Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 430 Your Professional Qualification Certificate

Solan never imagined that he would one day meet the Demon King in this way.

The prison riots have been over for a long time; the prisoners and guards are gone.

About ten minutes earlier, they had seen a prison guard, soaked in blood and clutching a parchment book, running frantically toward the other end of the prison. Since then, the floor had fallen into a long silence.

Perhaps Qina and the other prisoners who were sacrificed to the watchers have already been killed.

"Can you open this cell?"

he asked.

Deep down, Solan had already accepted the Demon King's invitation. Only after the great undertaking of defeating the Demon King was over was he able to seriously examine this country.

He saw a being a thousand times more evil than the Demon King.

"In your current state, you can't even beat those prison guards. What good would it do to let you out of this cell?"

Melia crossed her arms and stated a cruel truth without hesitation.

They were brought in severely injured and were fitted with shackles and chains specifically designed to deal with superhumans. This is why the guards were so emboldened – no matter what the prisoner’s identity was outside, as long as they wore these specially made instruments of torture, their abilities would be completely locked, and the triggered electric shocks would cause them to fall to the ground and convulse uncontrollably.

Faced with his arch-enemy's mockery, Solan sat cross-legged on the ground and fell silent.

He knew the Demon King was right; the jailers who had just beaten him were not superhumans, but just ordinary people wielding sticks. He could hardly imagine just how terrifying the watcher they feared truly was.

After his battle with Cedric, Soran realized the gap between himself and the true strongmen of this world. He also learned the secret of the prison from the Demon King, a story about the Violet Commune that he had never heard of before.

In his current disheveled state, even if he escapes from the prison, what can he do?

"Hey, you're not the kind of person who gives up so easily."

Seeing Solan fall silent, Melia felt a pang of pity. "You used to be a brave warrior who would get up and charge at me again no matter how many times I knocked you down!"

In her opinion, what was most commendable about Solan was his never-say-die spirit and his cockroach-like physique.

"Demon King, what are your plans?"

Solan took a deep breath and asked.

In the past, he was never the intelligent type in the team. Tactics and plans were mostly formulated by Ilya and Sera. He only needed to act as the strongest shield in battle, blocking attacks for his comrades. Because of this, he never thought that defeating the Demon King was his achievement alone.

Now, however, he doesn't even have a squad anymore, and most of his former comrades have become his enemies.

How did you know I had a plan?

Melia immediately said, "When you were brought in, you should have noticed that this prison was somewhat unusual, right? Don't you think the space inside is more than ten times larger than it appears from the outside?"

She took out a drawn prison map and threw it in front of Solan.

She stole it from the monitor's lounge. It was only because that fat guy suddenly went berserk that she was able to take advantage of the situation and ransack the monitor's quarters on this floor without any hindrance.

"This is……"

"The fourth level, the West District."

"Meria said."

The map is marked with the fat guy's face. "To prevent these mentally unstable freaks from destroying an entire prison floor after going berserk, the warden has reassigned them to different levels... Simply put, this is a blank area between reality and nothingness."

Four layers—that's a rather subtle number.

Whether venturing into deeper levels or escaping from prison, one must traverse half of the prison blocks.

"The method of transferring to the next level is known only to the monitors at each level; they are essentially the managers of that level."

Melia guessed that the order of the monitors at each level was also based on their strength, and the monitor named "Gluttony King" should be at the middle level among the many prison guards.

"I heard the concept of hierarchy from a red-haired woman."

"Redhead!"

Solan blurted out that it was the red-haired lady who covered their escape at the Bloodthorn family's manor, but he never expected that the Crown Prince would bring in the Imperial Army.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but worry about the safety of the other side.

"It seems you know her. That saves me the trouble of introducing you."

Along the way, she developed rather subtle feelings for the other side.

On one hand, the other side shattered her worldview, making her realize that the title of "Demon King" was just an empty name, and that in that world, which was very similar to the Silver Empire, she was nothing.

Forget about destroying the world; he'd be arrested and brought to justice the same afternoon if he committed a crime in the capital.

In that world, there existed terrifying beings far beyond their imagination and comprehension.

The concept of hierarchy, the deepest part of the contaminated area.

The deeper they sank into these areas, the closer they got to those indescribable and terrifying beings.

When Melia asked what existed in the "Void" deepest part of the contaminated area, she received the brief answer, "An evil god."

The other side also mentioned that for those visitors who had not been specially invited by the evil god, their souls and bodies were often twisted into monsters and lost at a certain level before they even arrived at the Void.

That's why, when Melia followed Solan, who had been captured by the Imperial Army, all the way here, she became somewhat excited.

If the entire prison is considered a contaminated area, it means that an "evil god" also exists in their world. Bi'an told her with certainty that only an "evil god" could create this space that exists between reality and nothingness.

"Before you leave this cell, you need to reassess your current level."

Melia proudly showed Solan her recently acquired knowledge, "You're probably at an average level among third-tier transcendents now."

This was information she had coaxed out of the other side through persistent pleading.

The mirror world has a much more refined system for classifying and ranking extraordinary individuals than they do here. In institutions like the Astrology Guild, there are clear "professional skills" exams for each rank from first to fourth. In the reforms recently promoted by Rowena, there have been further subdivisions within the same rank, as well as the spell domains that each magician is proficient in, in order to more accurately assess the value of each magician.

In contrast, their job placement system is fragmented and lacks any authoritative official institution to help them understand their own position, which results in vastly different levels of "high-level superhumans".

"And I, in my prime, reached the mid-level of a fourth-tier transcendent!"

Melia raised her head high.

Even in the world beyond, this would be considered a remarkable achievement—to hold a "professor" title in various official institutions for superhumans and to be able to apply for substantial research funding from the cabinet every quarter. In combat, this manifests as her single-handedly taking on an entire squad of heroes in an encounter.

As for the realms above the fourth rank, those are areas that only a very few people can reach.

—The Saint.

Those who step into this field will be recorded in the annals of history by various official institutions, and will be among the strongest in the entire continent. The former empire, on the surface, became a great power that swept across the entire continent simply by possessing two saints.

Of course, that's all in the past.

When the topic of saints came up, the other side mentioned a name that couldn't be avoided—Ethan.

This young man from a small town on the border of the empire deconstructed the essence of saints and proposed a theory for the first time on how to ascend to sainthood. He set things right and helped people clarify the relationship between saints and the gods of the proper and intermediate positions, as well as the origins of the gods of the proper and intermediate positions and the evil gods.

Melia naturally inquired about the other side's "professional qualification certificate," but the other side remained tight-lipped about it, not revealing a single detail even when she was treated to drinks and food.

She has reached that realm!

It's always the same ambiguous and infuriating answer.

"So, as a mere third-tier cultivator, you can't succeed by fighting alone. However, while I was searching that fat guy's room, I unexpectedly found out some information about your friend."

"Lance?"

Solan immediately realized what was happening.

Zoffy mentioned that Lance was also taken to the capital, and he was later transferred to the Imperial Prison by the Simpler family.

However, all of this was due to Lance's own plan. After returning to the capital, Lance realized that he alone was not enough to bring about any change to the country, and in a place like the capital where the people were highly brainwashed, he could not find any allies.

Thus, Lance gained inspiration during his imprisonment.

The Imperial Prison is home to a large number of wrongfully imprisoned prisoners, many of whom were once righteous individuals who bravely challenged the Empire. It is also said that a large number of extraordinary individuals were escorted into the prison by the Imperial Army, which means that he is sure to find a large number of like-minded friends in the Imperial Prison.

"But this might be bad news for you."

"why?"

"In the prison records, Fatty referred to Lance as a special prisoner who was transferred from Level 1 to Level 5 in just a few days—yes, your friend was here too."

Melia said, "That fat guy doesn't like him and doesn't dare to eat him because he vaguely senses that there seems to be something terrible hidden inside your friend's body."

This statement appears quite unusual in Fatty's prison record.

The Gluttonous King accepts all food offered to him. Apart from Lance, there is no record of him actively "rejecting" any food in the prison records. In the past, those prisoners did not become his snacks during the transfer process. It was just that Fatty overcame his appetite without going crazy.

"Your friend is heading deeper into the prison, which means that if you want to find him in the prison, you will be getting further and further away from the exit. It is worth mentioning that the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister of the Empire have also been transferred to the fifth level, because... that is the deepest point that 'humans' can reach."

Melia asked, "Make a decision. Do you want to find your friend on the fifth level now, or do you want to run away with your tail between your legs?"

..............................

Meanwhile, on the other side.

When Cedric Thorne opened his eyes again, large beads of sweat were streaming down his cheeks. The exhaustion from the previous illness was overwhelming his consciousness, to the point that even clenching his fist was extremely difficult.

His gaze changed after he drank the strange "beverage" in one gulp.

He found himself in an unfamiliar place, deep in the forest, a camp established by human survivors. There, he met an elemental sculptor named Mekka-Drin.

Humanity is facing a war.

If we fail, all of human civilization will be destroyed.

Without a moment to think, Cedric threw himself into the war.

Fanatics, war lords, monsters...

That was an unprecedentedly powerful enemy, an opponent that could not be defeated even with all one's might. Every reckless challenge would bring the most direct punishment—he died countless times on the battlefield, and after each death, he would wake up in that forest and meet the elemental sculptor named Mekka-Delin again.

This cycle continued until he defeated the being whose wings were made of sharp blades, whose entire body was shrouded in armor, and whose face was obscured.

It is known as the Warlord.

When Cedric finally pierced the Warlord's chest, causing the invincible enemy to fall from the clouds, he finally awoke.

Hallucination?

Cedric immediately realized where he was; he had been in a hallucination for several months, but in reality, not much time had passed.

Immediately afterwards, he noticed the change in the warden, leaving all his questions stuck in his throat.

He felt an unprecedented sense of oppression from the warden, and the image of the venomous woman also subtly changed. Behind her was a radiance of black and white intertwined, and he seemed to glimpse the stars and the universe through her snake-like eyes.

It was the same aura as that of the messengers of war.

His perception has become stronger.

It was precisely because of this that he realized the woman's true colors for the first time.

"Congratulations, it seems the transformation is going very smoothly."

The warden maintained his smile. "What you experienced was a war that the all-knowing and all-powerful Him had experienced, but the war lord you encountered was a weakened version—if you encounter such a thing in the real world, don't recklessly rush in to your death."

Countless questions arose.

"What on earth are you?"

Cedric asked.

Perhaps, as the warden said, he has completed his transformation.

"Don't you already have the answer deep down?"

The warden did not answer his question directly, her amber snake eyes fixed on Cedric until she seemed to see something interesting.

For a fleeting moment, Cedric felt as if the warden's image overlapped with that of the other side.

"That's right, I've reached that realm."

(End of this chapter)