While Rio and the others were working inside the underground laboratory, things werenât peaceful outside either.
"You have got to be kidding me..."
Raji looked at the dark clouds in the sky that were giving off immense pressure with a look of shock on her face!
"No wonder they call it heavenly punishment... this thing is insane... just the aura itâs giving off is already enough to make most SS-rankers shiver..."
Hearing Rajiâs words, Ashtel smirked as he kept staring at those purple bolts of thunder flashing and running wild inside those dark clouds.
"You see that abominable purple thunder? Thatâs what has been keeping us SS-rankers from reaching the next realm until this very day..."
"The heavenly tribulation that you are seeing right now is actually a much weaker version... the one that happened during Linkâs birth was much stronger than this..."
"I think this one is almost reaching the same levels as the one that happened when Riya awakened her legendary skill back then in the elven empire..."
Rajiâs eyes shook as she heard those words.
"It can be even more powerful than this!?"
Back when Link was born, Raji was just an ordinary girl; she was incapable of sensing the vast power of the heavens, and she was incapable of knowing these secrets of the higher-rank people.
Even during Riyaâs awakening, she was not present; today was in fact the first time Raji was actually seeing a heavenly tribulation in person!
"Of course it can be stronger... the one that happened during Linkâs birth was hundreds of times stronger than this... but even that is likely nothing when compared to the one that blocks the door to the next realm..."
"Once an SS-ranker reaches their peak state, they only have one option, which is âstagnationâ..."
"Because if you dare to step any further, you would be bombarded by the wrath of the heavens so powerful that your very existence would be destroyed!"
"That is what happened to the greatest magician in history, âIvan,â and many other powerful SS-rankers of the past..."
Ashtel smiled as she spoke,
"Due to this, many people have concluded that just reaching the peak SS-rank state is not enough; you also need to reach the max level of âWorld Authorityâ at the same time and acquire âdivinityâ a mythical power..."
"Only when you fulfil all these three conditions can you actually gain a chance to go beyond the realm of demi-gods..."
"But to this day... none have managed to accomplish something like this... not even King Allen Von Reinhart!"
King Allen did manage to reach the realm of âTrue Godsâ at one point, but that was a temporary state of power created with the help of the âSword of Promised Destinies.â
And just like Astra told Lia, the sword of promised destinies was a one-time-use weapon; once you use it, you will lose your âtrue godâ state at the same time.
In other words, although King Allen did technically become a âTrue Godâ for but a brief moment, he was not a genuine âTrue Godâ who had surpassed the realm of demi-gods through orthodox methods!
Although Ashtel and others didnât know that King Allen had technically surpassed the realm of demi-gods, they werenât wrong when they spoke that even King Allen never managed to go beyond the demi-god realm in the usual way.
"You have only just recently woken up from a fatal injury... W-will you be fine?"
Raji was worried that Ashtel hadnât yet recovered back to his peak state after barely surviving a near-death situation not too long ago.
If something happened to Ashtel, the nation would crumble apart just like it had started to crumble when Ashtel was in a coma.
"Haha, donât worry, when I tanked a much stronger heavenly tribulation back when Link was born... my world authority was barely even Level 3!"
"I am much, much stronger than that time... even if I am not yet fully at my peak condition, I have recovered at least 90% of my strength back by now..."
Raji sighed as she cast a defensive spell to protect herself and Liam, who was still unconscious at the moment and was frantically absorbing all the mana around him.
"The heavenly punishment aside... I am sure those fellows from the world association would have already noticed all this by now..."
"Send an announcement through my authority in the world association on behalf of the entire human empire that a powerful talent of our nation has achieved something great; thatâs why this is happening..."
"If we donât give a proper explanation, they will soon rush over here, and we canât afford them to notice what we are actually doing here..."
At Ashtelâs words, Raji nodded her head and immediately took out an artifact that looked like a laptop and started typing on it.
While Raji focused herself on this matter, Ashtel flew in the sky as she looked at the area around them.
"Thankfully, this hidden lab is located in a very remote location..."
The underground lab was located in a massive barren wasteland-like area where there were no cities or any settlements nearby for hundreds of kilometers.
The portal that Rio and Lia used to travel to this lab was just one of the many portals that were connected to this hidden place.
There were even many physical entrances to this place that were enchanted with powerful concealment spells.
"Originally I though that Neo had used some kind of artifact to cast such powerful concealment spells that even I couldnât detect his hidden bases..."
"But after what Rioâs told me... itâs possible that there is someone else linked to this matter that I havenât yet found out about..."
Neo was working in cahoots with Alverto, and that much was very clear, but they were both dead by now, so there was no need to worry about them.
The main problem was that it seemed that there was another person who was collaborating with those two in secret.
And that person has the power that can create powerful projections like Raika, who has the ability to hide their presence from even someone like Rio.
Thereâs a high chance that the person who obstructed Rio in the form of Raika was also helping Neo and Alverto from the shadows.
âWho could it be...â