Volume 5 Chapter 0130 Ring of Order - I, The Dragon Overlord

At that moment, the life of the Devil reached its inevitable end, and millions of years of planning crumbled like a fleeting dream. Unlike His usual display of twisted madness, Asmodeus found an eerie sense of calm in this final moment. Throughout His million-year existence, He had rarely made significant errors. This meticulous caution allowed Him to hide His true power and intentions in front of the gods, secretly stealing the power of the Serpent of Order and imbuing the Nine Hells with the force of order, thus achieving a virtual divinity strength of 20. His single error in those million years, the very mistake that led to His downfall, was due to a moment of unchecked pride. As He was on the brink of success, He couldn't resist revealing His intentions and plans to Louie, the Dragon God. This revelation brought about His inevitable demise. Had He not shared His plan with Louie in Nessus, had He not divulged His intent to exploit the opposition of good and evil to tear Louie’s force of order, perhaps, even as Asmodeus triumphed, Louie would have remained oblivious to this devil's cunning plot, facing his end in ignorance. Despite enduring a million-year wait, this devil failed to hold back at the last moment. Perhaps it was the hatred and fury of being constrained despite holding power surpassing any true god, that prevented Him from persevering. Asmodeus's fate served as a cautionary tale for others: even when the odds appear infinitely close to success, one must not relax until the victory is secured. Celebrations and pride should only be unleashed once success is assured. The Lord of Devils felt deep regret, but there is no regret remedy for anyone, not even a god, let alone a devil. In His final moments, Asmodeus was determined to make the gods suffer, to let those who had oppressed Him for millions of years taste despair and agony. The Lord of Hell forcibly tore open the plane boundary between the Ninth Layer of Nessus and the Material Plane. Despite their formidable power within the lower planes, devils from Hell and demons from the Abyss found it hard to breach into the Material Plane due to its restrictive rules. Hence, some Abyss and devil lords sought to gain followers in the Material Plane and utilized sacrificial rituals to project their avatars there so that powerful devils and demons could operate within it. Being entities of lower plane evil, they wield complete power only in their domains. Asmodeus understood well that even with a virtual divinity strength of 20, leaving Nessus, leaving Baator, would quickly decrease this power, reducing Him to a mere powerful devil. Yet, this power wouldn't vanish instantly. The power of Baator would slowly drain from Asmodeus, and by seizing that time buffer, this virtual divinity 20 devil could obliterate the Material Plane, causing the demise of most gods with Him. Asmodeus planned and acted accordingly. As He tore open the planar boundary with His claws, the gods instantly realized His intention. The gods, suddenly anxious and spurred by Louie's urgings, knew that even if Louie was exploiting them, sacrificing all their avatars was a better outcome than facing possible annihilation. In an instant, the gods unanimously began transforming their avatars into pure divine power. Over a hundred deities, hundreds of avatars, shed their physical constraints, liberating their divinity, allowing their concentrated divine power to explode outward. In mere moments, the massive ocean of divine power engulfed the entire Ninth Layer of Hell. This ocean of divine power, created by all the gods' avatars, was unstoppable except by a supreme god wielding limitless primordial power. No being or matter of this world could withstand this unified attack of the gods. This overwhelming divine ocean quickly inundated Nessus, spilling over into the Eighth and Seventh Layers, and eventually enveloped all of Baator, with excess divine power spilling into neighboring planes. Suddenly, legendary beings across various planes sensed the terrifying rush of divine power, feeling the presence of numerous gods hovering above the realms and all life within. Yet, this ocean of divine power, at the cost of all avatars, wasn't aimed at killing Asmodeus. With all avatars converted into pure divine energy, the gods unanimously blended this pure fountain of divine power, encasing the entire Ninth Layer of Nessus within layers and layers of godly power, forming a giant cocoon that severed its connection from Baator and the Material Plane. Louie recognized it wasn't the time for Him to just spectate. Even if the Material Plane's destruction would cause Him no harm, the annihilation of the world was Louie's last resort. Given the chance to eliminate Asmodeus with minimal losses, Louie couldn't let the Material Plane perish. Aside from the presence of His bloodline descendants like Alexia in the Material Plane, having the world of San Soliel turn into a void would leave Louie, sovereign over a desolate world, a bit too idle. Although Louie could potentially wield the power of creation in such circumstances, recreating a world from scratch is never as sentimental as a world He's familiar with. Resolute, Louie dispatched all His avatars, infusing them with all His divine power to claim the highest vantage of the plane. Then, with extraordinary divine power, He opened a massive portal big enough to accommodate whole layers of planes. This portal, nearly half the size of the Earth, connected the Astral Plane and Hell, opening a path to the void of stars. To allow the immense divine power's passage, Louie even reinforced the gateway with His divine force. Simultaneously, the gods intensified their efforts. The enormous divine cocoon split open the infernal plane's boundary, carrying the entire Ninth Layer, Nessus, forward. That continent of millions of square kilometers roared as it passed through the portal forcibly opened by Louie, plunging into the Astral Plane. The Astral Plane, the ideological realm of the San Soliel world, is vast and boundless like the universe, lacking concepts of size or distance. Even pouring all the material and energy planes of the San Soliel world into it wouldn't fill the Astral Plane by a billionth. As Nessus was separated from Baator and entered the Astral Plane, Asmodeus's suicidal explosion was finally triggered. This Lord of Hell loaded his body with as much primal force of order as He could endure, igniting His virtual divinity and detonating the entire layer of Nessus. Gods with a divinity of 18 once destroyed the Terran civilization with a sacrificial curse. A 20 divinity virtual demon, choosing self-annihilation, wielded power sufficing to shatter an entire world. "Boom—" Countless flashes of orderly light, hellfire, and negative energy swept across the Astral Plane. Everything in the blast wave was obliterated in an instant. Unfortunate Astral explorers found their souls annihilated before realizing what happened. Even the tombstones of ancient deities turned to dust under this world-ending force. Even the boundless Astral Plane shuddered and split. The very Pantheon was forcibly pulled into the Astral void, exposing a section of itself. However, despite Asmodeus’s virtual divinity being powerful, it failed to breach the threshold to become a supreme god. His self-sacrificial power possibly could annihilate all material worlds but couldn’t collapse the cosmic void. Ultimately, the Astral's infinite thought force swallowed the vestiges of Asmodeus's self-destruction, allowing another monumental tombstone of a devil king to emerge in the void. The cocoon formed by the combined divine avatars dissipated into smoke under Asmodeus's self-annihilation, while the gateway Louie opened to the Astral Plane vanished along with His crumbling avatars. Asmodeus, at the expense of His life, nearly eradicated all the divine avatars. This accomplishment seemed grand but bore no significant loss for the gods. Given a hundred years, the gods would restore their full power through faith. Such is the nature of the gods. They are the true order and rulers of the world of San Soliel. With Asmodeus's demise, the part of the evil order force He controlled lost its master. At the beginning of time, at the world's end, an unconscious Serpent of Order reappeared, occupying half of the universe's order force. Then, at the dawn of time, at the world's ending location, another Serpent of Order emerged, biting the tail of the former, forming a perfect 'Circle of Order'!