Chapter 71: True Nature

​Cassian considered her answer for a beat before asking another question. "If that’s true... why are you still fighting?"

​"..."

​Morghanna went silent again, the ambient roar of the war zone seeming to recede into the background.

​"The first reason should be obvious," she eventually answered, her expression hardening. "You wagered my life. I cannot simply surrender."

​Cassian nodded slowly. "Fair."

​"And secondly..." She raised her head with unyielding pride. "It is my duty to defend this territory. As the strongest, it is my responsibility to stand above others and bear the burdens they cannot. As the most superior, it is my duty to protect what belongs to me and...."

​"You’re lying."

​"What?"

​Cassian pointed a finger toward his own eyes. "I can tell when someone is being honest, and when they’re being dishonest."

​With Soul Gaze active, every subtle shift in her aura was laid bare. The microscopic fluctuations of her soul, the hesitation, the underlying uncertainty, none of it escaped him.

​"You were truthful about the first reason," Cassian said calmly. "Your life is on the line. That much is genuine."

​"But the second reason?" His clear blue eyes locked onto hers like vices. "That was a lie... a lie you have been telling yourself for a very long time."

​Those words struck a nerve and caused something deep within her crimson eyes to flicker. It was a subtle reaction, but Cassian caught it immediately.

​"As a superior being, I agree with your premise," Cassian said, stepping forward. "The strong should protect those beneath them. They should mourn those they lose, care for their people, and carry the burden of responsibility."

​"But none of those qualities fit you."

​"You aren’t fighting because you care about this dominion. You aren’t fighting because you love these people, or because you feel responsible for them."

​Morghanna remained motionless, her fists tightening unconsciously at her sides.

​"You aren’t fit to rule."

​"After all, the real reason you’re still fighting is simple."

"You’re enjoying this."

​"..."

​"You find this exciting."

​"..."

​"The challenge. The uncertainty. The fact that someone has finally appeared who can push you to your limit."

"That’s what you truly care about. Not duty. Not responsibility. Not leadership."

​"You simply don’t want this battle to end."

Morghanna stood motionless.

​Cassian’s words echoed through her mind, causing the Orc Chief to suddenly question something she had always accepted as fundamental truth.

​Had she really been searching for excitement all this time?

​Her Crimson eyes drifted toward the emerald sky.

​As far back as she could remember, everything had felt dull. When her mother cursed her existence, she had felt nothing.

When that same woman slit her wrists and bled to death, Morghanna had continued her day as though nothing had happened.

​When she slaughtered her brothers and sisters during the struggle for supremacy, she felt neither guilt nor pride.

Even when she became Chief of the Kragmar Dominion, the absolute position she had fought her entire life to obtain, she felt only emptiness.

​No satisfaction. No joy. Only frustration, a constant, gnawing irritation that burned her soul.

​Yet... it hadn’t always been that way.

​When she was younger, before her rise to absolute power, life had been different.

There had been true challenges, formidable opponents, dangerous rivals, and impossible obstacles.

There had always been something standing before her, something to overcome, something that made her blood race.

​The frustration had only started after she became the strongest. After every enemy became weak.

After every battle became predictable.

After every victory became guaranteed.

​A realization struck her like a bolt of lightning.

​The elders were always irritable and restless until they satisfied their violent instincts. Could it be the exact same for her?

​No. Not lust, not political power, and not territory conquest.

​What she craved was conflict, challenge, competition, true danger, the thrill of uncertainty, and the exhilaration of standing before an opponent capable of defeating her.

​Morghanna slowly turned her gaze back toward Cassian. The excitement swelling within her chest intensified, her grin widening until it became feral.

​She understood. For the first time in her life, she finally understood herself.

​BOOM!

​Mana exploded from her body.

​The sky shook, the ground trembled, and the surrounding air screamed as a colossal pillar of crimson mana erupted into the heavens, piercing through the emerald glow of the sun itself.

​Morghanna’s eyes widened, not in shock, but in absolute enlightenment.

​The invisible shackles that had restrained her mind for years shattered into dust. The frustration, the irritation, the restlessness, and the countless heart demons that had accumulated within her soul were expelled in a single instant.

​She had stood at the peak of the Arcane Vessel Realm for years, one step away, just one single step. Yet no matter what she tried, she could never cross that final threshold.

​Now she understood why. Her cultivation had never been lacking, her talent had never been lacking, and her comprehension had never been lacking.

​The only thing holding her back... had been herself. Her refusal to acknowledge her true nature, her craving for challenge, her desire for worthy rivals, her hunger for conflict, and her longing for uncertainty.

​The moment she accepted those core truths—

​CRACK!

​Something shattered deep within her soul.

​The bottleneck collapsed completely. Mana surged violently through her body, one circuit, ten circuits, fifty circuits, a hundred circuits.

All one hundred and eight mana circuits blazed like brilliant stars.

​The compressed mana stored within her Arcane Vessel core erupted forward like a raging, unstoppable flood.

​The breakthrough had begun.

​Throughout the battlefield, every single warrior froze.

​The sky darkened, the earth groaned, and gravity itself lost all coherence. Boulders floated into the air, discarded weapons rose from the dirt, and entire stone structures cracked as invisible gravitational forces twisted around them.

​Some areas experienced crushing, bone-snapping pressure; others became nearly weightless.

​The phenomenon spread across the entirety of the Kragmar Dominion, forcing Orcs and undead alike to halt their clash. The sheer, terrifying aura was suffocating.

​The surviving Orcs stared toward their Chief with fanatical excitement.

​"THE CHIEF IS BREAKING THROUGH!"

​"THE CHIEF HAS ASCENDED!"

​"ENDURE! HOLD THE LINE!" One of the elders roared so loudly his voice echoed across the valley. "LAST LONG ENOUGH AND THE CHIEF WILL CRUSH THEM ALL!"

​The battered Orcs immediately rallied, hope returning to their eyes as even those on the verge of death found newfound strength to continue swinging their axes.

​On the opposite side of the clearing, Nyxara stood a short distance from her Lord, her white hair dancing wildly beneath the raging mana storm.

​She looked toward Morghanna, then toward Grukhar.

​The giant four-meter Orc was in miserable condition: countless deep wounds covered his hide, several shadow spikes remained impaled through his flesh, one arm hung limply at his side, and his ragged breathing proved he was barely standing.

​"My Lord!" Nyxara’s voice remained calm. "The mana within her core is evolving!"

​Cassian nodded silently. He could see it through [Soul Gaze]—the mana flooding through Morghanna’s circuits was becoming exponentially denser, more refined, and far more terrifying.

​Like molten stars being compressed into a singular point.

​Then—

​BOOOOOOM!

​The breakthrough completed.

​A massive shockwave erupted outward, blowing apart the clouds above the dominion and sinking the earth beneath her feet by several meters.

Thousands of frontline warriors were forced backward by the kinetic wave.

​Morghanna floated into the air, gravity bending around her very existence as the laws of the physical world seemed to submit.

Massive chunks of earth hovered around her like orbiting satellites, space distorted, and the air warped with every breath she took.

​Every subtle movement generated visible ripples in reality itself.

​The pressure radiating from her frame had multiplied. A monster who had already stood at the peak of the Fifth Realm had finally crossed the threshold into the Sixth Realm:

​The [Grand Circuit Realm].

​A level countless cultivators dreamed of reaching, a realm capable of dominating entire kingdoms and altering battlefields through sheer presence alone.

​A heavy silence descended over the battlefield.

​Morghanna slowly lowered her gaze, her raven-black hair dancing behind her while her crimson eyes shone brighter than ever before.

​The frustration that had haunted her for years was gone. Only exhilaration remained, only anticipation, and only pure excitement.

​She looked directly at Cassian and smiled: a genuine, radiant smile born from finding what she had been searching for all along.

​Fueled by newfound purpose and overwhelming power, Morghanna stood undisputed.