Undying Warlord

The Shikan plains were right next to Rian, and the mountainside where everything had begun for Dilan.

The plains were a huge area that covered more than 30 cities and hundreds of small villages.

In total, more than 100 million humans inhabited the Shikan plains before the Primordial Ascension.

Because there were so many humans, Dilan had already presumed that the situation might be even more dangerous than it was the case on Rian.

After all, Rian was only a border city to the Shikan plains while humans were highly sought after because of their Essence crystals' efficiency.

Even if mankind's stance against mutated animals, mythical monsters, and other creatures was already disadvantageous, once everyone was to understand that the Essence crystals of humans would never cease to provide status points, carnage would devour the continent, if not the entire planet.

That was something Dilan understood since the moment he was certain that the system considered every human as a single entity.

Crowded places were supposed to attract most monsters in the future. As such, one could either travel around in small groups of powerful Ascenders or be strong enough to eradicate all threats.

However, in that sense, Dilan was not sure whether the temple mentioned by Melanie could be considered a threat or an opportunity.

Melanie didn't know much about the temple she spoke about because she had only seen it from the top of one of the highest skyscrapers.

She had used a spyglass at that time, and could only decipher a few things, including two different races that seemed to be living in and around the temple.

The reason for Melanie to believe that they were other 'races' instead of ordinary monsters was that the two races socialized with each other and lived in a rather huge community.

They had begun to build their own town around the temple that manifested seemingly out of nowhere, just to keep expanding their territory further.

Melanie also spoke a little bit about the appearance of the two races, but the only thing she had been able to see from far away was the fact that one of the two races had a lion head, while the other race had the head of an eagle.

Despite that, they walked on two legs and had various traits that were similar to humans, which was another reason for Melanie to believe that they were races instead of monsters.

But even then, Dilan didn't think much about her information, especially because he had already faced intelligent monsters such as Kobolds, Krendels, Gnomes, Kobolds, and so on so this piece of news was not really surprising to him.

His unfocused eyes turned cold as he digested the information before he let out a deep sigh.

"Even if your information is somewhat useful, you still have to die!"

The moment Dilan's weak voice rang out, Gray Slayer had already been brandished.

The gray blade flashes in front of Melanie, slitting through her neck. She didn't feel any pain as Dilan gave her a quick death. There was only regret in her eyes as her sight blurred.

'How…did everything turn out like this?'

Even in her last thought, Melanie was unable to accept reality.

After all, she, Pyro, and the rest of the Death Beatles gang were destined to become the Emperors and Empresses of their own Empire…or so was it supposed to be.

But now all of them were dead, killed by a single individual, the being, who ought to become the true Emperor!

Dilan would have killed Melanie even if her information had been exceptionally useful.

She was simply too dangerous to be kept alive. Without a way to control her, Dilan would have faced the risk of her seeking revenge, and this was not something Dilan could accept.

'Well, even if she wouldn't have sought revenge, her path would have led her back to seek the Essence of innocent humans…' That was the only thing on Dilan's mind before he found himself lying in the corner of the room.

He was not sure how he found his way to the walls, but when his body slumped to the ground, Dilan's eyes closed involuntarily.

'It will be fine if I sleep…a few hours, right?' He could barely think before his mind shut itself off.

Falling into a deep slumber, Dilan slept until the sun disappeared behind the horizon.

Bright moonlight was shining through the windows of the former corporate building. It spilled into the room through the large windows where Dilan had caused carnage.

The crime scene looked even worse than before, only for a dead-tired young man to wake up from his well-deserved sleep.

He opened his drowsy eyes while trying to recall where he was and what had happened.

His memories were muddled and Dilan had difficulties remembering a few things.

Only a faint recollection of some information that Melanie had provided was left in his mind but that was not something Dilan was bothered about right now.

Rather, he looked at the corpses of more than 200 Tier-1 Ascenders with frustration, anger, and a trace of excitement.

Dilan was proud to have killed more than 200 Tier-1 Ascenders all by himself.

Despite feeling frustration and anger toward the fact that the 200 Tier-1 Ascenders had killed far more than a thousand human survivors, Dilan still felt excited.

He loathed himself for that and bit his lower lip until it started to bleed.

Only when he felt the pain did he regain his senses and got up from the ground.

When his gaze flitted to his equipment and other clothes, he saw that all of them were smeared with dried blood which made a feeling of disgust rise up from the pits of his stomach.

"Why am I suddenly disgusted by myself? Because I killed so many humans? No…I doubt that. They couldn't even be considered humans, to begin with…"

Dilan was not sure why his body felt so weird right now. However, what he didn't know was that his mind was still in a highly restricted state, and that his body was currently highly sensitive to all kinds of feelings.

Right now, he was feeling easily influenced by the surrounding atmosphere.

That was also why Dilan felt so disgusted as the atmosphere around him held the stench of death and blood.

Looking at the corpses, Dilan shuddered for a moment, only to feel that his left leg gave in.

He nearly collapsed on the ground and was barely able to get a hang of his body after struggling for a few seconds.

'What is going on?'

Confusion spread through his mind. He was not sure what was happening to him right now but he felt extremely weak.

As he was not sure what was going on, Dilan felt the need to test out a few things.

Minutes passed as he stayed slumped on the ground while forcing his brain to work and only when Dilan began to understand what was going on did his expression turn grim.

"Was I pushed into a weakened state because I attained strength my body is not able to handle for a longer period?"

Despite possessing many abilities, which increased his strength only for a short period, the combined utilization of numerous abilities was something his body was not able to endure for too long.

In fact, because his body had yet to learn how to use mana perfectly, the use of Berserk Mana with the [Thunder Step] ability, [Bracing Pain], and so on made things not easier for Dilan.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been the best for him to slowly accustom his body to the sensation of every single ability, one after another.

But the battle against the Death Beatles gang forced Dilan to go all in.

He couldn't have postponed the fight against the Death Beatles gang either because their speed of advancement as a team had been way too fast.

Had Dilan not possessed a Divine occupation and numerous abilities that were capable of elevating his strength with their combined effects, he would have died today.

Dilan was also aware that he would have died if Pyro and his group would have been able to progress further and he would have arrived at their base after a day or two.

As such, he didn't regret having given his all to defeat the others.

The weakened state might be a little bit bothersome but it was just a little inconvenience.

With that in mind, he focused on getting his hand on the Essence crystals of the Tier-1 Ascenders.

Dilan couldn't allow wasting the Essence crystals, not only for himself but also for the innocent humans, who had been victims of the cruelty of the Death Beatles gang.

He thought about many things while collecting all Essence crystals, including the temple Melanie had spoken about.

"If the temples appeared two days ago, it should have been shortly after I advanced to Tier-1 and when the system notification reached everyone…

Did this notification only reach humans on Milarn, or also beings from other planets?... Is that even possible?"

Dilan tried to make sense of the situation.

However, he had no idea about the temple's existence, if the two races were truly intelligent races, or simply monsters with higher sentience.

Once he figured that out, it would also be crucial to understand whether these two races were hostile to humans or if they might even try to form an alliance.

The latter would be great but Dilan was of the belief that the future would become far more complex than he was already apprehending.

But it was just when Dilan's thoughts grew worse that he saw something that attracted his attention.

"...what the hell is that?!

**

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