Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

As for the Oneuli Empire’s Emperor, Yan Zaizen felt somewhat interested in that backstory. As someone who gleaned an understanding in the Dreaming Devil Law, it’s not possible to infect someone who’ve reached a certain cultivation base, unless they were at a moment of weakness or lapse of attention.

For example: Freya.

They, who’ve established their own Heavenly Dimensional Spaces and Heavenly Substructures, had a near immunity under normal circumstances.

In actuality, the Dreaming Devil Law couldn’t be consciously planted into someone, only unknowingly, like a surreal dream that slowly implants thoughts which form into strong beliefs, which in turn creates a will of sorts.

Yan Zaizen once more grew curious as he watched Freya. She shouldn’t have been fully infected and die so quickly with her cultivation base...so how did she?

For the first time, he was genuinely curious. Was it an opening in her Dao and Soul or did Asenath surgically insert her power deep into her existence to ensure it’ll work? However, with her now dead, it’s unlikely he’ll ever find out the particular reason.

"You...you truly killed her." The old man seemed unperturbed by the millions of echoing screams in the void that seemed on the precipice of becoming discarnate and abhorrent existences.

He had closed eyes and couldn’t stop sighing softly. Asenath was a key figure to eliminating the All-Immortal Dragon. Without her, there chances went from ten percent success to a hundred percent failure. The slit above his eyes twitched softly as if it wished to open.

Yan Zaizen deeply looked at the old man, his expression calm and indifferent. He didn’t bother soon after as he faced the gigantic figure before him. He had never forgotten that this entire event was happening in the literal presence of the All-Immortal Dragon.

He didn’t know why she didn’t eliminate everyone, as her roar from earlier possessed that power and far more. The only thing he did know was that she was most definitely ’looking’ at him. It was an observant gaze that was inescapable.

Therefore, he was incredibly calm as he floated in the shadowy air.

The Ruin Emperor seemed to have suffered a little. The greed in his eyes dissipated a lot amount.

"Retreat!" He ordered.

Given the circumstances, what else could they do? In less than a few seconds, they lost five Heavenly Monarchs. The only four that remained was him, the old man, the winged woman, and Sect Master Sanji. They also lost nearly all of Asenath’s forces because of her cruel-sacrifice, amounting to about thirty percent of their army.

With each passing second, tens of thousands burned their everything and died in a horrific scream. Their entire forces went into disarray as the death count increased amongst all their forces.

If they couldn’t even maintain formations, how could they continue?

The only thing he could do was give Yan Zaizen a deep, a very deep, look and give the order of retreat. He didn’t blame Yan Zaizen. In fact, he blamed himself. If he had intervened, it’s likely the All-Immortal Dragon’s blood would be theirs.

While he lived in his delusions, the other Heavenly Monarchs saw the situation and swiftly relied their order of retreat as well. Everything was going to hell, how could they stay? Not to mention, it didn’t look like they were capable of scratching an itch for the All-Immortal Dragon.

Internally, they felt truly foolish.

Suddenly, a strange silence permeated the surroundings. Silence was something everyone knew, but was hard to describe. Was being in the woods and away from people and modern day life a sort of silence? Or was it locked it a soundless chamber?

Perhaps it was being in space, where air molecules do not exist for sound to travel?

This silence was none of those. In all those cases, you can ’hear’. You can ’hear’ the beat of your heart, the wave of ambient forces on your ears, and flowing sounds of your own thoughts echoing in your head.

This silence was all consuming.

Yan Zaizen’s eyes widened. His expression became like ash. His thoughts were blank and his mind seemed to be empty. He wanted to back up, but he felt restrained. It was like his mind and soul couldn’t send commands to his body.

"Existential Paralysis?!" Yan Zaizen wanted to think this, he wanted to come up with a solution, he wanted and wanted, but his thoughts were never formed.

"Devour."

A word.

This word when said was like a form of relief, as if reaffirming that the world continued to spin. It felt like refreshingly cold water entering the body at a near dehydrated state.

A black hole formed at his glabella, two on the palms of his hands, and two replacing his amber-gold eyes. Then, he woke.

He was still in his original location, a shadowy figure loomed over like an ever-present sun, and floating calmly in the air. He looked around only to find that everyone other than himself had vanished. He didn’t know how long his paralysis lasted or what happened to those people and their dead bodies, but they weren’t important.

"So you do have it!" A voice echoed through his mind.

"It?" Yan Zaizen inquisitively muttered.

"Oh? You can understand Dragon Language?" The voice had a gentle, feminine tone to it. It was powerful, independent, and motherly. The caring in its voice was unmistakable, but Yan Zaizen didn’t believe that caring was born for him. It seemed that tone had been nurtured over countless years, innate and fixed.

"Dragon Language?" Yan Zaizen frowned. Language, or at least the concept of which, was quite outdated. The transmission of the soul was the main form of language, and that was nearly universal. While one could verbally speak, Yan Zaizen rarely paid attention to verbal language, but the soul intent behind it.

After all, if he were to count the different languages innate to races that he had come across, a few hundred with thousands of different dialects was low-balling it.

"You’re quite something, breaking free from my Origin Dragonic Bind on your own power and then assimilating Dragon Might enough to understand the language. Well, if we attributed it to ’that,’ then all makes sense." The voice complimented. However, when talking about ’that,’ there was a hint of fear. It was ever so slight, but Yan Zaizen’s Paragon Soul Realm exemplified being true to yourself, and his ability to sense true intent and emotions were much greater than before.

This was also why he knew what ’that’ was. It was the Black Hole.

Deciding to cut right to the point, "What do you want from me?" His tone was fearless and calm. It was as if he wasn’t facing a figure of legend, but an equal.

"..." A silence that lasted quite long ensued. Despite that silence, Yan Zaizen remained perfectly calm.

"You remind me so much of them. His disposition and her calmness." The voice sounded quite nostalgic as it seemed to recall distant memories. "What I need from you is simple: To be a father."

Yan Zaizen mind was lost when he heard her initial words. Them? Him? Her? What did she mean by that? Then, her next words nearly made him choke.

"...a what?!"