Looking at the king who had once been a great ruler now fallen to the sorry state of a demon lord. He looked at the blood that trickled down his cheek, dark red with a black hue before healing right after.
The confident smile that the king had on before quickly faded as he realized that his power was slowly subsiding.
From level 450 as it quickly started to plummet at an astonishing rate. Ashely who had once been indignant casually wore a smirk looking at now the confounded king as he slowly succumbed to his fate.
A benefit of her skill [{devouring}] was that it could be transfused into any attack she would make including that small icicle that she had shot at the king. It didn't matter the size but rather it had landed or not, even with it being a slight graze.
The king, the supposed final boss of the core world was now on his knees as he groveled in pain, as a bitter realization descended upon him.
He had a majestic kingdom and beloved by all but a few days ago, he found himself along with everything else he knew, he found himself thrusted into this new world with a somewhat omnipotent mechanical being that controlled everything.
He then realized that his entire family that he once knew had all been turned into hideous and monstrous freaks.
Unable to cope with this, he too decided to turn into a monster himself and thus he was brandished as the demon king of the core world.
Many adventurers came his way but he snuffed out their efforts easily but after a while, he grew weary of it and decided that death was a better alternative but to his surprise, he couldn't die regardless of how hard he would try.
Be it from allowing the other adventurers to kill him, taking any and all kinds of poison, exposing himself to all kinds of lethal stimuli, he would die and against his will, his body would develop tolerance for it making it all the more difficult to die.
And here he was, seeing his life fade with his own eyes. Despite the pain that was coursing through his entire body, a weird sense of comfort washed over him knowing that it would come to an end. But unfortunately for him, fate had something else more horrid than death.
A dark tendril emanated from Ashley's shadow and covered the Kings entire body. His body began to rot at a noticeable pace before it became a pile of bones which quickly became ash.
His soul on the other hand was about to experience a worse ordeal. Opening his eyes, he was shocked to see a white expanse that seemed endless and not far from him, the image of his loving family stood in place.
But regardless of how this image was in display of him, there was something knowing in his heart telling him something was completely wrong.
Just as he was about to make his advancements to them, multiple dark tentacles wrapped around them and cries of pain and agony filled his ears.
An ominous and horror filled expression appeared on his face as below him and as far as he could see, the same dark tentacles spread out making escaping impossible.
As the dark red tentacles wrapped around him, a new form of pain that he had never experience assaulted his soul as the tentacles tightened their grip around him.
His family were begging for him to save them but that was nothing but a dream.
He could feel his existence gradually fading from the plain of nonexistence, for him to descend into madness in the abyss. Along with his family, they met their demise as they became supplements for the horror that they had encountered.
"I wish I was strong enough…" His thought echoed in the vast expanse but there was no one to save them. Ashley looked at the floor of the throne before throwing a blast at it. Even if the two were to face each other, she would have still emerged on top.
With her profound knowledge and vast skills, the battle wouldn't have dragged on for long before a gap began to emerge.
"Come out!" She yelled as she continued to look downwards at the hole. A horrifying screeching noise emanated from the hole and it wasn't long before a caterpillar like monstrosity appeared in front of her.
It stood upright and its bottom still couldn't be seen but what made it unique was that it was completely mechanical.
"You were able to beat the demonic king and in record time as well. Color me impressed." A callous voice echoed from the beast that stood in front of her.
"But that is expected from Andrew's lady." It further added. Ashley had a suspicion about this whole thing.
"Do you work for Andrew?" She asked. "Why yes I do. This whole world was constructed with one purpose and that was you. It was to help train you and make you stronger so that you should be able to traverse other worlds with ease."
'So I was correct.' She concluded in her mind. So far, she felt that this world was somehow centered around her somehow and now after realizing that it was, she felt rather lucky. "Since you are already done with you training, you can now leave."
A dark orb floated in front of her but she already knew what it was thanks to her bolstered intellect. "A spatial orb."
She realized as she looked at it. She already had the knowledge of traversing through planes, well at least to the fourth but the problem was that she didn't have anything to help her do it and this could be considered a ticket for her to do so.
"And since you're done, this world will no longer be operational and collapse. It was meant to be a gift for you from Andrew." She couldn't care less about people she hardly knew so of course such an offer was a no brainer for her.
[{It will serve as a spatial space for storage purposes after accepting into your inventory, it can store both living and non-living things. Accept the condensed world?"}]
A prompt appeared right in front of her. Without a moment's hesitation, she clicked accept.
[{The world has been accepted by the host. Would you like to remove all players and format the entire world?"}]
"Does formatting the entire world mean that it will be like a new slate? No monsters or anything like that?"
[{Yes. Do you wish to proceed?"}]
"Then yes I would."
A rumble could be felt all over the game regardless of where one was. It wasn't long before a notification appeared to all players.
[{Every single player is required to leave the game in the next ten minutes or they will be subjected to death!}]
Of course some of them were frustrated the moment they saw this. Some ha already spent huge amounts of money on the game to begin with and now they were told that they were required to leave. It was absurd but they couldn't do anything but accept the conditions and leave.
"What did she do?" Dark Rose thought as she saw this notification. Of course she felt that Ashley had something to do with this but she couldn't figure out how.
'Was the final prize of the game supposed to be complete control of everything?' She thought as the view of her opulent office came into view.
…
"Can I ask for a favor?" Ashley said as she saw the world around her slowly lose its antiquity and luster before everything appeared empty.
Everything, including the monsters, the so called Npcs and the structures in the game had all been removed which in the process had amounted her a ludicrous amount of EXP.
[{Congratulations host on finally reaching level the final level}]
Now looking at her stats, she was taken aback by the sudden increase.
[{Player: Delicate Snowflake}]
[{Level: 500}]
[{Heloid coins: 25,000,000}]
[{Statistics}]
[{Speed: 500}]
[{Agility: 500}]
[{Strength: 500}]
[{Defense: 500}]
[{Skills: Devouring (no cool down), Imperial Sword lance, Sensory Destroyer, Aura of the Void, Quick Steps, Domain Blizzard, Venomous Silk Poison…}]
[{Artifacts in possession: A composite of a three 6 Legendary, 12 Epic, 15 rare.}]
Now looking at her stats, she was taken aback by the sudden increase. Putting this feat aside, an idea crept up in her mind. "Can I ask for a favor?" She asked as she looked at the mechanized caterpillar in front of her.
The hole that it had once been in had now disappeared which was now replaced with a dark and mind bending spiraling void. "What is it that you require?"
…
Dark Rose had already gotten out of her office and was now pulling into her driveway. Several cars were neatly parked to the side while the rest were tucked away in the garage. Her child was already eager to see her and came rushing out of the house to come and greet her.
As soon as the car came to its stop, she got off and walking out of her car already parked on the driveway of her home. Her daughter who was at an arm's length away from her was immediately turned into a bloody paste which coated itself all over the floor and onto Rose's face.
Just like a regular person, she was horrified to see a monstrous caterpillar the size of a ten story building and the girth of a football field spring out of the ground.
She was outraged looking at the creatures stats.
[{Creature: Mechanical Void Traversing Caterpillar}]
[{Level: 999}]
[{Statistics}]
[{Speed: 999}]
[{Agility: 999}]
[{Strength: 999}]
[{Defense: 999}]
[{Intelligence: 999}]
The image of her only child being killed right in front of her eyes was still fresh in her mind. Of course she was in no position to go toe to toe against it but it threatened to kill her only child thus she could only try.
She tried to retaliate but any attacks that she made no damage to the creature whatsoever. The creature then proceeded to destroy her entire house before paying attention to her.
His husband had who as outside when all of this was happening tried to seek for shelter in the house which unfortunately for him was swallowed whole bringing his life to an end.
In the span of a few seconds, everyone she loved died right in front of her very own eyes and she was powerless to do anything.
Collapsing to the ground on her knees and losing any form of will power she had in her. The creature started to make advancements towards her but she seemed too fazed with what had transpired that she could only see her end at the horizon. To think that she would be this strong only for that power to amount to nothing was flabbergasting.
Right before she succumbed to the enigmatic maw of the creature, a dazzling brilliance shown and covered her entire body before disappearing from the spot in the nick of time.
The creature missing its target could only accept its defeat but that wasn't because it didn't know who was responsible for that but rather it was in no position to go against who had done so.
Ashley received a notification that Rose's entire family was killed but she strangely survived. "But how?" She quizzed. "The one who saved her is more powerful than me and pursuit of such would result in my death." It was a strange reply but she was powerless do to anything about it. She decide to ignore that for now.
She was seated on a meditation like posture as she was in contact with her mental state. The suspended souls of victims that had the unfortunate pleasure of encountering her. She decided to fully absolve every single soul before she left for another world.
The flower at the middle of eternity bloomed brightly as her own soul nestled at the middle of it all.
It was a beautiful sight of observing the stranded souls suspended like stars across the vastness of the void.
The tendrils that were attached to every single soul present emitted a dazzling white and mesmerizing glow before the saintly luster faded before it was replaced with a dark red tint which threatened to swallow every single soul present.
The process of refining and absolving these souls was arduous but thanks to the stasis of the plane, she was able to complete it.
She was surprised what she could do with it especially after all the information that flowed into her brain thanks to the knowledge of the higher dimensional beings.
The complete and unfiltered knowledge of other worlds unlike before which was limited was baffling. Manifesting a small dark orb that tore through space, big enough for her to walk through.