Titan King: Ascension of the Giant

Emerald Dream Realm, Red Moon Valley

Loska, standing beside the cross-realm teleportation array, suddenly leapt to his feet, his face alight with wild excitement.

Just moments ago, the void passage between the Emerald Dream Realm and the Titanion Realm had reopened.

Loska hadn't been swept away by it, proving the method he'd found in the secret records to avoid the void passage actually worked.

"Hahaha… the Red Thread Clan will rise again!"

His laughter turned feral.

A savage, unrestrained hunger twisted Loska's features.

"Clansmen, it's time to slaughter our enemies and plunder endless resources!"

Transcendent power surged through Loska like a tidal wave. He activated the cross-realm teleportation array, and the swarm of Dark Worms gathered in Red Moon Valley began teleporting through.

---

Blackstone City.

Night fell, and dawn never came.

Beneath the underground fissure, chaos erupted.

The energy ripple from the teleportation array's activation hit Clymene, Vargrum, Mordak, Zorn, Balgor, Grendel, and Desdemona—all Alpha-level beings—like a shockwave.

"On guard!"

"On guard!"

"On guard!"

…

Clymene's voice rang out, and every skeleton warrior and cave spider snapped to attention.

Swish, swish, swish!

Hiss, hiss, hiss!

The clatter of skeleton warriors raising their weapons mingled with the skittering of cave spiders.

All eyes locked onto the teleportation array.

The monument representing the array blazed with light, emitting a mysterious red-and-blue glow.

In the next instant, a flood of Dark Worms—varied in size and grotesque in form—spilled into the area around the array.

Roar!

Roar!

…

A chorus of primal, guttural roars followed, thick with savage energy.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Before the skeleton warriors and cave spiders could react, the arrow towers—positioned in a triangular assault formation near the array—opened fire preemptively.

Three disoriented Dark Worms, still dazed from the long-distance teleport, were shot dead on the spot.

"Vargrum, Mordak, Zorn, Balgor, Grendel—each of you take a side and hold this ground!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

The Skeletal Knights split into six teams. Five formed a pentagram defense array, anchoring themselves behind the skeleton warriors and cave spiders, cutting down any Dark Worms that broke through.

Clymene and Desdemona, leading the final team, stood atop a tower, overseeing the battlefield and ready to adapt.

The battle exploded the moment the arrow towers fired.

Dark worms, underground worms, skeleton warriors, and cave spiders clashed around the cross-realm teleportation array, instantly turning the area into a meat grinder.

Near the array, inside the corpse of a massive slain Dark Worm, a tiny, red-threaded black bug coiled within its eye, surveying the chaos.

"Only six Alpha-level beings—no Legendary-level powerhouses. The ancestors must be smiling on us! Their lord must've gone to guard the void passage!"

"Hahaha… this place will be the Red Thread Clan's hunting ground!"

Back in the Emerald Dream Realm, Lord Loska laughed in sync with the strange black bug.

Through a will projection hidden in the first wave of teleported Dark Worms, Loska received real-time intel from the battlefield.

"Get over there! Break their lines, hunt them down, devour them!"

Roar, roar, roar!

Another wave of roars erupted as five Dark Worms, three bizarre oversized bugs, and two terrifying spiked worms burst from the swarm.

Loska's transcendent power surged wildly. Once he confirmed no Legendary-level foe was present, he threw caution to the wind.

"Go, my children! Devour every living thing in sight!"

"Hahaha…"

The teleportation array flared again, and the bugs amassed in Red Moon Valley vanished one by one.

...

Bottomless Abyss, Underworld.

More and more bugs poured through, and as their numbers swelled, the combat zone expanded outward.

The arrival of those ten Alpha-level bugs sent the battle into a fever pitch.

Desdemona, Vargrum, Mordak, Zorn, Balgor, and Grendel—the six Alpha-level Skeletal Knights—were dragged into the fray.

Thanks to the three arrow towers, they barely held the line a hundred meters out from the structures.

Clymene looked down over the battlefield, sensing the aura of the ten Alpha-level bugs. Her expression grew grim.

The sounds echoing back were the crunch of breaking bones, the agonized screeches of dying Dark Worms, and the wet squelch of cave spiders being torn apart.

The battlefield's tempo shifted with each faction's forces, constantly rewriting the rhythm of the fight.

As terrifying spiked worms joined the chaos, countless cave spiders took devastating hits.

These dark creatures—troublesome even for Orion when he first hit Alpha-level—were absolute beasts on the field.

But as the battle wore on, the cave spiders adapted.

Countless spiders scaled the stone walls, dangling from silk threads, launching aerial assaults on the Dark Worms below.

The underworld fight bogged down into a stalemate. It had become a slaughterhouse, a dirge for the fallen ringing through the air.

...

Blackstone City, Underground Fissure, Beside the Bottomless Abyss.

A flood of small spiders, as if answering some unseen command, scurried toward the underworld.

On the other side of the abyss's entrance, Lorelia, Lilith, and Rendall stood together, staring into the void in heavy silence.

After a moment, Lorelia opened her eyes, fear and awe flashing through them—scenes she'd never witnessed before.

"How's it looking?"

Lilith, who'd raised Lorelia from childhood, knew her abilities well.

Lorelia gazed into the pitch-black abyss, stunned and at a loss for words.

She could link with spiders, sharing their vision to glimpse the underworld's battlefield.

But the connection was fleeting—a skill she'd only recently honed after reaching Alpha level.

"Mistress, the underworld's swarming with bugs!"

After a long pause, Lorelia shook off her shock. She looked up at Lilith and Rendall, recounting what she'd seen.

"Down there… there are more bugs than I can count—maybe even more than my spiders."

"And there are ten Alpha-level oversized bugs. We've seen two of the types before."

"One's like an earthworm—the kind that can get chopped in half and still survive."

"Then there's the terrifying spiked worm, covered in spines. Every little spider that gets near it either gets killed or swallowed whole."

"Plus, there are a few oversized bugs with red patterned lines on their backs. They're not just huge—they fight like absolute savages."

"The underworld's a mess. Orion's sister is already tangled up with those oversized bugs."

"Everywhere Lorelia looked, it was either slaughter or death!"

"… "

Lorelia went on at length. She'd never been part of a massive battle like this before, and seeing such carnage for the first time left her reeling.

Lilith and Rendall, though, handled it with far more composure.

"Based on Orion's intel, the underworld has six Alpha-level fighters, three arrow towers, and nearly 600,000 troops."

"The enemy's dropped ten dark oversized bugs and countless cannon-fodder bugs. With that kind of firepower, after some fighting, both sides will likely hit a stalemate."

"Lorelia's sent another 300,000 little spiders as reinforcements. For now, the underworld shouldn't see any major upsets."

"The good news? No Legendary-level beings have shown up."

Lilith's expression was stern, her face tinged with gravity.

"Lilith, there's one thing I don't get." Rendall frowned. "If war's broken out in the underworld, why hasn't Blackstone City been hit by dark creatures yet?"

The upheaval in the underworld made him think of Blackstone City.

Rendall was worried about the underworld, but even more so about the city he was tasked to protect.

"The teleportation array in the underworld's been activated, which means the dark beast tides have started."

"Blackstone City hasn't been attacked yet, probably because the dark creatures assigned to our area haven't arrived."

"This time, our Stoneheart Horde territory doesn't have a Legendary-level fighter holding the fort, meaning no void passage has opened here."

"For dark creatures to invade us, they'd have to come from another region."

Since Orion reached Legendary level, a lot of once-secret knowledge was no longer hidden from the Stoneheart Horde.

With compiled intel and Orion's guidance, Lilith quickly pieced it together.

"Even so, we can't let our guard down."

"To the north, we've got a new mammoth neighbor who might just dump dark creatures our way."

"Then there's the centaur clan to the east and the goblin clan to the south—both losers from the last north-south war."

"If they think their tribes can't handle more dark creatures, they'll pull some tricks to shunt them out of their territories."

That's how it worked. Not every territory treated dark creatures as a resource like the Stoneheart Horde did.

Weaker lords and tribes couldn't swallow all the dark creatures they faced.

For their races to survive, they'd offload the excess elsewhere.

Historically, northern lords drove dark creatures south, while southern lords pushed them toward human, Blood Elf, and dwarf territories.

Beyond the scarcity gap in resources between north and south, this practice of shoving dark creatures outward was a big reason for the power disparity between the regions.

The strong got stronger, the rich got richer.

The weak, meanwhile, suffered, fought each other, and grew weaker still.

Over the past ten thousand years, if Frostsire hadn't broken its seal, even Orion's southward invasion to claim territory would've taken ages.

At least before hitting Arch Lord, he couldn't have guaranteed a clean victory over a human Saint.

Without that win, a southern conquest would've been off the table.

"I see!"

The web of relationships was complex—without Lilith spelling it out, Rendall wouldn't have connected the dots.

"So, should we head down to back up Clymene?"

Lilith shook her head, her expression firm, her resolve unshaken.

"No need. Trust Clymene—Orion trusts his sister too!"

The fight had begun. Leave the underworld to Clymene and the surface to Lilith.

That was her clear-headed stance right now.

Lilith turned, addressing Lorelia with a rare, serious tone.

"Hold this spot. Guard it with your life!"

Lorelia nodded, raising her longbow, matching Lilith's gravity with her reply.

"Don't worry—I'll hold it down!"

Lilith gave a soft hum, then strode out of the underground fissure.

"Arch Elder, stop worrying about Clymene. We've each got our roles. Guarding Blackstone City is our job."

Rendall cast one last glance at the bottomless abyss, worry flickering in his eyes, but he followed Lilith out.

…

Stoneheart City.

The battle had already kicked off.

Outside the towering walls, dark creatures attacked relentlessly, hour after hour.

Though no void passage had opened in Stoneheart City's region, it was still swarmed with dark creatures.

Most lords in the far north had gone into hiding, so a flood of dark creatures got dumped south.

In the darkness, signal fires blazed, and warriors stood ready to draw their blades.

Delilah stood atop the wall, gazing impassively at the dark creatures scaling it—only to be smashed back down by bolts and rolling stones.

High above, the shrill cry of a Four-Winged Blood Bat pierced the night. Darting unseen through the dark, it knocked flying dark creatures out of the sky one by one.

It was Delilah's mount. Without Alpha-level aerial dark creatures to challenge it, the bat was practically invincible.

Delilah glanced up at it, saw it was in top shape, and paid it no more mind.

Trailing her were not just her four succubus guards but also Gort and Samson.

Gort and Samson hadn't been sent elsewhere because Delilah needed them here, helping her hold Stoneheart City.

The Stoneheart Horde was a multi-race faction where raw power and size equaled strength.

In some situations, succubi just didn't cut it for intimidation.

Gort, an obsidian golem, was naturally massive—his presence alone was a deterrent without lifting a finger.

Samson, a giant, was just as imposing, his bulk now rivaling even the obsidian golem's.

Plus, as Orion's childhood friend, Samson's status carried weight—enough to rein in subordinates lost to bloodlust, violence, or madness.