Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Adam was very surprised by the nature of that hand, it meant a Great Devil, a Demonic God, had gone out of his way to help Tazolos.

Although Adam couldn't be called an expert in demon knowledge, he knew some bits about demonic rituals and sacrifices, which was exactly what Tazolos had done. Using his body and probably even more, Tazolos had summoned the Demonic God to get save him.

However, Adam wasn't scared, as he knew Tazolos was still in this realm. Moreover, to bring a Great Devil, the price he had paid had to be enormous.

Creating a portal toward Hell or the Divine Realm was very difficult, and needed big sacrifices or energy to be done. And that was in Epoch, which was a whole realm where space was intact.

However, they were now in a sub dimension, and as such, creating a portal from Providence to Hell was almost impossible. Even if Tazolos sacrificed his entire body and soul, erasing his own existence forever, he would barely be able to summon the Aura of a Demonic God, even as a Legendary Demon.

The reason that Great Devil had been able to get his hand in Providence was because he had sacrificed his own hand in exchange of saving Tazolos. Moreover, demonic rituals were vicious, and they wouldn't hold any meaning if the ones performing them could simply heal. Even that Great Devil would have to pay a big price it might not even be able to afford to heal it's hand.

The same went for Tazolos, whatever he had sacrificed, it would never come back. So even though Tazolos had managed to survived, he was now gravely injured, with possibly no way of ever recovering, and he was still in Providence.

Also, even if Tazolos had fled, it wouldn't have been really dramatic for Adam. As the owner of the dimension's core, Tazolos would have to come back to Providence ever now and then to keep the barrier intact.

The barrier Tazolos had created that barred the access to the dimension needed energy, which was taken directly from Tazolos. Although it could power itself for some time, it would be limited to a few months. And that was if it was left alone.

If Adam used his Space Concept to attack it, it would use far more energy. Hence, Adam truly did not worry about the intervention of that Great Devil, it would only delay his plans by a little. The worse that could happen now would be Tazolos opening the dimension to the outside world, which would fold some of Adam's plans, but even that wouldn't be dramatic.

What truly intrigued Adam though was the fact a Great Devil had willingly sacrificed his own hand to save the miserable life of a Half-King Demon. Adam couldn't help but wonder what kind of relationship Tazolos and that Great Devil had for the later to step in.

Well, he would discover it when he captured Tazolos. Moreover, since now it was a good thing as it had even allowed him to pick up the freshly cut hand of a Great Devil.

The bodies of Great Devils were treasures in themselves due to how strong they were. One could refine them into weapons, armours or potions of incredible might. And there might even be other ways to use that hand, but Adam didn't know them so he would keep this hand for now.

Now that Tazolos had been deeply injured, the demon would probably hide while he recovered from his injuries. Adam didn't want to waste his time searching for the demon, and now that he had plundered all the resources available in Providence, he would focus on growing stronger in the Divine Capital while the forces of Epoch would work for him.

Still, Adam wouldn't forget about the monster below him. He quickly moved it's corpse into the Blood Tower and created a rift toward it's treasury, which happened to be within his domain.

Once he was done, he left for the Divine Capital, ready to begin his last seclusion before Gold Rank.

When he arrived there, he gave a few quick commands to his nine Division Leaders, soon to become his nine Heavenly Generals, before entering the cultivation room Tazolos had been previously using.

As for the city, if anyone were to attack it then they would first have to enter his domain, and he would be able to kill them before they even had a chance to attack.

After that fateful day where Adam established his domination over the entire dimension, days passed quickly and turned into weeks, and months. Be it his cultivation or his Concepts, both had reached the peak of their respective ranks, and each asked a lot of time.

Thankfully, Adam's recent breakthrough with the Gates allowed him to earn a lot of time. Since he heavily injured Tazolos, five months had gone by, and lots of changes took place in Providence.

Tazolos had kept the barrier up, meaning he was really still in Providence, and so all the forces of Epoch were forced to stay in the Divine Capital, both for their own safety, and because Adam wanted to keep an eye on them.

The countless monsters around the world had already been forced into submission, but that was toward Adam. When he spread his tyranny around the world Adam had killed a lot of Sages, meaning a lot of new territories had been created, which started a war among the Sage monsters for them.

After those few months, the situation had gotten better, and the struggles were basically over. While Adam took their resources, there were still some in the fields, and it would regrow with time for most, which was why those territories were important.

Moreover, midway through his seclusion, after Adam's guild had determined the amount of resources they would need to repair and expend the city, as well as build the flying ships, he had decided to give back a part of the remaining resources to the surviving Sages, who now worked under the Ninth Division.

Speaking of the resources, great progress had been made for the city too as it had been repaired entirely, and they were already starting to expend. Moreover, once Adam opened the dimension back, he intended to have mortals moved to Providence to finally form his kingdom. When he did so, he would create other cities and road for those mortals.

While it only took minutes for Adam to travel around the world, it wasn't the same for mortals, who would need days or months if the dimension was left as it was.

The rest of the forces of Epoch had at some point also grown somewhat bolder, thinking Tazolos' threat was over, and had tried to take back some of their rights. Their little 'rebellion' had been quickly extinguished though when some of them had been frozen in the middle of the street from seemingly out of nowhere.

Finally, for Adam, he had gained a lot during his seclusion. All his Concepts were now at 100%, a step away from Essences, and today he had finally managed to hit Level 100, reaching the absolute peak of the Silver Rank, meaning he was now qualified to enter the Gold Rank.

But when he reached Level 100, something rather shocking happened. Numerous clouds started appearing above the Divine Capital, and through his domain Adam could feel they weren't led here by any individual.

However, he could also feel they didn't come here naturally. Moreover, those clouds hadn't only appeared above the Divine Capital, but above New York too, back on Earth.

Some time after they did, Adam finally received his answer as to what they were. Odin had made a special trip and personally told him about them. Apparently, when going through actual cultivation, one would go through a test, Heaven's Test. One would be struck by lightning when they entered the Inner Core Realm.

Actually, it would be those lightning bolts that would help one refine their liquid pillars of Qi into a Solid Core.