Chapter 254: Siege of the Aetherial waypoint

The high-altitude skyways of the Aetherial Waypoint had fallen into a heavy, expectant quiet following Princess Solaria’s hasty retreat. Word of the Solari princess being brought to her knees within Vince’s domain had swept through the city’s upper tiers, driving high divine merchants to shutter their grand bazaars and local sect leaders to retreat behind their inner warding arrays. The celestial metropolis, usually buzzing with the arrogant commerce of mid-tier deities, now felt like a gilded cage waiting for an impending storm.

On the central promenade of Vince’s celestial-jade citadel, the atmosphere was starkly different.

Vetra leaned against the marble balustrade, running a soft whetstone along the edge of her massive dark-iron broadsword. The blades of her weapon hummed with a low, hungry heat, reacting to the dense Ignis-flame lingering within her core. Beside her, Lyrielle sat cross-legged on a low stone bench, her long silver-white hair falling over her shoulders as she meticulously coated the tips of her spirit-arrows with refined elder-nectar.

"She ran back with her tail tucked between her legs," Vetra chuckled, her golden-red dragon eyes glinting with fierce amusement. "Though I doubt her Star-Emperor father is just going to sit back and digest the insult."

"He won’t," Elena said, stepping out from the inner sanctuary with her floating administrative slate hovering before her. "Our broad-spectrum scanners are picking up heavy spatial distortions across the outer perimeter of the Waypoint. But it isn’t the Solari Dominion moving first."

Vince stood near the edge of the balcony, a dark velvet cloak draped over his broad shoulders as he looked out across the shimmering white city. He didn’t turn around, his deep voice slicing through the light breeze with effortless composure. "Who is it?"

"The Obsidian Astral Pantheon," Elena replied, tapping a glowing rune to project a three-dimensional tactical grid into the air. "They’ve bypassed the outer border posts entirely. Three heavy dreadnoughts forged from corrupted cosmic ore have anchored themselves at the city’s primary ley-line nodes. They are deploying siphon-anchors directly into the Waypoint’s core grid."

Before Elena could finish her breakdown, the sky above the Aetherial Waypoint turned a sickening, bruised shade of violet-black.

The white star-stone towers of the city shuddered violently as massive, dark-glowing spikes rained down from the sky, slamming straight into the plazas, avenues, and floating market rings. The moment the dark anchors struck, jagged black ley-lines spread across the pristine marble like veins of poison. Hundreds of lower and mid-tier deities screamed in agony as their divine origins were forcibly drawn toward the anchors, their radiant aura-flames dimming as their cosmic vitality was harvested in real time.

Above the central plaza, a massive obsidian dreadnought tore through the spatial fabric. Standing at the prow was a towering warlord draped in spiked astral armor, his face hidden beneath a dark, faceless visor glowing with cold purple fire.

"Deities of the Waypoint!" the warlord’s voice boomed across the sky, heavy with metallic distortion and soul-rending malice. "I am Monarch Malakor of the Obsidian Astral Pantheon! By order of the Shadow Seat, this waypoint’s divine origin is forfeit! Any who resist shall have their cores rendered down into astral fuel!"

Panicked crowds of local gods fled in all directions, but the dark barrier erected by the siphon-anchors held them trapped within the grand plaza, slowly draining their power to feed the dreadnought’s main cannon—a colossal array aimed directly at Vince’s jade citadel.

"Look at them," Vetra grunted, standing up and slinging her broadsword over her shoulder, her draconic scales catching the dark violet light of the sky. "They saw an unranked domain and thought they could harvest the city before you established full control."

"They are messy," Lyrielle added softly, standing up with her elder-wood bow already strung. Her violet eyes locked onto the dark vanguard units descending from the dreadnought. "Unrefined power, stealing from lesser beings because their own origins are decaying."

Barnaby glided to Vince’s side, her translucent dress glowing with a gentle, soothing silver aura as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "Vince... their dark anchors are disturbing the natural flow of the local ley-lines. It feels so noisy."

Vince reached down, idly tracing his thumb over Barnaby’s cheek before looking up at the massive obsidian vessel looming over his citadel. His dark amethyst eyes flared with cold, untouchable supremacy.

"Vetra, Lyrielle," Vince commanded smoothly. "Clear the skies. Show them what happens to scavenger pantheons in my domain."

"With pleasure," Vetra growled, a vicious, bloodthirsty grin splitting her face.

She vaulted over the balustrade, her dark-iron broadsword bursting into a blinding pillar of crimson-gold Ignis flame. As she plummeted toward the plaza floor, she twisted her body mid-air, bringing her sword down in a violent, sweeping arc.

BOOM!

A wave of concentrated solar-dragon fire erupted across the plaza, instantly incinerating dozens of dark astral vanguard units and shattering two of the massive siphon-anchors into fine dust. The shockwave blew back the corrupted ley-lines, releasing the trapped local deities who scrambled back in utter shock.

Before the remaining astral enforcers could regroup, a rain of glowing silver spirit-arrows zipped through the sky with terrifying precision. Lyrielle fired from the citadel balcony, her fingers a blur against her bowstring. Each arrow, infused with the canopy-boosted vitality of her elder-bow, pierced cleanly through the dark obsidian armor of the astral warriors, exploding into brilliant bursts of white spirit-fire that cleansed the corruption upon impact.

"Insolent pests!" Monarch Malakor roared from the prow of his dreadnought. "You dare interfere with the harvest of the Obsidian Seat? Main cannon... target the ascendant’s vessel! Vaporize them!"

The colossal barrel beneath the dreadnought pulsed with blinding black-purple energy, drawing upon the stolen power of thousands of divine origins. The air around the cannon cracked under the sheer density of condensed void pressure as the blast was unleashed—a beam of absolute destruction capable of erasing entire planetary systems.

The blast surged toward the jade citadel, tearing through the skyways and vaporizing the white towers in its path.

Vince didn’t move an inch. He didn’t even draw a blade. He simply stepped to the edge of the balcony and flicked his wrist forward.

"Inward Absolute Domain: Sever."

THUMMM—

An invisible wave of absolute cosmic authority expanded from Vince’s hand, meeting the incoming beam of destruction mid-air. The moment the dark blast touched Vince’s boundary, its spatial matrix was instantly dismantled. The massive beam didn’t explode—it simply ceased to exist, dissolving into harmless spark-dust that fluttered harmlessly against the jade hull of the citadel.

Monarch Malakor’s faceless visor flickered violently as he stumbled back in sheer disbelief. "What... what kind of high law is that?! My divine cannon was fully charged!"

Vince didn’t give him time to comprehend. In a single, seamless step, he bypassed the distance between the balcony and the dreadnought’s deck, appearing directly in front of the massive warlord.

The spatial pressure surrounding Vince was so dense that the obsidian hull beneath Malakor’s feet groaned and buckled, golden-purple fractures spreading across the entire ship.

"You talk about harvesting origins," Vince spoke smoothly, his dark eyes looking down at the towering warlord with total detachment. "Let me show you what a true apex origin looks like."

Vince raised his right hand, his fingers curling into a light grip around Malakor’s dark iron throat. Before the Monarch could even activate his defensive divine aura, Vince’s domain pressure slammed into his body, instantly severing his connection to the Obsidian Astral Pantheon and trapping his soul inside a cage of absolute, unbroken darkness.