A torrent of conflicting thoughts flooded Ava's mind. She was trapped, panicked.

Compared to Ava's turmoil, the Mermaid Princess Marina was the picture of breezy confidence. At that very moment, she had one foot inside Stoneheart City. She was also one of Orion's women, but by far the freest. She hadn't even bothered to give him a heads-up; the moment she'd heard news of his grand wedding, she'd left the Godforsaken Land and returned to the Titanion Realm on her own.

Judging by the mischievous smirk and the arched eyebrow, she was here to stir shit up.

You're telling me I, a literal demigod, don't get a wedding, but some archlord Moon Elf gets a party this big? Hmph…

That fire, however, was quickly extinguished. Moments later, the mermaid princess had completely surrendered, melting onto Orion's throne in the castle. He held her warm body, savoring her softness, the silk of her skin.

"Done playing farmer in Sunset City?" he murmured. Marina's true form was a demigod; that she could return from the Godforsaken Land alone was no surprise at all.

"You have the nerve to leave the beautiful, gentle, and virtuous Marina to rot in that godforsaken shithole all alone?" The surrendered princess suddenly tilted her head up and sank her teeth into his chest in a sharp, playful bite.

"You were the one who wanted to go to Sunset City," Orion chuckled, pulling her closer, the gentle pressure of his embrace closing the distance between them.

"Hmph… Fine. Then you tell me why some Moon Elf who just popped out of nowhere gets a wedding, and I don't?"

Orion just smiled and leaned down to kiss her.

"When your true body awakens from its slumber, we'll hold a wedding so grand the entire Titanion Realm will know of it. How does that sound?"

"Now that's more like it."

As a native demigod of the Titanion Realm, Marina had a status no one else could claim. Her network of connections here was something Orion couldn't even begin to match.

This wedding with the Moon Elf Isilra, for instance, had only caused a stir on the continent of Utessar. The most powerful guests were archlords. But if he were to marry Lady Seraphina, the other demigods of the Titanion Realm would awaken from their slumber to attend. It was even possible one of them might get jealous and try to put Orion in his place.

"Since you're back now, why don't we just get married together?" he offered.

"No way!" Marina rejected the idea without a second's hesitation. Her wedding had to be exactly what he'd just promised: a spectacle that would echo throughout the entire world. She would become a beautiful legend on the lips of every soul in the Titanion Realm.

***

The Sixth Layer of the Abyss, Foundry Citadel.

For now, the citadel consisted of only two main structures within its four colossal walls: a four-sided pyramid, and a slightly shorter, active volcano. The pyramid was the residence for Orion and the high command of the Conquest Legion. The volcano was the domain of the Scourge Wardens and the legion's armory. The only other buildings were flat, warehouse-like structures built against the inner walls.

But now, the flat-roofed barracks, the pyramid, and the volcano were all the same color.

Gray.

Sometime in the last few hours, the Graying had descended. The Unhallowed had begun their invasion.

Orion held up his hands, staring at his own palms.

It was a world beyond description.

All color had bled from existence. His hands, his clothes, his weapons—all were shades of gray. The pyramid beneath him and the citadel at his feet were gray. There was nothing left in the universe but gray.

It wasn't even truly gray, but rather the physical manifestation of a cosmic law that leeched the very concept of life from reality. The sky was not blue, the earth was not black, and even the abyssal creatures that naturally glowed had lost their light.

The Graying was accompanied by the instant death and decay of all plant life, and a creeping, primal terror that came from a world stripped of color. The effect wasn't just environmental; it was psychological. Countless creatures lost their sensory perception, their world muted and deadened. They became irritable, anxious, and violent.

Even before the first Unhallowed had appeared, Orion could sense the scattered abyssal creatures in his territory turning on one another in a frenzy of panic. A tide of fear was washing over the entire abyss.

"What in the hell are the Unhallowed?" he whispered. "The sheer scale of this…"

It was no exaggeration. Because of his link to Makareth, Orion was effectively present in both the sixth and second layers of the abyss. He could feel it: the Graying had descended on both layers simultaneously.

This was not the work of a demigod. Not even a sixth-stage demigod, he suspected, could wield such terrifying power. The unknown, the sheer cosmic horror of it, reminded him of the dark beast tides in the black forest, back when he was weak and terrified. Now, his fear came not from weakness, but from his profound ignorance of the abyss's true nature.

***

The Second Layer of the Abyss, Vigil's Point.

Orion's mirrored avatar stood on the battlements. To his left and right were Makareth and Delilah, all three of them gazing up at the colorless sky.

"To think that the abyss, a place of terror in the eyes of so many, could itself be so utterly dominated," Makareth mused. Since his awakening, the abyss had always been the apex of countless lesser worlds in his mind. Now, this realm he held in such awe was undergoing its own trial by fire.

"I wonder what the Unhallowed look like," he added, a demonic glint in his eye. "And I wonder if eating them will make us stronger."

That, Orion actually knew. Leonidas had explained it to him just a short while ago.

The Unhallowed were not monsters or beasts. They were spirits—essences formed from pure law. The number of laws contained within them varied with their power. A normal being who killed and consumed an Unhallowed would gain nothing. In fact, if their will was weak, they would be corrupted, their soul overwritten, and they would become a new Unhallowed, doomed to be torn apart by the denizens of the abyss.

However, for a being like Leonidas, with his World Dragon avatar, the Unhallowed were the perfect fuel.

They could not nourish life, but they could nourish a world.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.