Chapter 190: A Realm With No Name
The aerial battle was still going. Individually none of the Crown Kings were exceptional, but there were enough of them to drag things out — even now, roughly eight remained.
Eight that were living on borrowed time.
Those eight were also, by this point, in a state of pure stunned disbelief.
They had arrived expecting a world full of food. Easy prey. A chance to feed without resistance.
Less than twenty minutes had passed since they came through. Under the combined efforts of Ryū, Kizaru, Tatsumaki, and Yukari, the number of so-called elite undead had been cut nearly in half. Of the remaining eight, at least four were injured. One was critically so — its soul-flame had dimmed to a fraction of its original brightness.
The aerial group clearly had it handled. Ryū turned his attention downward.
His Observation Haki swept the city. At least several hundred thousand standard skeleton soldiers remained on the ground — probably more. Whatever the final death toll in this city would be, it was going to be significant.
Not his concern. His job was the area around Umaru's location. His Haki confirmed no skeleton soldiers had approached within range of her. That was sufficient.
Above him, the Crown Kings kept falling one by one. Running was pointless — nothing in this group of undead could outpace Kizaru's light-speed movement. Nothing could outrun Yukari's gap portals. Nothing could escape Tatsumaki's psychokinetic reach before she locked onto it.
The moment they arrived, their fate was sealed.
"Why does this world have existences this powerful? And none of them use any detectable magical signature — it's as if these abilities are simply innate to them."
One Crown King was barely managing to stay airborne. Its soul-flame had dimmed nearly to nothing. More than half the bones of its lower body had been destroyed — not damaged, destroyed, beyond magical restoration. One more solid hit and it would join the ones already extinguished.
While the others keep those three occupied — escape. Back through the formation. Back to the undead realm.
They can't follow me there.
It began beating its shattered wings toward the formation, forcing every reserve it had into the motion.
A massive skeletal claw closed around it before it reached the edge.
It couldn't move.
"This grip… this presence… this is — this is the Sovereign!"
It looked up. Stared. A skull the size of a building was emerging from the formation — dozens of metres across, larger than the bone dragon had been at its largest.
The Undead Sovereign himself.
The enormous body came through the formation entirely. The air pressure changed. The ambient weight of something genuinely, catastrophically powerful settled over the surrounding area.
The claw tightened slowly.
"Sovereign — I wasn't fleeing, I was employing a flanking strateg— AAAAHH—"
The Crown King exploded. Bone fragments scattered. The already-dim soul-flame went out entirely.
The deep, authoritative voice of the Undead Sovereign filled the air.
"Did you imagine that transparent lie would deceive me? …Only seven remaining? The opposition is formidable."
A faint gravity entered the voice. And something rarer: caution.
The Sovereign understood its subordinates' capabilities. They were among the strongest beings in the undead realm. And yet seven was what remained — and none of the enemies appeared to have taken any damage.
This meant the enemies were very, very strong.
Even the Sovereign felt a thread of threat.
A dangerous world. But having entered battle, one must be prepared to die. That acceptance is what placed me at the summit of the undead realm.
It surveyed the battlefield.
"One… two… three opponents. Difficult."
Then: "No. Not three. There's a fourth, on the ground. Four total. Those fifteen worthless subordinates couldn't neutralise a single one? Not one of the enemies appears wounded."
The Sovereign's expression soured — insofar as a being without facial tissue could express this.
Fifteen of the undead realm's finest had gone up against four opponents and managed nothing except dying in large numbers. In the undead realm, these beings were elites. Here, they'd been butchered like livestock. Couldn't even crack the enemies' defences.
Were the subordinates simply weak?
Or were the enemies simply that far beyond them?
"My my~ Are you going to fight or not? You've been frozen there for half a minute." A languid female voice drifted in from somewhere nearby. "You must be the boss, given the way you carry yourself. In that case… shall I begin?"
The Sovereign flinched.
The voice had come from no more than twenty metres away.
When did an enemy get this close without me sensing them?
Before it could react —
"A realm with no name."
The moment it turned its skull toward the voice, a human-shaped 'girl' was already swinging what looked like a parasol in a precise, unhurried arc.
A razor-thin white line arrived almost instantly, giving it no time to evade.
The line contacted the Sovereign's outer magical barrier.
Sparks. A high-pitched shearing sound.
The barrier was cracking.
The Sovereign stared. That barrier had been built to withstand high-tier human forbidden spells. This 'girl's' casual swing was cutting through it at approximately ten centimetres per second.
What is that thing? How can it be this sharp?
If that line touches my body—
Just as it moved to sever the white line, an enormous invisible force pressed in from every direction simultaneously.
Like being seized by a titanic hand.
Not the parasol girl. Someone else.
A second attacker, acting in coordination.
Three above. One below. Four total.
How can this world have this many existences at this level?
In the distance, Tatsumaki's forehead had visible veins. Her arms trembled slightly with the effort of the sustained output. She channelled the psychokinetic force and muttered with mild displeasure: "Do I actually need to spend Points on physical conditioning? I'm not going to end up with muscles, am I?"
She glanced sideways. Kizaru was doing something.
He had condensed a beam of light between his fingertips — barely half a centimetre across.
He was aiming it carefully.
The beam fired.
"That move is quite difficult to produce, though the area of effect is negligible~ But the penetrating power is the highest of anything this old man can generate. If this doesn't break through its defence, this boss is genuinely durable. Terrifying undead indeed~"
If the Sovereign could have spat blood, it would have.
Though it had none to spare.
It was trapped. Tatsumaki's psychokinetic hold had it completely immobilised — its bones were fracturing under the pressure, pain signals transmitting from every joint, strange sounds coming from places that shouldn't make sounds. It could not move a single finger.
Yukari's white line was one metre from touching its body.
Kizaru's golden beam had penetrated four-fifths of its barrier and was still advancing, the remaining gap closing steadily.
Then: "Your defence is actually fairly impressive. You've held for ten-plus seconds against the three of them without dying. Better than that red one earlier."
A male voice this time. Different from the 'girl'.
Before the Sovereign could respond —
The Sovereign's expression became something it had never produced before: pure shock, edged with fear.
Its barrier was dissolving.
Not slowly. Rapidly. The magical energy maintaining it was scattering into nothing at a rate it couldn't account for.
What kind of ability is this?
Are these beings even human?
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you