Chapter 186: Chapter 185: The Sovereign War Begins

The capital had begun collapsing.

What had once been the grandest event in the empire’s recent history—the Imperial Academy Tournament Finals—had transformed into a catastrophe so immense that even the heavens themselves appeared unable to endure its existence.

Shockwaves rolled outward endlessly from the ruined arena like invisible tidal waves. Entire districts trembled beneath the pressure of overlapping sovereign authorities. Windows exploded into glittering fragments across the city. Towering formation pylons cracked apart under unbearable spiritual resonance. Ancient defensive arrays hidden beneath the capital awakened one after another, flooding the streets with glowing protective symbols as emergency protocols activated automatically throughout the empire’s heart.

But even those legendary formations—constructed generations ago to repel invading armies and mythical beasts—were struggling.

Because the battlefield inside the arena was no longer something mortal forces could contain.

It had become a sovereign-level disaster zone.

Above the capital, the sky split wider.

CRAAAAAAAAACK!

The sound reverberated through the heavens like the breaking of reality itself.

A colossal spatial fracture stretched endlessly across the clouds, its jagged edges radiating dark silver lightning that crawled through the atmosphere like living serpents. Every pulse of energy distorted gravity throughout the city below. Buildings groaned. Streets fractured. Spiritual energy currents collapsed into chaos.

And then—

More figures emerged.

Not dozens.

Hundreds.

Cloaked silhouettes filled the shattered sky in absolute silence.

They stood suspended above the capital like divine judges descending upon a condemned world.

The atmosphere across the empire froze instantly.

Fear spread faster than sound.

Citizens stared upward in horror from the streets below. Noble families locked themselves behind formation barriers. Beast tamers across the capital instinctively summoned contracted beasts beside them, only for many of those creatures to recoil anxiously beneath the overwhelming pressure descending from above.

Because everyone understood the same terrifying truth.

These beings were not invaders from neighboring kingdoms.

They were not imperial enemies.

They came from realms beyond the empire itself.

At the center of the fractured heavens, the golden-eyed leader slowly lowered one hand.

The movement appeared calm.

Effortless.

Yet the moment their fingers descended—

BOOOOOOOOM!

Ancient golden formations unfolded throughout the sky.

Massive sealing arrays spread outward like gigantic celestial gears, rotating slowly above the capital while layers upon layers of divine symbols illuminated the heavens. Golden chains formed between floating arrays, connecting into a prison large enough to surround the entire imperial city.

The purpose of those formations was immediately obvious.

Not protection.

Containment.

"They’re surrounding the capital..."

One imperial elder stared upward with a pale face, his voice trembling despite decades of experience.

"They’re locking the entire city down."

Another elder clenched his fists tightly, spiritual energy flickering violently around him.

"What kind of organization possesses this level of authority?"

No one answered.

Because no one knew.

Imperial guards mobilized desperately throughout the city. Emergency evacuation formations activated. Military beast tamers rushed toward critical sectors.

Yet even the empire’s strongest forces hesitated.

The pressure radiating from the descending higher-world faction was simply overwhelming.

Deep beneath the collapsing arena, within the hidden chambers concealed under countless sealing formations, Seraphel watched the expanding golden prison with narrowed silver eyes.

"They’re isolating the awakening," he said quietly.

One hidden hunter appeared beside him instantly, expression grim beneath a silver mask.

"They’ve already decided the empire is expendable."

Seraphel’s gaze darkened.

Because that statement was true.

If the Crimson Monarch fully awakened within the lower realm, the higher-world factions would rather sacrifice an entire empire than allow the corruption to spread beyond containment.

And that meant the capital had already been abandoned in their calculations.

Far above the battlefield, the golden arrays continued rotating slowly.

The city had become a cage.

At the center of the ruined arena, beneath overlapping sovereign authorities and collapsing skies, two figures stood facing the heavens.

Aether.

Kael.

Neither of them looked fully human anymore.

Silver-gold-crimson soulfire spiraled violently around Aether’s body, twisting into streams of living flame that distorted reality itself wherever they passed. Crimson patterns pulsed beneath his skin like molten veins. One eye glowed radiant silver-gold while the other shimmered faintly crimson, calculation threads rotating endlessly within both irises.

Behind him, two gigantic crimson wings stretched partially through broken dimensional chains while the silhouette of the Crimson Monarch smiled quietly from within the darkness.

Meanwhile, Kael stood wrapped in living eclipse flesh.

Ancient black markings covered his body completely. Endless darkness devoured the surrounding air, swallowing light itself into the abyssal void surrounding him. Above the battlefield, the gigantic eclipse eye rotated slowly across the heavens while the fused Duskwalker Beast towered behind him like a god born from twilight and ruin.

Golden chains descended again from the fractured sky.

This time, they did not target Aether alone.

They targeted both of them.

BOOOOOOOOM!

The chains tore through space itself, carrying terrifying suppression authority capable of sealing sovereign synchronization directly.

Aether reacted instantly.

The unstable Heaven Eye spun violently.

Thousands of calculation pathways exploded through his mind simultaneously.

Time seemed to slow.

Every chain trajectory became visible.

Every pressure fluctuation unfolded clearly before him.

Then—

Silver-gold-crimson soulfire erupted upward in a violent inferno.

The flames twisted into spiraling dragons of mixed sovereign authority, crashing directly into the descending chains. Purification and corruption intertwined unnaturally within the fire, creating explosions so intense that the surrounding air shattered repeatedly.

At the same moment—

Kael moved.

Dark eclipse claws erupted from the shadows beside Aether like the hands of an ancient abyss.

CRAAAAAAAAASH!

Several golden chains shattered instantly.

Fragments of divine authority exploded across the heavens.

For a single moment, darkness and flame synchronized perfectly.

The audience still remaining within protected sections of the capital stared upward in shock.

"They’re cooperating?!"

"Skygate and Eclipse joined forces?"

"No..." one elder whispered grimly while watching the battlefield through trembling projection screens. "They simply understand what the real battlefield is now."

Kael’s gray-black eyes remained fixed on the sky.

"We finish our battle later," he said coldly.

His voice carried strange distortion now, as though multiple entities were speaking simultaneously from within the eclipse darkness.

Endless shadow authority surged violently around him.

"But first..."

His gaze shifted upward toward the higher-world invaders.

"...we remove the interference."

For several seconds, silence hung between him and Aether.

Their domains still collided violently.

Their sovereign authorities still rejected one another instinctively.

They were enemies.

Rivals.

Yet both understood reality perfectly.

The tournament no longer mattered.

Winning no longer mattered.

Survival did.

Aether slowly nodded once.

The moment the higher-world faction descended—

Everything changed.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Both figures launched upward simultaneously.

The shattered battlefield exploded beneath their feet.

Dark eclipse and altered soulfire carved through the heavens together like twin catastrophes ascending toward the sky.

The higher-world faction finally reacted seriously.

The golden-eyed leader extended one hand calmly.

Instantly, the surrounding heavens transformed.

Ancient golden authority descended from above like divine judgment.

Gravity distorted violently.

Spiritual energy froze.

Space itself thickened into an invisible prison.

Entire layers of reality slowed beneath overwhelming suppression pressure.

Kael attacked first.

The gigantic abyssal eye above the battlefield rotated completely before unleashing a devastating beam of eclipse authority downward.

CRAAAAAAAAASH!

The golden prison shattered partially.

The entire sky trembled violently.

Dark cracks spread across the suppression field while waves of abyssal corruption devoured sections of golden authority.

Then Aether followed immediately.

The Heaven Eye accelerated beyond previous limits.

Calculation pathways unfolded infinitely before him.

For the first time since obtaining the Heaven Eye—

He was no longer merely reacting.

He was controlling the battlefield flow itself.

Aether stepped through collapsing space and thrust one hand upward.

Altered soulfire exploded across the fractured prison.

Silver-gold flames mixed with crimson corruption spread through the heavens like blooming stars, devouring suppression authority while reality distorted around every movement.

The golden formation destabilized rapidly.

Several cloaked figures retreated instinctively.

"That should be impossible..."

One higher-world observer stared downward in disbelief.

"They’re breaking realm-authority formations?"

"These are lower-realm tamers!"

"No," another figure said quietly while watching Aether and Kael clash against the heavens. "They stopped being ordinary tamers the moment sovereign inheritance awakened."

Far below, the capital continued descending into chaos.

Inside Aether’s spiritual sea, the remaining crimson chains shattered continuously.

CRACK.

CRACK.

CRAAAAASH!

The Crimson Monarch stepped closer toward reality.

Her beautiful smile widened softly as another gigantic crimson wing unfolded behind her.

The pressure multiplied instantly.

Reality itself began corrupting.

Across the capital, shadows moved independently from their owners.

Citizens collapsed into emotional hallucinations.

Some people laughed uncontrollably while staring into empty air.

Others screamed in terror at invisible nightmares.

Several contracted beasts broke synchronization with their tamers entirely, driven unstable by the spreading emotional corruption saturating the atmosphere.

Because the Crimson Monarch’s authority did not destroy physically.

It attacked emotion itself.

Fear.

Desire. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Obsession.

The deepest impulses hidden within every soul.

Imperial emergency alarms rang endlessly throughout the city while mental-defense formations activated at maximum power.

But the corruption continued spreading.

Because emotions could not simply be blocked.

At the edge of the battlefield, Liora fought desperately to contain the spreading catastrophe.

Dream butterflies filled the sky around her in endless silver waves. The Moondream Hare stood beside her while dream-space expanded outward through nearby districts, stabilizing civilians caught within emotional hallucinations.

Her face had become pale from overexertion.

Blood dripped faintly from the corner of her lips.

Yet she refused to stop.

"Hold together..." she whispered while guiding dream butterflies through collapsing spiritual currents. "Please... just hold together..."

Without stabilization—

The capital would descend into complete psychological collapse.

Meanwhile, Valen had already moved beyond the arena itself.

Titancrest Fangbear roared through shattered streets while massive stone pillars rose from collapsing structures, holding entire buildings upright long enough for civilians to escape. Corrupted beasts rampaging through the city were crushed beneath the Fangbear’s overwhelming strength one after another.

Valen wiped blood from his forehead and stared upward at the fractured sky.

"This seriously turned into a world-ending disaster..."

Yet despite the fear shaking his body—

He kept fighting.

Back within Aether’s spiritual sea, the evolved Spirit Fairy floated silently before the Crimson Monarch.

Silver-gold ribbons flowed around its transformed body beautifully while ancient equilibrium waves spread gently through the collapsing soul world.

The Crimson Monarch observed it carefully.

Then—

For the first time—

The Spirit Fairy spoke.

Not telepathically.

A real voice.

Soft.

Ancient.

Calm beyond imagination.

"You should not awaken here."

The entire battlefield froze.

Even the Crimson Monarch’s smile faded slightly.

Because the voice...

Was familiar.

Crimson eyes narrowed.

"...That lineage survived?"

Behind the Spirit Fairy, the faint silhouette of an ancient spiritual tree appeared once more. Countless soul-lights drifted beneath its branches like stars suspended in eternity.

Even Seraphel looked upward sharply.

"...Worldroot lineage?"

One nearby hunter stared in shock.

"That guardian race was supposed to be extinct."

Because according to higher-world history—

The Worldroot guardians vanished ages ago.

Soft equilibrium waves spread outward once more from the Spirit Fairy.

This time, even reality distortions slowed slightly.

The Crimson Monarch’s corruption weakened temporarily.

Because the Spirit Fairy was no longer merely stabilizing souls.

It was stabilizing existence itself.

Despite that support, Aether was barely holding together.

The unstable dual synchronization continued escalating.

Silver-gold-crimson flames burned hotter with every passing second.

The Heaven Eye calculated too many futures simultaneously.

His soul fractures deepened continuously.

Blood flowed steadily from his mouth now.

Yet his gaze remained locked upward.

Because the battle was far from over.

Above the battlefield, Kael unleashed everything.

Darkness swallowed the heavens completely.

The abyssal eye split further apart while a gigantic eclipse halo manifested behind him like a crown forged from eternal night.

Living shadow armor fully consumed his body.

Gray-black eyes glowed like dying stars.

The Duskwalker Beast had fused completely with him.

He no longer resembled a human tamer.

He resembled an heir born directly from the eclipse itself.

The higher-world faction finally acknowledged the truth.

The golden-eyed leader stared downward silently before speaking in a low voice.

"...Two incomplete heirs."

"Both capable of destabilizing lower-realm balance."

Golden authority intensified across the fractured heavens.

"Then neither can remain uncontrolled."

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The heavens exploded.

Golden suppression authority descended endlessly from above.

Eclipse darkness rose upward in violent waves.

Altered soulfire devoured the center of the battlefield.

Silver equilibrium energy spread desperately through collapsing reality.

The capital trembled beneath overlapping sovereign powers without end.

And for the first time—

The battlefield no longer resembled a tournament arena.

It resembled the beginning of a war between sovereign forces.

Far below the shattered sky, citizens watched in horror as the heavens burned with divine light, abyssal darkness, and corrupted flame simultaneously.

The empire itself had become the battlefield.

Silver-gold-crimson fire illuminated Aether’s unstable figure while the evolved Spirit Fairy floated beside him like an ancient guardian reborn.

Kael’s eclipse authority consumed half the heavens.

Golden suppression formations surrounded the capital from every direction.

And behind Aether—

The Crimson Monarch spread both gigantic wings slowly through breaking chains while reality bent around her awakening presence.

The sovereign war...

Had finally begun.