"Oh, isn’t it the birds from the Sacred Light Empire?" A young guy leading the group sneered and spoke sarcastically, looking at Luicfer and Michael.

Lucifer’s eyes narrowed as he seemed to recognise them.

"Tch. And you have the nerve to talk? A bunch of stallions that ran away from their ranch."

The moment those words fell, the young man’s expression twisted.

So did those behind him.

Anger and hostility surged, their killing intent no longer concealed as their auras began to rise.

"What? You dare to fight here!" Lucifer quickly interrupted their thoughts.

The young man and others seemed to quickly snap out of it as they remembered where they were now. It was not the place or the right time for them to battle.

"You are lucky." The young man snorted and changed topic.

"Tch, looks like you birds reached such a low level that you didn’t possess a half-step transcendent-level warrior. And it even seemed you were not the leader of the people."

He glanced at Apollo and said mockingly to Lucifer.

"You horse don’t understand shit," Lucifer shot back, his voice laced with disdain. "Why don’t you worry about yourselves instead of poking into our affairs?"

"Weak trash."

With cursing, the young man turned away. He and his group had already realised that taunting wouldn’t get them any useful information.

Apollo from the start to the end didn’t say anything.

Only after they left did Lucifer glance at Apollo and speak.

"They were from the ancient Pegasus clan and have some beef with our sacred light empire. They were among the few powerful clans hidden in the western continent."

"Western continent." Apollo was surprised hearing this, as when he went there, he didn’t see them.

What intrigued him even more was their lineage.

The Pegasus Clan possessed a unique bloodline—one that combined the power of light with the strength of metal, making them both resilient and exceptionally dangerous in combat.

And somehow it seemed they had trouble with the sacred light empire or, to be exact, the angels. He couldn’t wonder what the reason would be, but he felt the strength of the Pegasus clan was quite good.

They had numerous Eternal Gods and even two half-step Transcendents. Compared to them, the Sacred Light Empire seemed... lacking.

Apollo couldn’t help but feel puzzled.

Why hadn’t the Sacred Light Empire sent stronger warriors? Could be they had some doubts and knew something was going to happen and sent Prince Lucifer as cannon fodder.

If that’s true, it means that Lucifer was discarded, but he didn’t think much of it, as it doesn’t matter to him.

But it cannot be said to Lucifer, as he also started to understand what was going on, seeing most clans from Rion seemed to have at least a half-step transcendent present here.

It didn’t make sense that an ancient branch clan of angels didn’t know about the changes in ruins which other clans of Rion could.

Lucifer’s expression changed subtly, a storm of emotions flickering beneath the surface. Confusion, disbelief... and something deeper.

For the first time, doubt took root.

The very clan he had always relied on might have already cast him aside. But he felt powerless and could only wait.

All of them found a place in different places and waited.

Time passed; weeks and months passed with slowly more and more warriors continuing to gather.

As the time for leaving the god ruins came closer, more and more ancient warriors also started to gather. Their number steadily started to surpass that of present-era warriors of Rion.

For beings like them, a few months meant little. Yet in that short span of time, everything had changed.

The atmosphere grew heavy, almost suffocating. An invisible pressure lingered in the air, weighing down on everyone present.

No one dared to be careless anymore.

But thankfully, still, the true transcendent-level being of ancient times didn’t come, so the balance was still maintained.

Apollo had nothing to do this month, but he didn’t remain idle. Most of the time he contemplates his newfound strength of first-order transcendent. He in these two months had fully adjusted to his strength.

Slowly, he opened his eyes.

His gaze swept across the surroundings.

The number of warriors had increased many times over. Calmly, he extended his spiritual sense, scanning the crowd—observing the strength of warriors from different races, from both the present era and the ancient past.

Among the humans alone, a considerable number had gathered.

Not only that—alongside those of the present era, even ancient human half-step transcendents had begun to emerge from the ruins.

They were quite strong, but he didn’t find anything extraordinary, at least compared to the three half-step transcendents of the human alliance.

So, he then focused on other races and tried to see through them.

Among the many races the first caught his eye: elves of the southern continent. He had never seen them before, and they were just like described in the fairy tales of earth.

Elegant.

Ethereal.

Every one of them—male or female—possessed striking beauty, with pale skin and long, pointed ears. They seemed like embodiments of life itself, radiating a natural grace that set them apart from all others.

The group of elves was quite small and can be called the smallest except the ancient warriors. There were at most hundreds of elves present here, but small numbers didn’t mean weak, but it was the opposite.

Even the weakest one was an eternal god and not at an early stage but at a peak stage. And among these hundred, twelve were half-step transcendent.

Every single one of them was formidable. Especially the one who led them.

She stood at the peak of the half-step transcendent realm, her presence calm yet overwhelming. But what truly set her apart was her spiritual sense—it was the sharpest Apollo had ever encountered...

Second only to his own.

"Hm." The elf leader suddenly seemed to furrow her eyebrows and expand her spiritual sense as she felt something.

Apollo noticed this quickly, controlling his spiritual sense. ’What a sharp sense.’