Chapter 397: ELDORIA ENDURES!
The sky above Eldoria was thick with storm clouds, charged with mana so dense it felt like the air itself was trembling. Before the ruined gates of the once-prestigious Pacesetters Academy, the people of the city had gathered—thousands upon thousands, their eyes fixed on the figures standing at the forefront.
This was no ordinary crowd. It was Eldoria itself—mages, knights, artisans, cultivators, even ordinary citizens who had no weapons but carried torches, prayers, and raw courage. They had come to watch, to send off, to believe. Because before them stood the final vanguard, the ones who would march into Endless’ shadowed kingdom and decide the fate of Aetheris.
At the center was Drake Grey, his armor gleaming silver under the dull light of the storm, his crimson cloak fluttering as the wind whipped across the plaza. His presence was like a beacon; he didn’t even have to speak before hearts began to pound with anticipation.
Beside him were the others—Kaelen with his steady eyes, Kelvin looking like the embodiment of death itself with his scythe which gave anyone that looks at him a chill down their spine, Kang’s towering form like an unshakable mountain, Lila and Guinevere with mana already swirling faintly around them, Morris with his scepter resting against his shoulder as mana of multiple attributes were swirling all around him, Ethan, expression firm, carrying the calm of someone who had faced death and returned and Neana with Eirana which both of them radiants a pressure like no other despite not gifted with mana while the Voidcloak stood close behind Eirana as if it is her shadow.
And then, behind them, like the tide itself, stood the two Eternals, Judgement and Elemental. They were radiant, not in light but in power—the kind of presence that made mortals feel like grass before a storm. Around them were the remaining elf battalions, their banners snapping in the wind, their eyes sharp and resolute as they were led by Maeralyn and Velyrian.
The silence was heavy. The world itself seemed to be waiting for a single voice.
Drake stepped forward, raised his sword, and drove it into the cracked stone beneath him with a sound that rang like thunder.
"Eldoria!" his voice carried, deep and commanding, echoing against the shattered academy walls. "We stand today at the edge of oblivion. Endless has drained our veins of mana, toppled our bastions, slain our kin, and now seeks to ascend beyond mortality itself. He wishes to be a god—our god—binding us in chains of despair!"
The crowd erupted in boos, shouts, and angry cries. Drake raised a hand, silencing them instantly.
"But hear me now!" His eyes burned like fire, sweeping across them all. "We will not bow. We will not cower. If he dares to rise as a god, then we shall drag him down to the earth where he belongs! For every life he has taken, we shall answer with vengeance! For every flame he has extinguished, we shall kindle ten more! Our ancestors are watching, our fallen brothers and sisters are listening—let us show them that Eldoria does not break. Eldoria does not yield. Eldoria... ENDURES!"
The last word crashed from his lips like lightning splitting the sky.
A roar erupted from the thousands gathered—cheers, war cries, chants of his name. Tears streamed down faces; weapons were lifted high; fists pounded on armor. Even the elves raised their blades in solemn salute.
Kaelen felt the fire in his own chest, his heart hammering. He glanced at his friends—Morris tightening his grip on his spear, Guinevere’s flames flickering faintly in her eyes, Ethan lowering his head with determination, Lila breathing deeply as if to calm the storm within her. Kang merely crossed his arms, lips curving in a rare approving smile. Even Maeralyn and Velyrian seemed quietly pleased.
It was the moment to march.
Drake raised his sword again. "Now—"
But then Kaelen froze. His instincts, sharp as a blade honed by endless battle, screamed. He turned his head sharply, eyes narrowing at a ripple of movement cutting through the outer edges of the crowd.
Someone was walking forward. Not rushing, not stumbling—walking. Calm, deliberate, with an aura that bent the air around him.
The cheers faltered. One by one, heads turned, silence spreading like frost.
The man was tall, draped in black and crimson garments that seemed to drink in the stormlight. His dark hair fell loose around a face both sharp and unsettlingly calm. In his right hand, he carried nothing—no sword, no staff—but the pressure around him was suffocating, like a void slowly devouring the world.
Kaelen’s heart sank. He recognized that presence instantly.
"...Rodriguez," Kaelen muttered, his voice carrying enough for his companions to hear.
Lila’s expression hardened. "The Devouring King."
Morris stiffened, his spear’s tip lowering slightly as if in warning.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed. "I thought he disappeared after the Battle Convention..."
Guinevere whispered, almost bitterly, "So he was watching all this time?"
Yes. Rodriguez—the Devouring King. A monster in human skin, once a participant in the Battle Convention as a representative of Valen Military Academy. His name had been spoken with fear since then. His ability was not simply to destroy—it was to consume, to erase. He devoured mana, life, essence, everything.
He had a battle with his father at the coliseum which held the Battle convention which was the last time Kaelen and the others saw him since right after that was the destruction of the entire kingdom.
The crowd had gone silent, all the fire and cheers choked in their throats.
Rodriguez stopped before the gathered heroes. His dark eyes lifted to Kaelen and his friends, then slid lazily toward Drake, as if measuring, as if deciding. The faintest curl of a smile touched his lips.
"...So," his voice was smooth, deep, but carrying that same undercurrent of hunger that made the skin crawl. "You all intend to march against Endless."
Drake shifted his stance, sword raised but not yet pointed. "If you’ve come to stand in our way, Rodriguez, then know this—Eldoria will not yield to you either."
"Come to stand in your way?" Rodriguez replied with a raised eyebrows. "Am not that stupid. Why will I stand in the way of the people that plans to prevent the Human race along with the other race go extinct?"
"So you aren’t here to stop us?" Morris asked with a pensive look on his face. "No, why I actually came is because I would like to join you guys, I still have a score to settle against that bastard for using my father against his will" Rodriguez answered with a solemn expression on his face.
After hearing him, everyone finally calmed down since they have confirmed that he is on their side. Kaelen then approached him as he patted his shoulder while he said. "Come then, we don’t have much time left anymore"
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At this moment, the Endless Kingdom was no longer silent.
The dark skies above the obsidian citadel were restless, thunder snarling across the heavens like chained beasts begging for release. The land itself convulsed under an unseen pressure—deep tremors rattled through the foundations of the black-stoned spires, sending cascades of gravel and molten sparks spilling down from jagged mountains in the distance.
It had begun the moment Endless returned from his massacre and shut himself away. His citadel’s highest tower—the Spire of Nothingness—was shrouded in spiraling, ink-black vortexes of mana that pulsed like a beating heart. Each throb sent another quake rippling through the kingdom, toppling statues of long-forgotten gods and splitting the earth with yawning fissures that breathed violet light.
At the base of that dreadful tower, the Chaos Twins sat side by side upon a fractured throne of bone and iron, their crimson eyes darting between one another as another shuddering quake rattled the hall.
"He’s been at this for days now," Selene muttered, her sharp smile dimmed with unease. She dragged her clawed finger across the arm of the throne, leaving grooves in the iron. "Every hour the tremors grow worse. Even the abyssal beasts have gone silent. Do you not feel it, brother? Something is tearing him apart—or remaking him."
Aron chuckled, though the sound was hollow. His gaze was fixed on the spiraling mana above the spire. "Remaking, perhaps. Endless is no fool. He doesn’t strain himself unless the reward is beyond comprehension." His lips curved into a wolfish grin. "Still... it is curious, isn’t it? A god bleeding behind his own walls."
The sound of armored boots echoed through the cracked floor of the throne hall. Kael Dragonyx stepped out from the shadows, his black cloak glinting faintly with runes that pulsed with restrained violence. His dark abyssal eyes flickered with irritation, though his tone was calm when he spoke.
"You two speak too loudly for those who live in a god’s house," he said, his voice low and resonant. "Do not forget whose will binds this kingdom. Endless tolerates you, but he is not blind to whispers."
Selene smirked, unbothered to both the person that just spoke and what he said. "Oh, Kael, always so rigid. Perhaps it is why Endless keeps you close. A chained dragon guarding his door."
Kael’s eyes narrowed, but he did not rise to the bait. Instead, his gaze drifted upward to the trembling spire. He had felt it too—the gnawing, suffocating pulse of raw void energy that bled from Endless’ isolation chamber. It was unnatural, even for one who called himself Eternal.
"What is he becoming in there?" Kael muttered, almost to himself.
The twins exchanged a look. They had asked themselves the same question more than once.
Before either could answer, another quake tore through the citadel. Dust fell in choking clouds from the ceiling. Across the kingdom, the sound of splitting earth echoed like drums of war.
Outside the citadel, soldiers of the Endless Kingdom—the voidspawn, the corrupted, the orcs and the goblins—stood in uneasy silence as entire sections of the land collapsed into glowing abysses. Some whispered among themselves, others dared not even breathe.
Yet within the throne hall, one man seemed utterly unmoved.
Alen, the Dark Magi, leaned casually against a broken column, his face hidden in the shadow of his hood. The runes on his staff flickered with dim blue light as though mocking the chaos around him. He had not spoken since the tremors began, and even now he only gave a soft chuckle that cut through the silence like a blade.
"You all tremble as though the end of your world is near," he said, his voice smooth and deceptively calm. "Perhaps it is. Or perhaps our dear Endless has finally remembered what it means to be an Eternal."
Selene’s gaze snapped to him, eyes narrowing. "You sound as if you know more than you say, Dark Magi."
Alen tilted his head, his smile hidden but felt. "Do I? Or do I simply see clearer than the rest of you, blinded as you are by worship and fear?" His hand brushed lazily against his staff. "Endless isolates himself not to ascend, but to shed. What he casts away... that is what I await."
For a moment, silence weighed heavy in the hall. Even the Chaos Twins did not laugh. Kael’s eyes sharpened, the faint crackle of lightning dancing along his gauntlets as if his instincts demanded blood.
But Alen merely turned his gaze back to the trembling spire, as though none of them mattered at all.
The tremors grew worse. The air thickened with void energy so dense it strangled even the Chaos Twins’ breath. Something was happening above them—something that would either cement Endless as the true god of nothingness... or break the very kingdom he had built.
And in the silence that followed, suspicion took root like a thorn in every heart.