The skies above Furnace were violently torn apart by twelve silver-white beams of light.
Like spears of divine judgment, the pillars descended from beyond the atmosphere, slamming into the planet below. Everything within several kilometers of the impact sites was instantly vaporized, leaving behind twelve bottomless craters rimmed with flowing magma.
The scorching shockwaves distorted light itself, as though even space were groaning under the force.
Before the smoke had even cleared, a wild, aged laugh exploded from the central crater, carrying a suffocating pressure.
"HAHAHAHA… So this is the place! I can smell it—the delightful fragrance of my people's blood and despair!"
Levi floated above the scorched wasteland with his arms folded across his chest, his expression calm as he looked down.
Twelve figures rose slowly from the craters.
Every one of them was a towering Viltrumite warrior. Their armor was far more advanced than the troops Levi had encountered before, radiating deep and condensed streams of energy.
The first eleven possessed energy signatures no weaker than Craig's.
But Levi's eyes focused only on the final figure.
An old man.
He looked to be in his seventies or eighties, his weathered face covered in scars. His left eye had been replaced by a cybernetic implant glowing crimson red.
Among Viltrumites, he could even be considered short—nearly half a head shorter than the warriors beside him.
Yet merely standing there caused the surrounding space to tremble and distort beneath the terrifying aura he emitted.
Conquest.
The Empire's eight-hundred-year war machine. A living legend who had erased thirty-seven civilizations from existence.
The old man lowered his head, his mechanical eye sweeping over the shriveled corpses of the drained Viltrumites below.
"Fourteen elite Imperial warriors…" His raspy voice revealed no emotion. "Slaughtered by a single individual."
At that moment, one of the corpses still clung to a final breath. A withered arm weakly lifted.
"Commander… save…"
Conquest slowly crouched down, his scarred face drawing close to the dying soldier. The glow of his mechanical eye nearly touched the man's pupil.
"Save you?" he repeated softly, his tone carrying cruel amusement. "Fourteen of you couldn't even delay a single outsider for a moment, and you still have the nerve to ask me for rescue?"
He placed a calloused hand atop the warrior's skull.
"The Empire has no need for trash."
Crack.
The sound of a skull shattering was light and crisp.
Conquest stood up and casually shook blood and brain matter from his hand before finally turning his attention toward Levi in the sky.
He grinned, revealing rows of white teeth. The smile was insane and bloodthirsty.
"So it's you?"
Levi nodded slightly.
"It's me."
"Good. Good! GOOD!" Conquest repeated the word three times, the crimson glow of his mechanical eye growing brighter and brighter, like a star on the verge of detonation. "The Grand Regent described you as an unprecedented powerhouse—strong enough to turn someone like Craig into true garbage. I didn't believe it."
He slowly licked his cracked lips.
"But now…"
"You really are interesting."
Before the final word even landed, Conquest vanished.
A gray-white blur invisible to ordinary eyes screamed through the vacuum toward Levi's face.
No flashy techniques.
Only pure killing instinct refined through eight hundred years of war.
Before the punch even arrived, the pressure from it split the earth below once more, carving a massive trench as magma erupted skyward.
Levi didn't even raise his arm.
He simply stood there quietly, allowing the fist—capable of punching through a battleship's main armor—to strike his cheek.
BOOM—
A thin golden membrane materialized between fist and skin.
The instant they collided, there was no earth-shattering explosion.
Only a ring-shaped white shockwave spread silently outward, flattening everything within dozens of kilometers into smooth crystalline glass.
Conquest's fist stopped dead against the golden barrier.
Unable to move even an inch further.
"That's it?" Levi tilted his head slightly, his tone as casual as if commenting on a bland meal.
The red glow in Conquest's mechanical eye flared violently.
That simple question ignited his rage more than any insult ever could.
He instantly entered a berserk combat state.
Left hook. Right elbow. Knee strike. Headbutt.
Countless killing techniques fused into a storm of steel. Every attack targeted Levi's vital points with absolute precision, and the aftershocks from each strike caused ripples through space itself.
Yet every single attack was blocked by the seemingly fragile golden membrane.
Levi remained completely motionless.
Like a reef standing at the center of a hurricane.
"Your combat experience is indeed flawless," Levi finally said, his voice cutting clearly through the storm of attacks. "But unfortunately…"
"Your power is too weak."
Conquest abruptly stopped moving.
He staggered backward more than a dozen steps, chest heaving violently. His cybernetic eye flickered wildly from data overload.
For the first time in eight hundred years—
For the very first time—
He had encountered an opponent whose defense he couldn't shake in the slightest.
This wasn't battle anymore.
It was an incomprehensible phenomenon.
"You… what the hell are you?" he roared, genuine shock appearing in his voice for the first time.
Levi slowly raised his right hand.
Within his palm, a sphere of pale golden light formed and rotated slowly, as though containing the deepest mysteries of the universe itself.
The power of alchemical law.
A force capable not only of reconstructing matter on a molecular level, but directly interfering with the laws governing energy within living beings.
"Me?" Levi smiled.
To Conquest, that smile was more terrifying than any demon.
"I'm someone your kind can never defeat."
He lightly pushed his hand forward.
An invisible, intangible force instantly enveloped Conquest.
His limbs suddenly felt as though they'd been filled with billions of tons of molten lead. Every movement became unbearably difficult.
But what terrified him even more was the sensation inside his own body.
The Smart Atoms that granted him his overwhelming power were suddenly vibrating uncontrollably at unprecedented frequencies, like rebellious soldiers trying to tear him apart from within.
"No! What did you do to me?!"
Conquest roared in horror.
In all his centuries of warfare, he had never experienced anything so bizarre and powerless.
This wasn't suppression through strength.
This was dismantling him at the foundation of his existence.
Impossible… My body… my power… they are extensions of my will! How could they betray me?!
For the first time in eight hundred years, the arrogance and confidence of Conquest began to crack.
Levi didn't answer.
The operating frequency of Smart Atoms he had analyzed from Nolan now acted like a perfect key, unlocking Conquest's internal structure—and rewriting it at will.
"Don't struggle," Levi said calmly as he walked toward the immobilized Viltrumite. "The energy you accumulated over eight hundred years…"
"…is exactly what I need."
His palm pressed lightly against Conquest's armored chest.
Golden light flowed from Levi's arm like a living creature, instantly penetrating the heavy armor and sinking into Conquest's body.
What Conquest felt wasn't death.
It was something infinitely worse.
Stripping.
His life essence, the totality of eight hundred years of slaughter, conquest, and accumulation, was being extracted by an irresistible force.
It was a despairing emptiness that seemed to rip his soul out by the roots.
"No… NO! STOP! I AM CONQUEST! I DESTROYED THIRTY-SEVEN CIVILIZATIONS! I AM VILTRUM'S UNDEFEATED LEGEND!"
He screamed wildly, trying to use the glory of his past to resist his present terror.
It only made him look pathetic.
"Thirty-seven?" Levi raised a brow slightly. "Then starting today…"
"…consider yourself the thirty-eighth."
The golden light suddenly intensified.
Conquest's body visibly withered.
His skin rapidly dried into bark-like wrinkles, his muscles shrank violently, and his once-mighty frame bent inward.
The crimson glow of his mechanical eye flickered desperately before finally dimming into darkness.
"N-no… impossible… I… lived… eight hundred years…"
His voice became weak and dry.
Levi's expression remained unchanged as he increased the extraction.
A torrent of energy vast enough to shake stars surged into his body.
Conquest's eight hundred years of accumulation—battle instincts, killing intent, life essence—were all broken down and refined by alchemical law into pure energy.
Inside Levi, the reprogrammed Smart Atom nanomachines devoured it greedily, executing the final reconstruction protocol on their host.
85%… 90%… 95%…
Levi closed his eyes.
Every cell in his body was being dismantled and rebuilt. Every atom rearranged.
His very lifeform was evolving beyond carbon-based existence into something higher-dimensional.
98%… 99%…
Finally—
The last trace of energy was drained away.
Conquest had become a dried mummy, skin stretched tightly over bone, eyes sunken deep into their sockets.
Yet he still lived.
His cloudy eyes rolled weakly while broken wheezing escaped his throat.
"K-kill… me…"
Levi ignored the plea completely.
All of his focus centered on the critical threshold within his body.
100%.
BOOM!
An indescribable sense of ascension erupted from the deepest part of his body and soul.
Like the singularity at the birth of the universe itself.
Every cell rejoiced.
Every atom sang.
His body was no longer flesh and blood.
It had become an incomparably refined aggregation of countless miniature energy singularities.
Every single cell now possessed the capacity to contain and unleash stellar-level energy.
Levi's eyes snapped open.
Pure golden divine light burst from his pupils, piercing distant nebulae.
"It's done."
He released Conquest's body, allowing the dried husk to drift weightlessly through space like a dead leaf.
But this—
Was only the first step.
Deep within him, another force had long been suppressed.
The Phoenix Force.
Though merely a tiny fragment separated from the original body for an experimental clone, its essence still represented the ultimate power of life and emotion in the universe.
A force capable of casually annihilating galaxies.
Previously, Levi's body had been incapable of truly containing it. He could only wield it externally like a tool.
But now—
Things were different.
Every reconstructed cell had become a perfect energy vessel.
Levi took a deep breath and voluntarily released the suppression on the Phoenix Force, guiding it inward.
Instantly, sacred crimson-gold flames erupted from his body, condensing into an enormous phoenix phantom stretching across the heavens behind him.
The power was too immense.
Too violent.
Even his reconstructed body felt agonizing pain, as though being torn apart at the atomic level.
But Levi didn't stop.
Instead, he welcomed the pain and guided the Phoenix Force into every cell, using the universe's primordial flame to fill each newly born energy vessel.
Pain and ecstasy intertwined.
Destruction and rebirth reached unprecedented equilibrium inside him.
His strength began skyrocketing at a speed that transcended physical law itself.
Peak Skyfather level…
Universal level — Initial Stage…
Universal level — Mid Stage…
At last, an indescribably vast power erupted from him completely, transforming into endless golden radiance that illuminated the entire Andromeda Galaxy.
On the Viltrumite homeworld far across the galaxy, countless people looked up in terror at the sudden golden light blazing brighter than the sun itself.
Fear born from the depths of the soul spread across every face.
Levi slowly opened his eyes, sensing the endless power flowing within him.
The Phoenix Force had fully fused with him.
And the moment he stepped into the Universal Tier, he clearly felt every restraint and rejection this universe had placed upon him disappear completely.
He could leave at any time.
Levi lowered his gaze to his hand, golden divine light flowing beneath his skin like rivers of stars.
"It's time…"
"…to go back."
He raised his head, his gaze seeming to pierce endless space and time toward another universe far away.
The main universe.
His original body was still waiting for him.
And Wanda.
He had been gone far too long.
As for this universe…
His eyes drifted toward the distant planet representing the supreme authority of the Viltrum Empire. A cold smile curved at his lips.
"Sargg… we can settle our score another day."
He raised a hand and lightly sliced through the air before him.
Space split apart soundlessly like torn fabric, revealing a stable and radiant dimensional rift. Beyond it lay the familiar cosmic aura he longed for.
Levi stepped through.
His figure vanished into endless golden light.
Behind him, the dimensional tear slowly closed, erasing all traces of his presence.
Only the eleven remaining members of the Executioner Squad remained frozen in terror above Furnace, along with Conquest's dried corpse drifting silently through space.
They had witnessed a miracle.
Their commander—the undefeated legend who had ruled battlefields for eight hundred years—had been drained dry like juice in less than ten minutes and turned into fuel for the black-haired man's ascension.
"R-retreat…" one young warrior stammered, trembling uncontrollably. "Immediately… immediately return to the Empire and report to the Grand Regent!"
No one objected.
Eleven silver streaks shot into space in utter panic, fleeing toward the Imperial homeworld without daring to glance once more at the corpse of the commander they had once worshipped like a god.
---
Andromeda Galaxy — Viltrum Imperial Palace
Sargg stood with his hands behind his back before an enormous holographic star map.
His body resembled a mountain, every inch of muscle containing enough power to tear apart planets.
The terrified report from the surviving Executioner Squad members had already ended.
Its core message was simple:
Conquest had lost.
And not merely lost—he had been completely devoured.
Sargg said nothing.
His expression remained frighteningly calm, but the slowly tightening fist behind his back caused the surrounding space to crack under pressure.
Conquest.
One of the Empire's strongest war machines.
An undefeated myth spanning eight centuries.
And now he had become nothing more than a "battery pack" for someone else's evolution.
"Grand Regent…" the strategist behind him spoke cautiously. "Should we immediately initiate the highest-level war protocol—"
"No need," Sargg interrupted coldly.
Yet beneath the coldness was a strange excitement.
He slowly turned around.
Within those pure golden eyes burned dangerous flames of interest.
"That man said he was returning to a place called Earth."
A cruel, anticipatory smile spread across Sargg's face.
"Perfect."
"It's been a very long time…"
"…since I personally stretched my muscles."
He strode toward the palace exit, black cape billowing behind him.
"Transmit my order."
"Gather every fleet. Every elite soldier."
"Destination—"
"Earth."
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