Titan King: Ascension of the Giant Chapter 1563 The Trap Beyond the Mountains

The North. The New Continent.

The instant the Demigod-tier shriek pierced the world, Orion understood. The swarm's true powerhouses had breached the initial defenses. A personal intervention was no longer optional.

It felt incredibly strange. Traversing from the southern lands, crossing the very territories that had once been subjugated by his might, only to ascend a gargantuan mountain range and set foot upon completely unfamiliar soil.

Upon this new land, Orion beheld a vast expanse of insectoids. They obscured the heavens and the earth, cascading over the mountains and bellowing as their tide surged south. However, these creatures were not Orion's genuine adversaries; they didn't even warrant his attention. Orion's sole focus was fixed upon the distant Demigod-tier entity—the very being that had detected his presence and was now rapidly approaching.

"Your Grace, this region is the ancestral home of my people. I implore you, do not trespass."

A male voice resonated, deep and potent like a striking bell, imbued with a solemn, almost sacred dignity.

"The homeland of your people?" Orion emitted a soft, disbelieving chuckle, finding the audacity of the statement truly amusing. If this continent was their home, then what, by all the gods, did that designation make the Stoneheart Horde?

"Where the continents converge. All lands north of the Convergence Ridge are our territory."

The Convergence Ridge constituted the immense, recently formed mountain range resulting from the cataclysmic collision of tectonic plates—the very same mountains Orion had just traversed.

Orion comprehended the adversary's rationale perfectly. His expression remained as tranquil as a still pond, revealing neither ire nor delight, though a subtle, predatory amusement flickered within his calm eyes.

"Who might you be?" Orion inquired. "If all north of the Ridge is your domain, what then of the south? Did you truly believe you could claim these lands without my consent?"

Orion's initial tone was dangerously measured, but by the utterance of the final word, it had descended into an absolute, frigid stillness. It was not a query, but an incisive interrogation.

"I am Abaddon. I have arrived to ascertain your strength."

Abaddon exuded arrogance, disregarding convention and eschewing the basic courtesy of inquiring about Orion's name. Accompanied by the howl of the wind and the thunderous beat of wings, Abaddon materialized in a blur, halting a short distance from Orion.

Abaddon presented a terrifying hybrid form. His upper body was that of a powerfully built, bare humanoid torso, while immense, iridescent butterfly wings unfurled from his back. Beneath, his form transitioned into a slithering serpentine lower half, a thick tail trailing behind. His eyes burned with a liquid crimson luminescence, emanating a soul-piercing, bloody radiance.

Yet, what truly captured Orion's keen observation was the intricately wrought golden rune deeply etched into Abaddon's flesh, beginning at the apex of his brow and extending downwards to his navel. To Orion's sharpened senses, this golden inscription evoked a sensation of intense, unsettling familiarity.

A Divine Sigil!

An Insect King!

The God-Devouring Insectoid Race!

Orion rapidly connected the pieces. Long before the two realms had fully merged, Orion had secured dominion over an Insect King belonging to the God-Devouring Race. The divine, consuming aura emanating from Abaddon's runic markings was exponentially more potent than anything Orion had perceived from his own Insect King avatar.

"Your Grace, we harbor no desire for conflict," Abaddon reaffirmed, his voice steeped in that same solemn grandeur, attempting to establish moral superiority for his swarm. The manner of his speech implied that Orion was the aggressor initiating the hostilities. "This is a nascent world. Both you and I require tranquility for our advancement."

"Tranquility?" Orion erupted into unrestrained, boisterous laughter, as if he had just stumbled upon the universe's most profound jest. "Hahaha! You imagine peace exists merely because you decree it so?"

"It seems Your Grace does not aspire to peace."

This was not a question; it was a pronouncement of doom. The instant these words escaped Abaddon's lips, his form violently fragmented. In a mere blink, twelve identical avatars detached from him, encircling Orion and unleashing a simultaneous, deafening shriek.

A devastating, chaotic, and mind-shattering sonic wave assaulted Orion. For a horrifying fraction of a second, Orion felt his physical defenses crumble, his very being and mind torn asunder by the sheer auditory force.

But Orion possessed deeper insight. It was an illusion.

Roar!

A primal bellow resonated from the very core of his soul. The colossal phantom of a Stoneheart Titan materialized behind Orion. Instantly, the illusory nightmare dissolved, restoring reality to its perfect, unblemished clarity.

Squelch! Squelch!

Four of Abaddon's twelve avatars spontaneously detonated into a gory mess. His Domain of Illusions had been violently breached by Orion, and he was suffering a catastrophic backlash.

"Her Majesty, the Insect Queen, was correct. You are undeniably powerful," Abaddon rasped, his expression hardening. His crimson eyes locked onto Orion, flickering with a treacherous light. "Simultaneous avatar fission, divine sonic disruption, and the Domain of Illusions—all unleashed at once, and yet you did not succumb to madness."

"No wonder you dared to face our descent alone. In that case, let's see how you handle this."

Abaddon's remaining eight avatars slammed their palms together. Instantly, four of them detonated as if offered as a living sacrifice, transforming into a dense, suffocating crimson mist that swallowed the battlefield.

It happened in a fraction of a second. By the time Orion sensed the lethal shift in the air, Abaddon had already parted his hands. The final four avatars each manifested a unique, horrific weapon: a serrated blade, a jagged hook, a venomous stinger, and a bladed chain.

The four Abaddons converged on Orion, launching a synchronized, lethal assault.

"Call of the Abyss!"

Facing four bizarrely coordinated enemies, Orion was not about to play games. He instantly channeled his Divine Kingdom, summoning the phantom projection of the Abyssal World. His goal was simple: drag them all into his Divine Kingdom and offer them up as living sacrifices.

A cosmic law of death, unique to his Divine Kingdom, crashed down onto the battlefield. Orion wasn't pulling his punches. The moment they were dragged into his territory, he didn't give a damn if they were the true body or mere avatars—they would all be ground down into pure fuel.

However, the moment the Abyssal phantom descended, Orion felt a jarring, unnatural resistance. It was a sickening sensation, like swallowing a jagged stone that caught perfectly in his throat, choking off the connection.

Orion scowled. He stared intently at the Abaddons trapped within the Abyssal phantom, but he couldn't detect any foreign auras radiating from them that could actively stall the descent of his Divine Kingdom.

What the hell just happened?

Something shifted just now, something completely under my radar.

Caution gripping his heart, Orion withheld the killing blow against Abaddon. He refused to blindly step into what felt like an elaborate, invisible trap.

...

Meanwhile, outside the combat zone on the New Continent.

At the exact location where Orion and Abaddon had first crossed paths, a stranger materialized. To be precise, it was a stranger and a spherical, golden ward.

Though the golden sphere was barely the size of a soccer ball, it radiated an eerie, deeply unnatural power. Countless golden, insectoid runes threaded out from the surrounding void, wrapping tightly around the sphere like silken webs. It looked exactly like an ongoing sealing ritual.

"Is this Giant truly that dangerous?" the stranger murmured. "For Her Majesty, the Insect Queen, to order me to coordinate with Abaddon just to orchestrate his temporary sealing... is such a massive mobilization truly necessary?"

It wasn't that the unknown Demigod underestimated the enemy, nor was he specifically looking down on Orion. It was simply that the swarm's raw power was so overwhelmingly vast. In his mind, under their command, the swarm could simply bulldoze across this newborn world without resorting to parlor tricks.

Nevertheless, this was a direct edict from Insect Queen Moriphara. She was the absolute zenith of the swarm's intellect; her calculations were infallible. Under her reign, the God-Devouring Insectoid Race had evolved from the weak into the invincible, without a single misstep.

"Our swarm has successfully descended. No one will snatch the food from our jaws."

As the unknown Demigod manipulated the insectoid runes, he cast a cold, shadowy glance toward the horizon, his eyes locked in grim determination.