Titan King: Ascension of the Giant-Chapter 773: Another Transcendent

The holy light fell.

The golden wounds in the sky bled radiance, widening as they poured their searing benediction upon the land. Below, where the light touched the earth, the Shadow Banshees that could not flee in time simply dissolved, their final, silent screams absorbed by the brilliance.

Swathes of their kind were unmade in an instant.

Nor were the other corrupted things spared. Where the holy light fell upon their twisted forms, they ignited like oil-doused torches, their flesh burning away in plumes of foul-smelling, purified smoke.

It was a power unlike anything Orion had ever witnessed—a single spell that commanded the entire sky. It was brutal. It was absolute.

He couldn’t help but glance at Alexander. The assassin stood motionless, his face an impassive mask, his senses stretched thin, tasting the vibrations of the void.

"What is this power, Alexander?" Orion asked, swallowing hard.

"The might of a being of Light, channeled from its celestial domain," Alexander replied, his voice flat. "As for its potency... you see for yourself. If the formation is not broken, the light will only intensify as it feeds on the lives it consumes. It will eventually burn through the forest, through the soil, through the very bedrock, until it scours the void itself. Nothing that serves the darkness will escape."

Alexander’s tone was so utterly detached. The countless lives being immolated across the landscape were, to him, no more than ants under a magnifying glass. Orion had seen the power of Arthas and Leonidas, and while formidable, it was nothing compared to the apocalyptic grandeur of this ritual.

"This light," Alexander stated with chilling conviction, "will drive back all my enemies."

If Selinda did not show herself, her entire race would be offered up as fuel for the fire.

"This is... excessive," Orion admitted. He possessed no such magic. He had never even conceived of it.

"You find this excessive?" Alexander asked, a ghost of something unreadable in his tone. "And the true power of Arthas or Leonidas, you do not?"

Orion fell silent. Then, a frown creased his brow. Alexander’s words implied that he had not, in fact, seen their true power. That what he had witnessed was merely the tip of the iceberg.

The thought lodged in his mind and refused to be moved.

They have been playing games, he realized with a jolt. They haven’t been taking any of this seriously.

And why would they? This world was crawling with demigods and dominated by Archlords. Faced with such impossible odds, his allies had shown no fear, no hesitation.

They had a quiet confidence that Orion now understood was not arrogance. It was certainty. A certainty born from the knowledge that they held the power to carve a sweet, bloody piece of this world for themselves, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them.

The realization was both humbling and exhilarating.

As Orion processed this, the rain of light continued, its holy strands falling like silk, like thread, like knives. The entire territory was bathed in its fatal glory—a divine reaping machine.

"Such an irritating light!"

A voice, sharp and hateful, echoed from the distance. A patch of absolute darkness bloomed in the void, spreading like a pool of ink to meet the celestial radiance, and where they touched, light and shadow annihilated one another.

Orion’s focus snapped to the source of the voice. A woman now hovered in the air, clad in a flowing gown the color of a starless night. Her skin was alabaster, her eyes held the darkness of a tomb, and her figure was a sinuous, deadly curve.

She pointed a single, elegant finger toward the heavens. A sphere of condensed shadow shot upward like a cannonball, exploding at the apex of the sky in a massive, silent firework of pure void.

"Before my Shadowfinger, all holy formations will shatter."

Selinda, the Banshee Queen, had revealed herself. With a single gesture, she had broken the Rite of Sacred Radiance. To Orion, the display was one of incredible, inscrutable power.

"You gathered your strength while hiding and used a prepared artifact," Alexander’s voice cut through the air, sharp and dismissive. "Who are you trying to frighten?"

With a single sentence, he stripped the veneer of mystique from her grand entrance.

Orion understood instantly. Given enough time to gather his own power, he could have shattered the formation as well. A spell of that size was spread too thin to have a truly resilient defense.

"Kill her," Alexander commanded. "She only dared to appear because the other two Archlords are using an artifact to reinforce her."

His voice still echoed in the air, but his physical form had already vanished, melting back into the void.

Orion, however, was not slow to react. The moment he confirmed Selinda was a physical being and not an illusion, he unleashed his Instant Impact.

Thump.

The sound was dull, the sound of a blow striking empty air. His attack had failed.

He now stood where Selinda had been floating, his trident held ready, his eyes scanning the oppressive darkness that had descended. The Banshee Queen’s body had simply ceased to be the moment before his trident would have struck home.

"Such a brave, strong, and handsome giant," a voice like honeyed poison whispered from all around him. "We are both children of the abyss, you and I. Why must you be so cruel to poor me?"

"If you were to sue for peace, Selinda would gladly serve you, and fill your nights with such ecstasy you would forget the waking world."

Her voice was as enchanting as Delilah’s, but Orion was no callow youth. He recognized the offer for what it was: a venomous trap, a soul-snare for the weak-willed. He had no interest in the poisoned chalices offered by queens of shadow.

"She’s mine," Alexander’s voice spoke directly into his mind. "Stay alert. The other two are coming."

Orion focused, trying to pinpoint his ally’s location, but it was useless. Alexander was as untraceable as Selinda. The feeling was profoundly frustrating. To be teamed with a partner against a foe, only to find yourself unable to land a blow on either of them... it was a warrior’s nightmare.

In that moment, he felt a flicker of understanding for Rendall, for Lilith, for all those who fought at his side, wanting desperately to help but finding themselves outmatched.

"They are two minutes out. Prepare yourself." The Deputy Commander’s voice boomed, seemingly from the sky itself.

Orion looked around but saw no one. It was the third time in as many minutes that he had been struck by the sheer, untraceable power of his allies.

"The Wind Barrier is forming. The battlefield will be divided. Hold your ground. Do not fall in some forgotten ditch."

This time, Orion could feel it. The air around him grew thick, the wind beginning to stir with an unnatural, directed force. A sliver of his confidence returned.

Three minutes later, the void shimmered, and the hulking form of the Abyssal Devil Ray, Mokka, and the predatory shape of the Dark Sphinx, Sphinx, materialized a short distance away. Their powerful gazes locked onto Orion.

"Who are you?" Sphinx hissed, her eyes widening slightly as she felt the power radiating from him.

Mokka rumbled, a tremor of shock in his deep voice. "Can it be? Another Transcendent?"

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