Titan King: Ascension of the Giant Chapter 1528 Forged to Serve

Butterfly Mother Sophia, as Lilith's devoted personal aide, held access to vast classified secrets. She knew all too well that Orion and Lilith had secretly maneuvered to assign Kaelen the mission of wiping out the feral swarms. Their hidden aim was to grant him a prime chance to boost his standing in the Horde while the three elder giant princes remained absent.

Yet right there, he dared to slack off.

"Go. The battlefield is your rightful place," Sophia ordered firmly. "She stays with me. I'll hand her back when I decide the moment has come."

Her command carried unyielding finality, leaving no room for rebuttal. In that brief instant, Butterfly Mother Sophia unveiled a trace of the same fearsome, commanding aura she once unleashed when she boldly seized Orion for herself.

Kaelen's face flushed with intense humiliation. Without even a last look at Melissa, he whirled around and stormed from the tent, making directly for the army camp.

The wild clamor of thundering hooves and bellowing creatures erupted outside soon after. Only once Kaelen had guided his forces beyond the city of Sophia did her steady voice shatter the tent's thick silence.

"In your current state, you lack the worth to become Kaelen's wife," Sophia declared bluntly. "You don't even qualify as his aide."

Sophia understood perfectly that the Stoneheart Horde overflowed with broodmothers. If they hadn't, such an egg would never have appeared at a public auction. What the Horde truly craved were sharp-minded, experienced administrators—adaptable geniuses able to oversee an entire empire. Every woman destined for a giant prince needed precisely those skills. The Stoneheart Horde had entered a phase where mere conquests fell short; they required precise governance and expansion of their conquered domains.

"I grasp your ambition. A mighty Insect King inevitably commands the loyalty and surrender of broodmothers," Sophia went on, her voice abruptly gentling, its harshness fading. "You're simply the first, but far from the last. As he rises, broodmothers far more ancient and overwhelmingly stronger than you will rush to join him."

She regarded Melissa with a deeply intricate look—blending admiration and compassion, scorn and true anticipation.

In reality, Melissa and Sophia shared strikingly parallel natures. Melissa's daring choice to bind herself to Kaelen echoed Sophia's aggressive capture of Orion. Sophia spotted in Melissa's risky play a keen mind and unyielding resolve; she was a broodmother with real vision. By keeping her nearby, Sophia aimed to guide and shape her firsthand. Kaelen would surely need such talented aides in time.

"You'll start as a handmaid. Learn the humility of serving tea and water. Any objections?" Posed as a query, her tone made plain that Melissa's thoughts held zero weight.

"None whatsoever. Melissa yields to Mother's decisions," Melissa responded, shaking her head. Her voice held no hint of fury or defiance.

Sophia eyed her briefly, a spark of real approval lighting her gaze. Melissa's willingness to humble herself and call her 'Mother' revealed exceptional emotional savvy. She was truly worth nurturing.

"Then we start immediately," Sophia sighed. "I'm worn out. Ready my bath and fresh attire."

...

Meanwhile, deep in the Nightmare world, inside the second layer of the reality bubbles.

A profoundly strange feeling gripped him. Orion's Death-Soul avatar sensed the bubble around him crash into a vastly larger orb, fusing effortlessly within it.

Once his sight sharpened, an incomprehensible titan towered before him. The being's unimaginable vastness stirred a deep, instinctual awe of utter smallness in Orion's thoughts.

The titan floated amid a starry void, steadily pounding at an unseen target. More accurately, Orion drifted within a pocket realm of absolute nothingness. No firm earth lay below, no starry vault arched overhead—merely boundless, yawning emptiness extending forever.

"Wait," the titan thundered, its voice echoing like clashing continents. It didn't glance up or acknowledge Orion in the least.

Not far from Orion's position, another form lingered—a mute, shadow-shrouded outline, clearly biding its time as well.

BOOM! A thunderous shockwave brutally jerked Orion's focus ahead. In the giant's fist, a enormous semi-translucent hammer had suddenly appeared. The weapon loomed so immensely vast that it eclipsed the entire void, swallowing up Orion's whole view. Each strike unleashed dazzling flares of stellar fire, which flickered out instantly like snuffed candles, leaving no trace whatsoever behind.

Orion pondered, What is he actually hammering? He felt utterly captivated by the massive entity's movements. This place serves as the taboo sanctuary of the Death-Soul Race. It has to be the second trial. Does this challenge evaluate a trial-taker's skill in forging artifacts?

The titan's following moves instantly demolished that notion.

"Your turn," the titan sighed while the final cosmic sparks vanished.

His enormous head swiveled toward the dark silhouette positioned beside Orion. With a palm as large as a mountain, the giant lifted the motionless figure and positioned it firmly atop the unseen anvil he'd been pounding. The shadow showed no opposition whatsoever during the whole ordeal.

Yet what transpired afterward filled Orion with wide-eyed, gaping horror.

The titan lifted both arms, calling forth the gigantic spectral hammer anew. Letting out a booming cry, he hurled the massive tool downward, crushing it ruthlessly onto the shadowed form.

"You mortals are like cosmic dust," the titan thundered, his voice reverberating across the infinite void—likely explaining for the new arrival, Orion. "You gleam on the outside, yet your cores are hollow and fragile. I use the void as my furnace, the stars as my fire, and the supreme will of the ancestors as my hammer to reforge you. Endure three thousand strikes, and you shall pass this trial."

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The unyielding, world-rending blows sent icy shivers coursing through Orion's back. The shadowed figure, stoic up to that point, at last shattered. After withstanding a hundred savage blows, it released a terrifying wail of sheer torment. That cry felt deeply eerie—not resembling a mortal's at all, but echoing like a fiend's howl.

"Wind and thunder, aid me! Shall it be pulverization, obliteration, or rebirth?!" the titan bellowed, completely unmoved by the shadow's intense suffering.

His hammering pace surged wildly, dissolving into a nightmarish blur as he neared the one-thousandth impact.

"A thousand tempers, a thousand strikes—the divine physique takes form!"

This rang as both a grave admonition and a harbinger of strength. Abruptly, the ancient Laws of wind, lightning, and utter destruction swirled around the hammer's colossal head. Enveloped in devastating elemental fury, the weapon crashed onto the fractured shadow.

The tormenting screams halted in a flash. Under the hammer's cataclysmic power, the shadowy form disintegrated entirely, vanished from reality.

"A pity. What a profound pity," the giant murmured with regret.

The freshly destroyed soul was his own blood relative—a prodigiously talented fighter from the Death-Soul Race. Still, within this hallowed forge of trials, compassion and favoritism found no place.

"Your turn," the titan proclaimed. "As you have witnessed, there is no turning back."

The colossal hand stretched forth, looming over Orion. This force proved unavoidable and overwhelming; Orion could only submit to being seized. Precisely like before, his Death-Soul avatar got hauled to the void's core and secured rigidly upon the invisible anvil.

"Wind and thunder, aid me! Shall it be pulverization, obliteration, or rebirth?!"

With a universe-trembling bellow, the titan unleashed the opening strike.