Beyond the Apocalypse-Chapter 990: The Dark Land

Overlord and the True Depravitas all nodded in solemn agreement. The unspoken truth hung heavy in the air—if they kept reacting, eventually they would be too slow.

Next time, millions, perhaps billions of lives would be lost.

If the Xaos Kingdom truly wanted to end this endless cycle of retaliation, they needed to bring the war to their enemies’ doorstep. They would make their homes the battlefield, their skies the inferno, and their people the collateral. Only then would the universe understand that the Kingdom of Xaos no longer waited for death—it delivered it.

"Our first target should be the homeworld of the Vorometallicae Race."

The voice belonged to Overlord, calm but razor-sharp. The others turned toward him instantly, their eyes narrowing with focus. Vlad’s gaze locked on the A.I. Clone, waiting to hear the logic behind the statement.

"While the animosity against us was instigated by Antorus," Overlord continued, "Valhalla is still regarded across the higher planes as a Land of the Light. If we strike directly at it, the other civilizations aligned with the Light could claim we’ve attacked one of their own. That would give them a perfect excuse to form new alliances under the pretext of ’righteous retribution’—alliances that Antorus could easily manipulate."

The room fell silent. The True Depravitas exchanged grim looks before nodding.

Overlord was right.

The Xaos Kingdom had grown powerful—but, more importantly in the eyes of the universe, wealthy. Its technology, its artifacts, its forges, all of it was valuable beyond measure.

There were countless powers across the stars who would gladly march to war, cloaking their greed in the banner of justice.

And while Valhalla was already irreversibly corrupted, allied with abominations from the Alien Power and the metallic lords of the Vorometallicae, there was still no tangible evidence of that corruption.

Everything the Xaos Kingdom had gathered so far—whispers, intercepted signals, fragmented soul-memories—was circumstantial. To the wider universe, Valhalla was still holy ground.

If the Xaos Kingdom attacked it first, the universe would side against them.

But the Vorometallicae were a different story.

No civilization from the Light would dare defend a force of the Darkness, and any power that tried would risk being branded a traitor to the cosmic balance.

That made them the perfect target.

Vlad nodded slowly, a dangerous light igniting in his eyes.

"A surgical strike against the Vorometallicae... Yes. If we eliminate them, Valhalla’s strength will collapse. Antorus will lose his most valuable ally, and the Alien Power behind him will be left exposed."

"Our entry point should be through the Doomsday Worlds," Overlord continued. "The Graecia Empire isn’t the only one fighting the Vorometallicae across those planes. My calculations show their forces are currently spread across at least five Doomsday Worlds." 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Jormungandr tilted his head, his feline eyes glowing with might.

"So, we strike them on every front."

"Exactly," Overlord replied. "If we reinforce the armies of Light already battling them—subtly, from the shadows—and help those worlds fall completely under our allies’ control, we can create a direct bridge into the Chaovoratities Plane, the metallic homeworld. With enough coordination, we’ll gain both the momentum and the allies needed for a full invasion."

Small smiles appeared among the Depravitas. The plan was brilliant.

The Xaos Kingdom was powerful, yes—but even with all their strength, they couldn’t storm the Vorometallicae homeworld alone. The Chaovoratities Plane was a fortress-world of living metal, its mountains made of divine alloys, its atmosphere dense with liquid plasma. To conquer it, they needed others.

And Overlord had found the perfect motivation for the other high civilizations to join in the invasion.

Fear and greed.

The Vorometallicae were a universal threat—few civilizations hadn’t lost fleets or heroes to their endless expansion. And beyond that, the Chaovoratities Plane was a treasure world beyond imagination. Its mines were rivers of rare metals, its cities forged from enchanted alloys that could birth weapons rivaling the gods themselves.

For most of the universe, such wealth was temptation beyond reason, and if they were presented with a force that could perform the invasion and had a high chance of success, the high civilization would jump at the opportunity.

Vlad turned to his comrades, his expression cold but resolute.

"I’ll remain on Terra to guard it. You five will take ten thousand Tiamathos Units and one hundred Legendary Demon Soul Hunters. Divide them between the Land of the Three Calamities and the other four Doomsday Worlds. For now, we move in darkness. The Vorometallicae cannot learn of our presence until it’s too late."

The Depravitas all nodded in agreement.

They could, of course, fuse into Vlad’s ultimate form and sweep across entire worlds like a storm, purging each battlefield in mere months. But that would violate the unspoken law of the cosmos—the rule that Doomsday Worlds must not become arenas for Lord-tier warfare.

Such conflicts would unravel the fabric of those planes, draining their life force until nothing remained but dust and void. Both the Light and the Dark depended on those worlds as controlled battlegrounds.

Of course, if the Vorometallicae realized they were losing everything, they would break that rule and send their Lords. But by then, Vlad and the others would be ready.

Overlord continued outlining the finer details—supply lines, dimensional anchor points, contingency plans—until every piece was set perfectly in place.

By the time the meeting ended, a massive force had already begun to gather around the Xaos Tower.

The top five hundred Legendary Demon Soul Masters assembled first, splitting into five divisions. Behind each division stood towering ranks of Reapers—the new generation of bioweapons, far stronger than the ones that had once fought in Exilon.

Among the ten thousand Reapers following each battlation, nine thousand were Sages, nine hundred were Half-Step Legends, and three hundred were fully-fledged Legendary Reapers, each capable of annihilating an army on their own.

The biomass required to forge the new army represented everything the Xaos Kingdom had accumulated over decades of conquest.

The remnants of countless wars, the trophies of invasions into the Abyss, and the bodies of the massive Devil Army that had dared to invade Terra—all of it had been gathered, broken down, purified, and reshaped into this singular legion.

It was the culmination of their evolution: fifty thousand living weapons, each bound to the will of Xaos.

Yet this power came with a cost.

Vlad knew better than anyone that such forces could not be used recklessly. They were not pawns to throw away—they were the last great card the Xaos Kingdom could afford to play. Every movement from this point forward had to be executed with surgical precision. There would be no second chance.

The campaign to dominate the Doomsday Worlds was only the beginning. The true war—the invasion of the Vorometallicae homeworld—still lay ahead, a nightmare that would demand every ounce of their strength.

They had to preserve their might for that inevitable storm.

The air around the Xaos Tower vibrated with controlled energy. Massive teleportation arrays flared to life, lines of black light running like molten rivers across the stone. The sky darkened, folding inward as space itself twisted under the power being unleashed.

One by one, the True Depravitas led their divisions into the gates. Each formation vanished in a burst of shifting color, leaving behind faint echoes of dimensional thunder.

Finally, it was Vlad’s turn.

He stood alone at the edge of the platform. His voice was calm, but beneath it pulsed the weight of command.

"Commence jump."

A pulse of energy raced through the formation.

The world fractured into light.

In the next heartbeat, Vlad and his army were gone.

They moved across an impossible distance—millions of light years compressed into a single breath. To mortal minds, such travel would have shredded both soul and sanity, but the Xaos soldiers were no longer bound by mortal flesh.

To them, the jump felt like an eternity and an instant all at once.

When the light faded, the world they arrived in struck them like a physical blow.

Even the hardened warriors of Xaos staggered, nausea and vertigo washing over them as the warped gravitational field tried to crush their consciousness. The air was heavy with metallic dust, every breath tasting faintly of ozone and blood.

Vlad, however, stood firm.

His body had long surpassed legendary limitations. While his energy pool still resonated within the Legendary Realm, his physical vessel was that of a Lord—capable of enduring dimensional recoil and planetary pressure with ease.

He spread his consciousness through the surrounding region, his mind unfolding. Every pulse of life, every vibration of energy, every sound carried through the wind was mapped in an instant.

Only when he was certain there were no sentient presences nearby did he release his focus.

"Well done, Overlord," he murmured, feeling the faint hum of the teleportation signature fade. "You placed us perfectly—deep within an uninhabited sector."

The landscape around them was breathtaking in its alien beauty.

Above stretched a dark sun, a sphere of obsidian fire that radiated white light instead of gold. Its glow was cold and sterile, bathing the world in shades of silver and violet. The sky rippled with ribbons of energy—streams of pale luminescence twisting like the veins of a dying god.