The universe-size incarnation of the Samsara Thearch began to converge into a humanoid figure approximately two meters tall.
Ezequiel, Venganza, and the Sacred Kings saw how Zatiel returned to his normal body, but that did not erase the awe in their heart. It was as if they were seeing a giant.
That energy cannon was incredibly powerful and could have killed any of them, yet the Samsara Thearch took it head-on, and there did not seem to be any damage left.
"At my level, it is not only your ability to warp reality that evolves but also your understanding of your body and soul. Right now, I have molecular control over my existence, able to split my atoms and rearrange them in whatever order I want in a second.
That energy cannon was powerful, but it was just brute power and could not erase the energy that was my existence. I just rearranged my atoms while using the power of my Samsara Eye to attain my ultimate state."
Zatiel spoke of those supernatural abilities as if they were nothing, but the look in the Thearchs and Sacred Kings made it clear how amazing it was.
Many of them, like Ezequiel and Dante, had granular control over their bodies and could split themselves into cells, but beyond that point, they would lose control.
The number of atoms in a body was billions of times larger than the number of cells, and being able to control them once they were split across the cosmos should not be possible.
However, maybe that was what it meant to be a real Fourth Realm life form, do the impossible. You controlled the power that was a fantasy in the mind of every other life form in the multiverse.
Zatiel stared at the Thearchs and Sacred Kings and nodded once they saw they got a closer look at the true power of Fourth Realm life forms.
The Beyonder's Knights might be weaker than him, but that did not mean they could be underestimated, so he needed all of them to be ready. He wanted them to feel a sense of urgency in their bodies and souls that would only go away once they evolved beyond their current limitation since, right now, they were too weak.
Zatiel then turned toward the broken Rank 10 Hive and the life forms still alive inside, trapped into an enchantment of space-time capable of sealing their minds and souls.
Although he made it look easy, the truth was the hive was very powerful, and it required him to use all his power to defeat them so fast. Using the power of the white sun, even for a moment, put immense stress on his soul and could not be used again for some time unless he wanted to suffer a backlash.
Just killing them would be foolish since Rank 10 Hive was a mighty entity, and it would be an even better weapon if he managed to attain control over it.
The Samsara Thearch analyzed the Rank 10 Hive in detail; as he expected, there was not something that worked as the core of the hive mind. Every hive member, whether a drone or the True Rank 10 humanoid, acted as a neuron, and thanks to a telepathic link, they formed a single mind.
Each had a specific function, and some were vastly more important than others, but in the entire, all trillions of life forms were just a single entity.
Even for the Samsara Thearch that had exploded the Emptiness and read the mind of many other travelers, this Rank 10 Hive was unique and beyond amazing.
Zatiel took a deep breath, and his Samsara, Thanatos, and Eros Eyes began to glow as his soul force rose higher and higher. He would force the mind of the entire Rank 10 Hive, including the True Rank 10 and several Fake Rank 10, into an illusion, making them see him as the core of their existence.
Even for Zatiel, sending the collective mind of a trillion life forms, which included several Rank 10, would require massive effort, but he was confident in his abilities in the soul realm.
Ezequiel, Venganza, and the Sacred Kings saw how tentacles of soul force emerged from Zatiel's head before splitting into trillions of sky-blue threads and driving into the head of every hive member.
The Samsara Thearch connected with the trillions of life forms in minutes then forced their collective mind into a massive illusion realm. His body trembled due to the immense effort, but he smiled since now he had the entire collective mind in his grasp.
It would only be a matter of twisting their sense of reality and changing their nature, making them see Zatiel as the hive's core, someone they had to protect at all costs.
However, just as Zatiel was about to start, his eyes widened. He believed it to have connected to the entirety of the hive, but there was something else in the distance, far away from this location.
The distance was incredible even for someone like him, but despite that, it managed to make a connection.
Zatiel saw the illusion he made grow dark and endless dots of light appeared in that darkness. Each of them represented a life, and there were so many that it even dwarfed the population of the entire Daybreak Universe that measured in quadrillions!
Those dots of light did not remain static for long and soon began to fuse into two gargantuan eyes that focused on Zatiel. There was no real intellect or wisdom in those eyes, at least not in how most life forms interpreted them.
However, there were emotions, and the one that the Samsara Thearch felt right now was utter and absolute rage that someone attempted to take control of a piece of it.
"¡AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
A bestial roar emerged from that darkness, shattering the illusion realm that the Samsara Thearch built to seal the mind of the Rank 10 Hive.
Ezequiel, Venganza, and the others saw how the Samsara Thearch pushed the entirety of the Rank 10 Hive's consciousness into an illusion realm. There was amazement in their eyes when they understood he wanted to take control over the entire hive, and some could not help but smile at the idea of adding such a weapon to their arsenal.
However, without any warning, Zatiel's eyes widened, and the next second, he puked a mouthful of blood.
The Emptiness Thearch, Revenge Thearch, and Sacred Kings immediately made their energy explode and adopted a defensive formation around Zatiel. None of them felt or sensed anything, but it was clear that someone had attacked the Samsara Thearch.
Although anyone capable of harming Zatiel would be too strong for them, they could, at least, buy time so this one could heal.
"There is no enemy near us. I was careless, but I am fine now. You can relax."
The Thearchs and Sacred Kings relaxed after hearing that, but they were still surprised by the sudden turn of events. The collective mind of the Rank 10 Hive was powerful, but Zatiel had already sealed them, so even if he could not overpower it, he should not have been injured.
Zatiel noticed their inquisitive gazes, and after a moment, he gave them an answer.
"This Rank 10 Hive is just a tiny part of an entity much larger. It is but a cluster of cells from the full organism that, for some reason, manage to reach our area of the Emptiness."
The Thearchs and Sacred Kings showed complicated expressions as they heard that. The Beyonder was an existential threat to their universe, but now they met part of an organism so massive that even Zatiel had a hard time describing it.
"Are we in danger?"
Ezequiel asked the question in everybody's mind, and they could relax once they saw Zatiel shake his head.
"The entity is indeed powerful, but the distance between us and it is so massive that even for me, it would take dozens of Epochs to cover."
An Epoch was several billion years, and none of them had lived for more than one hundred million years, so it was hard to worry about a threat that was so far into the future, especially when there was an enemy that would arrive very soon.
The Samsara Thearch stared at the Rank 10 Hive, and as he remembered those eyes, he could not help but think of something.
"Is survival that important?"
Zatiel expressed his thoughts out loud, confusing the Thearchs and Sacred Kings. When he saw those eyes, he was able to understand part of the nature of that entity and even generate a hypothesis about its origin.
The aura of that entity was similar to that of the Beyonder, making the Samsara Thearch both at the Late Stage, but that only made the light on his eyes more profound.
The idea of surviving at any cost seemed to be a common factor among the life forms that reached the Late Stage, something that did not adjust to his way of seeing the world.
