with one hand while stuffing sausages into his mouth with the other, chewing ferociously to refill his energy bar.
Only Orson could pull off something this absurd—past or present.
"A little… tired," he muttered with a wry smile.
In Infinite Dimensions, he could grind for days on end without sleeping. But in this merged world, mental exhaustion came on fast.
After all, dying in a game just meant respawning at the fountain—no pressure.
Here, one lapse in vigilance could mean a gruesome end, no second chances.
"Trying something while I'm distracted?"
His eyes narrowed. He instantly switched to his Doomsday Sword and slashed. Sparks flew with a metallic clang.
Just five meters from the Genesis Dragon Seal, a flickering shape emerged.
\\[Void Crawler: Level 110]
\\[High-Tier Void Heaven Demon]
\\[Health: 300 million]
\\[Skills: Void Walk, Void Stealth, Void Assassinate]
A hunched, pale humanoid monster took form, clutching a jagged gray crystalline blade.
"The Genesis Dragon Seal… is mine."
It flashed yellowed fangs, voice gravelly and raw.
Orson's laugh was icy. He'd encountered these types before during the Golden Divine Pillar event—powerful beings from the Void Crawler race.
This one wasn't as terrifying as the actual Ninth Prince of the Void, and its health was low by comparison, but it had the strength of an Infinite Dimensions King-ranked assassin.
Plus it could phase through matter in stealth, making it a nightmare to deal with.
"The King of the Void… awaits my return. Give it to me!"
The Void Crawler snarled and lunged for the seal again.
Orson's eyebrow twitched. Aeloria slammed into the creature from the side, sending it flying a kilometer like a cannonball.
But these pests were tenacious. It stabilized midair and vanished into stealth again.
Orson frowned. He hated being hunted by assassins—Emma was the only exception.
He activated Ancient Sage's Eye. Three Void Crawler panels popped up.
It was a nifty Soul Seal trick—he couldn't see them, but he could still read their status.
Without hesitation, he shifted to mage form. Frosty blue armor coated his body.
He raised a hand, condensing the chilling power into a hundred-meter radius. The three lurking filth froze instantly into statues.
Awakened Hurricane Spear!
A wind lance ripped through a Void Crawler.
Crippling Strike -28 million!
Not done yet, his Supreme Arcane Blade blazed with pure white light.
His eyes flashed. "Awakened Soul Brand!"
An A-rank light magic.
Effect: A surge of holy light detonates from within, dealing 400% attack power as direct damage to all targets within 100 meters.
Applies \\[Light Brand], nullifying shields and marking the soul. Tracks the target's movements and drastically raises the odds of crippling, fatal, or killing strikes. Cooldown: 2 minutes.
The Void Crawler erupted with dazzling inner light, then burst apart.
Crippling Strike -35 million!
Wounding Blow -11 million!
Holy runes etched themselves across their bodies. Even after the freeze wore off and they vanished into stealth again, the marks remained clearly visible.
The perfect anti-assassin tool. The range was small, sure, but that soul lock made stealth worthless.
"Thought you could steal my treasure, little rats?"
Orson sneered. He directed Aeloria to keep shredding the low-tier mob while he lobbed Chaos Magic Balls, popping each marked Void Crawler like bloated ticks.
"You've gained +15,000 adventurer merit!"
By dawn's end, several million Heaven Demons lay dead. His adventurer merit soared to an insane 57 million+.
In his previous life, that kind of merit could raise a rookie to King rank and grant them their own unique King's Authority.
He tried opening the merit exchange shop, but the interface remained grayed out—unusable here in Era of Immortals.
Thanks to the absurd XP bonuses from Heaven Demons, Orson hit level 90.
Aeloria was nearly 100, her health pushing 2 billion.
Orson's own HP broke 13 million. He was closing in on Soul Seal God mastery.
He cast a quick glance at the Void Crawler he'd launched earlier. It hadn't come back—just skulked in the distance, watching.
"Run out of tricks already?"
The Void Crawler snarled, voice dripping venom. "When your mana… is gone… that's your death sentence!"
Orson blinked. During Awakened Ice Prison, the small forbidden curse did indeed shred his mana, dropping it by a percentage that relics couldn't refill.
He shrugged, smiling. "Sorry pal. I'm a mage. I run on mana."
His grin stretched wider as his mana hit zero.
He simply tapped his Archmage's Necklace, refilling it instantly.
The Void Crawler actually froze, ugly face twisting into a very human sort of bewilderment.
Which one of them was the true monster here?
A colossal scorpion-bodied, bat-winged Heaven Demon erupted from the sky. Its massive stinger slammed into Aeloria's back.
Even her savage temperament couldn't mask the agony. She let out a harrowing roar.
Crippling Strike -20 million!
Dozens of brutal numbers popped up. Her health plummeted.
Orson's heart clenched. He summoned his Magic Eye Mirror of Folding and fired off an Eclipse of the Underworld.
The huge demon, as large as Aeloria, twisted its wings with blinding speed, evading even the fivefold-accelerated blast!
Aeloria's rage boiled over. She endured the poison and chomped down on the beast's torso, violently hurling it away.
"High-tier Heaven Demon: Venomfire Scorpion King…"
Orson's face darkened. So the bastards lurking in the shadows had been waiting for him to exhaust himself before swooping in to snatch the Genesis Dragon Seal.
Thunderous rumbles rolled across the plains.
A towering flame giant hundreds of meters tall rose from the earth.
Another high-tier Heaven Demon—Infernal Overlord.
Health over a billion.
It lifted blazing hands and hurled skyscraper-sized fireballs.
Aeloria howled back, launching Blazing Meteor Showers. Their clashing attacks obliterated countless low-tier Heaven Demons caught in the crossfire.
Then even more high-tier Heaven Demons appeared. Each one a monarch of its species, marching forward with terrifying might.
Aeloria bared her fangs and roared.
Hot-tempered as ever, she'd still learned her owner's fine tradition: if you can't win, run.
If you can't run, cheat—then circle back and kill them later.
She instantly shifted to human form, phased through a spatial net, and reappeared at Orson's side.
Berenice sang out, "Taking my treasure and running off—come chase me, you idiots, wa wa ya ya!"
Before Orson could reply, she hugged the Dragon Seal, flashed into a beam of light, and vanished into his spatial inventory.
"You've been marked by high-tier Heaven Demon \\[Shadow Abyss Fiend]!"
"This mark can only be removed by killing the caster!"
Orson froze. A black circle materialized over his head.
His brow twitched. High-tier Heaven Demons were frighteningly intelligent, far beyond any normal Infinite Dimensions NPC.
They'd calculated he would flee with the Dragon Seal and laid their plans accordingly.
"Come on then. I'll grind you all into dust."
Orson's mouth curved into a cold smile.
With Aeloria, he slipped through another spatial net, vanishing into a new territory—leaving behind eight enraged high-tier Heaven Demons tearing across the landscape after him.