Chapter 195: Dark Emperors castle
Boom!!
The sound did not fade. It echoed, rolling across the wasteland like a thunderclap that refused to die, bouncing off broken horizons and sinking into the hollow remains of a world long consumed.
Crashing through what looked like a mountain of corpses that had long since cornified into hardened chitin, the burning man burst forward, his body a blazing silhouette against a sky that no longer held light. The heap he tore through was no ordinary pile of flesh. It was layered, fused, and fossilized, a grotesque monument of creatures that had once lived, fought, and died only to become part of something far more disturbing.
Each step he took shattered limbs that had turned to brittle armor. Jagged fragments scattered like glass, scraping against his flames and hissing as they burned away into ash.
Without slowing, he reached forward and gripped the hilt of a sword lodged deep within the skull of a massive beast. The creature itself was unrecognizable, its form twisted beyond natural design, its head split open by the blade that had ended it.
With a single pull, the weapon came free.
"Score!!"
He smiled, but there was nothing casual about it. His eyes narrowed as he examined the sword, flames flickering slightly lower as if instinctively giving the artifact space.
It was a divine treasure.
Even without activating it, the air around the blade felt heavier, denser. Faint inscriptions ran along its edge, pulsing with a power that had not yet fully died despite the fall of the world it came from.
The thing about infested planets like these was that they held hundreds of treasure troves left behind during the collapse of each world.
Cities fell. Armies vanished. Gods perished.
But their weapons remained.
Buried beneath ruin, sealed within corpses, or guarded by creatures that had unknowingly inherited them, these relics became the final echoes of civilizations that no longer existed.
For people as strong as him, and willing to take risks, exploring and retrieving treasures from dead worlds was very lucrative.
Especially this deep in corrupted space.
Here, where even light struggled to exist, the rewards were greater.
And so were the consequences.
"Hm?"
Turning behind him, the burning man’s expression shifted slightly as he noticed Enzo and the rest sprinting toward him. Their movements were sharp, urgent, cutting through the uneven terrain with clear intent.
Behind them, a horde followed.
Not a small group. Not a scattered pack.
A wave.
Dozens, then hundreds of corrupted beasts surged forward, their bodies warped, their limbs uneven, their forms stitched together by something that defied both biology and logic. Some crawled, others leapt, and a few dragged themselves forward with broken appendages that still refused to stop moving.
Their presence alone made the ground tremble.
"Sorry."
Scratching his head lightly, the burning man stepped forward.
Then he moved.
The sword in his hand came down in a single, clean motion.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the world split.
A terrifying slash tore through the ground, carving a massive gash that stretched forward like a scar across the planet itself. The force behind it did not simply cut. It erased. The corrupted terrain, the lingering energy, even the momentum of the charging beasts all halted as the attack passed through.
The front line of monsters froze.
Then they parted.
Not by choice, but by instinct.
The gash radiated a lingering pressure, something that even their corrupted instincts recognized as absolute danger. One by one, the creatures slowed, their advance breaking apart until the entire horde began to retreat, circling away from the invisible boundary that had just been drawn.
Silence followed.
A brief, fragile silence.
"This planet is teeming with treasures. Do you guys want to go treasure hunting?" the burning man asked, turning back with a casual tone that didn’t quite match what had just happened.
He was trying to lighten the mood.
It was obvious.
Despite his strength, despite the way he could cut through entire hordes without effort, there was very little he actually controlled here.
His role was simple.
Keep them alive.
Everything else was secondary.
"No, let’s focus on our two objectives."
Enzo didn’t hesitate.
His gaze moved past the burning man, settling on the vast battlefield ahead. The land stretched endlessly, littered with skeletal remains and structures that barely resembled what they once were.
Towering frames of what looked like machines stood frozen in place, their designs alien, their purpose unclear. Some were half-buried, others reduced to twisted metal, all of them silent.
Machines from hell.
And beneath them, bones.
Countless bones.
This planet was not just dangerous.
It was wrong.
"Yeah...."
The burning man nodded slightly.
He understood.
This was still a competition.
Even if no clear deadline had been given, the rules were obvious. The first to reach their destination, the first to complete their objective, would stand above the rest.
In a situation like this, hesitation was failure.
And so they moved.
Together, they crossed the varo king world, shifting from one broken region to another. The terrain changed constantly, from cracked plains to jagged valleys, from fields of bone to forests that no longer behaved like forests should.
But with the burning man at their side, a being whose strength rivaled that of a high god, most corrupted creatures chose to stay away.
They felt him.
They avoided him.
Even in a world like this, there were limits.
Until—
They saw it.
A giant black castle rose in the distance, its structure cutting into the horizon like a wound that refused to heal. It stood surrounded by a dense forest, the trees packed unnaturally close together, their branches tangled in ways that blocked out what little light remained.
The closer they got, the heavier the air became.
"That’s the place..."
The burning man stopped.
For the first time since they arrived, his tone carried weight.
Memory.
He had lived before this world fell.
He had walked these lands when they still breathed.
And now, standing before something he could barely recognize, fragments of that past began to surface.
Yet even then, his knowledge was incomplete.
He knew this place.
But not like this.
Not anymore.
"Dark Emperor’s castle."
Enzo nodded.
There was no hesitation in his voice.
No uncertainty.
This was it.
The location where the third seed had been left for him.
To stand in what was coming, to truly take part in the struggle ahead, he needed more power.
Not borrowed strength.
Not temporary boosts.
Something real.
Something that would anchor him in the chaos to come.
So this was his first true objective.
"Okay, let’s go."
Without overthinking it, the burning man stepped forward, heading straight toward the forest.
Curiosity flickered within him.
What was inside that castle?
What could possibly draw Enzo here with such certainty?
But the moment he crossed the threshold—
A notification rang out.
[Warning: No Divine beings may approach. Warning: Divine beings will suffer core damage if they enter.]
The effect was immediate.
An overwhelming force slammed into his very essence, bypassing his physical form entirely. It wasn’t pressure. It wasn’t impact.
It was rejection.
His core trembled violently as something unseen forced him back, a sharp, burning pain spreading through him as if his very existence was being denied.
"What the hell—"
He staggered, pulling his hand back, flames flickering wildly as his control slipped for a brief moment.
But it didn’t stop there.
From within the forest, a surge of black energy erupted.
It moved like a living thing, stretching outward, chasing him as if it had already decided what he was.
Food.
The flames within him reacted instantly.
They flared, surging outward to meet the incoming darkness. Fire and void collided, devouring and resisting each other in a violent clash that distorted the air between them.
For a few seconds, neither side gave way.
Then the burning man stepped back fully, breaking the connection.
The black energy lingered at the edge.
Waiting.
Watching.
"Hmm."
From the side, Enzo observed everything quietly.
Then he shook his head.
Lightly.
They weren’t going to make this easy for him.