Several tens of thousands of miles away, the location of the castle where the emperor and supreme leader of the asura race belonging to the Oblon world resides.

In the throne room, Emperor Thannath stood in the center of a huge magic circle formed from countless runes and strange encryptions. 

Above each line and engraving of the magic circle was crushed Soul Stone powder, including the powder charged with mana and magic of more than ten Third Order Soul Stones. This kind of ability to destroy a Soul Stone into powder but still contain the power and use it in magical formations was something that Bai Zemin was far from achieving and was only possible thanks to the best blacksmith in the history of the empire teaming up with a talented Magic Rune Inscriber.

Outside the giant magic circle were three much smaller sized magic circles and two of them were occupied by two Third Order existences. These magic circles had a thin line formed from countless small runes linking them to the central magic circle that the emperor occupied; of course, the power of the magic runes was activated using the energy of many Unclassified Soul Stones and a few First Order ones.

The name of this set of four magic circles was Cosmos Gate and it had been built more than ten thousand years ago by the previous emperor of the asura race, who sacrificed even the rest of his life force to give life to the runes.

The Oblon world was a world ruled by force just as on most of the worlds that the Soul Record had affected with its presence. Therefore, the emperor's crown always passed from the strongest to the strongest. 

The previous emperor was a great talent, but at the same time, he was an extremely bloodthirsty person who even without being able to absorb Soul Power managed to reach the Fourth Order by slaughtering his race left and right in order to consume the power contained within the Soul Stones.

However, when the previous emperor reached a certain age and his thirst for power calmed down, his mind cleared up and he managed to see that if things continued like this the asura race would sooner or later will be extinct at the hands of some powerful warrior... This was because the emperor knew very well that the Soul Record granted juicy rewards and encouraged the other races to destroy them.

With the limit imposed on the asura race, it was only a matter of time before a powerful soul evolver would destroy them. 

It was then that the previous emperor spent several centuries searching for the necessary materials and gathering the talents he needed to build this magic array called Cosmos Gate.

The function of the Cosmos Gate was very simple; to open a random gateway to a world whose laws were inferior to those of the Oblon world.

Thus, by invading other worlds, the strength of the asura race began to grow enormously and they spread to many parts of the universe. Here, the core world of the asura race, was the main key that was needed to activate the Cosmos Gate completely; the emperor of this generation.

In order for the Cosmos Gate to be activated correctly, besides needing a large number of Soul Stones, three minor keys and one main key were needed.

The position of the main key could not be replaced, but the position of the three minor keys could. It was just that the more powerful the minor keys were, the more stable the Cosmos Gate would be and the longer the spatial rift could be maintained as long as the three minor keys fed the main key with mana so that the main key could thus ignite the power of the Soul Stones that awakened the magic array.

Since Jennan had left his position as one of the three minor keys that kept the Cosmos Gate open, the space rift that linked the Oblon world to Earth had shrunk considerably compared to its previous size. However, it was nothing to worry about and as long as Jennan returned within a few days everything would be back to normal.

The only problem with the magic array, apart from the huge energy consumption, was that the Cosmos Gate could be opened anywhere in the Oblon world, so, before invading another world they had to find the Cosmos Gate, and unfortunately, only the main key could roughly sense the location. It was just that this time the asura race was lucky as the Cosmos Gate opened relatively close to one of the main cities so when the army stationed there sensed the mana clearly belonging to another world and after reporting and receiving orders from the emperor, the army began to march there; this was also one of the reasons why it took so long for the second army to attack after the first one was eliminated.

Just as the two Third Order existences were focused on transmitting mana to Emperor Thannath in order to feed the insatiable hunger of the magic array, everyone's expression suddenly changed.

"Jennan has just fallen." Emperor Thannath said with a gloomy face.

".... Although it's hard to believe, I also felt his aura vanishing from the world forever." Said one of the two Third Order existences present and the weakest of them all.

This was a man who was actually not particularly ugly but probably very few women would choose him as their life partner because his expression was truly ferocious like that of a beast that only sought to drink blood and eat raw meat.

The people inside the room fell into deep silence after those words were spoken and the only sound that could be heard was the flow of the wind accompanied by the constant flowing energies of magic and mana.

After several minutes of contemplation, Emperor Thannath looked at the one woman inside the room and asked in a dignified voice, "Glineira, what do you think?"

This woman was a powerful Third Order warrior who could also use a bit of magic and despite being no match for the current emperor, she was only a little over 2000 years old while Emperor Thannath was already over 5000.

She, Glineira, was the second most powerful existence of the asura race. At the same time, she was the only wife of the current emperor and thus he always kept her by his side despite her being perfectly qualified to rule another world on his behalf.

"My Emperor, if I have your permission.... I find it hard to believe that a world whose mana clearly hasn't even entered the Second Stage can give birth to an existence brave enough to step into the unknown. Initially, I thought that whoever crossed the Cosmos Gate to come to our world was just a fool too full of itself..... But seeing that Jennan has just been defeated and subsequently killed, I'm afraid it's no longer as simple as bravery or foolishness."

Glineira or any other asura could freely assume that the foreign energy that broke through the Cosmos Gate to reach the Oblon world was someone stupid or brave. However, with the fall of one of the Asura Commanders, everything became even more confusing since, in theory, it should be impossible that a world like Earth could give birth to a being capable of accomplishing such a feat.

"Theories are only theories destined to one day be proven or disproven just as laws are there to be broken by someone more powerful than the one who established them." Emperor Thannath reasoned in a dignified and magnetic voice capable of causing a lady's heart to flutter with ease.

"In that case, My Emperor. What do you suggest we should do?" Glineira asked calmly.

Emperor Thannath was silent for several seconds before he said slowly, "Although Jennan's death is an unforeseen, as well as a harsh backlash, the Cosmos Gate must stay open no matter what. Otherwise, we will need another three centuries at least to gather the necessary number of Soul Stones to activate the magic array again."

The consumption of so many Soul Stones of all kinds of quality to activate the Cosmos Gate was always a great pain in the heart of the entire asura race since Soul Stones were precisely the only way they could evolve. Therefore, the fact that tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands and sometimes even millions of asuras had to die to obtain the count of Soul Stones needed just to activate a magic array was naturally not a nice thing. It was just that everyone knew they had no choice but to do it, so, in the end, they could only grit their teeth and carry out the task regardless of how much it hurt.

Whenever the Cosmos Gate was opened, Emperor Thannath always made sure that it stayed open until the last possible moment regardless of the problems that arose precisely because he knew the sacrifices necessary for each activation.

"As the main key, I am afraid it is not possible for me to leave my current position or else the Cosmos Gate would close in a matter of one or two minutes at the most.... Sending Varoe doesn't seem too good to me as well since even if the enemy suffered serious injuries in its battle against Jennan I'd rather be cautious." Emperor Thannath reflected.

Thannath was a wise man who had seen many things in his several thousand years. Although Varoe was a powerful Third Order level 115 existence, he was inferior to Jennan's power. Therefore, even though Thannath estimated that the enemy would be injured, he did not want to risk anything as he always liked to play on the safe side.

Then, Emperor Thannath looked at the second most powerful fighter in the entire Oblon world and said in a softer voice, "Although we can let the enemy exhaust itself fighting our warrior people as I am sure there are no cowards in our asura race, it will cause many unnecessary casualties."

".... My Emperor is truly a kind man," Glineira said with a small smile on her beautiful face. Then, her eyes cooled slightly and she said with a hint of murderous intent, "But indeed, we cannot let the blood of our race continue to be sullied by a dog of the Soul Record.... Allow me to head to the battlefield. I, Glineira, vow to bring the head of the enemy for Your Highness to use as your wine cup."

"Go." Emperor Thannath said in a deep voice before closing his eyes again and focusing entirely on feeding the magic array with mana.

Glineira bowed slightly despite the emperor's closed eyes and walked towards the outside of the castle. Then, she closed her eyes and after several seconds reopened them to look in a southeasterly direction coldly.

Glineira pointed to the space before her and a kind of space portal appeared out of nowhere causing the sound of the howling wind to break the calm of the place. With a step forward, she walked through the portal and disappeared.

An instant later, the portal also disappeared completely and the scene fell silent once again.

* * *

On the other hand, unaware that one of the most difficult and dangerous mortal battles of his entire existence was on its way to him, Bai Zemin finally arrived at the outskirts of a large city surrounded from all four directions by high rock walls that rose more than twenty meters high into the sky.

This was the closest city to the space rift leading to Earth and therefore the troops were more than prepared to receive any kind of counterattack as this was not the first time they had done this kind of thing. Therefore, by the time Bai Zemin ostentatiously approached with huge amounts of bright crimson chains illuminating the skies, the defense army located at the southern gate of the city noticed him immediately.

* * * * * * *

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