Chapter 553 — Cosmic Sea

Liora did not interfere with the process that was taking place inside of her.

She watched as the dark bluish mist swirled within her physical body, while the hundreds of talents she had accumulated spread throughout it.

Although they occupied only a tiny percentage of the overall landscape, these two unique things seemed to resonate.

An overwhelming force arose, shooting up into Liora’s soul space. Instinctively, the World of Heart, which had long fused with her soul space, unfolded.

It descended around her and shrank down, covering only her body and slowly merging with the starry sky within her.

Liora’s complexion grew pale. An overwhelming pain assaulted her senses as she felt her own soul being torn apart.

No. It was not a mere illusion.

As the World of Heart fused with the starry sky, her soul space followed behind it. Her soul was indeed being extracted.

Three different powers—her talents, the World of Heart, and her soul space—began to merge.

Ignoring the nearly unbearable pain, Liora forced herself to remain awake and observe the process.

She watched as the mist continued swirling, as though it were cosmic dust, while the glow of the tiny stars intensified.

The World of Heart and soul space continued being stripped away and woven into this scene.

One percent, five percent, ten percent.

In the blink of an eye, more than twenty percent of her World of Heart had merged with the starry sky.

At that moment, Liora finally noticed a new change.

Around the tiny stars, where there had originally been nothing, small landscapes began to materialize.

Planets, flying continents, structures composed of hundreds of overlapping spaces...

Whatever Liora had once seen in the structure of other worlds was now being created within her.

At first, these tiny worlds were small and numbered only a few dozen. But as more and more of the World of Heart combined with the Cosmic Sea, their size and number soared.

By the end, hundreds of them could be seen revolving around each talent, like solar systems revolving around their star.

At that moment, a deafening boom echoed through Liora’s mind.

A tremor rushed across the entire Cosmic Sea.

The cosmos quivered for several seconds before its evolution was finally completed.

A giant vortex appeared at the very top of the sea as black threads extended from its interior, linking all the stars together.

The vortex—Predation—hung above all the worlds like a supreme ruler.

Every star, every continent, every fragment of cosmic dust seemed connected to it.

It was as though the entire Cosmic Sea revolved around its existence, just like the Human Shrine had revolved around the World Core.

Then, everything returned to calm.

The cosmic dust resumed its swirling, with different worlds floating among it, while the tiny stars representing her talents pulsed in rhythm with the giant vortex towering above them all.

The pain assaulting Liora’s senses gradually faded away.

As her awareness returned, she felt her own strength soar.

Her strength had grown significantly more than when her nine talents simultaneously reached Rank 8, proving that an Unknown-Rank talent was indeed special.

However, Liora did not pay much attention to the physical or energy aspects just yet.

Instead, she focused on the fundamental changes that had occurred within her.

For example, both her World of Heart and her soul space had vanished. Or rather, they had combined with the Cosmic Sea within her.

For another example...

"My very nature has changed.", Liora whispered as she opened her eyes and looked down at her own hand.

Her appearance remained unchanged. If anyone didn’t know any better, they would see no difference in her.

Yet, as the owner of this body, Liora realized that her physical structure was now different.

When she looked at herself, she no longer saw flesh and blood, but appeared to be looking at the Origin Sea.

She had long ceased being a human of this world, but now, she no longer seemed to be a pure Devil either.

In a certain sense, Liora had the impression that she was no longer a living creature at all.

If she had to describe it, she currently existed more like a world, or perhaps even like the Origin Sea.

"This change cannot be purely because of Predation..."

"I previously suspected that the Evolution System creates the upgraded techniques based on my own thoughts and wishes. In the past, I wondered whether I would one day transform into the Origin Sea."

"Was this subconscious thought the reason the Cosmic Devouring Technique took such a peculiar form?"

Liora could only guess as much.

Acting as a System for Aaron had given her many insights, and she had roughly deduced how a system functioned.

Of course, now was not the time to dwell on this.

Raising her head, she looked at the countless black threads erupting from her back, and her mind stirred.

Immediately, the tentacles retreated into her body, allowing the void to return to normal.

Then, Liora waved her hand. The World Core shot toward her and settled onto her palm.

Its light was considerably dimmer compared to before.

Though it constantly refined faith to recover, it was obvious that it would not succeed anytime soon.

Predation’s transformation into the Cosmic Sea had not come without cost. The World Core had suffered greatly during the process, acting as its "power bank."

Liora did not try to devour the rest of the World Core. She carefully put it away and was prepared to leave this place.

Just as that thought emerged, however, she suddenly remembered something she had nearly forgotten.

Her gaze shifted inward once more, toward the Cosmic Sea that housed every one of her abilities, including her demonic energy and Cosmic Energy.

Her gaze swept across the Cosmic Sea as though she had become its Will.

A moment later, her eyes landed on a certain floating object. It was neither a star nor one of the many worlds that had been born inside.

Instead, it was a corpse.

Covered in dense golden scales and carrying an aura of supreme majesty, it was the Divine Dragon whose corpse she had obtained in the past.

With the World of Heart now part of the Cosmic Sea, its stored remains had also appeared here. And as Liora looked at it, an idea couldn’t help but surface in her mind.

She decided to put that idea to the test.

With a thought, an illusory phantom of herself appeared beneath the vortex and stretched out its hand toward the dragon.