Chapter 248: The Empress’s Fierce Protection

Qin Xian stood quietly beside the Empress of Eternal Abyss, hands behind his back, a faint and unreadable smile playing on his lips. In the span of a heartbeat, several Void Overlords turned their gazes upon him.

Were it anyone else, the collective attention of so many twisted gods would have shattered their sanity under the weight of divine malice. But Qin Xian stood there calmly, not only unaffected, but examining each of them in turn—curious, composed.

These were the enemies of humanity. Of all living worlds. Their existence was an existential threat to the real universe, and to the Sacred Realm—humanity’s final bastion. Each Void Overlord was a creature of pure calamity, a manifestation of darkness so profound that their will alone distorted the fabric of reality.

And yet… they hadn’t personally struck at humanity. Not yet. Most of the true devastation wrought by the Void had been through its Lords—beings powerful enough to destroy worlds, but not at the level of the Void’s highest sovereigns. That restraint, in large part, came from the Sacred Realm. Without it, Earth might have been reduced to ash long ago.

Even so, humanity’s progress had been monstrous.

Unlike other civilizations that were erased when facing Void Lords—snuffed out before they even knew what had come—humanity had clawed out a front line in the Void, driving back the corruption from their homeworld and holding their ground for over a thousand years. Not a small feat.

The Overlords who now stared at Qin Xian carried a variety of expressions. Curiosity. Indifference. But more than anything… malice.Read on CrimsonScrolls.net #af5ceedada

The Empress of Eternal Abyss noticed at once. Her beautiful face remained as cold and impassive as ever, but deep within her eyes, something frigid stirred—a glacial fury growing deeper by the second.

Qin Xian was her only child. If he suffered even the slightest harm, she would burn down the entire cosmos to make it right.

“Your Majesty,” came a silken, teasing voice.

The Queen of Slaanesh stepped forward with a graceful sway, offering the Empress a courtly curtsy. “This must be the young prince, yes?”

Her crimson eyes locked onto Qin Xian with unabashed hunger. To her, he looked like a delicacy worth savoring. A flawless specimen.

Qin Xian met her gaze, unmoved. The Queen of Slaanesh was, in every sense, the embodiment of desire. Her beauty was beyond comparison, her every movement saturated with seductive power. It wasn’t simply her appearance—her presence exuded lust itself, like a divine perfume that lured minds and hearts alike.

Even compared to the most breathtaking women Qin Xian had met in the human world, none could match this terrifying allure.

And yet, the moment of fascination in his eyes passed swiftly. A flicker of intrigue. Then cold clarity.

“Pleasure to meet you, Sovereign of the Fifth Court,” Qin Xian said politely, his tone quiet and detached. His words were courteous, but each syllable carried the chill of the void.

The Queen of Slaanesh was surprised. Most creatures—be they god, man, or monster—could not resist her presence. But this one… didn’t even waver. He admired her beauty, yes. But he did not crave it.

That made her all the more interested.

Then came the reaction from the Empress of Eternal Abyss.

She had felt it—the Queen’s attempt to entangle her son’s heart, however subtle. Her cold eyes darkened, filled with boundless fury. To touch her child… even in jest…

“Slaanesh… are you seeking death?” The Empress’s voice rang out like an abyssal bell, echoing through the void. Icy, emotionless, absolute.

A torrent of eternal abyss erupted from her presence, swallowing space itself. Within moments, the surrounding light vanished, replaced by shadows and dust.

Life itself receded. The Void roared as billions of miles of space fell under her domain. Anything that moved—creatures, energy, echoes—was erased, ground to nothing in her absolute silence.

A nearby Void Lord from the Fifth Court was caught in the blast. His eyes widened in despair as his body began to wither. His flesh cracked, his essence drained. In seconds, only a dried-out corpse remained.

Slaanesh stood with her usual radiant smile, raising a slender hand wrapped in crimson mist. The deathly stillness pounded against the mist, collapsing and consuming everything around it—but not her. The Queen vanished from her location in a heartbeat and reappeared elsewhere, unharmed.

Looking down at her hand, now faintly dusted with remnants of deathly frost, she chuckled. “Your Majesty, I was only playing with your little prince. Must you react so harshly?”

The Empress did not reply with words. Her eyes, colder than space, simply stared.

“Slaanesh,” she said at last, voice like a frozen blade, “this is your final warning.”

“If it happens again… the First Court will declare total war on the Fifth. And that war will not end… until your Court is ash beneath my feet.”

A silence fell across the banquet.

Even the other Void Overlords showed unease. The Overlord of Decay narrowed her eyes. Tzeentch’s mist briefly paused in its swirls. The Plague Lord said nothing. For all their arrogance, none among them were eager to test the Empress’s wrath.

And Slaanesh… was smiling no more.

No one ignored a threat from the Empress of Eternal Abyss.

Especially when it came to her son.