The Epic Tale of Chaos vs Order

Chapter 2272: The gateway into the Emptiness manifested.

Time seemed to slow around Leonidas, each passing second stretching into a heavy, dreamlike haze as a fierce surge of fear struck his heart. He watched the High Lord of the Root rush toward Cain with murderous intent, its grotesque body cutting through the layers of reality with terrifying speed. For an instant—just an instant—Leonidas felt the sting of frailty, the awareness of his own age, of the battles that had worn him down. But instead of surrendering to that weakness, something deeper ignited within him.

His eyes glowed with a scarlet brilliance—hard, unwavering, and filled with purpose. The path before him had never been clearer.

"Stand by my king. Fight to the end." That single truth was enough. It was the final push he needed, after a lifetime of readiness, to step across the last threshold he had long held back.

"Resurrección."

The word echoed through the layer like a tolling bell. Space rippled, fire roared, and the air trembled as Leonidas unfurled the totality of his power at last. Before the High Lord could reach Cain, a towering figure materialized in its path—reshaped, reborn.

Leonidas now stood as an armored warrior wreathed in blazing flame. Fire cascaded from his head and shoulders like a living mantle, each flicker infused with heat so intense it warped the air around him. Ornate golden armor adorned his massive frame, its surfaces glowing with molten radiance.

Upon one arm rested an immense round shield, the metal scorched, glowing, and etched with patterns formed by living fire. In his other hand he held a curved blade marked by intricate burning sigils, each one pulsing with lethal heat.

His stance radiated dominance. Resolve. The absolute readiness for war. He looked like a warrior carved from the very heart of a sun.

A fierce smile cut across Leonidas’s face as he embraced this new-found might. Finally, he could wield the Alpha-Omega Overgod weapon gifted to him by the Scarlet King without restraint.

Raising the curved blade high, he slashed with the full measure of his newfound strength. A catastrophic blast erupted from the swing, a heat-driven tidal wave that consumed everything before it.

The High Lord of the Root was hurled backward, its monstrous form engulfed by incandescent fire.

Leonidas did not waste even a breath. His figure flashed forward, chasing the enemy through the burning wake of his own attack. Power surged through every fiber of his being—far more than he had ever commanded before. Yet he knew there was no room for hesitation.

Cain did not turn from the Guardian of the Root. But he felt Leonidas’s ascension—and for the first time in this battle a small, genuine smile touched his face. The oldest warrior of the Scarlet Kingdom had stepped forward without fear.

And the good news was not over as the Guardian’s regeneration was beginning to dim.

That meant only one thing.

Cain had finally damaged its core essence enough that even the Heart of the Root could not instantly restore it.

Without wasting a heartbeat, Cain drove an Endsphere into the Guardian’s chest and detonated it like a cannon blast, forcefully hurling the abomination down through the layers.

Cain immediately ascended higher.

Crossing into the eighth layer, he caught a fleeting glimpse of Anark and Radagon locked in brutal combat, their faces half-destroyed as they clashed again and again.

The life force of the True Primordial of the Void had fallen to a dangerously low level, but Cain had neither the time nor the luxury to focus on that. He rose past them, pierced into the ninth layer, and hurled himself toward the cocoon with every shred of power he still held.

The decapitated head was visible once more.

Dark orange runes blazed across the skull, their glow so intense that space-time around them twisted in constant fluctuations. Cain’s heart tightened with dread as he noticed a thin crack forming on the forehead—thin, but growing.

Every second it expanded, widening, deepening. The portal to the Emptiness was already taking shape, and he knew it would be complete in a matter of minutes.

"Now... with everything I have." Determination sharpened Cain’s gaze. He forged an Endsphere and fired it as a colossal cannon.

The blast struck the skull, saturating it with destructive energy. Across Cain’s chest, a rose with eight blooming petals appeared, each one glowing with Death Energy. Cain began channeling every ounce of that power into the attack, exponentially amplifying its force.

"BOOOOOM."

The End-Sphere cannon erupted, its corrosive might eating into the bone of the massive head. Cain grinned fiercely—but he did not allow himself the slightest distraction. Even under the bombardment, the crack on the forehead continued to spread.

He poured in more power. Then more.

Petal after petal of Death Energy burned away as he fueled the attack beyond its natural limits.

Cracks spread across the entire skull, weaving like fractures in collapsing stone. The head trembled as if on the verge of rupture—when suddenly its maw tore open and it screamed.

"ARRHRGRSKKK!"

A shockwave exploded outward, so forceful that Cain was blasted into the distance. Every bone in his body cracked, hairline fractures spreading across him as blood streamed from his eyes, ears, and mouth.

The shockwave wasn’t only physical—it carried a spiritual strike potent enough to shatter lesser beings entirely. If not for Cain’s enhanced defenses, he would have been knocked unconscious on the spot.

Though he resisted, he was still pushed violently away.

Energy burst from him again, brighter and more intense than ever. The scarlet glow radiated across multiple layers as he forced himself forward step by agonizing step. The decapitated head had little resilience left. One final strike—just one—would be enough to destroy it completely.

But before he could reach it, the Guardian of the Root reappeared—standing directly in front of the head, its body trembling, yet fully committed to blocking his path.

Cain cursed silently. It had taken nearly everything he possessed to overcome the shockwave from the head’s scream, and now the Guardian had returned, mangled but unyielding, placing itself between Cain and his target.

Yet what happened next froze even the Scarlet King’s heart.

"CRAAAACK."

A deafening rupture echoed across the ninth layer. For an instant it felt as if reality itself had split. The portal on the forehead of the decapitated head—the gateway into the Emptiness—finally manifested.