“Grumz is out there already?! Damn it!”

In the vast imperial palace of the Amenkha Empire, the current emperor could not help but curse in anger upon hearing the news that the Monster Emperor had acted without authorization.

Perhaps due to the increasingly obvious internal conflict among the five overlord-level monster kings within him, Grumz had been disobeying orders more and more frequently in recent years.

There were indeed very few beings in the entire Amenkha Empire who dared to challenge the emperor’s authority.

After all, even the high-ranking Pharaohs of the Pharaohs’ Temple maintained outward obedience to the current Amenkha Emperor in the vast majority of cases.

Many of them even possessed royal bloodlines themselves, such as the First Pharaoh.

“Deploy the imperial legions immediately to reinforce that fool! I can guarantee it doesn’t stand a chance against Dyrska!” the Amenkha Emperor roared at his subjects.

None of the Amenkha Emperors in history had ever been benevolent rulers. On the contrary, every one of them had been a tyrant obsessed with slaughter.

Upon receiving the emperor’s orders, the Amenkha Empire’s frontline legions swiftly advanced toward the overlord-level battlefield where Dyrska and the Monster Emperor were engaged.

Unfortunately, due to the exceptionally high life levels of both combatants, even a typical Rank Seven overlord would be reluctant to get drawn into a clash of that caliber.

Consequently, the large-scale maneuvers of the lower-tier legions could only serve to restrict the movements of the Luminara Civilization’s lower and mid-tier legions. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

To intervene in an overlord-level battle, one would need a powerhouse of sufficient stature.

Meanwhile, in the Pharaohs’ Temple...

Upon hearing that the Grumz had acted, the Second Pharaoh, Sathograel Mokorn, fell into a long silence.

He was not actually worried that anything would happen to Grumz. Dyrska might be able to defeat Grumz, but he certainly could not kill it easily.

In fact, the Second Pharaoh was not even particularly concerned about the Luminara Civilization’s frequent activities in recent times.

The reason the Amenkha Empire had not used its full national might to annihilate the Luminara Civilization over the past hundred thousand years was not that it was incapable of doing so, but that it was unwilling to bear the losses that would come with its destruction.

Slowly boiling the frog was the best strategy.

If the Luminara Civilization were pushed to the brink, Dyrska—their strongest warrior—would be capable of forcing the Second or Third Pharaoh into the conflict, or disrupting the First Pharaoh’s path to ascension. This was something the Amenkha Empire could not accept.

Moreover, lumen elemental beings inherently held a natural advantage over umbra elemental and necromantic beings.

It would be far better to wait until the First Pharaoh successfully ascended, and then sweep away the surrounding star domain civilizations with overwhelming force.

What the Second Pharaoh was silently pondering at that moment was something else entirely...

The path of fate was, indeed, difficult to trace.

He felt as though he had just glimpsed the threads of fate, only for them to slip through his fingers in the next instant.

“After launching a retaliatory strike against the Magus Civilization, why has the heaviness in my heart not eased, but instead grown even stronger? Was it a mistake to send Neyathia and Aforgomon into battle...?”

The Second Pharaoh stood outside the golden gates of the Pharaohs’ Temple, gazing into the starry cosmos, hoping to catch some fragment of clarity.

Yet, though the night sky stretched vast and brilliant, to him it was nothing more than a sea of murky chaos.

That sight not only made his flesh and skin feel as though they were slowly withering, but also pressed heavily on his heart.

In his hands, the Sacred Scriptures of Amenkha began to radiate a blinding white light.

As the beam pierced the starry sky and shot into the unknown depths of the cosmos, the Second Pharaoh ordered in a solemn voice, “Return at once if you have completed your mission. The Luminara Civilization has already made its move—our primary target remains the Luminarians.”

The moment he finished speaking, the white beam cutting through the sky flickered in response.

As a civilizational treasure, the true value of the Sacred Scriptures of Amenkha lay in its functionality.

Beyond enhancing the Second Pharaoh’s prophetic abilities, it also allowed for long-distance coordinate linkage with Pharaohs deployed across the Magus Civilization’s war-torn star domains.

The first to respond to his summons were the three Amenkha Empire overlords currently locked in a fierce battle with the Shadow King, a Magus Alliance overlord.

They had completed their objectives within the allotted time and were already beginning the teleportation process.

However, beyond this battlefield, unexpected incidents had already occurred across the other three assassination fronts led by the Amenkha Empire.

***

The vast distances of space inevitably introduced a time delay. Master Ernstein of the Magus Civilization had already confirmed this.

Even with the support of the Sacred Scriptures of Amenkha, it would still take at least a decade for the Pharaohs to fully withdraw from the Magus Civilization’s star domain and return to the Amenkha Empire.

During this time, the Luminara Civilization would have more than enough opportunity to make its move.

Moreover, this “seamless coordination” with the Magus Civilization in this operation would lay the groundwork for future cooperation between the two sides.

***

The battlefield where Rogge and his companions were fighting had already stretched into nearly thirty years of brutal, grinding war.

By now, both the Pharaoh and the Amenkha general were reaching the limits of their burst phases.

Of the two overlord-level monster kings, one was already severely wounded.

Most of those injuries had been inflicted by Roland and the White Jade Skeleton.

The general, despite being a late-stage Rank Seven, was no match for Roland, a peak Rank Seven knight.

Suppressing an opponent of that level while still having enough strength left to strike a monster king was exactly what the Byrne Empire’s top knight was capable of!

On top of that, the White Jade Skeleton had shown unexpectedly terrifying combat power—something the Amenkha Empire had clearly not accounted for.

As the faint pulling force of the Sacred Scriptures of Amenkha finally reached them, the Pharaoh could already tell the mission had failed, and it was time to withdraw.

The Amenkha Empire had never intended to launch a full cross-star-domain war against the Magus Civilization. That had never aligned with their interests.

A swift retreat after a single failed strike had been the plan from the very beginning.

What made it especially hard for the Rank Seven Pharaoh to accept was that even after unleashing his peak burst power, he still could not defeat the plump man standing before him.

If both sides had been ordinary peak Rank Seven combatants, this would not have happened.

But it was clear now that Rogge had already stepped onto the path toward Rank Eight. That was the real reason the peak Rank Seven Pharaoh was leaving empty-handed.

The gap between two peak Rank Seven fighters could be enormous—especially when one showed no sign of reaching the next realm anytime soon.

In contrast, Rogge was already able to push his mana beyond normal limits, landing strikes that should not have been possible at his current rank.

“Damn it!”

Another precise, vicious necromantic spell slammed into the Seventh Pharaoh’s cheek once again.

The peak Rank Seven Pharaoh, who had once boasted before the battle that he would flay Rogge alive, now looked nothing short of a clown.

Meanwhile, through constant combat and completely unrestrained spellcasting, Rogge was steadily learning to manipulate the power of laws and use his mana more efficiently.