Omega Ascension System[BL]-Chapter 276: _A King Never Rules Alone

Elian’s POV

*****

Kyren didn’t wait for them to answer. He stepped through the obsidian portal like it was just another doorway in his home, crimson cloak flaring like liquid flame.

Lucian and Elian exchanged a single look—no words needed—before running after him.

The moment Elian’s foot crossed the portal, it felt like stepping into the heart of a furnace.

Heat blasted his skin. Harsh desert winds clawed at his face, gritty and wild. Red sand whipped up in spirals around them, and the world stretched open into the endless wasteland known as the Dark Lands.

Even Lucian winced at the scorched air. Farrell cursed under his breath.

The entire ground shook beneath them, shifting and rumbling like it wanted to swallow them alive.

Elian’s mana core trembled slightly.

And then he saw it.

An excavation site out in the open.

Ancient machinery stood shattered around a colossal crater. Smoke billowed from it, thick and black, smothering the heart of the pit. The sand was stained darker and irradiated with a pulsing glow.

Of an unknown yet familiar energy.

It was everywhere, tangible and alive.

[The air quality is ass. Also, that "unknown energy" is divine. 99.99% confirmed. You’re breathing literal god-juice.]

’Thanks for the helpful analysis.’ Elian thought although he was shaken at the revelation.

[Always here to support my little fruitcake.]

Lucian stepped closer to him, arm wrapping around his waist like the sandstorm might tear him away. His silver gaze scanned the crater.

"What happened here?"

Farrell didn’t answer. He just leapt down into the smoking abyss without hesitation, barking orders at the team already rushing around.

Kyren, meanwhile, didn’t waste time staring. He looked down the cliff with an unreadable expression before turning back toward the horizon.

Because they weren’t alone.

Kyren’s palace guards stormed over from the palace in full force. Rogue wolves in black exo-armour, clearly here because of the explosion.

And at the other side, toward the capital city, came people in their hundreds, forming panicked crowds at a distance.

Voices rose with questions and fear.

Kyren raised a hand. "Everyone stays back."

It wasn’t a suggestion.

Magic rippled from him like a shockwave—violent enough that the entire crowd staggered from both sides. The guards stepped back instantly. The civilians froze.

And then another presence crashed into the desert like thunder.

A hulking figure broke through the mob with a presence that screamed dominance.

Elian recognised him as one of Kyren’s Dukes—towering, broad-shouldered, beard wild and wearing a wolf mantle over steel armour. His aura was feral.

"My lord," the Duke boomed, cutting straight to the point, "that blast could be felt all the way to Arcadia. Your people—and your dukes—deserve the truth of whatever is happening here."

Kyren didn’t even turn.

"I owe no one an explanation."

Oh, damn.

The Duke snarled. "You think the explosion wasn’t a threat? You think we didn’t sense—"

"Enough." Kyren’s voice cracked like a whip. "Or I’ll send you flying across the desert myself."

Lucian leaned closer and whispered, "Is he always like this? Resorting to homicide levels of threatening his own subordinates?"

"Yes," Elian whispered back with a blush.

[The toxic workplace vibes? Very corporate arc.]

Before the argument escalated into a murder attempt, the hole in the ground pulsed again. A shockwave blasted up.

Farrell and a team of guards emerged, jumping toward the surface.

And Farrell wasn’t alone.

He carried Ishtar in his arms, her body limp and blood streaking down her jaw.

"Move!" Kyren snapped.

Smoke and dust choked the air, thick enough to blur everything. The heat was unbearable. The guards rushed forward, forming a perimeter.

Lucian grabbed Elian’s wrist. "Elian—"

"I’m fine."

Barely.

Kyren waved a hand.

Magic erupted from him like a storm. In seconds, he dispersed the dust and smoke like it was nothing. The sand shifted and the desert itself obeyed him.

Bodies appeared in the crater—some whole, some horrifyingly not. Some had been dismembered. Torn apart. It looked like a battlefield rather than a dig site.

Farrell laid Ishtar gently on the sand.

Her eyes fluttered open, voice raspy. "We were digging deeper... and we struck something..."

Kyren’s face darkened. "The crystal?"

Elian squinted at that.

Had Kyren been secretly searching for the Divine crystal all this while?

Ishtar shook her head weakly. "We aren’t sure. But whatever it is... it wasn’t sleeping."

"What do you mean?" Lucian asked.

Her eyes rolled, struggling to stay conscious.

"It reacted to us. Like it sensed us. Like it was alive."

Then she coughed violently. Farrell held her tighter.

Kyren crouched down beside her, voice low. "Where is it now?"

"Deeper. Still buried. It’s like—like it was trying to push us away. Warn us."

[Divine energy confirmed. Level exceeds moon-aligned alpha class wolf auras thresholds by SEVEN TIERS. This is ancient SOURCE energy. Billions of years. Same signature as Solara’s creation.]

Elian’s heart skipped. ’Same age as the planet?’

[Yep. That thing in the ground would probably make some gods look like interns.]

Before he could react or say a word—

Someone moved through the crowd.

Someone who shouldn’t even be here.

Not a soldier. Not a Duke...

Sylas.

The Omega he befriended during his last stay here walked like a sleepwalker. Or like a prophet.

His eyes were glowing bright silver. Red air shimmered around him, twisting in the wind, crackling like static.

"What the hell—" Lucian breathed.

Sylas’s aura hit Elian like a punch in the soul.

It wasn’t Omega level anymore.

His energy was changing. Ascending. Mutating.

[Full system scan initiated.]

Data flooded Elian’s vision.

[WARNING: Subject Sylas is under some kind of divine interference.]

[Bloodline awakening detected.]

[Alpha King lineage.]

Linked to...

Lucian.

Elian’s heart dropped.

[Subject is Lucian’s biological brother.]

’No... no way.’

But the system didn’t make mistakes. At least, not after its upgrade a few minutes ago.

Lucian stiffened beside Elian.

The Alpha Prince’s hand tightened instinctively around his as they both stared.

"Sylas..." Elian whispered.

Everything went silent.

No one breathed.

Even Kyren and the Duke froze mid-argument.

Sylas stopped in the middle of the crater.

The sand didn’t dare touch him. His hair whipped violently in the wind, and the divine energy around him brightened, silver and red threads swirling like a halo of unnatural light.

His voice echoed—cold, distant. "It’s calling."

Lucian’s jaw clenched. His instincts flared. That Alpha Prince presence slammed into the desert and sent ripples through the sand.

He stepped forward before Elian could stop him, eyes flashing with something unexpected.

Recognition.

"Who are you?"

Sylas lifted his head. And those glowing eyes locked straight onto Lucian.

Just for a fraction of a second—Elian could swear something ancient and primal passed between them.

The wind howled. The heat surged. Divine energy pulsed so violently that the ground cracked under them.

Sylas answered with a barely audible voice. "I am the one you forgot."

A tremor ripped through the sands, hard enough that everyone staggered. The crowd gasped and someone screamed. Sylas didn’t even flinch. He just stood there like the epicentre of a divine meltdown.

Kyren took a single step forward. "Sylas..."

Sylas didn’t acknowledge him. His gaze was only on Lucian. Like the rest of them were background noise.

Lucian’s breath hitched. Elian could feel the shift in him. Alphas didn’t stare like that unless something was unravelling the very rules of dominance and power.

"What do you mean I forgot?" Lucian demanded, voice tight.

Sylas’s head tilted like he was listening to something none of them could hear. The energy around him pulsed again, then spiked upward like a pillar of red-tinted lightning.

People stumbled back.

Farrell dragged Ishtar further from the crater.

Even Kyren braced himself.

Sylas took another shaky step forward. His voice broke between three tones: his own, something divine, and something monstrous.

"You were not meant to be alone."

Lucian’s eyes widened. His hand twitched like he almost reached for Sylas. "How do you know that?"

"Because I was born to stand beside you."

Kyren’s expression fractured. For the first time since Elian had known him, he didn’t have an answer. No threat. No command. Just shock.

The bulky Duke whispered, "Impossible."

It seemed the desert disagreed.

Because the ground split open beneath Sylas’s feet—raw divine energy cracking through the crust like silver magma veins.

The wind roared. The crater shook.

And a voice—not Sylas’s—echoed out of his throat.

"A king has never ruled alone."

Lucian took a single, haunted step back. Not fear. Instinct.

"Sylas... right?" Lucian breathed, "what happened to you?"

But Sylas wasn’t looking at him anymore.

His eyes rolled like he was seized by some invisible force. His fingers clawed at the air, like he was trying to grasp something they couldn’t see.

"There is something in the dark," he rasped. "It calls me by a name I haven’t heard in lifetimes."

The sand surged like a living tide. Soldiers backed up. Even Kyren’s wolves lowered their heads.

Elian grabbed Lucian’s hand. "Lucian, he’s not in control."

"I know.".

Sylas’s aura flared once more—brighter, higher, too powerful for a mortal body. The temperature spiked so hot that the air shimmered.

And then—

His gaze flicked to Elian causing the latter to jolt.

"It remembers you too. Moon blessed."

His blood froze.

Lucian snarled. "Elian—stay behind me."

Sylas opened his mouth like he was about to reveal the secrets of the universe—

Then his body went slack.

The divine energy snapped like a wire, making Sylas collapse forward, unconscious, face-first into the sand.

The whole desert held its breath.

[Oh. He fainted. Dramatically.]

The system paused.

[...I guess you have a contender for best at dramatic faintings.]