Chapter 51: Profane Torch and Turbulent Age

Bilkin froze, then said hesitantly.

"No, no. The great lord seems to be personally overseeing some kind of construction. He seems to be building..."

"Some kind of thing called a Profane Torch!"

---

"My lord, Profane Torch Number One is complete."

A Taskmaster in charge of the Profane Torch delivered the report to his lord.

Koda pulled his gaze back for a moment from the demon army besieging a distant village. With War Sight, he looked over the finished Torch.

Sure enough, this "special structure," raised by hundreds of demon slaves over two days and a night, was ready for use.

It stood like a giant stone dais in what had once been the center of Grimstone. At its very top sat something like half a bowl.

The moment it was finished, black flames began to burn there.

The flames did not spill outward. They gathered inward.

At last, a "black sun" formed atop the stone, casting its dark light in every direction.

And in the middle of that black sun appeared a long, thin, upright pupil, like a snake’s. The same pupil that now sat in Koda’s own eyes.

Seeing it, Koda’s tight frown finally eased.

"Good. My territory can finally keep pushing forward for a while."

"And I can finally build new Hatching Pools out here, far from the throne."

He said so because the Profane Torch solved a problem he had wanted to solve all along: how to build a Hatching Pool beyond the reach of the Abyss itself.

The Torch had cost a mountain of stone and precious metals. Its power was simple. It turned a stretch of land into ground corrupted by the Abyss. That ground became his new territory, and on it he would hold the same authority as he did on his throne.

And only a Hatching Pool standing under the Torch’s light could hatch demons to its full power.

Its other powers were still sealed.

To other lords, a Profane Torch might seem nearly useless. But to Koda, it was as important as the Hatching Pools. Only with the Torch did the land he had taken become a territory he truly ruled. Or rather, from this moment on, the land would forever be a part of the Abyss!

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The moment the Torch was done, Koda did not hesitate. Within its reach, he raised three Hatching Pools at once.

In the instant they were raised, every living being on the continent with enough life-strength turned toward the direction of Grimstone.

Because in that instant, endless darkness struck their fragile souls.

The shock was so powerful that, even though it did no direct harm, every soul it hit heard the same "sound" at the same time.

It was the whisper of demons in the abyss. It was the roar of the Abyss itself, aimed at every living world. It was the gathering cry of every evil and chaotic soul. It was...

The tolling of a bell, as evil and destruction drew near!

Under such a shock, even the most optimistic beings on the continent dimmed for a moment.

As their gazes gathered, every "strong one" across the continent realized the same thing. A being far stronger and far more evil than any of them had reached out its claws and tentacles into this world.

---

"Find out! All of you!"

In a kingdom buried deep underground, the dwarf king’s roar echoed through the palace.

His voice carried such authority, and with his rage behind it, even the consort he loved best trembled.

"Find out exactly what happened!"

"I must know what has come into our world!"

After the attendants had all left, the dwarf king looked around the silent, empty palace and murmured to himself.

"Dwarf Father above, I only hope it isn’t those damned, ignorant goblins who have summoned some unspeakable evil."

"There is nothing worse than that!"

But the dwarf king was not the only one to feel the silent shock.

On the other side of the dwarf kingdom, in a star-like corner of the barren desert, an orc great chieftain burned with the same rage and drove his shamans to find out what had happened.

"Damn you all!"

"I don’t care if you drive yourselves mad with spirit-calling! Find the source of that shock!"

He watched the shamans dancing around the fire to please the ancestors, and shadows kept flickering across his face.

"What in the world has come into our world?"

By the sea, on the plains, deep in the forests, and in the swamps, one power after another was awakened. Everyone grew wary of the strange change, and in a frenzy, they sent scouts out to look for clues.

Even an ancient being that had long slept inside a volcano quietly opened its eyes.

"..."

Whether it was a coincidence or not, at the very moment Koda’s shock woke the whole continent, other new lords, the ones who had come to this land just as he had, began to arrive.

A banner marked with a snow-white castle was carried out of a beautifully patterned portal by musketeers and apprentice mages, and planted in the ground.

It was the standard of Isolde Winter.

Less than half an hour after her first step onto the continent, a banner marked with a gear and a wrench was planted in the earth in almost the same way.

It was the standard of Garrick Holt.

Then a third came, then a fourth, then...

All across the continent, countless new powers descended.

And their arrival would only make the continent more chaotic. Because along with them came schemes and deals, war and peace.

And because of the Abyss’s shock, the natives were full of suspicion toward these outside lords.

And because of the Abyss’s shock, the natives were full of suspicion toward these outside lords.

But in the depths of the Abyss, Koda, sitting on his throne, watched one portal after another appear and smiled a smile that came straight from his heart.

"At last, a real age of chaos is about to begin!"