153] – [Madness]

Opening a wooden door, Elder Rong entered the room.

There he saw Alexander, standing up. The armrest of the chair was left in splinters, a duality showing itself.

"What happened here?" Staring at him, he saw Alexander's aura form a pillar of silver and black.

"What maliciousness! This feeling of dread and despair…"

"Heart Demon!!"

He only believed there to have been the Eye of Heaven and nothing else. He should have known better. After all, how could the Eye of Heaven even intervene without something like this? Alexander was not stupid, unless something so big happened, he would have never angered the Heavens.

"Stop there!" Raising his hand, Elder Rong forced a dominant pressure to bear down on him. The tiled floor cracked while Alexander was forced to bend. His ankles creaked, his knees bending more and more.

But he would not back down. The fog in his eyes was gone, and so was the one in his heart. However, the darkness now invaded his mind.

The only sane place left within him was his body. Yet, even it began to shift. Black veins of exhausted lifespan popping out, now filled with a pure black liquid.

The white of his eyes became darker and darker, soon filled with the same darkness. His skin changed, tainted by his inner despair, attempting to use his flesh as a proxy to vent.

'This isn't good!' Panicking a bit, Elder Rong sent a giant hand of silver to try and grab a hold of him.

"Don't you dare escape from me!!"

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Inside the Multiverse, Aurora was patiently resting on a deckchair, deaf to the screams of dozens of powerful entities.

Opening her eyes, a strange feeling of doom descended upon not only her, but the entire world.

The void felt darker somehow, the worlds gloomier. The Heavens blinked in a green luster. The energies felt chaotic, unbound by the rules of this dimension.

She felt sick. The entire world she found so beautiful, on the verge of collapse. A demonic aura permeated the air, a stench of despair and suffering.

"No!"

Howls aimed at the void, the Multiverse shed tears.

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"Stop!!!" A giant hand of silver light clutching Alexander, he tightened the grip. He caused his bones to creak, his skin to tear.

"I won't let you go mad like this! We are in this together! As a teacher, a mentor, I can't accept such a defeat!"

A black goo covering Alexander, he screamed inside the palm, contorting his body unnaturally.

"Wake up damn it!"

"Help!!!" Shouting to the sect, Elder Rong hoped to rally the sect master and some elders. His Dao of Supremacy could not fully work against another of its kind, and with the madness his disciple was filled with, the calls of the underworld attempted to free him.

'If not for the Vessel of Heaven! The injuries I got..! I still can't expel their remnant energies!'

"What's going on?!" A middle aged man of black robes overlooking everything from the sky, he saw Elder Rong's abode in mayhem. The ceiling of a room had been torn apart, sent flying to the side.

"Sect master! Help me contain him! His Heart Demon got the better of him!"

Baffled by the revelation, Ivan did not waste time. A black cage of energy forming, it fell down on Alexander. It caused the floor to crack as said floor suddenly exploded, another cage formed underneath, now unveiled.

"We will seal him in the sect's dungeon! I'll take care of this, go prepare a secure cell!" Sending orders, Ivan saw Elder Rong run in direction of the sect's center.

"…" Worried, he felt his cages be struck by powerful blows without stop.

'Are you telling me this is the strength of someone below the Calamity Enduring Realm? Stop playing jokes on me!'

'But even if your strength rises, I am no weakling either! As a sect master, it is my duty to help the younger generation!' Pressing his palm downward, a black mist formed above Alexander, suddenly pushing down with high momentum.

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Screeches of a demon echoed across the sect. Alexander's loud shouts dispersed the faint clouds, causing the earth to vibrate.

"It doesn't matter if you scream! You can't escape from custody!" The dark mist enveloping him, Alexander began to lose strength. His agitated blows lessened, the demonic aura he emanated soon suppressed.

Forming a sphere with the mist, Ivan forcefully entrapped Alexander, now levitating near him.

"Let's go to the sect's dungeon. No, let's go there."

Sighing, he muttered a few words under his breath.

"I swear the Heavens never clean their mess…" Feeling the prying eyes of the all mighty, he decided to shut his mouth

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After a few days, deep inside a strange dungeon.

Alexander was left haggard, imprisoned thousands of kilometers underground. He was crucified hundreds of meters high on a large, smooth and dark metallic slate, cracks formed almost everywhere as the metallic stakes on him were numerous. Each stake had strange engravings on them, sometimes shining a bright golden color.

His formerly vigorous muscles were now drained of life, as if he had turned into a mummy. The glow in his eyes was faint.

His robes were torn, exposing the dozens of stakes piercing his flesh, muscles and bones. Dried blood tainted the floor beneath.

Three giant statues of intimidating auras were placed on each side.

And, far away, near the exit, both Elder Rong and Ivan Lugoff. Small beings when compared with the humongous room of metal they were in.

"For now we wait until Elder Sophia can concoct a cure of sorts."

"I don't really have my hopes on such a method." Shaking his head, Elder Rong dismissed the idea. What point was there in this? He had already lost to his Heart Demon. The chances of him recovering were quite slim.

'If we had a sage… never mind. Even a sage might not be able to deal with it…'

"For now, we must wait. We can only wait."

Leaving him behind, the door closed with a loud bang, sealing Alexander. Runes and arrays flickered with gold, the same way as the engravings, a deep power keeping his demonic nature at bay.

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Unfortunately, even after hundreds of thousands of years, no cure was found. To please Elder Rong, the sect decided to keep Alexander instead of killing him off.

Since this meeting deciding his fate, years flourished and withered. The breeze of the outside world was locked away from him, sealed for eternity in darkness.

People cultivated for billions of years, some escaped their wives and went drinking with friends for a few years straight. Others slept for multiple the amount of a mortal's lifespan.

Cultivators were being themselves, busy with life, enjoying their fate.

These disciples and low ranking elders, all growing and perishing, suffering downs while living during the ups. None of them could imagine a demonized man to have been sealed right under their very feet.

The earth they used as a foundation was hiding a darkness they could not handle, a putrid despair they never wanted to be near.

Deep down, beneath the layers of the earth, a metallic room spanning hundreds upon hundreds of meters in size was still as peaceful as ever.

His body was still as thin, almost lifeless, when his mind was already lost in the river of time.

The waves attempted to crash onto him, but he was a lonely figure. He sat cross-legged in the middle of it, a large dark lotus pushing the water away. With one wave of the hand, the river parted. With one thought, the waves ceased.

Unbeknown to countless, Alexander silently broke through to the Law Immortal Realm's peak.

His cultivation journey was yet to be over with. His rampant inner despair contending with his innate supremacy.

He became a block of ice, unwilling to let anything graze his sublimity.

Inside the sect world, locked away from the outside land, a crucified body never truly changed. He looked the same, be it now or during the last thousands of years.

Yet his domain never stopped growing. A silver eye contrasting with a black one. A strange pattern forming on his forehead. Intertwining lines of silver and black.

His freezing gaze still lost, mindlessly staring at the floor far beneath. His impaled feet and legs in full view.

It was still unknown to them when a strange cloud formed above his head. Rumblings of chaos, echoes of bells, thunderous roars of calamity ready to strike down.

Silently, away from the world… one man against the Heavens.

Through the eons, countless lightning bolts illuminated the strange metallic area with blue. Sparks flew, flesh was torn, bones reduced to dust. Piece by piece, very slowly and meticulously.

A man's body was being tempered through the calamities of the world. The stakes never to leave him, bound by soul.

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Inside of him, the mayhem had turned into futility. The determination of countless beings within him withered. Hopes and delusions leaving imprints in history.

The eras passed like some fleeting dreams. Any mark from them never lasting inside the minds of others.

A certain guardian was nowhere to be found, said to have hid themselves as there laid no more purposes for them. What work could a guardian of ascendency have, when said ascendency was closed off?

In the Celestial Realm, far above the clouds, past the blue of the sky, deep into the freezing and oppressive space near the Heavens. Three beings discussed.

"Fellow enlightened, why did your son steal your servant's tea last time?" A bald man of fluttering robes asked. Staring nonchalantly at a middle aged man of black and white beard. His hair the same, he looked back at the bald man with annoyance.

"Is this how low we have stooped? Now, we talk about our descendants doing random stuff?! Get a grip god damn it!"

"Calm down." An elegant woman, currently playing around with a zither, left behind words of peace. Her melody carried a profound Dao, chilling the body while massaging the mind.

"How can I calm down?! Since the gates of ascendency were closed off two million years ago, our cultivation world has declined! People get discouraged, thinking that some bastard immortals beyond the gates tempered with our future! And now this clown is talking about my son stealing tea from a mere servant… What is going on with you by the way? Why do you care what my son does? That wasn't even your servant!"

As they kept arguing, a sudden burst of aura shut them down.

"What's going on? What was th-urh!"

Wincing in pain, a powerful pressure bore down on all of them. Following their plight, a freezing ceiling of ice formed above their heads. The ice relieved the pressure, letting them escape a potential death. A calm and feminine voice then resounded in their minds.

"Gather all peak experts of the Celestial Realm! I, the guardian of ascendency, orders you all to comply. You must lead all experts above the Life Refining Realm in here before a hundred years. At that time, we will try and forcefully open the gates of ascendency!"

Surprised by the scene, these experts still heard everything clearly. Without knowing it, they all showed a bright smile.

Bowing deeply, they gracefully replied.

"Yes!!"

Seeing them fly down, said guardian was caressing her silver hair with majesty.

'You fools. This queen is not about to let you ascend. I only need to do this, then I maybe will manage to save this world.' A plan carefully crafted, causing her to flutter, Aurora decided to try her best and repair the world, preventing the doom from falling on their heads.