Lord: Sequence Master

Rosen took the juice handed to him by Alicia and walked to the window of the guest room to feel the breeze blowing from 70,000 meters above sea level.

The wind outside was actually quite strong, but there were magic circles attached to the window frames. Not only did they allow a gentle breeze to pass through, but they could also adjust the smell and temperature of the air.

This can be considered a special air conditioner, he thought, but what satisfies me most is the night view of Divine Wood City.

At night, when the sun disappeared, the leaves of the Divine Wood no longer drooped to let in sunlight. Instead, they absorbed the starlight, and the countless leaves resembled twinkling stars scattered across the sky. The city below was brightly illuminated, creating the most breathtaking night view Rosen had ever seen.

After admiring the night view for a while, Rosen put down the empty cup and prepared to get down to business.

It was actually quite troublesome to reach the upper levels from here. There was a no-fly zone within the shade of the Divine Wood. Only the official special departments of the Divine Wood Empire were allowed to fly freely. Therefore, accessing the noble flats above required special Transmission Tokens.

Or I could climb the tree... if I didn't mind being discovered, he mused.

Rosen didn't want to choose either route, so he directly used Amy's Miracle Wish.

After consuming 500,000 Spiritual Crystals, he instantly appeared on the 890th floor.

There was grass beneath his feet and flower beds all around. In the center of the space stood a small castle. It didn't resemble a musical instrument but instead looked like a temple, radiating a sacred and magnificent aura.

Rosen shuttled through the Void Shadow World and soon arrived at the main gate of the castle, peering inside.

This was indeed a church. Statues filled the castle hall. At that moment, Stig was kneeling on one knee before a statue, holding a book and praying silently.

Rosen logged into the Deep Web of the Spiritual World through the Main God's Computer, but he couldn't find any records of this statue.

There are two possibilities, he reasoned. This god either never appeared in the world and is completely unknown, or they've been dead for countless years.

Rosen observed carefully and was certain the deity represented by the statue had long since fallen. There was no divine aura emanating from it.

But why would the Favalli Family, a hereditary ducal lineage with demigod-level power, worship a fallen god?

Unable to figure it out, Rosen decided to take immediate action and resolve the matter quickly.

The Void Shadow World spread out and penetrated the castle's shadow. Through the alternating light and darkness caused by divine power, the Void Shadow World enveloped the real space and pulled the castle into its depths.

Sensing danger, Stig immediately released the Divine Territory of His Sea of Consciousness.

Being able to bring the Divine Territory into other spaces so quickly is something I can't do yet. It must be a unique feature of his territory.

Stig summoned the Music Stage of his territory and called forth an orchestra of hundreds of musicians who had been transferred from his citizens.

"It's really not that simple..." Rosen frowned.

The Musician Sequence was an auxiliary branch of musicians. Training them was extremely difficult. The Duke of Favalli's Divine Territory certainly didn't have this many musicians, yet Stig's territory managed to produce such a large orchestra.

Most orchestras for musicians were typically composed of Alchemical Puppets and Extraordinary Musical Instruments. True orchestras made up of actual musicians were rare beyond Sequence 7.

Stig held a Microphone in his hand. He wasn't a performer but a Singing Musician.

Unable to locate Rosen, Stig didn't dare waste time and ordered the orchestra to begin playing.

Eerie, chilling music filled the Divine Territory, played by hundreds of musicians. Stig closed his eyes, immersed himself in the accompaniment, and began singing the extremely difficult piece, "Prelude to the Dead."

As the singing echoed, the environment of the Divine Territory transformed. The once-sacred castle became a devil's lair, the green grass turned into fields of white bone, and the vibrant flowers turned into wailing spirits. The paradise for the living had turned into a hell for the dead.

Rosen hid deep in the Void Shadow World, but the oppressive hallucinations caused by the music continued to affect him.

If not for the blessings of the Dragon King protecting my spirit, or the souls transformed by the Seven Deadly Sins, I might have already lost my sense of self.

No wonder there was a saying about musicians: Never approach them when they are performing.

Musicians in this state possessed terrifying power, capable of challenging those far above their Sequence. The best way to deal with them was to strike when they were unguarded.

Like Painters, Musicians were specialists—extremely strong when prepared, but vulnerable when caught off guard.

Rosen smirked coldly. How could a Painter like me lose to a Musician?

He moved farther back to minimize Stig's influence on him.

There was no need to get close. Rosen took out his Easel, opened the Void Album, and placed it carefully.

Dipping his Magic Brush into paint, he began to paint portraits of each musician performing in the orchestra.

With time accelerated by his power, the entire portrait was completed in less than half an hour.

Rosen continued to paint, this time creating a scene of Stig's empty concert hall and a group portrait of all the musicians on the stage. His goal was to seal Stig and the musicians within the painting, forcing them to play music and sing endlessly for eternity.

As the final stroke fell, Rosen began casting Death Judgment on the musicians one by one.

A violinist on the stage suddenly opened his eyes in horror before collapsing lifelessly.

Death Judgment couldn't affect Stig directly, but how could it fail against Sequence 6 musicians?

One after another, the Sequence 6 musicians fell. Their spirits were harvested by the Death Scythe and sealed within the painting. With each musician's death, the blessings their performance bestowed upon Stig weakened significantly.

Stig's hands trembled as he shouted in anger and panic. But Rosen stopped midway through his Death Judgment—something felt off.

Is his anger... fake?

Rosen possessed the Eye of Rage and the Seven Deadly Sins of Rage, which granted him insight into genuine emotions. Despite the heavy casualties among his musicians, Stig's anger felt like a façade.

Unless... Stig believes that their deaths are beneficial rather than detrimental.

Death isn't always the end. Certain abilities and rituals grow stronger through sacrifice.

Considering that Stig was singing a piece closely tied to the dead, it was highly likely that the deaths of his musicians wouldn't weaken him—instead, they might strengthen him or trigger a form of retaliation against their killer.

Rosen considered these possibilities and decided to change his approach.

Flipping to the final pages of the Void Album, he gazed at a collection of paintings he had copied from scenes within Horror Park.

Every time Horror Park revealed a new scene, Rosen would carefully replicate it onto his canvas. These paintings were both standalone creations and interconnected pieces contributing to the Spirit World of Horror Park.

He selected one painting: "The Concert Hall of the Dead."

The scene depicted a chilling, cursed hall filled with undead musicians. The rules of the hall dictated that the more terrified the audience, the more terrifying the musicians' performances would become.

The painter who created this scene had consulted at least Sequence 3 Musicians during its creation, ensuring it became one of the most nightmarish domains in Horror Park.

This is the strength of collaborative creativity in Horror Park.

Instead of monopolizing power, Rosen had allowed other painters to contribute to Horror Park, expanding its terrifying potential while ensuring the core authority always remained in his hands.

Compared to the small slice of power he had to share, the benefits he gained far outweighed the costs.

Rosen sent the spirits harvested by the Death Scythe, along with their portraits, into the Concert Hall of the Dead. Under the hall's eerie rules, the spirits transformed into undead musicians.

Now, only Stig remained on the stage, his voice echoing through the Void Concert Hall.

But Stig stopped pretending. His expression shifted to one of mockery and manic excitement.

He no longer sang the Prelude to the Dead softly but screamed its verses with a twisted, high-pitched frequency.

However, nothing happened.

The spirits of the dead musicians didn't respond. The Prelude to the Dead—a piece that should have forced Rosen to endure the entire performance, binding him to death's cause and transforming him into an undead servant—had failed.

Stig's face contorted as realization hit him: The enemy possesses power over musicians far surpassing my own.

At that moment, Rosen, aided by Lazy Foot, appeared silently on the stage.

Stig sensed movement behind him and turned—only to see the gleam of a bullet heading straight for his forehead.

The bullet, transformed from the Gluttonous Demon Seed, struck Stig and burrowed into his body.

Ravenous hunger erupted within him, forcing him to stop singing and bite off a chunk of the microphone in his hand.

The Prelude to the Dead came to an abrupt end.

Rosen raised the Wrath of the Dragon King, and the firearm unleashed a relentless barrage of bullets.

Having exhausted vast amounts of spiritual power during his prolonged performance, Stig was in no condition to withstand the overwhelming firepower.

Before stepping onto the stage, Rosen had shattered a pair of twin daggers using the Soldier-Breaking Skill, amplifying his attack power to a staggering ninefold increase.

The relentless assault from the Wrath of the Dragon King melted through Stig's remaining defenses. His various life-saving abilities crumbled under the absolute damage inflicted by Rosen's strikes.

Finally, Rosen harvested Stig's body and spirit and sealed them within the Concert Hall of the Dead.

This particular spiritual painting had been only a Sequence 5 imitation, but with the addition of a Sequence 4 musician like Stig and hundreds of Sequence 7+ musicians, it would undoubtedly evolve into a Sequence 4 creation soon.

With Stig defeated, the remaining threats within his Divine Territory were negligible.

The Glorious Lighthouse tore through the Lord's Castle's elemental barriers in mere minutes. Fifty thousand Shadow Demons descended, eradicating any lingering resistance.

Stig's Divine Territory and the Ancient Tree of Sequence were consumed and pulled into the painting by the Undead Concert Hall.

In the remnants of Stig's Castle, Rosen discovered two intriguing items.

The first was a Resting Lullaby sheet of music.

[Resting Lullaby: Miracle Treasure]

Level: Sequence 6Miracle Attribute: Can generate projections to form attached music scores.Miracle Characteristics: Rest, Hypnosis, Euthanasia, Unique, Eternal, and Immortal.

Rosen immediately recognized the sheet music's value—it far exceeded its Sequence level.

Miracle treasures capable of generating projections are incredibly rare below the demigod level.

For example, while Star Emblem could generate such projections, it was almost unheard of for a Sequence 6 treasure to possess this trait.

Through refining the Resting Lullaby, Rosen uncovered its unique properties:

Rest: Induces sleep.

Hypnosis: Alters consciousness.

Euthanasia: The projection can act as a music recorder, embedding itself into devices that can unleash its full power when activated.

It was now clear why the entire Resting City was imbued with hypnotic power—it was all due to this miraculous score.

Rosen carefully examined the music box Stig had left in the study. Inside, it carried a piece of euthanasia music infused with the Prelude to the Dead. Now that Rosen possessed the Resting Lullaby, he effectively held complete control over the City of Rest.

He carefully stored the music score, intending to integrate it into the Concert Hall of the Dead.

Next, Rosen picked up the second object—a broken clay tablet. Despite his careful inspection, he couldn't detect any spiritual presence from it. However, given its placement alongside the Resting Lullaby, it was undoubtedly not as simple as it seemed.

He tossed the incomplete clay tablet into his Miracle Pouch, but even this Sequence 3-level artifact failed to identify its properties. Left with no choice, Rosen used Mind Control on Stig's lingering consciousness to extract information.

The fragmented clay tablet was no ordinary artifact—it had been a treasured heirloom of the Favalli Family for over 20,000 years.

First, the clay tablet was indestructible. No matter how much damage it sustained, it would always return to its original form.

Second, it possessed the power to conceal the destiny of an entire civilization.

The Favalli Family had once enslaved the entire population of Parthia City. Such an atrocity should have caused the city's destiny to plummet into negative values, immediately alerting the World Government. Yet, for countless years, no one had noticed anything amiss. It was all because of this clay tablet.

As Rosen delved deeper, he felt a strange connection to the fragment. It seemed... alive. The more he stared at it, the more intense this sensation became. His Divine Spirituality was rapidly consumed, forcing him to deplete a large number of high-quality spiritual crystals to sustain himself.

Finally, through the lens of his Ancient Scholar abilities, Rosen began to decipher fragments of forgotten history etched into the clay tablet.

This fragment was part of the legendary Tablet of Destiny.

At the height of the Main God Civilization, the gods had attempted to forge the Tablet of Destiny—a supreme artifact capable of wielding control over divine authority and even the gods themselves. The plan was to unite all divine power and divinity into this artifact, creating an omnipotent object capable of overriding fate itself.

But ambition breeds ruin. The gods turned on each other in an apocalyptic civil war. The aftermath saw the near-total annihilation of the Main God Civilization.

One surviving god managed to shatter the prototype of the Tablet of Destiny. However, even in pieces, the artifact could not be destroyed. Worse still, the fragmented shards retained their allure. Any deity who integrated their divinity into the tablet could ensure their resurrection, even after complete annihilation.

But there was one crucial rule: The Tablet of Destiny must never have a master.

If the artifact were to gain an owner, all the gods who had integrated their power into it would become nothing more than puppets.

To prevent this, the surviving gods made a grim pact:

The Tablet of Destiny was shattered into fragments.The pieces were sealed and scattered across the world.Every trace of its existence was erased, even from the gods' own memories.

Yet, time erodes even the strongest seals. This fragment, now in Rosen's possession, contained the Divinity, Authority, and Knowledge of a Sequence 0 Undead God.

Thousands of years ago, an archaeologist from the Favalli Family managed to extract fragments of knowledge from this shard. Though he couldn't discern its true nature, his findings birthed the Prelude to the Dead.

Rosen understood the weight of what he held. However, the fragment was ultimately limited in power.

A single shard, no matter how extraordinary, could not threaten the gods. Its primary utility lay in its ability to conceal the destiny of civilizations.

If a fragment alone could wield god-slaying power, no deity would have dared integrate their essence into it. Only when the Tablet of Destiny is made whole again can its true, god-defying potential be unleashed.

(End of Chapter)