Venturing into the Old Continent and the Sequence 0 Horde

Not long after Rosen's battle with Feast King ended, the other fights across the battlefield gradually came to a halt as well. After all, now that Rosen had defeated Feast King, he was free to join forces with others and take down the remaining opponents one by one. It was only a matter of time before the rest were overwhelmed. Since this wasn't a life-or-death battle, reaching this point was enough. If things escalated any further and someone truly developed killing intent, it would be ridiculous for their own team to suffer casualties before even stepping foot into the Old Continent.

"King, you won~!" Queen cheered as she clung to Rosen's arm, her voice filled with admiration.

"Are you sick?" Rosen turned to look at her.

"I have a terminal case of admiration for strength. This time, I'm playing the role of a lovestruck fool," Queen replied without a hint of shame, nodding as if she were stating a simple fact.

"There's someone stronger than me right outside," Rosen said helplessly.

"Too old," Queen answered without hesitation.

"Let's hope you don't regret fixating on me," Rosen warned her one last time.

Seeing that Queen had no intention of letting go, he didn't bother resisting and simply pulled her along as he approached the rest of their teammates, who were gradually making their way over.

Rosen himself possessed the Role-Playing Skill, making him quite knowledgeable about the Actor Sequence.

A high-level Actor was a transcendent path devoid of love—because one could never truly tell whether an Actor was being genuine or merely playing a role. Their entire progression depended on perfecting various personas, earning recognition for them, and ultimately detaching from each role once it had served its purpose. That was the growth process unique to the Actor Sequence.

Iris had already reached the peak of Sequence 1. Among all five of his teammates, she was the one who gave him the strongest sense of threat.

If she had set her sights on him this time, it was highly likely that she had chosen him as the leading man for her final performance—the one that would allow her to ascend to Sequence 0.

Now that the battles had concluded, Rosen's teammates had a noticeably different attitude toward him.

As long as his commands weren't completely absurd, they wouldn't refuse to follow his lead during their upcoming mission.

One after another, the seventeen teams finished their fights within the War Domain. Without exception, all seventeen Taboo Sequence demigods emerged victorious.

The once-proud Titled Demigods had now personally experienced what it was like to face monsters far more terrifying than themselves—even though they were of the same rank.

After the banquet, Rosen stayed in Barry's Lord's Castle for two more days.

During this time, he familiarized himself with most of the other demigods.

On the morning of the third day, Barry gathered all the demigods at the castle gates. He distributed a replica of the Torch of Hope to each of them, with quality reaching as high as Sequence 1. These replicas were capable of carrying a greater portion of the Torch's power.

Rosen clearly noticed that the original Torch of Hope, the one at True God level in the Old-Day Encampment, had become significantly weakened.

No wonder all the ordinary demigods had been sent away earlier.

The Torch of Hope had drained too much of its power—it could no longer protect the Old-Day Encampment.

Without revealing any mission details, Barry directly led all the demigods out of the Old-Day Encampment.

The reason for withholding information had already been explained in advance—how to slay the dying Great True God was not something Rosen and the others needed to worry about. As for their role in reinforcing the seal, it could not be disclosed ahead of time. The moment such information was spoken aloud, there was a risk that the Will of the World would become aware of it.

Thus, Barry would only explain how to reinforce the seal at the very last moment.

After leaving the encampment, Barry took out a True God-grade domain-type transcendent artifact and unfolded a Law Domain imbued with the Law of Concealment, masking the movements of all demigods as they advanced in a direct line toward the head of the slumbering Great True God in the heart of the Old Continent.

For over two months, they continued their journey without incident. Then, one day, their traveling speed suddenly slowed.

By this point, the pressure of divine power had grown terrifying—so much so that even Titled Demigods instinctively felt an overwhelming, suffocating fear.

Under such oppressive divine might, even the effectiveness of the Law of Concealment Domain had significantly weakened.

A few days later, they began encountering Ashen Creatures blocking their path.

At first, they were only Sequence 3 beings. By all logic, such creatures should have been completely incapable of seeing through the concealment of a True God-level Law Domain. Even if someone stepped directly on their heads, they should not have been able to sense anything.

But now—it was as if the Law of Concealment had completely failed.

More and more Ashen Creatures appeared ahead, and their Sequence levels continued to rise.

Their already slowed pace grew even more sluggish. Finally, when a Sequence 1 Ashen Creature blocked the way, Barry—who had been leading the group in stealth—came to a halt and began assigning tasks to the team leaders.

"You, carve a path straight through in this direction. Make as much noise as possible…"

"If Titled Demigods are severely wounded and unable to fight, they may use the Torch of Hope to retreat to the Old-Day Encampment…"

"Taboo Sequences cannot retreat easily. You must reach this coordinate and plant your Torch of Hope on the corpse of a Sequence 0 Ashen Creature. Only if you encounter a True God-level Ashen Creature can you use the Torch of Hope to withdraw…"

Rosen received the coordinates assigned to his team and immediately broke away from the main force, heading toward their designated target.

Even with the Ashen Shroud covering the area, White King's perception remained terrifyingly sharp.

She could almost completely navigate around most of the Ashen Creatures blocking their path. Although these creatures had been commanded to form layered defenses, their instructions were not being updated in real time. They were simply acting on pre-issued commands, following a rigid pattern.

As long as they weren't surrounded, the Ashen Creatures posed no true threat along the way.

Within a few hours, Rosen's team had already carved a bloody path spanning over ten thousand miles.

Suddenly, Rosen stopped moving. His teammates, puzzled, also came to a halt.

"You noticed something?" White King, the team's best sensor, asked.

"My fate-based perception skill is giving me a bad feeling," Rosen replied, expanding his divine territory and beginning to construct defensive lines.

White King's perception was strong—but it was still inferior to his Ashen Eye.

He had noticed long ago that intelligent Pioneer Explorers were blocking the way ahead.

And this time, they weren't just Sequence 1.

A Sequence 0 Doctor stood in their path.

By all logic, reaching Sequence 0 meant that one had reached the absolute peak of that transcendent path. True Gods were unique—each one had to forge their own way to ascend. There were no pre-existing roads to follow.

A Sequence 0 Pioneer Explorer could only exist for one reason—a failed True God ascension had resulted in an aberrant transformation of their transcendent essence.

Rosen had already noticed that a Pioneer Explorer was gathering countless Ashen Creatures, preparing them for battle. However, he couldn't warn his teammates too early—there was no way to explain how his perception was so powerful. He had no choice but to wait until they got closer before issuing a limited warning.

Though his teammates were somewhat skeptical of his warning, all five still expanded their divine territories.

A total of six layers of divine domains overlapped, actively reinforcing one another.

Moving forward cautiously, their divine domains advanced alongside them.

Finally, White King detected the enemy hidden within the Ashen veil. Almost at the same moment she perceived them, the Sequence 0 Doctor also noticed White King. The countless Ashen Creatures, which had been lying dormant in silence, surged forward like a tidal wave, charging toward Rosen and his team.

Rosen didn't deploy any additional troops—only Shadow Demons, Metal Slimes, and War Treants. Even so, the Ashen Creatures that approached their divine domains were obliterated in waves. Of course, this was largely because the Ashen creatures leading the charge were of low Sequence levels. Against them, anything below Sequence 3 wasn't even capable of draining their energy.

But in the next moment, Rosen noticed something was wrong—the fallen Ashen creatures were vanishing too cleanly.

Their corpses crumbled directly into ash, leaving nothing behind.

The transcendent essence within them—completely gone, without a trace.

Rosen discreetly used his Ashen Eye to observe the Doctor who had retreated hundreds of miles away. He saw clusters of black flesh tumors constantly appearing around the Doctor. Within his domain, countless black tumors were merging and reshaping at will, gradually forming a massive flesh abomination.

Rosen immediately sought out Black King, using the excuse of sending his Self-Portrait Clone to scout ahead. Then, he told Black King everything he had seen.

Although Black King wasn't a Doctor, his father was the only True God of the Doctor Sequence.

As the divine offspring of a Doctor Sequence True God, Black King was bound to have valuable insights.

"I think I know who our enemy is…" Black King said after a brief moment of contemplation. "After the True God of the Doctor Sequence was born, other Sequence 0 Doctors could only progress by researching other laws and forging new paths. One of the missing Sequence 0 Doctors had chosen the life modification route.

"What you're looking at should be the Swarm—a terrifying fusion-based lifeform…"

Through Black King's explanation, Rosen learned just how dangerous the Swarm was.

Some within the Doctor Sequence believed that life itself was flawed—an incomplete creation.

For example, take humanity. The human genetic code contained too many useless "junk genes". These junk genes restricted physical potential. For a species as a whole, weakened bloodlines might increase reproductive ability, but for an individual, excess junk genes were nothing but a burden.

The Swarm was originally designed to eliminate junk genes and incorporate only superior genetic traits.

By using group-based superior genes to replace individual genetic flaws, the goal was to create a being with a perfectly optimized body.

If a lifeform was composed entirely of high-quality genes, then its physical capabilities would reach unimaginable heights.

However, when the Swarm was created, its genetic structure collapsed and mutated uncontrollably.

The reason?

Because its spiritual essence was insufficient to control a perfect body made entirely of superior genes.

Later research revealed that the so-called "junk genes" were not actually useless.

They all contained hidden intrinsic value.

A being's spiritual essence was not limited to the depths of the soul or consciousness—it also existed within the very fabric of its genetic material. However, this latent spirituality was incredibly difficult for intelligent beings to detect.

In other words—

The essence of life, originating from the body, and the essence of spirituality were inherently connected.

Rosen's Heart of the Old God could freely convert between the two types of essence precisely because of this inherent connection. The manifested spirituality within the soul and the latent spirituality within the body—these two spiritual forces determined the strength of a being's soul and physique.

There was an upper limit to this strength. With humanity's innate latent spirituality, it was simply impossible to control the Swarm's monstrous body. And compared to manifested spirituality, latent spirituality was far more difficult to enhance.

This was precisely why, in the current era, spirituality took precedence while the body was secondary. The transcendent resources that once aided in strengthening the body's latent spirituality had long been exhausted over the course of history.

Although the Swarm Project ultimately failed, it left behind invaluable research results.

The most significant of these was none other than the ability to fuse genetic sequences from various transcendent beings—an ability that gourmets later acquired and perfected.

Ironically, the greatest beneficiary of the Swarm Project's failure was not the Doctor Sequence, but the Gourmet Sequence.

Of course, not everyone in the Doctor Sequence was willing to accept this outcome. The Sequence 0 Doctor who had originally led the Swarm Project ultimately decided to collect countless superior genetic samples and implant them into his own body, using himself as an experiment. He had hoped that, with the power of his Sequence 0 divinity, he could forcefully control the Swarm's body.

Naturally, he failed.

Not only that, but even his own transcendent essence—his divinity—became irreversibly corrupted and warped at the law level.

Even Black King had assumed this Doctor was long dead. Yet, against all odds, he had somehow resurfaced in the Old Continent.

Now that Rosen understood their opponent's background, he began analyzing the Swarm's weaknesses.

The battlefield itself provided clear clues—the life essence of every slain Ashen Creature had completely vanished.

Those black flesh tumors—they weren't just biomass. They were the very essence of life itself, extracted from the Ashen Creatures.

The Swarm, born from the fusion of countless such tumors, was undoubtedly a Sequence 0-tier transcendent lifeform.

Although its latent spirituality was too weak and chaotic to fully stabilize, meaning it would inevitably mutate and collapse, its sheer destructive power before death could rival that of a god.

Black King quickly engineered a specialized genetic virus designed to accelerate the Swarm's genetic breakdown.

Rosen took the virus, sealed it inside a transcendent bullet, and transformed Dragon God's Wrath into a sniper rifle. Locking onto the Swarm from a distance, he fired a single shot—the bullet crossing hundreds of miles in an instant before striking its target.

The moment it landed, visible cracks spread across the Swarm's monstrous body.

Standing nearby, the Doctor—his entire body wrapped in heavy layers of cloth—immediately realized that his creation had been compromised.

Without hesitation, he ripped off his clothing, revealing a body completely covered in writhing black tumors. Under normal circumstances, a body in such a grotesquely mutated state should have long collapsed. Yet, under the influence of some unknown force, it maintained a precarious, eerie equilibrium.

The tumors covering the Swarm's massive body suddenly began violently converging, merging with the tumors on the Doctor himself.

In that instant, the mad doctor transformed his own body into the core of a second Swarm.

Rosen fired multiple rounds, attempting to repeat the process and break down the newly forming Swarm. However, every bullet was intercepted by countless scalpels spiraling through the air, deflecting the shots before they could reach their target.

Realizing that stopping the Swarm's creation was no longer possible, they could only reinforce their defenses and prepare to withstand its assault.

As long as they held out long enough, the Swarm—an inherently unstable genetic monstrosity—would eventually self-destruct.

Rosen had also considered striking preemptively, attacking before the two Swarms could fully merge.

But in the end, he decided against it.

They needed a Sequence 0 Ashen Creature's corpse to complete their mission—after which they would proceed to the designated coordinates and plant the Torch of Hope on its body.

The real challenge wasn't killing a Sequence 0 enemy.

It was preserving the corpse.

For a Sequence 0 being, self-destruction in a desperate situation was far too easy.

The best approach was to let the Doctor absorb the black tumors and fully merge with the Swarm, allowing him to use his powerful divinity to suppress his body's collapse. They would engage him in a battle of attrition—slowly wearing him down until he became so weak that even if he wanted to self-destruct, he wouldn't be able to.

Several hours later, the Swarm—born from the Doctor—was finally complete.

The grotesque mass of writhing black tumors had disappeared, replaced by a flawless humanoid giant. Every gene in its body was of the highest quality, and its full potential had been completely unleashed. From the outside, it looked absolutely perfect, without a single flaw or weakness.

With a single sprint, the Swarm instantly crossed hundreds of miles and slammed into their divine domains.

The moment of impact, its surface underwent rapid genetic restructuring, forming the hardest carapace at the point of collision.

In a flash, all the divine domains—except Rosen's—were nearly shattered. Before they could even recover, the Swarm's unstoppable fists tore through the barriers as if breaking through the very walls of reality itself.

Breaking into the divine domain, the Swarm charged straight toward the Lord's Castle at the heart of the territory.

But in that instant—it vanished.

Rosen had dragged it into the Shadow Abyss, constructed from his Demon Nest.

The Swarm remained trapped for a full half-hour before finally breaking free—only to be instantly sealed again, this time within the Golden Sand Desert, formed by the Mummy Pyramid.

By the time it fought its way out, Black King and the others had already fully restored their divine domains.

With six overlapping divine domains, they finally managed to suppress the Swarm together.

The Swarm's destructive power was terrifying, and its defense was even more formidable.

In every aspect, it surpassed Feast King's transformations. However, compared to Feast King, its stability was nonexistent.

As the battle dragged on, Rosen gradually realized something—this Swarm was nothing more than a cheap, defective imitation of his Ancient God Bloodline's World Gene Vault. If he were to ascend to Sequence 0, his Ancient God Physique would easily crush this inferior counterfeit.

But at this moment, for them, a flawless Swarm with no apparent weaknesses was still incredibly difficult to defeat.

Several hours passed, and then—suddenly—the Swarm turned and fled.

The Doctor Pioneer had finally understood—his Swarm's power was insufficient to deal with these demigods.

If he continued maintaining its form, his barely stabilized genetic structure would collapse entirely.

But just as the Swarm prepared to retreat—a streak of light shot out from the depths of the void.

The beam struck the Swarm instantly, and in that moment—its unstable body suddenly stabilized.

Not only that, but its power surged tenfold in an instant.

With a single punch, Black King's divine domain was shattered.

A few more strikes, and—aside from Rosen's—all the divine domains had been utterly destroyed.

Realizing that something was seriously wrong, Rosen immediately withdrew his divine domain, preparing for a temporary retreat to avoid its overwhelming power.

But in the very next second—the Swarm's entire body began to swell, expanding like a terrifying bomb of writhing flesh—

And then—it detonated.

Rosen reacted instantly, pulling Black King and the others into the Shadow Abyss.

At the same time, he deployed Elemental Barriers from Ashen Fortress and fused countless Metal Slimes, rapidly forming a metallic shield to cover the fortress under accelerated time.

The devastating explosion lasted only a moment—

But it obliterated four of the nine layers of divine space in an instant.

Just moments ago, the Swarm had been retreating—

Then, out of nowhere, it received a sudden power boost, only to immediately self-destruct.

Something was clearly wrong.

Rosen's first thought—the Will of the World had silently intervened.

The Will of the World knew they needed a Sequence 0 Ashen Creature's corpse, so it had simply destroyed it outright—leaving them with nothing.

Still, at the very least, the Swarm was dead.

They were still far from the designated coordinates.

Next time they encountered a Sequence 0 enemy, they would have to lure the battle into an area beyond the Will of the World's influence.

And before their opponent could self-destruct, they would need to unleash every means possible to secure an instant kill.

Only then could they preserve the body—and complete Barry's mission.

(End of Chapter)