CHAPTER 203: CHAPTER203-THE LORD OF CRIMSON HILLS STRIKES

The lingering power of the Glamer Holy Sword refused to fade, still gnawing at its victim’s spirit core until the last vestige of life was erased.

Aurek vanished again, reappearing beside another grandmaster-rank powerhouse who was just beginning to chant a large-scale coordinated spell.

The sword flashed—

space fractured—

and the man’s divine aspect crumbled like a sand sculpture in a storm.

Deep in the mountains, the two elders of the Crimson Hills—the stout one and the gaunt one—watched helplessly as the grandmasters they had cultivated over tens of millennia were cut down like weeds beneath Aurek’s blade.

They saw the imperial army’s formations slicing apart their defensive lines, isolating, surrounding, and dismantling their final reserves.

Their facial muscles twitched. Their hearts twisted with anguish.

They had endured the annihilation of their peak master legions.

They had tolerated the near extinction of their master-ranks.

But now, even the grandmasters—the very backbone of the Crimson Hills—were being erased before their eyes.

This was the lifeblood they had accumulated over thousands upon thousands of years, and now it was vanishing in mere moments.

The sight made their souls tremble; rage burned so hot it threatened to melt what little reason remained.

Yet the dread of stellar-level calamity—the "Star Catastrophe"—still wrapped around their limbs like chains of ice.

"We can’t keep watching!"

"If this continues, the Hills will truly be finished!"

"All our seeds will be slaughtered!"

The stout elder’s voice was a guttural snarl.

Even as he spoke, another divine aspect fell beneath Aurek’s blade.

They had feared to awaken the Star Catastrophe...

But now their very foundation was collapsing!

"To hell with your damned Star Catastrophe!"

"If it comes, let it come! I’ll kill this cursed Aurek with my own hands today!"

Before the gaunt elder could answer, the stout one erupted with a terrifying aura.

In a single stride, he burst through the Crimson Guardian Barrier and shot toward Aurek like a falling star.

"Aurek!"

"Your death has come!"

The stout elder slammed into the battlefield’s core like a meteor.

The gaunt elder’s face flickered with hesitation, then hardened.

He exhaled, bit his lip, and followed in a streak of crimson light.

The next instant, the crushing pressure of Stellar Rank spread unrestrained—

a tidal wave of divine might sweeping across the skies.

Hundreds of attribute warriors locked in combat nearby had no time to react; they were pulverized into dust by the sheer force of that presence.

Over a thousand others narrowly escaped thanks to the void warlocks, who tore open portals at the last moment, whisking them away from the lethal shockwave.

"Follow the plan. Draw them away!"

Aurek’s calm voice echoed into the minds of War Bear, Overthunder, and Golden Armor.

By now the battlefield stretched across the heavens, spanning tens of thousands of mile. Grandmasters clashed with attribute legions across the horizon—

but stellar-level destruction was another realm entirely.

Every movement of these beings could erase life within a thousand leagues.

The battle had to be moved—out to the barren wastelands,

away from the Empire’s borders and their own troops.

And it would buy time—

for the inevitable interlopers to reveal themselves.

Freya, Isabella, and the Frostvale warriors could no longer even qualify as cannon fodder.

The shockwaves alone from the clashes of divine aspects were enough to obliterate them.

They wisely withdrew, turning their efforts toward securing the western fortresses, where the remnants of the Scarlet Kingdom still resisted.

Fresh Frostvale reinforcements arrived just then, joining the ground campaign below.

Meanwhile, the stout elder demonstrated what true Stellar Rank dominance meant.

He extended one massive hand toward Aurek—

and the very air around Aurek twisted and folded, as though alive, compressing inward from every direction.

A force powerful enough to crush a peak grandmaster into vapor closed around him—

yet black-scaled armor shimmered into existence over Aurek’s body, layer upon layer, like the hide of an ancient dragon.

He endured the compression without yielding an inch.

Then, the gaunt elder appeared behind him, completing the pincer.

Aurek no longer hesitated.

He unleashed the full authority of his newly ascended power—

the Emperor’s Dominion.

Within a span of two hundred thousand mile,

the laws of reality were rewritten.

This space was now his empire—his domain of rule.

And within it, all other laws and powers were severed,

all energy from beyond the boundary denied.

The two elders were dragged into this sealed world of his making.

Here, Aurek was the supreme sovereign—absolute, inviolable.

He raised the Glamer Holy Sword before him,

no longer suppressing the galaxy-like surge of mana within.

The blade responded to its master’s will, glowing with dark-red annihilation light so intense that even the void quivered.

Aurek blurred and vanished—

reappearing before the stout elder in an instant,

and swung down.

The elder’s expression hardened; he dared not meet that divine edge directly.

With a wave of his hand, a sea of burning maple leaves erupted between them.

Flames swept the skies as he retreated at top speed.

He knew better than anyone how terrifying that sword was.

Long ago, the first Emperor of the Crossbridge Empire—Aurek the Founder—had wielded this very blade,

and with it, fought a Stellar Rank being to a standstill while still only a Grandmaster Rank himself.

Aurek’s sword cleaved into the sea of flames,

rending it apart with a storm of raging sword-qi.

But the shattered fire didn’t fade—it coalesced under the stout elder’s control, forming countless burning law blades wreathed in voidfire,

swarming toward Aurek like a storm of molten wasps.

Aurek’s wrist flicked—

the second form of King’s Swordsmanship ignited:

"All Nations Bow!"

A million streams of sword-qi surged forth, charged with royal will and the essence of conquest itself.

They collided with the law blades, crushing them,

and then continued on,

a flood of imperial power roaring straight for the stout elder.

The gaunt elder moved in time.

His palms split the air in a wide arc—

and space itself tore open, forming a massive rift that diverted the oncoming sword-river into the side void.

"The Stellar Rank’s control over space truly lives up to its legend," Aurek said coldly.

Then he lifted his sword again.

This time, he invoked deeper authority.

The very structure of the Emperor’s Dominion crystallized,

solidifying into something clear and indestructible as diamond.

Then Aurek summoned the elemental assassin’s power—

the Element of Darkness.

Absolute darkness engulfed the domain.

All perception ceased—

even the flow of time seemed to dissolve.

Aurek’s form melted into the black.

These two ancient monsters still held back their full strength,

terrified of summoning the Star Catastrophe.

Aurek was fine with that.

If they refused to go all out, he would grind them down piece by piece.

If they did go all out—

then heaven itself would descend to finish them.

A deadly sword-light tore through the dark,

aiming straight for the gaunt elder!

"Watch out!"

The stout elder roared.

Behind him, an ancient divine aspect erupted into being—

the Eternal Maplefall King.

A realm of endless flaming maple forests unfolded,

enveloping both elders within its glow.

Burning leaves of divine fire dispelled the darkness,

forming an impregnable final bastion.

This was the hallmark of Stellar Rank: Divine Kingdom Descent—

projecting one’s divine aspect’s inner world into reality,

forging an absolute domain of its own.

With the stout elder sustaining the Divine Kingdom,

the gaunt elder finally had space to breathe.

He gathered the suppressed might of his Stellar Rank,

channeling it inward to tear apart the Emperor’s Dominion from within.

From his palms burst waves of destructive force—

and the Dominion began to crumble like paper cast into flame.

The entire world of Aurek’s creation shook violently,

its boundaries trembling on the verge of collapse.