Chapter 677 No Progress?

"That's…"

Dilan knew that the Flame of the Beginning was something exceptional the moment it formed in his Divine Essence Crystal.

But the Flame of the Beginning's power exceeded his expectations manyfold.

"...amazing!"

Dilan was currently levitating in front of a Goblin settlement. In fact, the settlement was more like a combustion of four or more settlements that had once been one big city. Dilan was not sure why the Goblin settlements were split up now but that was probably owed to some internal conflicts.

However, the political fights and internal conflicts between the Goblins were entirely useless right now. In the face of the blue miniature sun Dilan, or more precisely the Flame of the Beginning, had unleashed, nothing could survive…

Dilan was pretty sure that the miniature sun had been larger and several times stronger than the meteorite shower that had raised Shiron to the ground.

The miniature sun was also much larger…and the result after it impacted at the targeted area was visible to the eye.

Everything in a radius of more than a hundred kilometers was burned to ashes, whether it was monsters, buildings, let alone plants.

A huge crater could be seen where the settlements had once been located. Dilan sighed deeply when he saw the millions of twinkling Essence Crystals, the only things that survived the hellish flames, which had killed even two Tier-5 Goblin Warlords.

Most Tier-5 monsters were easy to kill for Dilan by now but that didn't mean he could obliterate an area the size of a huge city and its outskirts just like that.

Using his powers in a specific manner and making use of his True Undying Essence to refill his life force whenever it was used up would probably allow him to achieve a similar feat, but the Flame of the Beginning used only a glimpse of its Power.

That was not something the small flame inside his DIvine Essence Crystal told him but something Dilan could feel. Not even a shred of its power had been utilized to achieve this feat.

"It looks like I will turn into a real monstrosity with you by my side…" Dilan mumbled to himself.

He chuckled lightly after a moment and then shrugged his shoulders, "It's not like a lot changed. I'm just getting an even worse monster to encounter…a bigger monstrosity!"

From the moment he found out about the true extent of his Origin ability, Dilan knew that there was no going back anymore…and he actually didn't want to go back anymore. Why would he? It was much better to know that he couldn't die.

That way, he would risk his life more openly without anyone feeling too burdened. There were a bunch of people, who cared about him, who wanted the best for him and that he could live a life without constant pain, but that was only something he would be granted once everything was over.

When the Veils would be closed and when he was awaiting the days of the Universe's devourer…the gap between the two of them would be the days, years, hopefully, centuries or even millennia would become his days of peace. Dilan couldn't know for sure if there was a gap between the prophecy and the Veils because both could be directly related to one another, but he felt that this was not the case.

He had a bad feeling about Hoert, the Universe Devourer, the most terrifying existence Dilan had ever seen. In fact, Dilan had never seen Hoert but that was for the better because he would have died, for good…

He and Nial had to become even bigger monstrosities than Hoert in order to defeat him. And to achieve this, Dilan couldn't stop, not before he achieved all his goals and not before he was given the necessary time to fix everything that needed to be fixed.

With the Flame of the Beginning, Dilan was one step closer to his goal. He spread out his mana and collected the Essence Crystals that were spread out in the surrounding area.

It was eerily silent all around him, not even the wind seemed to speak to him anymore. However, that was also the doing of the Flame of the Beginning. Everything that obstructs that Flame's path was devoured or destroyed…everything!

Once Dilan was done testing the power of the Flame of the Beginning, he switched over to test his physical strength, and how far he could exert his techniques by now.

His proficiency with most techniques had gone back to the perfect realm where he had been before leaving the City of Trials. Thus, he was not too worried about anything.

But that was exactly what turned his expectations into disappointment. He hadn't been worried because it was pretty obvious that he should be able to release the higher stages of the techniques he had learned in the City of Trials.

Unfortunately, the exact opposite was the case.

After he obtained the Divine Relict, his mana had been compressed and purified once. However, after he advanced to the fifth Tier in a rather exotic way, his mana was further compressed and further purified.

This was, partially, the fault of his mutated Divine Essence Crystal and the Flame of the Beginning.

His mana was much purer and denser than it had been before. Thus, the effectiveness of his techniques was elevated drastically…which made it impossible for Dilan to use the higher stages of the techniques he learned, not without breaking his body all over again…and again…

"Is that supposed to be a bad joke?" He cursed out once his body regenerated after he had exerted the Fifth Slash of the Slashes of Destruction Sword Style.

Due to the rapid movements the Fifth Slash required, his entire body was torn apart. He was pretty sure that the Universe was making fun of him but the final result of his tests was nothing but the bitter reality.

"What a vicious cycle…will I ever be able to use their techniques as I did in the City of Trials?...probably…sometime in the future…"

"Fuck it…"