Chapter 1266: Fighting the King of Bodam Kingdom

"The King of the Bodam Kingdom, Erlius... I’ll start with you. After this, I’ll conquer the entire Depths of Banquet. Nothing will be able to stop me," Souta said calmly.

"Stop talking!" Erlius roared, vanishing from his position.

In less than a second, he appeared right in front of Souta.

Boom!!

A deafening explosion erupted, shattering the ceiling above them.

Tasman, Kessa, and the others didn’t move. They simply looked up, watching the two figures clash at blinding speed. Each collision sent violent shockwaves rippling through the surroundings.

"It’s begun," Tasman muttered.

After this battle, the Bodam Kingdom would fall into Souta’s grasp.

In truth, it already had.

Souta was merely giving Erlius a chance, a chance to salvage what remained of his kingdom. It was something Tasman couldn’t understand.

None of them could.

Only Souta knew the real reason.

They had no idea... that he had triggered a quest.

Boom!!

"Erlius!! Do you know about the newly discovered dungeon in the Tarrant Nation?!" Souta’s voice thundered across the battlefield. "I was the one who opened it! The moment I revealed myself... was the moment the Depths of Banquet lost its last chance to escape my grasp!"

Erlius didn’t respond. He fought with everything he had, tearing through the water at a speed that seemed to surpass light itself. His immense energy shook the entire area, and every attack he unleashed carried devastating force.

Yet all of it was neutralized by the monster standing before him.

As the King of the Bodam Kingdom, Erlius possessed immense strength, even if he wasn’t the strongest in his land. Even powers beyond the Depths of Banquet had to acknowledge his might.

But now... it wasn’t enough.

Erlius clenched his fist, and the surrounding waters surged violently, responding to his will.

This was his territory.

Here in this place.

He was the strongest.

Ommm!!

In the distance, Souta raised an eyebrow. He could feel it clearly, Erlius’s elemental power was reaching its limit, trembling as it showed signs of breaking into a higher stage.

"Interesting..." Souta murmured.

He was about to move when the water around him suddenly solidified, locking into place in an attempt to restrain him.

Souta sneered.

With a mere pulse of power, the frozen water exploded outward, creating a vacuum, an empty space where not a single drop remained.

His immense best feram surged violently as darkness and light twisted around him in chaotic motion. But before he could even react, a tremendous force slammed into Souta’s body.

BOOM!!

The impact sent a massive shockwave rippling outward, spreading more than ten kilometers in an instant. The violent best feram was completely overwhelmed as the surrounding waters trembled uncontrollably. Structures collapsed one after another under the sheer force. The entire Imperial City shook.

Even the district surrounding the Imperial Palace wasn’t spared.

Countless people were blown away in an instant. Thousands of homes crumbled into ruins, and even the massive coral reefs, stretching hundreds of meters, were shattered like fragile glass.

"I’ll kill you!!" Erlius roared, raising both hands.

His energy surged to its absolute limit.

Elemental power and mana burst outward, spreading across the entire Imperial City. The waters above him spiraled violently, gathering and compressing into an overwhelming mass of destructive force.

Erlius knew exactly what he was facing.

His opponent... was a monster.

Even though Souta’s aura suggested only an initial stage, the danger he radiated was unmistakably lethal. It was suffocating so overwhelming that Erlius couldn’t comprehend how someone at that level could exude such terror.

That was why he didn’t hesitate.

From the very beginning, he had unleashed his elemental drive.

If he failed to defeat Souta, then the entire Imperial City would fall into his hands.

He couldn’t allow that to happen.

Fortunately, he hadn’t implanted the Secret of Immortality. Otherwise, he would have been forced to kneel just like his subordinates.

He was alone.

There was no one he could rely on.

His father was far away, and even if he were here, Erlius doubted it would make any difference. After all, the Nine-Headed Hydra still hadn’t made a move.

The Bodam Kingdom, no, the entire Depths of Banquet was in crisis.

An unknown force had already infiltrated from the outside... and no one had even realized it.

The Secret of Immortality. The unknown dungeon.

All of it was part of the enemy’s design.

And who knew how many more traps had already been set, hidden beyond their awareness?

The only way to repel them... is to unite with the Tarrant Nation and the Creasant Republic.

’I have to get out of here,’ Erlius thought grimly.

Ommm!!

The swirling energy roared, growing more violent with each passing second. Power churned through the water, distorting it so severely that the surrounding sea no longer looked natural.

This was no ordinary current.

It was destruction given form, capable of erasing the entire city.

A strange power surged from within Erlius.

It erupted from deep inside his body, merging with his elemental force and amplifying it to a terrifying degree.

Dream power.

His hidden strength.

Only one person in the entire kingdom knew of it and that’s his father.

He had never used it unless he was pushed to the brink.

And now, he was using it.

His dream manifested as an elemental force.

An elemental dream.

"[Heaven Turbulent Aqua Destruction]!!"

Erlius roared, unleashing the strongest attack in his arsenal.

In an instant, the world seemed to dim. Light itself was swallowed as the massive wave of energy surged forward, crashing through the surrounding waters with unstoppable force. The entire space trembled as the attack descended upon Souta’s position.

BOOM!!

The Imperial City paid the price.

Those closest to the impact were instantly erased, reduced to nothing without even the chance to scream. The ground caved in, entire sections collapsing as countless structures were torn apart by the expanding force.

WHOOOOSH!!

The waters convulsed violently, sending massive ripples outward in every direction.

Everything within a twenty-kilometer radius was devastated.

Inside the Imperial Palace, Kessa and Tasman layered barrier upon barrier, their power surging in waves as they forced the structure to hold together.

The palace trembled and cracked, shuddered like it was about to be torn apart.

On the outside, the battle had already reached a level where even watching it came at a cost.

Tasman’s jaw tightened. Veins pulsed along his temples as he braced both hands forward, forcing back the relentless shockwaves that hammered against their defenses like a storm trying to rip the world apart.

’King Erlius... So this is the power of a ruler.’

His gaze darkened.

Erlius deserves that crown.

Every clash outside carried weight, authority, destruction, and inevitability.

Now he understood.

Why Souta had waited.

Why he hadn’t recklessly taken the Depths of Banquet.

Because this place was filled with monsters, and Erlius wasn’t even the strongest among them.

’Next... the Tarrant Nation,’ Tasman thought, eyes flickering with calculation. We only had it easy here because of the parasites. Without them... this wouldn’t have gone so cleanly.

The palace lurched violently.

A deep, guttural tremor rolled through its foundations as another wave of power crashed over it.

Marquis Vein and the others stood frozen, their faces pale, their bodies trembling under the invisible pressure.

They couldn’t see the battlefield but they could feel it, and that was enough because what they felt... was annihilation.

SWOOOOSH!!

The sea itself seemed to scream.

At ground zero, Erlius dropped into a colossal crater, its edges still collapsing inward, molten debris hissing as it met the surrounding water. Lightning-like sparks tore through the air, and the residual energy was so dense it warped everything it touched.

Breathing there was like inhaling death.

Erlius stood at the center of it all.

The city was gone.

The capital of the Bodam Kingdom had been erased by the very king sworn to protect it. Millions of lives were snuffed out in an instant.

"Huff...! Huff...!"

His breath came out ragged, burning his lungs.

But then, he smiled.

A slow, exhausted, triumphant smile.

"Even that monster..." he muttered, voice hoarse, "shouldn’t walk away from that..."

"If it hit."

The words slipped through the air like a blade, cold and casual.

Erlius’s smile froze.

His body moved before his mind could catch up. He turned and his heart dropped.

A kilometer away, Souta sat on a jagged slab of debris.

Unharmed and untouched.

Waiting.

No...

Not the same.

Something about him had changed. No, everything had changed.

His skin had darkened, like it had absorbed the abyss itself. Light and shadow flowed across his body in slow, fluid currents, as if reality itself couldn’t decide what he was. From his back, eight spider-like limbs unfurled, twitching with unnatural life.

A crown-shaped horn rose from his head.

Long, dark crimson hair drifted behind him like blood suspended in water.

And his presence, it pressed down on everything.

Heavy and predatory to the point that Erlius felt it in his bones and in his blood. In the deepest part of him, his instincts screaming at him to run.

"Dream power..." Souta murmured, rising slowly to his feet.

Each movement felt deliberate, measured, like the world itself was adjusting around him.

A faint smile touched his lips.

"Interesting."

He lifted his hand and for a brief moment everything seemed to hold its breath.

"Manifest."

Ohmmmm!!

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