Liam's mind raced. "Are you talking about the stone tablet?"
For a moment, there was silence. Nothing but the next second, the pressure assaulting him doubled, no quadrupled. He felt as if his soul was going to be crushed any time now. The being was angry.
"She is still in her prison! Why is she still in her prison!" A loud scream of agony hit him. A deafening roar tore through the void, shaking the very fabric of Liam's existence. The golden figure's voice was no longer just words—it was pain, it was rage, it was grief given form.
The sheer weight of it crushed him, his mind splitting as waves of raw power threatened to erase him from existence. His vision fractured, his soul fractured, and for the first time, Liam felt something he had never truly faced before—
The absolute certainty of death.
His instincts screamed at him to run. To bow. To beg. But there was nothing he could do. He was completely frozen. If this being wanted to destroy him, it would have already done so. This wasn't just wrath. It was desperation.
Through the cracks of his breaking consciousness, Liam forced himself to speak. "I am trying my best, Sir." His voice came out hoarse, barely above a whisper, but the moment he uttered the words, the void froze.
The pressure stopped as if someone had slammed the brakes on reality itself. The golden figure stilled, its chaotic energy flickering, destabilizing for the first time.
Liam gasped, every inch of his body aching, but he didn't move. Didn't retreat.
The entity hovered, unmoving. Then, for the first time since its appearance, its form shifted—the swirling mass of golden energy contracting, condensing into something humanoid.
Not quite a person. Not quite a god.
It looked down at him, its burning gaze boring into his soul. And then— it transformed into a golden ball before shooting towards him.
"I told you! You blasphemous pig! You will not step out of here alive!" The hysteric woman's voice was still echoing loudly when Liam regained consciousness and once again found himself standing inside the big hall.
Liam flashed his eyes open and met the gaze of the lunatic woman standing in front of him. It was only for a fraction of a second but it was enough for everything to be understood.
"Impossible!" The woman's beautiful face twisted into something ugly. She raised her palm and a violent aura rippled from her.
Liam did not care about her all that much. Her attack was strong but it was nothing he couldn't handle. What really bothered him was something else. All around him some sort of energy crackled.
It was lightning energy? Not just ordinary lightning—it was divine, chaotic, and brimming with destructive force. The entire chamber thrummed with its presence. If a single bolt struck him, all of his defenses would shatter. This gathering of lightning was dangerous.
What the hell was happening? This wasn't the woman's doing. This was something else.
However, he did not have the time to care about that right now. He only had a couple of seconds inside this building, to begin with. He could see the runes already started to light back up and his way out of this place was slowly closing in.
Fuck it all! Liam did not hold back and mustered all the speed that he could. He unleashed a multitude of dao fields as he let all of them collide with the hysterical woman's attack. It gave him the fraction of a second he needed to get the hell out of there.
Liam shot forward at full speed as he flew out of the gaping hole like a bullet.
And just as he burst through the collapsing structure, the world around him erupted in chaos. The divine lightning that had been crackling in the air descended, striking the remnants of the ancient formation with explosive force.
The sky split apart, sending waves of golden energy cascading outward. Liam gritted his teeth, twisting his body mid-air to avoid being caught in the surge of destruction. He didn't need to look back to know that the entire structure was imploding behind him.
And that crazy woman? He had no time to worry about her. She seemed to be stuck on the fact that he had somehow been able to take the cauldron away.
"Impossible! Impossible! Why were you able to touch it?" The woman stood still like a statue. He could feel the sheer rage coming from her aura, but there was nothing she could do now. The entire formation was collapsing in on itself.
He had seconds to get as far away as possible. Maybe even less. Thankfully, he did not need seconds. Liam instantly vanished as he switched his place with one of his soul minions.
When he started dismantling the first building he had already asked his minions to scour the rest of the world and see if there was any exit to this place. More specifically for another rock platform that could take him somewhere else.
And his minions did end up finding one. Liam immediately stationed a minion near the rock platform just in case he needed to escape route. It looked like he was not wrong. He took his out and in the blink of an eye, all that chaos was well behind him.
From the looks of it, the rock platform had also sensed as much as the whole thing started vibrating. Liam immediately rushed to get on top of it. He only barely did when the barrier around the platform went up.
Liam finally allowed himself a brief exhale. He had made it.
The raging destruction behind him all vanished from sight as the platform carried him away, ascending into the swirling unknown.
Liam clenched his fists. He had won.
Or, at least, he had survived. Wait, where was the cauldron? For a moment he panicked but as soon as he did, he felt the presence of something in his chest. He opened his robe to see that a new tattoo had appeared on his body.