Infinite Evolution System Made Me Too OP!

Chapter 266: Paying The Price

...…

BOOOOOM!

Azmodeus accidentally pressed his feet a little too hard against the moon as it cracked in half and floated off into the void!

*6…5…4…3…2*

"At least give me the time to-"

*1…0…*

BLING!

A bright flash of golden light forced Azmodeus unconscious as he lay on one half of a satellite, aimlessly wandering through the vast void…

*Ding!* *The Price of Extreme Power is a hefty one. Be prepared to pay the price... This is what you agreed to… Do keep that in mind.*

*To tread the Path of Infinity, a price must be made… The Path of Infinity is one transcending all gods, but to surpass a god, one must first become a god. To become a god, one must understand what it means to lose everything—to transform into an existence worthy of ruling the Path of Infinity.*

*The Infinite Evolution System wishes the host luck on his path. Increasing 'Passive Pain Intensity' appropriately.*

…

An unknown amount of time passed by.

The Exact Date: Not Known

In a dark spot on the side of a spiraling mass of cosmic energies, a sudden tremble caused a nearby Black Hole to shake and quake.

RUMBLE!

The rumbling only became more intense as time passed, resulting in a transfiguration of the Quadrant's topography!

Then, out of nowhere, something shot up out of the center of a red star, causing the entire thing to implode in on itself!

"..."

A man more handsome than any number of gods appeared in the center of a supernova, his divinely chiseled body bathing in the cosmic energies that permeated the air around him.

"How long…" The man muttered, his crimson-colored hair flowing in the midst of the heat rays. "How long has it been…?" He looked around him, only to see that nothing was the same as it was before. Even the very nature of the Universe had been altered.

"How long…" He continued to mutter like a broken record, quickly vanishing from his spot as he zipped through the void of space, passing by an uncountable number of cosmic bodies. "So much has changed… The Laws… The Qi… Even the texture of Space…"

Azmodeus shot through the void like a slingshot, incidentally destroying everything in his path. He had yet to notice the system notifications bombarding his vision, and he had also not bothered to check the drastic changes to his body…

He was no longer the same person that he was before. His changes went beyond the scope of understanding. But the price of great power was a steep one…

Time.

A concept that extends beyond the values of human viability—an abstruse idea that everything flows in linear motion, similar to a river.

But what one was unaware of was that time was far more complicated than that. And more often than not, time was very cruel… So very cruel…

FWIP!

Azmodeus appeared in an area of the Areola Quadrant where he could feel slightly familiar energy signals. However, upon arriving, he saw nothing other than chunks and pieces of what was once the Astral Star Fleet. Erosion over a vast number of years had clearly done a number on the debris.

"The Star Fleet… My Clones…" He scanned the area and saw a number of his Primordial Essence Clones, all of whom were… dead.

Their bodily chunks and energy residue were scattered throughout the floating metal shards, making for a bloody scene—one capable of causing one's stomach to churn.

"If my Clones are dead… Then Yang Hua and the girls…"

He extended his Divine Sense in a rushed manner, looking for any traces that could prove his speculations wrong.

They must surely be alive… I mean, those bunch are stubborn yanderes… They can't die… Right…?

Azmodeus tirelessly scoured the area, trying to find even the slightest trace of their existence. However, no matter where he looked, nothing was found-

"A ribbon…" A light red, torn-up piece of fabric appeared in the corner of his vision as he immediately teleported over to it.

Upon picking up the ribbon, his face froze over. And for but an instant, sadness welled up inside him—an emotion once foreign to him. It reared its head once more, only to laugh in his face…

"Nao Long… She was so happy when she showed me this ribbon… She said it made her hair all the better to pet…" Azmodeus clenched the blood-stained ribbon in his hand, his aura spiraling out of control.

His face started to morph and change, fluctuating at a level that made him appear like a crimson glitch in the system. His aura blew past the restrictors keeping it under control as it forced the entire Quadrant to rupture!

"Azmodeus..."

That was when a sudden voice echoed out from behind Azmodeus.

"!?" He shot his head in the direction of the soothing voice, only to see a blue, illusory hologram. It projected from atop a small metal box, and in half a split second, another seven translucent figures materialized from thin air.

"If you're hearing this... It probably means we have died," said the first illusory figure.

'Yang Hua...'

"But don't worry about it, Az, Az...! We know how much of a burden we were, and with our untimely deaths, you are sure to rise to the Heavens!" The second illusory figure, Nao Long, jumped into the conversation with a forced smile on her pretty, tear-stricken face.

"Jue Mei... She said that everything happens as it should... And eventually, all will be as it was destined to be.

We don't really understand those words, but with her abrupt departure into a higher realm, she brought with her the shards of our existence.

Jue Mei spoke of our normal existences being too 'large' to directly ascend to a higher plane, so she extracted our essences and spoke of a potential reincarnation…" Chi Wu spoke with a motherly demeanor, seemingly trying to reach her slender arms out and hug the man she loved.

"Jue Mei... S-She said your path was different from ours—that your path was one that only you could walk, a-and that we were just in the way..." Bing Nu Shen, for the first time in a long time, started to cry.

"We know that we would never have been able to catch up to you... We knew that...! But that doesn't make it hurt any less..." She held her hand to her wet face, trying to maintain her composure.

She failed terribly...

However, Bing Nu Shen wasn't the only one in a similar state, as Chi Wu, Li Na, and the other fairy-like women could no longer stop the waterworks from coming.

"Hey, Az, Az." Nao Long turned her glistening globes in the direction where she knew Azmodeus would be.

"Wha-"

"You knew all along, didn't you...? That we loved you...?" Nao Long muffled her words through sniffles as she clenched her fists and cried into the dress that Azmodeus picked out for her.

"..."

Azmodeus went silent at the utterance of those words... he knew.

Of course he knew! How could he not know!?

But in the end, nothing much was left inside the empty shell that was his existence...

The capacity for empathy, the capacity for compassion, the capacity for... Love. None of it was possible for him.

The Path of Infinity... That is the path I walk. It is one that allows nothing other than the yearning for greater power.

You girls knew that... I know you did...

So you thought it would be better to just go out with a fight to the death... You thought it would be the best thing to do. You thought it would be best for me...

Because I'm weak... It is always because I'm too weak...

If I were strong enough... If I were a god like I am in the Infinite World. If that were to ever happen-

So that is what the Infinite Evolution System wants. I see now...

If that is the direction I must take, then it will happen.

Following these thoughts, Azmodeus turned his face up from the ground and saw that the girls were no longer there...

Why would they be here for me...? Was I ever truly there for them...?

He knew—he knew what kind of person he was. He knew what kind of person he had become.

It was this part of him that drove Azmodeus forward. This was what would allow him to traverse the Path of Infinity.

But how many things would he end up losing on his way to the top?

Just how much pain would he have to endure?

How much would he have to go through before it was all over...?

Bzzzt…

The hologram abruptly cut off, and the device that held it self-imploded.

It seemed that time was up…

OOOM!

An aura unlike any other erupted from within Azmodeus's darkened figure—one that held the core intent of his Prime Existence.

"You kill my clones… You take them away from me…"

Azmodeus's voice reverberated in a scratchy, static manner as his aura continuously expanded, forcing the Quadrant to bear witness to the birth of the first of a kind!

The Progenitor of a Race.

"For all that you have done…" His aura reached an all-time high as his glitchy face darkened to a degree beyond the concept of darkness. "For all that you have taken from me, the only thing that will remain is... D.E.A.T.H."

WAAAAAA!

His aura blew the top off the lid as the system could no longer restrain the emotions that wished to break through every concept known to existence!

"I…"

A voice that sounded like it came from the deepest of abyssal layers resonated with the very essence of the Universe. Purple rune lines blitzed out of Azmodeus's devil-horned figure as it enveloped the Areola Quadrant in its entirety.

"!!!" "!!!" "!!!"

In less than an instant, countless powerful existences in the Neverdye Galaxy felt the presence of something truly terrifying. But by the time they prepared to make a move, death had already arrived at their doorsteps…

"A.M…"

OOOOM!

The Areola Quadrant was constricted by the purple runes like a python suffocating its prey. The very fabric of reality started to warp underneath the pressure, as nothing was capable of stopping its ascent…

The Ascent of Death.

"I… A.M…" The static-like voice paused for only half an instant, and it almost felt like everything would return to normal-

"A.T.O.M.I.C."

Silence enveloped the world as countless Black Hole Sovereignty and Nebula Veil Realm Experts looked to the stars above.

For half an eternity, everyone stood in still motion, watching as everything unraveled…

The world was undone like a string of yarn, taking with it everything in sight…

And then it happened…

WHAZOOOOM!

Space sucked in on itself as the string of purple yarn exploded outward, resulting in a brilliant flash of light so large and dazzling that existence itself was blinded!

The Areola Quadrant vanished… The Quadrants beside it also vanished… The Nebula Veil Realm Experts vanished…

Everything… Vanished.

All who noticed the phenomenon in its early stages were no longer alive, while the truly powerful hegemonies of the Universe arrived far too late.

End of Volume 3

...…