Chapter 999: Caged

Astral Space Cage was a tricky Soultrait Symbol. It was powerful if used against weaker opponents but troublesome and complex when used against someone stronger and on multiple people simultaneously.

Astral Space Cage pulled all targets in the Soultrait's range of effect into a massive pocket dimension. The pocket dimension wasn't anything special. In fact, it was an expansive, transparent, flat ground that stretched endlessly across the cosmos. At least, that was what it looked like. The full extent of the pocket dimension had yet to be discovered, but it was large. The surroundings of the pocket dimension looked like a vast, open space, revealing the beauty of the cosmos to all targets.

That was the most important aspect of the Astral Space Cage. However, of almost equal importance was that the Astral Space Cage pulled only a specific number and combination of targets into the pocket dimension. First, the User of Astral Space Cage was also pulled into the pocket dimension AND for every foe, dragged into the pocket dimension, the User had to select an ally with Astral Space Cage.

That being said, for pulling five allies - two Silverfangs, two Divine Beasts, and the Guardian Beast inside Astral Space Cage's pocket dimension, Pesolt had to drag six foes into the pocket dimension. After all, Pesolt was also pulled inside, even if he was way too weak to fight the five Divine Lifeforms.

Other than the five Divine Lifeforms, Pesolt dragged another High Awakened into the pocket dimension. A moment later, he used two of his other Soultraits, Haste, and Speed Exchange, to accelerate. Haste pushed his momentum to a higher level by consuming considerable energy every second, while Speed Exchange did the same by consuming lifeforce.

Pesolt wasn't going to face the Divine Lifeforms head-on - he never planned to do so - but he wasn't allowed to die. Astral Space Cage would deactivate with his death, releasing the five Divine Lifeforms back onto the Untamed Jungle. That was unacceptable. Thus, instead of facing anyone, Pesolt allowed his energy and lifeforce to be drained after turning around to flee from the scene. He didn't look back and charged in the opposite direction of the battlefield. One of the Divine Lifeforms noticed something was off with the Forest Elf. There was no reason to bring a Higher Lifeform into a battle of the Divine. The appearance of the two Silverfangs was already weird, but both were strong. They were 6th Tier Awakened and radiated tremendous power. Their power level was high enough to consider them Pseudo Divine Lifeforms. That was why bringing a 4th Tier Awakened into a sealed space like this was even more illogical.

"The Elf brought us to this place. Killing him should bring us back!" He exclaimed, releasing a bullet of highly compressed energy to kill the Forest Elf. The energy bullet hurled through the air at shocking velocity but didn't cross a long distance. Long before the bullet could reach Pesolt, Caesus jumped before the bullet and cleaved it in two halves. The bullet split apart and dissipated while Pesolt continued running. He might not be faster than a Divine Lifeform or at the same level as one, but at the expense of his energy and lifeforce, Pesolt's speed reached an incredibly high level.

The High Awakened on the Fae Union's side channeled energy through his body and was about to rush behind Pesolt to catch up to him and slaughter the Forest Elf when the blade of a silver dagger glimmered before his eyes. The dagger pierced his eyeballs and penetrated deep into the unfortunate High Awakened's skull, killing the High Awakened on the spot.

"You didn't even try saving him. Why?" Caesus asked lightly, but the confusion in his voice and eyes was apparent.

"He is baggage in this space. Just like your little Forest Elf. But you have to protect your little elfie, while we don't have to protect anyone but ourselves. That makes you weak," One of the Divine Lifeforms replied, but it was evident that Caesus wasn't satisfied with that answer. He looked at his enemies in pure disgust.

"You guys disgust me," He cursed, "But that might be a good thing. It would be a great loss if I were to like my enemies."

Caesus cleared his throat and snorted, "Since that's not the case and you guys are disgusting, I won't have a problem killing you!"

He unsheathed a pair of sabers and charged forward, the power of Descendant, which 1-Star Blessing of the Children had evolved after being upgraded to 7-Star, alongside his other Soultraits, Tightened Bond, Heightened Senses, Power Imbalance, Divine Tiger Physique, and Weapon Manifestation surging through his body.

Caesus had fewer Soultraits than some other Super Awakened, but the average of his Soultrait's star level was much higher than the other Super Awakened. In the first place, Caesus didn't require as many Soultrait Symbols as others. It would have been enough to push Descendants to 8-Star or higher to transform Caesus into a Super Awakened.

Blessing of the Children hadn't been powerful, but the upgraded version had shown the Crown Prince of the Silverfang Tigerfolk how to unleash the true power of his Soultrait. Blessing of the Children allowed Caesus to tame monsters and consider them his children, which then granted him a minuscule portion of their power. That wasn't anything special with only a few tamed monsters, but as the monsters gave birth to offspring, Caesus power level increased further.

All Descendants of him and his children were included in his Soultrait Symbol. As for the increase in power remained on the same level no matter how many generations of offspring had been given birth to. That might not seem like anything special, but given the choice of children, Caesus tamed Goblins, Spiders, and other monsters who gave birth to many offspring at once every cycle or would breed like rabbits.

The biggest problem was that Caesus couldn't tame anything powerful at first. However, with Tatjana's help - the help of the Eye of Evolution, to be precise, Caesus could evolve his monsters and thus gain more power in return. Years had passed since he discovered his Soultrait's secret power, and it came as no surprise that Caesus was now the godfather of millions of monsters, each of them either stronger than the first monsters Caesus had tamed or evolved to grow stronger and give birth to even stronger monsters.

Caesus' main monsters were now a Goblin Emperor with a harem of hundreds of powerful Goblin Shamans, Goblin Queens, and many more powerful Goblins, but also a Bloodshed Spider Queen, which gave birth to Bloodshed Spiders, monsters capable of advancing to the 4th Tier.

Caesus was not a mere 6th Tier Awakened at this point and Tightened Bond, a 6-Star Soultrait that strengthened his bond with all tamed monsters and their offspring, and his other Soultraits helped him a lot to push his prowess closer to the 7th Tier.

Divine Tiger Physique helped Caesus stay close to his bloodline and the powers he'd inherited. It wasn't something he needed, per se, but it strengthened his entire body gradually. It was not unlike Sacred Constitution, only that it helped him nourish his bloodline's powers simultaneously as well. Weapon Manifestation was his weakest Soultrait, but it was also quite useful. The High Awakened with the silver dagger in his skull would certainly approve of Weapon Manifestation's usefulness. Power Imbalance might seem like a less useful Soultrait, but it was actually much better than most of his Soultraits. Alongside Heightened Senses, Caesus could now transfer his power to different aspects of his body, mind, and soul. Descendants increased his power by a portion of his descendant's prowess, but since most of his monsters were physically attributed, Caesus's mind and soul were weaker in comparison. Power Imbalance could solve that issue. With Power Imbalance, he could easily configure the power distribution throughout his body, mind, and soul. By creating several settings, Caesus could prepare for all kinds of scenarios.

He did that when he charged at the closest Divine Lifeform. They'd analyzed the enemies before and unraveled some of their secrets and powers. Caesus took advantage of that and activated the Agility Setting.

The Divine Kulik was powerful and had a highly durable body, but he was slower. Caesus was a flash to the Kulik, who could barely see his enemy before he appeared before him.

Caesus licked his lips and changed into the Power Setting, transferring all power used to amplify his agility into raw power. A moment later, his sabers cleaved down, cutting deep into the metallic body of the Kulik. However, given the Divine Kulik's natural constitution and his state as a Divine Lifeform, the sabers caused little damage.

Caesus clicked his tongue and activated the Enchantments engraved into the saber blades. The blades heated up to the point they started to melt. It was hot enough to force a reaction from the Kulik, whose eyes widened in surprise. The sabers cut deeper into the Divine Kulik's shoulders, yet the damage wasn't enough. The blades were molten before the shoulders were cut off, forcing Caesus to alter to the Agility Setting again and retreat. But before he could retreat, the Divine Kulik grasped his arm, twisted it, and punched him in the face. Caesus was barely fast enough to switch to the Tank Setting, increasing his durability and endurance to the peak. He raised his arm and used Weapon Manifestation to manifest a spiked shield, which still counted as a weapon, fortunately. The Kulik smashed the spikes with his punch, but the shield blocked most of the impact. It still shattered, but what was left of the attack didn't bother Caesus much. He managed to escape Kulik's iron grasp with another melting blade appearing in his free hand, but Caesus was forced to activate the Agility Setting, retreat for a moment, and switch to the Regeneration Setting, which healed his arm within seconds.

"This will be harder than expected," He murmured, only to hear his sister shout from the side.

"For you, maybe, but that was expected. At least I expected you to suffer, loser!"

Okay... challenge accepted!