Chapter 420
The last battle had taught them much. The assault on Jaws’ counterpart had been an invaluable lesson—one that revealed how the demigods had learned to usher the Origin Gods into the mortal realm, allowing them to manifest briefly. If left unchecked, the demigods would ascend, and those damned rune pillars—bindings of order and balance—would be laid out once more, fortifying the world against their intrusion. That could not be allowed.
So, they waited. They gathered. Their zealots had grown in number, their power needed not to be tempered but amassed. If the Origin Gods wanted to play by the rules, then so be it. The dark counterparts would do the same. Let mortals fight mortals, let devotion clash against devotion—there would be no loopholes, no technicalities to exploit. Just war.
Across the void, the five dark counterparts exchanged silent glances. No words were needed. They all came to the same conclusion.
The absence of Ikenga and Keles had left two vulnerable points in the divine barrier.
Unlike their previous attack, where they had blindly battered the shield in a frenzy, this time, they moved with precision. As one, the five dark counterparts converged upon a single gap in the defenses.
This time, they would not be repelled. This time, the world would tremble.
The first sign was a low, guttural hum that reverberated across the land—a sound not heard by mortal ears but felt in the bones, in the very essence of existence. The night sky, once clear, darkened at the edges, as if an unseen force was pressing against reality itself.
The dark counterparts had begun their assault.
The breach point—one of the two left by Ikenga and Keles’ absence—shuddered as the five counterparts poured their will into it. The divine barrier groaned, the air rippling like fabric stretched too thin. And then, a single fracture. A hairline crack in the shield.
That was enough.
From that crack, corruption bled into the physical world. It did not come as a flood but as a whisper, a subtle warping of reality that infected the air and the earth. The land beneath the breach blackened, as if scorched by unseen flames, and a creeping chill slithered through the wind, sapping warmth from everything it touched.