Chapter 396: I’ll Humbly Accept

[Celestial Overlord activated!]

[1 Celestial Mark successfully absorbed]

[System Assimilation: 80%]

Priam read the green windows as he calmly made his way back toward the center of everything.

[Assimilation of Acquired Knowledge:]

[Type 1: 45%]

’What a shame...’ he thought with a sigh. Unfortunately, that enemy didn’t possess the specific type of Celestial Mark he was looking for.

In the distance, the two remaining Sages remained frozen in absolute silence, staring at Priam with wide eyes as he approached the portal again.

Inside the vortex, the eight Spectral Generals roared furiously, trying to force their way through. Priam’s first attack had destroyed part of the channel’s stability, delaying the monsters’ crossing, but the structure was already beginning to repair itself.

These Spectral Generals couldn’t retreat, only advance. Even dodging Priam’s attack was impossible.

Priam stopped in front of the spatial rift. He deliberately turned his back to the two idiots, pretending to completely ignore their presence.

But internally, every inch of his perception was locked onto the pair.

’Are they going to chicken out now? Looks like I’ll have to give them a little encouragement...’ he mocked inwardly.

Slowly, Priam extended his right hand forward. Destruction Thunder began emerging from his palm once again, but this time, he slowed down the attack’s condensation process.

Priam deliberately made his aura fluctuate. He disrupted his breathing for a fraction of a second and let his life force waver, simulating brutal exhaustion.

He could easily manipulate his life force, moving it into the Nexus Seed. Because of this, people would easily think he was burning through everything he had.

Seconds later...

"!"

The expressions of the two observers changed. The woman turned her face toward the man, exchanging a sharp, greed-filled glance with him.

The man carefully observed Priam and finally let out the breath he had been holding.

Priam’s aura was visibly declining. Even the fluctuations of his life force had become weak and unstable.

In the minds of the two, all doubt completely disappeared. Using a power as terrifying as that Destruction Thunder could never come without a price! It was obviously some kind of powerful forbidden self-sacrifice technique.

Otherwise, how could a mere Sage accomplish such an abnormal feat that even they themselves couldn’t?

The woman, who specialized in sensing energy flows, made her calculations and nodded.

According to her projections, Priam would be able to unleash that attack one more time, but he would be left in an absurdly vulnerable state afterward.

Of course, neither of them was naive enough to think he didn’t have legendary medicinal pills or treasures for recovery. Realistically, Priam could push himself to the limit, consume all his resources, and unleash a third strike.

In the end, he would exterminate three of the nine Spectral Generals and secure absolute first place in the Celestial Event.

After that, Priam would simply retreat.

The six remaining Generals would finally cross the portal to the planet, and it would be up to the four remaining sect leaders to join forces and face them. Each would take one target, and after eliminating them, whoever was faster would use their trump cards to kill another and try to steal their way toward the top of the rankings.

That was the logical conclusion the pair had reached.

However... they weren’t willing to accept defeat in the slightest.

If that happened, first place would belong to Priam by an absolute margin. Priam’s score would open an astronomical gap over second place—something that had never been seen in the history of any Event like this.

All the major sects and powers would see these rankings. The glory of every other name in the Top 10 would be obliterated by Priam’s shadow. He would be the only name remembered in this era, known as the monster who stood on a level far above everyone else.

The woman turned toward the man, sending him a cold and decisive mental transmission:

’I’m absolutely certain. After this second strike, he’ll have lost more than half of his life force. Even with the best resources in the world, it’s impossible to recover more than 15% in such a short time. He may be able to force himself to attack a third time, but he’ll be practically incapacitated afterward.’

The man snorted inwardly and nodded in agreement. ’Let’s act.’

Without wasting a single second, both pulled out small runic communication plates and sent secret, urgent orders to the elite disciples of their respective sects.

In front of the portal, Priam sensed the subtle spatial fluctuation caused by the transmissions and let out an internal sigh of relief.

’Thank goodness arrogant idiots are exactly the same no matter where you go...’ he mocked silently. ’It doesn’t matter what race they are or how powerful they are. All it takes is for them to see an opening, and they’ll try to take a piece for themselves.’

Priam was more than used to dealing with this kind of scum. After all, ever since the day he recovered his memories, he had been surrounded by greedy bastards who looked down on him until they were crushed.

Without wasting any more time, he thrust his hand forward, causing the Destruction Thunder to explode toward the vortex!

**RUMBLE!!**

A deafening sound echoed from deep within the portal, sending violent waves of spatial distortion in every direction.

Several kilometers away, upon hearing the cosmic thunder, Nise immediately activated the informational inscription to check the rankings.

*1st — Priam – Ironweald Sect – 19 Billion Kill Points*

The gap between Priam and second place had become simply absurd.

With the death of the previous idiot, who had been in second place before, Priam had absorbed half of his points. Because of that, the new second-place holder had a measly 3 billion points.

Was it still possible to overtake him? Purely looking at the numbers, yes.

The other seven Spectral Generals were still alive, and no one knew how many more days the enemy horde would last. If those leaders killed two of them and then hunted nonstop, using everything they had—and assuming Priam didn’t score many more points—they might be able to catch up to him.

However, if Priam killed a third Spectral General... the gap would become completely impossible to overcome.

When the shockwaves in the sky finally began to stabilize...

At the front lines, Dandara suddenly stopped her attack and raised her eyes toward the horizon.

"Oh?!"

A sinister, excited, predatory smile lit up her face.

"The Boss actually did it..."

Back at the center of the event.

Priam began panting heavily.

The color had drained from his face, leaving him with a sickly, frightening pallor. He bent slightly, almost staggering on his own feet, pretending to dig deep into the bottom of his soul just to remain standing—that performance was truly heartfelt.

Slowly, he turned his trembling gaze toward the portal and reached for his spatial ring, appearing ready to pull out several medicinal pills...

"STOP RIGHT NOW!"

The woman’s harsh voice echoed behind him. Priam slowly turned around, pretending that even the movement was physically painful.

The Sage’s expression was dark and commanding.

"I won’t repeat myself. You’ve already exterminated two of them, and your score has reached an insane level. Even if you don’t lift a single finger from now on, you still have a very good chance of securing first place."

"So what? I can kill one or two more. Therefore, that’s exactly what I’m going to do," Priam replied in a dry, exhausted voice, turning his gaze back toward the vortex. "But if you want to attack me like that other idiot did... be my guest. You two can come at me together."

"YOU BASTARD! Don’t be arrogant in front of us!" the man snarled, his teeth grinding in humiliation. Of course, they weren’t going to attack him directly. No one there was crazy enough to do that after seeing what had happened to the blond-haired leader. But... they had another card up their sleeve.

"If you refuse to back down willingly, don’t blame us for being ruthless," the woman said in an icy tone. A cruel glint flashed across her eyes as she pressed the runic communicator in her hand.

"ATTACK WITH EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT!"

Beside her, the man let out a mocking laugh and made the same gesture, sending the command confirmation.

Priam stopped.

He slowly turned around, staring at the pair with an uncertain look. The expressions on both of their faces were filled with pure, absolute sadistic pleasure.

"What do you think you’re doing?" Priam asked, his voice faltering slightly.

The man openly sneered. "The Specters in this eruption have only one goal: exterminate every living thing. We just ordered our armies to strategically retreat and move toward the Ironweald Sect, dragging along all the hordes that were supposed to be ours."

"Either you retreat now and accept the position you’ve already secured, or every disciple of your sect will be slaughtered," the woman explained unhurriedly, savoring every word. "Our forces have methods to make the Specters devour them alive. Your sect will face three times as many enemies as normal, not to mention our clandestine attacks. Tell me... is first place really worth it when everyone in your sect is dead?"

Priam’s eyes glowed with a furious, bloodthirsty aura.

"You’re not afraid of the consequences of doing this?!"

The two smiled openly, convinced they had cornered the weakened lion.

"Afraid? Don’t be naive. Accept that we’re still being generous by talking to you and retreat. We don’t actually want to wipe out your sect, so the moment you pull away, we’ll order our forces to retreat. Everyone walks away happy, and you still come out ahead."

Their logic was flawless. If Priam retreated now, the Spectral Generals would finally cross the portal within a few minutes. The moment they reached the open space of the planet, Priam’s killing efficiency would drop drastically.

He was only getting those clean kills because the Spectral Generals on the other side were bottlenecked inside the channel, with no room to defend themselves or escape.

Once they reached the planet, things would be different. Priam would never be able to kill them so easily.

At least... that was what the pair imagined.

The two stared into Priam’s eyes, wearing radiant expressions of victory.

It was at that exact millisecond that...

The furious, weakened expression on Priam’s face simply vanished.

Not even a flinch. Not even a transition. The sickly pallor seemed to disappear instantly.

In its place appeared a radiant, crystal-clear, absurdly genuine smile.

"Wow... thank you so much for the gift. I’ll humbly accept it."