Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

Chapter 804: Nick’s Dead Heart

—

Nicholas was stressed…

Since Urek failed his breakthrough, the frown on his face rarely disappeared. It remained plastered there, especially whenever he’s by himself.

He’s worried, and rightfully so, because so far, their efforts have been for nothing.

They had been the sovereigns of the Human Council for a very long time. They’ve sat on their thrones for too long, so long that some of them already forget how long exactly. They’ve been into their roles so much that it has become second nature to them.

At first, the responsibility was daunting. How can it not? They’re essentially conducting the human race as a whole. Commanding an entire race was far from a simple feat, even at their strength level.

Everybody looks up to them for survival and for prosperity, and they’re expected to deliver, to excel.

And they’ve been doing well so far in the account, but as always, it could be better.

The Horde, they’re a problem. And an age-old problem.

Humanity’s relationship with them has gone to the point of not being able to exist under one sky. Too many lives have been lost, too much damage, too much pain and hurt.

Reconciliation is simply impossible between them.

Nicholas himself lost his loved ones from the Horde, so it’s personal too.

Humans and the Horde had been at war for so long that it even predates his birth. The Bug Empress herself was way older than him and his fellow councillors combined.

She’d been a menace and an existential threat to humanity for as long as he could remember. She had harassed even their councillor predecessors, and now them.

It was the five of them—him, Patricia, Berk, Gibson, and Urek—who forced everything into a stalemate by reaching almost the same strength level as she is.

It’s because they reached this level of strength that humanity has come this far and was able to take an entire chaos realm for themselves and compete for more.

It’s what makes them a sovereign race, too.

But the Bug Empress was simply way above what they could handle. She has been around for too long. She knows things that they don’t. She’s more familiar with the Primitive Universe in a way that they weren’t.

She was incredibly hard to kill.

Every time they cornered her, all they could really do was to injure her heavily, forcing her to be dormant for a few thousand years, and then she’d bounce back and harass them again.

It’s a never-ending cycle with her, and frankly, Nicholas was so goddamn tired of her.

The exhaustion was even more personal for Nicholas because the Bug Empress, for all her disgusting and twisted humor, decided to preserve and use the corpse of his long-dead wife as a temporary vessel just to thoroughly disgust him.

Yes, that’s right. The Crimson Womb Mother—the Bug Empress—can and will stoop that low just to get the reaction she wants, to get into their head.

That unparalleled beauty she possessed was not her. That was Andrea’s corpse—Nicholas’ wife, who fell into the hands of the Bug Empress.

She took her and used her body as a new vessel just to get into Nicholas’ head. She didn’t do it to hopefully infiltrate and assassinate Nicholas; that would’ve been good for her, but she knows that Nick wouldn’t fall for that.

But did she get the reaction that she wanted? Absolutely.

Nicholas lost it when he learned of it. He killed his way into the heart of the Horde’s home. He nearly folded that entire chaos realm in half with his wrath. The only thing he couldn’t do? To kill the Bug Empress, who’s now wearing his dead wife’s corpse like it’s a goddamn costume.

Even if he knows that it’s not her anymore, he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

But why did the Bug Empress go so far?

Well, that’s because Nicholas was probably the best prodigy humanity ever produced.

In truth, he’s the youngest of the current councillors, barely under a million years old. He rose to prominence like a shooting star—unstoppable and incredibly brilliant. He alone had killed so many bugs that the Bug Empress had to take him seriously.

Within 500,000 years, he reached the peak of the Empyrean Realm, the peak of what the strongest human evolver could reach. Others took millions of years to get to that stage; the Bug Empress herself spent 10 million years to break through from the Heavenly Venerate Realm to the Empyrean Realm.

Nicholas stepped into the same life evolution realm as her in just a fraction of that time. How can she not be wary? She already realized that Nicholas had to be neutralized, because if he keeps that same momentum, then he might just become a Primal Origin Lifeform before her, and that’s something she didn’t want to see.

To kill his momentum, to force a setback upon him, the Bug Empress laid her eyes on his wife. She stopped low. She ambushed her, wore her corpse as her new shell, and continuously provoked Nicholas into hurting her.

The worst part? It worked like a goddamn charm.

It didn’t just kill Nick’s momentum. It caused him to collapse in defeat. He stagnated and damn near killed himself out of depression.

He eventually recovered thanks to his fellow councillors, but he was never the same after that. The old Nick—fierce, confident, and unstoppable Nick—was gone. He’s dead. Replaced by a calm, indifferent, calculating, and stern Nick.

While this new Nick no longer had any qualms about hurting the Bug Empress, who continued to use his dead wife’s body as a costume, the pain was still there. It has been dulled, ignored, and almost forgotten, but it’s still there. It never left.

At this point, Nick just lives vicariously through his sheer desire to kill the Bug Empress and to eradicate the Horde; everything else was meaningless at this point—the status, the treasures, the people…Nick could barely get himself to care. He’s merely doing it out of responsibility, not because he cared; he doesn’t, he couldn’t, not anymore.

Kill the Bug Empress and wipe out the Horde—these are the only reasons why he still lives.

And right now, that’s proving to be more difficult than ever.

Don’t get him wrong. He knows that this was a monumental task. Hell, generations of human sovereigns have tried before them. They, the current councillors, have gotten so close so many times before, yet even still, the Bug Empress lives.

’That bitch just refuses to fucking die, which is so damn irritating,’ as Patricia would put it.

So, the only real chance they have is for at least one of them to break through to the Primal Origin Lifeform Realm to kill her.

And when the news about the Unstable Heavenly Realm manifesting within human territory came, it hit them like a thunderclap. They all decided to stake everything out for this chance. If they could secure this opportunity, then their goals should become way easier to achieve, right?

Oh, they were so wrong that it was embarrassing.

Because as it turns out, accumulation alone wouldn’t cut it. Who knew, right? (Notice the sarcasm here).

The shackles. Those goddamn shackles. Especially that one, the one they dubbed the Binding of Mystery—that one shackle that just refuses to budge. That’s the biggest problem.

Other shackles? Easy. Done deal. All thanks to Urek, by the way, who staked his life to bring back information for them.

The lighting tribulation? Forget about it. It only ever matters in between breaking the shackles. They were strong enough to endure it for a while.

But that shackle. That last shackle—the Binding of Mystery. God. Where do they even start with that one? Urek, Gibson, and Berk have already tried everything, but nothing worked.

How in the world were they supposed to get rid of it to finally see what’s on the other side?

Sigh!

Nicholas rubbed his temples again in stress.

This problem was such a headache that it forced them to unanimously agree that he and Patricia shouldn’t make their breakthrough attempts without any concrete ideas or options.

How long was this going to take? Last time he checked, their brainstorming ended up nowhere because really, the other three had given it their all, yet they still failed.

Nicholas was tired. Completely and utterly exhausted.

His will to live died along with his wife. Revenge is the only thing that’s keeping him alive at this point, and even that seems so far out of his reach even after trying his best and coming this far.

He was so close to just saying, ’Fuck it,’ charging headfirst into the core of the Horde’s home, and blowing himself up there, preferably next to the Bug Empress.

Maybe that would be the best ending he could hope for himself and his wife. Maybe that could kill the Bug Empress too. Or at the very least, weaken her enough for his friends to finish her off and be done with her forever.

Nicholas found the idea oh-so-tempting, but he didn’t do it.

He sighed and muttered,

“I should go on a walk to decompress a bit. My thoughts are heading into very dangerous territory.”