Titan King: Ascension of the Giant Chapter 1698 Beyond the Glass

Blackstone City pulsed with life. As the monsters of the Mirage Void stirred, fighters from the Stoneheart Horde and Orion's allies gained access to the dreamscape, descending into this realm of peril and promise.

"Aren't you supposed to be training the kid? How did he end up running a city in a dream?"

Leonidas and Alexander stood in the plaza of Blackstone City, scanning the endless flow of people. Kaelen waited for them in plain sight. Reverence for his mentors was ingrained in his character; with Alexander arriving in the city, it was only natural for his student to greet him.

"Go tend to your duties," Alexander said. "I'll make time to train you after I see your father."

As members of the Champions Alliance and brothers-in-arms to Orion, Alexander and Leonidas had insider knowledge about Blackstone City. They knew Kaelen was overwhelmed with work.

"This world is dangerous, Master. Please be careful," Kaelen said. He bowed respectfully and turned away. He had to relocate his slumbering kin; he truly had no time to spare.

"It's a shame Pallas is still guarding The Bastion Wall in Harbek. He's falling behind the kid," Leonidas murmured, watching Kaelen leave. Anyone could see Blackstone City brimmed with opportunity. As its lord, Kaelen's future was bright.

"Don't interfere," Alexander warned. "This is Hulk's plan. His children inherited his divine bloodline; they are all prodigies, and Hulk will handle their futures. Your only job is to teach. Reality and the void—each guards one realm. No conflict, no chaos, just family."

Spending time with Kaelen had shown Alexander the boy's true nature. Beneath a calm exterior lay fierce resilience and a razor-sharp edge. Alexander was proud of his student and fully supported Orion's decision to station him in the Mirage Void. For someone with his innate connection to the dreamscape, this was the perfect launching pad.

"Save it. I couldn't care less about the inner workings of the Stoneheart Horde," Leonidas scoffed. "I'm just lamenting that Pallas doesn't have an environment like this to train in."

Leonidas sighed in contentment. Since arriving, he had been passively absorbing the World Essence saturating Blackstone City. To him, the city felt like it was built atop a massive ley line. With every breath, its residents grew stronger.

"High rewards come with higher risks." Alexander stared at the ground, his eyes heavy with gravity. "In the real world, we have our avatar and phantom will. If they die, we can rebuild and split them again. But here, death is final. If you die, your avatar and phantom will in the real world perish with you."

"High rewards come with higher risks." Alexander stared at the ground, his eyes heavy with gravity. "In the real world, we have our avatar and phantom will. If they die, we can rebuild and split them again. But here, death is final. If you die, your avatar and phantom will in the real world perish with you."

This was the starkest difference between the Mirage Void and the Titanion Realm. The Mirage Void was The Void. Aside from powerhouses like Orion and the Commander, who possessed a Divine Vessel and a Divine Kingdom, nearly everyone here existed as pure consciousness. If that consciousness was extinguished, their physical bodies, avatar, and phantom will died with it.

There were exceptions, of course. Kaelen, for instance, had entered Blackstone City in the flesh. Because of this, his growth outpaced the rest. But the drawback was absolute: if Kaelen fell here, his mind and body died together. There were no second chances.

"So, leaving Pallas on The Bastion Wall... it's a way of protecting him?" Leonidas asked, suddenly struck by the thought that Orion was playing favorites.

"Hmph. Protection, Hope—call it what you want. If we fail here, none of it matters. It all turns to dust," Alexander replied. "The Commander made it clear: if we don't seize this opportunity, our chances of reaching godhood are practically zero."

The conversation shifted to their own bleak prospects, turning the mood heavy. Both knew that twelve supreme beings holding a Divine Mantle slumbered within the Mirage Void. This was their opening. Furthermore, the connection between the Mirage Void and Titanion was causing the two worlds to merge. This violent convergence could forge a new Divine Mantle in the blink of an eye. That was the Commander's theory, anyway, and Orion backed it. As a ruler of the realm, Orion could sense the will of the TitanionWorld Tree. He saw the threads connecting it all.

"Assassin, we're weak. Can we really pull this off?" Leonidas asked.

Having just reached the second-stage, he understood the vast chasms of power between each demigod tier. Right now, he could crush a newly ascended demigod like an insect. Consequently, he feared anyone stronger than himself. The more he understood the power scaling, the more insignificant he felt.

"I don't know," Alexander said. "But the Commander and Hulk sent us here. Our job is to kill the enemy, grow stronger, and prepare for the worst. I won't be caught empty-handed when the moment comes. Just the thought of it makes my blood run cold."

Alexander knew the score. Compared to Orion's other allies, their tight-knit brotherhood had lost its edge. They were falling behind, and their safety nets were disappearing. All they could do was stick together and pool their strength against whatever storms lay ahead.

"Damn it. Never thought I'd see the day we'd be relying on the younger generation. What's next? Depending on that punk Kraken?" Thinking of Orion, whom Arthas had brought in, and Kraken, his own recruit, Leonidas felt the bitter sting of obsolescence.

"Given their growth rate, it's highly likely," Alexander replied. "Think about it. Before we reached Arch Lord, our progress was agonizingly slow. We're all Survivors. Why did we lag behind?"

The question hung in the air, leaving both men in silence. Wordlessly, they crossed the plaza and hiked up the mountain behind Moonshadow Valley.

At the summit, the Wishing Tree pulsed with radiant light. Shrouded in a divine aura, it seemed to cast its reflection into the river of time, washing away the past, present, and future. As Alexander and Leonidas approached, they overheard Orion and the Commander deep in philosophical debate.

"The more rules I grasp, the more I understand the World Tree and World Essence... the more lost I feel regarding the absolute basics," Orion said.

The two sat cross-legged beneath the Wishing Tree. Orion stared up at the canopy unblinking, his dark eyes devoid of light. Beside him, the Commander rested his chin in his hand, looking burdened and deep in thought. Alexander and Leonidas exchanged a shocked glance. A lost Orion and a heavy-hearted Commander—it was a sight the brothers had never witnessed, let alone imagined.

"What exactly is a world?" Orion's voice was a low murmur. He kept his gaze fixed upward, sounding almost like a child talking in his sleep. "What is the true difference between Titanion and the Mirage Void? Is Titanion the same kind of place as the Abyss, Hell, or the Divine Dominion? Back in our old world, we had the concept of outer space. We had satellites, stars, planets, and comets. We dreamed of colonizing the cosmos. But here? A 'world' often means a single planet—sometimes only a single continent. No one here dreams of conquering the stars."

He fell silent for a moment, his eyes still fixed on the unreachable sky.

"And my parents…" he whispered. "Where are they? Why does it feel like a lifetime since I last saw them? Did they ever truly exist, or are they only fragments of a dream I can no longer wake from?"

Confusion. Fog. An unsolvable knot. Orion rambled on, lost in a trance. The ideologies and values of his old life were violently clashing with the reality of his new one. He was trapped in the paradox.

Alexander and Leonidas listened in bewildered silence. Unable to grasp the cosmic dilemma, they simply sat down and waited for their leaders to return to their senses.

After a long while, the Commander raised his head. He beckoned toward the Wishing Tree, summoning two of its fruits into his hands. The moment he caught them, the fruits transformed into two transparent glass bottles, each containing a colored glass marble.

"A long time ago, I harbored the exact same doubts," the Commander said flatly. He looked at Orion with the weary patience of an old sage explaining the necessities of human emotion to a child. "I never found the true answer. But eventually, I theorized one. I call it the World of Bottles."

He placed the bottles on the ground. The word "answer" seemed to pull Orion from his stupor. He looked down at the bottles, his dark eyes still empty.

"This is Titanion. The marble inside is the planet where the Stoneheart Horde resides," the Commander said, pointing to the first bottle. He tapped the second. "And this is the Valkorath Realm. The marble is the continent containing the city of Soraya."

"They are essentially the same. Just glass marbles trapped in a bottle world," the Commander continued, his tone shifting from an academic explanation to a hypnotic monologue. "Limited territory. Limited growth. Both look up at the stars through the glass of their bottles. The starry sky is real. What they see is real. Yet... it is all a lie."

"Our old world stared through a bottle, too. No one ever crossed the solar system, let alone escaped the Milky Way or explored the universe. If the galaxy is the bottle, then our blue planet was just another marble inside it. No individual, no historical record, and no civilization ever broke out. Therefore, everything beyond the glass is a fabrication—just imagination and fiction."

The light slowly faded from the Commander's eyes as he stared at the bottles. It was just a theory. He didn't know if it was true. He didn't have the ultimate answer.

"If you bridge the two bottles, or press their openings together... that is the convergence of two worlds."

Snapping out of his daze, the Commander grabbed one bottle and inverted it over the other. The two worlds connected. The two marbles clinked together.

"Simple, right? That is a world." The Commander looked up at Orion with a wry, self-deprecating smile.