Awakening：The Infinite Evolution of My Talent as a Low-Level Awakener

"It's a must to end this quickly!"

Although he was frustrated, the current situation forced him to confront it head-on and break the deadlock.

However, this feeling of being unable to control his circumstances was deeply unsettling for him. He had constantly grown stronger and improved himself, all for the sake of freedom, to live without threats or oppression. But now, these damned monsters were making him experience once again the helplessness he felt when he was weak.

"I thought my strength was already considerable, but now, it seems... it's still not enough. Not nearly enough!"

With a low growl, he commanded all his soul puppets to launch a furious assault on the prison above him.

But in the next moment, Sterl was shocked to realize that the self-destructive attacks that had always been unstoppable—attacks that could easily break through the silver-white barrier formed by the Mother Body—were significantly less effective here.

His gaze grew more intense as he activated Soul Prison's Eerie Eyes. To his horror, he saw that these tendrils weren't just extremely tough, with powerful regenerative abilities, but they also contained a soul defense shield!

Moreover, this soul defense shield wasn't weak. Even his cannon fodder-level soul puppets, when launching self-destructive strikes, could only leave a faint mark on it at best.

Even when thirty million of them attacked simultaneously, their progress was painfully slow.

The soul shield was incredibly thick. From the current situation, the thickness of the soul shield seemed proportional to the depth of the prison's structure.

His pupils constricted slightly.

"So, they really have me cornered?"

He never expected this strategy to work so perfectly. At this rate, it would take at least a year or more to break through.

Furthermore, as the tendrils regenerated, the soul shields that had been slightly damaged were slowly healing. At this rate, there was no chance of breaking through in the foreseeable future.

Perhaps when the shield eventually opened, Hell would have been completely overrun, and that wouldn't be a moment of rescue. Instead, his enemies would be ready to strike him down in one fell swoop.

Immediately, he released dozens of Soul Puppets, including Mantis and Earth Wolves. These Mantis Puppets were comparable to weak Divine Power-level entities, and the four that Sterl had strengthened were capable of crushing most weak Divine Power-level gods.

They were capable of causing both physical and soul-level damage simultaneously.

With the addition of these puppets, the rate of progress noticeably increased several times. However, even this wasn't enough.

Fortunately, while the prison formed by the black tendrils was much tougher than the barrier formed by the silver-white liquid, it lacked the eerie gray energy. So there was no need to worry about the puppets being corroded or destroyed.

At this point, Sterl had no choice but to release Boris and the others from the small world, bringing them into the assault on the prison.

However, even the power of gods still dealt very limited damage to the prison. Helpless, Sterl had no choice but to take matters into his own hands.

In an instant, thirty million cannon fodder-level soul puppets, seventy to eighty god-level puppets, eleven divine followers, and Sterl himself were all involved in a war of attrition to break the prison.

Though they focused their attacks on the prison above, it was clear that the prison was a unified structure. Once the defense weakened in one spot, more tendrils would quickly reinforce it, preventing any method from significantly weakening the prison's defenses.

Meanwhile, within the Frozen Desolation of Hell, the Will of Hell was anxiously watching this unfold. It tried to use its authority as the World Will to call upon the forces of this layer of Hell to help break through the prison.
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However, the invaders had anticipated this move, strengthening their assault and sealing off the Will of Hell so it couldn't provide any assistance.

For the first time, the Will of Hell began to feel a sense of despair. The current situation seemed hopeless, with no apparent way forward.

The reason it hadn't told Sterl the truth earlier was to keep him calm and in control. But the enemies' movements had been far quicker than anticipated. Even Sterl hadn't noticed any clues, and by the time he sensed something was wrong and tried to warn Sterl, it was already too late.

On the ground of Frozen Desolation, a massive abyss, spanning over a thousand miles, appeared. At its center stood a vast, jet-black sphere with a diameter exceeding ten thousand meters, silently towering over the land. No one would have thought that this was the prison built specifically to imprison Sterl.

Additionally, large amounts of silver-white secretion were spreading from the distant land, merging into this enormous sphere…

"This won't work… at this rate, there's no way to escape from this," Sterl stopped his attacks. Using the recovery cycles of his soul puppets, he was able to estimate the approximate time. Nearly an entire day had passed.

Over the course of this day, Sterl had almost exhausted all his available methods: the fusion of various Laws, all the abilities he had mastered, and even some powerful one-time use items.

However, the damage inflicted on the prison remained very limited. Not only that, but an ominous premonition began to grow in his heart. If he continued his current assault, his only fate would be to remain trapped inside.

After all, the mysterious force behind this trap had clearly designed it to target him specifically, and they had likely prepared a thorough plan. If it were him in their position, once the prison successfully contained him, he would have done everything possible to reinforce it, ensuring his goal was achieved before dealing with this nuisance.

In other words, the prison was most likely still expanding, and the speed at which they were consuming it was probably slower than the speed at which their enemies were reinforcing it.

Seeing Sterl's expression, Boris and the others didn't dare to ask too many questions. They simply continued to attack the hard tendrils above them. It was obvious that their master had run into major trouble, and it was the first time they had seen such an expression on his face.

If even their master was in a bind, then they, the pawns, were of no help. The best they could do was not add to his burdens.

However, the hardness of these tendrils far exceeded their expectations. It was as if they were attacking a prison made from divine iron. When they struck with all their might, it felt as though they were hammering against a mythical-level shield. Not only did they fail to break through much of it, but the shockwave left them numb.

After a moment of silence, Sterl's thoughts stirred. He motioned for all the cannon-fodder soul puppets to stop, leaving only the few dozen solid puppets to continue their assault.

"I guess this is the only option left," he muttered to himself.

Taking a deep breath, Sterl's mind shifted, and he summoned the Soul Devourer Sphere. He then absorbed all the cannon-fodder soul puppets into the sphere, starting the rapid refinement process.

Soon enough, the true souls of the thirty million cannon-fodder puppets vanished from the Purgatory Space, and within the Soul Devourer Sphere, there was an accumulation of three thousand points of ordinary soul power.

"Still not enough, far from enough…" he muttered.

Next, he checked the souls that had been cultivated by the mother puppet. After a full day, the mother puppet had created a total of 43,200 souls. Following Sterl's instructions, those souls were condensed into 432 higher-quality souls, each reaching a divine-level tier.

Sterl then quickly absorbed all 432 souls into the Soul Devourer Sphere, refining them. As a result, he gained 43 points of advanced soul power. Adding this to the soul power he had harvested from hunting along the way, he barely managed to reach around 60 points in total—roughly equivalent to the combined divine soul power of six gods.

"Enough thinking, let's give it a try!"

A cold glint flashed in Sterl's eyes. He gripped the Soul Devourer Sphere, activating another of its abilities.

[It can condense all the pure soul power within the Soul Devourer Sphere and unleash an explosion of Transcendence-level terrifying power. This power cannot be resisted by anything other than abilities related to soul power!]

This was yet another trump card of Sterl's—condensing all of his soul power into a single, devastating strike.

"I'll see if I can shatter your damn shell!"

Although 3,000 points of regular soul power weren't much, when combined with the 60 points of advanced soul power, it was a completely different story. Moreover, soul power attacks could only be resisted by other soul-based powers. These metal-like tendrils, while incredibly tough, were meaningless in the face of the Soul Devourer Sphere.

While the cannon-fodder soul puppets could likely be blocked, the explosion of soul power from the Soul Devourer Sphere was an entirely different matter.

Suddenly, the soul power inside the Soul Devourer Sphere began to gather at an alarming rate. The originally dark purple glow of the orb shifted, and a deep, mysterious violet light began to flicker inside.

In no time, the violet light grew even deeper, as ethereal, dreamlike specks of light shimmered and pulsed within it.

"Break for me!"

With a mental command, all of the gathered soul power erupted in unison, transforming into a deep purple pillar of light, shooting straight toward the prison above!

The pillar of light couldn't be seen with the naked eye, but the moment it was unleashed, it sent a chill down the spine of everyone around, their souls quivering in fear.

Even Sterl, the owner of the Soul Devourer Sphere, felt a shiver run through his heart, as if facing an overwhelming foe. His instincts told him that if this soul-shattering blow hit him, even with his soul level at 75, it could still shatter his soul and cause his demise.

Of course, this wasn't the result of the 3,000 points of regular soul power, but the infusion of advanced soul power hidden within it—like a soul-harvesting machine.

In the next instant, the soul-shattering impact from the Soul Devourer Sphere slammed into the prison above.

From the perspective of the soul plane, the thick soul barrier instantly shattered!

It was like butter meeting a searing laser, rapidly dissolving at a visible rate.