Chapter 849: The Rain of Doom

Chapter 849: Chapter 849: The Rain of Doom

The sky above the Capital of the Divine Wind Empire darkened under the shadow of an armada that emerged from the void.

Ethan hovered at the center of the vanguard, his robes billowing in the wind and his eyes burning with rage. Knowing that his wives and his ROYAL members were imprisoned due to the conspiracy orchestrated by the three empires had shattered his restraint.

"Crul," ordered Ethan in a voice so icy it froze the ambient moisture. "Annihilate that barrier. Now."

[Understood, Master.]

At his command, Crul deployed over ten thousand vessels, arranging them like a cloud above the dome protecting the city. In synchrony, all ten thousand ships engaged short-range jump drives, launching on a suicide trajectory against the imperial barrier.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The impact made the earth rumble for leagues around. The Capital’s barrier, designed to withstand months of siege, groaned under the kinetic force, trembled, and yielded entirely, shattering into shards of light.

Yet Ethan was far from satisfied. His fury reached the heavens.

"Launch everything," hissed Ethan, his knuckles turning pale against the hilt of the Black Chaos Sword. "Leave not a single military structure standing."

The remaining ships in the rear dived headlong, falling like rain upon the garrisons, defense towers, and ramparts. Explosions illuminated the metropolis in a display of fire.

Beholding the devastation he had wrought, a smile played upon Ethan’s lips.

"Send the final gift," Ethan told Crul.

Ten dreadnought transports glided forward through the smoke. Their belly hatches swung open, and an endless tide of undead began raining down from the sky, slamming onto the streets and plazas to sow chaos.

Behind the abyssal tide, the remnants of the Soaring Dragon Realm army charged into the fray. As much as Ethan insisted they should not risk their lives, old General Vaelen had refused to stand idly by. The veteran warrior sought a final honorable battle, and his men were unwilling to leave without fighting for their liberator.

Ethan had no choice but to allow it, yet to guarantee the survival of Vaelen and his troops, he ordered them to march shielded by the undead in his arsenal, forging a vanguard around them.

The streets of the Capital turned into an open-air slaughterhouse. Ethan’s wrath, combined with his hybrid amethyst nightmare form, unleashed a level of butchery that defied any concept of warfare: it was total eradication.

Ethan did not walk upon the ground; he swam through the fabric of the void, vanishing into violet distortions to reappear amidst the enemy ranks.

CRACK!

A general of the Divine Wind Empire, standing at the peak of the Spiritual Transcendence Realm, barely had time to raise his spear before Ethan materialized behind him. With an arc of the Black Chaos Sword, the officer was sliced cleanly in half, and before his severed torso could hit the cobblestones, the nightmare shadow at Ethan’s back lunged, decapitating him with its black hole maw.

"A demon! He’s a Void demon!" terrified soldiers screamed, attempting to hold a line that dissolved in seconds.

There was no defense. The nightmare’s crystalline tail whipped through the air with the force of a meteor, impaling three high-ranking commanders in a single strike and slamming their broken corpses against the marble ramparts. Engagements that once demanded drawn-out duels were settled in a fraction of a second; before Ethan, the empire’s powerhouses were nothing more than dry grass fed into a shredder.

Panic turned infectious. The undead tide consumed the guards across the avenues while Ethan surged toward the Imperial Palace like a storm, leaving behind a trail of blood, armor, and severed heads.

Ethan stepped through the corridors of the Imperial Palace, leaving a trail of bloody footprints. However, upon crossing the archway into the Great Throne Room, he met a desolate scene: the palace was vacant. The guards, servants, and royalty had evacuated in panic.

"Crul... find them," commanded Ethan, driving the Black Chaos Sword into the marble floor.

[Linking with the realm’s runic matrix...], Crul’s voice resonated as lines of light reflected across Ethan’s interface. [Master, they used a large-scale emergency teleportation portal. They have fled the continent. We can trace the coordinates and pursue them, but it would mean launching a direct strike against another full empire.]

Ethan frowned, processing the information as he scanned the empty hall.

"This is strange...", murmured Ethan. "Shouldn’t they be stronger? Where is their emperor?"

[Master, I detect a powerful energy signature in the upper chamber of the castle], interrupted Crul.

Ethan didn’t waste a second. His frame blurred through the void and reappeared in the upper royal chamber. Kicking open the doors, his amethyst eyes locked onto the jade bed: there lay the rigid body of the Divine Wind Emperor, surrounded by clotted blood.

[It seems the Golden Dragon Emperor made his move...], reported Crul while Ethan observed, stepping closer to the corpse.

"So it was Aurelius?" asked Ethan.

[Indeed, Master], confirmed Crul after scanning the body. [There is residual energy of the Divine Origin Realm. His body was corroded by a divine power that the mortal flesh of the Divine Wind Emperor could not endure.]

"Damn it... I arrived too late," Ethan spat in frustration, clenching his teeth.

[No, Master. The corpse is fresh and abundant in superior cultivation energy], countered Crul with analytical precision.

Ethan stared at the monarch’s shell, allowing the shadow of the Void nightmare to surge behind him with its black hole maw wide open. A smirk formed on his lips.

"Well... in that case, waste not, want not."

Ethan took a step forward and opened his mouth wide. Behind him, the Void nightmare reared in all its majesty, unlocking its jaw to reveal the churning amethyst black hole vortex.

A gravitational pull wrapped around the corpse of the Divine Wind Emperor. Within seconds, the flesh, the soul, and the mass of residual Divine Origin Realm energy were ripped clean from the jade bed, compressed into a sphere of golden and violet light, and swallowed whole.

GULP!

Ethan snapped his eyes shut as a boiling wave exploded straight into the center of his meridians. The impact caused the amethyst gems embedded across his skin to flare with a blinding radiance.

"Mmmgh...", exhaled Ethan with a low groan, feeling every corner of his being expand.

The difference was astronomical. The shell of this single emperor contained far more spiritual essence than all the thousands of troops and generals Ethan had slaughtered combined throughout the entire day. It wasn’t merely a matter of quantity; it was the quality of the energy. It was raw power refined at the precipice of divinity.

Truly premium energy....