Chapter 1950: Ultimate Defeat
Chapter 1950: Ultimate Defeat
"Our battle ends here!"
Alexander launched skyward; a titan comet wreathed in the promise of annihilation.
His massive, bulky body rose skyward as if he were weightless, and his right fist rose above his head—fingers coiled into a grip so tight his knuckles turned white and made a bony sound. Pulling nothing back, the Major Law of Strength flooded into his right arm.
A deluge of power that split his skin like overburdened earth—and from the cracks bled a seething red-orange light. The arm trembled. Eager to finish this fight. The air around it distorted, bent, and spiraled inward as if the fish had become a gravity well that even light could not escape.
Below, his partner, the obsidian dragon, sensed the rage and power.
It was helping the Red Skull Elite Force battle the enemy forces, but stopped abruptly.
Sensing that Alexander was going in for the kill, it opened its maw and exhaled. The blazing fire breath from its mouth funneled into a concentrated column of annihilation that poured directly into Alexander’s waiting fist.
The two powers merged.
And the trembling became a shudder that shook his entire frame.
Reality around his knuckles warped into a vortex; a slow, inevitable swirl of bending space and air.
"Fifth Inner Blaze: Punch of Meteor!"
Swoosh—!
Alexander descended.
He came down like a comet, right arm drawn aback; the fist trailed distortion like a comet’s tail.
Underneath, the world braced for impact.
Manvac didn’t flee or try to dodge; there’s no point in doing that when there’s nowhere to go. His sleek, featureless face turned upward, and the abyss within him answered the challenge. Water erupted around him, splashing lightless water of the ocean’s deepest trench.
"Secret World-Ocean Technique: Five Layers of the Trench!"
Splash—!
Around him, the water coiled in a thin but incredibly dense layer.
Each molecule infused—with the weight of ten thousand meters of dark water. He took out something from his pocket, a glowing bundle of blue plant, and shoved it into his mouth. It was the Ten-thousand Years Deep Neptune Grass.
And almost instantly, his divinity exploded.
Almost twice what it had been.
Immortal energy wove through the cocoon alongside the Major Law of Life Water, binding every layer into a compact shield. Reinforcing every molecule and turning it into an unbreakable layer that was dark and cold, blotting even Manvac behind it.
Manvac’s throat tore open with a roar.
And Alexander answered in kind; a battle cry as he swung his destructive titan fist forward.
Kaboom—!
The impact was cataclysmic.
Just the sound it produced was enough to rattle everyone within the water dome, forcing them to cover their ears. But before they could even do that, the shockwave already struck them hard like a tidal wave that couldn’t be stopped.
Blue and red light cascaded outward, hurling the Demigods like leaves in a hurricane.
Even the air and space seemed to crack.
Beneath Manvac, the ground buckled into a deep crater—sinking him deeper into the earth as if he was being swallowed. And the residue of the combined energy rolled outward, smashing against the water dome’s inner walls and rebounding in a second, lesser wave of destruction.
Once the light drained away, silence rushed in to fill the emptiness.
"Hargghk!"
Manvac lay on his back in the crater’s heart, arms spread to the side.
His unbreakable cocoon was gone; the water had boiled to nothing, but the force continued. The entire left side of his body was a ruin of shattered blue flesh and splintered bone, and blood, dark as the deep sea, pooled beneath him.
A cough escaped his mouth, and more blood came alongside it, spattered onto his chin.
Despite using everything he had, he lost.
Even though he had been preparing for this rematch—getting his hands on the Ten-thousand Years Deep Neptune Grass as his trump card to catch Alexander off guard—he still lost. Standing above him was a blurry massive shadow.
As his vision focused, he realized it was Alexander.
He was still standing strong with only bruises and laceration wounds.
Through Manvac’s dimming vision, the figure standing over him was no mere opponent. Not the person he had been fighting for quite some time. He was a legendary warlord who had never tasted defeat. A monument to violence and power in the flesh.
And his saber that was dripping with blood was already resting coldly against Manvac’s throat.
But with another blink, Manvac’s vision returned as he met Alexander’s gaze.
Alongside it was his mind; it was cloudy a few seconds ago, and now the clouds were cleared.
He understood that at this moment, his life was at Alexander’s mercy.
"In every clash that you won, you’ve won because you’ve got help, Manvac. From the start, you were never my match," Alexander said with a baritone voice, stating the fact that was painful to grasp. "We were never equal." He pressed the tip of the saber against Manvac’s skin. "Any last word?"
"Your race has always been superior to mine, but I have always believed that with enough effort, I could surpass you. I could... reach your level of power and win squarely," Manvac’s voice trailed weakly as he reminisced about his entire life.
Or at least, Alexander thought that he was reminiscing about what he had done throughout his life.
For him to achieve this level of power was already impressive.
But Alexander is a different breed.
Someone who was meant for war—and that’s an inherent fact for being a Warborn Dwarf Giant.
A direct legacy from the War Titan had elevated Alexander’s talent to astronomical heights.
It was a ceiling Manvac could never reach through effort alone. To even approach that level—he would need both help and luck. The absence of either would leave him stranded, forever climbing a peak with no summit.
"Anything else?" Alexander waited patiently.
Manvac smiled at his honourable character, "This... This would’ve been devastating had it not been for High Lord Ursa. He made me understand that chances are, beating you in strength would be impossible. But a winning condition can be anything other than strength."
Just then, Alexander’s heart skipped a beat.
His eyes widened slightly as he stared at Manvac’s smile that kept on stretching wider.
"You think you’ve won?" Manvac chuckled weakly; his voice shook from the blood-gargle. "No... You didn’t win, Alexander. Our lives are dedicated to our High Lords; that’s the entire purpose of our lives. And you, my annoying, arrogant, self-righteous bastard, have failed your High Lord."
"W-What...?" Alexander recoiled, but stood firm. He pushed the tip of the saber into Manvac as anger boiled inside him. "What do you mean by that? Talk! What do you mean that I fail High Lord Rashal?! Answer me before I slit your throat and tear your head from your body!"
Just earlier, he remembered that Rex had contacted him in a panic.
He was too occupied with his battle to care, and thought that it was nothing Rex couldn’t handle.
Now that he thought about it, Rex asked him to open a portal straight to the Cavity.
And the answer became clear in his mind.
Manvac grinned.
Even with the thick saber buried in his throat, Manvac’s grin held; bloodied but unbroken. "My soldiers and I were sent to ravage this realm’s Divine Sources. That much is true." A wet, gurgling laugh escaped him. "But whether we succeeded or not? That was never the point. A bonus, at best." His eyes gleamed with something colder than pain. "My High Lord despises yours. Why settle for mere humiliation when he can destabilize your High Lord’s entire position?"
"No... You dare attack the Cavity?!" Alexander roared, veins bulging on his neck. "The Overse—"
"The Overseer wouldn’t do shit," Manvac rebutted with a laugh. "Let me tell you something, the good thing about having an older and more experienced High Lord is that he actually has a connection with the Overseer. And thus, he can do more things than your young and naïve High Lord cou—"
Splash—!
Out of sheer anger, Alexander swung his saber, decapitating Manvac with one fluid swing.
He stomped on Manvac’s chest and tore out his spine with a brutal yank.
Listening to the mockery after mockery that Manvac hurled sent him off, and he had had enough.
"Sir Rex!" Alexander pressed a finger to his earpiece; the specialized communication linked him directly to Rex across realms. His voice was tight, edged with something rare—dread and fear. "What’s really happening? Is it true... Is it true that the Cavity was under attack?"
Just saying those words stung his throat.
For Alexander, the thought of failing High Lord Rashal was worse than anything in the entire universe.
Even death.
’Yes,’ Rex answered from the other side; his voice was static, confirming what Alexander feared the most. ’They’re aiming for the Cavity from the start. The Grey Realm... It’s nothing but a distraction to lure the Red Skull Elite Force away. I’m on my way right now. Hope I can make it in time.’
"I... I’ll also go back," Alexander said determinedly.
’No, there’s no reason for you to return. It’s already too late. Just make sure the Grey Realm is safe.’
Before Alexander could say another word, Rex already cut the communication one-sidedly.
In the next few seconds, the silence was deafening.
Alexander stood motionlessly, but within, there was chaos. His mind was loud with the possibilities of what would happen. His ears were ringing, blotting out all the sound from the soldiers around him that were still cleaning up the enemy forces, oblivious to their ultimate defeat.
He was frustrated.
It was clear that they had underestimated the enemy, and now they’re paying the price.
But the worst part of this was that Alexander couldn’t do anything to fix the situation.
And that made him snap.
"RAARGGGH!!"
Like a barbarian who had slipped his chains, Alexander spun and hurled himself at the remaining enemy soldiers. Technique was forgotten. Common sense abandoned. He was a master butcher now—carving through flesh and bone with every edge of his body.
Fists, elbows, knees, blade. Nothing was off-limits. Nothing was restrained.
Every last soldier paid the price of his anguish.
He was assigned specifically to handle the situation; to make sure that the enemy forces wouldn’t find their goals and disrupt High Lord Rashal’s reign. In order to make it easier for him, High Lord Rashal even lent him Rex.
Someone unorthodox and would help him defeat the enemy forces.
Such kindness should be treasured and repaid through nothing less than absolute success.
But he ultimately failed. And that failure was eating his mind, leaving only a berserk killing machine.
Rex—and Davina burst from the terminus of the special highway, the kaleidoscope of light shattering behind them like a mirror breaking in reverse. The portal ahead pulsed with the dull, waiting glow of arrival; their destination. The Cavity.
Vadyn’s voice still echoed in Rex’s ear, a telepath delivered somewhere along the blurred stretch of their journey. Her enforcers had intercepted the Demigod. The fish-skinned messenger, the one going straight toward the Cavity with unknown purpose—stopped, neutralized, no anomalies detected. Clean.
She had also mentioned a squad already stationed in the Cavity.
A full team of enforcers sweeping the West Cavity due to a recent trouble with a rogue visitor.
She already informed them that he was coming, so he could ask their help itch his paranoia.
Rex and Davina immediately charged west as the portal led to the center of the Cavity. It took them just a few minutes to enter the border of the Western Cavity—marked by a dead plain that was quite odd, as the Cavity should be filled with Divine Sources.
Swiftly, the System scanned the area and located what should be the squad of enforcers.
But as they approached, Davina’s starlit senses flared.
She wanted to say something, but they had already arrived at the scene, and waiting for them there wasn’t a squad of enforcers.