Zael's footsteps stopped instantly.
The noise of the transport terminal seemed to fade into the background completely as his grip around the communicator tightened unconsciously.
"Your brother is in danger."
For a brief second—
His heart skipped.
"What?" Zael's voice came out sharper than intended.
The calm male voice on the other end continued without pause.
"He was assassinated on the Gods and Demon Battlefield."
Zael's pupils contracted violently.
"But he escaped with terrible injuries," the voice added calmly. "Only to fall into an abyss crack afterward."
Silence.
Cold.
Heavy silence.
Zael's mind raced instantly.
Kael was strong.
Absurdly strong.
Strong enough to be hunted across worlds.
So what kind of people could push someone like him to that state?
More importantly—
How did this stranger know any of this?
Zael's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Who are you?"
A soft chuckle echoed from the communicator afterward.
"Me?" the man replied casually. "I'm just someone trying to help."
Zael's expression darkened further.
"Help?"
His voice became colder.
"How can I trust you? For all I know this could be a trap."
"Believe it or don't," the voice replied indifferently. "I honestly don't care."
Then the tone sharpened slightly.
"Because after all…"
"You're too weak to make any meaningful impact anyway."
Zael's eyes flickered dangerously at the insult.
Yet he remained silent.
The voice continued calmly.
"Last I checked, you haven't even reached the Third Tier yet."
"Sure, maybe you can fight above your level."
"But what does that change?"
A faint mocking amusement entered the man's voice afterward.
"Third Tier Early?"
"Mid?"
"Late perhaps?"
"So what?"
Then the next words landed like a hammer.
"The people your brother is fighting treat Third Tiers as foot soldiers."
Zael's breath paused briefly.
Third Tiers…
Foot soldiers?
The weight behind those words was terrifying.
Because Zael already understood how monstrous Third Tier awakeners were supposed to be.
Even the camp manager himself likely wasn't beyond that realm yet.
Yet according to this stranger—
They were expendable cannon fodder where Kael currently was.
The realization made Zael's chest feel heavy instantly.
The man continued speaking calmly afterward.
"You know what your biggest problem is?"
"You're growing too slowly."
Zael's eyes sharpened immediately.
Too slowly?
With his current growth speed?
Anyone else saying those words would sound insane.
Yet after hearing about Kael's situation—
Zael couldn't refute it completely.
Because compared to enemies capable of treating Third Tiers like insects—
His current strength suddenly felt painfully insufficient.
The voice lowered slightly afterward.
"Your brother bought himself time."
"But not much."
Then silence lingered briefly before the stranger spoke again.
"So the real question isn't whether you trust me."
"It's whether you're willing to gamble."
Zael's expression remained cold.
"…What do you want?"
A faint laugh echoed through the communicator.
"Now that," the voice replied softly, "is the first intelligent thing you've asked since answering this call."
"Have Tier Four combat power before you enter the Gods and Demon Battlefield."
The calm voice echoed through the communicator one final time.
"Do that… and I'll contact you again."
A brief pause followed.
Then—
"If you can't…"
"You'd be better off forgetting I ever called."
The line went silent for a second before the man added softly:
"Goodbye, Zael."
"…Till next time."
Click.
The call ended completely.
Zael stood motionless amidst the crowded terminal for several moments afterward.
Tier Four combat power?
In two weeks?
The request sounded insane.
No—
Beyond insane.
Most awakeners spent years struggling to cross major tier barriers even with resources and guidance from powerful organizations.
Yet now someone was essentially telling him:
Become a monster capable of standing above Third Tiers within fourteen days.
Zael exhaled slowly afterward before eventually boarding the intercity maglev bullet train heading toward AEGIS PRIME UNIVERSITY.
The sleek metallic train accelerated almost silently once departure began, city lights blurring rapidly outside the windows.
Meanwhile Zael sat quietly near the back while thoughts churned endlessly in his mind.
Too many things were happening lately.
Too quickly.
The cosmic erasure sequence.
The black panel.
Kael's situation.
The mysterious caller.
And now—
Tier Four combat power.
Zael leaned back slightly while staring at the passing cityscape outside.
"How strong am I right now…"
"And how much stronger do I still need to become…"
His voice was barely above a whisper.
Truthfully—
He no longer had a proper understanding of his own combat level anymore.
Against ordinary Second Tier awakeners, he was overwhelmingly dominant.
Against Third Tiers?
Probably still capable of fighting above his level.
Especially with his bloodline abilities and evolved talents.
But Tier Four?
That was an entirely different existence altogether.
Then suddenly—
Zael's eyes flickered slightly.
The EXP pool.
Right.
He had nearly forgotten.
Unlike before—
His stored EXP had reached a completely absurd level now.
Which meant…
He could convert again.
Without hesitation, Zael opened his panel.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Zael Nightshade — Status Panel
Class: Abyssal Dao Sovereign
Level: 90 (EXP: 9000000 / 9000000) (Locked)
Tier: Second Tier (Peak)
EXP Pool: 48,739,552,880
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Zael stared at the massive number briefly.
Then mentally activated the conversion function tied to Authority of Infinite Growth.
Instantly—
The EXP pool began decreasing rapidly.
At the same time—
A terrifying surge of power exploded throughout his body.
Muscles strengthened.
Bones condensed further.
Mana capacity expanded violently.
Even his senses sharpened dramatically.
Zael's expression changed slightly as he continuously increased all four primary attributes equally.
+1000
+2000
+5000
+10000
The train itself began trembling faintly from the pressure leaking unconsciously from his body.
Several nearby passengers frowned slightly in discomfort without understanding why.
Then finally—
Zael stopped.
Not because he ran out of EXP.
Far from it.
But because instinctively—
He realized adding more right now would become difficult to control properly without adaptation time.
Slowly, the overwhelming pressure receded back into his body.
Then the updated panel appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Zael Nightshade — Status Panel
Class: Abyssal Dao Sovereign
Level: 90 (EXP: 9000000 / 9000000) (Locked)
Tier: Second Tier (Peak)
EXP Pool: 48,679,552,880
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Attributes
Strength: 20000
Agility: 20000
Endurance: 20000
Intelligence: 20000
Free Points: 0
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Talents
1. Supreme Blessing (Mythical)
2. Authority of Infinite Growth (Unknown)
3. Eyes of Eternal Truth (Unknown)
4. Adaptive Evolution (Transcendent)
5. Storm Dragon Core (Legendary)
6. Void Sovereign (Mythical)
7. Abyssal Authority (Mythical)
8. Abyssal Consumption (Transcendent)
9. Sovereign Instinct (Mythical)
10. Origin Beast Sovereignty (???)
11. Origin Genesis Authority (Unknown)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Skills
• Infinite Void Sword Realm (Mythical+)
• Void Step
• Resonance Strike
• Night Sever
• Phantom Split
• Abyss Rend
• Void Collapse
• Echo Drive
• Predator Sync
• Blood Thunder Claw
• Void Thunder Dragon Descent
(Click to expand)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Zael slowly clenched his fist afterward.
BOOM.
A faint shockwave spread through the train compartment instantly.
The sheer physical strength flowing through his body now felt monstrous.
Far beyond before.
Yet strangely—
Zael still didn't feel satisfied.
Because deep down—
He understood something clearly now.
This level of strength…
Still wasn't enough.