Chapter 1127: Taking the Bait

A soul link?

Sensing the change in the Wraith Knights, Orion slowly opened his eyes. Using the collective strength of a group to resist an arch lord’s pressure was a standard tactic for a disciplined army. He considered for a moment, then increased the pressure, curious to see how long they could last.

An ocean of power crashed down upon the mountainside. Orion only relented when he sensed the soul-fire of their commander, Ashreign, flickering violently, on the verge of being extinguished. This was a battle of wills, and Orion had no intention of letting them have an easy three months.

Pop.

Just as Orion was about to refocus his mind, a disturbance erupted from the other side of the rift. A winged Demon lord from the second layer was attacking the spatial tear, attempting to disrupt Orion’s recruitment drive.

“Courting death.”

Orion knew there would be obstacles, but he hadn’t expected them to come so soon. And the one sent to test the waters was only a middle Legendary level Demon. He didn’t even bother to ask its name. He simply raised his scythe, and a terrifying phantom blade shot through the rift.

“No—!”

A final, unwilling shriek echoed from the other side. But it wasn’t over.

Orion extended his left hand. A Death-Soul tendril snaked through the portal, latched onto the bisected corpse of the Demon lord, and dragged it back through to the first layer. With another swing of his scythe, Orion split the Demon lord’s body in two. He dug out the Lord’s Stone from within its chest, then kicked the carcass towards the flaming banner.

“Consecrate the banner with it,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion.

At his command, Vex manipulated the banner, causing it to descend upon the corpse. The magical flames spread, incinerating the Demon lord’s remains and absorbing its essence.

The entire brutal spectacle unfolded in full view of the countless Abyssal beings gathered at the foot of Starglow Peak.

“What was that?”

“A monster from the second layer?”

“That Demon… cut in half! What a horrible way to die!”

“That’s a Lord’s Stone! That was a Demon lord!”

“So strong…”

Many among the assembled species, from mindless monsters to intelligent clans, were knowledgeable enough to recognize the Lord’s Stone the Deathly Soul-Reaper had claimed. Those with deeper lore understood they had just witnessed an attempted suppression from a lord of the second layer. No one had expected Orion to not only kill the Demon lord in a single blow, but to drag its corpse back through the portal and desecrate it.

“Let’s go! We’re heading up the mountain!”

After Orion’s display of power, several of the smaller, wavering factions made their decision. They began the ascent to pledge their loyalty.

“Lord, should we go as well?”

“No. We wait. The rift has only been open for a few days. The greater tests are yet to come.”

On a large boulder at the base of the mountain stood a group of over a thousand warriors. These were the Nata. Their bodies were covered in green tattoos, and they were a race of warriors—every man, woman, and child carried a weapon suited to their size.

“Lord, can this My lord truly hold the rift for three months?”

The Nata lord shook his head, silent. He didn’t know. His entire clan had come to observe precisely because of that claim. Any race in the Abyss with even a sliver of history knew what holding a recruitment rift for three months signified. Regardless, Orion’s swift execution of a lord from the second layer had sent a current of excitement and fear through all of them.

Meanwhile, in the second layer, the area around the rift fell silent. No one else appeared. To have a firm foothold in the second layer, you either had overwhelming personal strength or powerful backing. Either way, you weren’t a fool. When the probing attack ended with the Demon lord being instantly annihilated, the other lords who had been watching from the mist quietly withdrew, distancing themselves from the portal.

“Lord Feyd has been slain! Quickly, report this to My lord!” Two large Demons, their faces masks of disbelief, turned and fled back the way they came. The other hidden lords watched them go, none making a move to stop them, all of them eager to see how the drama would unfold.

In the city of Miseria, the gates were sealed and the walls heavily guarded.

Demon Makareth stood on the battlements, gazing towards the distant rift. The coordinates he’d given Orion weren’t for his city, but for a spot on his territory’s border, right next to his enemies. It had been their plan all along: use the opening of the world barrier as an opportunity to help Makareth clear out some obstacles.

Makareth hadn’t known which clueless lords would be stupid enough to throw their lives away first. But now that Lord Feyd, a vassal of the Demondrake race, was dead, he knew the big fish was about to take the bait.

This entire region of the Abyss was under the jurisdiction of the Demondrake race. For a lord like Makareth, this meant paying regular tribute to the Demondrake King, an arch lord whose fear kept lesser lords like him in line. This Demondrake was the single greatest obstacle to Makareth’s ambitions, and the primary target Orion had agreed to help him eliminate. It was one of the main reasons Makareth had pushed so hard for Orion to enter the Abyss back in the Emerald Dream Realm, using the excuse of gathering materials for the Dragon Crucible.

As long as the Demondrake arch lord reigned, Makareth could never truly expand. Even if Makareth ascended to arch lord status in another world, he couldn’t be certain he could defeat the established Demondrake in a direct confrontation back in the Abyss. Besides, as one of the Survivors, time was the one thing he didn’t have. He couldn’t afford to wait.

That’s why he had gone on a reckless campaign to capture abyssal sirens and succubi—all to curry favor with Orion. In Makareth’s view, even the strongest friendships needed maintenance. For that, he had willingly made enemies of all his neighbors.

And now, his gambit was paying off.

With Feyd dead, the old dragon is sure to be stirred up, Makareth thought, a wide, vicious grin spreading across his face. The plan is working perfectly. All I have to do is wait.

He took a deep breath, forcing down the manic energy thrumming within him. He desperately wanted to be out there, fighting alongside Orion, but he couldn’t. His foundation was here. He had to build his future here. Orion was a force of nature just passing through; he wouldn’t be staying in the second layer. Makareth was crazy, but he wasn’t a fool.

“Now I just wonder who’ll be the second idiot to get himself killed?” he chuckled to himself.