It was very difficult for the Mages to come to terms with what they had just seen.

Nevertheless, this confirmed it.

The Mage Lords and Mage Kings had seen an actual Abomination Emperor, which meant that this terrifying hill wasn't one.

So, was this hill actually the Child of Calamity?

They still weren't sure.

After all, this hill didn't even remotely feel like a human or even a beast.

It seemed much more like a natural force.

Eventually, the Mage Lords and Mage Kings returned to studying the Abominations and the hill.

Over the next years, the Mage Kings had managed to learn a lot about the Abominations.

Studying the Abominations had always been extremely difficult since they wanted to explode as soon as they were exposed to Mana.

But this time, the Abominations weren't resisting. Sure, they were all dying very quickly, but for the short time they were alive, they didn't resist any of the Mage Kings' Spells.

By now, the Mage Kings had also realized that not even a single Abomination was appearing anywhere else in the world, which shocked them.

This thing could even control where the Abominations appeared, and it could even stop them from appearing somewhere?!

By now, the vast majority of Mage Kings were constantly stationed near Shang.

After all, the Mage Kings were not interested in fighting for supremacy right now.

They were not interested in dying in just a thousand years.

If any of them tried to pull something on another Mage King, the others would immediately shut them down.

There were more important things to worry about right now!

While the Mage Kings continued to intercept the Abominations, the unaffiliated powers continued fighting each other.

The Ancestral Mages and Archmages knew of the existence of Mage Kings, and they knew that their power wasn't even nearly enough to stop the end of the world.

It could only go two ways.

Either the Mage Kings managed to destroy the threat, or everyone would die.

In both cases, worrying about the future and trying to save it wouldn't make a difference to the Archmages and Ancestral Mages.

Instead, they tried to take advantage of the uncertain future to enrich themselves.

More resources.

More wealth.

More people.

More land.

The competition between these powers reached a completely new level of intensity.

And as for everyone that was weaker...

Nothing changed.

In the beginning, the weak people were terrified. After all, things would start to become worse and worse from now on.

Yet, nothing had happened for an entire year.

This made the weak people realize that this entire thing basically didn't concern them.

It was a thousand years from now.

That was an absolute eternity from now.

Not even their grandchildren's grandchildren would be alive until then.

So, the end of the world was kind of unimportant and irrelevant to them.

Only two things changed for them.

First, the weaker people who lived in the cities saw major corporations and guilds appear and vanish far more often than normal.

Second, a couple of doomsday cults and religions popped up that worshipped the end of the world in the hope of either getting spared or getting into some kind of paradise after their death.

But that was about it.

And like that, the years passed.

After ten years, the Mage Kings were still analyzing the Abominations.

They had even managed to confirm the existence of some kind of mysterious power that only existed inside the Abomination.

Naturally, this power was Entropy, but for now, they still weren't certain what it could do exactly.

By now, the hill had reached a width of nearly 30 kilometers.

CRRRRRRRR!

Immediately, all the Mages used Mana Step to retreat from the hill as it began to shake violently.

This had not happened before!

What was going on?!

The blades on the side of the hill began to move even quicker, and a moment later, the hill began to shrink!

With shock, the onlookers realized that the density of Mana inside the hill was increasing as its volume decreased!

"It's... breaking through!" one of them shouted in horror.

Nervously, the Mage Kings watched the hill.

They wanted to stop the hill, but they knew that they couldn't.

It was simply too powerful!

As the hill shrunk, the blades across its body became even faster, and they remained at their new speed.

WHOOOM!

Suddenly, a wave of power left the black hill, and it traveled across the entire world.

The Archmages and stronger could feel the wave wash over them, but only the Mage Lords and Mage Kings knew where this wave had actually come from.

Eventually, the hill returned to a width of around ten kilometers, its original size.

'Early Sword Emperor,' Shang thought with a chuckle as he looked at the horrified expressions of the Mage Lords and Mage Kings.

After some minutes, the Mage Kings returned to running experiments on Shang.

Sadly, theirfears had been confirmed.

The hill had become even more powerful than before!

This immediately multiplied the pressure on their shoulders.

They had to find a way to destroy this hill quick!

The Mage Kings did some calculations and realized that the hill would achieve another breakthrough around 60 years from now.

This was problematic!

They had to do something!

Over the next couple of years, the Mage Kings came to a consensus.

They needed Mage Emperors.

Because of that, the Mage Kings held a vote for five new Mage Emperors.

Right now, it was not important which Mage King was the strongest, but which one would lead the world into a brighter future.

Eventually, five Mage Kings ascended to become five Mage Emperors, and the first thing they did was to increase their power while also studying the hill.

A Mage Emperor could think faster, which would allow them to learn the secrets of the hill quicker.

Usually, becoming a Peak Mage Emperor took around 50,000 years, but by blindly and brutally consuming vast quantities of Mana, they could become Peak Mage Emperors within 50 years.

The only issue was that their Battle-Strength would take quite a heavy hit.

Within the next 50 years, the Mage Emperors managed to become Peak Mage Emperors, and they also learned a lot about Entropy.

For the last ten years, the Mage Emperors came up with a strategy and battle plan.

And then, it was time.

The hill would die!