The two figures, looking displeased, withdrew from the spatial turbulence.
At the same time, the golden light of confinement in the palace was dispelled.
In an instant, the three gods regained their senses. "I'll stop him!"
"Let's move!"
The peculiar orb of darkness and the two beams of sealing spiritual light represented the power of divine authority, easily capable of triggering celestial phenomena, causing the entire palace to tremble.
Unfortunately, the gods' full-force attacks hit nothing but empty space; they couldn't find their target at all.
They stared blankly, looking around at the emptiness—
Cirilo had long since vanished without a trace.
The two figures were even more somber than before.
"My lord..."
"We..."
The gods were instantly thrown into a state of chaos and panic; they could not afford to offend these two beings.
From the situation, they could analyze that Cirilo had actually managed to escape from the hands of the two lords from the upper realms.
This demigod...
Was indeed extraordinary.
No, no, no, now was not the time to marvel at how strong Cirilo was.
The real question was—what do we do now?
If the two beings from the upper realms took out their frustrations on us...
The three gods exchanged glances, surprisingly united in their concern and no longer at odds with one another.
Fortunately, the figures still had the sense to recognize that this situation was not the fault of the three gods.
In fact, if it hadn't been for their use of the confinement light to solidify everything, the three gods might have been able to help. With more divine authority powers, there was a chance they could have captured Cirilo.
But it was too late to say anything now.
"That Cirilo is likely connected to Solomon."
"He entered the spatial turbulence, which is why we couldn't capture him, and the probability of him dying in that turbulence is extremely high."
"However, we still need to investigate."
"You all go set up this formation."
"This is the [Heavenly Locking Formation]."
"It can confine all space within the range of the Blood Red Fortress."
"When the time comes, we will first check all the players inside the fortress; perhaps we can find someone related to Solomon, and there's even a slim chance we might capture Cirilo if he emerges from the spatial turbulence."
The two figures casually tossed out a divine-level formation, but they didn't hold out much hope.
Although communication among the gods was completed in the blink of an eye, if Cirilo was escaping, he likely had accomplices who had also gotten away.
There was little hope of relying on a single formation to track him down.
But taking a gamble wouldn't hurt.
A divine-level formation was practically worthless to the figures.
Moreover, the two figures had just forcibly broken through the restrictions of [Transcendence]. They hadn't only released the confinement light near the palace; they had also activated the confinement blades near the battlefield.
As a result, all teleportation skills in the surrounding area were rendered unusable.
Still, there remained a slight chance to intercept players connected to Solomon.
The three gods felt as if they had been granted a reprieve and quickly took the formation into the sky to begin their setup.
However, Ashen and the two gods from the Golden Kingdom exchanged pleading glances with the two figures. "About the merit leaderboard earlier..."
"Get lost."
The figures spoke in a calm tone.
Immediately, the two gods dashed away without looking back.
They didn't dare to ask another question, but they did hear a voice transmission: "If I agree to settle the matter, I will settle it."
"Damn it!"
He cursed.
The figures and the gods had communicated and begun to set up the formation, which seemed to take a moment, but in reality, they hadn't even consumed a second.
And Sterl had been so close to escaping.
The main reason was that he had used the small world to pull Bionic Tear back from the spatial turbulence, which had slightly drained his energy and effort.
That was why he was bounced back.
However...
Sterl wasn't panicking.
Even though his teleportation had failed, with so many players in the Blood Red Fortress, many were attempting to use their teleportation abilities.
His situation wasn't unique.
On another note, he had already planned to use his ascension to godhood as a trump card to force his escape. Although the formation that had now appeared was of divine level and was vaguely on par with the Blood Sacrifice Array, ordinary gods wouldn't be able to move through it.
However, once Sterl ascended to godhood, he would be able to leverage his understanding of formations to leave.
But at this moment, he didn't want to waste any Divine Power. Instead, he chose to think along a different line...
For instance, he quickly took out his Login Terminal.
This disk, having absorbed 300 documents, had undergone significant changes on its back, which represented the Swallowing Heaven system.
Sterl could clearly see that it was now etched with vivid depictions of demons, as if they were alive, ready to leap out and consume him entirely.
Calmly, Sterl placed his hand on the disk and pressed his palm down.
"Swallowing Heaven, activate!"
He silently chanted, "Create a Swallowing Heaven account."
Instantly, he felt a jolt of electricity coursing through him.
Then, his avatar Leo began to fade away.
Leo had been in a remote battlefield, surrounded by comrades who had died left and right. He himself was under attack by a demigod-level demon, bleeding profusely and on the verge of death.
At that moment, a massive demon suddenly sprang forth and swallowed Leo whole.
As a result, Sterl's alias vanished without a trace.
No one noticed...
...
As for Sterl himself, he felt darkness envelop him and suddenly found himself bounced back into the game pod.
"I thought I would create an account directly in [Transcendence]. So I have to return to reality first?"
"Then the players of Swallowing Heaven must also log into the game in reality, right?"
Leaning back against the cushion of the game pod, Sterl breathed heavily, his mindset relaxing instantly.
What he had witnessed was quite clear: he had been forcibly ejected from the game, and his game character had also dissolved.
This meant he had effectively logged out normally.
He had even managed to escape the effects of the formation for free—what a stroke of luck!
Now, Sterl had nothing left to do but enjoy his escape from calamity.
As he sat comfortably in the game pod, he felt incredibly relaxed and at ease.
At this point, Sterl had essentially claimed all the rewards from the expansion event, including the top merit ranking reward.
From here on out, he wouldn't need to log into his [Transcendence] account; he could simply go to the main world to collect his contribution rewards and exchange them in the contribution store.
In a good mood, he suddenly noticed a flurry of complex code appearing in the game pod.
Some crimson characters rapidly surged in, forcefully installing themselves like rogue software.
Not only was the LCD display on the game pod flickering, but the entire pod was becoming inundated with various codes.
Sterl even felt as if he were surrounded by blood-red characters, creating an atmosphere that was both eerie and terrifying.
"Could it be that Swallowing Heaven is installing?"
Sterl was taken aback and could only arrive at this conclusion.