Chapter 81: The Vanguard of Aethelgard

"The moment this crisis is resolved," Qing Su stated firmly, "you and Evelyn will officially terminate your childish rivalry. No more diplomatic posturing, no more petty border disputes. If humanity is to survive Velista’s divine ascension, your two factions will fight as one."

Aren didn’t hesitate for a single microsecond. He bowed his head deeply, his voice resolute.

"I understand, Master. The rivalry ends today."

Within minutes, the entire Vanguard Hero Corps of Aethelgard erupted into motion. Arrayed across the palace courtyard, thousands of heavily armored knights and battle-mages mounted their warhorses, checking their enchanted sidearms and bracing their lances under the stark sunlight. Banners bearing the roaring lightning crest of Aethelgard snapped violently in the mountain wind as the high horns sounded the mobilization order. ℴ

CREAAAK—BOOM!

The massive iron-plated gates of Aethelgard swung open, slamming against the stone outer ramparts.

"For the Kingdom! Advance!"

The vanguard commanders let out a unified, thunderous battle cry. Thousands of armored steeds surged forward in a deafening stampede, their iron-shod hooves churning the dirt as the grand cavalry force swept out of the city gates like a tidal wave of polished steel and fluttering pennants.

Along the cobblestone avenues, the civilian populace of Aethelgard lined the plazas and balconies, watching the unprecedented military deployment in stunned, fearful silence. Whispers and anxious murmurs spread through the crowds like wildfire. People clutched their children close, staring in terror at the endless column of elite heroes riding toward the western horizon, wondering what apocalyptic threat could compel King Aren Veyl to empty the royal garrison so drastically.

Meanwhile, at the ruined border coliseum...

The eighteen-meter Titan Apex Aberrant shifted its colossal weight, its massive four-eyed head locking onto the lone figure standing in the dust below.

Ren braced himself, expecting the gigantic monster to move with the slow, ponderous heaviness typical of massive biological structures. But the creature defied every law of inertia. With horrifying agility, the titan raised its colossal, armored leg, cutting through the air with violent velocity as it attempted to crush Ren like a bug beneath its heel.

Ren’s pupils dilated. Seeing the massive shadow descending directly over his head, he reacted purely on survival instinct.

He gripped the hilt of his double-bladed Void Sickle with both hands, channeling a surge of deep purple Nyx energy down the shaft, and whipped the weapon upward in a sweeping crescent arc. A massive wave of dark purple blade-light erupted from the edge, flying skyward to intercept the falling foot.

SLAM!

The crimson-purple energy wave struck the center of the titan’s massive sole, exploding in a bright shower of sparks. But to Ren’s horror, the energy sheared off harmlessly, leaving not so much as a scratch on the creature’s dark, chitinous hide.

’It didn’t work?!’

Ren’s heart leaped into his throat. Even with the divine power of Nyx bolstering the strike, the monster’s flesh remained completely unscathed.

There was no time to process the shock. The colossal heel was already plummeting toward him in slow motion, threatening to erase him from existence.

Using the raw physical enhancement of his divine bloodline, Ren activated a sudden burst of hyper-speed. He transformed into a streak of violet light, his boots blurring across the gravel as he launched himself sideways a fraction of a second before impact.

BOOM!

The titan’s foot slammed into the ground with catastrophic force. The impact detonated the stone floor, hurling a shockwave of crushed rock and violent pressure twenty yards in every direction.

Ren skidded through the dirt fifty feet away, coming to a halt in a low crouch as he caught his breath, his lungs burning from the exertion.

DING!

Suddenly, a brilliant translucent system window materialized in his direct line of sight:

```

[SYSTEM ALERT: CLASS-S THREAT DETECTED]

[TARGET ANALYSIS: TITAN APEX ABERRANT]

[PASSIVE ABILITY: HIGH-DENSITY BIOMASS ARMOR (80% ELEMENTAL & ENERGY RESISTANCE)]

[TACTICAL NOTE: TARGET IS IMMUNE TO DIRECT ENERGY ATTACKS AND ELEMENTAL SPELLS. DEFEAT CAN ONLY BE ACHIEVED THROUGH PURE PHYSICAL IMPACT OR MANUAL BALLISTIC PENETRATION.]

```

Ren stared at the floating red text, his jaw tightening.

’Immune to magic and energy strikes? You’ve got to be kidding me...’

The revelation sent a wave of cold sweat down his spine. The creature’s biological hide acted as a natural sponge for mana and divine aura, rendering his most powerful long-range Nyx slashes useless. To tear through that armor, he needed raw, physical ballistic force—heavy ordnance like anti-tank rockets, railguns, or specialized kinetic artillery.

If he were back in Lumiria, he could have ordered his mechanized units to plaster the beast with high-explosive artillery rounds. But out here in the middle of nowhere, stripped of his heavy arsenal and reliant on a divine aura that the monster naturally resisted, he was operating at a lethal disadvantage.

The Titan turned its massive, four-eyed visage toward him, its crimson pupils glowing with feral rage as it locked its gaze onto the tiny human.

’Can I drag this out?’ Ren analyzed frantically, his eyes darting across the crumbling arena. ’No. Stalling in an enclosed space is suicide. The coliseum walls limit my maneuvering angles. I have to break out into open terrain, or this brute will eventually corner me.’

The giant creature let out an infuriated roar, driving both of its massive, iron-armored fists toward the ground in a frantic attempt to crush the fast-moving bug.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

What followed was a brutal, cinematic dance of survival.

Ren pushed his body to its absolute physical limits, moving so fast his movements left glowing purple afterimages trailing through the air. The titan swung its massive, four-clawed hands in sweeping arcs, striking out wildly as its frustration grew. Driven mad by the elusive target, the monster lashed out in a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree rampage, its gigantic claws slicing through the ancient stone pillars of the crescent-shaped coliseum.

CRACK! CRUNCH! BOOM!

The centuries-old arena began to disintegrate into a cascading avalanche of debris. Massive stone arches snapped like twigs, falling apart in mid-air. Ren leaped from one falling boulder to another, using the airborne rubble as temporary stepping stones as the ground dissolved beneath him.

Above him, the giant’s claws swept through the falling masonry, cutting through giant stone blocks like hot iron through butter. To a normal human, the chaos would have been an absolute death trap—a blinding tempest of crushing stone and lethal claws. But under the perception-altering effects of his Nyx bloodline, the world moved in agonizing slow motion. Ren calculated the trajectory of every falling stone, slipping through the micro-gaps between the titan’s sweeping claws by inches, leaving a trail of violet light as he bounded across the air.

Recognizing that the structure was collapsing completely, Velista sneered in mild annoyance, vanishing in a ripple of dark shadow to reposition herself on the open grassy plain outside the arena.

A second later, Ren burst through the dust cloud, executing a high-velocity acrobatic flip before landing cleanly on his feet in the middle of the open green field outside the coliseum’s perimeter.

"Hah... hah... hah..."

Ren panted heavily, his shoulders rising and falling as he straightened his posture, holding his Void Sickle in a reverse grip. Every muscle in his arms throbbed with intense fatigue from maintaining the high-speed Nyx resonance.

Behind him, the entire coliseum collapsed in a final, deafening crash.

"GRAAAAHHH!"

The Titan Apex Aberrant burst through the mountain of broken masonry, roaring in absolute frustration. The lower half of its eighteen-meter body was momentarily pinned under thousands of tons of fallen stone, but the beast didn’t care. It slammed its giant palms into the pile, crushing giant boulders into fine gravel with its bare hands.

Ren’s eyes widened as he watched the creature’s actions. *Wait... what is it doing?*

The titan scooped up massive armfuls of crushed stone, holding the thousands of jagged, sharp rock fragments in its heavy iron palms like a child holding sand.

Ren’s body went rigid.

Without giving him time to retreat, the titan drew back its colossal right arm and hurled the massive pile of stone shrapnel straight at him like a high-speed shotgun blast!

WHOOSH!

Thousands of rock fragments, ranging from the size of fists to boulder-sized chunks, tore through the air at supersonic speeds!

Driven purely by desperate survival instincts, Ren planted his boots into the dirt and spun his double-bladed scythe in front of his chest like a propeller. His hands blurred into an imperceptible wheel of movement, his blade cutting through the air with terrifying speed. Glowing lines of violet light interlaced in front of him, creating a dense shield of kinetic energy.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The sharp rocks slammed into his spinning blade with the force of heavy artillery shells. Ren’s arm muscles screamed in agony as he deflected the barrage, slicing larger boulders in half so they whizzed past his shoulders, obliterating the ground behind him.

When the dust settled, Ren dropped to one knee, driving the tip of his scythe into the soil to keep himself from collapsing. Tremors ran down his forearms, his hands shaking violently from the immense kinetic feedback. His mana reserves were running dangerously low.

Behind him, a quarter-mile of dense forest had been completely leveled by the stray rock barrage. Ancient hardwood trees were snapped in half like toothpicks, falling over one after another in a chaotic domino effect that raised a massive cloud of dirt into the sky.

Ren glanced back at the fallen forest, a cold sweat breaking out across his forehead. *If even one of those boulders hit me clean... I’d be dead.*

Unbothered by his survival, the titan scooped up another massive pile of masonry, grinning menacingly as it prepared to throw a second salvo.

"Hahaha!" Velista’s cruel laughter echoed over the field as she watched Ren’s declining stamina. "How pathetic, Ren! Let’s see if you can survive another round!"

Before the monster could hurl the second volley of stone shrapnel, a sudden tremor echoed across the northern plains.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

The ground vibrated with the rhythmic, heavy thunder of thousands of galloping warhorses. A massive cloud of golden dust rose over the distant hills, cutting through the horizon.

Ren’s pupils contracted as he raised his head. "What is that...?"

From the dust cloud, thousands of heavily armored cavalrymen emerged, riding in tight tactical battle formations. Banners bearing a gleaming thunderbolt emblem fluttered proudly against the wind. The army stretched as far as the eye could see, their enchanted armor glistening under the sun as they drew their blades in unison.

Velista’s cheerful expression instantly soured. She turned her head toward the incoming tide, her eyes narrowing in deep irritation.

"Tsk... noisy flies," Velista hissed under her breath.

The Titan Apex Aberrant paused its attack, turning its massive, four-eyed head away from Ren to face the thousands of approaching riders.

Ren stared at the magnificent crest emblazoned on the leading banners, his mind rapidly connecting the dots.

’That flag... I saw it in the historical archives back at the old Celestial safehouse...’

His eyes widened in shock as he realized the identity of the arriving host. ’The Kingdom of Aethelgard?!’