hotmtlnovel Chapter 696 The Final Layer!
Chapter 696 The Final Layer!
He could swear to Hell that in all his existence, he had never encountered such a obedient and compliant Lord!
If it weren't for the undeniable aura of divine authority and the unmistakable power of the Lord of Hell, he might have thought he was dealing with a dog groveling before Sterl, begging for favor!
Shaking his head, this was the reality—when one had immense power, one truly could do as they pleased. A goddess could be reduced to a plaything, a deity could become a slave; as long as one was strong enough, nothing was impossible.
He suddenly thought of himself. Before Sterl, he seemed to be no better than Gene.
With this thought, the Will of Hell couldn't help but let out a sigh. Then, his consciousness left this layer of Hell, following Sterl's steps towards the next core layer of Hell.
The subsequent conquest went even faster than he had anticipated. Dealing with the Scourge Legion and then subjugating the Lord of this layer, along with all the demigods and above, took just a few minutes.
The Lord of this layer of Hell made no resistance and obediently accepted the control of the followers' mark.
It wasn't that this Lord was particularly weak-willed; it was simply that the Will of Hell had transmitted the situation from the previous layer to this Lord in advance.
Upon learning of Sterl's brutal nature, the Lord immediately embraced the truth of "A wise man adapts to the times." There was no need for Sterl to subjugate him; he chose to directly align himself with Sterl, even gaining some favorable impressions in the process.
And then came the third layer of core Hell, the fourth layer of core Hell...
The forces controlled by Sterl grew like a rolling snowball, and the number of powerful individuals under his command increased rapidly.
By the time he had completely subjugated the seventh layer of core Hell, Sterl had gained seven true upper-tier divine authority beings, with the castrated version of upper-tier divine authority reaching 25, and the number of gods under his command numbered in the hundreds!
With the previous accumulation from the ordinary layers of Hell, the number of demigod-level followers had exceeded 100,000!
This number, before entering Hell, was something Sterl would never have even dared to imagine. Now, however, it was a piece of cake.
To put things into perspective, in the Alpha 8 world, even the Ashen Temple, using Divine Power to forcefully catalyze a legendary army, only managed to gather around 100,000 troops.
And legendary-level units were no longer within Sterl's scope of consideration. If he wanted, he could effortlessly muster an army of millions, and if they were to form a formation, even the King's Castle of Orichalcum could easily be obliterated!
However, after battling these invaders, he realized that when individual combat power reached a certain level, even the most common mass tactics lost their effectiveness.
So he only needed elites, an absolute elite legion!
He wanted a legion where, no matter who you sent out, they could stand alone and conquer a nation.
Sterl couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation. Now that the seal of Hell had been lifted, after he subjugated the last Lord, he would lead his 100,000 demigod legion back to Alpha 8, sweeping everything before him and advancing into the legendary realm in one fell swoop!
At this point, he could hardly imagine anyone who could stop him!
Even if an upper-tier divine authority were to descend, he could suppress it with a single hand!
"Scram!"
With a thought, his immense and terrifying soul power suddenly expanded. In the eyes of the evil spirits, Sterl, who had previously appeared ordinary, was suddenly surrounded by a towering soul giant. Just his gaze alone filled them with an instinctual fear.
In an instant, all the evil spirits fled in all directions at a speed faster than when they had approached, not daring to linger for even a second. Some of the slower spirits were crushed into dust under the immense soul pressure, with no ability to resist whatsoever.
"Trash."
Sterl chuckled disdainfully. These evil spirits were not even as powerful as the soul puppets in his Purgatory Space. To think they dared to offend him—how foolish of them.
Then, with another thought, he spread out his senses. Bolstered by the immense power of The Authority of Hell, the entire situation of this layer of Hell instantly appeared in his mind.
At this point, Sterl also noticed the Lord, referred to as a madman by other upper-tier divine authorities.
Almost at the same time, the Lord slowly turned his head. Across the tens of thousands of miles, their gazes met, as if the Lord had sensed his presence.
"Hmm? Interesting."
Sterl smiled faintly. The fact that the Lord could sense his perception, even though he hadn't hidden it at all and had used a simple, straightforward approach, was still impressive. With such immense soul power backing him, it was not easy to detect his presence.
From this, it was evident that the madman's soul power was not weak either.
"Perhaps there could be an unexpected gain,"
Sterl said with interest, then without hesitation, he immediately activated space manipulation, moving at an incredibly fast pace.
The surrounding scenery rapidly flew backward, gradually transforming into a streak of light. With this speed, it didn't take long before he had traveled tens of thousands of miles and arrived at the location of this Lord of Hell.
On the ground, a bald man was seated cross-legged. The surrounding area showed faint traces of battle, but it seemed as though some force had repaired the land, so unless one looked closely, it was impossible to notice.
This bald man stood about two meters tall, his skin unnaturally pale, with explosive muscles covering his entire body, making him appear almost like a humanoid Vajra. In addition, there was a strange black vertical line on his forehead, resembling an eye that had not yet opened.
What was most peculiar, however, was the aura he emitted: evil, chaotic, as if he were a collection of the world's most corrupt and filthy things. Just this aura alone could corrupt some weaker deities who came too close.
Moreover, when observing this Lord more closely, Sterl's Dimension Perception ability unexpectedly picked up a faint sense of threat.
"Interesting, this is getting more and more interesting,"
Sterl said, not alarmed, but rather pleased. After all, his Dimension Perception was based on his Star-Bone Body. This meant that even if he activated the Power of Star-Bone, this Lord still had the means to pose a threat to him, though the level of that threat was limited.
However, Sterl had experienced the power of the Star-Bone Body firsthand, and it was outrageously powerful. Most upper-tier divine authority beings could easily be instantaneously slain by it. Undoubtedly, this Lord was the most powerful upper-tier divine authority Sterl had encountered so far.
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