CHAPTER 197: DIVINE ARMAMENT (2)

The Darkness Dragon Monarch tried to escape.

Tried to slither out of the Overlord’s soul.

But it couldn’t.

[ Acquire ]

Chains of golden light snapped into place, binding its claws. Heavenly glyphs burned onto its wings. The spiritual gravity here did not bend to the dragon’s will.

It bent to his.

Igaris’s soul avatar stepped forward.

His voice echoed across the stars within.

"You thought you were entering a body to possess?"

He raised his hand.

"You entered a Domain. And I am its Overlord."

The entire inner world trembled.

"Submit."

"RRRRRR..." The dragon screamed as divine soul-forging chains dragged it down, wrapping around its monstrous form. Its flames were extinguished, and its pride shattered.

A being once feared by gods was now crushed under the heel of a human.

No. Not a human.

An Overlord.

---

Outside...

"Rumble!"

The heavens groaned.

The entire trial realm shuddered like a slumbering beast awakening from eons of stillness.

A moment after the Darkness Dragon was bound, a platinum light erupted across the sky—blinding, eternal, and sacred.

But it wasn’t just light.

It was Acquisition Energy.

Primordial. Absolute. Crushing.

It did not fall. It descended with intent—like judgment from the heavens, wrapping itself around one man.

Igaris.

While the others gazed in awe, he stood still, body glowing with divine engravings, as if etched by the hands of time itself.

He wasn’t just wielding a weapon.

He was Acquiring it.

No. He was Acquiring everything.

From the Darkness Dragon’s confession, Igaris had learned the chilling truth: the entire Secret Realm was the Divine Armament.

A god-crafted artifact turned world. And with Infinite Acquisition, he had begun consuming it all—World, Soul, and Spirit.

Every participant across the realm, Dao Children froze, paralyzed by the platinum brilliance that washed over the land like holy fire.

The skies shifted.

Blood-red clouds shattered into dust.

Broken stars reassembled like gears of a cosmic machine.

And the floating islands rotated, aligning into ancient constellations lost to time.

"Whoosh!"

"Plop!"

Just as the energy reached its peak—

Everything vanished.

The realm dissolved like a dream.

No blood. No ruins.

No Divine Weapon. No sky.

They stood once more on the barren expanse where the Trial had begun.

Silent and disoriented.

But everyone understood:

The Trial is Over. The Divine Armament Has Chosen Its Master.

---

The air itself held its breath.

The elders of the Eight Great Sects stared at the scene in disbelief.

Their proud Dao Children looked stunned. Some fell to their knees. Some wept in silence. Some were already dead.

Only one figure remained tall.

Clad in silence, wrapped in lingering platinum wisps—

Igaris. His hand held a spinning Chakra, that glowed with divine brilliance.

He was the new Wielder of the Divine Armament.

Silence fell.

A silence so heavy it threatened to collapse the sky.

Then—

"H-He obtained the Divine Weapon... No, he obtained the entire secret realm!"

Fairy Hua stood still, her soft lips parted in disbelief.

Even her refuned temperament cracked.

She had seen countless miracles.

She herself was a once-in-a-millennium genius.

But this?

A man capable of stealing a Whole Secret realm was unheard of.

Princess Lihua’s guardian, an ancient phoenix spirit residing in her soul, suddenly stirred.

That man... his soul is layered like galaxies. He is not born of this era.

Lihua’s eyes flickered. She looked again at Igaris.

He wasn’t even looking at them.

He stood in silence, hands at his sides, eyes calm as the void.

The wind rustled his robes like they belonged to someone older than time.

---

Then someone whispered what all feared to say aloud.

"He’s not a genius..."

"He’s a catastrophe wearing human flesh."

Just then, Emperor Yan Jao and his entourage arrived in a hurry, as if he had been waiting for this moment all along.

"Congratulations, my Champion! Congratulations!"

Igaris didn’t respond immediately.

He stood at the center of the devastated arena, his black robes fluttering in the windless void, platinum traces still dancing across his skin like veins of starlight.

The gazes of hundreds locked onto him—Dao Children, Sect Elders, Emperor. No one dared move.

And then, a ripple.

He turned slowly, eyes calm, golden with hints of abyssal black swirling within—like they had stared at the beginning and end of creation.

His gaze met Emperor Yan Jao’s.

The smile on the Emperor’s face was radiant, but fake. His fingers twitched ever so slightly.

"Congratulations, my Champion!" the Emperor repeated, voice loud, arms open as if embracing his favorite pawn.

"Now would you please hand over the Divine Weapon so I can distribute your 3 million beast cores as promised?"

Despite the grin, his tone was laced with a command.

He wasn’t asking.

He was asserting authority.

But Igaris?

He stepped forward once.

Just one step.

"BUZZZ!"

And the earth cracked. The sky trembled with an invisible pressure.

"You misunderstand something, Emperor."

His voice wasn’t loud. But everyone heard it as if spoken into their very souls.

"I did not win the Trial."

He raised his hand.

"I acquired it."

A faint tremble echoed across the dimension again.

"This realm, this weapon, this trial—none of it belongs to your empire anymore."

He extended his other hand, revealing a swirling orb of condensed light and void: the core of the Divine Armament.

"This is now part of me."

Emperor Yan Jao’s smile vanished.

His entourage—heavily robed figures and Imperial Guards—subtly moved into formation.

The temperature dropped. Tension surged.

"Careful, boy," the Emperor said softly. "Even monsters must bow to the throne."

But Igaris only narrowed his eyes.

"Let me correct you again."

"I am not a monster..."

His aura erupted, rising like a flipped ocean swallowing the sky in reverse.

"I am the Overlord."

RUMBLE!

The very Sky split open with a thunderous crack. From the golden tears in the firmament descended a legion of angels. Their wings shimmered with silken purity, vast and feathered in flawless white, glowing with celestial brilliance. Divine light poured from their very presence as their eyes glowed with holy clarity. In each of their hands, they bore sacred weapons, forged in realms beyond mortal comprehension.

They stood in formation around Igaris, not as masters but as vassals. Each one bowed in silent reverence.

And the world below lost its breath.

"H-heavens above... Angels! Hundreds, no—thousands of them!"

"This is impossible! Has a new Martial God been born before our very eyes?"

"No. This isn’t ordinary ascension. A Godly Phenomenon like this hasn’t graced our world in centuries."

"Then explain it! Why would divine beings kneel to a mere young man?"

"I don’t know... but there’s something about him. His presence... it’s terrifying. Unfathomable."

"He’s not from any known clan. We still know nothing about his origin... and now this?"

While whispers and awe rippled across the crowd, the sect elders looked to one another, their expressions pale and stiff with disbelief.

Emperor Yan Jao stood frozen. All the blood drained from his face as realization struck him like a divine hammer.

This youth was no ordinary trial participant. He had a hidden identity. A hidden army. A hidden ambition.

He didn’t just come for the Divine Weapon.

He came for the empire itself.

That was the terrifying conclusion racing through his mind.

And it become true.

Before his eyes, Igaris raised the Core of the Divine Armament.

Then a radiant pulse surged through the air. The weapon shimmered, its core unraveling into divine threads that wove themselves into a new form—a spear, long and graceful, etched with runes of primeval power. The shaft glowed with silver light, while its blade flickered between reality and illusion, as if it pierced the laws of nature itself.

Igaris had already glimpsed its abilities. The weapon, also known as the Ten Thousand Divine Armaments, could shift to any form at his will. The Darkness Dragon Monarch was its weapon soul.

Because of this, each manifestation multiplied his physical strength and magical force fivefold.

And thr synchronization had only just begun.

With divine calm, Igaris raised the spear and pointed it at Yan Jao.

The clouds above froze in place. The angels stood silent, awaiting command.

Then came the words, spoken not as a threat, but as an eternal decree.

"Your empire has suffered beneath your tyranny long enough, Yan Jao. The time for justice has arrived. The hour of salvation is now."

Emperor Yan Jao’s pale expression contorted into a mask of fury.

"How dare you speak of justice in my empire?" he roared, his voice echoing like thunder over the mountains. "You insolent wretch! You think just because you wield a divine armament, you can challenge me? I am the Son of Moon God! The chosen ruler of the Blue Moon Empire!"

His aura of a Martial Saint exploded outward, twisting the air itself. A torrent of golden imperial energy surged from his body, forming a colossal phantom behind him—a dragon with seven horns and eyes of molten gold. Its roar split the skies apart once more, swallowing clouds and silence alike.

Then came the blast of war horns.

From the eastern horizon, golden-armored soldiers poured in like a tide. Rank after rank of the Imperial Guard surged forward, their armor inscribed with divine seals. Standard-bearers shouted orders. Enchanted war chariots drawn by flame-hooved beasts rumbled toward the battlefield. Towers of siege magic flickered in the distance, preparing forbidden arrays.

From the west, the garrison forces arrived—steel-hearted veterans, their weapons soaked in the blood of countless campaigns. Their banners flapped with the emblem of the empire: a coiling serpent biting the Moon.

Yan Jao raised his arm high.

"Kill him! Anyone who raises a hand against the Empire must die!"