Titan King: Ascension of the Giant

Damn it, it's a male lord?

The confrontation with Tangere was a bitter disappointment for the Cyclops lord Hebika. The Legendary-level Wood Elf vessel he had fantasized about had just materialized as a middle-aged man.

"Does my arrival displease you?" Tangere asked. He and Hebika hovered in the air, neither making a move, each sizing the other up. One was curious, the other crestfallen.

"It's not just displeasure," Hebika sighed, his brutish tone softening into something almost gentle. "It's the death of a dream."

Then, in an instant, the facade shattered, and the rage he'd been suppressing erupted.

ROAR!

"You goddamn piece of filth!" Hebika bellowed. "You've cost me so many of my children in this forest! I'll tear you limb from limb! I'll devour you piece by piece!"

He lunged. A torrent of Abyssal energy poured from his body, coalescing behind him into a colossal Cyclops phantom. The phantom formed a great axe of pure shadow and brought it crashing down on Tangere.

"Between the living and the dead," Tangere said calmly, his voice echoing slightly, "there is a distance no attack can cross."

A thick, green mist of pure plague coiled out from his body, enveloping the environment and swallowing the charging Cyclops lord. It was a bizarre, almost surreal effect. Hebika's furious attack slowed, the phantom's axe crawling through the air as if moving through tar, unable to reach its target.

This was one of Tangere's trump cards: his Domain of the Sundered Veil. Any enemy caught within its plague mist found their attacks impeded, their trajectory warped and slowed to a crawl.

He seized the opening, deploying his finishing move. A curse whispered from his lips. "Your heart stops. Death arrives."

Death Rattle.

The plague mist surged, constricting around Hebika, manipulating his very biology. But even as his heart seized in his chest, the Cyclops lord unleashed his final gambit. A beam of violet-black light shot from his massive central eye, ignoring the plague mist entirely. It slammed into Tangere, blasting him out of the sky.

Tangere hit the ground with a sickening thud, his body instantly wreathed in corrosive, dark flames.

But then, something even stranger happened.

He pushed himself to his feet. His body convulsed, the skin rippling as if a swarm of insects were moving beneath it. The burned and corroded flesh began to slough off in wet chunks, revealing a perfectly pristine, unharmed Tangere underneath.

He looked down at the pile of his own flesh as it rapidly dissolved into dust. "A power that can ignore my plague mist," he mused aloud. "How very strange." A newfound respect for the abilities of these demonic monsters took root. He looked up, his body now still, and glanced at Hebika's corpse lying on the forest floor. A small smile touched his lips.

"There are benefits to a cross-realm invasion," he said to himself. "You can kill Legendary-level opponents as you please, without any of those pesky arch lords getting in the way." He walked over to the body. "Now, let's see what prizes we have."

A moment later, he had retrieved the Lord's Stone from Hebika's corpse, along with a storage pouch.

Just as he was about to release the plague from his own body to consume the Cyclops's valuable biomass, a voice echoed clearly in his mind. "Bring the body back intact. I have a use for it."

Tangere froze. It was Orion. He raised an eyebrow, then gave a slight, subtle nod, saying nothing. In that single, impossible moment of communication, his understanding of the quiet, inscrutable man who truly led this team was completely redefined.

Deep in the forest, Xylia was overcome with joy. Following Caesar's lead, she had intercepted and rescued three separate groups of Wood Elves fleeing from demonic monsters. In all, they had saved over a hundred of her people. It was a happiness so profound it felt like a dream.

A babble of voices rose around her.

"Elder, are you really here to rescue us?"

"Do we… do we really have a new gathering place?"

"Is it safe? Is the gathering place safe?"

"Elder… sob…"

The flood of questions, the fear and anxiety in their eyes, the desperate hope in their voices—it brought Xylia to the verge of tears. These lost souls needed a home more than they needed air or water.

"Everyone, please, be calm," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "Follow me back to our camp. Elder Aerin is waiting for us there." She raised her voice, letting it ring with newfound conviction. "The Wood Elves have a new home. You are all safe now!"

After calming her people, she found Caesar standing watch, his sword resting on his shoulder. She approached him quietly. "Thank you," she said, the two words carrying the weight of a hundred lives.

Caesar watched the emotional reunions, the way the Wood Elves clung to one another, a quiet satisfaction in his eyes. "We're allies," he said simply. "This is what we do."

His unwavering attitude, his decisive action from the moment he entered the forest, gave Xylia a deeper understanding of the alliance from The Stillness. To have allies like him meant that their powerful, enigmatic leader couldn't be an evil being.

With that realization, the knot of doubt and fear she had carried in her heart finally loosened.

A fragile hope bloomed in her chest. Backed by a faction like this, maybe the Wood Elves truly have a future.

Emerald Dream Realm, Lorelia City.

The moment Lilith stepped out of the plaza, her ascension complete, Lorelia sensed it.

"Mistress!"

Lorelia burst from her Nest and, like a child, threw herself into Lilith's arms.

"You're a Warden now," Lilith laughed, hugging her back. "Still acting like a little girl."

"Hee hee… your arms are the warmest place in the world, Mistress!" Lorelia beamed, looking up at Lilith. She could feel it instantly. The subtle barrier that had existed between them, a chasm created by their vast difference in power, was gone. It felt just like the old days, back in Moonshadow Valley in Blackstone City.

"This is your fiefdom now, isn't it?" Lilith asked. "Aren't you going to show me around?"

The truth was, with her ascension to the Legendary level, a mountain of pressure had been lifted from Lilith's shoulders. For the first time in a long time, she felt utterly at ease. She would never normally have made such a leisurely request.

The suggestion was music to Lorelia's ears. "This way, Mistress! Let me show you everything! I built Lorelia City from the ground up!" Brimming with pride and a desire to show off, she took Lilith by the hand, chattering excitedly about all the new things she had to share.

As they walked away, a faint, maniacal laugh echoed from the direction of the Dragon Crucible.

"Hahaha… so much life energy… Mine… ALL MINE!"