Titan King: Ascension of the Giant

Chapter 1507: Indignity of Rebirth

Laito screamed into the void of his own consciousness.

Reincarnating as a Broodmother was an indignity he could swallow—power was power, regardless of gender or biology. But to be reborn as a malnourished, unhatched runt? That was an insult.

He thrashed against the interior of the egg, fighting the calcified shell that felt less like a cradle and more like a coffin. To any ordinary Broodmother, the shell was protection. To Laito, an Awakened soul with the memories of a Demigod, it was a cage. It was the only thing standing between him and the resources he needed to ascend.

Horath. Antarid. You miserable bastards.

I know this is your doing. Just you wait. When I claw my way back to the apex, I will flay your spirits inch by inch.

Complications during reincarnation weren’t unheard of in the God-Devouring Insectoid Race, but for a Demigod like Laito, the process was supposed to be curated. The swarm protected its investments.

Laito hadn’t been a failure in his past life. He had navigated the cutthroat politics of the swarm, leveraging his status as an Awakened One to rise to the rank of Insect King and achieve the Second Stage of Demigodhood. But that was where he hit the wall. No matter how many rare elixirs he consumed or how many rivals he devoured, the Third Stage remained out of reach.

Faced with death by old age, the Insect Queen Moriphara had granted him the Rite of Rebirth—a chance to shed his failing body and start anew with a chassis of limitless potential.

But Laito had won too many arguments and claimed too many territories. His rivals couldn’t touch him under the Queen’s gaze, but once his soul was cast out to find a new vessel, he was fair game. They had sabotaged the trajectory. They had knocked his soul into a dying clutch in a desolate backwater.

Crack, damn you! Break!

Am I to die here? A stillborn god in a forgotten cave?

I need to hatch. I need blood. I need vengeance.

It wasn’t just pride. It was mechanics.

Laito’s greatest asset—the "Legacy" granted to him as an Awakened One—was currently locked. It was a spiritual vault containing the artifacts and contingency plans he had prepared for this very moment. But the Legacy had a strict activation condition: a living body and a True Name.

Right now, he was just a biological anomaly in a shell. If he died here, his Legacy would dissolve into the ether, and he would be truly erased.

Desperation turned to rage. He threw his forming body against the walls of the egg. He didn’t just need to break out; he needed to make noise. He needed to be found.

Friend or foe, it didn’t matter. If a member of the swarm found him, they might nurture him. If an enemy found him, they might try to bind him as a familiar.

Either way, he would survive. He would play the role of the submissive pet until his carapace hardened and his Legacy unlocked. Then, he would shatter the contracts, devour his masters, and reclaim his throne.

Move! Shake! Make them look at you!

Laito converted his panic into kinetic energy, vibrating the egg with manic intensity.

Deeper in the cavern, the air smelled of ozone and crushed chitin.

"Bastien! Flank him!"

The shout barely rose above the clash of steel on carapace.

Redfang was locked in a brutal wrestling match with an Alpha-level Insectoid warrior. The creature was a towering mass of bladed limbs and hardened armor, holding its ground against the Giant’s raw strength.

"Ludo! Check the rear tunnels!" Zhenlo barked, swinging his iron staff to deflect a serrated claw aimed at Redfang’s throat. "This bug isn’t wandering; it’s guarding. There’s something valuable back there!"

The Pandaren was a veteran of the frontier wars. He knew how to read a battlefield. While he ran interference, he directed the flow of combat.

"On it!" Ludo the Gnoll yipped, diving into the shadows, his nose twitching as he hunted for the source of the strange scent he’d caught earlier.

"Hah! That’s it! Show me some spine, you ugly crawler!"

Redfang roared with laughter, the sound bouncing off the damp walls. For a Giant, violence was a language, and he was feeling particularly eloquent. The stalemate didn’t frustrate him; it thrilled him.

"Kill it!"

"Rebel bugs get the boot!"

The Stoneheart Horde had a simple policy regarding the insect population: Submission or extinction. It was the will of Orion, the Grand Elder, and Redfang was happy to be the executioner.

"Time to wrap this up," Redfang grunted, his eyes flashing with a crimson light. "Cyclonic Smash!"

The Giant stepped back, gripping the handle of his massive spiked mace with both hands.

Then, he did something impossible.

As he swung, Redfang’s physical form seemed to liquefy, streaming into the weapon itself. The mace expanded, growing to the size of a small siege tower, glowing with a terrifying kinetic aura. It wasn’t just a weapon anymore; it was the Giant, condensed into pure, destructive momentum.

The Insectoid warrior screeched, raising its pincer-arms in a futile attempt to block.

BOOM!

The impact shook dust from the cavern ceiling.

Zhenlo and Bastien shielded their eyes as a shockwave of gore and shattered chitin blasted outward. The Alpha Insectoid didn’t just die; it was erased, reduced to a smear of paste on the rocky floor.

The massive mace slammed into the ground, and the metal rippled. Redfang stepped out of the weapon as if walking through a curtain of water, grinning from ear to ear.

"Holy hell," Bastien breathed, staring at the crater.

"Hah! Did you see that? Did you see the torque on that swing?" Redfang patted the now normal-sized mace affectionately. "That is the power of a Morph-Weapon, boys! Fresh from the Horde Treasury!"

He looked over at Ludo, who had poked his head back out of the tunnel, eyes wide.

"See, Ludo? This is what happens when you spend your Merit Points instead of hoarding them like a dragon!" Redfang gloated, wiping green blood from his cheek.