Titan King: Ascension of the Giant

Chapter 1501: Flip Side of the World

"Since we share the blood of the tides, I will offer you a single mercy: Exile."

Orion broke the silence first.

As he spoke, the air above them shimmered and cracked, revealing a massive, floating pane of arcane glass. It did not attack, but it hung there like a guillotine blade waiting to drop. The threat was palpable.

"Friend, who exactly are you?" the woman asked.

"Orion."

"The Giant King? The one who drove out the Holy Order and the Goddess Agaman?"

"Does it matter if I am?"

Orion’s voice was even, his gaze locked on Coraline. Her aura was dense and refined—a Demigod of the Second Circle. She was clearly the leader here. Her question wasn’t idle curiosity; she was probing, weighing the rumors against the reality standing before her.

"We do not doubt your strength, Giant King," Coraline said smoothly. "If you could expel the Holy Order, you are stronger than us. I was merely curious."

Orion didn’t reply. He had learned the hard way to be wary of female Demigods. Any woman who could claw her way up from the bottom of the food chain to divinity was neither weak nor foolish. His own partner, the Mermaid Goddess Seraphina, was proof of that. If Seraphina’s avatar, Marina, had ever truly wanted him dead, his rise to power might have ended in a shallow grave.

Fortunately, Marina was on his side. These three might not be.

"From your tone, I take it you’re refusing the offer to leave?" Leonidas rumbled. His voice was dark, heavy with violence. He looked ready to tear them apart right then and there.

Coraline’s gaze shifted to the massive bear-man, and her pupils constricted into pinpricks.

"A World Dragon."

The whisper sent a ripple of tension through Orion and Leonidas. For her to recognize his lineage on sight... Coraline was knowledgeable.

"Heh... jealous? Want a taste?"

Leonidas grinned, baring his fangs, but the air around him began to boil. Every being present felt the sudden, violent spike in his Divinity. He was priming a breath attack.

Silence descended.

After identifying the World Dragon avatar, Coraline went mute. Beside her, the serpent Corren and the monstrosity Vaelor remained still. Orion guessed they were frantically communing through a psychic link.

He had no patience for a debate. He preferred to dictate the tempo.

Above them, the Mirror of Providence flared. Beams of translucent light rained down, cage-like and heavy.

In an instant, Coraline, Corren, and Vaelor froze. Their expressions twisted in shock. It wasn’t just physical restraint; they felt as if a higher power had locked onto their very souls, freezing them in space and time.

Despair washed over them. It was absolute, irresistible suppression.

"I drove back the Goddess Agaman," Orion said, his voice cold and indifferent, echoing in their minds. "That gives me the confidence to slaughter you where you stand. Now, tell me your choice."

With a thought, he tweaked the rules of the suppression, granting them just enough freedom to speak.

"Giant King... we can migrate," Coraline gasped, her voice losing its regal edge, becoming soft, almost pleading. "But if we leave, you inherit a catastrophe."

She had shifted tactics instantly. Confronted with overwhelming force, she adopted a posture of gentle submission, a classic survival instinct to soften a conqueror’s wrath.

Orion stared at her, waiting.

"My lord, as you can see, even if my companions and I fought as one, we could never match Agaman," Coraline explained, her voice trembling slightly. "Yet, she signed a peace treaty with us. The reason is simple. In the deepest trench of the World of Eldoria, there is a seal. It holds back a race that cannot be killed."

Cannot be killed.

Leonidas and the Kraken sneered in unison. To Survivors who had crawled out of hell, the concept of true immortality was a joke. Even the Commander, or the dreaded Arthas—who dared claim they were truly unkillable? They had all died once. They knew the lie of eternity.

However, seeing Orion remain silent, they kept their skepticism to themselves.

"They are the Zeythan Dreadfins," Coraline continued, ignoring the mockery in the others’ eyes. She kept her focus solely on Orion. "The Zeythan are a symbiotic race of Eldoria. They are born of this world. You cannot kill them. Even if you destroy their bodies, they simply respawn on the flip side of the world."

"Giant King, the Zeythan can only be sealed. It requires the constant expenditure of Divinity from Demigods to maintain the barrier. Do you still wish to drive us away?"

A flicker of schadenfreude passed through Coraline’s eyes. If they left, Orion’s coalition would be left holding a very live grenade. This was the leverage Agaman had bowed to—the Sea Folk acted as jailers for a threat the Goddess didn’t want to deal with.

The Kraken looked confused, unable to parse the truth of it. But Orion and Leonidas exchanged a glance.

They understood.

Orion had forged a Divine Kingdom; Leonidas carried a growing world within his own gut. They knew the mechanics of planar geometry. Reality was a coin with two sides. Behind the material plane lay the Void—the shadow of the world.

If the Zeythan Dreadfins were native to that Void, and Eldoria acted as a nexus point, then they were functionally immortal in the material realm. Killing them here just sent them back to the shadow, where they would reform and return.

"Brother," Leonidas muttered, his skepticism replaced by tactical caution. "You think the broad is telling the truth?"

"I don’t know," Orion said. "But we’re about to find out."

Without breaking eye contact with the three sea gods, Orion unleashed his sensory perception. He didn’t bother to be subtle. His consciousness swept out like a radar pulse, crashing through the water and driving deep into the abyss.

What is he doing?

Is he trying to verify the existence of the Zeythan?

Does he know how deep this ocean is? The arrogance!

Corren’s psychic whispers to his allies were filled with disbelief.

Do not mock him, Coraline shot back via the link. A faction capable of repelling Agaman is not to be trifled with.

She didn’t dare underestimate him now. The ease with which he had paralyzed them proved that Orion’s power ran far deeper than his rank suggested.

Under their watchful gaze, Orion’s mind plunged into the black, forcing its way down to the crushing depths of the ocean floor.