Immortal Paladin

I stood before the enormous tower that the Supreme Heart had jammed into my planet. It reached far beyond the clouds, a colossal pillar of black and gold that seemed to pierce reality itself. There wasn’t any visible entrance, not even the faintest crack or seam that suggested it had been built by something that understood mortal logic. It simply existed, rooted in the Hollowed World like an iron nail driven through flesh.

I took a deep breath and reached for the Laws.

”Heavenly Punishment.”

Silver Steel erupted with blinding radiance as divine authority poured into its edge. Lightning danced across the blade, the power of judgment and annihilation gathering into a single slash. I swung with everything I had, enough force to split continents and scatter stars.

The tower did not even tremble.

The silver light crashed against its surface, only to dissolve as though consumed by an endless abyss. A heartbeat later, the entire attack rebounded toward me.

The explosion swallowed my vision.

I was hurled across the wasteland, my boots carving trenches through the broken earth as I forced my legs to stop the momentum. Dust and shattered stone exploded around me before I finally skidded into a halt.

”Will you stop already?” Alice snapped from behind me. ”You’ve been hacking at that stupid thing for seventy-two straight hours! Seventy-two, David! Every attack gets reflected, and every attack ends exactly the same way. It’s futile, so just... give it up already.”

I tightened my grip on Silver Steel until my knuckles turned white.

”Give up?” I muttered, my voice shaking with rage. ”Seventeen continents, Alice. Seventeen entire continents were erased when that damned thing came crashing down here. Nineteen billion lives were lost. Most of them had already survived one apocalypse. They escaped from the other half of the Hollowed World, and countless others had crossed over from the Underworld after the Great Beast’s invasion. They endured everything, only to die because that bastard decided to drop this tower on my world.”

The words kept spilling out before I could stop them.

”The reincarnation cycle is breaking apart. Children are being born without arms or legs. Some have hearts that can’t beat properly. Some are born with lungs that fail them the moment they breathe. Others...” I swallowed hard. ”Others come into the world with something broken inside their minds. They say a soul is divided into six parts—the four limbs, the heart, and the mind. The cycle isn’t making whole souls anymore.”

I lowered my head, staring at the cracks beneath my feet.

”My authority over the Hollowed World is failing. I can’t even call back the souls of the Guardians who died for me. I can’t gather them. I can’t restore them. They’re just... gone.”

Silence settled over us.

Our situation had never been this terrible.

Alice eventually sighed, her expression softening.

”There are still silver linings, you know.”

I looked at her without saying anything.

”You got your disciple back,” she continued. ”And he’s been working harder than anyone else. Hei Mao managed to rebuild the Underworld between the Dark Veil and our world. Gu Jie finished repairing the hole the Great Beast tore open. And...” she paused before offering me a small smile, ”we still have the players.”

I almost laughed.

Silver linings.

She was simply trying to be optimistic.

The rebuilt Underworld was barely functioning. Chaos flooded every surface, and countless monsters born from the Great Beast’s lingering malice prowled through the darkness. The wound that creature had carved into existence hadn’t truly been repaired either. Gu Jie had only managed to stretch the Dark Veil over it like a bandage. The actual landmass was still gone, reduced to drifting rubble floating through the endless vacuum beyond our world.

Even the players had paid an unimaginable price. So many of them had died over and over during the catastrophe that their levels had plummeted. Entire guilds had been crippled by the penalties.

Then there was the Warden.

That oversized lunatic definitely wanted to wipe my Empire off the map after the stunt I had pulled. Hiding the Hollowed World inside the Dark Veil had been my only option. If I couldn’t beat him, then I would make sure he could never find us again.

Hopefully.

By now, he should have been drifting somewhere in the endless void of outer space.

His disappearance had nearly doomed us anyway. Without him, the natural balance of the Hollowed World had collapsed, plunging everything into an ice age that lasted for almost a week. If I hadn’t elevated the Hollow Star and transformed it into an artificial sun, the entire planet might have frozen over.

The cost of that decision still haunted me.

The Hollow Star had once provided an endless torrent of quintessence, allowing us to cultivate resources beyond imagination. Now it spent every waking moment burning overhead, keeping the world alive. The fountain that had sustained our growth had become little more than a glorified star.

If I counted the loss of the Underworld, the wars that followed its destruction, the Great Beast’s rampage, and everything that came after…?

The Hollowed World had never been weaker.

We had saved countless lives, but we had also buried countless more.

”We’ve survived worse, Master,” Starshroud said cheerfully from within my mind. ”We’ll overcome this obstacle too. That’s what we’ve always done.”

I let out a slow breath.

”Thanks... I needed to hear that.”

Alice crossed her arms, nodding as though satisfied that I wasn’t about to charge the tower again. ”And you should probably go meet the World Council. They’ve been asking for an informal meeting. Everyone’s waiting for you.”

”I know.”

My gaze drifted back toward the impossible tower.

It stood there in absolute silence, casting its shadow across the broken remains of my world.

Just what was the Supreme Heart thinking?

How had that guy even found the Hollowed World?

After reaching the realm of a Ruler of Laws, my understanding of existence itself had expanded. The innate powers of both the Dark Veil and the Hollow Star had evolved alongside me. I wouldn’t have been able to transform the Hollow Star into a replacement sun without that growth.

Likewise, the Dark Veil’s concealment had reached a level that should have hidden us even from another Supreme Being. It wrapped around the Hollowed World like an invisible cocoon, masking our existence from the endless cosmos beyond.

By every law and every calculation I understood, finding us should have been impossible.

Yet the Supreme Heart had not only found the Hollowed World.

He had driven a tower through its heart.

Just why?

It better not be for kicks, or I might just lose my mind.

”I’ll meet them,” I told Alice quietly. ”Bashing this damned tower clearly isn’t getting me anywhere.”

The informal meeting happened sooner than I expected.

Apparently, the World Council had simply been waiting nearby while I spent the last three days acting like an idiot and throwing everything I had against the tower. Looking back on it now, they had probably been watching me slowly lose my mind.

”What do you want?”

We gathered in a clearing not far from the tower’s shadow. The seven Primaries stood before me, and the moment I arrived, every one of them dropped to a knee.

”We greet the Holy Emperor!”

”We pay our respects to the Lord of the Hollowed World!”

”May your radiance guide us!”

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

”Enough. Cut out the formalities and stand up already.”

The seven of them exchanged glances before obeying. 

My Ophanim quietly spun within my eyes and the world slowed. Truth unfolded itself before me. They all looked composed, but their existences were riddled with fractures. Invisible scars spread through their cultivation, cracks embedded deep into their souls from the war against the Great Beast. Some wounds reached even further, cutting into the very foundation of what they were.

Tao Long of Ward stood with one arm hidden beneath his robes, the meridians inside it nearly shattered.

Ren Xun of Dragon Court looked as proud as ever, yet half of his draconic essence had been burned away.

Mao Xian of the Adventurer’s Guild smiled like nothing was wrong, but the strands of his fate had become dangerously thin.

Liu Yana of the Federation carried herself with elegance, though her soul was riddled with lingering corruption.

Old Tian En of the Four Pillars looked ancient beyond her years, the burden of the recent calamities weighing heavily upon her.

Tan Jin stood in place of the Martial Alliance.

Joan of Radiant Losten remained beside them, serene as always despite the exhaustion that clouded her existence.

I turned toward Tan Jin.

”How is Yi Qiu?”

Her expression softened.

”Alliance Master Yi Qiu remains unconscious. Until he recovers, I will serve as the acting Martial Alliance Master.”

I nodded.

”That’s fine.”

My gaze swept across all seven of them.

”So, what do you want?”

They shared a strange look, probably using Qi Speech to converse with each other. They had already been discussing this before I arrived.

Tao Long stepped forward first. ”We have come to reaffirm our loyalty.”

Ren Xun followed immediately after. ”No. That is not enough. The World Council should be abolished. It is time for you to truly reign over us as the Holy Emperor.”

Mao Xian folded his arms. ”It is simply the most efficient choice. The challenges ahead won’t allow us the luxury of divided authority.”

Liu Yana lowered her head. ”We were naive. We believed that your blessings alone would allow us to carve out a place in the Greater Universe. We thought our organizations could stand beside you as equals.”

She looked directly at me. ”We were wrong. If we wish to survive... we need more than freedom.”

Old Tian En struck the ground with her staff. ”Take the mantle of sole sovereign of the Hollowed World. Rule us absolutely. The bureaucracy you wished to build through the World Council will only become a hindrance.”

Joan smiled gently. ”My husband and I have already discussed it. Whatever choice you make, we will support you with all that we have.”

Silence followed. I had wanted to believe we had won. The Great Beast was dead, the Hollowed World still stood, and the people had survived, so I truly thought things would finally become better. Instead, everything only seemed to grow worse. There had been a time when I would have blamed myself for all of it, but experience had taught me just how pointless that kind of thinking was. Even so, I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps I had been irresponsible.

The World Council had always been a beautiful illusion to me. It allowed the people to have a voice. It ensured that despite my overwhelming power, someone could still keep me in check.

Yet the seven people standing before me were asking me to take everything.

The authority the World Council had granted their organizations, the responsibility that came with it, all of it—they were offering everything to me. I looked at their faces through my Ophanim and saw that they trusted me, but trust was not the only thing reflected in their hearts. Beneath their resolve lay exhaustion, fear, and uncertainty, and I realized that the weight they had been carrying had simply become too much for them to bear.

”David,” called out Alice softly, ”they aren’t doing this because they’re afraid of sharing your burdens.”

She met my eyes.

”They’re doing this because they’re lost.”

My Ophanim turned faster. Thousands of possibilities bloomed around each of them. I spoke to them across countless branching lines of conversation, seeing their fears, their hopes, and the futures waiting beyond every answer I could give.

Alice’s voice reached me through all of them.

”Don’t be afraid to burden them either. You’ve spent so much time giving them power and expecting them to figure out what you want. Just tell them what needs to be done. They’ll do everything they can to help you.”

I let out a long breath.

She was right.

I looked at the seven Primaries.

”Listen carefully.”

Their backs straightened immediately.

”Something worse is coming.”

I pointed toward the impossible structure looming over the horizon.

”That tower is nothing more than another tragedy waiting to happen. Treat it as a threat on the same level as the Great Beast.”

I turned toward Tian En and Joan.

”The two of you will work together. Investigate every property this tower possesses. I want to know what it’s made of, what is the Supreme Heart’s intention with it, and if there’s any way inside.”

Both of them bowed.

”It will be done.”

I looked at Mao Xian and Liu Yana.

”You two will coordinate with my spy division. Begin preparations to infiltrate the Greater Human Realm.”

Neither of them hesitated.

”Understood.”

Finally, my gaze landed on Tao Long, Ren Xun, and Tan Jin.

”Prepare the military,” I ordered, and the air around us seemed to grow heavier as everyone understood the gravity of my words. ”Strengthen every force we have. Train new recruits. Reinforce our defenses. Expand our logistics. I don’t care how you do it. The Supreme Beings know we exist now, and their attention will be harsher than ever before. So make haste... and be very, very careful.”