Free Web NovelChapter 1645: The Slumbering Sovereign
The Sixth Tier of the Abyss: The Slumbering Grounds.
It earned its name as the resting place of the tier’s overlord.
Orion, in his Death-Soul Fiend form, had come seeking his kin, Kaidric—the Sovereign of the Sixth Tier.
Kaidric slept in a decaying palace, devoid of guards, servants, or hidden wardens. It was a tomb. Pitch-black, damp, and rotting. Not even a rat or insect stirred in the gloom.
Orion approached the gates, glancing at the twin skeletal stone sentries. Covered in moss and crumbling with rust-colored stains, they reeked of abandonment and forgotten ages.
He stepped forward. The stairs cracked beneath his boots, a spiderweb of fractures spreading through the rotted stone.
The heavy doors groaned as Orion pushed them open.
A throne. An incense burner. Sconces. Nothing else.
Approaching the burner, Orion snapped off a small tendril from his own body, ignited it with a thought, and dropped it into the ash. This was a Death-Soul Race ritual of faith. A summons.
"Who calls?" freewēbnoveℓ.com
After a long pause, the voice echoed from the burner, shifting the very fabric of the room.
Sconces flared to life along the walls. The throne ground upward, elevating a tier before erupting in blinding light.
The radiance stripped away the decay, breathing life back into the hall. Obsidian pillars rose, crowned with glaring gargoyles. Faded dust transformed into vibrant tapestries of mythical beasts. Alabaster platforms, stained glass, and a vaulted ceiling materialized from the rot. Even the skeletal statues outside shed their stone husks, animating into towering, armored Death-Soul sentinels.
"So, it’s you."
Before Orion could process the transformation, Kaidric’s phantom form materialized on the throne.
"Orion, my newest kin. Welcome to my domain."
The Sovereign’s projection solidified as he spoke.
Orion offered a respectful bow. Kaidric was not just his kin; he was a friend of Commander Thresh. Orion knew better than to show arrogance here.
"It has been a while, Sovereign."
They had met once before, back when Orion was a mere nobody. Had Commander Thresh not vouched for him, Kaidric wouldn’t have given him a second glance. Now, as one of the rulers of the Ascendant Plane, Orion had earned his seat at the table.
"A demigod now. You’ve braved the Dreamlands, I see. What did the forbidden grounds yield?"
Kaidric blurred, reappearing right in front of Orion. He circled him, his gaze piercing through Orion’s defenses, analyzing every ounce of his power.
"Interesting. An aura of the Giant Race? A hybrid with a Death-Soul?" Kaidric murmured. "No, that’s not right. I remember the Giants, and they don’t feel like this. A Titan?"
Kaidric stroked his chin, eyes alight with dark curiosity. The anomaly of the Death-Soul Fiend fascinated him.
"Indeed," Orion replied. "A Stoneheart Titan. A bloodline I forged myself."
Silence fell over the hall. Heavy and suffocating.
After a long, tense pause, Kaidric’s voice broke the quiet, laced with absolute disbelief.
"Say that again."
Orion nodded. It wasn’t arrogance, but undeniable pride. There was nothing to hide.
"I am a Stoneheart Titan. A bloodline of my own making."
Kaidric stared him down for a tense moment.
"Wait here."
He closed his eyes, either sifting through ancient memories or reaching out across the void to confirm the impossible. Fifteen minutes passed before his eyes snapped open, failing to mask his sheer astonishment.
"Impressive. You actually pulled off the Ascendant Plane."
For Kaidric, it was a genuine, monumental surprise.
"You came to recruit me, didn’t you?" He didn’t wait for Orion to answer. "I’m in. As for my price, I’ll negotiate that with your leader later."
Orion smiled, relief mingling with his own surprise.
"Furthermore," Kaidric continued, "I’ll be drafting a Conquest Legion from the Sixth Tier under my banner. Forging a void passage between the Titanion Realm and here is no simple feat. I’ll need your active cooperation."
"Find a suitable anchor point in your world. Carve out a minor abyssal plane—a Pocket Dimension embedded within your reality."
Orion nodded. He understood the mechanics; it would function similarly to The Demigod of the Moonwell’s Pocket Dimension.
"If necessary, I’ll drag a few peers along to reinforce your lines," Kaidric added. "Expect them to demand the same status and compensation as myself. If that exceeds your authority, run it by your commander first."
Orion shook his head. He had the authority for this; there was no need to bother Commander Thresh.
"If they match your strength, we’ll take as many as you can rally."
Kaidric offered a satisfied nod. Orion’s decisiveness mirrored his old friend’s. He respected that.
"Good. We have an accord." Kaidric paused, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Though, I imagine you still want to siphon troops directly from our kin?"
Kaidric had read Orion’s play perfectly. It was the other reason he had come to the Abyss.
"Yes," Orion admitted.
Securing the allegiance of the entire Death-Soul Race would give the Titan Continent the formidable backing it needed to face any threat.
"A word of advice," Kaidric warned. "With your current power, words won’t sway them. Set up a blood-pact arena. Beat them into submission, and conscript whoever you defeat directly into your territory."
"You’ll bolster your ranks and sharpen your own edge in the process. Keep fighting, keep winning, and your reinforcements will never run dry."
Orion paused.
Kaidric gave him a knowing wink. Orion had a sinking suspicion that this was a terrible idea.
...
The Bastion of the West, Titan Continent.
War was a permanent fixture in the contested zone bordering the Titan Continent and The Lifeless Expanse.
It had begun as localized skirmishes. Scouts, vanguards, and assassins bleeding each other dry in brutal, close-quarters combat. But as the body count rose, so did the stakes. To claim more territory and vital resource nodes, both sides poured heavy infantry and specialized units into the meat grinder.
The turning point was the arrival of the Mycelial forces. Their deployment granted the Titan Continent a massive tactical advantage, sparking a series of aggressive, highly successful offensives.
That momentum held until The Lifeless Expanse deployed a specialized cadre of dark hexcasters.
Now, the Titan Continent’s advance wasn’t just stalling—it was being pushed back.
The hexcasters unleashed indiscriminate magic, blanketing the entire frontline in virulent plagues and curses. The lethal miasma made it entirely impossible for forces led by Caelus and Dirtclaw to hold their ground, let alone dig in and fortify it.
