A billion years later!
Mortals can never truly understand what a billion years is. This span of time is adequate for a cell to evolve into an intelligent being; it is sufficient for planets and stars to form.
However, on the universal scale, a billion years is not much.
Immortals are typically trillions of years old, making a billion seem insignificant.
...
Rachel's main body had a serious expression.
She finally obtained results after calculating the infinite universal law for a billion years using the best computers! The progress is nearly complete.
Rachel had received information about a few infinite complete laws from Lin Ming long ago, and as Lin Ming consolidated power, he sent more and more. It helped Rachel succeed quickly—that is, in a billion years, which is considered quick.
As predicted, Lin Ming has unified most of the 12 and 13 civilizations today.
The same old playbook that works even in mortal countries worked on a cosmic scale. Essentially, Anti-Rachel got richer and richer, and for other civilizations to get a bigger share of the resources, they submitted to the authority of Anti-Rachel.
Money is control, and this holds everywhere, literally, in all universes.
Eventually, Anti-Rachel squeezed more and more information from civilizations's databases into its own, then started creating massive formations, making its power stronger than any rank 13 civilization besides Rachel.
Lin Ming didn't manage this all by himself; the top ten strongest civilizations were all on board. Each gained influential positions within the alliance, with the most central being the executive branch, where Lin Ming is the leader.
The executive branch has many parts, too many to count, and the most powerful positions in the military, intelligence agencies, and regulatory agencies are all from the big ten. Other forces also have some representation, but only in non-principal positions.
This is not Lin Ming's ideal scenario. He didn't want to share power; he wanted to make Anti-Rachel independent of the civilizations. But he couldn't force the big forces, so he compromised.
Maybe he could slowly squeeze their power in a few billion years, but that isn't important. By then, he hopes to reach rank 14.
He gained a lot from Rachel—one of which was a promise that she would allow him to use the infinite universal law. At the same time, he wasn't just waiting; he was making solid progress toward coding the creation.
...
In a world filled with red, Zagtonan sat up from his throne. Today, he is a rank 11 demon with ten million complete laws.
Even after a billion years, he still hasn't reached rank 12.
Rank 12 is not easy; there are less than a million universal laws in the universe. It's not to say that more cannot be discovered; it's just that from the beginning of the universe til now, only around a million have been calculated.
His body, though, is at the absolute peak of rank 11, maybe even a half step on the boundary of rank 12! This is because he took rank 11 pills for a billion years.
Reaching the boundary of rank 12 body in only around a billion years is an achievement only Rachel Hosts can achieve.
Still, a rank 12 body can crush any rank 11, but in the face of actual rank 12, they can't even run.
No number of rank 12 bodies can threaten an actual rank 12; a universal law is invincible unless it is suppressed by energy or another universal law.
If the rank 12 body has massive reserves of realization or universal energy, they may be able to run.
But that amount of realization energy is hard to come by. Only proper rank 12 forces can come up with the required amount.
Zagronan slowly opened his eyes. The throne shook, and the whole world started shaking violently. His eyes were deep red, with two massive horns on his head, and he had a bald head.
"Let's take a look at Lana!" he thought emotionlessly.
A billion years will significantly affect the mind, even for high-ranking immortals.
Fortunately, Rachel reminded him that he should save his state of mind. Otherwise, it's possible to lose all motivation in the long river of time.
Many immortals who didn't care about this fell into this trap and lost their motivation.
Still, even with his mind saved, he still changed a lot.
Today, Zagronan is very stable. He no longer goes on destruction raids. He generally sits down in his world.
That's right, he created a world with a million complete laws. This world is his own, custom-made, and is precisely to his taste.
It's a perfect hell; he named it True Hell.
Here, lives are cheap. Anyone might die at any moment. There are 100 Great demon kings, all rank 11. 1,000 demon nobles all rank 10.
Ranks 7 to 9 are demon generals. Ranks 4 to 6 are demon soldiers. Ranks 0 to 3 are demon cannon fodders.
Wars are everywhere; countless ones die every second.
"Inspect," he cast this spell.
The entire world's situation appeared in his mind. He smiled and nodded.
Everything is going well.
Then, he disappeared. He is going to see Lana.
...
Lana is in a meeting with seven mortal humans.
As the one with the highest seniority, she said, "We should cancel the series that are performing badly; this is my suggestion."
The seven mortal humans looked at the papers carefully.
Lana was especially looking at a not-very-handsome boy. She smiled at him.
The boy looked confused and turned his head down, looking at the papers.
"What do you think?" she asked with a giggle.
Her current look is even more beautiful than the elf princess she played a billion years ago.
It's difficult to imagine anyone, man or woman, who wouldn't be attracted to her.
She looked kind, pure, adventurous, and caring.
The boy tried to look at the paper but eventually couldn't help looking at Lana.
His face was conflicted.
Just as he was about to say something, a red light came, and all exploded into blood mist. The whole building shook, nearly falling apart.
"You… How many times are you going to ruin my fun?" Lana felt incredibly irritated.
She doesn't even remember how many times Zagronan ruined her fun—too many to count.
She even created a world and separated from Zagronan to stop it. But still, somehow, he managed to ruin it.
"Ruin what?" he asked, confused.
"The damn boy! He smelled so good! He would have been very delicious when ripened!" she said regretfully.
Lana is also rank 11 with a million complete laws.
She created her world with ten thousand complete laws. Her world is different from Zagronan's. She made a modern-themed world; she bought humans with modern culture from Alive. Cultures are hard to change; therefore, even after this long, not much has changed.
Lana's world is peaceful, contrary to what one might expect. It's a safe world with an excellent quality of life for the people; there is no supernatural, mages, etc.
The only anomaly is Lana.
The whole world is her playground. She sometimes makes contests, and sometimes she just sees someone and tries to ripen him.
The ripening process is a bit hard, but it's the most fun part for her.
The boy just now was supposed to fall in love with her; then they would have a romance, he would think she loved him, she would get pregnant, and in the last moment, she would finally reveal her true self and eat him.
Oh- the disappointment he feels, the feeling of betrayal, and the fear made Lana's mouth water.
Ripening means making someone feel those feelings; the purer the person is, the stronger those feelings are, the more delicious they are.
Lana is now very picky in her food; she no longer eats trash like her own babies; now, she only eats the highest quality food.
She has come a long way; she is no longer than a simple-minded demon from the beginning.
This boy smelled so good; he would have been unimaginably delicious when ripened.
But Zagronan …
"What?" she asked impatiently.
"Nothing! I just came here to see my beautiful girlfriend!" he said with a smile. Despite his evil actions, Zagronan is extremely loyal to Lana; in the last billion years, he never even looked at another woman. For him, other women are not attractive.
"Okay! Now you've seen me. Please go!" she said.
She no longer needs Zagronan. She never liked him and mostly remained with him because of protection and benefits.
"Let's have fun," Zagronan said.
He started taking off her clothes.
Lana sighed, taking off her clothes and transforming into her true form.
She wanted to get rid of him; the fastest way was to give him what he wanted.
...
After the affair, Zagronan was kicked out of Lana's world, which she calls 'modern.'
"I love Lana more and more each day!" he said.
She remained with him because of profits, never loved him, only used him, and now is throwing him away.
But this is exactly why he likes Lana! Lana is a true hell demon, the most original kind of demon.
She is disloyal, evil, selfish, lying, manipulating, etc.; she has all the worst personality traits.
Zagronan has long been disappointed with himself; he has some good traits, like the ability to love, but Lana is pure evil, with not a single good trait.
Zagronan thinks Lana is a better demon than him.
"Zag, I need you to go somewhere," Rachel said.
"Hmm? A mission from your original body?" he asked.
"Yeah!" she answered.
"What mission?" he asked.
"Well, listen! This mission is a bit different from the previous ones. This one involves the destruction of a powerful rank 11 civilization!" she said.
"How is this different? I already destroyed so many I can't remember!" he said.
"Because this one is ancient; they have a billion complete laws and one universal law!" she said.
Zagronan's looks changed.
"Is it rank 12?" he asked with a serious face.
"No, it's rank 11; it's a special case. The sect leader of this civilization registered the universal law in his name, not in the sect's name. For this reason, when he was injured severely, the universal law became unavailable. The sect leader is injured and is far away; they won't be able to use the universal law. But there are risks because they had a universal law at once; they may have some trump cards," she said.
Zagronan nodded and said, "Where is it?"
...
It is a massive world named Heaven Defying Sect.
It is ancient, with a rank 12 sect leader.
However, the sect leader went missing a while ago. After that, the entire sect became defensive, activating their formations. Zagronan appeared and looked.
"It's big!" he is impressed.
He took out a sword.
This sword is named Bright Cut.
It was made of a formation and more than 1,000,000 complete laws. He injected rank 11 energy into it and swung it!
Bam!
With a huge sound, the outer skin of the world was scratched.
But just that.
"It's tough," he thought.
Any rank 11 world would rip apart from this strike.
But not this one. It shows that it has many rank 11 defensive formations.
Five rank 11 people came out. All had a strong aura with tens of millions of complete laws.
"Who are you?" an old man with a long black beard asked coldly.
Zagronan didn't bother and swung Bright Cut.
A sword light with a bright red color appeared in the chaos and moved toward the old man with unbelievable speed.
The old man took out his sword and swung back.
His sword light was bright white.
It collided with the bright red sword light and cut it in half!
The remaining Bright sword light hit Zagronan.
"Hmm, you're good!" Zagronan said. He wasn't even scratched.
The old man was stunned. Resist a sword slash with the body alone?
"All use the strongest methods," he told the other four secretly.
"Great Life Reversal," the man with a black beard cast.
The other four also cast their spells.
They knew Zagronan's body was strong, so they didn't continue to attack with physical methods. Instead, they targeted his soul and life force.
'Great Life Reversal' came and hit Zagronan.
"Hmm, it's trying to reverse my life energy into death-negative energy, creating an internal conflict? Interesting."
Another spell hit.
"Hmm? I think this one is trying to poison my soul," Zagronan commented.
Another hit: "Oh, I think this one is trying to freeze me? Strange choice!" he said doubtfully.
"This one is trying to take a sample from my soul! Smart."
"And this one, it's… weird… I think it has something to do with my hair!" he looked at the newly grown hair on his formerly bald head.
The five spells combined and formed a destructive spell!
"Oh, the five spells are a combo! They can add up and create the 'internal destruction' spell! I died, right?" he thought with a smile.
He exploded into a mist of blood!
The five elders sighed in relief! They thought the man was strong, but it turned out to be only big talk.
"Hmm? Good, you killed me once!" he appeared at the same place unharmed!
"What?" the elder with a long black beard was stunned.
"Yeah, you killed me! Congratulations! Now, do it again!" he said.
The five elders all teleported away!
"This 'man' is strong, so it's best to get back; after all, there are powerful defensive formations there." said the old man with a long black beard.
Zagronan snapped his fingers.
The five who teleported returned to their place!
"How can you drag us back? We were already in our world's defensive formation!" the man with the long black beard said in absolute shock.
"Oh? Okay," he snapped his fingers again and returned them to their world.
In actuality, from the moment the five arrived, everything was an illusion. They fell into his illusions, and this world and everything that just happened was all Zagronan's illusions.
...
The real world
Zagronan looked at the five.
"Illusion search," he cast this spell!
This spell is even more terrifying than soul searches. It uses illusions, creating realistic scenarios until all secrets are drawn.
The target wouldn't even know that they divulged all their secrets in the process. If Zagronan wants, they won't even remember anything that happened.
This method is better than soul search; soul search can fail. There are many ways to protect the soul.
But, once someone falls into Zagronan's illusions, they will eventually divulge all they know if they can't escape. All of this happens in a moment, as Zagronan accelerates time in his illusions by countless times.
In just a moment, Zagronan knew all the five elders knew.
He nodded and cast a spell. "Formation break!"
This spell usually would be difficult to work against rank 11 formations, but Zagronan now knows all the weaknesses, so he can specifically target them.
On the surface, nothing happened. But Zagronan could feel that the formations protecting the world were all broken.
He took out Bright Cut and swung!
This time, it went like butter, splitting the world in half!
Chaos energy invaded, killing countless in an instant. Some sect grounds, though, had rank 10 and 11 formations, so even exposed to chaos energy, they survived.
"so, no other trump card?" he thought.
There have been two rank 12 trump cards on the elders, but they never had the opportunity to use them.
In their memory, there should be no other rank 12 trump card.
Thousands of rank 10s and a few hundred rank 11s started running in all directions.
Zagronan waved his hand. Endless illusions came out and trapped them all in illusion.
Immediately, Zagronan illusion-searched them all.
Then, with a snap, he changed their charge from reality into illusion.
With another snap, all illusions disappeared.
Thousands of rank 11s and 10s died like that. They died so thoroughly that even rank 13s would have a little trouble resurrecting them.
Because Zagronan made them into illusions, they were wiped from reality; nothing of them exists in reality anymore. Only Great grandmasters of the illusion concept can turn them back into reality with ease.
Then, Zagronan looked at the five elders.
He snapped his fingers.
He didn't kill them; he stored them to give them to Rachel. The mission included giving these five to Rachel.
Then, he swung his sword a few more times.
The already split world split into many smaller facets, the formations that resisted the chaos all broken.
"Rank detection!" he cast.
"Good, only a few dying rank 9s! The mission succeeded!" he said and left.