Chapter 137

Chapter 137
## Chapter 137

The Immortal King’s Uprising (1)

Just as Crown Prince Simon had emphasized during their recent gathering, the sanctuary of the Main God Church had previously suffered an infiltration by the Immortal King.

Naturally, the priesthood had significantly tightened their defensive measures in the wake of that breach.

Furthermore, because this Continental Summit represented an even more critical gathering, they had deployed every defensive asset and mystical resource at their disposal.

And yet…

The Main God Church, having suffered that prior catastrophe, felt compelled to brace itself for the worst imaginable scenario.

‘The vault where the final Immortal King’s Fragment had been confined represented the absolute pinnacle of the Church’s protective capabilities.’

That hidden sanctuary, where outsiders were rigorously filtered and the fabric of space itself was warped, had successfully warded off all intruders for centuries.

But now that the Immortal King—who had shattered those very wards while still fractured and incomplete—was completely reborn, what manner of defensive preparation could possibly hope to deter him?

‘Of course, the leadership of the Main God Church had not simply surrendered to despair.’

They analyzed Hans’s talent to bypass all physical fortifications and leap across spatial dimensions as a form of miraculous authority, concluding that completely sealing off his entry was an impossibility.

Consequently, the institution directed its defensive strategy toward managing the immediate aftermath of his arrival.

Crackle—!

Wooong—

Precisely as was transpiring at this very moment.

$$…This is remarkably exhilarating. You truly live up to your reputation, Main God Church, my eternal opposition.$$

Gilded incantations, tightly etched into the surroundings, rippled across the stone structures in a heartbeat as multiple tiers of sacred wards ignited all at once, bathing the grand hall in a radiant glare.

The creeping tendrils of malevolent dark sorcery were instantly bottlenecked, and the suffocating pressure of absolute mortality began to wane.

The celestial resonance flooding the chamber launched a fierce counter-offensive against the Immortal King’s aura, which had been blanketing the area as if claiming dominion over reality itself.

And right at the nexus of that titanic struggle between radiance and shadow…

“Hannibal Strauss. Today, your overconfidence will cost you everything.”

Heinrich, striding to the absolute vanguard as the living embodiment of the light, made his resolute proclamation, leveling his hallowed blade—blazing with the power of “Blessing: Holy Blade”—directly at Hans.

The intruder had somehow navigated the outer perimeter to manifest within this hall, but this chamber, now saturated with sanctified energy, was the most hostile environment imaginable for a creature of darkness.

Furthermore, it was not merely the champion Heinrich he would have to contend with under these conditions.

“This is our golden opportunity, now that Immortal King Hans has materialized without his legions! If we unite our strength, we can grievously wound him here!”

“I doubted the rumors, but he truly dared to show his face. Move quickly!”

Saintess Liesta, who had repositioned herself to the rearguard as her celestial crown blazed with renewed fervor, stood alongside Archbishop Pion, who had rushed to the front lines flanked by three elite Paladins.

Though Cardinal Cordelia had fallen back to the protective perimeter sheltering the foreign dignitaries to ensure their safety in an emergency, her repositioning did not noticeably diminish the combat readiness of the vanguard.

The defenders were hardly limited to the champions of the Main God Church.

“Khahat! I feared this assembly would be nothing but tedious political posturing, yet the Immortal King himself delivers entertainment! Marvelous!”

Boasting a mane like a lion, an immense frame, and razor-sharp talons, Lionel—the beastman sovereign representing the Wild Land, who had remained perfectly detached throughout the diplomatic proceedings—bared his predatory teeth and stepped up to flank Heinrich.

“The pressure he radiates is incomparably vast compared to what we endured from the relic. Yet, sustained by the sanctuary’s protective grid…”

Rapori Granwood, the dignitary representing the Elven Kingdom, manifested a swirling vortex of elemental spirits and established a casting position in the back line.

Naturally, the assembly of power did not end there.

“To permit an unauthorized entity to breach the inner sanctum twice, particularly when the Immortal King of this era is such an anomaly… Is the grand cathedral’s intelligence apparatus truly this incompetent?”

“Mmm, yet I detected absolutely no fluctuations in the local mana streams either. He materialized within this coordinate as though his existence was simply stamped over the fabric of reality. Truthfully, I confess I am at a loss as to how one counters such a method.”

An elite master-ranked vanguard from the royal household, deployed as the personal protector of Crown Prince Simon, exchanged grim assessments with the supreme commander of the Magic Tower Alliance.

“Kkuk, kkuk… It is no mystery why the celestial alignments have portended disaster of late…”

“Curse it all, I have no desire to risk my life without compensation. Will the Main God Church accept a invoice for services rendered after this?”

The grand mystic of the Calcos Tribal Federation and the reigning sovereign of the Mercenary Guild spoke in turn.

One after another, legendary figures capable of shifting the tides of war rallied to reinforce the holy institution.

Every individual stepping onto the field did so while fully registering the suffocating dread radiating from the Immortal King, proving they possessed the martial fortitude to at least withstand his initial onslaught.

Ultimately, anyone incapable of accurately measuring the gulf in strength between themselves and such an entity would never have been granted a seat at this high-level summit to begin with.

Yet, even when confronted by the chosen champion, the sacred Saintess, and an alliance of the world’s most formidable entities within an environment utterly toxic to his nature,

$$Hehehe… The lesser creatures manage to put on quite an entertaining display.$$

The Immortal King’s supreme detachment remained entirely unshaken.

$$Ah— I marched into this hall with immense anticipation, having caught wind that a grand coalition was forming to challenge my sovereignty. Is this truly the pinnacle of your collective might? Are these the figures who claim to stand at the zenith of this world?$$

Gooo—

The moment his mockery concluded, a dense, absolute shadow—capable of swallowing the very concept of illumination—began to boil upward, eclipsing the surrounding space.

Though the grand cathedral’s consecrated grid actively fought to suppress it, his titanic presence expanded without limit, as though refusing to be bound by mortal metrics.

“…Can it be, is this the unadulterated essence of the abyss? He commands it effortlessly?”

“Hmm…”

“Kuh, the sheer cold is paralyzing!”

Every warrior present grimaced, struck by an involuntary wave of primal dread.

The tail of Lionel, the beastman sovereign, had already curled tight against his frame by sheer instinct.

Thump— Thump—

Yet, not a single defender retreated.

In truth, retreat was an impossibility.

How could anyone contemplate flight while gazing upon the broad shoulders of the man who stood before them, deliberately absorbing the absolute brunt of that crushing malice to shield those behind him…

“You are operating under several delusions, Immortal King.”

$$Oh? Pray tell, what might those be, Champion?$$

The verbal parry between the two adversaries held the absolute focus of the room.

The masters aligned behind Heinrich, alongside the terrified dignitaries watching from the fortified sanctuary zone, checked their breathing and locked their eyes on the confrontation.

“To begin with, our collective military might is hardly restricted to the individuals in this chamber.”

Though designated as a global summit, the vast majority of attendees were administrative executives or diplomatic emissaries gathered for structural negotiations.

Granted, the concentration of martial elites was remarkably high, but only a fraction of them were dedicated, frontline combatants in active service.

“Furthermore.”

The radiant edge of his consecrated weapon flared outward, multiplying in scale under the influence of “Blessing: Capacity Increase,” while a scorching aura of pure energy began to roll off his entire form.

“Even if we rely solely on the forces gathered here, we possess more than enough strength to vanquish you in your current, diminished state!”

Whoosh—

An blinding pillar of solar brilliance detonated from his position.

It slammed violently against the Immortal King’s encroaching tide of pitch-black energy, which had been systematically claiming the hall.

Their locked gazes pierced through the tempest of wildly destabilizing magical currents.

The absolute, unyielding polarization between radiance and shadow, between righteousness and malice, burned itself indelibly into the consciousness of every spectator.

$$…Hehehe! In that case, it is only fair that I disabuse you of one of your own grand delusions.$$

Perhaps recognizing through their brief clash of presence that Heinrich was no ordinary adversary, the sovereign of darkness shifted his demeanor, slowly parting both arms out to his sides.

The stone floor beneath his boots had already dissolved into a viscous, undulating mire of ink-black shadow…

$$Who among you operated under the assumption that I arrived unaccompanied?$$

Clatter!

Swoosh—

Phantoms of the fallen, cloaked in wreaths of malevolent energy, began to manifest from the depths of the mire one by one.

Inevitably, their combat parameters were suppressed below their peak potential, as they were deliberately insulated within the miasma of the abyss to minimize the dampening effects of the cathedral’s sacred grid.

And yet…

When the entities rising were apex undead on the level of Death Knights,

$$Karam obeys your decree, my sovereign.$$

$$Glory to the Immortal King—! May eternal terror consume the realm—!$$

$$…Awaiting directives…$$

And when they were bolstered by a cadre of high-ranking commanders to orchestrate their movements,

They constituted an army capable of shaking the foundations of the world.

$$I have devoured the mortality of the abyss, mastered it, broken it to my will, and ascended beyond. I am the sovereign of the grave, and—$$

Even within the absolute epicenter of the holy see.

$$—I am mortality itself.$$

—

Rumble—!

A concentrated torrent of celestial light, unleashed by the Saintess, hammered against the Immortal King’s defensive perimeter.

The localized strike, amplified by the ambient holy grid, achieved a devastating efficiency that shattered the equilibrium of his dark spellcraft.

“Haa—!”

Capitalizing instantly on the opening, the champion’s hallowed blade cleaved through the fractured dark barrier in a flash of blinding light.

Twisting his grip mid-motion, he extended the weapon’s radiant reach and brought it down in a sweeping arc…

$$Hehehe! You possess remarkable technique!$$

A massive hand composed of shadow, materializing from a dark runic circle conjured in an instant, intercepted the strike and threw Heinrich backward.

Though the construct of shadow was vaporized into nothingness by the impact, the champion was forced to concede the tactical advantage he had fought so hard to secure.

Even so, his expression betrayed neither alarm nor frustration; he smoothly unleashed a stabilizing pulse of light from his back to counteract the kinetic force, driving himself right back into the fray.

His terrifyingly disciplined blade work, utterly immune to distraction regardless of the chaos around him, bore down upon the Immortal King with an immensely enlarged edge of sacred light.

Boom—!

The blade of light collided with a secondary barrier that had materialized in a microsecond.

Violent arcs of energy erupted as the polarized forces ground against one another, sending a concussive shockwave rippling outward through the architecture.

With that, their intricately balanced dance of death resumed, unfolding with the precision of a masterfully orchestrated performance.

Cataclysmic dark incantations and high-tier holy manifestations materialized without a fraction of a second’s delay, intertwined with martial arts refined to their absolute absolute limits.

The spectacle was breathtakingly elegant, utterly hypnotic…

And so staggeringly destructive that it inspired a profound sense of helplessness in those who watched.

“………”

“…Ha.”

The individuals who lacked the martial prowess to join that cataclysmic engagement could do nothing but stare in paralyzed awe from behind the safety of the fortified barrier.

The entire foundation of the area groaned under the continuous kinetic impact of the duel.

Miraculously, the structural degradation of the grand hall remained minimal relative to the apocalyptic forces colliding within it, preserved entirely by the dense matrix of sacred wards and the ancient blessings woven into the very masonry of the cathedral.

Had those protections been absent, the entire sector would have been reduced to a flattened wasteland by the atmospheric shockwaves alone, regardless of the combatants’ intentions.

‘Even if the Main God chooses to overlook this skirmish, completely demolishing the grand temple would be an administrative nightmare. Still, at this tier of structural damage… a standard architectural renovation will suffice to restore it… ’

Naturally, this preservation was also the work of a calculated, hidden hand that had orchestrated the parameters of the engagement long before the first blow landed.

He had surveyed this specific location repeatedly, identifying the optimal theater of operations, calculating visual angles, determining the flow of the skirmish, and implementing contingencies to absorb the collateral shockwaves radiating through the zone.

Such calculations were trivial for someone occupying the office of supreme security director.

Harris, positioned inside the defensive barrier at an unparalleled vantage point in the corner of the grand hall, observed the unfolding war zone with the clinical, discerning eye of a theatrical director.

‘The combat density is leaning too heavily toward that sector; let us rebalance the distribution. Hmm, that individual is becoming overly reckless in his movements. I must introduce a stabilizing element.’

A tactical detachment was subtly redirected toward the zone where the beastman Lionel and Ghoul Lord Fiona were locked in combat, adjusting the frontline geometry to elevate the visual tension and make the struggle appear significantly more desperate.

The logistical adjustments, executed with such seamless subtlety that the actual combatants remained entirely oblivious, remained anchored around the primary duel between the Immortal King and the chosen champion.

Rumble!

Heinrich, backed by the continuous mystical reinforcement of both the Saintess and the Cardinal, clashed once more with Hans, sending a tremor through the foundations of the complex.

Wooong—!

The defensive barrier insulating the foreign dignitaries vibrated under the strain.

The barrier itself was entirely safe from collapse, anchored as it was by ancient holy relics, yet the sheer kinetic violence of the impact allowed the terrifying pressure of the duel to bleed through to those huddled inside.

It was nothing more than a microscopic fraction of the residual energy escaping the battlefield…

Yet that single taste of absolute malice was more than enough to teach everyone present exactly why the Immortal King was chronicled across history as ‘the terror of the continent.’

“Should we not initiate an immediate evacuation?”

“To what end? The entire perimeter outside is a war zone! If we step beyond the threshold of this barrier, we will be torn to ribbons by the residual shockwaves before we can even register our demise!”

While a portion of the assembly dissolved into sheer panic as the violence escalated, the more calculating figures maintained their composure, analyzing the strategic developments unfolding beyond the glass.

“Ha! To permit an external threat to infiltrate the inner sanctum on two separate occasions. I grossly overestimated the capabilities of the Main God Church. And to suffer such humiliation during an international summit of this magnitude!”

And there was Crown Prince Simon, already attempting to leverage the unfolding catastrophe into political capital for his future maneuvers.

By all metrics, it appeared the director had succeeded in staging an incredibly impactful sequence.

‘In that case, the time approaches to lay the groundwork for the grand conclusion… Perhaps I should arrange for Harris to step onto the stage as well?’

Granted, Harris had not been written as a central protagonist for this particular act…

However, transforming him into a scene-stealer through a brief, unforgettable intervention remained an enticing tactical option.