Apocalypse: becoming the hidden Ruler[English]

Axel had gradually summarized several principles useful for his own cultivation. The closer his level matched the quality of the life crystals, the better the absorption.

Comprehension improvements also increased efficiency dramatically. And there was one rarer factor— Battle techniques.

Every time he mastered a new combat technique, his life crystal absorption rate rose significantly. After several days of intense combat and training, his Level Six – Lower Grade cultivation had completely stabilized.

“I still need one special opportunity.” Axel opened his eyes, a faint smile appearing. That opportunity…

was already within reach. But now wasn’t the moment to break through. His head tilted slightly toward the door. At the same moment, the door opened.

Zelda stood there, arms crossed. “Axel,” she said coldly, “someone important wants to see you.”

Was Isaac here to bail me out again? Axel sighed dramatically. What a pain.

“You’re Axel?” A tall, square-faced man stepped in behind Zelda, looking Axel up and down with sharp, assessing eyes.

“Come with me.”

They hadn’t gone far before the three of them reached the foot of a staircase.

The man stopped there. He turned around and planted himself firmly at the bottom of the steps.

After Axel walked past him, he stepped sideways—blocking Zelda’s path. “Miss Zelda,” he said flatly, “please wait here.”

A flash of anger crossed her face. She forced herself to stay composed.

“By order of General Zephyr,” she said coldly, “I am responsible for monitoring Axel twenty-four hours a day. He is not allowed to leave my supervision. You—”

“Zephyr?” The man gave her a look filled with open disdain. “I don’t know anything about Zephyr’s orders.”

“I only know one thing.”

“I’m executing the Chief’s orders.” His voice was calm but carried an unmistakable edge.

“If you have a problem, feel free to report it to Zephyr. Or better yet, file a complaint with the Chief himself. But while the Chief is meeting with Axel… No one is allowed on this floor.”

Zelda’s face turned pale. Her lips parted several times, but no words came out. Finally she bit down on her pride.

“Fine,” she said stiffly. “I will report this matter to General Zephyr… and the Ancestor.” With that hollow threat, she spun around and stormed off.

The man didn’t even glance at her. “Go,” he said to Axel. “The Lord is waiting.” He remained where he stood, unmoving—like a statue carved from stone.

“The Chief…?” Axel muttered quietly. A suspicion flickered through his mind as he continued down the corridor.

At the far end stood a pair of heavy wooden doors. Before Axel could knock, a warm male voice drifted from inside. “Come in.”

Axel pushed the doors open.

Inside sat a man with short graying hair. His build was lean, almost frail, yet his face was smooth and unlined. His eyes were bright and clear—sharp with intelligence.

He looked up calmly. “Let me introduce myself first,” the man said. “My name is Lamar. I currently serve as Chief of the Ministry of Defense.”

Axel’s expression shifted. The Chief of the Ministry of Defense. The strongest of Krythos’s three supreme leaders.

Axel immediately bowed slightly. “Your subordinate greets Lord Lamar.”

The Ministry of Defense carried the burden of guarding Krythos’s borders. In every major war, it suffered the heaviest casualties. Because of that, its leader was always the most powerful of the three chiefs.

Yet Lamar himself was famously mysterious. He rarely appeared in public—even during major national affairs. So why… was he here now?

Before Axel could speak, Lamar smiled faintly. “You’re wondering something,” he said gently. “Krythos has sent its strongest warriors overseas, so why am I still here at home?”

Axel’s breathing paused. Lamar chuckled softly. “The Ministry of Defense is primarily responsible for defense. Someone must remain in Krythos to deter high-level mutated beasts.”

“And besides…” he added with a small shrug, “my expertise lies in defense, not offense. I wouldn’t be particularly useful to General Jerome’s campaign.”

Axel’s lips curved into a faint smile. Defense instead of offense? That sounded humble… perhaps too humble.

“In truth,” Lamar continued, “I wasn’t supposed to come here either.” His gaze sharpened slightly. “I believe you sensed it as well—the presence of mutated beasts exceeding Level Six.”

Axel’s smile faded. He nodded. If Zoltan and the others hadn’t unleashed their power at that moment, those high-level beasts would have been drawn in. Northern Spiritual Town might already have fallen.

“I faced a similar situation some time ago,” Lamar said with a quiet sigh. “But thanks to the resolution of the northern crisis, the pressure from mutated beasts across Krythos has eased considerably.”

“Otherwise…” He spread his hands lightly. “I wouldn’t have been able to come here.”

Then Lamar stood. He bowed slightly toward Axel. “For that reason… I must thank you.”

Axel was momentarily startled. He quickly returned the bow. “You protect the nation with your life,” Axel said respectfully. “Compared to that… I only did what I should have done.”

Lamar studied him carefully. “There is something I must ask you personally.” His gaze locked onto Axel’s eyes.

Axel met it calmly. “If you have questions, Lord Lamar, I will answer to the best of my ability.”

Lamar leaned forward, resting his chin on his folded hands. A faint glint flashed in his eyes. “Before the great battle outside the city gates… a powerful golden light appeared near Northern Spiritual Town.”

“Did you see what caused it? Or… discover anything unusual where it appeared?”

Axel didn’t hesitate. “At the time, Saka from the City of Sin and I both sensed it.”

“The center of that golden light seemed to contain… something like a Buddha statue. But I couldn’t see clearly. And it vanished almost immediately.”

“When we went to investigate afterward, the golden light and that strange aura were completely gone.”

“All we found… was a large number of powerful mutated beasts.”

Lamar listened without interrupting. Only after Axel finished did he ask quietly: “Really? You didn’t discover anything else?”

Axel’s expression remained steady. “Nothing.”

The room fell silent. A silence that felt… strangely heavy.

At that moment, Axel’s face remained perfectly calm, as still as a lake without a ripple. But inside his core world, something very different was happening.

The branches and leaves of the Celestial Spirit Tree trembled faintly. The Origin Tree glowed with a dim, steady light. Meanwhile, the small blue teardrop mark embedded in the ancient trunk was rapidly fading. That could only mean one thing—

The spiritual energy he had stored was being consumed at an alarming rate.

At the same time, beneath the table where no one could see, Axel’s thumb and index finger quietly intertwined, forming a strange hand seal.

He had long considered whether he should reveal Dharma’s existence to Krythos. The answer had always been the same. Not yet. Dharma was too special.

It was the first piece of information Axel had encountered that even the Origin Tree couldn’t fully analyze. And after the battle, aside from Dharma’s life crystal… Axel had also taken that Buddha statue.

Only after he was thrown into confinement had he realized something shocking—

The statue had been absorbed into his inner world. Near the roots of the Origin Tree, a small relief image resembling a Vajra Buddha had quietly formed.

Whenever Axel concentrated his mind on the carving, he could see the Buddha’s hands shifting through intricate gestures. Each gesture contained profound mysteries.

They resembled demonstrations of combat techniques—but far deeper. Even the simplest of them was vastly more sophisticated than the Broken Halberd technique Butcher had once taught him. More terrifying still—

Some of the gestures possessed strange effects that directly influenced the spiritual realm.

The first gesture Axel managed to learn from the statue was called: The Aquarius Gesture.

It allowed the user to stabilize their mind and Force into an extraordinarily calm state—immune to disturbance and nearly impossible to detect.

It looked like a simple hand seal. But in truth, it required perfect coordination between mind, Force, and spiritual resonance. Maintaining it drained both energy and concentration at a steady rate.