Lord: Sequence Master

In the Paradise Mountain of Rosen's Divine Territory, radiant holy light illuminated the entire world.

Over a thousand Sequence 3 angels and dozens of Sequence 2 angels continuously refined Paradise Mountain with their divine brilliance.

Yet, within this endless radiance, a shroud of darkness was sealed away, layer upon layer, within the sacred flames conjured by the angels.

Years ago, when Rosen discovered the hidden chamber inside the captain's quarters of the Doomsday Ark, he opened it, and the ship's captain-turned-corpse lunged out.

He had suppressed it in his Divine Territory, and once he had the time, he casually killed the corpse, thinking he might gain a divine shard in return.

But instead of leaving behind a divine shard, the corpse decayed completely, disintegrating into pure darkness.

Had he not immediately transferred the darkness to Paradise Mountain, it could have corrupted his entire Divine Territory, spreading its decay like a plague.

For more than twenty years, the angels of Paradise Mountain had been purifying this dark mass, yet its presence had not weakened in the slightest.

Rosen had been busy refining the World Window in recent years, but now he finally had time to deal with it.

During the brief moments of rest while recovering his divine strength, he had also studied this darkness.

His findings were unsettling—this black mass was an unimaginably terrifying curse.

It contained no rules, let alone laws—only pure spirituality, boundless resentment, and an eternal curse.

It felt even more sinister than the Source of Evil Gods.

At the very least, the Source of Evil Gods couldn't silently infect a Sequence 0 deity, rendering them completely helpless, unable to resist or escape, forced to watch in despair as their body rotted and their divinity withered.

Rosen carefully extracted a single wisp of darkness from the black mass.

Then, using the Main God Network, he covertly transmitted it through data transfer, smuggling this tiny fragment of darkness into Paradise Mountain and casually discarding it.

He couldn't solve the problem—but could the True Gods of the angelic race handle it?

If they succeeded, would they leave behind something beneficial or something disastrous?

If something beneficial remained, then Rosen could handle the rest himself.

If it was only disastrous, he could weaponize it to ensnare deities—not True Gods, perhaps, but any lesser god who touched it would surely perish.

Of course, this all depended on whether or not the darkness would continue to spread.

The wisp of darkness Rosen abandoned in Paradise Mountain was soon noticed by a nearby angel.

After all, in a sacred realm bathed in divine light, a sudden patch of darkness stood out like a torch in the night.

A Sequence 3 angel discovered it first and casually attempted to purify it.

But the moment his divine light touched the darkness, instead of being purified, the darkness stirred to life.

It suddenly pierced through all of the angel's passive defenses and burrowed into his forehead, directly invading his divine consciousness.

This fragment of darkness did not severely damage the angel's body—in fact, it even nourished his flesh, slowing down its decay.

The captain's corpse had rotted naturally over endless years, rather than being directly consumed by the darkness.

Because this darkness did not target the physical body—it targeted spirituality itself.

To the naked eye, the angel appeared unharmed.

But within him, the darkness clung to his divine essence like an inescapable parasite, seeping deeper and deeper into his divine core.

No matter what means he tried, not a single self-purification method could stop the decay of his divinity.

The angel demigod perished in mere moments, and only then did the reinforcements who had received the distress signal arrive.

However, the angel demigod, whose body had been overtaken by that wisp of darkness, immediately launched a fearless and frenzied assault on the other angels.

He was soon restrained, and the wisp of darkness within him was identified.

But this only led to more casualties—nearly all of the first wave of angel demigods that had rushed to help were wiped out.

The angels who had sensed that something was deeply wrong and had rushed over did not dare approach. Instead, they began escalating the report up the chain of command.

Even when a Sequence 2 angel arrived, they were unable to eliminate the wisp of darkness. At best, their holy light could barely contain it.

Then, even Sequence 1 angels were powerless to resolve the issue, which finally alarmed an angelic deity.

Yet, even when the angelic deity arrived, they could only seal the darkness away, unable to eradicate it.

At that point, the angelic race's True God was finally alerted.

The moment the True God of Angels laid eyes on that wisp of darkness, they instinctively released a surge of fear.

The True God immediately sealed the wisp of darkness and took it away.

Mere moments later, the entire Gods' Network was in an uproar over this fragment of darkness.

Under the explanations of certain well-informed True Gods, the wisp of darkness quickly drew the attention and vigilance of all deities—both gods and lesser divinities alike.

Publicly revealing the origin of the darkness was nothing more than a precautionary measure—a warning that its appearance might not be a mere coincidence. It was better to expose the truth now rather than risk the situation spiraling out of control.

Through the Main God Computer, Rosen also accessed the Gods' Network and finally learned the true origins of that mass of darkness.

According to the knowledgeable True Gods, that darkness was the resentment of all the dead from the previous era, a doomsday curse born from the negative spirituality of countless perished beings, including all True Gods and even some Great True Gods.

When the new Ancient God Era began, the Ancient God banished the Doomsday Curse beyond the boundaries of the Main World.

Since then, it had become a barrier sealing off the Main World from the outside.

The last recorded instance of its reappearance was 150,000 years ago, when some True Gods returned to the Main World carrying fragments of the Doomsday Curse.

Not long after, all those True Gods vanished.

Among the currently living True Gods, only a rare few had existed for more than 150,000 years.

The fact that so many deities from an entire era had been wiped out was an unfathomable shock to those who understood the truth.

Many of the current True Gods had once been mere lesser divinities back then.

They had close ties to the True Gods of 150,000 years ago, and before those True Gods had disappeared, they had passed down crucial knowledge—including the method to deal with the Doomsday Curse.

The solution was unexpectedly simple—

Destroy the Main World.

As long as the Main World was damaged, as long as the laws of heaven and earth were shattered, the Doomsday Curse would dissipate.

And after it vanished, there was even a chance of gaining unexpected benefits—for the Doomsday Curse might contain extraordinary legacies from the previous Ancient God Era.

Upon learning all of this through the Gods' Network, the first thought that crossed Rosen's mind was the Old Continent.

He had done nothing more than kill a few Ashen Beings, yet that alone had been enough to break the natural order of the world and grant him the ability to advance to Sequence 2 as a Crime Hunter.

Meanwhile, the True Gods of the Main World—perhaps even hidden Great True Gods—had sealed away the World Will itself.

The extent to which they must have shattered the natural order, and the number of deities that must have perished in the process, was beyond comprehension.

Judging by the state of the Old Continent, even a Great True God seemed to have died in the struggle.

Could it be that the ones who sealed the World Will were the very passengers of the Doomsday Ark all those years ago?

Did they shatter the natural order at all costs just to escape the Doomsday Curse?

If that were the case, then everything would finally connect. The depths of the Main World's secrets ran far deeper than Rosen had ever imagined.

Now that he understood how to utilize the Doomsday Curse, he only needed to wait patiently.

Even though he had left the Old Continent, the Old Day Map still continued to guide the demigods of Old Day Camp in hunting Ashen Beings. As a result, the natural order was still constantly being eroded.

As long as this continued, the power accumulated from breaking the world's balance would naturally flow into the Doomsday Curse, eventually allowing it to be dispelled.

But after careful consideration, he decided not to do so just yet.

Rather than lifting the curse, it would be far more useful to keep it as a hidden weapon.

The legacies of the previous Ancient God Era were undoubtedly valuable, but they might not necessarily be useful to him.

...

In Brilliant King City, Rosen took out the Godhood fragment of the Wisdom Dragon God and began utilizing his vast accumulation of knowledge to create original skills for both Hunter and Painter Sequences.

He even prioritized an attempt to develop a skill for the Noble Sequence.

Logically speaking, the Noble Sequence should have been the least concerning.

However, ever since he had gained his Sequence 2 innate skill, Divine Kingship, he had used the Old Day Map to contact the Golden Pharaoh.

Through further discussions with this True God, Rosen made a startling discovery—the Noble Sequence of the World Government was, at its core, a castrated version of a true Transcendent Sequence.

Because the Noble Sequence alone could never create a true emperor.

Before the World Government was established, the Main World had three distinct authorities: Royal Authority, Imperial Authority, and Sovereign Authority.

Back then, even though Transcendent Sequences did not yet exist, these three forms of authority were already incredibly powerful.

A ruler who grasped Royal Authority could establish a kingdom where the entire territory functioned as a divine domain.

A king could grant noble titles, and each noble would gain corresponding levels of Transcendent power.

The strongest kings could even directly bestow divinity upon individuals, and history had recorded multiple instances where a king waged war against a True God and forced them into submission.

But in today's world, such kings no longer existed.

Even the rulers of empires, who held the title of emperor, were nothing more than figureheads.

Aside from the ability to absorb more faith power, their title served no other purpose.

If they had been emperors from the Golden Pharaoh's era, even a True God would have had to tread carefully when stepping into their empire, lest they be torn apart by its divine authority.

According to the Golden Pharaoh, it was precisely because Royal Authority and Imperial Authority were too powerful that, after the World Government was established, these two forces were dismantled and repurposed into what is now known as the Noble Sequence.

However, Rosen had a different opinion.

He wasn't sure about Imperial Authority, but Royal Authority definitely hadn't disappeared.

After all, his Fallen Tarot of the Grail King already contained Royal Authority within it.

His current problem was that, while he possessed Royal Authority, he could not fully wield its power through the Noble Sequence alone.

That being said, Royal Authority had already begun gradually influencing his Noble Sequence.

The emergence of his two innate skills, Kingship Supreme and Divine Kingship, was no coincidence.

Through these two abilities, Rosen had already begun harnessing aspects of Royal Authority.

But it still wasn't enough.

He needed to develop more original skills that revolved around Royal Authority as their core.

Only by doing so could his Noble Sequence truly break free from the World Government's restrictions.

Yet ten years passed, and Rosen made little progress in mastering Royal Authority.

It wasn't because the Wisdom Dragon God's Godhood fragment was inadequate, nor was it because his understanding of kingship was lacking.

Instead, he realized something even more troublesome—

Using the Grail King's power, he could wield Royal Authority with absolute ease.

But if he tried to grasp it through his own strength alone, it was nearly impossible.

Because laws exist everywhere, the power of kingship should have been omnipresent throughout the Main World, with only its strength varying from place to place.

Yet, Rosen realized that whenever he left the Brilliant Kingdom, he could no longer sense the authority of Kingship.

Even within the Brilliant Kingdom itself, the only Kingship he could perceive originated from the Grail King.

This proved one thing—the laws of Kingship in the Main World had been completely sealed away.

Not even a Main God could achieve such a feat, and it was highly unlikely that even a Great True God could accomplish it alone.

Most likely, it had been done by multiple Great True Gods working together, and it might even be linked to the sealing of the World Will.

At this point, it was certain—there were Great True Gods standing behind the World Government.

...

Rosen pondered for a long time.

If the proper path was blocked, then he would simply take a shortcut.

Over the years, the Ancient God's Heart had already nurtured a drop of Ancient God True Blood at Sequence 2.

Using Ancient God True Blood to directly create a Kingship skill—it would be worth it.

Even though Rosen had failed to develop a Kingship skill on his own, he had made some progress.

Now, as the Ancient God True Blood absorbed these insights, a brand-new miraculous skill emerged in an instant.

[Kingship Divine Kingdom: Miraculous Skill]

[Passive Effect: Any land under the dominion of Kingship becomes part of the Kingship Divine Kingdom.]

[Active Effect: Wherever you stand, the land within your Divine Perception becomes part of the Kingship Divine Kingdom.]

[Miraculous Traits: Kingship Decrees, One with Heaven and Earth, Eternal and Indestructible.]

After carefully analyzing this miraculous skill, Rosen finally realized how terrifying it truly was.

The Kingship Divine Kingdom was completely different from the Divine Kingdoms of ordinary deities.

A normal Divine Kingdom was essentially a stationary, slow-moving fortress.

Within their Divine Kingdoms, deities could temporarily resist even a True God, but outside of their Divine Kingdoms, they were just regular deities.

That was why many deities never left their Divine Kingdoms, instead choosing to send divine incarnations to walk the outside world.

For most deities, the world outside their Divine Kingdoms was too dangerous—their Divine Kingdoms were their ultimate sanctuary.

A Divine Kingdom was a deity's strongest shield, but it was never a spear.

This was why the Noble Sequence was so powerful—because it transformed a Divine Kingdom from a shield into a spear.

A Sequence 0 Noble could dematerialize their Divine Kingdom, allowing it to merge into their Consciousness Sea and be carried with them at all times.

In a way, the Noble Sequence had not only stolen the power of Kingship and other authorities, but had actually fused them with the concept of a Divine Kingdom.

However, during this fusion, the strength of Kingship was deliberately restricted.

That was why the Noble Sequence was formidable, but not to the point of instilling fear in other deities.

But Kingship Divine Kingdom had been designed from the very beginning to be a perfect balance of offense and defense.

So long as his subjects physically occupied a territory, that land would become his Divine Kingdom.

So long as he himself stood upon the land, his entire Divine Perception range would be his Divine Kingdom.

This ability was even stronger than his Divine Domain—a Divine Domain required time to develop, but Kingship Divine Kingdom could seize land instantly.

Even more terrifyingly, the authority of Kingship Divine Kingdom surpassed that of a normal Divine Kingdom at the same level.

This meant that if Rosen were to step into a Sequence 0 deity's Divine Kingdom, he could extend his Divine Perception, forcibly convert a portion of that deity's Divine Kingdom into his own Kingship Divine Kingdom, and directly wrest control over it.

No wonder ancient kings had dared to challenge True Gods.

No wonder the gods had abolished Kingship and other authorities.

Because it was simply too powerful—so powerful that it had incurred the wrath of all the gods.

For now, Rosen couldn't afford to use Kingship Divine Kingdom openly.

Unless, of course, he left no witnesses alive.

The strongest aspect of a Miraculous Skill lies in its Miraculous Traits, and Kingship Divine Kingdom was no exception.

With Kingship Decrees, whatever he declared within the Kingship Divine Kingdom became law, became the rules.

Even the phrase 'what is spoken becomes reality' could not fully encompass the power of Kingship Decrees.

While the Noble Sequence's innate skill, Ruler, also allowed him to establish laws within his Divine Domain, those laws primarily applied to his subjects, with only a limited effect on intruders.

But Kingship Decrees were different—it treated subjects and enemies alike.

By comparison, the Ruler's judicial authority was nothing more than a cheap imitation of Kingship Decrees.

...

Rosen could not openly use Kingship Divine Kingdom in the outside world, but that did not stop him from using it in the Ancient God True Realm.

His Brilliant Kingdom was not just one, aside from the one in the Brilliant Continent, there was also the one in the Ancient God True Realm.

As Kingship Divine Kingdom enveloped the entire Brilliant Kingdom, Rosen instantly felt omniscient and omnipotent.

Every inch of land occupied by his subjects, from the smallest speck of dust to the rules and authorities pervading the heavens and earth, was now his to command at will.

If a deity wielding the Authority of Darkness set foot in Kingship Divine Kingdom, Rosen could completely strip them of their control over Darkness within the kingdom.

Of course, even though he could seize their Authority of Darkness, he would not be able to wield it as skillfully as they could.

After all, merely possessing an authority was only the beginning—developing skills that could maximize its power was the true key.

Simply grasping an authority without the proper skills would weaken his enemies rather than strengthen himself.

However, while that might be true for others, Rosen was an exception.

Because he possessed the Authority of the World, and the Authority of the World was composed of countless lesser authorities.

Thus, within Kingship Divine Kingdom, his World Authority became at least a hundred times stronger.

Even in terms of combat, his battle strength had increased at least tenfold, if not more.

And that was just on the battlefield—the Kingship Divine Kingdom also greatly facilitated his mastery over rule-based authorities.

Even if he could only temporarily wield an authority within his Kingship Divine Kingdom, the insights gained during that time would make comprehending and mastering the authority infinitely easier.

No wonder those ancient kings—if they didn't master at least a few hundred rule-based authorities, they probably wouldn't even have the face to call themselves kings.

However, as powerful as Kingship Authority was, it also had one enormous drawback.

For an ancient king to ascend to True Godhood, they had to monopolize the Law of Kingship.

A demigod's only known path to True Godhood was through mastering a Law, and while there were many ways to do so, the most common method was to kill every other Sequence 0 who held the same authority, thereby monopolizing the rule and refining it into a Law.

So, for an ancient king to become a True God, the first thing they had to do was exterminate all other ancient kings.

It wasn't hard to imagine that the decline of Kingship Authority was likely tied to internal conflicts.

Rosen even suspected that the Miraculous Trait, King's Game, might be related to the downfall of Kingship.

Considering that three True Gods were vying for King's Game, it was entirely possible that King's Game was the key to mastering the Law of Kingship.

After all, there was a high chance that the only remaining wielders of Kingship Authority were the four cardholders of the King's Game.

If Kingship Authority had already fallen so far, then Emperor Authority and Imperial Authority—which were even more powerful—were bound to be even more terrifying, yet their disappearance remained an even greater mystery.

...

Having tasted the benefits, Rosen couldn't help but consider using Ten Directions Annihilation again.

At Sequence 2, Ten Directions Annihilation could already instantly kill deities.

If he combined it with Kingship Authority, he could annihilate entire Divine Kingdoms along with their gods.

His long-standing grudge with Sonia, and Daisy's second personality, whom Sonia had protected all these years—it seemed like it was finally time to deal with them once and for all.

When Sonia chose not to kill him back then, she should have already foreseen her own fate.

...

However, before making a move, he had to prepare thoroughly.

Because Ten Directions Annihilation alone might not be enough to ensure Sonia's death.

Destroying her Divine Kingdom would be easy.

But if Sonia's true body wasn't inside at the time?

What if her Divine Incarnation managed to relay her cause of death before perishing?

What if someone started suspecting him?

Any of these scenarios would cause him massive trouble.

Rosen only wanted Sonia dead—he didn't want to end up being hunted by the World Government because of it.