Liam immediately wished for the Primordial Essence to bring him back as a dark void swarmed the golden light. However, as there was no “time” to speak of, no movement could be considered “fast” or “instantaneous.” They were all at the complete mercy of the one who ruled this territory.

[I won’t kill you now, so don’t worry. Our story can’t end like this. In fact, it won’t end like this. The one writing it will make sure of that. Even if I attempted to kill you now, I wouldn’t be able to.]

What the fuck are they talking about?

Liam cursed in his mind out of sheer desperation. He felt the infinite golden land around him move.

[Move along, mortal.]

He reappeared in the Convergence. Liam dropped to his knees in the void, heaving.

[If we had not protected you, you would have died.]

The Chaos beings spoke to him.

How did I even get there? I only thought of leaving this universe. There should still be a sea of spacetime that holds together all of the other universes, right?

[The First Star has created the Endless Sea.]

[It encompasses all of the infinite number of infinite and finite universes.]

[However, your desire was not to leave the Convergence.]

[It was to leave “reality.”]

[Even though you have limited your own Perception, it is high enough that you managed to leave reality completely and reach an infinitesimal part of the Order that the First Star carries.]

[It only happened through the Primordial Essence’s assistance.]

[Its affinity to Order made it all possible.]

His thought process had been correct, but he had taken it too far. By pushing himself and Ulvir to their limits, he had reached a place he couldn’t even dream of surviving in. If the First Star had decided to kill him then, what could he have done?

What did he say about our story? That it wouldn’t be allowed to just end like that?

Liam had been too fearful to properly process the First Star’s words, and they were already disappearing from his memory. This time, he had heard the First Star’s true voice, with no filters or mediums. The memory was too heavy. He couldn’t bear it. It disappeared from his mind like an ephemeral flame. If he weren’t the Last Star, his soul would have been extinguished instantly; if the First Star had shown even a bit of hostility, he would have died as well. Giving up on trying to remember something that would only damage his soul and accepting his weakness, Liam spread his perception around him. He was at the same place where he had left reality.

How much time has passed?

Since he had entered a timeless zone, it was safe to assume that only an instant had passed in the Convergence. However, the possibility of that not being the case remained. Since he was still alive, it hadn’t been a year and a half yet, but the worst-case scenario was that too much time had already gone by.

In the next second, Typhon’s Aura swept the place like a wave. It zeroed in on Liam’s position like a homing missile. Liam’s expression hardened. He teleported away right as space bent and Typhon appeared. Even though space around him was locked down, the Primordial Essence allowed him to break the rules and act as he pleased.

This pattern repeated itself for the following five seconds. They felt like the longest seconds of Liam’s life. By the time Typhon left for his homeworld, Liam felt exhausted. If he were a normal human, he would be dripping with his own sweat. He let out a breath.

Goddamn.

761,894 times. It was the number of times he had gotten close to being killed by Typhon during those five seconds. He was still too weak.

I need to find a way to fully use my Perception without getting the side effects.

It wouldn’t be easy. It was the same as having his cake and eating it too. It was far more likely to be completely impossible. Still, he had to try. He needed to become stronger. Thinking he could defeat the Elean Emperor this early had been his mistake, and he had almost lost his life because of it. What about the three strongest forces in the Convergence? He couldn’t even dream of facing them in his current state.

Liam felt extremely anxious. There was much to do but not nearly enough time. He gritted his teeth. His Will was already developing at its fastest rate, and it was his best bet on increasing his power safely. He had already raised his Perception to its current limits and exploited it to the best of his ability. If so, then there was only one thing left to do.

Increase all stats. Level up.

The amount of XP he had gotten from killing tens of billions of beings was titanic.

[Ding!]

[You have reached level 70! All your stats have increased by 10%. Your state of existence has risen. Skills will be acquired more easily.]

[You have reached level 70 with the maximum stats you could have achieved! The fifth Small Revolution has begun.]

[…]

[You have fulfilled a hidden requirement!]

[Ethereal Body is being improved by the Small Revolution.]

Power coursed through him, but it felt hollow.

It isn’t the same as increasing my Laws comprehension or developing my Skills.

It felt like he was being brute forced into power. Even so, his stats had multiplied. He was obviously much more powerful than moments ago. Liam opened and closed his hand a few times.

Should I focus on reaching level 100 before attempting to fight more powerful Emperors?

Liam immediately dismissed the notion. Even after thousands of years, Luweth was still at level 98. The number of beings one needed to kill to reach level 100 was likely to be unspeakable. Liam was hesitant to cause any more death than he already had. He knew it was hypocritical, but he couldn’t avoid it. He wouldn’t level up and couldn’t take care of the issue with his Perception while his Will was still developing; he didn’t have the time to increase his knowledge about Laws; creating new Supreme Techniques would take an unknown amount of time, but maybe it wouldn’t be too much. Liam devised a plan.

I’ll fight against Typhon as many times as it takes if I’m able to escape like this again. I will gain experience in fighting against him and use that experience to hasten the process of creating another Supreme Technique.

His actions were immediate. Now that he had leveled up, all of his energy reserves were full. He was at his peak. He teleported into Elean territory once more. As soon as he arrived, he spread his Aura and force like a shockwave. His targets were the remaining Elean solar systems. Typhon reacted in an instant. Golden Aura covered the Elean planets and stars, protecting them, while the Minotaur appeared less than 100,000 kilometers in front of Liam. It was the same as being less than ten centimeters away. Typhon punched forward with a roar. Liam immediately felt space around him be constricted, as if he were being sucked into the punch. He teleported away. Space was torn apart by the enemy’s Supreme Technique but repaired itself before the Endless Sea beyond it could be perceived.

Liam could feel Typhon’s virtually boundless rage. It was likely that the creature never thought that Liam would return mere minutes after barely escaping with his life. Liam accepted his hatred. He had been the annihilator of most of the Emperor’s species. It wasn’t surprising in the least that the man who had protected it for thousands of years would hate him for it, no matter the sins of the man in question.

The Elean Emperor didn’t bother with saying anything. There were no words that needed to be said. Nothing would dissolve the hatred between them. All that remained was pure, unbridled killing intent. Liam’s expression hardened. If he didn’t give it his all, he would die. He was currently inside enemy territory; Typhon didn’t need to worry about time constraints.

I can avoid everything he throws at me with Ulvir’s teleportation. I only need to worry about damaging him.

As these thoughts crossed his mind, Liam realized that they were wrong. It was because Typhon’s Aura condensed further, limiting itself to the exact limits of the Elean territory. Liam’s pupils dilated. The Emperor wasn’t going to chase him outside of the territory’s boundaries; if Liam wanted to fight, he would need to do so within Typhon’s range. It meant that he could only teleport outside of Elean territory and then back inside to avoid attacks, but doing so would mean losing sight of his opponent. He wouldn’t be able to hit anything, even if he managed to avoid all the enemy attacks. Liam frowned as his golden spear pierced forward. The halos above and behind him rotated fiercely.

Typhon had adapted, as someone with as much experience as him should be able to. He had effectively countered Liam’s teleportation by restricting the battlefield. Even though Liam would be able to teleport outside of it at any point, the fight would only happen inside the Emperor’s territory. Liam didn’t possess nearly enough range as the Elean Emperor. He couldn’t attack from the outside of Elean areas.

Typhon’s punches affected the entire battlefield, down to the last piece of space. They were unavoidable. Teleporting inside Elean territory would be meaningless. Even if Liam moved to a planet populated by the Eleans, Typhon would be able to make his Aura target only Liam. Liam gritted his teeth. Event Horizon was deployed around him as Typhon’s punches tore through his black Aura like it was made of paper. Once the first fist energy reached him, Liam felt his body shake from head to toe. Once the second got to him, he felt his soul tremble. The third, fourth, and fifth broke down all of his defenses and almost reduced his lifespan by impacting his soul. Liam’s perception turned to his surroundings.