Beyond the Apocalypse

The White Death could already imagine the possibilities, yet things were far from over.

"You will gain access to entirely new abilities," Jormungandr explained. "However, when it comes to raw physical strength or overall energy reserves, there will be little change. Your current level of power will remain largely the same."

Then the small yellow cat’s expression grew even more meaningful.

"But the true benefit of this process is something else entirely."

The White Death leaned forward slightly.

"This modification will prepare your body for Unification."

A brief silence filled the space between them.

"Once Baal’s bloodline is integrated," Jormungandr continued, "your internal structure will already be adapted for the next stage. When you obtain the Demon Paragon Essence, you will not need assistance. Your bloodline will already be prepared."

His green eyes glowed faintly.

"You will be able to begin the Unification without any help."

The White Death’s eyes widened slightly as the implications sank in.

Normally, such a process would require immense preparation and the assistance of experts capable of stabilizing the transformation. Attempting it alone would be suicide for nearly any being in existence.

But Jormungandr was offering him a shortcut.

A perfectly prepared foundation.

A wide smile slowly appeared on the White Death’s face.

Baal’s bloodline alone would not drastically increase his raw strength. That much was clear. But the advantages it would grant him were far more important than simple power.

Once the integration was complete, he would only need to travel to the Abyss.

With the Demon Paragon Essence and the prepared bloodline structure within him, he would be able to take a step into the Empyrean Realm, paving the road to becoming a supreme powerhouse.

The path ahead of him had suddenly become much clearer.

What had once required countless uncertain steps could now be achieved with a single decisive leap.

The White Death took a slow breath before looking directly at the small yellow cat.

There was no hesitation in his gaze.

"Let’s do it."

...

While Jormungandr and the White Death began the evolution of the latter’s bloodline, Overlord, Fafnir, and Ouroboros were occupied elsewhere in a massive laboratory deep within Hell.

At the center of the chamber stood a large metallic cube made of pure white alloy. Its surface was covered in thousands of runic patterns and intricate magical matrices that pulsed with faint light. Every symbol was part of an enormous containment and refinement system, designed to control the dangerous process unfolding inside.

The soul force of the three True Depravitas poured into the cube as they carefully guided the transformation taking place within.

From inside the metallic box came endless screams.

Cries of agony echoed through the laboratory as countless souls were subjected to an indescribably painful process. The anguish was so intense that it would have driven most beings to madness.

Yet none of the three observers showed the slightest hint of discomfort.

The reason was simple.

Those screams did not come from the souls of innocents—or even from warriors who had fought honorably.

They came from fiends.

At the center of the cube floated the soul of a Superior Legendary Demon, glowing with a dark crimson aura. Surrounding it were hundreds upon hundreds of captured Devil Souls, each of them bound by powerful spiritual chains.

This entire experiment was Overlord’s project.

It had been created as a solution to a growing problem within the Six Sun Alliance.

The Demon Soul Master System of Strength relied on a simple principle: the soul sealed within a warrior should always be one rank above their current cultivation level. Such a soul would nourish the host’s body and spirit, opening the path toward higher realms of power.

For most cultivators, this system worked perfectly.

But once someone reached the level of a Superior Legend, the requirements changed dramatically. In theory, they would need to bind a Lord-tier soul to continue advancing properly.

And that was where the problem appeared.

There were simply not enough Lord-tier souls available to support the growing number of elite warriors in the alliance. Even among those with the talent necessary to reach the Lord Realm, there were not enough suitable souls to distribute.

However, Overlord believed that every problem had a solution.

And this experiment was the answer he had devised.

The underlying principle behind his idea was surprisingly straightforward.

If Devil bloodlines could be elevated to an entirely new level by being unified with Demon bloodlines, then why couldn’t the same concept apply to souls?

After all, a soul—like a bloodline—was simply another manifestation of an entity’s essence.

So Overlord had begun experimenting.

He took a Superior Legendary Demon Soul and began forcefully feeding it weaker Devil Souls.

The process was brutal.

Devil souls were forcibly merged into the demon soul one after another, each integration violently expanding the core soul’s structure. The strain was immense, and countless souls had been destroyed during the early stages of experimentation.

But fortunately, resources were plentiful.

After the campaign through the first one hundred layers of the Abyss, demon souls were available in great numbers. And now, with the ongoing slaughter in the Fifth Layer of Hell, an endless supply of devil souls was being harvested.

Overlord had refined the process for months.

With the assistance of Ouroboros and Fafnir—and more importantly, the analytical capabilities of their A.I. Chips—the trio had optimized the procedure again and again, slowly eliminating flaws and increasing stability.

Each failure brought them closer to success.

And now they had finally reached the final stage.

Inside the metallic cube, the Superior Legendary Demon Soul screamed in agony as the last of the Devil Souls were forced into it.

The process was horrifying.

The demon soul was being violently expanded beyond its natural limits. Its structure stretched and twisted as new energy flooded into it, tearing apart pieces of its consciousness and personality.

But Overlord did not care about such things.

If the personality shattered, the resulting soul would simply become easier to seal and control. From his perspective, that was an advantage.

All three True Depravitas focused their full attention on the cube.

As the final Devil Soul was absorbed, the central Demon Soul began to tremble.

Then it started beating.

Like a heart.

Each pulse grew stronger than the last, sending waves of unstable energy through the containment chamber. The power continued to rise, forcing the trio to pour more of their strength into the stabilizing arrays.

The beating accelerated.

Faster.

Stronger.

More violent.

Finally—

"BOOM!"

A blast of soul energy erupted from the cube.

The metallic container shook violently as wild spiritual power burst outward, smashing into the laboratory walls and rattling the entire chamber.

But instead of anger or alarm, smiles appeared on the faces of Overlord, Fafnir, and Ouroboros.

Because they saw it.

At the center of the cube floated a massive, radiant soul.

A Demon Lord Soul.

Overlord’s eyes gleamed as he performed a thorough analysis.

For a moment, however, a small frown appeared on his face.

The soul had indeed reached the Lord Tier—but its internal structure was far from perfect. The core was filled with microscopic fractures left behind by the violent merging process.

If they attempted to push it further, the soul would collapse completely.

Their method had succeeded...

But the result had reached its limit.

At best, they could create lower-tier Lord Souls.

Fafnir and Ouroboros turned toward Overlord, silently wondering how he felt about this obstacle.

The True Depravita of Pride always pursued the impossible. They both knew that a mere bottom-tier Lord Soul was far from his ultimate goal.

Yet instead of frustration, what appeared on Overlord’s face was a radiant and deeply satisfied smile.

He glanced at the two of them.

"Perfection is the enemy of success."

His eyes shone with pride.

"We did it."

"There are still flaws, but we will improve the process."

His smile widened.

"And one day... we will even create Paragon-tier souls."

Before the arrival of the Alien Powers, Paragons had been mythical figures—beings who stood at the absolute pinnacle of the universe’s food chain.

Yet here was Overlord, calmly declaring that they would eventually forge souls of that level themselves.

It sounded insane.

But as Ouroboros and Fafnir looked at him, they could not help but feel that it might actually be possible.

Nodding to each other, the trio carefully collected the newly created Demon Lord Soul from the cube and prepared to begin the next round of experiments.

This was only the beginning.

...

While the forces of the Six Sun Alliance were experiencing unprecedented growth and improvement, there was one being whose situation had reached absolute rock bottom.

Beelzebub drifted through the endless void.

Fear filled his heart.

For the first time in countless millennia, the Devil Paragon felt completely lost.

Escaping from the White Death had required a desperate sacrifice. In order to survive, he had burned away a considerable portion of his own soul.

The damage had been catastrophic.

His power had fallen drastically, and his injuries ran so deep that even maintaining his current form required tremendous effort.

Returning to Hell was not an option.

Beelzebub feared that if he returned in such a weakened state, the Xaos King would simply finish him just like he did with Baal.

His mind raced as he tried to find a solution.

But nothing came to him.

He did not even dare approach inhabited worlds to devour their populations and recover his strength. Doing so would inevitably attract attention, and if the Xaos King or the White Death learned of his location, they would hunt him down without mercy.

Every path seemed blocked.

Every option led to death.

Just as despair began to consume him, something changed.

Waves of glorious and majestic light suddenly began to materialize around him.