Beyond the Apocalypse-Chapter 1044: Pregnant

A month passed in the blink of an eye.

The True Depravitas stood together atop the Xaos Tower, alongside Overlord, gazing out over the vast city below. The air was solemn, heavy with anticipation. It was time. Time to gather the remaining powers of the Six Sun Alliance and secure their support for the campaign to come.

Without the Alliance united, there was no path—no conceivable future—in which Vlad could succeed in defeating an Empyrean.

Even weakened, Dream of Madness was a calamity incarnate.

A being capable of annihilating the entire Xaos Kingdom if left unchecked.

Vlad raised his hand, preparing to teleport them to the designated meeting ground—

—and froze.

The sudden halt sent ripples of confusion through the group. Overlord turned sharply, his artificial eyes glowing as he scanned for anomalies. Jormungandr tilted his head, Ouroboros frowned, and Fafnir instinctively shifted into a defensive stance.

"Vlad?" Freya asked softly.

The True Depravita of Wrath did not answer. Slowly, almost stiffly, he turned—not toward the horizon, but toward Freya.

No.

Toward her abdomen.

Each of the True Depravitas had been reborn using a fragment of Vlad’s soul. That bond allowed him to perceive changes within them with terrifying clarity—sometimes even before they themselves were aware. His breath caught in his chest. Shock flooded his expression, and for several long moments, no words came.

Then his mouth opened.

"You are... pregnant."

The words echoed like thunder.

For a heartbeat, silence ruled.

Then chaos erupted.

Jormungandr’s eyes widened until they nearly popped out of his skull, followed immediately by an unrestrained grin. Ouroboros let out a sharp laugh of disbelief, while Fafnir stared at Freya as if witnessing a miracle.

Freya, however, froze.

Her hands trembled as they slowly rose to her stomach, touching it with infinite care, as though she feared that even the slightest pressure might harm what was inside. Her mind reeled. She and Vlad had shared what little moments of peace they could between missions. Neither of them had taken precautions.

Because the truth was simple.

A child between Depravitas was statistically impossible.

The stronger the parents, the harder conception became. More than that, they were not merely flesh and blood anymore—they were psychic existence given form. For life to be born from them was nothing short of a miracle.

Yet Vlad could feel it.

Life.

Growing within her.

A rush of emotion—raw, overwhelming happiness—burst within his soul, so intense it almost made him dizzy. For a fleeting instant, nothing else existed.

Then—

Everything froze.

Vlad’s eyes widened in horror.

A tremor ran through his body as an expression of pure, unfiltered hatred—unlike anything the others had ever seen—twisted his features.

"YOU DARE!"

The roar shook reality itself.

A pillar of crimson wrath erupted from Vlad’s body, surging skyward with such force that it pierced through the clouds and stabbed into the void beyond. The Xaos Tower trembled violently beneath their feet. Yet in the very next instant, all that power collapsed inward, compressed to a terrifying density.

Vlad turned sharply toward Jormungandr, Ouroboros, and Fafnir.

The trio felt an irresistible force seize them. They did not hesitate—not even for a fraction of a second—as they fused with the True Depravita of Wrath.

"BOOM!"

A shockwave of life and soul force exploded outward.

Vlad’s power surged, but more importantly, his dominion over the Law of Life reached an unprecedented height.

Without speaking, he placed his hand over Freya’s abdomen.

Before the True Depravita of Lust could even understand what was happening, Vlad transformed into a beam of radiant life-force and soul essence, flashing directly into her body.

"Vlad—!" Freya cried, fear gripping her heart.

She could feel it—something profound was happening to her child. To her children. Panic threatened to overwhelm her, but she could do nothing.

The next instant, Overlord appeared before her, placing a hand atop her head. Golden lightning poured from his palm, flooding her body with stabilizing divine energy.

"Do not move," Overlord said calmly. "I am reinforcing every layer of your existence. Your safety is the highest priority."

Freya swallowed and nodded, forcing herself to stay still.

Inside her body, a dimension had been forged.

It resembled a womb—but one designed to nurture life that defied every known paradigm. A realm of shimmering starlight stretched outward, radiant and serene. At its center floated two tiny, flaming spheres.

Twins.

They were at the earliest stage of genesis—without ego, without consciousness—simply drifting around one another, as though playing.

Then—

A golden light approached.

It radiated divine authority, vast and overwhelming. The two spheres trembled instinctively, dread rippling through their nascent essence. The light advanced, revealing a figure at its core.

A woman.

Her beauty was beyond mortal comprehension, her form sculpted to perfection. A white robe draped her body, and six massive wings unfurled from her back. Her eyes glowed sharply as they locked onto the twin spheres.

A slow, twisted smile spread across her lips.

"Perfect," she whispered. "Just as planned. I arrived at the beginning of their genesis... and there are two."

Her gaze burned with obsession.

"They will become perfect vessels."

Golden radiance surged forward—her soul attempting to drown the twins.

But— 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

She froze.

A sensation of hatred so vast, so absolute, crushed down upon her existence.

"Impossible!" she hissed. "How could he detect me!?"

Before she could react, space folded.

Vlad appeared.

He manifested beside the twin spheres in an instant, his presence radiating wrath, life, and absolute dominion. Unlike their reaction to the divine light, the twins drifted toward him eagerly, nestling within his embrace.

They had no thoughts.

No minds.

Yet they knew.

He was their origin.

The True Depravita of Wrath gazed upon the twin spheres of primordial essence with a smile that held no trace of cruelty—only boundless love and instinctive protectiveness. His presence wrapped around them like a shield, his soul resonating gently with their nascent existence. They drifted closer, responding to him without thought or will, guided purely by origin and bond.

Then Vlad raised his gaze.

The warmth vanished.

What emerged in his eyes was a killing intent so absolute it could have frozen Demon Lords and Archdevils alike in sheer, instinctual terror. Had he arrived even a moment later, the woman before him would have succeeded.

She would have hollowed out the souls of his unborn children, erasing them completely, leaving behind nothing but pristine, empty vessels—perfect containers for her own corrupted divinity.

The mere thought made the hatred in Vlad’s heart surge violently. It burned so fiercely that it threatened to suffocate him, crushing against his soul like a collapsing star.

"I had wondered," Vlad said slowly, his voice stripped of warmth, each word carrying glacial finality, "why Heaven did not move against me, while Demons and Devils did."

He took a step forward within the dimensional womb, the starlit space trembling in response.

"It turns out you chose a different path."

The Archangel stared at him. For the briefest instant, true fear pierced her composure—raw, instinctive horror at the abyssal fury coiled before her. But centuries of discipline asserted themselves. Her expression smoothed, and a cold, confident smile curved her lips.

"So you noticed," she replied evenly. "But what of it? If we fight now, they will die. Your children cannot endure the shock of our clash."

Her eyes flicked pointedly toward the twin spheres.

"The only rational choice you have is to let me go—unless you wish to be the cause of their deaths."

Vlad stared at her in silence.

Her words were not empty threats. A direct confrontation between beings of their level would tear the dimension apart. The twins were still fragile, barely anchored to existence. Even a single uncontrolled fluctuation of power could erase them.

For a heartbeat, the Archangel believed she had won.

Then—

A massive hydra head manifested from Vlad’s chest, spectral and radiant, its maw opening wide. Before the Archangel could react, it engulfed the twin spheres entirely, swallowing them into a deeper, sealed layer of Vlad’s soul.

The space trembled as the Law of Life realigned itself around him.

"Now," Vlad said calmly, his voice devoid of restraint, "there is nothing stopping me."

His energy detonated.

Though Vlad retained a humanoid form, what existed within the dimension was not flesh, but his soul—unbound, absolute. Physical attacks held no meaning here. Instead, he unleashed every ounce of hatred, fury, and paternal wrath he possessed, transmuting it into a psychic inferno.

Crimson-black flames erupted outward, flooding the entire dimension in an instant.

"ARGHHHHHHH—!"

The Archangel screamed as the flames scorched her very essence. The divine radiance surrounding her began to blacken, fracture, and peel away as her soul burned.

"You heartless bastard!" she shrieked through the agony. "Are you willing to burn your partner from the inside out?!"

Her words were a desperate attempt to fracture his focus—to destabilize the dimension itself.

But Vlad did not falter.

Despite the chaos, the womb-dimension remained intact, reinforced beyond reason. Overlord’s safeguards and Vlad’s authority over Life held firm.

The Archangel’s screams grew harsher as more of her golden radiance was devoured by the flames. This was not energy being consumed.

This was her soul.

Bit by bit.

Layer by layer.

Yet she was no mere celestial pawn.

Through sheer will, she clenched her teeth and forced her shattered focus back together. Her presence wavered violently, but she gathered what remained of her power into a single, desperate act.

Vlad’s eyes hardened as he intensified the psychic flames, driving them deeper, pushing toward the core of her existence—

And then—

She vanished.

The flames roared through empty space.

The Archangel’s presence was gone—no resistance, no echo, no trace of divinity left behind.