I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 525: Portals

The portal’s darkness rippled, the edges crackling with energy that made reality strain from whatever was forcing its way through dimensional barriers.

Then a figure stepped through.

It wasn’t the massive entity Warren’s mind had been preparing for.

Loryn emerged from the gateway, his gaunt frame wrapped in dark robes. The ancient mage’s skeletal features showed no particular emotion as he surveyed the courtyard.

His vacant gaze meticulously evaluated each individual in attendance.

”Loryn,” S observed, popping another slice into his mouth. ”Punctual as always.”

The ancient mage inclined his head in acknowledgment but offered no verbal response.

His focus had already reverted to the analysis of tactical placements, meticulously assessing distances and calculating their positions.

Behind Loryn, the portal continued widening.

The fifteen-foot gateway expanded with violent force, reality tearing further as invisible hands ripped space apart with increasing aggression.

The sound was like fabric being shredded at a cosmic scale.

High-pitched screaming mixed with deep bass rumbling that made Warren’s teeth ache, and his water-manipulation senses registered distortions in atmospheric pressure.

The portal’s edges crackled brighter, dark mana bleeding into physical reality as the tear grew larger.

Chunks of dimensional fabric seemed to peel away like burnt paper, disintegrating into nothing as the opening expanded.

The gateway finally stabilized at nearly thirty feet tall and equally wide, a massive wound in reality that dwarfed anything Jack had created previously.

The sheer size spoke volumes about what was preparing to emerge.

An object of considerable size necessitated such a vast amount of space to traverse dimensional barriers without experiencing compression or damage during its journey.

Warren’s enhanced perception tracked the expanding portal with growing dread; his experience screamed warnings about entities that needed large gateways to just come through.

’What kind of creature requires a thirty-foot portal?’ his thoughts raced through possibilities, each one worse than the last.

’Elder dragons are massive, but even they can fit through standard summoning circles. Demons can compress their forms for transport. What has Jack bound that needs this much space?’

Pho’s white eyes tracked the expanding gateway with mounting frustration.

His massive frame shifted, ice axe gripped tighter in one hand as annoyance built in his expression like pressure in a sealed container.

”Loryn!” The Deathfrost Demon’s voice boomed across the courtyard, his patience finally breaking. ”When’s he coming? I don’t have all day!”

The ancient mage’s skeletal features arranged themselves into what passed for amusement among the perpetually undead.

A dry laugh emanated from him, the sound akin to wind whistling through abandoned crypts, carrying echoes of long-departed mortality.

”You’ve always been impatient, Pho,” Loryn replied. ”But this is worth the wait. Trust me when I say they’ve never seen anything like what’s coming.”

His hands moved elegantly, fingers dancing through gestures that pulled on mana.

Mira’s perception could barely comprehend.

Each movement left trails of dark mana in the air, creating temporary runes that hung suspended before dissolving back into ambient energy.

Dark mana erupted from Loryn’s position like a tidal wave of living shadow.

The energy spread outward in expanding rings, covering the ground at a speed that gave no time for evasion or counteraction.

Warren and Mira tensed, recognizing the technique immediately.

It was the same barrier Loryn had used to trap Warren during his fight with Pho.

But this was different.

The scale was too big, the scope far beyond what Loryn had deployed before.

The dark mana rose from the ground and descended from above simultaneously, creating walls that enclosed the entire battlefield.

The barrier expanded outward in all directions relentlessly, claiming territory with the inevitability of nightfall.

Within seconds, a dome formed, covering an area a mile in diameter.

Large enough to contain multiple city blocks, large enough that the shrine itself became a small landmark within the enclosed space.

The dark mana walls rose hundreds of feet into the air, creating a prison that dwarfed the previous construction in both scope and power.

Where the first barrier had been a tactical containment, this was strategic isolation. Cutting off an entire region from external observation or interference.

Warren stared at the barrier with narrowed eyes, his blue tattoos flowing faster as he assessed the structure.

He’d broken through this technique before.

During his fight with Pho, when Loryn had trapped them in the smaller dome.

Warren had found weaknesses in the construct’s integrity. He’d applied precise applications of water magic to stress points, creating cascading failures that had shattered the barrier from inside and allowed his escape.

His hands began forming patterns, water mana building as he prepared to repeat that success.

Loryn’s hollow gaze tracked Warren’s movements. A smile touched his lips.

”You won’t be able to break my barrier a second time,” Loryn conveyed his message as he presented established truths.

Warren’s hands paused mid-pattern, water mana still building but hesitating as Loryn’s words registered.

The ancient mage’s tone carried conviction that went beyond simple boasting.

This was someone who knew his craft intimately and had accounted for previous failures.

Then Loryn’s hands came together in a thunderous clap.

The sound was like reality itself breaking, a percussion so loud and forceful that it transcended normal acoustic properties and entered the realm of physical assault.

A visible shockwave erupted from Loryn’s position, rippling outward in expanding rings that distorted the air with concentrated pressure.

The sonic boom washed over everyone present with overwhelming force.

Warren and Mira staggered as the pressure wave hit them like a physical wall moving at supersonic speed.

Their ears rang with tones that made thought difficult, vision blurred from the vibration rattling their skulls, every nerve ending screaming protest at the auditory assault.

Alaric remained steady, his purple eyes tracking the shockwave’s passage without concern.

His enhanced physique absorbed the impact without visible effect,

S didn’t even flinch.

The Contract Demon popped another tangerine slice into his mouth, chewing with evident satisfaction as the sonic boom washed over his position and dissipated around him like water around a stone.

Pho grinned, his white eyes gleaming with approval at the display of power.

But the sound itself wasn’t the attack; it was the catalyst.

Thousands of portals ripped open simultaneously throughout the enclosed space.

These were smaller, about eight feet tall and three feet wide, just large enough for humanoid figures to pass through single file.

But there were hundreds of them, thousands of them, scattered across every available surface within the dome like wounds bleeding darkness into physical reality.

On the ground, their edges crackling with the same dark mana that formed the dome itself. Against the barrier walls, hovering at various heights as if gravity had become optional within this enclosed space.

Floating in mid-air throughout the battlefield, creating three-dimensional assault vectors that eliminated the concept of safe zones or defensive positioning.

So many that counting them individually became impossible, the sheer quantity overwhelming Warren’s perception’s ability to track discrete targets.

They advanced through the portals in well-ordered successions, their arrangement carried out with military precision.

Each portal disgorged its contents in perfect timing with the others.

Dragons, minotaurs, mistborn, panthers, a giant spider, a hydra, and lastly demons.

The deployment was completed in approximately thirty seconds.

A coordinated infiltration ensued as numerous portals released a multitude of bound entities, rapidly populating the expansive dome with a dense array of bodies, creating an intensely hostile atmosphere.