CHAPTER 181: CHAPTER 181: ENERGY CHAOS

"You have served another god," Jax finally said, without softness. "They offered you refuge in exchange for chains. You broke your oaths to your own people. That is why you will not die now." He paused, and the next sentence fell like a hammer. "You will live to remember it. You will be the example."

With a sharp gesture, Jax marked him: a dark sign erupted on the Emperor’s skin, a seal that burned the flesh and signed his fate. The mark erased the rest of his rank: his titles, his imperial aura, his right to govern. Where there was once an enemy made of power, there remained a man made of guilt and forced obedience.

"When you leave here," Jax ordered, "you will go to your former domains among the people as a reminder. You will speak the truth into the ear of every sovereign you encounter: confession, humiliation, repentance. No one will make way for you, no one will follow you. And if at any time you try to use what they gave you, the seal will awaken, and your body will turn to ash."

Charles stammered, his voice choked. "Y-yes, my Lord... I will do as you dictate."

Jax watched him bow, then turned to the rows of still-kneeling emperors. His gaze swept over each one like a judge. "Let this be clear: there were pacts between gods and men. Lies beneath lies. I will not allow anyone to sell their people or sell the continent for empty promises. Anyone who signed that deal will receive the same fate: abolition of rank, mark of shame, and the task of confessing until their name is despised."

A murmur of terror spread. Some tried to stand; their bodies did not respond. None dared to ask what came next.

Jax looked one last time at the Demon Empress, whose shadow trembled by the wall. "Go where you must go, and do what you have to do. But let it be clear: if that pact threatens my dominion or my faithful, I will rip it out by the root and burn whoever stands in my way, starting with the one who gave you the order."

She nodded, her voice broken, and retreated into the shadows, determined to leave.

Meanwhile, Charles was forced to stand by Jax’s command. He walked out of the city, the mark burning beneath his skin, knowing his life was now a public penance. Before disappearing through the gate, he looked one last time at the temple, where Jax watched him expressionlessly, the sentence served.

The message had been clear to all: the trap of the old gods would not be tolerated. And whoever tried to repeat it would end up becoming a warning.

The Emperors fled without looking back. Seeing the sentence fall upon Charles, most did not wait for trial or forgiveness: they dispersed across the grounds, running toward their kingdoms; the humiliation of another was enough for them to choose survival.

Charles walked through the city like a living corpse. Jax had ripped everything from him: rank, aura, the blessing that sustained him. He was left with the burning mark on his skin and his title reduced to a forgotten whisper. Where he once had ministers and guards, he now had looks of disgust and doors slamming shut in his face. A former emperor reduced to begging for forgiveness in squares that once adored him. His fate was worse than death: living punishment, public penance.

And when the last row of figures disappeared into the forests, the square became strangely empty. The sun bathed the temple, and for an instant, everything seemed calm.

Then Jax disappeared.

He reappeared inside the temple, stumbling toward the main chamber, and before anyone could react, he vomited. It wasn’t a theatrical gesture: his body convulsed, the retch came out forcefully, and he fell to his knees, hitting the marble.

It hadn’t been long since he had felt this way. The energy inside him was in chaos: the mana bubbled and hissed like metal on fire, the drums in his chest beat out of sync. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to execute sentence against all the emperors; at that moment, he couldn’t even stand.

The disciples and Seraphina immediately rushed to him, their eyes full of alarm. Some knelt by his side, touching his hands, feeling his hot skin, trying to gauge the magnitude of the collapse. The murmurs and steps in the distance were contained by the gravity of the moment: the god they had seen invade skies and shatter avatars now appeared broken, human in his weakness.

Jax breathed with effort. The power that had boiled within him moments before pulsed erratically, as if several currents were trying to exit at the same time and none could find their course. His gaze, when it lifted, was still relentless... but clouded by something new: the surprise of one who discovers that his own body betrays his will.

"I need... I need," he said in a raspy voice. "Time."

The words were barely that, a thread, but they were enough to silence the women.

The God of Dreams still dominated the temple with his presence, even if it was a weak presence now. And that weakness, for the first time since his ascent began, was part of the danger.

Stripping the Human Emperor of his divine essence had been far more difficult than Jax anticipated.The sudden surge to Level 99 had left his body unstable—his veins burned with liquid gold, his bones hummed with too much divinity. To take the power of almost a god was to invite destruction, and his mortal shell was already showing the cracks.

Every breath was a battle. Every pulse, a reminder that he now carried energy meant to shatter worlds.

Jax clenched his fists, feeling the chaos raging inside him. He needed time—time to control what he had seized, or his body would detonate under the sheer pressure of power.

Far away, deep within the sacred forest, his women felt the disturbance in the flow of dream energy.They reached out through the bond that tied them to him—fearful, trembling.

Jax’s voice echoed softly in their minds, calm yet strained:

"Do not worry... I will come to you.But not yet. Not until I master what burns inside me."

Then the connection faded, leaving only silence and the distant hum of divine energy breaking the night apart.