The silky white soul ties snap one by one, attached to the outer layers of the construct around the origin plane.
There are some that reform slowly, but the decline is systematic and inevitable.
Another full trillion years pass by, and I watch the soul ties dwindle down below a hundred billion links of loyalty.
My level has been slowly rising, but with such a small population of life, and their average levels falling every generation, I only reach [Lv. 9,999,997] by the time I send a droplet of Emperor's essence down to check again.
While the deaths of the remaining life have added to the level count, the majority of the experience has come from the pure, flawless-grade ether that is refined from life itself falling out into the membrane upon each death.
Even lifeforms that only wield qi, or low-quality ether, in the depths of their souls, at the moment of their passing, there is a fragment of flawless-grade ether that returns to me every time, no matter what.
Maria and I arrive back in the Purple Zone, where Abby's private domain once stood.
We look down to view the largest leaves where the simulated domains housing all of the remaining life in the galaxy once stood. They were protected by large white ether arrays, and mana-imbued constructs held together by the natural purple divine threads in this zone.
Yet, even these structures have degraded by time.
All twelve towers in the blue and cyan zones holding the remaining energy that was powering these domains have been drained dry.
When my avatar's senses scan through the top of this tree, I don't find a single domain left running.
The air is basically devoid of energy.
I've visited some of the most desolate Fifth Class worlds in the Lower Realm during the Demonic Era, and their air quality felt like paradise compared to this.
When I scan the current Lower Realm, Green Zone, Cyan Zone, and Blue Zone to compare, I realize that they are all completely drained dry. It is like a vacuum has sucked up every last energy-rich particle to the top of the Purple Zone. The rest of this construct is as barren as the universe outside the membrane.
I feel just under a hundred billion soul ties still linked to me and even scroll through my system to view who or what they are.
The average level hardly surpasses [Lv. 2]. The majority are only newly awakened beings, all at [Lv. 1]. It is extremely rare to see any life surpassing [Lv. 10], but I do spot a few.
It appears the new system mutations have granted rank-ups to the lifeforms that make it to double digits. They are the very few leaders left in this era.
Technology has regressed quite a bit.
From the conversations I overhear and the spectate feeds I listen in on, there are many tales of long-lost gods and hundreds of religions that the current races believe in.
Without ether pathways to travel long distances, and no high levels of strength to do so manually, every civilization is permanently stuck upon the leaf they were born on.
Some of the smaller leaves are only a few tens of billions of kilometers wide, while others span trillions of kilometers.
The last remaining races consist of ancient bloodlines. There are quite a few human clans, Ogre and Orc tribes, Goblin factions, Berserker armies, and a few lizard races that have made it throughout the ages.
Many of them are isolated atop their leaves; some have never even made it to the edge to find out that there are other leaves below.
The grand arrays have all dissipated and fallen apart. The last colonies of life are living in reality to the very end.
Every few thousand years, one of the enormous white, blue, or green glyphs left behind in the fossilized black Primordial Tree flickers to life. Some of the symbols are recorded, and new religions are formed. Other societies live in between the remaining glyphs upon black spots, only seeing bright flashes of light far off on the horizon, never to see where these divine glows originate from.
It is a simple existence, and fascinating to see that the remnants of an older era are resting beneath these civilizations, most likely never to be discovered by mortal eyes again.
I take one last look at the massive, black, glossy Primordial Tree the size of the entire galaxy. Without it, the natural barriers between zones would have dissipated long ago too. The very infrequent flickers of glyphs all over its trunk and roots are the last thing I see before fading back into my main body in the membrane.
Maria and I pull on the remaining soul ties in silence. One by one, we watch them snap, grow weaker, and become so frail that each death grants us almost the same amount of ether that was making up the entire link.
It takes another full trillion years for all of the microscopic particles of flawless-grade ether to be filtered out and pour into our bodies.
I watch the total life in the galaxy fall below one billion, then below one million, and eventually even below one thousand.
In these lower ranges, it fluctuates up and down as societies collapse and races rebuild and live on with less and less energy. Every once in a while, there is not enough energy left to go on, and another race goes extinct, adding to the list of many that have been lost to time.
My level reaches [Lv. 9,999,999] as we pull the final soul ties, watching them all snap within my grasp. The last seeds of life, a human civilization resting in the center of a single leaf within the Purple Zone.
I feel the last beads of flawless-grade ether squeeze out of this dead galaxy, merging with my Immortal Form.
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Author's Note:
If you're enjoying Dungeon Diver and want to follow Jay on his journey ahead of schedule, check out the Patreon link in my profile bio.
There's custom chapter art for every new daily upload too!
Thanks for reading:)
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