Titan King: Ascension of the Giant Chapter 1529 Forged Beyond Limits

BOOM!

Initially, Orion perceived nothing but a thunderous ringing in his ears, since the enormous hammer hadn't yet connected with his actual body.

Moments afterward, surges of numbness, bloating pressure, and excruciating torment burst from each tentacle across his form, immediately blocking his senses from the outer world.

Down came the gigantic hammer repeatedly. Each blow handled his frame like unrefined metal upon a forge—smashed apart, then brutally squeezed back together. In this savage ordeal, the concealed impurities inside him were ruthlessly expelled, little by little.

While the initial trial centered on crafting outer treasures, this second phase dedicated itself wholly to tempering the body. Survive three thousand blows for rebirth, or die upon the forge.

Orion at last comprehended the fading embers of stellar flames he'd seen upon arrival. Those were the snuffed vital energies of past Death-Soul Race contenders.

CRACK! SNAP!

Horrific noises of fracturing bones and exploding tentacles resounded. Beneath the merciless assault, Orion's Death-Soul avatar was swiftly mashed into a mess of crushed bones and heavy inner bleeding.

But the ordeal was nowhere near finished.

Noticing Orion's stubborn quiet, denying even one cry of pain, the titan quickened his hammering rhythm.

Sharp, metallic chimes echoed in sequence. The noise from the hammer hitting the Death-Soul avatar transformed. Such a clear tone happened solely when ultra-tough surfaces clashed. This signaled that with impurities scorched out, Orion's bodily toughness was surging upward.

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

With a mighty roar, the titan abruptly paused his onslaught. Or rather, he hadn't ceased; power was building within him. The upcoming hit marked the critical milestone: the thousandth blow.

Forces from countless supreme Laws gathered around the vast hammer's face. Slowly it dropped, inch upon inch, bearing an irresistible, world-ending force.

DOOM!

The collision's tone changed completely. As the hammer landed, the Death-Soul avatar stiffened—then shattered apart.

Total and absolute disintegration!

Black-gold powder puffed into a cloud. In the spot of his former body, only ashes lay scattered.

A fierce stellar gust scattered the powder, exposing Orion in the middle. Compressed to just three inches tall, his whole form shone with dazzling golden radiance.

Unlike before, this shrunken Death-Soul avatar embodied the most refined, untainted core of his physique. None but Orion grasped the fact: in that instant, this avatar's sheer toughness had demolished the High Lord realm's boundaries.

A Demigod's physique. A genuine Demigod's frame, shaped by a thousand savage forgings.

Enchanted godly symbols began etching over his avatar, inscribing profoundly into all his renewed flesh, rendering it extraordinarily tough and perfectly harmonized with surrounding magic.

"The divine physique awakens, its might echoing through the cosmos!" the titan bellowed. "We continue!"

Witnessing Orion endure the thousandth strike, wild zeal ignited in the giant's gaze. No respect for Orion fueled it; rather, it was the raw ecstasy of a forger eager to pound his perfect creation further.

"The dross has been purged! Next, we fold in the essence!" The titan lifted his hammer. "My kin, can you withstand it?!"

The titan's huge palm sliced through emptiness. Suddenly, innumerable enigmatic, gleaming gold crystals of all sizes appeared throughout the starry void.

"Do you see them?! These are the true essences left behind by our fallen kin! I hammered them out myself, heh heh heh!" The immense forger stared at the drifting crystals filled with immense pride. "For the next thousand strikes of the second phase, I will forge them into your flesh, piece by piece. It is a process of supreme empowerment, but also one of volatile expansion. My kin, I begin now!"

Winds and thunder howled anew. Stellar flames roared over the sky-obscuring hammer, emitting searing brilliance.

The nearest hundred mystery crystals melted instantly into molten gold, merging right under the hammer's enormous head.

SWOOSH!

Like a raging storm blended with searing metal, the hammer slammed the arcane fluid straight into the Death-Soul avatar with ferocious power.

In a flash, the three-inch avatar expanded to a baby's proportions.

Exquisite! A moan of sheer delight slipped unbidden from Orion. From the hammer's impact, it seemed every cell within him rejoiced in bliss.

WHOOSH!

Yet the thrill faded swiftly. The titan savagely boosted the pace of his blows. Endless additional crystals dissolved into golden liquid, swamping Orion like a colossal surge.

The Death-Soul avatar continued to swell steadily. The tentacles smashed earlier swiftly regrew, returning vastly sturdier and far more in sync with cosmic forces than previously.

But this explosive bodily growth rapidly instilled surging dread in Orion. He grasped that his form was endlessly drawing in the mystic liquid, with no end in sight.

This presented a blade with two edges. The trial realm supplied resources so outrageously plentiful it verged on madness. Still, Orion knew full well his freshly crafted body held a rigid upper limit.

Absorbing at this relentless pace, he would surely burst apart. Once that occurred, he'd probably end up as merely another of those drifting enigmatic crystals.

Terror and sharp worry clamped down on Orion's thoughts. He was in dire straits.

I must devise a plan. I must withstand the three thousand blows! I won't let my end clear the path for another!

How can I halt my body from taking in this liquid?

It's hopeless! The titan is brutally forcing the liquid into my flesh with every strike. There's no stopping it. Battling the surging panic from the compelled flooding, Orion wildly searched for a way to endure the forge.

If blocking the intake is impossible, then I need to widen my own limits! But how in the world do I boost my max capacity at this moment?

Orion's thoughts spun frantically. He sensed his bodily thresholds closing in fast.

At the same time, the titan forger found his rhythm, hammering out five hundred nonstop strikes in one frenzied burst. Witnessing Orion still managing to take in the essence, the titan swelled with even wilder joy.

Should Orion conquer the ordeal, the Death-Soul Race would claim a supreme powerhouse. Should he perish, the massive essence he'd soaked up would trigger a blast producing a crystal of unfathomable purity. Both prospects elated the colossus, driving him to wield the enormous hammer with heightened zeal.

Whatever! Orion clenched his jaws. Desperate times demand desperate actions!

In this razor-thin timeframe, Orion couldn't craft a flawless defense. His ultimate ace linked to this Death-Soul avatar lay in projecting his overwhelmingly mighty Demigod will.

Out of viable alternatives, Orion invoked the Demigod specter, cloaking his avatar's surface like a barrier in a frantic effort to physically repel the mystic liquid from penetrating his form.

Regrettably, the effort flopped entirely.

It's not blocking it! I'm finished!

No... hold on... something is shifting!

Even as despair engulfed Orion, he detected a surprising alteration—a glimmer of hope.

Beneath the savage, unyielding hammer barrages, the protective phantom of his will around the avatar was gradually being crushed and shoved into the mystic liquid, fusing straight into the Death-Soul avatar's tissue.

Initially, Orion had merely figured this was the typical erosion of his phantom will under assault.