She leaned close, brushing back his hair with her fingers.
"And we're going to see him right now."
At that, Lykos froze. His ears twitched, and then his eyes widened while they glowed with a bright, molten gold flaring with raw excitent.
"Mother, do I really need to et my father?" Lykos asked, his small voice laced with arrogance despite his childlike appearance. "You have told many things about him, but all I truly understand is that he is weaker than . How can soone like that be worthy of being called my father?"
Xytrallia only smiled at her son's prideful words. As she continued to comb his soft hair with her radiant, precious comb, she tapped the back of her hand lightly against his head, not hard enough to hurt him, but enough to remind him of his place.
"Is that what you believe, little devil?" she said, her tone both amused and tender.
Lykos frowned, clearly dissatisfied, but Xytrallia's eyes softened with a knowing light. "Then let tell you a secret, my little one. The reason you are so much stronger than your peers is not only because of . Much of your power cos from your father."
"His blood flows inside you, and without it, you would not be what you are. But that is all I can reveal, for there are things even I am forbidden to speak of. Whether your father is weak or strong, you will soon be able to see with your own eyes."
She looked toward the living mbrane that served as a window in her throne room. Beyond it, the galaxy seed to bend and shift as the vast swarm prepared to move.
Three Kragnarok-class Planet Devourers released colossal beams of green light; their energy was so dense that it shook the very fabric of space. The combined force of these beams tore open a rift across billions of light-years, revealing the distant shadow of the necrotech world.
This was no re teleportation. It was an act that mirrored the authority of beings at Tier Six and above, yet taken to a far greater scale. While a single powerhouse could cross thousands of kiloters, the swarm of three Hive Queens opened a path across sectors, forcing reality itself to yield before them.
As the rift stabilized, endless waves of the swarm began to pour through, their countless wings and bodies darkening the void like a tide of living night. The Kragnarok Devourers continued to hold the crack open, their beams pulsing with violent power as the three Hive Mind Queens led their endless army forward.
anwhile, upon the surface of the necrotech world, the situation had devolved into a battle that could no longer be described as anything but a one-sided massacre. It was a clash between monsters, a struggle where entire landscapes crumbled beneath each blow.
The mont Rex had reached the fortress, Cleopatra, the towering black giant, charged at him, and the two collided with earth-shattering force. But the fight was horribly one-sided.
The black giant's strength was overwhelming, his every strike tearing apart Rex's defenses. Even though Rex now possessed imnse planetary energy reserves, he was still only a newly risen Tier Five planetary champion, unsteady and unpracticed.
The black giant, by contrast, radiated the aura of sothing far more ancient, its power easily on the level of a peak Tier Seven being, perhaps even beyond.
No matter how Rex fought back, the blows rained down without rcy. The silver giant that was his soul staggered beneath the storm, each punch of the black titan making Rex's body convulse with pain.
The fortress weapons roared, the rcenaries fought desperately, and Little Red poured her virus into the field like a tide of crimson fire, yet even their combined might barely scratched the monster.
"Damn it!" Rex roared, his voice echoing through the battlefield. "You think you're unstoppable just because I don't even know how to use this damned energy yet? Where's the manual when you actually need it!?"
His defiance was cut short when the black giant's massive fist smashed into his silver face, making him stumble backward as agony exploded through his entire being.
But the giant was not done. In an instant, its nightmarish tentacles lashed out, stabbing into his arms, his legs, and his chest, nailing him to the ground like a crucified titan.
"YOUNG EMPEROR!" Little Red's voice scread, trembling with fury and despair. She urged her crimson dragon forward, commanding it to hurl itself against the black monster.
The beast roared defiantly, slashing with claws of burning virus, but the giant only turned, its endless malice focused on this new challenger.
With terrifying ease, it caught the dragon by the throat and wing, then with a sound that cracked like thunder across the battlefield, it ripped the creature apart as though tearing paper.
Upon seeing its enemy torn apart, the black giant released a scream that was unlike any sound born of flesh or steel. It was a soul-tearing cry, a shriek that cut through reality itself.
Everyone present, whether rcenary, warrior, or creature, instinctively clutched at their ears, but it was useless. The scream was not sothing carried by air. It was a direct assault upon the soul, a vibration that reached into the deepest parts of their being and shook them to the core.
There was no wall to hide behind, no shield strong enough to block it, and no armor to dampen it... but the nightmare did not end there.
From the edges of the battlefield, where the black mist still lingered, monstrous shapes began to crawl forward. First ca shadows, then twisted bodies, and finally the full horror revealed itself.
Countless mutated infected of every size and form poured out of the fog, like an army of nightmares given flesh. So scuttled across the ground on spiderlike limbs, others slithered with wormlike bodies, and still others lood as towering brutes with jagged bones piercing through their gray flesh.
They sward without hesitation, drawn by the black giant's scream, converging on every living thing that dared resist.
"My lord! We must retreat!" Zanar's voice was almost drowned by the chaos. He fought with his teeth clenched while his blades flashed as he carved through the abominations pressing in from all sides.
His arms ached, his armor was already torn in places, but he still forced himself to stand between the horde and Valxir. "We might be able to break through the skies now that the mist is thinner here! Please, we must at least try!"
Valxir, however, did not share his desperation. He gave a hollow, humorless chuckle even as his body was drenched in sweat and blood.
"Do you really think escape is possible, little Zanar?" His weary eyes moved between Volkong and Zorbag before settling back on his loyal protector. His lips curved into a bitter smile.
"If that monster wanted us dead, he would have crushed us the instant he noticed us. We are still alive not because of our strength… but because it is choosing to let us live."
Zanar's face darkened at his words, but Valxir continued, his voice hoarse. "I was uncertain before, but after that scream, I am sure of it. That sound was not ant to kill us. It was a reminder. A ssage. This creature is not fighting us with its full power. It is toying with us, dragging out the inevitable."
Even as he spoke, Valxir's gun clicked empty. Snarling, he tossed it aside and drew his spear. Stellar energy surged around him, coating the weapon until it expanded to ten tis its usual length, glowing like a piece of a star torn from the heavens.
With a roar, he hurled himself back into the tide of mutants, his spear sweeping through the abominations like a storm, cutting them down by the dozen.
"As if this will stop !" Rex's voice thundered across the battlefield.
The silver giant that had been nailed to the ground suddenly broke apart, shattering into clouds of glittering dust. For an instant, Rex's form vanished, only to reappear behind the black giant.
Without hesitation, he slamd into the monster, tackling it with enough force to shatter mountains, driving it down into the ground.
"Now it is my turn, you bastard!" Rex roared, his fists raining down upon the giant's skull with fury. Each strike cracked the earth beneath them, each blow carrying the weight of his will.
His punches were like teors falling from the heavens, powerful enough to grind peaks into dust. And for the first ti, it seed as though his attacks truly forced the black giant to feel pain.
But the victory was short-lived.
With cold precision, the monster's tentacles writhed forward once more, stabbing through the silver giant's body like spears. Rex scread as the tendrils pierced his limbs and chest, and with a sickening motion, the black titan hurled him off its body as though he were nothing more than broken debris.
The giant rose slowly from the crater, its massive fra towering above everything else on the battlefield. Its gaze fixed on Rex with an almost curious malice.
Then its left arm began to twist and deform, bones snapping into new positions, flesh hardening and reshaping. In monts, the arm no longer resembled a limb. It had beco a grotesque cannon, a living weapon that pulsed with dark veins of mist.
The black fog all around the battlefield began to rush toward it, funneling into the cannon-like limb as though the world itself was being drawn into a single point. The air grew heavier, the ground trembled, and the space around the weapon distorted with unstable power.
It was clear to all who saw it... whatever it was preparing to unleash, it would not rely strike Rex. It would consu everything.
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