Read Novel Full Chapter 1680: The Psionic Roar
Chapter 1680: The Psionic Roar
At the World Tree, the throne shuddered.
As the Tian King of the Stoneheart Horde and sovereign of the continent, Orion sensed the exact moment Blackstone City vanished.
Pulling himself from the apocalyptic slaughter within Abyssal Demon·Decay’s memory, Orion scowled. He gazed down at the empty expanse where the city had stood just moments prior.
"It has begun."
"Is the dream infiltrating reality, or is reality invading the dream?"
Commander Thresh had remained entirely lucid. To him, the demon’s memories were nothing but fleeting shadows. They couldn’t touch him, let alone ensnare his mind.
Orion turned to the Commander. Realization dawned, turning his gaze into a silent question.
"Your instincts are correct," Thresh said. "The Will of the Realm has taken the most promising city from each of the four continents and cast them into the dreamscape—into the other Ascendant Plane."
He paused, considering his next words. "Or rather, it isn’t exactly a physical displacement. The cities have always existed in a dual state. Now, they are simply fully submerged into the dream."
The explanation was cryptic, but Orion and the other three continental lords understood immediately. Through their sovereign bonds, they could feel that their territories hadn’t truly vanished. If anything, their borders had expanded, tethered to something entirely new and alien.
"Are you saying the Titanion Realm is actively facilitating our invasion of the other Ascendant Plane?" Archbishop Kysar locked eyes with the Commander. Given the stakes, a being of Thresh’s caliber had no reason to lie. Kysar merely needed absolute confirmation.
"Exactly." The Commander swept his gaze across the gathered lords, catching the predatory glint of excitement in their eyes. "But don’t celebrate just yet. An invasion works both ways. While our reality pierces their dreamscape, their dreams are already bleeding into our reality."
"Cast your senses across your lands. See for yourselves."
Orion and the other three lords closed their eyes, reaching out through their connection to the land.
The catastrophe had struck exactly three minutes prior. Without warning or omen, the foreign plane’s infiltration had silently unspooled The Weave of Reality.
An invisible force breached the threshold between the void and the material world. It descended upon the Titanion Realm, washing over the entire Titan continent like a phantom wind.
No mortal sensed its arrival. The sleeping populace was simply dragged deeper into the Nightmare. Swathed in an unnatural warmth and pulled by unseen threads, they were slowly swallowed by darkness. Their minds fractured, sinking into chaotic oblivion.
Within that oblivion, formless horrors took root. Screams and roars echoed through the dark. Moments later, the dreamscape was nothing but a chorus of agony.
In the waking world, the affliction spread rapidly. Guards collapsed at their posts. Citizens dropped in the streets. One by one, they succumbed to the forced slumber.
No one was spared. The devastation struck every city simultaneously. Within minutes, the entire Titan continent ground to a halt, drowning in an eerie, absolute silence.
From the moment the first victim fell, the Nightmare had arrived.
Deep within the headquarters of the Blood and Fire Mercenary Corps in Stoneheart City, Commander Godfrey shifted in his sleep. His brow furrowed, though his breathing remained steady.
In the oppressive dark of his mind, Godfrey felt entirely paralyzed, as if his muscles and very soul had been severed from his control.
What’s happening to me? Where am I?
He tried to thrash, to run, but his limbs refused to obey. He was anchored in place, utterly helpless. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound emerged. The suffocating, absolute darkness bred a primal terror. He could feel his life slipping away.
Suddenly, a bloodcurdling shriek pierced the silence outside his door. It was a sound of sheer agony—like a man being slowly dismembered.
Godfrey froze. He knew that scream. It belonged to the newest recruit in his mercenary company, a young squire tasked with tending the mounts.
Before he could process it, a chorus of fresh screams echoed through the halls. Some were brutally cut short.
An ambush? I just heard Stoutgut and Bloodear... are they dead?
No. I won’t lie here and listen to my men die!
The thought of his comrades being slaughtered ignited a spark deep within his core. A furious, wordless roar erupted from his very soul.
The paralysis shattered. Free at last, Godfrey bolted out of his quarters.
He skidded to a halt in the corridor. Lying motionless on the stone floor was the new recruit. The boy’s eyes were wide and vacant. Dead.
"I’ll kill you all!" Godfrey bellowed. Stepping over the boy’s corpse, he charged toward the courtyard.
In his blind rage, he failed to notice the faint, holy radiance bleeding from his flesh. Had Orion been there, he would have instantly recognized the manifestation of a Virtue Knight’s aura.
...
Back at the World Tree, Orion’s eyes widened in horror.
"The dreamscape is warping reality. It’s dragging entire cities into the dark, turning their own streets into labyrinths... and filling them with unspeakable horrors forged from their own deepest fears."
"This complicates things," Commander Thresh noted calmly beside him. "The laws governing that Ascendant Plane lock their consciousness within the darkest corners of their own minds. They cannot wake up, nor can they distinguish the dream from reality."
"And my people? The ones fully submerged. If they don’t wake up... what happens to them?" Orion muttered. "Do they become dream thralls? Husks?" He caught himself immediately, realizing the sheer stupidity of the question.
Thresh said nothing. He simply stared. The other lords might have been helpless, but Thresh knew exactly what Orion was capable of. The Tian King simply needed a moment to remember it himself.
Dreams... consciousness... psionic dominance.
It clicked. It was an ancient, dormant power he hadn’t tapped into in an age—the raw, untamed power of the mind.
Orion settled back into his throne. He shut out the physical world and projected his mind outward, blanketing the entire Titan continent.
In Stoneheart City, the silence was absolute. Suddenly, the towering statue of the Tian King in the central plaza erupted with a blinding, divine radiance. A psychic roar, channeled directly from Orion’s soul, tore from the stone monolith.
Divine Art: Psionic Shift - Battle Roar!
Orion’s psychic bellow shattered the silence, ripping through the veil between reality and the void. The sheer force of his will violently tore his slumbering subjects from the Nightmare’s grip.
This was his true power.