Chapter 132: The Eclipse Above the Ruined Capital

Unfortunately for all of them, there seemed to be no end to the purple flames.

They slowly burned across the ground, freezing the shattered stones as they spread like a crawling shadow, creeping through cracks, broken walls, and pools of blood left behind by the slaughter.

Soon, the flames engulfed a wide part of the ruined capital, and wherever they bloomed, dead warriors began to rise once more. Henry was no longer holding back. He had summoned an entire army of dead wind dragons, dragging them from the ruins as if the capital itself had become his graveyard.

Max’s lips parted, but no words came out.

His eyes trembled at the sight of the figure standing beside Oswald. It was the half-rotten corpse of the previous Wind Emperor, the very man Max had slain during his kidnapping rampage.

The corpse’s skin hung in torn patches, his old imperial robes were stained black with dead blood, and purple flames burned inside the hollow spaces where life should have been.

Behind him stood someone else. A man with large, ancient bones and no flesh at all, only a sword embedded deep into his chest, stuck between his ribs as if someone had once killed him and left the blade there as a warning.

His eyes burned purple.

So did the eyes of the countless skeletons standing behind him, all of them carrying the same ancient aura.

"Can I win?" Max muttered to himself, his eyes shifting toward the armies behind him. "Two progenitor dragons and an army of undead warriors... this power is too strong..."

For a second, Max’s confidence faltered for the first time.

The thunderous, hollow roars of the progenitor dragons pulled him out of his stupor, forcing him to lift his chin and face their empty eyes. The Wind Progenitor’s hollow sockets burned green, while the Ice Progenitor’s burned purple, and the pressure flowing from both of them pushed against his chest like two ancient mountains trying to crush him where he stood.

"Afraid, aren’t you?" Henry saw the hesitation in Max’s eyes and immediately assumed he had already won.

Behind Max, the devastated warriors were already counting their last seconds, their faces pale beneath the weight of the bloodline suppression, as if even with Max standing before them, death had already wrapped its fingers around their throats.

Max did not answer.

The void blade in his hand vibrated gently as he tightened his grip around it, black mist curling along its edge like smoke from a wound.

Then Henry’s eyes drifted toward the remaining living members of the ice dragon clan.

"Marcus, will you lead our people back to me?" Henry asked, his smile twisting even more strangely, as if he was already imagining how Max’s expression would change once his own people betrayed him. "I’ll give all of you a choice. Follow me. Switch sides. Then I shall spare every single one of you. What do you say? For old times’ sake?"

The ice warriors looked at Henry, but their eyes held no hope.

"Rot in hell, you monster..." Marcus spat on the ground, his claws sharpening as purple ice flames began to burn around him with brilliant light. "We follow our king, the man who gave us hope, the man who took us from a small village to a kingdom, and soon, into an empire. Even if I must lay down my life today, I shall not submit, nor will I allow any of my people to submit!" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

His roar shook not only the ice dragons, but also the other clans. One by one, the warriors began to stand straighter, even under the immense bloodline suppression flowing from the two progenitor dragons. Fire dragons clenched their burning fists. Thunder dragons lifted their weapons. Wind dragons, whose hearts had been crushed by the sight of their own dead, raised their heads again as if Marcus had struck a spark through the despair choking them.

"Long live King Maximus! Long live Voidstar!"

Marcus was the first to chant it.

Then, one after another, the people beside him and behind him joined in. The chant spread through the battlefield, quiet at first, then louder, rougher, stronger, until it no longer sounded like fear trying to survive but loyalty forcing itself to burn brighter than death. Even those who had only recently begun following Max were ready to lay down their lives for him, because in that moment, they did not see only a conqueror.

They saw the man who had given them a future.

Henry’s face dropped immediately, twisting into a disgusting sour expression as anger flashed through his dead eyes.

Max’s broad back shuddered.

A feeling like electricity ran down his spine, shaking him from the inside. Hearing those chants awakened something in him. The eyes that had been confused and uncertain a moment ago began to burn with a fire so hot it made his blood boil.

"No... I can’t run..." Max muttered, his voice low at first, then growing louder with each word. "I can’t give up. Even if I die... I must win. I must let them all live. I must win for them..."

Void magic began twisting around him, warping the air itself. Black mist seeped from the corners of his lips, and the darkness around his armor thickened until his entire body looked like it had been carved from the night.

He took one step forward, cracking the ground beneath him.

Then he vanished.

In the next second, Max was already above the Wind Progenitor Dragon, his black claws wrapped in dense black mist as it circled around his clenched fist. The skeletal dragon immediately felt his aura and raised its head, releasing a hollow roar that shook the broken capital. Green winds spun inside its empty throat, gathering with terrifying pressure before shooting from its mouth in a violent blast that sent cutting winds tearing in every direction.

Max punched the air.

A wave of void magic erupted from his fist and crashed into the incoming breath, black-violet darkness meeting ancient green wind above the battlefield. The ground and sky shook as the two forces collided, ripping clouds apart overhead while shattered stones rose from below, suspended for a breath between two powers that refused to yield.

The green winds exploded, but the black wave of void magic raged on, tearing through the storm before crashing against the giant skeletal dragon. Its ancient bones creaked beneath the pressure, the terrifying force behind Max’s attack driving through its hollow chest and sending the massive creature flying backward until it collided with the Ice Progenitor Dragon.

Two hollow roars of pain shook the air.

The sound rolled over the ruined capital like mountains crying out beneath the weight of their own graves, but Max had no intention of allowing them to recover. His wings spread wide, his void blade rising in his hand as black mist wrapped around its edge and sharpened into something that looked capable of cutting through the night itself.

Henry did not remain still either.

The moment Max gathered power into his blade, Henry raised his right hand and sent waves of purple flames into the two skeletal dragons. The golden snowflake mark beneath his skin pulsed brighter, its twisted lines burning like demonic veins as the flames rushed into the progenitors’ bones. Their empty eye sockets ignited even brighter, green and purple light swelling inside their skulls as the pressure coming from their bodies surged once more.

The undead army behind them also began to move.

Ghouls, skeletons, and half-rotten wind dragons raised their arms, their broken bodies shaking as they channeled whatever cursed magic remained inside them. The air and ground trembled from the sheer amount of mana being forced together, and then waves of wind and ice magic shot toward Max from every direction. At the same time, the two progenitor dragons turned their skulls toward him, their jaws opening wide as terrifying beams of green wind and purple ice flames gathered in their throats.

The sky dimmed.

Voidstar’s army watched as a single man faced an entire army of undead ghouls and two skeletal progenitor dragons, standing alone in the darkness with only one blade in his hand. Yet that blade burned brighter than the sun despite being wrapped in black, its light devoured and reborn inside the void. For a moment, it looked like an eclipse had formed above the ruined capital, with Max at its center, his presence alone feeling like a falling star crashing into the world.

"Star..." someone in the army muttered, their voice barely carrying through the pressure. "Voidstar... that really suits our king..."

Max swung his blade down.

The battlefield erupted beneath his blade.

A devastating explosion swallowed everything, sending warriors flying in every direction as sharp winds tore across their faces and forced their legs to buckle beneath them

All light vanished from the world.

And in that darkness, the fate of their king was left for Max alone to decide.