Chapter 78: Surrender Your Souls

Orson let out a sigh before looking at Saint Barnabas, who had leaped so high he could no longer see him. He took a step forward and was facing an angry Rain, who looked back at him with a look that could kill Orson over and over again and still not be enough to stop her from being angry.

But Orson had a lot on his plate. Before that, he needed to ask Rain something very important.

"Rain, I need to ask you something."

Rain looked at him. "What? What exactly do you have to say now?"

Orson looked at her and let out a breath he was holding, his face as cold as usual. With a serious expression, he asked, "Rain, are you afraid of bats?"

Rain looked at him for a while. "What? That is all you have to say—if I am afraid of bats?"

Orson smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. He looked at her seriously. "So, are you?"

His face drew closer to hers. Rain was a bit on the short side, and Orson wanted to read her face to know. So he leaned down and asked, "So?"

Rain looked up at him.

Wow. So War Gods can really lose their minds. Was it because he died? Or was it because this is no war?

She thought as she looked at him, puzzled by his behavior. The Xander she knew was cold and had a scary face, but this side of him was unexpected. Not that she minded.

She nodded. "So what if I am scared of bats?"

Orson looked at her before looking away.

Wow. So that was why the weapon changed—it’s based on what the person you look at fears. Weird. I thought it was what weapon you fear, but still—nice.

He thought as he walked off to test it. Rain looked at him before following from behind.

As they walked, although Rain wanted to kill him, she still had some questions to ask.

"So, Xander—"

Before she could finish, Orson looked at her. "My name is not Xander. Call me Orson."

Rain looked at him as they walked, gritting her teeth. "Fine. Orson. I need to know something. How are you able to cultivate?"

Orson slowed after hearing her and stopped before turning to her. "Wait, what do you mean you cannot cultivate?"

"Well, if you must know," Rain said as she looked at him, "I have been here for a while now, and I can feel spiritual energy, but I can’t cultivate it. It’s like my pathways are just... gone."

Orson asked, "What do you mean by gone?"

"I don’t have the pathways anymore. I just thought it was how everyone in this world is, but you’re cultivating, so is it just me?"

Orson looked at her up and down. "Stop that. It’s annoying."

He backed away. "Sorry. And besides, I am married. It’s not like I want to touch you."

Rain looked at him. "Really? Another marriage? Last time that happened, I died for nothing."

Orson looked away, his face cold from what he had done. "Just imagine that as a bad memory."

"Sorry, but I can’t just forget. I mean, you killed me."

Orson just looked away before looking back at her. His eyes were as dark as darkness, and two wings appeared behind him as he lifted off.

Rain watched with a smile. "I hope you are not running."

Orson just said, "I need to check out something."

And with that, he flew to the second floating island high above.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the ocean, Sen was currently swimming to the bottom, thinking about whether he wanted to go deeper or not.

Down in the abyssal sea was the dome Steven had activated, with three cores glowing like suns and chains coming out of the orbs to wrap around the Titan—which was now no longer underwater but on a dome with three of the floating islands, as the Titan looked down at the island that was currently filled with creatures and contractors fighting for control.

The three islands within the expanded dome had dissolved into an absolute slaughterhouse.

Contractors who moments ago were standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their allies were now bursting into blinding white-hot flames, their shrieks tearing through the newly formed atmosphere.

As the fire cooked their skin into ash and molten stone, glowing veins pulsed violently beneath their flesh.

Jagged wings made of light-fire erupted from their backbones, and their fingers snapped into razor-sharp talons. In seconds, former comrades turned into feral, one-eyed husks—miniature creations of the chained Titan hovering above.

They lunged into the ranks of the living with horrifying speed.

An Awakened vanguard holding a heavy shield barely had time to raise his arm before three of the winged beasts slammed into him.

The sheer thermal force of their bodies melted the steel alloy of his shield in a fraction of a second, setting the man ablaze before he was dragged down into the fray.

Nearby, a Resonant wielding a dual-glaive swept through the air, carving an arc of wind blades that severed the heads of two approaching creatures. But for every mini-creation that fell, three more contractors succumbed to the Titan’s suffocating gaze, their minds shattering as they metamorphosed into glowing abominations.

Light-fire beams crisscrossed the blood-slicked terrain, detonating against stone structures and turning the dark ocean floor into a roaring inferno.

Amidst the rising chaos, Lucas stood his ground at the center of his squad.

His eyes were cold, calculated, and focused. As two winged humanoids burst through the smoke, shooting toward his left flank like burning spears, Lucas didn’t even turn his head. He snapped his right fingers.

CRACK!

Pillars of jagged, pitch-black ice erupted from the sea floor, impaling both beasts in mid-air and freezing their light-fire wings instantly.

Before the ice could melt under their extreme body heat, Lucas flicked his wrist, shattering the pillars into thousands of microscopic ice shards that shredded the monsters into dust.

"Maintain the triangle formation!" Lucas shouted over the deafening roar of explosions. "Don’t look up at the Titan! Focus on the hostiles on the ground!"

Beside him, the remaining two members of his core unit moved in perfect sync. The squad’s vanguard swung a heavy warhammer wrapped in kinetic shockwaves, smashing the skull of an aberrant beast that had tried to leap over the ice wall.

Right behind him, their element-caster unleashed a concentrated stream of pressurized water, blasting back a cluster of winged humanoids before they could charge their light-fire beams.

Despite their tactical precision, the sheer volume of transformations was spiraling out of control. The air reeked of ozone, burning iron, and scorched flesh.

Suddenly, Lucas stumbled.

A sharp, violent pain slammed into the center of his brain, as if a rusted needle had been driven straight between his temples.

He dropped to one knee, bringing a heavy, armored hand to his forehead as his vision blurred into a dizzying smear of red and white.

Join us... burn away the weak... offer your flesh to the sun...

Voices—dozens of them, overlapping in a chaotic, insidious chorus—echoed directly inside his mind. It wasn’t just a mental attack; it was the psychic bleed of the Titan’s Indigo-Class aura, whispering dark, corrupting thoughts that demanded he surrender his tether and open his eyes to the sky.

The psychic pressure pushed against his consciousness like a rising tide, trying to tear apart his sense of self and ignite his blood.

"Vice Captain!" the vanguard yelled, stepping over Lucas to block a stray fire beam with his shoulder plate. "Are you hit?!"

Lucas gritted his teeth so hard a thin stream of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.

He hadn’t earned the position of Vice Captain of Silver Rain through luck or pure rank. He had survived trial after trial, tempering his mind until it was as unyielding as the black ice he commanded.

Get out of my head.

Lucas growled inwardly, slamming his inner mental gates shut. He forced his Astral energy to surge through his nervous system, flash-freezing the corruptive thoughts before they could take root in his soul.

He snapped his head up, his eyes flashing with a violent frost light.

Pushing himself back to his feet, Lucas swept both arms outward. A massive, circular wave of absolute-zero ice expanded from his boots in a thirty-meter radius, instantly freezing the legs and wings of a dozen charging beasts, buying his squad the precious seconds they needed to fall back toward the temple perimeter.

The three men didn’t hesitate. Leaving the dozen frozen, thrashing beasts behind, Lucas led his squad in a dead sprint toward the cliff’s edge, intending to hurl themselves down into the lower tier of the dome array.

They skidded to a halt right at the precipice.

Standing directly between them and the drop was a single, towering figure.

Unlike the feral husks tearing through the island, this creature held a terrifying, poised presence. Veins of blinding light mapped across its dark skin, and a single hollow eye burned in the center of its face. But what made Lucas’s blood run cold were its wings.

They weren’t made of volatile, flickering light-fire like the others. Behind its back floated massive, jagged wings woven entirely out of thick, crimson silk—heavy, vibrant, and dripping with condensed blood-fire.

As the squad raised their weapons, the creature slowly folded its crimson silk wings around its body like a regal mantle. It tilted its head, its single glowing eye crinkling into a sickening, silent smile.

A heavy, suffocating voice echoed directly inside the minds of all three men at once:

"Surrender your souls to the Sun."