After reaching the maximum level, my "soft rice system" finally arrived.

The ring fell into Ciel's hands, but unlike ordinary extraordinary items, it did not emit magical light and looked like an ordinary mortal object.

However, after Sharl elevated his spirit to the Astral Plane, he discovered that within his Astral vision, wisps of grayish-white aura emanated from the ancient ring.

Those auras were like smoke, vaguely resembling the shape of a silver moon. As soon as they discovered the location of Sharl's spirit body in the astral plane, they silently began to erode it.

However, the moment the silver moon aura touched Xia Er's spirit body, the wisps of mist suddenly seemed to be stimulated and began to boil.

Immediately afterwards, the mist began to flee wildly toward the astral plane, as if the Sharl's spirit body was not a fertile ground for its corruption, but some kind of monstrous flood.

"That's quite sensitive."

Charles silently observed everything that was happening in the astral plane.

With a slight thought, his vast ocean of spiritual energy surged and vanished without a trace, the ripples stirred up by the gray-white mist.

After a moment's thought, Charles spoke to the young man: "I just... I think I saw a pale silver full moon."

As he spoke, a hint of confusion appeared in his eyes: "Moreover, I seemed to vaguely hear some babbling, but the sound was very indistinct and I could not make it out."

The young man looked at Charles with a look of surprise on his face.

As a senior member of the church, he has extensive experience in missionary work.

In the past, when he preached, the followers who were given tokens would often faint and take a long time to recover.

If the other party is unlucky, they may even go out of control and grow hundreds of eyes on their face or a third leg.

However, when it came to Charles, the other party only lost focus for a moment before quickly recovering.

Moreover, the other party seemed to hear the Lord's whispers.

This is something that even a seasoned believer with several years of experience has never accomplished!

"Your connection with the Lord is higher than you can imagine!"

"If my strength catches up in the future, I'm afraid I'll soon be able to stand on equal footing with me, and it's not impossible that I might even become one of the organization's holy sons."

As he spoke, the young man's words carried a hint of respect.

After all, given the compatibility between the other party and the Lord, it is very likely that the other party will become the Lord's agent in the Western Continent in the future, and then become his superior.

"I still have missionary duties to attend to, and time is of the essence, so I won't stay here any longer."

"Once the trial is over, the organization will naturally send someone to guide you to join us, Edmond Dantès."

Before leaving, the young man mysteriously uttered a name.

Clearly, they wanted to demonstrate the organization's mystery and power to Charles, hoping to give this promising newcomer more confidence in their organization.

"I am looking forward."

Charles smiled and waved to the young man, without revealing that the name the other man had painstakingly investigated was just an alias he had made up in three seconds.

According to records in the Black Tower's scriptures, some divine spells seem to be able to act directly on the target based on their true name.

I wonder what would happen if that cult of evil used the name Edmund Dantès to cast a divine spell.

It can't be directly applied to the Throne of Heroes, can it? Thinking about it makes me a little excited.

Chapter Fourteen: Pain, So Much Pain

Charles brought his wandering thoughts back to the present.

The young man from before did not seem to be a core member of the suspected evil god cult, and therefore did not know much about the inside story.

From his words, all Charles knew was that the other person seemed to worship a great being revered as the "Iron-Crested Moon".

Moreover, that evil god cult seems to have been established for a long time and is extremely mysterious. Even the young man who preached earlier, who had already entered the fourth level of superhuman, was only a senior member and had not entered the core management.

Within the astral plane, the grayish-white aura that had been crushed into ashes by Xia Er's spiritual ocean also proved that what Fang said was true.

While it remains to be verified whether it is truly an evil god, there have been reports of what appear to be deities appearing on the Western Continent over the years.

However, after the investigation, it was generally found that someone was deliberately mystifying or pretending to be a ghost.

Over time, this has created a fixed impression similar to that of the boy who cried wolf.

However, that grayish-white aura was indeed a kind of exotic energy of a high rank that Xia Er had never seen before.

"If you have the chance, you should ask a professional."

Thinking this, Charles turned his gaze back to the towering skyscraper that reached into the sky in the center of the Demon King's castle.

"Looks like I need to speed things up."

……

In the VIP section, none of the nobles looked too pleased.

After all, nobles value etiquette the most. So whenever a noble's child breaks through the Demon King's castle's blockade and arrives at the foot of the Demon Tower to begin the trial, even if they are secretly envious, they will still habitually exchange a few polite words on the surface.

Then, their faces were slapped repeatedly.

Once or twice is fine, but if it happens too often, even the thick-skinned nobles will find it hard to cope.

Fortunately, soon after, Aisveta's performance impressed everyone.

The trials of the Seven Deadly Sins had no effect on her; the illusions vanished almost instantly upon their appearance.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Aisveta had completed the Seven Deadly Sins Trials and arrived at the top floor of the Tower of Demons.

Between the thrones at the highest level of the Demon Tower lies the residence of the Demon King's army commander—the King of Fear.

This is also the final test of the illusionary trial.

With pale skin and wearing a black, low-cut trench coat, the King of Terror sat on his throne, calmly gazing at Aisveta, who was dressed in a long red dress, in front of him.

The King of Fear slowly rose and grasped the King's Blade in his hand.

"I have lost my love forever, and all I see is ruin!"

"She waits gracefully at the end of the black fog. My queen, my love, my heart, as scorched as earth."

"My Queen, why, why are you hiding from me!"

"Pain! It hurts too much!"

As the King of Fear rose, whispers of utter despair filled the entire throne room.

According to the fantasy backstory, which exists despite being largely ignored, the Kingdom of Kamavia was once a prosperous nation where people lived in peace and contentment.

However, because the king of this kingdom missed his deceased wife so much, he secretly conducted forbidden research related to necromancy in hopes of one day resurrecting her.

Ultimately, the forbidden research spiraled out of control, evolving into a massive and terrifying magical catastrophe that transformed the entire country into a realm of the dead and monsters. The young king himself also utterly degenerated into the King of Terror he is today.

Even though his deceased wife refused to be resurrected, this King of Fear remained obsessed with the queen who had died hundreds of years ago.

It's fair to say that Sarkozy was completely impressed and recognized his expertise.

The King of Fear raised his sword, and in the next instant, boundless black mist spread out, enveloping the highest level of the entire Demon Tower.

The black mist surged and boiled, transforming into blurry, illusory figures.

This is the power of the King of Fear – the Cycle of Despair.

It can materialize the strongest being that the other party fears most and believes to be in their heart as an illusion.

Simply put, the more imaginative you are, the more powerful the illusions you can conjure.

The manifested illusions do not possess actual combat power, so this level does not test combat strength too much; rather, it tests the test-taker's imagination, vision, and courage.

The blurry phantoms gradually coalesced into a solid form.

Their appearance and clothing were unlike those of ordinary humans, and they exuded astonishing magical energy as they approached Aisveta step by step.

"This is... the fluctuation of a near-legendary!"

"They seem to be vampires, and even the lowest-ranking one among them is a vampire marquis!"

An uproar erupted in the VIP section.

Previously, there were a few outstanding freshmen who withstood the trials of the Seven Deadly Sins and reached the highest level of the Demon Tower.

However, the enemies they manifested in the cycle of reincarnation were nothing more than things similar to magical beasts, with strength barely reaching the level of a high-level transcendent being.

After all, to manifest something in the cycle of reincarnation, one needs to have a certain understanding and knowledge of the target.

If you have only heard a name by hearsay, then naturally you cannot manifest it.

Limited by their limited perspectives and experiences, these new students, still in their ivory tower and having never truly seen the outside world, are already quite remarkable for being able to conjure up high-level magical beasts from their imaginations.

However, at this moment, Aisveta was able to manifest the legendary powerhouse so clearly.

This means that Aisveta may have actually witnessed a truly legendary powerhouse in action, and may even have been his enemy.

"Could it be that Miss Esveda had been kept out of the public eye for so long because she was hunted down by powerful vampires when she was young, which is why His Excellency the Duke kept the news from her until recently?"

Some astute nobles, recalling the mystery surrounding Esveda's origins, began to speculate.

In fantasy.

Aisveta calmly watched the figures emanating astonishing magical energy, her beautiful crimson eyes showing no fear or apprehension whatsoever.

The true progenitors of the vampire clan are born royalty, possessing an innate ability to suppress their own kind.

Now, more than a decade later, after a long period of training in the Thousand-Year City, Aisveta's strength is no longer what it used to be.