As soon as Cain's eyes turned red, the world took a subtle change.
The mist became more corporeal, becoming something akin to silk. Behind him, one would notice the rain outside became blood, the droplets dying the Palace red. Even farther, in the sky, the clouds brewed with divine might, yet an invisible barrier separated the palace from it.
"Who are you?" Seeing the change, Sun Xiang became wary, he felt danger.
"Death. I am your death Emperor. I do hope you're fun."
With nothing left to be said, Cain smiled, a smile so wide and eerie even Sun Xiang became at a loss for words. But no one would have guessed what happened next.
Cain vanished and came before the Emperor, his eyes glowing with a horrendous light. With a slap, the Emperor went flying into a wall, and the whole Palace shook.
Silence.
Before the Emperor could get up, Cain appeared before Prince Bo.
"Since I'll be taking your life Emperor, I shall give you one gift."
He grabbed Prince Bo's head and then crushed it.
Crack!
Cain then licked the blood from his hands. The Princesses screamed while the Princes backed away in despair.
"Find the rest of the cultists." His voice was ethereal.
Hundreds of ghosts flooded out from Cain's chest laughing like deranged murderers. They rampaged through the palace, some going for a few of the guests, others leaving to hunt elsewhere.
"What are you!" Sun Xiang escaped the rubble as his body lit up. Yet unlike the rest of his body, his right arm was lightless, it seemed to instead feed on light and extinguish it.
"I am beyond the comprehension of someone like you." Cain waved his hand and ribbons of red fluttered through space, heads rolled and by the end, much of the left section was left plastered in blood. Even the Growth Stage Experts died without resistance.
"This...." The Emperor clenched his fists. Many of the guests had powerful backing, to die here was his fault.
He decided to no longer hold back. "Grandpa Long! My Dynasty is in danger, please wake up!"
From Sun Xiang's chest, a massive roar shook the earth and rattled the sky. Parts of the ceiling broke and revealed the sky, where blood fell and stained the palace floors.
Cain grinned, "A Dragon? Good! This is perfect! My enlightenment is close at hand!"
Alongside the Emperor, two people came out from the crowd.
"The Demon Sealing Sect is with you!"
"The Dominion shall also help!"
From the crowd, a person exclaimed, "It's one of the Seven Demon Sealing Elders of the Demon Stealing Sect, and an Envoy from the Secular Dominion!"
Cain looked at the two new opponents, and his smile widened.
"So someone in the Enlightenment Stage and a Half Step Enlightened Envoy from another Country? It seems the Sun Dynasty is the weakest country!"
The Dominion Envoy chuckled, "On the contrary Demon, the Sun Dynasty is the second strongest because of the Dragon Waking up right now. The last remaining True Dragon, a Tier 9 Mythical Beast!"
"Oh?" Cain's eyes darted to Sun Xiang's chest, a great power was indeed awaking. "This is just the best!"
Cain reached out with his hand, Bloodletter materialized as he grasped it. He summoned it from his quarters using the power of imagination.
"Reinforce and Distort!" Cain waved his hand, he enhanced Bloodletter beyond its means and distorted its powers to become more lethal. It could contend as a 7th Tier Unparalleled Treasure for a time.
The wrappings around the sword melded with Cain's silky mist. He then manically laughed and charged in.
"Imperial Flag!" The Demon Suppressing Elder revealed a flag with a demon's face. From it, black gas came out and formed multiple arrays.
"An Array Master? Good!"
Cain slashed away and space tore, The arrays shattered and Bloodletter even nicked the Demon Suppressing Elder, his blood continuously flowed out and into the weapon, causing it to hum.
"Green Crescent!" The Envoy on the other hand took out a Treasure which fused with his arm, creating a strange crescent blade that glowed green.
"Fusion between a soul and weapon? Interesting!"
Cain sent some mist out towards the Elder while he rushed towards the Envoy. Wasting no time he swiped down with his sword. The Envoy did something similar.
The two weapons clashed, and Cain found himself to be losing. His sword was beginning to show cracks.
"Tsk!" He backed away and swiped his hand across the sword, fixing it. He then let go of it as it hovered to his side. "I've been working on this for a while. Try and survive!"
Cain opened his palm as a small dot formed hovering above it. He then watched it grow to the size of an avocado seed. All the while his mist was restricting his two opponents.
"Disappear along with the sky!"
The dark dot was sent out and rapidly expanded. It reached the Envoy, even the mist was absorbed without a word.
All the Envoy could do was let out a scream before he too was pulled in by the black dot, he was never seen again, leaving behind a small crack in space. From it, cold air chilled anyone the breeze passed by to the bone.
It was a dimensional crack. In legends, there were said to be many different worlds hidden behind the curtain of reality. The Dream Realm was one such realm and in the past, most people used Dimensional cracks to reach these places.
On the other side was a dangerous void, unless the person creating the crack was at the right location or knew how to travel the void to reach their destination, it was stupid to enter and use it for travel.
Cain dispelled the dot, healing the crack after studying it for a moment. He then flew towards the Demon Suppressing Elder.
"Y-You!" Twirling the flag, the Elder roared as hundreds of ghostly faces escaped from the flag's fluttering surface.
Cain mockingly smiled as his hands moved as fast as light. He first hit the elder in the rips before punching the stomach and liver. Again and again, he struck and turned the Elder's internal organs to paste.
"So weak. Too weak! Just die!"
He grabbed the Elder by the throat and opened his mouth. A great suction force came from it as the elder's soul was absorbed.
The soul was devoured quickly, unlike most souls, this Elder's soul had multiple strange evil symbols separated like branches. It seemed he used a technique that affected the soul, but it didn't stop Cain.
The whole time, Cain's skull looked dysmorphic and horrifying like some inhuman creature wearing flesh for fun.
He had distorted his body to that of a recorded creature that absorbed souls and life, they were creatures that could survive everywhere, even in the void.
Letting go of the soulless corpse, he then turned to Sun Xiang, the Dragon living within him was fully waking up. Cain waited patiently as the Emperor opened his eyes, which were now golden.
Cain was ecstatic as the pressure Sun Xiang gave off even made Cain want to lower his head.
'Dragon!' He internally laughed.
"Cain! You have done too much damage! Come here and die!" Sun Xiang motioned his hand which held flame, while he moved his other hand which devoured light. His legs glowed golden, akin to living flames. From his chest, a massive projection of a Dragon filled the hall and his head gained a regal crown of gold with a small sun hovering above it.
"What a view! Come, Emperor! Fight me!" Cain bellowed while the projection of the Dragon roared back.
Bearing its claws, the dragon swiped away, causing the air to break and make way. Cain's chest gained three large gnashes which healed rapidly like they were never there. He then funneled the mist around him and created many things he'd seen in his lifetime around him.
Tesla cannons, machine guns, even nightmares. He imagined an army of living and inanimate objects. Sun Xiang could only look at it in awe.
"Die!"
Cain's army of creatures and objects attacked. The Dragon let out a roar and dispelled some of them but it wasn't enough.
Lighting charred its body, bullets cracked its scales, and many dark creatures ate at its spiritual qi. The Dragon screeched in pain as it glowed brighter, everything around it becoming vaporized by flame.
Cain frowned but his mouth curved upwards again. He spoke. The Emperor didn't interrupt him.
"Hah, you know, I've tried again and again. But achieving my dream, through apathy doesn't seem to be the answer. Without emotions, freedom means nothing. Without emotions, freedom will never exist in my heart. Why is it so hard to reach....why is it so hard to achieve? Should I continue? Or should I just let myself go mad?"
Cain giggled as Sun Xiang sneered, "You're a madman. You make no sense."
Amused, Cain ignored him and continued, floating in the air like a lonely Immortal searching for his Dao.
"In the end, I was left with two choices. Which way is better? To lose all feeling and achieve the goal, or risk everything and let your emotions run wild, to be alive in the moment! To let everything flow and savor every moment, even If I get lost in it all!"
"I chose the former at first, but now I know the latter is where I need to be! Freedom means nothing if I cannot fully enjoy it! This is the Freedom I seek, this is the path I choose! I choose to let my mind break if it has to, for my body to disappear, anything to reach True Freedom!"
Cain spread his arms out as the sky rumbled, his insane smile widened and the bloody rain dripped down onto his red robes, changing nothing of the color.
Sun Xiang was stuck in place, his face frozen. It was like he was looking at a crazy person. Because he was.
He may have understood nothing, but he learned just how dangerous Cain was, he was unstable and insane. He had to be killed before he could roam unhindered.
Grabbing the sun above his head, Sun Xiang sent it before the Dragon's mouth. The beast knew what to do and prepared to send out its fiery breath.
With the sheer size of the creature, Cain knew he couldn't escape, he also knew the raw power would be dangerous. He looked around and teleported away before returning. In his hands was a girl he knew very well.
"Yun'er!" Sun Xiang recognized his daughter and called out, his eyes turning red. "Grandpa Long stop!"
The Dragon huffed, "I cannot. This person must die! So what if a daughter is lost, you can make more!"
"You don't understand. Yun'er isn't like my other children. Grandpa Long, please stop!" Sun Xiang begged.
"No!" The Dragon simply refused, after all, Dragons were the proudest race. The beast was also a Tier 9, Zhu Huang couldn't control it like other souls.
With that, the Dragon sent out a river of flame from its mouth, as the orange inferno touched the miniature sun, it became even hotter and brighter. The entire attack was enhanced as it funneled towards Cain like a living dragon itself.
Smiling, Cain enhanced and distorted Yun'er to make her even more sturdy than himself. He was running out of energy but he was confident he would win.