Titan King: Ascension of the Giant

Chapter 1535: When the True Demigods Arrived

Leonidas’s tone was dripping with contempt, his gaze imperious as he looked down upon them.

Before Gotaition and Yalennu could even formulate a response, Leonidas’s draconic soul phantom split into two distinct, divine dragons. Each clamped its jaws around one of the blazing arrows and lunged back at the enemy demigods in erratic, untraceable arcs.

"Return to sender! Choke on them!"

The next moment, arrow clashed against arrow, and arrow collided with sword.

A violent shockwave swept outward, kicking up a towering tsunami hundreds of feet high. Fortunately, they were in the deep ocean; no matter how massive the tidal wave, from high above, it looked like nothing more than a ripple in a puddle.

When the clash ended and the roaring winds died down, only a single draconic phantom remained suspended over the battlefield.

Its aura was peerless, radiating an absolute dominance over the world below.

"The battle is over for now!" Leonidas declared.

Seeing this, Orion, who had been hiding beneath the waves, broke the surface alongside the Kraken and arrived before Leonidas.

"Orion, what do you mean ’for now’?" the Kraken asked, bewildered. "Are those two not going to let this go?"

After directing his confusion at Orion, the giant beast turned his attention to Leonidas. "Boss, you alright? You want some fresh sashimi to recover your strength?"

The Kraken’s words carried a lighthearted tone. Naturally, there was a hint of teasing mixed in—that was simply how he and Leonidas interacted.

"They were just two flimsy phantoms!" Leonidas scoffed, grinning. "Heh... Your big bro barely lifted a finger, and they were wiped from existence."

Having successfully shown off in front of his little brother, Leonidas was thrilled and feeling a bit cheeky. "As for the sashimi, I’m definitely taking you up on that."

"But, we’ll have to wait a bit!"

As Leonidas spoke, he narrowed his eyes toward the horizon, looking directly toward the mainland.

"Wait a bit?" The Kraken followed Leonidas’s gaze, a sinking feeling settling in his gut.

"This world is their home turf," Orion explained, his eyes also locked on the distant continent. "If your demigod phantom was destroyed on your own territory, would you let it go so easily?"

Both he and Leonidas could sense two vastly more powerful demigod auras rapidly closing in on their position.

"Uh... should I go hide at the bottom of the sea?" the Kraken asked, looking between Orion and Leonidas, his expression a mix of awkwardness and deep worry.

In a clash between true demigods, a mere Arch Lord like him would only be a burden—the weakest link in the chain. It wasn’t that the Kraken lacked loyalty; he just knew his own limits perfectly well. Not dragging his teammates down was the greatest help he could offer.

"Squiddy, put your heart at ease!" Leonidas reached out and patted the Kraken affectionately. "As long as you stand next to my brother, you are one hundred percent safe."

He smirked. "Talking like that means you’re underestimating your big bros."

Even if the gods themselves descended today, he and Orion were prepared to defy the heavens and trample the earth.

"They’re here," Orion said, cutting off whatever Leonidas was about to say next.

Leonidas turned his head, his eyes narrowing at the two figures rapidly growing larger on the horizon.

"Gentlemen, I wonder when my House of the Black Lion ever offended you?"

An intellectual, stern, and entirely composed voice rang out over the waves. Yalennu’s voice was surprisingly melodious.

"So it’s a lady," Leonidas mused aloud. "Who would’ve thought I’d be playing the villain and roughing up a woman today?"

Based on the aura of the speaker, Leonidas instantly identified her. She was the true body of the demigod phantom who had wielded the flaming sword. Previously, her phantom had been too ethereal to discern facial features or even gender. Now, in the flesh, her identity was crystal clear.

"Do you two not understand words?" Leonidas sneered, entirely dismissive of Yalennu’s question. "You bullied my brother on his own turf. Since you didn’t show him any respect, don’t expect any from me."

He had made his reasons perfectly clear right before he struck their phantoms down; he saw no need to repeat himself politely.

Yalennu froze for a second, offering no immediate reply.

A moment later, the other demigod beside her, Gotaition, shot back with a dark tone. "As far as I know, the previous lord of the Alicantus Sea was a turtle leviathan, not the beast standing beside you."

Leonidas grinned. The Kraken had already briefed him on the recent power struggles before he arrived, so he naturally knew the whole story.

"The big turtle is dead. Can’t this place have a new lord?" Leonidas countered. "Or are you just trying to usurp my brother’s territory for yourself?"

Gotaition choked on his words. It wasn’t that he lacked a retort; rather, the political climate of this world didn’t allow him to forcefully push back.

The oceans had always been the absolute domain of the marine demigods. If mainland powerhouses dared to encroach upon the sea, they would face the combined, wrathful retaliation of every oceanic demigod in existence.

It was an unspoken understanding, a tacit treaty of mutual non-aggression.

Of course, as long as it wasn’t a full-scale racial invasion, minor border skirmishes didn’t violate this pact. The Black Lion House had never intended to conquer these waters. They merely wanted to secure a maritime trade route, recover their lost vital resources, and install a sea creature friendly to their House as a puppet lord.

Who could have known they would run into the Kraken—a highly aggressive leviathan violently expanding his territory to break through to the demigod realm. That bloody ambition was the spark that had ignited today’s conflict.

"Sir, are you intentionally trying to trigger a war between the demigods of land and sea?" Gotaition demanded sharply, his expression grave. He had firmly mistaken Leonidas and Orion for newly ascended marine demigods of this world.

"What, are you scared?" Leonidas taunted.

Leonidas was truly wicked at heart. He really didn’t mind dragging this world’s oceanic demigods into a massive war and pulling them into his own faction. If that happened, his little brother, the Kraken, might even be able to fish in troubled waters and rise to become one of the supreme overlords of this world.

Faced with Leonidas’s sarcasm and blatant disdain, the two demigods fell silent once more.

It was true they belonged to a Divine Sigil House, but not all Divine Sigil Houses were united. If the House of the Black Lion suffered a massive, debilitating war, the other rival Houses would undoubtedly seize the opportunity to tear them apart.

"Sir, the rights and wrongs of this matter are difficult to disentangle now," Gotaition finally said, his tone softening. "As long as the entity beside you returns our lost ship of supplies, this matter ends here. We will let bygones be bygones and never venture deep into these waters again."

This was a massive concession. Gotaition and Yalennu had only rushed here for that specific shipment of precious cargo. The Golden-Silk Tinder was the crucial catalyst required for upgrading their descendants’ sigils. That was their absolute bottom line.

"Supplies?" Orion finally spoke up, his voice cool and pragmatic. "What does that have to do with my brother? You lost your cargo, so you’re pinning the blame on him?"

He stepped forward. "If you want your supplies, go dredge the abyss for them yourselves."

At the mention of the Golden-Silk Tinder, Orion had no choice but to intervene. The Kraken had already gifted the Golden-Silk Tinder to him beforehand as tribute.

It was one of the core materials Orion needed to upgrade and reconstruct his relics set, and he had never expected to acquire it so easily from the Kraken.

Given that, swallowing the Black Lion House’s cargo had been a foregone conclusion. They weren’t getting it back.