Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign-Chapter 408: Hostile Atmosphere

Gaining entry into Black Quartet, Ezra concealed himself and teleported straight to Centra.

While going across galaxies wrangled him like a worm, going from star system to star system was far more manageable.

Also, the expedition was now only hours away.

Arriving at Centra, he took his time to make sure his body was completely healed before unconcealing himself in the closest transit station amidst other passengers.

He approached the main gate and noticed the guards had been changed, though they seemed to have heard of him because they were all looking at him weirdly.

Without any delays, he gained entry and took the Skyline to the Elder residence.

There, he found six Nascents seated beside one another, two of them being familiar faces, the Ent Ivesa and the Green Dragon Caverra.

While Ezra had no particular feelings towards the Green Dragon, the Ent was a definite asshole.

’Musad didn’t come’ he noted.

Of the remaining four, there was another Green Dragon, a male Gold Dragon, a Troll and an Ogre, the last two fitted in armor.

’Hmm!’

Sensing danger, Ezra sidestepped instantly, moving out of the way as a hulking mass of green smashed into the door and blew it away.

’It would have been hard to dodge that when I was rank four’

Floating, Ezra made distance from the Ogre and the rest of the Nascents, assessing the situation.

"You dodged that? Good’’

Looking to the Ogre for an explanation, it abruptly roared.

"They told me a Transcendent was staying with us" said the Ogre, pointing at Ezra.

"What makes you think you have the right to reside here?"

Ezra blinked in surprise.

"For an Ogre, you’re more eloquent than I expected"

The Ogre popped a vein, clenching his fist.

"This bastard...! Regardless, I will not allow to stay here"

To that, Ezra remained silent, taking a slow look over all the Nascents.

Surely, they were all looking at him expectantly while drinking from their mugs as though they were about to watch a show.

’Pathetic’

At this moment, he felt nothing but disgust and ridicule as his brain began plotting.

He didn’t know what they were up to, but he wasn’t planning on playing along.

The first time, he got to test the strength of a Nascent, and because the opponent was letting their guard down, managed to win.

’There won’t be any such luck this time’

He would have to put out all stops against this guy, but doing that was just exemplarily stupid.

Maybe other Transcendents would be forced into their schemes but not him.

All that fighting here would do was give them data on how much he had grown over just a month, and that would just lead to more annoying situations.

For now, his concealed energy made it so none of them could sense his breakthrough and he intended to keep it that way.

There weren’t any benefits to fighting here, only detriments.

As such, Ezra decided to make a clean exit.

"Fine then. Have it your way" Ezra replied, staring the Ogre in the eye as he shrugged.

Without another word, he activated <Universal Concealment> and flew higher before using <Gatekeeper> to get into his universe.

Zydrax told him that mages had spells that could distinguish when a spatial door was opened or even when spatial abilities were used, so he flew higher to avoid that.

With his disappearance, the Ogre stood staring upwards like a moron.

He had made the Transcendent leave, but why did he feel so humiliated?

It felt like the Transcendent had excused him and just left.

Turning to the other Nascents, he ’hmph’d, walking into the residence with a straight face.

Meanwhile, with little to do, Ezra got back to planet Ketta and began to practice with Skyfall.

’It’s been a while’ Ezra thought, before laying waste to the planet as he let off attack after attack to see where his new limits lay.

Hours later, he appeared in the Kingsmere castle and sprawled on a bed, sleeping soon afterwards.

He woke up hours later, and by his calculations, just in time for the convergence of the expedition party.

Cleaning up in no time, he arrived back in the main universe and was soon at the venue.

Different from the last one, it was built like a dome, with the insides completely dark.

Looking around, Ezra noted the higher numbers of participants than last time.

’Well, the limit is three thousand’ he thought.

There were Black Dragons, Green Dragons, Gold Dragons, Blue Dragons, Ents, Ogres, Trolls, Orc and, surprisingly, some Elves.

Surprisingly, the Black Dragons didn’t have as many participants as he expected.

[That’s because you killed so many of them in your escapade in the Alchemist’s Tomb]

’Oh, right’

Also, the atmosphere was different.

Almost everyone in his line of sight was lined in exquisite armor with weapons attached to their bodies or exquisite robes with all kinds of staff.

He also noticed two Elves with markings on their heads and completely white eyes.

’I guessing they’re psychics’

[Correct]

Like before, an Elder arrived above them on a hoverboard, but this one was bulky and wore a deep blue suit with gold coloured buttons.

Coughing, the murmurs of the Transcendents diminished until nothing could be heard.

But unlike the last Elder, his speech was but a single sentence.

Staring them down from above with clean white skin and weary blue eyes, he spoke, his tone heavy...

"Each one of you here is a talented individual, work together and try not to die"

With that, he raised his gaze and turned to the operators held in the control room at the top of the avenue.

"Commence the expedition"

Without further ado, the entire section of wall in front of them folded onto one another like a carpet, revealing a spatial door.

Unlike that of the Alchemist’s Tomb, this gate was a swirling mix of red and black but a tad smaller.

Already, this secret realm was proving to be a stark contrast to the Alchemist’s Tomb.

In an orderly fashion, they entered in rows or seven, and in no time, Ezra stepped in as well.

Arriving inside, the first thing that attracted his gaze was a red sky.

Beyond that, the surroundings were nothing short of a mess.

With yards of barren soil and rock, coloured a mix between bright red and deep pink, the land was desolated in every direction.

There were torn pieces of clothes all over the place, with at least ten weapons either stuck in the ground or laying around, stained with blood.

Looking further, he could see large trees, barren of leaves and fruit, but some bore leaves, bright red leaves, and lots of them.

The surprising thing was how fresh the leaves looked. It should be impossible to find nutrients in such barren soil.

Well, it was already clear that it was no ordinary tree.

’And this is no ordinary place’

Going even further, he could see the outline of mountains in the distance.

Taking a breath, Ezra smiled.

It was a perfect contrast to the Alchemist’s Tomb.

The Desolate Madlands.

Considering its name, it was a perfect welcome.

His breath materialized in pinkish and red hues, the same color as the soil.

’This atmosphere is already hostile’

Without a tempered body, the atmosphere alone was enough to kill everyone.

While observing the color of his breath, a loud clap resounds, grabbing everyone’s attention.

Looking for the source of it, one would find a hefty and bulky Dragon standing with four other Black Dragons lined beside him.

"Now that I have your attention, I will make this brief" he started.

"None of us like taking orders, so I suggest we all split up in groups to keep the death toll low and avoid getting in each other’s way"

"I and my team will be heading out now, so I want to offer an opportunity if there are any who would like to join us"

After a few seconds, some people stepped forward.

His eyes turned serious.

"Be sure that if you can’t hold your own and only hold us back, we will abandon you without a second thought. Now, do you still want to join our group?"

Looking at one another, all those who came forward stepped in front of the Black Dragon.

"Sure, but if you end up being useless, I won’t save you either" a Green Dragon replied.

"Good" the Black Dragon nodded and began to walk off.

"Let’s go"

Just like that, the first group set out.

’Hmm, that is honestly refreshing’ Ezra commented, walking out of the group in the opposite direction.

"Hey" someone called to him.

"Hmm?"

Ezra looked behind to see a male Ent calling out to him.

"Are you really planning to go alone"

"I’m going sightseeing. If it’s too hard, I’ll just come back" Ezra replied, waving his hand carelessly.

*Zoom*

Ezra sped off, disappearing out of sight in a minute.

Far away, Ezra concealed himself, staying out of sight as he observed the secret realm more.

"That was easier than expected" he remarked before shrugging.

It would also be better if no one disturbed him.

As he ran, he came across more and more bloodied weapons, torn cloth and remnants of destroyed buildings with splinters of wood spread out.

’I did hear that it wasn’t originally like this...whatever’

Sure enough, he soon comes across a corpse.

He recognized the species immediately.

’An Ogre’

Though dried out, the uppermost part of the skin lay mostly intact, but he could see that the flesh within was almost completely gone, at least in a few patches, exposing the gray skeleton.

’Hmm, are the bones of Ogre’s naturally gray, or was it caused by this atmosphere?’ he wondered before spotting something else on the ground a few meters ahead.

And it was neither a cloth nor a weapon.