Infinite Regeneration In The Apocalypse

Chapter 152: Figthing True Luminous Realm SunFiend &Meeting Sean

Over the following days, Vogue and Gloria spent considerable time together in his small apartment, their relationship deepening both emotionally and physically.

They made love with passion, held each other through the nights, shared meals and quiet conversations about their hopes for the future.

For brief moments, Vogue could almost forget about the violence and danger that constantly surrounded his life.

Gloria had taken a few days off from work to recover from the stress of her dramatic awakening and the attention it had begun attracting.

Various organizations had already started sending recruitment offers, which she politely declined for now.

Most groups were backing off, unwilling to antagonize a dual-talent candidate.

During one of these peaceful mornings, as Vogue lay in bed with Gloria sleeping peacefully against his chest, his communication device chimed with an incoming message.

He carefully extracted himself from Gloria’s embrace without waking her and checked the device. The message was from Sean of the Klein Family, and Vogue’s pulse immediately quickened with anticipation as he read it.

[Vogue, my family has completed all preparations for the Saint’s ruin expedition. We’re ready to proceed whenever you are. The location is somewhat remote and will require travel outside the city walls. I’ve attached coordinates. Can you arrive within two days? - Sean]

Vogue stared at the message in excitement. This was the opportunity to explore an actual Saint-level inheritance, to potentially obtain Phoenix blood that could awaken his remaining dragon heads.

He quickly typed out a confirmation response, agreeing to meet at the coordinates within the specified timeframe.

After another day of preparation and a final intimate evening with Gloria, Vogue set out on his journey.

He hailed a taxi from the street outside his apartment complex and provided the driver with directions to head toward the edge of the outer ring, as close to the ring wall as possible.

The taxi driver, a middle-aged man with average face and suspicious eyes, accepted the fare but kept glancing at Vogue in the rearview mirror during the journey.

Travel toward the outer wall was unusual. Most people avoided that area due to the dangers that occasionally breached the walls.

The drive took nearly an hour as they traveled through increasingly sparse districts.

The buildings became more run-down, the streets emptier, the atmosphere more oppressive. Eventually, they reached an area where the massive third ring wall stood before them like a mountain.

The taxi driver finally pulled over to the side of the road and turned to face Vogue. "This is as far as I can take you, young man. Going any closer to the outer wall would put us in range of potential monster attacks. Sometimes creatures from the wilderness breach the defenses, and I’m not willing to risk my vehicle or my life."

Vogue nodded in understanding and paid the driver his fare plus a generous tip for traveling this far. "Alright."

The driver pocketed the money and drove off quickly, eager to return to the safe area.

Vogue stood alone on the empty street and looked up at the towering wall before him. He could see guard towers, with armed soldiers patrolling the ramparts. This was the final barrier separating civilization from the true wilderness beyond.

He activated his Heaven’s Limit technique, and two translucent Spirit Wings materialized from his back in a shimmer of condensed spiritual energy. The wings extended fully, each one roughly two meters in length.

With a powerful flap of his wings, Vogue launched himself into the air and flew the remaining distance toward the wall, covering the final kilometer in less than a minute.

As he approached, he spotted what Sean must have meant—a section of the wall that appeared normal from a distance but upon closer inspection showed subtle signs of tampering. There was a concealed passage, carefully hidden by illusion formations and spatial distortions, that created a gap in the otherwise impenetrable barrier.

The Klein Family must have established this secret exit years ago when they first discovered the Saint’s ruin. It would have required tremendous resources and connections to accomplish without alerting the Citadel Administration.

Vogue passed through the hidden gap, and for the first time in his life, he found himself outside the protection of the city walls.

The wilderness stretched before him in all directions.

The immediate area near the wall was utterly barren—nothing but dried, cracked earth stained with old bloodstains that had turned the ground a rusty brown color. This was the killing field where defensive forces engaged any monsters that approached too close to the city. Nothing grew here because the soil had been saturated with death for generations.

But as Vogue flew further away from the city, the landscape gradually began to change. Ruins of ancient structures appeared—collapsed buildings that must have been part of settlements that existed before the current city was established. Scattered trees began dotting the terrain, at first sparse and twisted but growing more numerous with distance.

Eventually, after traveling roughly thirty kilometers from the wall, Vogue found himself approaching a massive forest that stretched to the horizon. The trees were enormous, many of them towering over fifty meters tall with trunks so wide that ten people couldn’t link arms around them. This was true wilderness, untouched by human civilization for potentially centuries.

Vogue made the tactical decision to land and continue on foot rather than flying. Flying made him visible and vulnerable to aerial predators, and he had no way of knowing what kind of powerful monsters might inhabit this region. Better to remain cautious and travel through the undergrowth where he could use cover.

He dismissed his Spirit Wings and began walking through the forest, all his senses on high alert.

The journey through the wilderness required more than a hundred kilometers of travel according to the coordinates Sean had provided. Along the way, Vogue encountered various beasts—mostly low-level creatures at the Stellar Soldier equivalent realm that he could dispatch easily with single strikes. Their bodies would have been valuable for materials, but he didn’t have time to properly harvest them, so he simply killed what attacked him and continued moving.

However, approximately eighty kilometers into the forest, Vogue’s luck ran out dramatically.

He sensed it before he saw it—a massive presence that made his combat instincts scream warnings. The spiritual pressure was enormous, far beyond anything he’d encountered before except during his trial.

A Luminous Realm beast.

The creature that emerged from the dense foliage was a monstrous tiger-like predator standing nearly four meters tall at the shoulder. Its fur was deep crimson with black stripes that seemed to absorb light. Three eyes glowed with malevolent intelligence on its face, and its fangs were each as long as swords. This was a Sunfiend Beast that had broken through to the Luminous Realm, a genuine predator.

[Sunfiend Beast Detected: Crimson Shadow Tiger]

[Realm: Luminous Realm - First Sun]

"ROOOOAR!"

The tiger let out a roar that shook the entire forest, causing smaller creatures to flee in terror and trees to tremble from the sound waves alone. Then it charged directly at Vogue with speed that shouldn’t have been possible for something so massive.

Vogue immediately knew he couldn’t defeat this creature with his current base strength. He was effectively at Level 1 Stellar Knight realm, with power equivalent to Level 3 due to his bloodline. But this beast was an entire major realm above him.

He needed to merge clones to survive.

"Merge!" Vogue commanded mentally.

Six of his created clones, suddenly merged into him as their flesh and blood combined in a scary manner.

[Clone Merge Activated]

[Clones Merged: 6]

[Level Increased: 1 → 7]

[Current Strength: Level 7 Stellar Knight]

Power flooded through Vogue’s body as the accumulated strength of six clones integrated with his original form. His muscles expanded, his energy multiplied, his senses sharpened even further.

The Crimson Shadow Tiger was already before him. Vogue activated his full Dragon Form transformation, and four dragon heads manifested around his own head while eight elemental wings erupted from his back. His body became covered in multi-colored dragon scales, and his arms split into four functional limbs.

The tiger’s massive claw, covered in blue energy that could shatter steel, slashed toward Vogue’s head with enough force to decapitate a building.

Vogue crossed all four of his arms in an X-pattern and blocked the strike.

"Bang!"

The impact created a shockwave that flattened trees in a fifty-meter radius. Vogue’s feet dug trenches in the earth as he was pushed backward, but his defense held.

"Take this Fist!" Vogue roared, channeling thousands of pounds of force into his lower right arm and throwing a devastating uppercut at the tiger’s jaw.

The blow connected solidly, and the tiger’s head snapped backward with an audible crack.

The beast staggered backwards.

The tiger recovered quickly and opened its three-eyed face, revealing rows of fangs. Crimson light began building in its throat—it was preparing some kind of energy breath attack.

Vogue’s Time dragon head opened its silver jaws. "Stop!"

Time froze in a localized area around the tiger for approximately three seconds—all Vogue could manage against a Luminous Realm opponent. But three seconds was enough.

Vogue activated his Thunder Law, and his white-gold dragon head released a concentrated beam of lightning that struck the frozen tiger directly. "Thunder Prison Palm!"