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

Barbatos slightly lowered its body, and Sterl jumped down from its head.

The Abyss of Eternity was a place he absolutely had to visit. Whether it was to completely subdue this batch of Nightmare elites or to find a way to break free from the Eternal Light World, it was a necessary path.

Turning around, he looked at the Nightmare elites who followed him.

Upon feeling his gaze, everyone lowered their heads. The ten Marshals appeared especially anxious and fearful.

Sterl coldly snorted inwardly. These Marshals and even the lords were all a bunch of old schemers. They definitely knew his true identity.

However, it seemed they had already tacitly accepted his presence, but this was based on the understanding that Sterl could help them escape from their prison.

And as for how to break through the barrier of the Eternal Light, it seemed that entering the Abyss of Eternity was necessary. Otherwise, these people would surely try to persuade him in every possible way.

In a sense, this was also a trial. If Sterl could succeed, the ten Marshals would undoubtedly support him wholeheartedly and solidify his position. This was an unspoken agreement.

"Warlord, we await your favorable news," Walker said, kneeling on one knee. His two soul fires flickered slightly, fixed on Sterl with unwavering focus.

The other Marshals did the same, and soon, everyone had knelt, creating a sea of dark figures. They appeared extremely loyal, but in reality, each one was hiding their own motives.

Sterl paid no attention to this. He turned around, a barely perceptible smile curling on his lips.

To deal with these villains, as long as his strength was strong enough, their schemes would never be able to backfire on him.

As for loyalty? Sterl didn't need loyalty. What he needed was for these people to be powerful enough. Only with strong hounds could he hunt even greater prey. Without enough strength, no amount of loyalty mattered.

Take the Legion of Hell, for example. Under the influence of the followers' marks, they had essentially become completely obedient to him, almost worshiping him as a god.

Yet, when the Orichalcum Kingdom attacked, the massive Legion of Hell was crippled with a single encounter.

If the Legion of Hell were replaced by this Nightmare army, Sterl was certain the three powerful deities from the lower realm would be surrounded and killed, without even the chance to escape. He wouldn't even need to lift a finger.

Thus, he simply decided to play along. Once his prestige in the Nightmare Legion was restored, no matter what schemes these Marshals might have, they would not be able to shake his position. In fact, they would end up as his pawns.

With a slight movement of his thoughts, a barrier of vitality appeared around his body, and he then began walking towards the pitch-black vortex.

Whoosh!

A sudden sense of weightlessness hit him, as though he were falling from one planet to another.

However, this slight discomfort was easily ignored by his physique.

The so-called Abyss of Eternity seemed mysterious at first, but in reality, it was simply a small world created below the fifth level of Abyssal Prison.

This Black Hole was the passageway leading into that small world.

Before long, the darkness in front of him faded, revealing a desolate and scorched earth, as though it had been charred in some great fire.

Walking on this land, an icy coldness surged in his chest, akin to walking through Frozen Purgatory.

Sterl quickly realized that the temperature here wasn't low; rather, the land itself contained a force capable of freezing souls. The further one walked, the stronger the freezing effect became. If a soul wasn't strong enough, after walking a few hundred meters, the freezing would cause the individual to lose consciousness.

The only way to avoid the freezing of the soul was to remain still. As long as one didn't move, the freezing power wouldn't intensify.

Compared to the fifth level of Abyssal Prison, this place could truly be considered a forbidden zone for living beings. No wonder Walker and the others were unwilling to enter. Even though their power reached the lower limits of powerful deities, here they could only walk a few thousand meters at most.

Sterl took a few steps, feeling the increasing freezing effect on his soul, but didn't pay it much attention.

Given the strength of his soul, he could easily resist this power. He wasn't just capable of walking a few thousand meters—he could cover hundreds of thousands of meters without losing his ability to move.

Moreover, the space here wasn't as vast as he had imagined. After all, this wasn't a real world; it was the prison that sealed both the War Demon and the Nightmare Overlord.

Maintaining a calm pace, Sterl walked forward. Before long, a towering, pitch-black giant tree appeared before him.

The tree was several hundred meters tall, completely scorched as though it had been burned by flames. What was particularly surprising was that the branches growing from the tree didn't stretch upward but instead gathered towards the ground.

Sterl quickened his pace and soon reached the base of the tree, where a large number of dark, tough branches intertwined, forming a massive prison before the tree trunk.

Upon closer inspection, the branches making up the prison were covered with countless intricate sealing patterns, enhancing the strength of the seals.

In addition to this, several hundred massive black pillars, each standing tens of meters tall, were positioned around the tree. These pillars seemed to be made from the same material as the ones that had imprisoned Barbatos. The pillars surrounded the prison like a great formation, adding another layer of defense to the already nearly impenetrable seal.

Sterl did not approach too closely. He merely sensed the sealing aura emanating from the massive tree and immediately concluded that even if he were imprisoned inside, it would require an enormous cost for him to barely escape.

If his presence became too apparent, there was a strong possibility that it would trigger a change in the seal, forcibly drawing him into it.

This was because, within the prison beneath the giant tree, it was already completely empty, with no figures present. From Sterl's perception, however, there was still a faint aura of Dream Power lingering inside the prison.

But this aura was extremely weak—so weak that if it weren't for his possession of Illusory Dream and his frequent use of Dream Power, he wouldn't have been able to detect any trace of it.

This clearly indicated that the prison had once held the War Demon!

As he had suspected, the War Demon did not break the Abyssal Prison's seal voluntarily. Instead, a crack had suddenly appeared in the world within the prison, sucking the War Demon into it and pulling him into the Origin Space. Later, he was ejected from a hidden cave in the Eternal Light World.

Unfortunately, he was not directly transported to Dreamland, or else he could have escaped the Eternal Light unnoticed.

After glancing at the seal, Sterl chose to go around it. Now that he had taken the War Demon's identity, it would be disastrous if this giant tree detected his presence.

He suppressed his aura to the absolute minimum and wrapped himself in a layer of Dream Power before continuing his journey forward.

After walking several tens of thousands of meters, a massive pit with a diameter of a hundred meters appeared in front of him.

"We've arrived. It's right here."

Before reaching the pit, a dense Power of Nightmares washed over him. If it weren't for his strong will, the mere force emanating from it would have been enough to erode his mind.

When he arrived at the edge of the pit, he saw that the surface of the hundred-meter-wide hole was completely sealed with countless chains and seals, tightly covering the entrance and obscuring whatever lay below.

This wasn't just one layer of seals—it extended all the way to the bottom. Who knew how many layers of seals had been laid down?

Beneath this seal, it was obvious that what was sealed away was none other than the Nightmare Legion's Ruler—also the betrayer of the nightmare realm. Fearing that the War Demon's achievements would overshadow the leader, he had chosen to collaborate with the Dream Spirit Empire, only to end up sealed himself: the Nightmare Overlord.

However, Sterl had a vague feeling that the seal on the Nightmare Overlord wasn't as strong as the one on the War Demon. This indicated that, to the Dream Spirit Empire, the War Demon was seen as the greatest threat.

Sterl's body shuddered slightly, and a trace of his own aura surged within him. With the Dream Orb taking the place of his previous essence, his aura now unmistakably represented the War Demon.

In an instant, the ground trembled, and the sealing chains at the entrance of the pit rattled, as if some fierce beast was about to break free from within.

"Who is it?"

A voice filled with authority echoed from below, accompanied by the unmistakable aura of the Nightmare Overlord seeping out from the seal.

A flicker of surprise passed through Sterl's eyes.

From this aura alone, he could immediately tell that the Nightmare Overlord's strength was immense—no, it could be said to be extraordinarily powerful!

In fact, if the Nightmare Overlord were at full strength, even with his Star-Bone Body activated and combined with Soul Prison's Eerie Eyes, he would not be a match for the Nightmare Overlord.

As the Ruler of the Nightmare Legion, the Nightmare Overlord's combat prowess was undoubtedly the strongest in the entire legion—and even in the entire world.

However, in this world, individual power could not decide everything, and since the Nightmare Overlord's mind was clearly not the sharpest, he had fallen prey to the machinations of the Dream Spirit Empire.

"Oh? This aura…"

"It's War then."

The Nightmare Overlord's voice still carried immense authority and dominance, but to Sterl, it sounded as though the Overlord was desperately trying to maintain composure. There was a trace of surprise and fear mixed in.

Clearly, it was hard for him to believe that the War Demon, who had been sealed by the Ancient Tree of the Abyssal Prison, had somehow managed to escape.

It was important to note that the Nightmare Overlord had betrayed the War Demon and, in league with the Dream Spirit Empire, had trapped him inside the barrier linking the Eternal Light World, effectively sealing him away.

Although the Nightmare Overlord himself had not escaped this fate, he was still the primary architect of the betrayal.

Now, sensing that the War Demon had broken free, the Nightmare Overlord understandably felt a twinge of panic. However, after millennia of silence, his mind began to work rapidly.

He quickly reached a conclusion: the War Demon likely had not realized that the Nightmare Overlord was the one behind everything. After all, the War Demon had been sealed away as well.

Thus, it was highly probable that the War Demon still viewed him as his strongest and most loyal commander. If that were the case, perhaps the Nightmare Overlord could use this opportunity to escape his own seal!