Titan King: Ascension of the Giant Chapter 1726: The Chasm of Power

The Mirage Void. Sea-Sovereign City.

Unlike the other satellite settlements, what Sea-Sovereign City's walls ringed was a stretch of sea—a stretch the Kraken had summoned from another world after making demigod. So the walls of Sea-Sovereign City weren't high; their worth lay in running on for a thousand miles, coiled like a dragon.

"No way—Kraken, you really descended in the flesh? This is the dream-realm, you know." Up on the wall, Makareth leaned against a crenel, took the cup the Kraken handed over, threw it back in one go, then fixed the Kraken with a curious stare.

"Any demigod, entering the dream, can choose to descend in the flesh into this plane—it's just that for safety's sake plenty come down as a phantom will instead. We're different. This is Orion's territory, our own ground, you might say. If we won't even come to guard it ourselves, who are we to expect anyone else to?" Just so—that was the Kraken's resolve, descending in the flesh to guard Blackstone City outright. Not that the Kraken was so strong, but that he knew well this was the Champions Alliance's final battlefield. He had to get used to this world fast, fall into frequency with its rules fast. Only so might he, down the line and with everyone's help, contend for the Divine Mantle everyone dreamed of.

"Clever of you—a head full of little schemes." Isabella, off to the side gazing into the far dark, turned and saw clean through the Kraken's plan at a stroke. Before the Kraken could rebut it, Isabella went on. "I know I'm not as strong as you, haven't your depth either. But I'll still ask—can I step into the demigod realm in any short order?"

The Kraken caught the look in Isabella's eyes, earnest to the last degree, and after a moment's hesitation shook his head slowly. "You—mm, not yet, as things stand."

At that, the burning light in Isabella's gaze guttered out on the instant, every spark of it gone.

"Kraken, what about me? Me?" At the mention of stepping into the demigod realm, Makareth lit up too, looking to the Kraken full of hope.

"In your case, it could happen any time—but you've to wait for the right turn of chance. You're at the peak of the Archlord tier now, and an Abyssal Demon besides; my advice is fight more, kill more." Unlike Isabella, Makareth had self-awakened a Lord's Stone; faced with the gate of demigod, the difficulty for the two of them was not the same.

"Hahaha—once I make demigod, I'll descend in the flesh and be Kraken's neighbor, and together we'll carve out a great big stretch of land for Orion and for ourselves." Getting an answer from the Kraken both glad and beyond his hopes, Makareth was beside himself, half wishing he could take up his blade and charge out the walls then and there.

"What's Hulk been up to lately?" Makareth's mention of Orion had Isabella cutting in to ask.

"He and the Deputy Commander should be busy with the Emerald Dream Realm. Our power pulled out of there earlier precisely to drag it into Titanion and fold it into Orion's territory." The Kraken glanced back toward where Blackstone City lay; before coming out to build the satellite settlement, he'd gone to see Orion and Commander beneath the Wishing Tree. Even now, even risen to demigod, the Kraken found the places he could help were still few.

"That's an avatar, isn't it? Has Hulk lost his physical body—it's been a long time since anyone's seen the real him." The Kraken shook his head, signaling he'd rather not answer that one. It was Orion's secret; for all the something between Isabella and Orion, he had no wish to step into it, to pry. As a friend, to wish Orion well was enough.

"And you—been a long time since you saw Orion too, hasn't it?" Getting no answer out of the Kraken, Isabella turned the question on Tangere, who stood off to one side with Aurora, listening to the group's talk. Tangere was an Arch Lord now as well, but set against Makareth and Isabella he was a poor showing—only the early stretch of Arch Lord yet.

"It has been a long while since I saw the big man." Tangere nodded, then shook his head, his gaze out past the walls strangely deep and far. "Truth is, I think none of that matters. What we've got to do now is push the borders out for all we're worth under Commander's and the big man's shelter, and build our own depth. Stronger now by a hair means carrying a hair more of the load later—wouldn't you say?"

Tangere's words left Isabella blanking, silent a long while.

"Hahaha—no wonder Orion became your guide-and-mentor. With a temper like yours, you'll make demigod sooner or later." The Kraken clapped Tangere on the shoulder and handed him a cup of wine the same.

"I'm just a flunky for now—no help to anyone." Tangere shook his head with a wry smile; the Kraken's praise raised no swell at the bottom of his heart.

"Isabella, you're a queen, and the big man Alexander thinks highly of you besides—you've absolutely got the potential to make demigod. Don't rush. Keep an even keel." The Kraken looked off into the far dark. There was a line he didn't say: even once you make demigod, seeing the gap between you and Commander and Orion, you'll only despair the harder. Before, you couldn't see it because you weren't strong enough. Once you're strong enough and you see the gap, the drop is greater, the weight heavier.

"Big man, you're a demigod now—won't you lead us to hit the dream-creatures and make the satellite settlement bigger, bigger, bigger?" Aurora, the hide sack on her back as ever, fixed the Kraken with a face full of little stars, hoping he'd take her sweeping across the eight directions to carve out a stretch of land wide enough—she wanted to make Arch Lord too, wanted to make demigod too. As things stood, in the Champions Alliance crew, she was the one still a no-account little lord.

"Put that out of your head." Looking at the "errand-runner" he'd handpicked himself, the Kraken rolled his eyes and ignored the brimming worship in Aurora's. "Once the satellite settlement's expanded, you carve yourself out a patch inside the walls—farm what's to be farmed, tame what's to be tamed. I'm telling you, on this plane, lords and Lords both are cannon fodder. Don't go out there. Staying alive is what matters most." The Kraken ran his eyes round the stretch of sea before him, well pleased. Before, as a sea-race creature, environmental factors had meant the big shots seldom brought him along on their group ventures. Now he could summon a stretch of sea good for fighting and surviving wherever he went—never again would he have to fight a lone battle on his own.

"Right—as you can see, the crew's big shots are all run off their feet. From here on, the lot of you stick with me. Our get-togethers from now on don't step outside the range of my god-might." Newly made demigod, the Kraken was riding high, set on going on banking depth within the limits of his power, and playing the thick thigh for the crew's youngsters on the side, sheltering them from wind and rain.

"As you command, big man. Long live the demigod big man." Aurora answered with a will, both hands flung high—forever standing with the Kraken.