Awakening：The Infinite Evolution of My Talent as a Low-Level Awakener

Sterl then looked further ahead, where an intense battle was taking place. He could even feel the violent fluctuations of Divine Power and Law Power.

Clearly, the powerful beings within The Thorn Cage Hell had also discovered the immortality of the Silver Spiders and had decided to go after the source—attempting to strike at the Mother, who was hidden far behind the lines. However, it seemed they hadn't had the chance to act yet, as the Mother had already detected their intentions and sent powerful soldiers to intercept them.

Sterl activated his perception to its fullest and soon observed the situation at that battlefield.

He saw dozens of Hellish beings at the demigod level engaged in combat with dozens of Silver Mantises. Among them, a Dark Gnome was controlling a giant puppet beast made of unknown metals, fighting against a monster that resembled an Earth Wolf.

In addition, a medium-sized Evil Wasp was facing off against a formidable Earth Wolf.

These two beings were the strongest of The Thorn Cage Hell, and the only ones among them to have reached the divine level. But even they were finding it extremely difficult to deal with the Silver Earth Wolves, whose immense defensive power and vitality made them seem like indestructible monsters.

The Evil Wasp deity had originally planned to use speed to break through the blockade of these creatures, but the Earth Wolves had an unexpected ability to teleport. As soon as the Evil Wasp moved even slightly, they could instantly appear right in front of him and launch a brutal attack.

At this point, dozens of demigods and two deities had been trapped here for an entire day. Not only had they failed to kill a single enemy, but their own strength was quickly draining away. If this continued, they were at risk of being worn down and dying right here.

"The Mother doesn't seem to be in any hurry to attack," Sterl muttered, furrowing his brow.

The strength of The Thorn Cage Hell was clearly far greater than Venomous Swamp Hell, with even two deities among them. Additionally, there were dozens of demigods, a large number of legendary beings, and millions in the army.

Such a massive force, even in Alpha 8, would be able to dominate an entire region and become a force that even other deities would fear.

But Sterl knew very well that, even with twenty deities, they would have no chance against a fully powered Mother.

Putting aside the Mother's immense strength, just her ability to expend energy and create fusion monsters imbued with parts of higher-level divine authority would be enough to wipe out an entire layer of Hell.

"Since that's the case, what is the real purpose behind the Mother's delay?" Sterl thought, his mind racing.

"Is it gathering energy?" he speculated.

His thoughts drifted back to the enormous hole that had been devoured in Venomous Swamp Hell. Perhaps the reason the Mother was gradually consuming these resistors was to consume the world itself, gathering nutrients in the process.

But considering the Mother's strength, she shouldn't need any energy reserves to deal with this layer of Hell. So why adopt this approach? Why not just eliminate all the resistors and then slowly consume them?

Sterl's mind was in turmoil. There was something off about this situation.

"No, something's wrong," he thought. "The Mother has extremely high intelligence—she's practically a top-tier strategist. Every move she makes serves a specific purpose. It's impossible for her to suddenly abandon the extermination of these resistors in favor of consuming the world to accumulate energy—unless..."

A sudden spark of realization flickered in his mind.

"Unless the Mother has a very specific reason to do so! Or perhaps she's received orders from a higher level!"

Sterl had long suspected that there were beings even more powerful than the Mothers, beings who held higher status and authority. In other words, the Mothers were merely tools of a greater force. Experience more tales on empire

He suddenly recalled something important: the Silver Spiders' ability to devour souls. Every being consumed by the Silver Spiders—every drop of blood and every soul absorbed—was transferred through some special means directly to the Mother.

If the puppets created by the Mother had such an ability, it was impossible for the Mother not to possess it as well.

This suggested that the energy and nutrients weren't meant for this particular Mother at all, but for the Mothers in other layers of Hell.

With that realization, everything clicked into place in Sterl's mind.

Given the Mother's power, invading these upper layers of Hell should have been a walk in the park. But the lower layers of Hell weren't so easy to conquer.

In the lower layers, legends walked the earth, and demigods were a dime a dozen. Only deities had the power to challenge them. And in those deepest layers of Hell, there were terrifying entities that wielded higher-level divine authority.

Taking on such layers was a monumental task. If Sterl were the one making the decisions, he would have ordered the Mothers responsible for the upper Hell layers to stabilize the situation first, accumulate energy and nutrients, and then use their special means of energy transfer to support the Mothers in the lower Hell layers.

With a steady stream of energy to support them, even the most powerful of Hell's layers would eventually be devoured bit by bit.

"I see now..." Sterl murmured to himself, finally understanding the grand plan.

Sterl immediately came to a realization. Although these were just his guesses, he believed his speculation was largely correct.

In other words, while the current situation in Hell was dangerous, it wasn't as severe as it might seem.

However, as time passed, without external intervention to disrupt the current deadlock, defeat would almost be inevitable. This was likely why Will of Hell had been so eager to pull him in.

"My lord, should we take action?" Boris and the others asked, glancing at the Silver Spider army below with a mixture of disgust and impulse.

By all rights, as gods from the main world, they should have been enemies of these Hell creatures. But after encountering these strange beings, they quickly realized that, compared to these evil entities, the denizens of Hell seemed almost innocent in their cruelty.

"Of course, go ahead… Assist The Thorn Cage Hell in driving out these invaders," Sterl replied calmly.

"Yes!" Boris and the others responded with fervor, their excitement evident. They had been itching for action, and now that their lord had given the order, it was the perfect opportunity to achieve great feats.

Ten of the divine-level followers unleashed their auras simultaneously and dove into the battlefield.

After they left, Sterl's expression shifted, showing a hint of intrigue.

Of course, he would take action—it was inevitable. After all, he and Will of Hell had reached an agreement, and if he sat back and did nothing, Will of Hell wouldn't punish him, but gaining more power and authority in Hell would become much more difficult.

Thus, he had to play his part and do it well, ensuring it appeared convincing.

Having ten divine-level followers take action was certainly a high enough standard and wouldn't interfere with Sterl's plans.

His reasons for engaging these invaders were twofold: First, to gain the blessings and authority of Hell, and second, for the massive collection of souls from these Mothers and their forces.

However, as it stood, The Thorn Cage Hell still had millions of souls to harvest. To maximize his gains and openly seize these souls, he would need the forces of the Mother's army to devour them all.

Furthermore, his divine followers were mostly not involved in soul-related powers, meaning they couldn't truly kill these invaders. On the contrary, their presence would prompt the Mother to take notice and send even stronger legions to swiftly slaughter and consume these creatures.

Sterl smirked to himself, his plan already falling into place. Everything was proceeding according to his design.

Once the millions of souls had been devoured and the Mother's soul energy had reached its peak, that would be the moment when Sterl would truly take action to obliterate it.

As for directly confronting the Mother to gain the authority of this layer of Hell and control its millions-strong army, Sterl hadn't even considered it.

The reason was simple: in his eyes, although the denizens of this Hell were numerous, their strength was far too weak. They were little more than a rabble.

The majority of their strength was at the second-class level, with only three to four million reaching third-class. Those who were truly comparable to legends could be counted on one hand.

Such a pathetic army wasn't worth his time. Taking it would be a disgrace. It would be far better to use this opportunity to eliminate them in a more strategic manner.

That said, the two divine-level powerhouses, along with the dozens of demigods, still held value.

He began to wonder: what kind of formidable army could he assemble by gathering the demigods and gods from every layer of Hell?

Not to mention, he could use his soul power to enhance them as a whole. With a demigod army numbering in the tens of thousands, they could easily strike fear into the hearts of those from the Orichalcum Kingdom and the Ashen Temple!

With that thought, he sent a few of his followers to support the local gods and demigods. As for himself, he casually hovered in the air, watching the battle unfold. He called it "observing the situation" and overseeing the overall strategy.

"Kill them all! Wipe out these damn trash!"

"Insects... should all die!"

"Thunder of a thousand storms, heed my command! Pulverize them into dust!"

With the arrival of the ten gods, the tide of the battle instantly turned in their favor.

Masses of Silver Spider swarms were crushed and wiped out.

At the divine level, even a single strike was enough to utterly annihilate tens of thousands of Silver Spiders, preventing them from even merging.

Meanwhile, the King of the Dark Gnomes and the King of the Evil Wasps had received reinforcement from several gods, and soon, they had wiped out the surrounding Silver Mantis one by one.

Sterl noticed that these Silver Mantis were different from the ones he had encountered in the fourth layer—they were only at the demigod level.

The two Earth Wolves, however, proved more troublesome, as they seemed even stronger than the average gods.

But after receiving Sterl's soul power enhancement, the strength of all the followers had noticeably increased. Taking down the Earth Wolves wasn't too difficult. Soon, the two Earth Wolves were suppressed and, with the combined effort of several gods, were reduced to a mass of silver-white ooze.