Chapter 401: New Agreement

The space in front of Priam distorted, and in the blink of an eye, he found himself in a completely desolate world.

The environment was barren and had a bizarre illumination. The sky remained covered by a thick mist, cut through by thunderous booms that painted the scenery with multiple shining colors, as if countless spotlights were constantly spinning high above.

Jagged rocks covered the barren ground, stretching as far as the eye could see. Priam looked around but couldn’t find any sign of life or structures. The only constant was the uninterrupted rumble of thunder echoing throughout the dimension.

When he raised his gaze, he noticed the thunder intensifying before partially dissipating moments later.

"What?!"

Only then did it dawn on him: the lightning bolts cutting through the mist were actually countless sleeping lightning beasts. And those rumbling thunderclaps were nothing more than their movements!

Although his voice had been quiet, the murmur was enough to break the silence.

To those creatures, that was a strange noise that should never have existed there. In an instant, the beasts awakened, roaring furiously as they detected the intruder, and charged at him en masse.

A torrent of multicolored lightning rained down in his direction. The discharges took on loud, chaotic forms, instantly making the hairs on Priam’s body stand on end.

An intense wave of danger ran down his spine. That power... came from the Destruction Lightning!

Before it could even reach Priam, the first lightning beast detonated its own body.

*BOOOOM*

A deafening explosion echoed through the area. Caught completely off guard, Priam was sent flying backward by the powerful shockwave and lightning.

"ROAR!"

Still in midair, dozens of beasts converged on him from all directions.

"Fuck! Wasn’t this supposed to be a peaceful place with no dangers?!" Priam roared, narrowing his eyes.

In a fraction of a second, he activated his Elemental Physique. Ananke materialized in his hands, and he counterattacked with extreme agility. With a single punch imbued with power, he made the first creature explode into sparks.

These weren’t flesh-and-blood beasts, but pure manifestations of elemental energy, guided by a residual consciousness.

They were similar to Specters, but lacked their characteristic insane frenzy.

Priam destroyed several more of those creatures and noticed, to his surprise, that they didn’t carry only the devastating power of Destruction Lightning; there were also other elemental attributes intertwined within their bodies, making the battle unpredictable and troublesome.

During the confrontation, Priam noticed traces of strategic intelligence in them. They seemed to communicate through modulated roars and quick exchanges of glances.

"Hey! I didn’t come here to fight!" He tried to raise his voice.

However, the attempt at dialogue was useless. The lightning beasts were incapable of understanding him and continued charging forward ferociously, increasing in number with every passing second.

The most irritating part was that as soon as they were destroyed, they reconstructed themselves within moments and charged back into battle. They seemed to possess immortal bodies.

To make sure he wasn’t mistaken, Priam isolated a specific beast and destroyed it seven times in a row. Every single time, the creature completely regenerated its energy and structure in the blink of an eye.

It became clear that those creatures were deeply connected to the very fabric of this world fragment. As long as they remained inside this isolated dimension, they would never truly die.

Deciding not to waste any more time on pointless battles, Priam broke into a sprint, determined to explore the region.

What the hell was going on here? His extreme luck could only have led him to the most anomalous and bizarre fragment of them all!

Wherever he passed, the air trembled, and more sleeping lightning beasts suddenly awakened, joining the hunt. Before long, a colossal horde of electrifying creatures formed a veritable glowing sea in Priam’s wake—a shining tide that kept expanding without end.

"Did I fall into a giant hornet’s nest?!"

Fighting an infinite number of immortal creatures was insane; even if they couldn’t kill him directly, they would eventually exhaust his energy reserves and wear him down to death.

As he raced forward at high speed, Priam realized that the extent of this spatial fragment was infinitely greater than he had imagined. After two hours of nonstop running, covering tens of thousands of kilometers, the landscape was still infested by that endless electric tide.

Ignoring the furious mass of creatures chasing him, Priam kept his focus ahead and continued accelerating.

Until...

[Treasure detected!]

[Heart of Life and Destruction is nearby.]

Priam felt his blood boil in his veins as he stared at the System’s green window. He had no idea what that was, but if the System had issued a direct alert, it could only be an extraordinary treasure!

’Life and destruction...’ Priam murmured thoughtfully.

He had felt the Destruction Lightning within these beasts. And now, this name...

Putting those thoughts aside for later, he flew nonstop, searching for anything that stood out in the area.

Six hours later, he finally noticed something strange appear ahead.

In the distance, there was a gigantic pillar of light.

He was delighted when he saw it and quickly moved toward it. However, as he approached, he realized it wasn’t a pillar of light, but a strange hourglass-shaped object.

A vast expanse of water had appeared there, and there was another vast expanse of water above it. They flowed into each other: the water above flowed downward, while the water below flowed upward.

"What pure electrical energy! Is this the Heart of Life and Destruction?!"

That water wasn’t actually water, but countless tiny and pure runes of the electrical element that had accumulated there.

He was stunned by the discovery. Terrifying lightning fluctuations emanated from the place. At that moment, he felt the Life Lightning runes within his body resonate.

It was like a fatal attraction toward that sea of lightning. It was a remnant of what he had felt earlier, the very thing that had drawn him to this place.

Priam quickly moved...

’Did those lightning creatures stop?’

He turned around, confirming that they were merely roaring from a certain distance away, not daring to approach.

*BUZZ*

Suddenly, a gigantic head emerged from the sea of lightning.

Then, an enormous body emerged from within it. A terrifying pressure shook the entire area.

Priam’s eyes widened. It looked a lot like a gigantic Eastern dragon. In this case, it was made of lightning, just like the beasts from before.

The creature emerged and didn’t waste any time, immediately attacking him.

A claw larger than a mountain swept toward Priam. Even before it hit him, Priam felt as though he were being crushed and couldn’t move.

*Celestial Battle Armor!*

Priam immediately summoned all his power and struck the gigantic claw.

*BOOOM!*

Priam was sent flying backward, feeling as though his entire body were about to collapse. This ’dragon’ was far too powerful; its strength was definitely capable of rivaling that of an Exalted Sage.

"Hey, I’m not here to fight!" Priam shouted when he saw the dragon attack again.

Unexpectedly, the gigantic dragon actually stopped and stared coldly at him.

"You evil invader. Wasn’t destroying my world enough? Now you want to take what little remains? The agreement we made with you no longer exists. We have nothing to do with you anymore, so get out of here and leave us in peace until everything is consumed."

The gigantic dragon was capable of speaking, but its voice was filled with contempt and hatred.

At that moment, Priam realized that this figure possessed no life energy, much less a soul. In other words, it wasn’t a real living being.

It was a will. A remnant of energy created by an extremely powerful living being, meant to endure over the world even after its death.

In truth, everything here was merely electrical energy and the wills of creatures from the past.

"If the agreement is over, then let’s make a new one. You’re not going to make me travel all the way here for nothing, are you?" Priam, of course, wasn’t going to leave that easily.

"Hmph. If you want to create a new agreement, fine. As long as you can subdue the core of this world fragment, you can do so," the gigantic dragon said with a cold look, clearly believing he wouldn’t be able to do it.

Priam looked at the giant hourglass, understanding that it was the core of this place. What was this agreement? Who exactly were these wills? He would find out after he made it.

"Then I won’t hold back."

Priam snorted and pushed his body to its absolute limit. With a single step, he seemed to teleport.