Chapter 105: Not Retreating...
The pitch-black gravity dome vanished into thin air. Suddenly, Zen and Lyra were left completely exposed on the jagged edge of the cliff.
Down in the Abyssal Trench, the battle was already in full swing.
The lead Void Behemoth was a towering nightmare made of shifting black bone and crackling purple energy. It completely ignored the Vanguard forces.
Instead, the monster lowered its massive head and unhinged its jaws, ready to swallow the medical camp and Selene whole.
"I need you to give me the momentum to make it happen," Zen said. His voice was terrifyingly calm as he stepped right up to the edge.
Lyra’s violet eyes widened with a thrill that bordered on total madness. She didn’t hesitate. With a sharp, graceful flick of her wrist, she summoned a highly concentrated gravity well right under Zen’s boots. It instantly multiplied his mass and inverted his gravity.
Zen stepped off the cliff.
He didn’t just fall; he was fired.
The sheer gravitational force shot him out of the sky like a bullet. The wind screamed in his ears, tearing at his black and gold Imperial tunic. The world blurred into fast, compressed streaks of grey rock and purple lightning.
He was moving so fast that the friction around him actually caught fire, turning his drop into a blazing streak of kinetic energy.
Down in the mud, Selene looked up at the Behemoth’s descending jaws. The terrible stench of cosmic decay washed over her. She closed her silver eyes and let out a breathless, ecstatic sigh. She was entirely ready to die a martyr for her Emperor.
But she never felt the teeth.
Just a fraction of a millisecond before the monster’s jaws could snap shut, Zen slammed into the base of its skull.
He perfectly timed Lyra’s crushing gravity with a violent burst of his mana, aiming straight for the microscopic weak point between its neck bones.
CRACK.
The sound wasn’t just an explosion; it was like a mountain splitting in half.
The Behemoth’s armored neck snapped under the weight of Zen’s drop. Its head slammed into the mud, creating a shockwave that flattened the medical tents and sent Selene tumbling into the dirt.
Zen didn’t stop.
Ignoring the sickening snap of his right arm fracturing from the recoil, he plunged his left hand into the monster’s shattered spine. He wrapped his fingers around a hot, pulsing mass and ripped it free: a glowing, dense Mid A-Rank Void Heart.
[Target Executed. Void Heart acquired. Initiating core absorption...]
Zen crushed the heart in his fist. The raw Void energy flared up his arm like liquid nitrogen, but his compressed mana pathways forced the chaotic surge into submission. Channeling it like a binding agent, he instantly knitted his fractured bones and torn muscles back together.
[Core expanding: Low B-Rank → Mid B-Rank reached.]
Zen exhaled a cloud of purple steam. He shook the dark blood from his hand as he stood proudly on top of the dead Behemoth.
Shaking off the shockwave, the nine remaining Behemoths fixed their glowing purple eyes on the tiny human who had slain their leader. They roared in unison... a sound so thunderous it made the earth tremble beneath Zen’s boots.
Then, they charged from every direction.
[Warning: 9x Mid A-Rank targets locked onto Host.]
[Probability of survival in direct combat: 1.46%.]
[Detecting massive S-Rank kinetic anomaly approaching from the Eastern Flank...]
Zen dismissed the warning.
He knew he couldn’t take them all at once; he would be torn to pieces in seconds.
But he didn’t draw a weapon. He didn’t even raise his aura; he just looked right past the charging monsters and smirked.
"Right on time," he murmured.
Suddenly, a massive kinetic shockwave tore through the eastern side of the horde.
Valeria crashed into the clearing like a crimson meteor. Her golden broadsword was coated in thick layers of monster blood, and her eyes glowed with unhinged madness.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Valeria shrieked.
She didn’t bother with technique; she unleashed pure, apocalyptic force and slammed into the side of the nearest Behemoth, using her shield like a battering ram. The impact completely shattered the beast’s ribcage and sent it crashing into two others.
Before the monsters could even recover, the sparking teleportation gate at the edge of the camp finally stabilised with a deafening BOOM.
Aurelia burst through the portal, leading hundreds of her elite Crown guards. The Empress’s amber eyes went wide with sheer terror when she saw Zen surrounded by A-Rank threats.
"BURN THEM TO ASH!" Aurelia screamed, completely losing her regal composure.
Aurelia’s amber eyes widened in terror at the sight of Zen surrounded by the A-Rank threats. "BURN THEM TO ASH!" she screamed, abandoning all regal composure.
She unleashed her Divine-Rank fire, sending a blinding wave of golden flames raining from the sky like an orbital strike. The intense heat washed over the horde, instantly melting the beasts’ black armour and forcing four of them to their knees in agony.
As Valeria and Aurelia battered the monsters, Zen didn’t hesitate. He channelled Nyx’s ’Shadow’ mana into his legs, using Emperor’s Stride to slip into the deadly crossfire.
He moved like a ghost, weaving through the chaos. With the Goddesses having already shattered the beasts’ defences, he didn’t need to punch through their armour anymore.
He slid effortlessly beneath a crippled Behemoth, drove his hand into its exposed chest, and ripped out its Void Heart.
[Void Heart acquired. Initiating absorption...]
He vaulted off the collapsing corpse, shadow-stepping right through a wave of Aurelia’s golden fire to reach another burning monster.
He plunged his hand into its scorched ribs. He extracted its core just a microsecond before the beast was completely vaporized by the Empress’s magic.
[Void Heart acquired. Initiating absorption...]
[Core expansion parameter reaching critical mass...]
It was a dangerous game of kill-stealing but perfectly executed. Zen moved through the chaos with ease, wasting no movement. He harvested the A-Rank cores like he was picking fruit, effortlessly reaping the benefits of the destruction his protectors were causing.
He pulled the last core from a Behemoth’s chest just as Valeria chopped its head off. Landing in the mud, he crushed the final heart in his bloody fist. A rush of pure power hit him instantly.
[System Calculation Complete. Total Void Hearts absorbed: 10.]
[Core threshold expanding: Mid B-Rank → High B-Rank reached successfully.]
[Host’s mana foundation for Low A-Rank threshold established.]
The air around him warped violently. His pale, icy blue aura flared up, pushing outward in a heavy wave. The colour deepened, turning into a terrifying, rich indigo filled with black lightning.
The battlefield fell into dead silence. The remaining minor beasts scattered, completely terrified of the intense aura of death radiating from the centre of the camp.
A few yards away, Selene stared at him from the mud.
The Sanctum Goddess was a mess. She was covered in dirt and monster ash, and her pristine white armor was ruined.
Her silver eyes were wide, welling up with tears of pure worship. She dragged herself across the scorched ground, still in shock that Zen had fallen from the sky just to carve a path directly to her.
"You came for me," Selene whispered. She reached out with trembling hands, expecting him to pull her to her feet and praise her for being willing to die for his army. "You couldn’t bear to let me go... I was ready to bleed for you, Emperor, and you..."
"Did you really think I would be moved by your suicide?"
Zen’s voice sliced right through the ringing silence of the crater, sounding colder than the Void itself.
Selene froze. Her outstretched hands hovered and trembled in the air. The ecstatic smile on her face completely disappeared.
Zen stepped over the severed limb of a Behemoth and looked down at her. He didn’t reach out to help her up; he didn’t offer even a shred of comfort.
"I don’t need a martyr, Selene."
Zen’s voice cut straight through the ringing silence of the crater. He wasn’t yelling, but his tone held authority.
Selene froze. Her outstretched hands hovered in the air, trembling slightly. The ecstatic smile on her face slowly faded.
Zen stepped over a severed Behemoth limb and looked down at her. He didn’t look disgusted, but he wasn’t about to coddle her, either. He needed to completely dismantle her twisted delusion.
"Just yesterday, you tried to permanently cripple my personal healer," Zen said firmly, reminding her exactly why she was out of his favour. "And today? Today you throw your life away in the mud. You’re hoping your death will somehow buy my forgiveness. It won’t."
Selene let out a ragged, breathless gasp. That reality check hit her harder than a physical blow. Zen simply wasn’t going to play her game of guilt and self-harm.
"I didn’t dive down here to save you," Zen continued. "And I certainly didn’t come here to watch you die. I came to claim my prey. If you truly want to prove your devotion to me, you need to stop wallowing in your own guilt. Start acting like the Goddess of the Sanctum Domain."
He turned his back on her and pointed toward the ruined medical tents.
"Get off your knees, Selene," Zen ordered. "And go do your job."
"Yes," Selene choked out.
She scrambled to her feet in a frantic rush. Her holy aura flared back to life, fuelled by an overwhelming need to be useful to him.
"Yes, Emperor. Right away. I will fix them."
She turned and sprinted back toward the ruined medical tents, completely submitting to his command.
Zen stood alone among the slaughtered bosses, casually wiping dark blood from his cheek.
Valeria slowly walked toward him, stepping over the enemies she had just helped take down. She let her heavy broadsword drop into the mud. Her crimson eyes were wide, and a dark, obsessive blush crept across her face.
She was practically purring, completely captivated by how perfectly he’d orchestrated the slaughter.
"Emperor..." Valeria breathed out.
Aurelia rushed forward next, flanked by her elite guards. The Empress’s amber eyes frantically checked him for injuries. Her golden gown was already stained with soot.
Above them, Lyra gracefully floated down from the edge of the cliff. Her star-woven cloak drifted silently in the air as she landed perfectly beside Zen.
"Zen!" Aurelia gasped, her regal composure completely gone. "The portal... the ley-lines... I thought you were dead! How did you..."
Zen didn’t miss a beat. He smoothly delivered the lie he and Lyra had just planned.
"The Aether Domain’s gravity compression allowed my core to temporarily handle A-Rank power," Zen explained. "Lyra’s tactical intervention gave me the momentum I needed to secure the perimeter."
Aurelia ground her teeth. A flash of pure, territorial jealousy burned in her eyes at the thought of Lyra being the one who helped him.
But the Worshipper in her was just too relieved that he was alive to argue. She reached out and gripped his arm tightly.
"You are safe now, my Emperor," Aurelia said quickly. She gestured frantically toward the open portal behind her. "Let my guards hold the Trench. We are returning to the Crown Palace immediately. It’s way too dangerous out here."
Zen didn’t move. He simply brought his boot down, resting it heavily on the massive, shattered skull of the Void Behemoth under him. He looked at the Empress, completely flipping the script on all of them.
"We are not retreating," Zen declared.
Aurelia blinked, stunned. "But the Palace..."
"Forget the Palace," Zen cut her off. He pointed to the mud, the blood, and the swirling purple sky above them. "Reroute your supply fleets. Bring the siege weapons, the pavilions, and the command tents straight through that gate. Set them up right here in the mud."
He looked at the Goddesses, his dark eyes locking onto each of them. He wasn’t going back to their gilded cage.
"This is our new forward operating base, and we aren’t leaving this frontline until I drain every last drop of this anomaly dry."