Chapter 111: Martial Saint
From the jagged, ice-slicked ridges overlooking the ruined capital, a figure quietly materialized out of the swirling white steam.
Roy stood tall, completely integrated into his powerful Wolf-man form.
His crimson-furred chest rose and fell in a steady, calm rhythm, completely unbothered by the sub-zero chill or the suffocating heat of the vaporized sea below.
"Hehehehe....things are quite entertaining I must say"
He looked down upon the absolute destruction of Norona City.
The shattered pillars, the frozen wastelands, and the desperate, blood-soaked struggles of the western city.
With a slow, tranquil smile spreading across his snout.
Everything was moving exactly according to the grand design.
His sharp eyes locked onto the central plaza where Aradin’s blade remained violently pinned against High Priest Croak’s hydraulic neck shield.
’It is time,’ Roy thought. ’I should spicy things up’ his lips curled faintly.
With a simple flick of his fingers, he sent a direct telepathic command echoing straight into the mind of his high priest.
"Consume it, Croak. Show them the true height of Varania."
**
"Consume it, Croak. Show them the true height of Varania."
The moment Croak received the apostle order, his large emerald eyes flashed with a blinding, transcendent light.
"Finally" he laughed heartily.
Ever since he received the Evolution Advancement Elixir, he has been eager to drink it.
To evolve into a Martial Saint.
Now the opportunity finally came.
Why would he hesitate?
He did not waste a single millisecond.
With a sudden twist of his wrist, he redirected the hyper-pressurized water coat from his neck, expanding it outward into a localized apocalypse.
BOOM!
"This is...." Aradin’s eyes narrowed to pin size.
Before Aradin could even attempt to pull his trapped sword back, a hyper-concentrated, high-density mana sea prison erupted around him.
The water within this specialized sphere wasn’t normal fluid.
It was packed with millions of atmospheric bars of compressed gravitational mana.
Aradin desperately tried to swing his arms, to channel his remaining cultivation, to move even a single finger.
But his body felt as though an entire continent had been dropped onto his spine.
It was too heavy.
The sheer density of the prison locked his joints and completely suppressed his life-force, forcing him to float helplessly inside the aquatic tomb.
"Stay down and watch!" the command of the High Priest boomed across Norona.
Through the distorted, crystalline layer of the water prison, Aradin’s bloodshot eyes widened as he watched Croak’s next movement.
From the spatial folds of his heavy robes, the High Priest calmly brought out a small, intricately carved glass bottle.
Inside, a liquid of impossible radiance swirled, shifting between deep sapphire and blinding gold—the Evolution Advancement Elixir granted to him by Roy.
Croak popped the lid, and without a single shred of hesitation, drank the contents in a single gulp.
[Your Dedicated Follower ’Croak’ has digested the blessing ’2nd Grade Evolution Advancement Elixir’]
[Your Dedicated Follower ’Croak’ will now evolve into the next cultivation realm]
[Subject has awakened his fifth mana core]
[Evolution will now begin]
[Enlightment Phase: Middle-Stage]
[Cultivation Status: Martial Saint]
What happened next defied the very laws of the world’s mortal cultivation limits.
VUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU—!!!
For a fraction of a second, the entire Hudeii Desert fell completely, deathly silent. The wind stopped.
The boiling waters ceased to ripple. Then, the sky broke.
A blinding pillar of unnatural, primordial energy crashed down from the heavens, piercing straight through the steam clouds and engulfing High Priest Croak.
The evolution process from a Martial Lord to a Martial Saint had officially begun.
The change was instantaneous and terrifying.
"H-He...He is evolving...!!" Aradin gasped.
The iridescent, beetle-humanoid exoskeleton of Croak’s Supreme Beast Physique began to fracture, shedding its old form as a newer, infinitely denser layer of divine, jade-like chitin crystallized over his body.
His skeletal structure didn’t just expand; it hummed with the frequency of ancient worldly laws.
The mortal constraints of his mana pathways were completely vaporized, replaced by wide, radiant rivers of Saint-level energy that drew directly from the primordial source of the world itself.
Within his status framework, the system mechanics violently restructured themselves.
[Ding!]
[Subject’s Active Skill has evolved]
[Active Skill: Lord of the Sea -> Saint of the Sea]
His apex domain skill, Lord of the Sea, shattered under the weight of his ascension, forging itself anew into its next evolutionary form:
Saint of the Sea!
The power of a true Saint was something that went entirely beyond human imagination.
The ambient air within a ten-kilometer radius of Croak didn’t just turn cold or hot—it completely submitted to his will.
The scattered, rippling waters of the ruined city began to float upward against gravity, transforming into billions of perfectly suspended, glowing sapphire droplets that vibrated with enough latent force to pierce through high-tier armor by their mere presence.
The space around Croak visibly warped and cracked, unable to fully contain the sheer mass of his newly ascended soul.
Floating inside his heavy prison, Aradin stared at the glowing, abstract figure of the newly ascended Martial Saint.
The frantic rage, the bloodlust, and the desperate desire for vengeance that had fueled him for weeks instantly evaporated, leaving behind a cold, hollow emptiness.
"It’s over" Aradin whispered, his body shuddered.
Against a Martial Lord, he could fight.
Against a Martial Lord, he could rage.
But before a Martial Saint... he was nothing more than an insect staring up at the sun.
Aradin’s grip on his sword loosened.
His shoulders slumped inside the crushing water.
He didn’t scream.
He didn’t struggle.
He simply closed his eyes, completely accepting his impending death after witnessing a terrifying entity birth itself right before his eyes.
Croak looked at the suppressed knight, his expression completely devoid of mortal malice.
He simply tapped the base of his jade staff against the stone floor.
He didn’t execute a slash. He didn’t unleash a wave.
Under the authority of the Saint of the Sea, the hyper-concentrated mana sea prison simply imploded.
The spatial and hydraulic pressure within the sphere multiplied by infinity in a microsecond.
SHKKKK—!
There was no blood, no splattering of gore, and no dramatic final scream.
Aradin’s armor, his blade, his bones, his flesh, and his very soul were instantaneously pulverized into microscopic dust, completely dissolved into the pure elemental water.
When the prison vanished, nothing remained of Damascus’s proud champion.
The water simply rippled outward, washing over the clean stone, leaving the newly christened Saint standing in absolute, unchallenged silence beneath the proud gaze of his Master.