jdhmnovel Chapter 262: The Sovereign’s Advent
Chapter 262: The Sovereign’s Advent
As time bled away, the final magical circuit of the Planar Teleportation Array
began to draw closed. Grey radiance wove through the air, tracing geometric
patterns so complex they would cause a mortal mind to spiral into vertigo.
Thanatos stared at the progress bar of the formation, his gauntlets grinding
against each other with a series of sharp, metallic clicks as he clenched his
fists.
Three minutes.
If he could maintain his logic for just three more minutes, he would be clear of
this anomalous world and its terrifying laws.
Just then.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
A synchronized, rhythmic vibration reached him from the horizon of the Gale
Prairie. It wasn't the sound of marching; it was the sound of the earth itself
groaning and wailing under a weight it was never meant to bear.
Thanatos snapped his skull toward the source.
And then, he saw it.
On the horizon, an ocean of soulfire manifested—so vast and dense that it
blotted out the grass, the sky, and the very concept of distance.
Millions?
No. It was tens of millions.
An army composed of tens of millions of Tier 6 powerhouses was surging across
the prairie with a velocity that defied their heavy infantry frames.
Thanatos watched, the violet-gold soulfire in his sockets flickering with a
jagged, panicked rhythm. He had subjugated worlds. He had incinerated
civilizations. He had seen hosts of men that stretched from sea to sea. But he
had never witnessed—had never even conceptualized—that the Multiverse could
house a singular legion of tens of millions of Tier 6 entities.
Impossible! Statistically, logically impossible!
How can a single Plane house the Od required to sustain such a concentration of
power?!
In the heartbeat that Thanatos's sanity began to fracture, a sound like a blade
cutting through silk tore through the heavens. A gargantuan, sapphire-blue
teleportation array—exceeding a hundred kilometers in diameter—unfurled directly
above his Crimson Purgatory.
The array was a masterpiece of arcane geometry, its runes rotating with a
frequency that made the very atmosphere vibrate with a sickening hum.
Too much shock. Too many variables that defied his experience. Thanatos stood
frozen, his tactical mind stalling. By the time he regained enough motor control
to reach into his spatial storage for more Antimagic Crystals...
It was already over.
The sky-array reached full ignition.
Another wave of tens of millions of Tier 6 Undead spilled from the rift like a
waterfall of bone and steel, saturating the prairie until there was no green
left—only the cold, white glare of the Evernight.
Thanatos's hand hung mid-air. He clutched the Antimagic Crystal in his palm, but
its potential had been reduced to zero. The main host of the enemy had arrived.
Whether there were more or less of them no longer impacted the outcome of the
war. It was a total system override.
He stared at the scene, the violet-gold light in his eyes dimming until it was
nearly extinguished.
One hundred million...
Nearly one hundred million Tier 6 Undead.
The concept was a physical weight. This was a force capable of declaring war on
every known Plane simultaneously and conducting a total purge of the Multiverse.
And now, that force was focused entirely on him and his Necrotic legions.
Thanatos scanned the endless sea of bone, searching for a flaw—a sliver of hope.
Then, he saw the Seven silhouettes at the absolute vanguard of the host.
Seven Undead, each possessing a different aspect of power. The mere pressure of
their presence caused the space around them to warp and ripple. They stood
motionless, waiting with the calm detachment of gods who had already seen the
end of the world.
Thanatos could sense it: every one of these seven possessed an Od signature that
rivaled his own elite officers. Some were even denser.
The ultimate strength of an Undead Calamity was supposed to be its infinite
numbers, balanced by a slow evolution rate and stagnant individual power. Planar
wars were usually won through attrition—exhausting the enemy's Mana and Od until
they were drowned in a sea of thralls.
But these Evernight soldiers... they possessed the infinite numbers, yet they
also held a battlefield assimilation and a resurrection Authority that surpassed
anything in his archives. And the individual power of a common foot soldier? It
was top-tier for any world in the cosmos.
The shock turned into a low, involuntary murmur. "What in the name of the
Void... are these monsters?"
Just as Thanatos believed he had reached the limit of the nightmare, a shadow
larger than the rest began to descend.
The sky-array closed, and from its fading light, a Bone Dragon drifted downward.
It was over a hundred meters long, its wingspan sufficient to eclipse the city.
It was a Tier 6 Behemoth, every bone wreathed in dark, liquid ribbons of death
energy. Its draconic Authority pressed down on the prairie like a physical
ceiling, making it hard to draw a breath.
The Dragon landed at the very front of the Imperial host.
In that micro-second, every single Evernight soldier—from the vanguard in the
trenches to the hundred-million-strong main army—performed a single,
unchoreographed movement.
They balled their right hands into fists and slammed them against their
breastplates with a thunderous CRACK.
The Imperial Salute of nearly one hundred million souls fused into a rolling
roar that shook the very stars.
"WE! SALUTE! THE SOVEREIGN!"
Thanatos's soulfire began to shiver with an uncontrollable violence.
His gaze was fixed on the Dragon's back.
There stood a figure.
A skeleton that looked... ordinary.
He wore no flamboyant regalia. He emitted no jagged, overwhelming Mana-blasts.
His aura was so still, so flat, it was almost undetectable.
But the moment Thanatos looked at him, a terror he had never felt in all his
centuries erupted from the center of his soul like a volcano.
It was a total suppression of Vocation. It was the absolute, lizard-brain
recognition of a higher-order existence. It was the "Authority of the Origin."
Thanatos took two involuntary steps back. He felt a logic-defying impulse to
collapse into the dirt.
Kneel. Submit to his existence.
He gritted his teeth, forcing his joints to lock. I am a Tier 7 Sovereign! I am
the King of the Necrotic Realm who has harvested worlds! How can I feel the urge
to submit to a nameless skeleton?!
But his undead instincts were screaming, roaring at him to grovel.
Thanatos's composure finally disintegrated. He spun around, letting out a
hysterical, high-pitched roar at his terrified Liches.
"THE PORTAL! ACTIVATE THE PORTAL!" "NOW! THIS SECOND! GO!"
The Liches, startled by their King's total loss of dignity, began pouring their
very life-essence into the formation's core.
VROOOM!
Grey light exploded. The array reached critical speed. Space twisted, and a
massive transit tunnel began to anchor into the void.
Thanatos stared at the opening, a frantic, desperate joy flaring in his dimming
eyes. Once I enter, I am safe. I will return home, burn the bridge, and hide in
the deep grey until I can rebuild. As long as I survive—
Just then, a cold, dry voice drifted from the Dragon's back.
"Hmph. Leaving so soon?"
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