Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

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Cedric was currently in a peculiar place...

He left the academy fairly early in the morning. He didn't have any classes today or anytime soon due to the sensitive state of the frontlines, so he had a lot of free time.

Cedric didn't leave the capital. He just searched for the tallest place within the city and climbed on it. He made sure to minimize his presence so that he wouldn't be detected; he didn't want to raise any alarms while doing this.

The tallest place he found was a mountain. It was one of the few landmasses from the era before Superhumans that was preserved to this day. Usually, people are restricted from approaching it since any carelessness from superhumans could severely damage the mountain.

For Cedric, destroying this mountain was a simple task. He just needs to exert a little force on his steps to crack this entire mountain in half. Even ordinary superhumans could do that; that's why they're forbidden from going up the mountain.

That said, Cedric could be really sneaky when he wants to. If he wanted to hide, only late-stage Planar Travelers and Star Travelers would spot him. The ones guarding the mountains are only regular Superhumans, so none of them spotted him at all.

He reached the mountaintop in a blink of an eye; he's really fast after all. Upon getting there, he simply sighed and sat down to gaze at the distant horizon.

Cedric emptied his mind briefly. He wanted to decompress for a bit since he had been burdened by knowledge for the past few days. Discovering the harsh truth felt stifling, and even though he was able to remain determined as before, some things just can't remain the same.

Beyond this, there is a more important reason why he came here.

Cedric opened his eyes after a couple minutes of resting. His bright golden eyes released a faint brilliance as he lay flat on his back and stared at the skies.

All of his senses, especially his vision, were warped and focused. He controlled his perception to the best of the best of his abilities. Instead of letting it bleed around him, he stretched it upwards, intending to study the skies above him.

1,000 miles, 2,000 miles, 10,000 miles...

Cedric's perception easily saw through and penetrated the fake atmosphere of humanity's civilization, seeing the real skies above them—the ones that are dark, gloomy, and corrupted.

11,000 miles

15,000 miles

50,000 miles

Upon reaching this height, Cedric starts feeling the burden, but he's far from reaching his limits just yet. He also felt the suppression of the real world against his senses, but it hardly affected him since his body was well secured within Acala's territory.

Even with his sharp senses and far-reaching vision, he could hardly make out the things that he's seeing. His vision was swarmed with darkness. Sometimes, he would see shapes and figures passing by from his perspective, but nothing made sense to him. It was a bit frustrating, but he kept going.

55,000 miles

60,000 miles

75,000 miles...

The burden increased. Cedric could feel the strain in his eyes; he could even feel himself frowning. He didn't mind, though, because he considers this part of his training.

Somehow, the darkness became thinner at this height. They reflected on his vision as tendrils of black serpents slowly slithering around; they still lowered the visibility, but at the very least, he could make out something more tangible now.

It's also around this height that he felt the presence of something. He had no idea what it was for now, but he could tell that it was solid from a single glance. He then continued stretching his vision.

80,000 miles

85,000 miles

100,000 miles

150,000 miles

It stops here. Cedric's eyes were bloodshot due to the strain. Maintaining this distance takes a lot out of him, but he kept it there. He knows that he can't hold this for long, and he couldn't afford to waste time.

At this height, he definitely felt the 'wall' he saw earlier. It's as solid as he thought, and no matter how hard he tried to see through it, he couldn't. That wall did feel familiar, though.

Hiss!

Cedric forcefully closed his eyes. He felt the world spinning around him, but that's just mostly because his perception was returning to normal. The burden on his head disappeared, and he was already feeling better. However, his mind kept replaying the scene he saw just now.

"Purgatory," he mumbled softly.

That's right. Cedric actually saw the buffer plane that kept demonic forces at bay. Acala's ultimate layer of defense to protect not only herself but also humanity—tthe Purgatory Plane.

It's the very same plan where humans are forced to go at least once a month to engage in a fight against the forces of demons. It is the reason why Demon Souls existed and the reason why Prime Earth still has humans to this day.

He actually saw and felt its existence for the first time without being forcefully transported there. It felt novel for some reason because he's probably the first person to ever achieve something like this. You just won't see a lot of people inheriting the eyes of a god, after all.

It truly acts as a shield, preventing the rest of the Demonic Army from descending to their continent and ending humanity once and for all. That said, it also blots out the real sight of the stars above.

Cedric sighed as he figured that's how far his vision could go, even if he was able to increase his strength beyond this. The Purgatory Plane was too dense and solid; even his absurd senses couldn't penetrate it.

He did this exact thing within the Purgatory as well. The difference is that, in there, the dark skies just seemingly expand infinitely for some reason. Even after straining himself and stretching his vision as far as he could, he couldn't see the limits, and that might be on purpose.

"Nothing I could do about it, I guess..." he muttered before releasing another sigh.

Cedric decided to try again. This time, instead of stretching his vision up, he just allowed it to spread all around him.

The instant he did so, the entirety of human civilization was reflected in his mind. The size of the territory was around 25,000 miles. Cedric could easily cover that distance with his senses and keep it on for hours without any problems.

Exerting some more effort on it, his vision easily passed through the walls and the mist hiding humanity's civilization.

He saw groups of soldiers moving out and gathering resources to be converted. He saw mechanics, engineers, and scribes working hard to build more defenses that could be mounted on the walls. More importantly, he once again felt the swarming corruption everywhere.

Because of the misdirection formation, the density of corruption dropped significantly. The formation was converting corruption into a usable energy source after all. Stray Demons or Low-Tiered Demons wouldn't discover this easily; Cedric guesses that they're more pressed by the idea that humans suddenly disappeared instead of the density of corruption lessening.

Cedric studied everything. He didn't strain himself too much this time. He exerted some pressure, but nothing that caused too much burden on his brain.

75,000 miles of distance, which is within his comfortable surveillance range. It's already far enough, covering almost half of the entire Azure Terra Continent. The darkness was still obscuring his vision a bit, but it's not as bad as the skies. Cedric could hold this for 8 hours straight.

He then retracted his field of sense and relaxed again. He rested his eyes and his brain for a couple of minutes before moving on to his next agenda.

This time, he performed an underground surveillance. He started from the landmass he's on and slowly extended his range as deep as he could possibly reach in his current state.

It's definitely more challenging to perform an underground surveillance compared to a surface surveillance, but Cedric kept at it.

Since the Misdirection Formation provides 360° protection, it also stretches underground. Cedric started with that first. Meaning that his initial underground surveillance range extended up to roughly 25,000 miles underground too.

"I see," he muttered after observing for a while.

There were no demons within this range, fortunately. And it seems that the formation was doing phenomenal work, draining the corrupted from the ground as well. However, there were certainly some places that needed more help than others. Relying on the formation alone would take years to completely cleanse them of corruption.

It's also these places that Cedric has been neglecting for a while now. But since he had personally seen this problem, he could start thinking about something to fix it.

"System, create a new task notice for me. Name it 'Leyline Repair Task' and put it on the 'Urgent' and 'Priority' lists."

[Tasks and reminders were created. Your personal schedule has been updated.]

"Thanks." Cedric sighed as he retracted his surveillance field.

He stood up and dusted himself before disappearing from the mountain, turning into a streak of light towards the academy.