1449 Now.
An army of sentinels appeared before the Emperor Gate, charging toward Dyon’s army of Demon Generals with impunity.
There were two stages to the Celestial Doors. Only after passing both would one be allowed to leave the saint floor and cross into the celestial floors. Depending on the Door you chose and the level of perfection of your passing, you would receive certain advantages on the Celestial Floor.
The first stage was the aura stage. The higher grade the door, the stronger the Presence wafting from it, and as such, the stronger the suppression one would face in battle beneath its influence. However, the Demon Generals charged into range of the door so quickly some began to wonder if such a stage even existed. Wasn’t this too exaggerated?
Then there was the second stage, the fight against the guardians. Much like the first stage, it didn’t matter how many attacked at once because the Doors would respond appropriately. Since over 2000 Demon Generals attacked, over 2000 sentinels appeared!
What no one expected was for it to be an absolute rout. Although the aura and roars of the Demon Generals were unbridled and wild, their approach to war was beyond organized!
The battle didn’t even last five minutes. The Demon Generals shredded apart the sentinels as though they were made of wet paper. There was no suspense, no longer drawn warfare, it was just a simple destruction the likes of which those here had never seen before. Some even began to wonder if there was something wrong with the Celestial Doors. There had to be… Right?
The Demon Generals paused before the massive Celestial Emperor Doors before turning and bowing. There was no question who the bow was for.
Without another word, they disappeared through the Door, entering the celestial floor.
Dyon didn’t have much of a reaction to this. Instead, he waved his hand once more. This time, the 11 Vice Commanders all simultaneously headed for the Celestial God Door!
Those who were already on the edge of their seats felt that they would faint from shock. What did it mean for a single Clan to have almost 3000 Emperors? What did it mean for a single Clan to have 11 Gods? What did it mean for a Clan to have a talent on Dyon’s level?!
These numbers, especially concentrated into just one generation, blew even the top 3 Clans out of the water. Only if the Star Clan, the Sprites, and the Dragons combined their talents together could they match the Sacharro Clan! This was the reality they were all facing right now!
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Unlike the Emperor Door which tracked its score based on time taken, the God Door tracked its score based on number of moves. The threshold for a True God had always been to win with 15 moves, with the best winning within 10. Only lesser Gods would take 20 or more moves, with the worst of them taking days to complete the task.
However, it was once more a complete wash.
Gaylia: 7 moves. Graeya: 7 moves. Halaena: 7 moves. Kaeda: 9 moves. Maaleshiira: 3 moves. Aredhel: 7 moves. Jassine: 7 moves. Ithirae: 3 moves. Kuornos: 6 moves. Celeborn: 6 moves. Giralda: 3 moves!
Dyon glided forward to take his turn, he moved so easily that it was as though he couldn’t feel the King grade Presence raining down upon him.
In that moment, a golden armored sentinel appeared before him, it stood at over 20 meters tall, twice the height of everyone else’s. But, he didn’t flinch. In fact, his hands never left his pockets.
As though it was waiting for him, the God Doors inexplicably opened as Dyon silently walked by the sentinel, his 11 Vice Commanders following to his back.
Before the crowd could ask why the sentinel wasn’t attacking, it folded in on itself as though a black hole had formed in its gut, crumpling into a pile of scrap metal.
Just before Dyon disappeared into the door, he spoke once more. “It’s 40% now.”
Dyon’s eyes were suddenly blinded by a bright light, but his divine sense allowed him to comprehend that he was entering a new plane of reality so incredibly vast that even his divine sense could hardly comprehend the scope of a single percent of it.
The tower floors had always been incredibly vast. Although the laws of physics didn’t allow excessively large pieces of land to exist in reality, in a fabricated land like the Epistemic Tower, it was very much possible for the earth to stretch millions of miles in every direction.
Dyon didn’t spend much time on the saint floors, but it also had an obscenely large scale. There simply wasn’t any worth to exploring it all. Thanks to Eli’s contributions, the Mortal Alliance could have its own sustained field of grandmaster grade spiritual ingredients in incomprehensibly large numbers. In fact, Dyon’s Life Ring hardly had any space for the Celestial Deer Sect’s ruins due to the endless fields Eli cared for.
Since Eli laid the groundwork, there was nothing of use to Dyon on the saint floors.
Once Dyon’s eyes adjusted to his surroundings, he found himself standing above a city in ruin. It was quite a familiar scene. Though Celestial Deer Corner was now becoming a beautiful hub of its own, it had once looked exactly like this. In fact, it had also been overrun with Serpent Vines as well.
While these particular ruins weren’t filled with Serpent Vines, the level of ruin they experienced was far worse. The Celestial Deer Corner on the saint floors had been ruined due to the flow of time, but these ruins were the product of war. There was no more hand holding on the celestial floors, though the tower’s rules wouldn’t allow the conquering of a certain minimum size of territory, it didn’t stop others from destroying everything within that territory.
Dyon took a deep breath. Despite the scene around him, the air was quite refreshing with several suns hanging high in the sky. It wasn’t long before his Demon Generals were all around him, happily chatting as they waited for Dyon’s direction. Though they were absolutely strict with themselves in the presence of outside company, when alone, they treated Dyon like a younger brother of theirs.
“What do you think, Dyon? They’re probably quaking in their boots already, huh?” Thadius boisterously laughed, wrapping his arms around Dyon’s shoulders.
Dyon grinned. “That was just the beginning. Not to mention this lowest celestial floor, we’ll lay waste to upper three tiers as well.”
Unlike the saint floors, the celestial floors were pieced into four tiers. In addition, travel between these tiers weren’t as restricted either. While descending from the celestial floor to the saint floor could only be done on incredibly rare occasions, as long as one passed the trials for the middle, higher and peak tiers, it was incredibly easy to go from one tier to the next.
This said, after one ascended to the dao floors, it once more became incredibly difficult to descend. In addition, they would be restricted as well.
Simply put, the only way to descend from the celestial floors to the saint floor, or from the dao floors to the celestial floors, one must first earn the privilege by accumulating enough merit. In addition, one cannot have passed the age restriction. And, lastly, you’d have to accept cultivation AND will suppression. Meaning, a dao expert can’t descend then rampantly use their dao wills to dominate.
The process was so incredibly difficult that many just conceded the fact it was impossible to do so. Why even go through so much trouble to descend to a less-than floor anyway?
Not long later, the Demon Generals who had come ahead to scout out the celestial floors for Dyon made their way back. There were only about a hundred of them, and though they seemed a bit tired, they were in decent condition despite their roughed up appearance. Still, it seemed they had been harassed quite a bit.
Dyon frowned when he saw this sight, the Demon Generals behind him becoming significantly quieter. They had all grown up together. Without families of their own, those here were their family. How could they stand the sight of their brothers and sisters suffering in such a way?
“What happened?” Dyon asked with a hardly hidden layer of killing intent.
Thatch rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. Thatch was one of the Demon Generals Madeleine and Ri were quite fond of. Back during the events that ended the World Tournament, he was the one that protected their backs when they were forced to fight the Daiyu and Niveus armies with only 3000 warriors. In fact, he even stood up against the Belmont Ancestor Lionel awakened as a last resort. Though he didn’t end up having to fight that Ancestor, his bravery in even attempting was more than commendable.
[Author’s Note: This was quite a while ago. Thatch is one of the few Demon Generals I’ve named.]
Because of this, there was no question that Dyon was quite attached to Thatch as well. He had never properly repaid him for protecting his wives back then. So, seeing him in such a sorry state, how could Dyon not be pissed off?
Still, Thatch was quite a quiet and stoic individual who usually went about his business silently. So, when he saw Dyon and the rest getting so angry for him, he was a bit embarrassed and didn’t know what to do with the warmth in his heart.
Not a single soul here wasn’t prepared to lay waste to the bastards that dared touch their reverse scales in such a way.