Chapter 800: A black hole inside a world
Vlad’s eyes were sharp as blades, narrow slits of focus and fury as he faced Augustus and the elite group of Zanis Legends. His sword moved with perfect control—every arc, every thrust, executed with seamless precision, always a heartbeat ahead of the deadly blows aimed at him. But even his mastery had limits.
There were simply too many enemies, and they moved with such tight coordination that Vlad was slowly being pushed back. His counterattacks were limited, and openings to retaliate became rarer with each second.
A deep frown etched itself into Vlad’s face as he noticed the situation worsening not just in the air, but on the ground as well. If nothing changed, the Xaos forces would soon face overwhelming casualties.
But just as it seemed that the True Depravita of Wrath and the Xaos soldiers had taken on more than they could handle—it happened.
"RUMBLE!!!"
The entire fortress shook violently, stone towers trembling as spatial waves erupted outward in all directions. Augustus, who had begun to wear a confident smirk, froze in place. His instincts screamed danger, and his heart sank like a stone in his chest. The tremors—the spatial fluctuations—they could only come from one place.
The Interstellar Teleportation Formation at the fortress core.
And it was activating in a way it should not.
As the space-time ripples grew stronger, dread flooded Augustus’ veins, as an idea came to his mind, one that made his blood run cold.
"Are they going to—?" He didn’t even finish the thought. With panic overtaking instinct, he lunged toward the formation’s direction, hoping to stop it before it was too late.
"THUMP!"
Before he could advance more than a few meters, a heartbeat unlike any other thundered through the skies. It was not the beat of a heart so much as a drum of war, a primordial declaration of dominance. The sound overwhelmed even the loudest clash of steel and fire. Augustus turned his gaze instinctively toward its source—and saw the young, white-haired man floating in the air, his power suddenly and violently expanding.
A psychic tsunami erupted from Vlad, an ocean of wrathful mental power that surged across the battlefield. His energy spiked exponentially, transcending the boundaries of a High Legend.
"He had been hiding his true strength." That thought drilled into Augustus’ mind like a blade. And Vlad was just getting started.
From the center of the chaos, a sky-blue sphere emerged around Vlad, expanding rapidly until it nearly enveloped the entire fortress. It was his spatial domain—his realm of absolute control. Within it, every Legend found their movements slowed, as if they were wading through liquid mercury. Their reaction times dulled. Their coordination faltered.
For the Guardians and Sages on the ground, it was even worse.
They could barely move.
To them, it felt as if the very air had become water, and they were drowning in a sea of power.
And then it escalated again.
A demonic surge of power burst from Vlad’s chest, and from his torso two new arms emerged—arms not of flesh, but of pure, condensed psychic energy. They extended for a brief moment before merging into his original limbs, drastically enhancing his power, speed, and precision. The energy density around him soared to terrifying new heights.
Vlad grinned, feeling the shift in his power. He had reached a truly monstrous level, and he had done so without even needing to fuse with the other Depravitas.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
His sword lifted—and with a single sweep, he unleashed a wave of spatial pressure so powerful that Augustus and the other Legends were blasted backward. Some coughed up blood mid-flight, their defenses shattered.
Not wasting a moment, Vlad raised his weapon again, pointing it to the sky. A massive surge of energy flowed upward, and a portal opened in the heavens—glowing, humming, pulsing with destructive potential.
Augustus had barely regained control of his body when he saw what came next.
From the glowing portal, thousands upon thousands of swords descended—each forged from lightning and spatial force, sharp enough to cleave through armored battalions. They rained from the sky like a divine judgment.
"AHHHHH!"
Screams echoed across the battlefield as the deadly sword rain tore through Zanis soldiers, slicing through steel, flesh, and stone. Whole units were obliterated before they even raised their shields.
The Xaos forces, trained for swift retreats and disciplined withdrawals, did not hesitate. Recognizing the window Vlad had created, they pulled back immediately—retreating in flawless formation, leaving the fortress behind. Within seconds, they were vanishing into the horizon, leaving Vlad alone amidst the burning ruin.
"Damn you!!" Augustus howled, rage consuming him.
The massacre of thousands of elite soldiers was brutal—but what truly enraged him was the revelation that Vlad had concealed this monstrous power the entire time. Even when suppressed, Vlad had been able to injure him. Now, fully unleashed, he was a nightmare made flesh.
Fueled by rage and vengeance, Augustus and the remaining Legends surged toward Vlad, ignoring the still-falling rain of swords. Determination burned in their eyes.
Vlad met their gaze.
A cold light shimmered in his own.
He could fight them. He was confident that, at this moment, he could kill every last one of them. But the rest of the Zanis army would undoubtedly be returning soon—hundreds of thousands strong. Guardians, Sages, and perhaps even higher-level forces. Against that, even the True Depravita of Wrath would fall, especially if they were so indoctrinated they’d launch suicidal attacks just to sap his strength.
He turned briefly toward the horizon.
His soldiers were gone—vanished into the distance, their mission complete.
That was enough.
Vlad gave Augustus a final smile—half amusement, half warning—before focusing his energy and vanishing, teleporting away in an instant of twisted space.
Augustus clenched his fists so hard that his palms began to bleed.
They had failed.
The enemy had massacred their forces, humiliated their leaders, and escaped without consequence.
And yet, there was no time to grieve.
The spatial fluctuations were growing stronger by the second.
"Goddammit!" Augustus roared with all his might, fury and desperation bursting from his lungs.
He knew—he wouldn’t be able to stop it.
There was no time left. No hope of undoing what had already begun.
In an instant, he turned on his heel and summoned his full power. Golden energy surged around him as he reached out, enveloping the remaining elite Legends of the Zanis Family in a protective barrier. With a final glance toward the heart of the fortress, he gritted his teeth and flashed away, teleporting them all out of the stronghold at maximum speed.
Below, the surviving Zanis soldiers—those who had somehow withstood Vlad’s brutal sword rain—watched in stunned confusion as Augustus vanished from the battlefield. Some even raised their weapons, unsure whether to pursue or defend.
Then they felt it.
The spatial fluctuations, once chaotic but dispersed, now condensed into a blinding crescendo. It reached a breaking point—and the source revealed itself.
The building that housed the Interstellar Teleportation Formation began to glow like a rising sun, brilliant and unbearable. Its light scorched the clouds above and blinded the soldiers below.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!"
The explosion that followed was cataclysmic.
In an instant, the center of the fortress was vaporized—reduced to ash and heat, consumed by a force that defied natural law. But that was only the beginning.
The unleashed energy—wild, violent, and raw—suddenly began to condense, folding in on itself. A singularity formed, compacting the explosion into a dense dark sphere that pulsated with a devouring gravitational force.
A black hole.
The soldiers who had survived the initial blast barely had time to scream. Their bodies, weapons, and armor were ripped from the earth, drawn helplessly into the black sphere, their mass consumed alongside shattered walls, steel towers, and stone defenses.
It was a scene of utter annihilation.
The fortress—proud, ancient, and strong—was vanishing piece by piece, devoured by the hungry void. If Exilon had been an ordinary world, the singularity would have continued to grow, consuming all in its path until the planet itself ceased to exist.
But something intervened.
Countless golden threads manifested across the sky and the earth, shimmering lines of sacred energy. They intertwined, looped, and wove together, forming intricate barriers around the black hole. The threads pulsed with celestial power as they restrained the singularity, compressing it, suppressing it—until at last, it collapsed in on itself and vanished.
From afar, Vlad watched the event unfold with narrowed eyes.
Then, finally, he let out a small sigh of relief.
This had been more than a mere strike against Zanis. His goal hadn’t just been to disable the Interstellar Teleportation Formation—he wanted to obliterate it along with the fortress.
Thanks to his mastery of the Law of Space, Vlad had managed something nearly impossible. He had constructed a complex set of runes—space-based mechanisms subtly integrated into the core of the formation. An elite Xaos soldier had infiltrated the teleportation chamber earlier during the battle and triggered the spatial collapse array.
According to the simulations provided by his A.I. Chip, the World Will of Exilon would intervene to absorb and contain the backlash. But even with all precautions, there had been no guarantees. The margin for error had been razor-thin.
Everything could have gone wrong.
Terribly wrong.
"Everything went according to plan. That’s all that matters," Vlad murmured to himself, his voice calm despite the devastation behind him.