Chapter 179: Chapter179-The Dying King and the Secret Beyond the World

John rapidly made his way toward the forbidden zone.

The closer he drew, the darker his surroundings became.

The forbidden zone formed a stark contrast with the bright desert outside. The sun-baked sands beyond were dazzling beneath the blazing light, yet this place seemed to devour every ray that approached it. It was as though the moment one stepped within its boundaries, one would be swallowed whole by darkness.

...

With a single step, John flashed into the blackened forbidden zone.

The instant he entered, a strange sensation wrapped around his entire body. It was cold, unsettling, and indescribably unnatural, as though the laws governing this place were somehow different from those of the outside world.

"As expected, there’s definitely something wrong with this place."

John’s eyes narrowed.

On the ground not far ahead, he spotted a brooch.

It was no ordinary ornament. The emblem engraved upon it belonged exclusively to the royal family of the Eaglecrest Empire.

It seemed this had been left behind by the missing king.

Without hesitation, John continued deeper into the forbidden zone.

However, after advancing only a few hundred steps, he suddenly heard the sounds of battle from somewhere ahead. From time to time, the ground beneath his feet trembled violently, as though some tremendous force was slamming into the earth again and again.

John immediately increased his speed.

After several rapid flashes, he arrived within a range of steep, shadowy mountains.

The sounds of combat were coming from a valley below.

The moment John saw what was happening inside the valley, he froze.

Two figures were locked in a desperate battle.

One of them was none other than the king who had vanished many days ago.

The other was a humanoid creature whose entire body was shrouded in surging black mist. The darkness pouring from it seemed almost alive, twisting and writhing around its limbs like countless poisonous serpents.

John instantly cast Detection on it.

A status panel appeared before his eyes.

[Outerworld Creatures]

[Level]: ???

[HP]: ???

[Attack]: ???

[Defense]: ???

[Skills]: ???

[Introduction]: Creatures that do not belong to this world. They entered this place through the gaps between worlds. They possess overwhelming destructive power and extreme hostility toward every living being in this world.

Warning: Never attempt to communicate with these creatures. Otherwise, the consequences will be unimaginable!

"Hm?"

John’s expression changed slightly.

"Another creature that even Detection can’t inspect?"

"And this thing actually comes from beyond the world..."

"In other words, apart from the world of Apocalypse, there are other worlds in this game?"

As John stared at the information displayed before him, his heart trembled.

For a moment, even the matter of the territory no longer seemed important.

He had the distinct feeling that he had just uncovered something extraordinary—something far greater and far more terrifying than anything he had encountered before.

At that exact moment, the king suddenly launched an attack, intending to kill the Outerworld Creature in a single blow.

Unfortunately, he had overlooked one crucial fact.

The skills and mechanisms of these Outerworld Creatures were completely different from those of the beings native to this world.

The king’s full-strength attack descended with earth-shaking power, yet it failed to reduce even the slightest trace of the creature’s HP.

The king’s expression changed drastically. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The Outerworld Creature immediately seized the opportunity. Its black mist surged violently as it lunged toward him, prepared to deliver a fatal counterattack.

But just as the king was about to be struck, a cold flash of light suddenly tore through the darkness.

[-18.28 million!]

A horrifying burst of damage exploded above the Outerworld Creature’s head.

The devastating strike instantly mangled most of its body, leaving it terribly wounded.

Yet even after suffering such a monstrous blow, it still did not die.

With a savage roar, the half-destroyed Outerworld Creature forced its mutilated body forward and thrust its fist straight into the king’s torso.

The king violently spat out a mouthful of blood.

His face instantly turned deathly pale.

Seeing this, fury erupted in John’s heart.

Without the slightest hesitation, he struck again, delivering a final slash.

[-13.56 million!]

After taking two such terrifying attacks in succession, even an Outerworld Creature could no longer withstand the damage.

Its body collapsed heavily onto the ground.

The black mist surrounding it flickered violently before dispersing into nothingness.

A system notification immediately rang in John’s ears.

[You have killed an Outerworld Creature. You have gained 1 billion EXP, 2 million gold coins, and 40 million Fame!]

With that notification, the Outerworld Creature finally died completely at John’s hands.

However, something puzzled him.

This time, he had not obtained any skills or equipment from the slain creature.

This was the first time such a situation had ever occurred.

"Looks like these Outerworld Creatures really are different."

John’s heart tightened slightly.

He quickly shifted his gaze toward the king nearby.

At this moment, the king’s condition was horrifyingly poor.

His face was as pale as paper, without the slightest trace of blood. Even worse, a vicious, gaping hole had appeared in the middle of his chest. Blood continuously poured from the wound, and black strands of corrosive energy were spreading outward from it.

He was clearly on the verge of death.

John immediately stretched out a hand, intending to use his priest skills to heal the king.

However, the king weakly raised one hand and stopped him.

"There is no need to save me," he said in a faint voice. "I am already beyond saving."

He gave a bitter smile.

Immediately afterward, he suddenly coughed up a mouthful of pitch-black blood.

"The attacks of the Outerworld Creatures carry a continuous corrosive force. Before long, the curse energy they left inside me will melt my entire body into a puddle of black blood."

His breathing grew even weaker.

"This condition cannot be reversed. Even if a god personally descended, such an injury could not be healed."

John was completely baffled by what he was hearing.

Just what kind of creatures were these Outerworld Creatures?

They were so terrifying that even the gods of the Apocalypse world were helpless against the wounds they inflicted?

Could it be that the world of Apocalypse was merely an inferior plane compared to the worlds beyond it?

The instant that thought crossed John’s mind, his scalp went numb.

At the same time, a powerful curiosity arose within him regarding the other worlds outside Apocalypse.

"May I ask what exactly these Outerworld Creatures are?" John asked solemnly. "And why did you suddenly leave the Eaglecrest Empire and come here?"

The king coughed out several more mouthfuls of blood before answering in a quiet voice.

"Once every thousand years, a group of Outerworld Creatures attempts to invade through one of the world’s extreme boundaries."

"Last time, they came from the Far West."

"This time, it was the Far East’s turn."

John listened in silence.

The king continued, his voice growing increasingly strained.

"Whenever this happens, every generation’s king must lead a group of members from Valhalla to the location where these creatures appear and intercept them before they can truly enter our world."

"The previous interception was extremely successful. Not a single Outerworld Creature was allowed to break through."

At this point, a sorrowful look surfaced on the king’s face.

"But that victory also forced the king of that generation to pay an unimaginable price."

"Every single member of Valhalla who participated in the battle was killed."

"The king himself suffered severe injuries. After returning, he eventually succumbed to them and died."

His eyes became distant, as though he were remembering events from long ago.

"It was only then that I inherited his place in Valhalla... as well as the throne."

John’s heart sank.

So that was how it was.

The king had not simply vanished without reason. Nor had he abandoned the empire out of irresponsibility.

He had come here to fight against an invasion that ordinary people did not even know existed.

The king continued slowly, "But this time, without the assistance of Valhalla, it was impossible for me to fight these Outerworld Creatures head-on."

"So, I chose to gamble once using the fortune of the empire."

As he spoke, a guilty smile appeared on his face.

"After I took away the kingdom’s fortune, quite a number of disasters must have occurred, correct?"

"Since you, Brave One, were able to appear here, I assume you resolved all of them."

Hearing this, John suddenly understood.

No wonder such a catastrophic event as the invasion of the demon den had occurred immediately after the king’s disappearance.

It turned out that the empire’s fortune had been taken away by the king.

Without that invisible protection, disasters had naturally descended upon the Eaglecrest Empire one after another.

The king’s complexion grew even worse.

His voice became so quiet that it almost sounded like a whisper.

"Unfortunately, it seems I overestimated my own strength."

"In the end, I still could not defeat their leader."

"If you had not arrived at the final moment, this creature’s leader might have escaped from here because of my failure."

"And once it entered the outside world, countless innocent lives would have been dragged into this disaster."

John’s heart trembled after hearing those words.

He never imagined that such a terrifying secret could be hidden beneath the surface of this world.

Once every thousand years, an invasion from beyond the world would occur.

And every time it happened, the fate of the entire world rested upon whether someone could successfully block those creatures from entering.

At that moment, a thought suddenly flashed through John’s mind.

He immediately asked, "Wait. If there was ever an invasion that no one managed to stop, would it lead to a world-destroying catastrophe?"

After all, this world had already existed for countless ages.

Surely it was impossible for it to have successfully withstood every single invasion without fail.

When the king heard the question, he gave a weak, bitter laugh.

"Heh... In history, there were indeed occasions when the invasion could not be stopped."

"However, all historical records concerning those eras have already disappeared."

"We can only infer just how tragic those events must have been from the civilizations that arose afterward."

The king’s tone became incomparably grave.

"Once an invasion cannot be stopped, every living species in this world will gradually be replaced by the foreign species."

"And in the end..."

"This entire world will be completely colonized by an outerworld civilization."

John’s expression turned solemn.

He had never imagined that the world of Apocalypse concealed such a horrifying secret.

Beyond the lands he knew, beyond kingdoms, empires, gods, and monsters, there existed civilizations from other worlds—civilizations capable of invading, corrupting, replacing, and ultimately conquering this entire world.

And the creature he had just killed...

Might only have been the very beginning.