Chapter 540: A Demigod Realm Void Beast versus Kaldaroth

The land they crossed had long since forgotten what it meant to be alive.

What had once been forest was now a graveyard of twisted trunks, bark peeled away like flesh from bone. The ground was a patchwork of blackened soil and brittle stone, veined with faint, pulsing cracks that oozed dim violet light. Every step crunched, not on leaves, but on something that sounded... wrong.

Like dried remnants of things that should have decayed, but hadn’t.

Three figures moved through it cautiously.

They wore expedition cloaks over reinforced armor, each marked faintly with the sigil of Anbord, three interlocking golden rings. Their movements were disciplined, but their eyes never stopped scanning.

They had been chosen. Not randomly. Not by rank. But by Ethan himself.

Which meant one thing... This mission mattered.

"Still nothing," the shortest of the three muttered, crouching near a fractured stone that pulsed faintly with corrupted energy. He brushed his fingers over it, then frowned. "Residual void energy, but it’s thinning out. Whatever was here... moved."

"Or evolved," the woman beside him replied quietly.

She stood tall, spear resting lightly in her grip, her gaze fixed ahead. Her silver-lined armor reflected the dim, unnatural light around them.

"Don’t say that so casually," the third added.

He was broader, heavier, carrying a large shield strapped to his back and a war hammer resting over his shoulder. His voice was calm, but there was tension in it.

"We’re already too deep."

They were far deeper than standard expedition limits. The air here was thicker, not physically, but conceptually, as if something unseen watched, pressed, waited.

"Coordinates are still ahead," the first one said after checking a small, glowing device in his palm. "Whatever the Emperor sent us to find... It’s close."

The woman exhaled slowly.

"Then we move carefully."

They stepped forward again.

One step.

Two... The world... shifted.

Not visibly. Not dramatically. But something changed.

The wind, if it could even be called that, stopped. The faint pulsing in the ground... synchronized. The air grew heavier.

"Stop," the shield-bearer said immediately.

They froze.

Silence. Then, they heard a sound. Not loud. Not sudden. But... wet.

A slow, dragging noise. Like something massive pulling itself across something it didn’t quite fit into. The woman’s grip tightened on her spear.

"Behind us."

They turned... Nothing.

Then, above.

CRAAAAAAACK!!!

The sky split. It tore open.

A jagged rip carved through the space above them, darkness spilling out like a wound in reality itself.

And from it, it emerged.

Humanoid. But only in the loosest sense.

Its body was elongated, limbs too long, joints bending in ways that suggested they were never meant to exist in fixed positions. Its skin, if it could be called that, shifted constantly, patches of void flickering in and out as if parts of it weren’t fully present.

Its head tilted too far, too wrong, and its face didn’t stay the same. Features formed and dissolved endlessly, eyes opening and closing in places they shouldn’t, mouths stretching and disappearing, expressions flickering between rage, sorrow, hunger, and something far worse.

Understanding.

The moment it fully emerged, the ground collapsed. Pressure dropped like a falling mountain.

The three adventurers were forced to their knees instantly, their bodies trembling under the sheer weight of its presence.

"What is..." the first one tried to speak, but he couldn’t finish. His voice died in his throat because the thing looked at him, and in that single glance, he felt it.

His thoughts slowing, his instincts breaking, his will cracking.

"Move..." the shield-bearer growled through clenched teeth, forcing himself up slightly. "...MOVE!"

Too late.

The creature moved. No wind-up. No warning.

One moment it stood there, the next, it was in front of them. A hand, too long, too thin, too wrong, lashed out, space bending around it as it tore forward with enough force to erase them completely.

Death came. Absolute. Unavoidable.

And then...

CLANG!!!

The world shattered.

A massive blade intercepted the strike. The impact didn’t explode outward... It imploded. The force compressed inward, space folding around the point of contact before bursting outward in a delayed shockwave that carved a massive crater into the land. The adventurers were thrown back, tumbling across the ground before crashing into broken terrain.

Dust rose. The pressure shifted and changed. It was no longer suffocating.

But... Contested.

A figure stood between them and the creature.

Massive. Unmoving.

Nine feet tall, clad in pitch-black armor that swallowed light itself. The armor was layered, heavy, etched with faint crimson lines that pulsed like veins beneath the surface.

A helm concealed his face entirely, save for two glowing red eyes burning from within the darkness. From the back of the helm spilled white hair, long and untamed, swaying faintly despite the still air.

In his hands was a greatsword. Enormous. It was nearly seven feet in length, its blade thick, brutal, forged not for elegance but for annihilation. It hummed faintly, not with energy, but with history.

The creature’s hand pressed against the blade and stopped. For the first time, it didn’t advance.

"Tch."

The knight tilted his head slightly. His voice was deep. Rough. Annoyed.

"You’re in my way."

The creature’s many shifting eyes focused on him. The pressure returned, but this time, it met resistance.

The knight pushed. Just slightly, and the creature slid back. The ground tore beneath its feet as it was forced away, its limbs twitching, readjusting.

Behind him, the three adventurers stared in stunned silence.

"Who..." the woman whispered.

The knight didn’t turn and didn’t answer, but his grip on the greatsword tightened.

"Kaldaroth."

The name came like a statement. It was not an introduction, but a fact. The void creature shrieked. A sound that didn’t belong in reality, tearing through the air and clawing at the mind.

Kaldaroth didn’t flinch. Instead, he stepped forward, and the ground beneath him cracked.

"Good," he muttered.

His red eyes burned brighter.

"I was getting bored."

The creature lunged. Faster this time. More violent.

Its limbs stretched, multiplied, distorting as multiple strikes converged at once, each one capable of tearing through mountains.

Kaldaroth moved. His greatsword swung once in a wide, brutal arc.

BOOOOOOM!!!

Everything in its path stopped, then broke. Limbs shattered. Space split. The creature was thrown back violently, its form destabilizing as parts of it flickered in and out of existence.

Kaldaroth followed, each step heavy, each movement deliberate. The ground couldn’t hold his weight... not physically, but conceptually.

"Demigod, huh..." he muttered.

He lifted the blade and rested it briefly against his shoulder.

"Let’s see if you can keep up."

And then, he vanished.

The battle had begun.