Super God Academy: Kabuto

Inside the empty, cold halls of Deathsong Academy, only the deep hum of the great clock could be heard. Led by Snow, Hua Ye and Ruoning passed through numerous restrictions and arrived at the side hall where Karl usually resided.

"Karl! Karl!" Hua Ye's anxious and slightly panicked voice rang out before he even arrived, "Quick! Level me up! Those guys are inhuman! I can't beat them!"

Snow immediately stepped forward, blocking Hua Ye's path, his tone respectful yet authoritative: "King Hua Ye, please calm down. My god is conducting a crucial deduction and should not be disturbed."

Hua Ye paused for a moment, looking at Snow's calm and expressionless face, and then remembered Karl's unpredictability. He forcibly suppressed his anger, chuckled twice, and followed behind Snow, walking lightly.

Inside the side hall, Karl remained seated behind the long table piled high with ancient books and scrolls of data, a quill pen in his hand, seemingly writing something on a parchment scroll. The pale blue light illuminating his face and the shadow beneath his hood made him appear more like a scholar immersed in his own world than a phantom stirring up cosmic storms.

"Karl," Hua Ye walked to the desk, trying to make his voice sound calm, but the urgency in his voice was hard to hide, "How is it? Can you upgrade? I did as you said, I went to Earth to 'test' them, and I forced out a lot of their trump cards... You saw the price." He pointed to the wounds on his body.

Karl's pen didn't stop until he finished writing the last strange symbol, then he slowly raised his head. His gaze, hidden beneath the hood, calmly swept over the wounds on Hua Ye's body, and over the undisguised fear and longing in his eyes.

"That's enough." Carl's voice remained calm, devoid of emotion, as if he were simply stating a given fact.

He gently placed the quill pen on the pen holder, folded his hands on the table, and looked at Hua Ye.

"Get ready, King Hua Ye."

"The ascension to the fifth generation of divine body is unlike any upgrade you understand. It will more thoroughly... embrace the void."

"The process will be somewhat...unique."

Karl slightly raised his hand, and deep within the Deathsong Academy, the humming of the great clock suddenly intensified. A void energy far deeper and more ominous than ever before began to slowly gather and flow, gradually enveloping Hua Ye's figure.

Hua Ye stared at the seemingly alive dark energy, the last trace of hesitation in his eyes being swallowed up by his expanding ambition and the fury of revenge. He opened his arms, his single eye flashing with madness and anticipation.

"Come on! Let me see just how strong the Fifth Generation Divine Body really is!"

In the dimly lit hall, a barely perceptible, cold smile curved Karl's lips in the shadows.

In the dark void, the energy slowly subsided like a receding tide. Hua Ye hovered in the center of the remaining energy field, slowly opening his eyes. He looked down, carefully examining his new body—the armor flowing with a deep, dark purple luster, the lines smoother and more imposing than before, the powerful force surging through his limbs that seemed to resonate with the void itself, and the pair of more solid void wings on his back, their edges faintly flickering with black lightning. He clenched his fist, feeling the control that allowed him to easily manipulate ripples in space, a look of almost obsessive satisfaction on his face.

"Very good, Karl." His voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement and a renewed surge of arrogance. "This power... I am very satisfied. Now, it's time to settle accounts with those ignorant fools!"

After he finished speaking, his wings fluttered slightly, and he turned around to leave this cold hall and return to the battlefield and conquest he longed for.

"No rush." ​​Karl's calm and even voice came from behind, like a bucket of ice water poured on Hua Ye's newly ignited flames of revenge.

Hua Ye paused, frowned, and turned back, staring with his one eye at Karl, who remained seated behind the long table, seemingly unaffected by the recent power advancement: "Not in a hurry? When are we going to wait? I feel like I could crush stars right now!"

Karl slowly raised his head, his gaze calm and deep in the shadows beneath his hood, as still as an ancient well: "The time is not yet ripe."

"When exactly will that be?!" Hua Ye's patience was wearing thin, his voice filled with his usual irritability. "Are we supposed to wait until they prepare an even more powerful trap, or until that guy in the red armor finds more help?"

"When the 'door' truly opens, when the 'tide' begins to overflow, when their attention is drawn to a grander, more inevitable 'existence'," Karl's voice didn't rise, but carried an undeniable certainty, as if stating a universal law, "that will be the perfect time for you to return to the stage and seize everything you desire. Before then, any unnecessary expenditure or exposure will be a loss." He paused slightly, adding a sentence that sounded like a promise, yet also like bait, "Rest assured, at that time, I will help you reclaim your Tiangong."

Hua Ye stared at Karl, seemingly trying to find even the slightest trace of deception or perfunctoriness on his calm, expressionless face. But he couldn't discern anything. This illusion scholar's mind was far more unfathomable than the void he wielded. After a moment's consideration, his fear of Karl's unfathomable methods and his desire for the "Tiangong"—the ultimate symbol—temporarily overshadowed his immediate urge for revenge.

"...Alright." Hua Ye finally squeezed out this word through gritted teeth, suppressing the surging energy around him. "Then I'll go back first and properly 'adapt' to this new power. Karl, remember your promise."

Having said that, he didn't linger any longer. He transformed into a dark purple streak of light, swiftly passing through the layers of spatial restrictions of the Death Song Academy, and disappearing into the Styx Nebula outside.

Only after Hua Ye's aura had completely faded away did Snow, who had been standing by like a shadow, silently step forward and come to Karl's desk. He bowed slightly, his voice filled with undisguised doubt and a hint of contempt: "My God, why go to such lengths to help that... arrogant and incompetent good-for-nothing Hua Ye? Even if he upgrades to a fifth-generation divine body, he will probably still be unable to accomplish anything, and his stupidity may even disrupt your plans."

Karl's gaze returned to the ancient scroll spread out before him, covered in void runes. He lightly dipped his quill into the unknown ink, as if the conversation and the granting of power were merely a trivial interlude.

"The process of the Void's descent is accelerating." He spoke, his voice still steady, but when he mentioned "Void," something deeper seemed to flow beneath the calm. "I need a target that is conspicuous enough and 'hard enough' to stand at the forefront and withstand the first wave... which may also be the most chaotic wave of impact."

He stopped writing, tilted his head slightly, and the shadow of the hood seemed to deepen.

"I have a feeling that this 'opening' might not be as smooth as we calculated. Some variables may be beyond the current scope of the Great Clock's calculations." "Hua Ye and his remnants of the Heavenly Palace order are precisely the most suitable tools for 'buffering' and 'testing the waters.' His ambition and arrogance will make him eager to rush to the forefront."

Karl began writing again, the pen tip gliding across the parchment, leaving a trail of shimmering blue light.

"Keep an eye on him, Snow," he ordered, his tone as flat as if he were discussing a mundane matter. "Make sure he doesn't do anything too foolish that would disrupt the 'Opening Ceremony.' Also... record the performance data of the Fifth Generation Divine Body under real 'pressure.' That will be valuable for our subsequent 'adjustments.'"

"Yes, my God." Snow's face was no longer filled with doubt. He bowed deeply, and his figure disappeared silently, blending into the darkness of the background, to carry out his master's will.

Deathsong Academy returned to silence, broken only by the eternal chiming of the Great Clock and the rustling sound of Karl's pen, depicting the unknown abyss and the path of descent. A pale blue light illuminated his pale profile, and beneath the calm surface lay a cold, calculating scheme that was pushing the entire known universe, along with its unwitting pawns, toward the brink of the final game.