Lord: Sequence Master

Rosen stood by the window of the Mysterious Study, watching as the Void Prison realm slowly reset.

To expedite the reset process and minimize damage to the realm, Rosen tossed out a large number of time-attribute spiritual crystals from the window. As a result, the reset was completed in less than an hour.

The Punisher and the prisoners who had been killed all revived as the realm rebooted.

Without even leaving the window, Rosen extended Dragon King's Wrath through the window and began shooting relentlessly.

The moment the Punisher left the punishment zone, its memories reset, and it was hit with a shot that instantly wiped away 1,000 years of its lifespan.

Three shots later, the Punisher was dead before it even realized where the enemy was.

Rosen once again wiped out all the prisoners, forcing another reset of the realm.

The cycle repeated. After nine resets, Rosen realized that he could no longer physically enter the Void Prison. The realm had degraded to Sequence 7, making it impossible for him to enter directly.

Fortunately, he could still shoot from the window, and he had already repositioned the window to face the entrance of the Punisher's rest area.

After another nine resets, the Void Prison fell to Sequence 8.

Following the third round of nine resets, it dropped to Sequence 9.

The lower the level, the easier the kills became. This was when Rosen truly realized how effective the Mysterious Study was against foreign realms.

Of course, this only worked in smaller realms. If the space had been vast, it would have been nearly impossible for him to eliminate all life within it and force such quick resets.

After a fourth round of nine resets, the Void Prison could no longer reset.

Instead, it began to collapse entirely. The realm ignited with the civilizational flame of the once-great Void Church, burning the entire Void Prison realm to ashes before it finally started falling into the Abyss of Civilization in the deepest layers of the spirit world.

At this point, the ashen remnants of the Void Prison no longer repelled beings of any Sequence level.

Rosen jumped out of the window, summoning the Miracle Item: Kindling Pile, and began transforming the remaining ashes into kindling. As the ashes completely disappeared, the space itself began to collapse.

Rosen packed up the Mysterious Study and activated the Void Phase ability of the Fairy Dragon Orb without hesitation.

Once inside the Fairy Dragon Orb's eggshell, Rosen immediately locked onto the pre-marked spatial coordinates at Reiss Marquis' Castle guest room and began the teleportation.

Had he delayed just a few more seconds, he could have been dragged into the depths of the spirit world and encountered a serious problem.

Thanks to Void Phase, though, it was a close call but ultimately safe.

At that moment, Marquis Reiss, realizing that the Void Prison statue had suddenly crumbled to ashes, was feeling desperate. But when he saw Rosen enter the chamber and collect the ashes of the statue, the marquis realized that Rosen had actually destroyed the Void Prison completely.

There was a world of difference between simply rescuing someone and escaping versus completely destroying the Void Prison in just a few days.

Marquis Reiss quickly deduced a possibility: could this Earl Rosen be one of the legendary Godborn?

If he wasn't backed by a deity, how could he have accomplished something so unbelievable?

Any thoughts of revenge vanished in that moment.

Rosen released Anthony, prepared to bring this matter to a close.

Although Marquis Reiss had harbored ill intentions, Rosen had gained both the Void Prison and the Void Gun Dance. Not to mention, the marquis' wife had been quite welcoming. Rosen had no need to completely eliminate the family.

Seeing Anthony's horrific condition, Marquis Reiss rushed forward, full of concern, to check his son's injuries.

But in that very moment, the mentally shattered Anthony suddenly regained clarity.

A metal spike shot out from Anthony's palm, plunging into Marquis Reiss' heart before the marquis could react.

In the blink of an eye, Marquis Reiss was dead, even as he and his son had just been reunited.

Instantly, the floating island of the Reiss Family went into lockdown. A barrier sealed off the island, and the five Mage Towers surrounding the castle moved into place, forming a pentagram magic array to seal the surrounding space.

Rosen turned, surprised, to look at Anthony. He hadn't expected this sudden turn of events.

Initially, Rosen suspected that part of the Punisher's divine essence might have hidden inside Anthony and was controlling him. But on second thought, the Void Prison realm wouldn't reset again if the Punisher hadn't truly died.

And if the Punisher could escape by hiding inside someone, the Bronze Dragon wouldn't have been trapped in the Time Dragon Nest for 20,000 years.

This meant that Anthony hadn't been controlled by the Punisher—he had killed Marquis Reiss of his own free will.

The only explanation Rosen could think of was that Anthony had been broken by the Punisher's torture and had become a follower of the Void Sovereign.

No wonder the Punisher had let him hide in the wardens' rest area.

As Marquis Reiss' lifeless body quickly withered into a dry husk, Anthony's injuries vanished.

"I'll kill you and offer you to my lord," Anthony said with a maniacal grin.

"We'll see about that," Rosen replied, pulling out Dragon King's Wrath to finish him off.

But when Rosen fired a Judgment Bullet at Anthony, his own spiritual energy was struck by the Judgment's spiritual recoil.

It was only then that Rosen realized he had overlooked something.

Anthony was a genius—that much was obvious, given his boldness in entering the Void Prison.

But how exactly was he a genius? Even after learning about Anthony's background from Fala and extracting parts of Anthony's memories in the Void Prison, Rosen still didn't know what sequence Anthony belonged to.

It was as if some power had been preventing anyone from noticing the extraordinary sequence Anthony had mastered.

Just as Rosen was about to forcefully kill him, an elderly man in a suit appeared out of nowhere beside Anthony.

"Teacher, kill him for me," Anthony demanded, wild-eyed.

The old man looked at Rosen, sighed regretfully, and shook his head. "I can't kill him."

Anthony glared at Rosen with hatred, and even cast a dissatisfied look at the old man.

The old man pulled out a scroll, tore it apart, and instantly disappeared with Anthony.

It was only then that Rosen, who had been on full alert, finally relaxed.

The one Anthony had called teacher was definitely not human—it was a demigod from another race.

The alien demigod didn't attack, likely due to possessing a special perception ability. After realizing he couldn't easily take Rosen down, the demigod quickly decided to retreat with Anthony. After all, this was Thunder Capital—stirring up trouble here would be catastrophic, even for an alien demigod or a god.

Rosen pondered for a moment, then contacted Duke Melbourne through the Spirit Web. Duke Melbourne was the highest-ranking noble Rosen knew in the Thunder Empire. With Marquis Reiss dead, his son taken by an alien demigod, and the Marquis' wife compromised by Rosen, he needed to handle the situation carefully or risk being blamed for everything.

Within five minutes, a squad of Storm Thunderbird Knights appeared outside the floating island of the Reiss family. The knights, wielding lightning, forcibly breached the island's barrier and the Mage Towers' spatial seals, storming the castle. Rosen watched from outside as the knights thoroughly searched the castle, turning it upside down. Every servant of the Reiss family was lined up in the castle's garden, undergoing a thorough inspection of both their bodies and spirits. The knights were respectful to Rosen, a hereditary duke, throughout the investigation.

As Rosen observed, he pieced together the truth. Anthony was indeed a genius, but specifically, he was an extremely rare jurist. All jurists were required to join the World Government, whether they wanted to or not. There was no escaping this obligation. Jurists specialized in the study of law, creating and enforcing laws. The World Government, as the legitimate authority of human civilization, held the true power of law. Any jurist who left the World Government would be nothing more than an empty shell.

If a god violated the World Government's fundamental laws, even a Sequence 3 jurist could kill that god. This was because jurists could wield the power of civilizational flame, drawn from humanity's legal structure, to enforce justice. In this way, jurists were incredibly dangerous, acting as one of the core forces that upheld the World Government's rule.

As Marquis Reiss' heir, Anthony wielded unquestioned authority within his family. Over time, he instilled a law within the castle that no servant could disobey him within its boundaries. This created a weak but localized law within the castle, granting Anthony absolute power there. That was why Rosen's earlier shot had backfired—he had been struck by the castle's law.

Normally, the birth of a jurist wouldn't go unnoticed by the World Government, but Anthony was not registered in any official records. This meant that someone high up in the World Government had hidden Anthony's jurist identity and possibly colluded with aliens to push him toward betrayal. The aliens' efforts to abduct a jurist clearly pointed to a larger plot. If Anthony hadn't recklessly entered the Void Prison, he would likely still be lying low in Thunder Capital, unnoticed.

If Marquis Reiss hadn't sought Rosen's help in the Void Prison, that alien demigod would have eventually found a way to extract Anthony. In this light, Rosen's actions—rescuing Anthony from the Void Prison—were meritorious. If the alien demigod had retrieved Anthony instead, the World Government would have remained oblivious to the fact that a jurist had betrayed humanity.

A few days later, Rosen, temporarily staying at a hotel, learned of the Reiss family's fate. The matter had been settled for now: the Reiss family had been stripped of their noble title. All surviving former marquises of the Reiss family were to be thoroughly investigated, and none of them, even at the human borders, could expect an easy life. The Marquis' wife was not imprisoned after her investigation. Instead, she was taken by a secret division of the World Government.

During their final encounter, Rosen could tell—without even needing to use mind-reading—that the Marquis' wife harbored deep hatred for both Anthony and the aliens. It was clear she had become a pawn for the World Government, set against her own son. Rosen had a strong feeling that he would cross paths with both the Marquis' wife and Anthony again in the future. When that time came, he wouldn't give Anthony another chance to escape.

Although this ordeal had entangled Rosen with aliens, even knowing the outcome, he wouldn't have chosen any other path. The rewards were simply too enticing. The power of Void Gun Dance was undeniable, and the benefits gained from the Void Prison were nothing short of extraordinary.

Using his Hunter's God Eye, Rosen had recorded and synthesized the Judgment Bullets he'd collected from slaying the Punisher. He synthesized 9 Sequence 9 bullets into 4 Sequence 8 ones, then 13 Sequence 8 into 6 Sequence 7, and finally 15 Sequence 7 into 7 Sequence 6 bullets. Combined with the 9 Sequence 6 bullets he already had, Rosen now possessed 16 Sequence 6 Judgment Bullets. Each of these bullets contained the divine essence of the Punisher and could randomly grant one of the Punisher's abilities. Although they were only Sequence 6, when paired with Dragon King's Wrath, they posed a deadly threat to most Sequence 5 opponents.

In addition to the bullets, Rosen had slain the Punisher a total of 36 times. Of these, 27 occurred after the Void Prison dropped below Sequence 7, yielding only low-level supernatural artifacts—most of which came from the fallen prisoners. This haul of several thousand supernatural items would be used to arm Rosen's citizens.

The Void Prison had reset nine times at Sequence 6, allowing Rosen to kill the Sequence 6 Punisher nine times. In five of those instances, loot orbs had dropped, while the other four times, Rosen had dissected the body to extract supernatural essence and some additional supernatural items.

Rosen crushed the loot orbs, revealing a treasure trove of high-quality spiritual crystals infused with divine power and several supernatural artifacts from the Punisher's sequence. But only two things were truly useful to him.

The first was a Skill Crystal—a Hunter's skill created through the God of Hunting's authority. Based on the supernatural items dropped by the Punisher, Rosen had gained a good understanding of its abilities: the Punisher's core skills revolved around capture, judgment, and domination. The Skill Crystal he had acquired contained the Punisher's ability for mind domination. Without hesitation, Rosen absorbed the Skill Crystal.

Mind Domination

Type: Divine Authority Skill

Passive Attribute: His own divine power could infiltrate, corrupt, and dominate the spiritual essence of his prey.

Active Skill: Instantly dominate a being whose spiritual essence is in a weakened state.

Rosen had only just advanced to Sequence 6, but he had already mastered three Hunter skills, all of which were special abilities. His smooth progression made him feel almost uneasy. With Mind Domination, he could maximize the destructive power of his Judgment Bullets. He could even combine Nightmare Shackles, Ashen Curtain, Beast King's Fury, and Pictomancy to enhance the effects of Mind Domination.

After familiarizing himself with these skill combinations, Rosen turned his attention to the second item of interest.

Essence Artifact: Void War Boots

Level: Sequence 6

Attributes: Greatly increases movement speed and void affinity.

Essence Abilities: Void Stealth, Void Walk, Void Blink, Void Roam, Void Judgment.

Requirement: Hunter Sequence 6.

When Rosen donned the Void War Boots, he immediately felt a massive boost in speed. Additionally, his perception and control over space were significantly enhanced due to his void affinity. Void Stealth further improved his stealth abilities, Void Walk allowed him to move through the void unhindered by terrain, and Void Blink—when combined with Void Gun Dance—would drastically increase the speed of his blink movements. Void Roam enabled long-distance void teleportation. Finally, Void Judgment allowed him to banish prey to a marked extra-dimensional space.

This meant that without needing spatial traps, Rosen could directly banish his target into the Void Gallery by hitting them. Of course, combining both methods would make the effect even stronger.

After familiarizing himself with his newfound speed, Rosen used Void Roam to leave Thunder Capital.

Upon returning to Frostsnow City, Grey Mouse resumed its treasure hunt deep within the snow mountains.

Possessing the Treasure-Seeking Skill, Grey Mouse was convinced that a great treasure lay hidden in the depths of the snow mountains. Yet, no matter how hard it searched, it couldn't find anything, leaving it frustrated and restless—until that treasure was uncovered, it would not be satisfied.

However, Rosen's return to Frostsnow City wasn't to fulfill Grey Mouse's desire.

Instead, it was because he had noticed something unique about the city—a calming force that seemed to soothe the mind.

In the past, this feeling was faint, but after advancing to Sequence 6, Rosen's spiritual transformation made this sensation much clearer.

He found comfort in living here and planned to stay in the city to further refine his Nen abilities.

Upon advancing to Sequence 6, his Nen abilities had also risen to Level 4.

At its core, Nen was the manipulation of one's own life force, combined with spirituality to generate and control Nen energy.

The stronger the life force, the more powerful the Nen abilities.

Rosen had once regretted choosing to master Nen, as its strength depended on life force. Since most human Extraordinary Sequences didn't heavily emphasize life force, his Nen abilities had always lagged behind his other skills.

To compensate, he even had to share life force from his Nightmare Slime to boost his Nen power.

It wasn't until he consumed the Golden Apple that his life force underwent a qualitative transformation.

However, this didn't change the fact that Nen abilities were inherently weaker compared to other Extraordinary Sequences.

Rosen's research revealed that this was a common problem for all life-based abilities.

Mastering life force was best suited for healing and draining life energy.

Thus, future development of his Nen abilities would focus on these two aspects for maximum potential.

After several days of experimentation, Rosen easily developed his fourth specific Nen ability.

Nen Abilities LV4: Manipulate life force (Qi) combined with spirituality to generate and control Nen energy.

Enhanced Trait: Allows Nen energy to fuse with various attributes.Enhanced Trait: Can permanently consume Nen energy to strengthen the physical body.

Nen Enhanced Abilities:

Godslayer Crossbow, Devourer Beast, Hunter's Eye, Golden Apple

Rosen compressed his spiritual Nen energy in his hand, consuming nearly all of it to create a Golden Apple.

This Nen-created Golden Apple was essentially a mutated replica of the real thing.

When Rosen consumed the Golden Apple, it instantly restored his Nen energy, healed his physical injuries, and purified any negative spiritual effects. In the future, as a demigod, it would even slowly enhance his Golden Divinity.

But the Golden Apple also had powerful negative effects.

With a mere thought, Rosen could transform it into a poisonous apple, capable of corroding life force, worsening injuries, polluting spirituality, and even, in the future, eroding divine power.

Taking a bite of the Golden Apple, its immense life energy flowed into his body, refining it through spiritual Nen energy.

Normally, to enhance his physical body with Nen, Rosen would have to permanently consume his own life force.

However, by eating a Golden Apple formed from Nen energy, he could strengthen his body without sacrificing any life force.

The relationship between Nen and the Golden Apple was like flour and bread—Nen energy was refined into a more potent form to deliver greater effects.

After developing this new Nen ability, Rosen turned his attention to Nightmare Shackles.

Upon reaching Level 4, all abilities would undergo a qualitative change and gain enhanced traits.

Nightmare Shackles LV4: Can manipulate spirituality to create Nightmare Shackles.

Enhanced Trait: Nightmare Shackles now possess strengthened sealing properties.Enhanced Trait: Nightmare Shackles can embed miracle artifacts to gain special effects.

This new enhancement of Nightmare Shackles surprised Rosen.

He experimented by embedding the Dragon Blood Flask into the Nightmare Shackles, which then gained a powerful restraining effect against dragon-type beings—essentially amplifying the artifact's power.

With these advancements, Rosen had fully secured his standing as a Sequence 6 Hunter. Over the past few days, his transformed spirituality had stabilized.

Now, he was ready to advance his Painter Sequence to Sequence 6 as well.

It was best to use a spiritual painting to ascend to Sequence 6 because every painter who advanced from Sequence 7 to Sequence 6 could bind one of their spiritual paintings to their Extraordinary essence, allowing the painting to grow with the painter's progression.

This time, Rosen intended to paint none other than the Void Prison.

First, he would convert the ashes of the Void Prison into fuel, then ignite the ashes to reflect the remnants of its civilization.

Finally, as the flames of the past reignited, Rosen would transform the reborn Void Prison into a spiritual painting.

This way, Rosen wouldn't need to rely on the Divine Beast Pen to imprison Extraordinary beings.

The Void Prison would be far better suited for holding captives, while the Divine Beast Pen could focus on nurturing them.

Furthermore, Extraordinary beings subjected to the tortures of the Void Prison would have their spiritual essence weakened, making it easier for Rosen to use Mind Domination to twist and control their spiritual self.

Rosen realized that building up a population of followers from scratch wasn't ideal for him.

His rapid growth meant his followers couldn't keep up.

Yet, for the future, he couldn't ignore the need to cultivate subjects, as they would be crucial when founding a nation and spreading faith. To bridge the gap between his growth and that of his people, he could capture Extraordinary beings and brainwash them into loyal subjects.

This strategy was borrowed from the World Government itself. When they conquered a civilization, they destroyed those who couldn't be subdued, enslaving the rest under their control.

Even today, the World Government maintained a vast army composed entirely of alien supernaturals.

Rosen took out the ashes he had collected and converted them into fuel before throwing them into the Firewood Pile.

The Ashen Curtain reflected the remaining light of a fallen civilization, and using the Miracle Pen combined with the Eternal Flame trait, Rosen ignited the Civilizational Flame once more.

As the reborn flame flickered to life, it began to revive traces of the Void Dominator from the deep records of history.

After all, the Void Dominator was the source of this Civilizational Flame. Its rekindling signified the Void Dominator's awakening.

However, in the next moment, Rosen used the Miracle Flame, the source of all Civilizational Flames, to devour the newly ignited Void Dominator's flame.

Not only did this extinguish the Void Dominator's hope of revival, but Rosen also stole the very foundation of the Void Church's civilization.

He then continued, taking out prepared pigments and beginning to paint the new Void Prison on his canvas.

(End of Chapter)