Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

While the tribulation was unexpected, it could also be a good thing. No one else than him knew what it meant and how long it would last, so he had the liberty of choosing what others would know.

A few minutes later, Judith, Adam's first disciple, came into his room and asked "You summoned me master?"

Adam nodded and said "Have you seen the clouds above the city?" Judith nodded and said "I have, is it an attack of some sort?"

Adam shook his head and said "It appeared because of my imminent breakthrough." Judith's eyes widened as she asked "Are you about to enter the Gold Rank?!"

Adam nodded, and seeing her excitement he said "Calm down, while those are good news, I need you to do something for me."

Judith nodded, calming down. Adam said "I want you to spread rumours about the clouds. Tell everyone they are here because of my promotion, and I will be weakened while they stay in the sky. They will remain for one week, and in seven days will be the day I will be at my weakest. I want everyone in this dimension to know about it by the end of the week. After that, I will become a Gold Rank."

Judith replied "It will be done." and she retreated out of the room.

Him being weakened was obviously a lie, but he had her say this because he wanted to bait Tazolos into attacking him. Although five months had already gone by since he escaped from Adam, Tazolos couldn't possibly have healed already, even in a hundred years he probably wouldn't be able to, and that is considering he has resources.

But Tazolos already went against Adam's domain, and he should know that if Adam promotes to Gold Rank, then finding him would become even easier. That's why, as long as he received the news of Adam being weakened, chances are he will rush to attack Adam. Even if he didn't, then Adam would be able to breakthrough safely.

As for attacking him while he was going through the Heavenly Tribulation… That would simply be foolish, Tazolos would die before he would be able to hurt Adam. The Heavenly Tribulation, or Heaven's Test, was a test made by Heaven for individuals, and thus it didn't accept others' presence.

If someone else tried to interfere then they would be smitten by the full might of Heaven, something that would kill even a peak Legend.

Here, Heaven wasn't the Divine Realm, but rather the world itself. Going against a tribulation was like going against the world itself, which was suicidal. Although the power of the world was weaker in this dimension than in Epoch, it was still more than powerful enough to kill a Legend like Tazolos.

Quickly, the news of the clouds' origin spread around the Divine Capital, and the Sages who entered the city for various reasons quickly relayed the news to the other Sages around the world. In a few days, everyone around the world already knew about it, and many, not only Tazolos, harboured evil plans against Adam.

The ones from Epoch, although they didn't like Adam, didn't have any scheme against Adam, and even wanted to help him as they didn't know Tazolos had been injured by Adam and was much weaker than usual.

It was the different Sages around the world who wanted to harm Adam. They didn't have any hope of leaving this dimension anyway, and the way Adam treated them wasn't much different from Tazolos.

They would rather have Tazolos, who lost all of his people, govern them for a few thousands years and die rather than continue serving Adam, who still had the other humans who could succeed him.

Of course, not everyone of them wanted to take action, many were still scared by Adam's power and intended to watch. If they had the opportunity, maybe they would attack, but if they didn't then they would rather not have anything to do with this.

Quickly, a week went by, and Adam would go through his tribulation today… not. Even that wasn't true. Actually, tribulation came after nine days, not seven, but people didn't have to know that.

Still, for his trap to be effective, and not to destroy his city in the incoming battle, Adam flew out and chose a relatively hidden spot to breakthrough, which Adam wished he could have leaked the location, but having too many clues would deter Tazolos instead of bringing him to him.

So Adam hoped Tazolos would be able to find him. To help him, Adam would keep his domain active. Now, Tazolos only had to come in a kilometer from Adam and he would find him.

Even if Adam tried to hide his domain from Tazolos, he wouldn't even be able. For Heroes or below, they were too weak to really sense the domain if he hid it, but for strong Sages and Legends, they could feel the domain even if it was hidden. Spying on such beings was hard.

Hours went by, and toward the end of the afternoon Adam suddenly felt a strong person enter his domain. Tazolos had found his hidden spot, who knows how he found him.

He felt Tazolos visibly stop, clearly hesitating, but as Adam didn't rush at him, he moved toward Adam. Tazolos moved very slowly, obviously ready to leave at any moment.

On the other end, Adam didn't do anything as he feared Tazolos had some means to escape once again, and he wanted him to be as close as possible, to strike him down in an instant.

1000 meters…

900 meters…

800 meters…

500 meters…

200 meters…

As Tazolos entered within one hundred meters of Adam, the two could already see each other, Adam being on top of a small mountain, while Tazolos was at it's foot. Both of them could move through this distance in a fraction of a second, although Adam would probably be ten times as fast.

The two looked at each other, Adam feigned anger, while Tazolos showed some confidence. After a moment, Tazolos said "You bared my path to the Legendary Rank. It wouldn't be polite of me to not do the same."

Adam replied calmly "I don't understand how you managed to recover from your injuries. Summoning a god and surviving is already quite incredible, and now you even managed to recover from your injuries."

Tazolos sneered and said "You understand nothing. It is now time for you to die!" As he said that, a powerful Aura gushed out of his body, followed by… a domain.

However, before it could really extend, Adam's domain pressed on it, forcing it to regress, and in the end, it was only able to extend fifty meters around Tazolos.

Adam raised an eyebrow and said "Looks like you haven't fully recovered, despite becoming a bona fide Legend your Domain only amounts to so much."

Opening the Fifth Gate wasn't exactly the only way for one to have a domain, reaching the Legendary Rank also allowed one to form a domain thanks to their Golden Idol.

However, their domain would be less powerful most of the time, especially against humanoids who opened their 6th Gate.

Humanoids walked the path of the elite while monsters went for quantity. There were many more Legendary Monsters then humanoids Legends. However, humanoids were generally stronger.

There were some exception of course, such as the Dragon King, or other powerful monsters. But in exchange, their reproduction rate was much slower than others.

But even if his domain was weaker than humanoids, as a Legend his domain should still be higher than Adam's, who hadn't yet promoted to Gold Rank. But apparently, because of his injuries, his domain was much weaker than it should be, and so Adam was able to overpower him by a big deal.