Harem Of Eternal Yandere Beasts: My Legendary Wives

Chapter 77: The Lock

The world froze. It didn’t pause literally, but the terrifying atmospheric shift made it feel close enough. The exact millisecond Caelum spoke those four words, every reaction around the academy plaza became immediate, violent, and deeply instinctive.

That sudden panic alone told Orion how dangerous the situation had become. The individuals reacting weren’t weak or uninitiated; they were ancient founders, seasoned Hunters who had fought impossible anomalies for centuries, a hardened Sovereign survivor who had endured fifteen years of psychological nightmares, and the Old Bastard himself. Yet every single one of them shared the exact same baseline response: raw, unadulterated fear.

"I remember the lock."

The words echoed across the broken flagstones. They were simple, calm, and entirely final.

Lyra moved first. The silver-haired Huntress vanished from her position in the sky, space shattering behind her like brittle ice. She reappeared less than a meter from Caelum, her black spear thrusting forward in a vicious blur. The strike wasn’t aimed at his heart or his throat; it was directed entirely at his raised sword.

*CLANG!*

The kinetic impact exploded with the force of localized thunder. Violent shockwaves tore through the academy grounds, shattering the remaining stone pavement and sending spiderweb cracks tracing up the ancient pillars. Several distant buildings lost entire sections of their roofing as the displaced air rippled outward.

Yet, Caelum didn’t move. He didn’t budge even an inch. The black-haired cultivator remained planted exactly where he stood, his sword held high, his expression perfectly calm.

Lyra’s golden eyes widened.

Then, the Huntress did something Orion had never seen an elite predator do: she panicked. It was only a slight hesitation, a single second of vulnerability, but it happened.

"Have you completely lost your mind?" Her voice carried a wave of genuine, unchecked anger.

Caelum smiled faintly. "Frequently."

"CAELUM!" The shout rattled the stone stairs. "That lock killed thirty-seven Sovereigns."

The smile remained fixed on his face. "Thirty-eight."

Silence stretched over the clearing as a terrifying realization dawned on Lyra’s face—a realization she clearly hated.

"No," the word emerged from her almost as a plea. "No."

The black-haired cultivator looked toward the fractured sky, toward the shifting form of the First Sovereign trying to escape the perimeter. Then he answered softly, "Someone has to be the thirty-ninth."

The entire academy fell silent. Even the rising wind seemed to disappear from the plaza. Everyone understood the reality of the situation now. Caelum wasn’t planning a standard defense, and he wasn’t planning to win a duel. He was planning to seal the creature back into the dark core container, and apparently, nobody survived the activation process.

Above them, the Old Bastard buried his face in his translucent hands. "I absolutely hate heroes."

The Founder projection immediately nodded in agreement. "They never listen."

"They always think they’re being noble."

"They’re usually just being stupid."

"Exactly."

Caelum continued to ignore their commentary. Apparently, centuries of accumulated ancestral wisdom lost all effectiveness when directed at stubborn people. Orion filed that particular observation away for future reference.

Then, the creature beyond the threshold moved. For the first time since Caelum had drawn his gray steel blade, the First Sovereign actively reacted. The gigantic, shifting eyes narrowed, recognition flickering within the burning gold, followed quickly by something far worse: urgency.

The monster suddenly understood exactly what Caelum intended to do, and it didn’t like the development one bit.

The creature roared, the sound shattering another three layers of the academy’s outer defenses in a cascade of vanishing light. Thousands of intricate runes exploded, flooding the upper atmosphere with unstable golden energy. The first claw pushed farther through the broken seal, and then a second massive claw emerged beside it, gripping the edge of reality.

The world darkened instantly. It wasn’t the result of gathering storm clouds or shifting shadows; it occurred because the creature’s presence was becoming too large, too physically heavy, and too real for the local space to support. Reality itself was beginning to sag and bend around its mass.

The System interface flickered into Orion’s field of vision.

◈ MYTHIC SUMMONING SYSTEM ◈

*Current Situation Assessment: Bad.*

*Revised Assessment: Very Bad.*

*Updated Assessment: Exceptionally Bad.*

◈ ◈ ◈

Orion was beginning to notice a clear pattern. The Old Bastard became increasingly honest and direct the worse things got. It was not a reassuring trait.

Then Caelum turned his head, looking directly back toward Orion.

Instantly, the chaotic battlefield disappeared from Orion’s immediate awareness. The thrashing creature, the hovering Hunters, the shouting faculty, and the broken sky all faded into a dull blur. Only Caelum remained clear.

The black-haired cultivator smiled, and suddenly Orion realized the truth. Caelum had known from the very beginning. From the moment he entered the academy grounds, from the moment he sought Orion out in the halls, and from the moment he arrived at the capital, he had known this exact sequence would happen.

It was an interesting tactical realization, but emotionally, it was heartbreaking. Very heartbreaking.

"You planned this entire sequence," the words escaped before Orion could think to stop them.

Caelum’s smile widened slightly. "I planned several things, yes."

"Don’t do it."

The black-haired cultivator let out a short, quiet laugh. "There it is."

"What?"

"The stage of denial." His ancient eyes softened as he looked at the younger cultivator. "You’re exactly what I hoped for when I started tracking the resonance."

Orion hated that answer deeply and immediately. "Stop talking like you’re already a corpse."

Silence fell between them. Then Caelum smiled again—a real smile this time, completely devoid of his usual bitterness or underlying sadness. It was entirely genuine.

"That stubbornness is exactly why you’ll succeed where we failed."

The statement made absolutely no sense given the impending apocalypse, and unfortunately, it carried the undeniable cadence of a permanent goodbye. Orion hated that aspect even more.

Suddenly, the Sovereign Core inside Orion’s chest surged violently. A massive wave of pure golden energy erupted from his physical body, rippling across the stone plaza.

Everyone froze in response to the sudden spike. The Founder looked genuinely surprised, the Old Bastard looked visibly shocked, and the surrounding Hunters raised their shields in alarm. Even Caelum blinked, halting his advance.

A new notification exploded into existence across Orion’s vision, the text pulsing with a brilliant, unstable light.

◈ SOVEREIGN RESONANCE OVERLOAD ◈

*Compatible Authority Detected.*

*Inheritance Available.*

*WARNING: One-Time Structural Opportunity.*

* **Accept?** [Y / N]

◈ ◈ ◈

The battlefield went dead silent. Orion stared at the glowing option. *Inheritance? Now?*

The Old Bastard stared at the notification screen as well, and then let out an impressive string of ancient, highly descriptive profanity.

The Founder looked deeply offended, gesturing toward the lower courtyard. "There are impressionable students present."

"I don’t care!" the Old Bastard snapped, pointing aggressively at the floating text. "Do you even comprehend what that interface string represents?"

The Founder squinted at the code, and then immediately joined in the swearing.

Neither reaction inspired an ounce of confidence in Orion. Caelum, however, started laughing—actually laughing. It was the hardest Orion had seen the man laugh since his arrival. The black-haired cultivator wiped a tear from one eye, his shoulders shaking.

"Of course," he managed between breaths. "Of course the resonance forces the transition right now."

"Caelum," Orion pressed, his hand hovering over the mental prompt.

The amusement slowly faded from Caelum’s face. The joking disappeared, the casual warmth vanished, and everything else dropped away, leaving only absolute seriousness.

"Listen to me very carefully, Orion. Whatever happens next in this square... do not let him complete the Path."

Orion frowned, his mind working through the phrasing. "Him? You mean the First Sovereign?"

Caelum pointed his blade toward the massive entity thrashing within the black beam. "The thing beyond the seal isn’t the monster."

The world seemed to stop entirely at those words. Nobody moved, and nobody spoke. Even the giant entity beyond the threshold seemed to freeze as the meaning landed brutally. If the thing beyond the seal wasn’t the core monster, then the true monster of the line was still completely missing.

Caelum slowly raised his sword to the sky, and the broken heavens began to crack further. Ancient, intricate symbols appeared in the air around his physical form—thousands, then millions of glowing golden chains spreading out across reality itself.

The lock. The legendary ancestral lock, the very prison that had held the First Sovereign contained for centuries, was manifest. Caelum was about to activate the sequence.

The creature roared in fury, the broken sky shattering wider as a shadow infinitely larger began to emerge *behind* the First Sovereign. It was an entity so massive that even the city-crushing claw looked entirely insignificant beside it. For the first time, the First Sovereign itself looked visibly afraid of what was waking up in the deep.

A new notification appeared in the center of Orion’s sight. It didn’t originate from the standard System interface, but from something ancient buried deep within the architecture of the Sovereign Core itself.

◈ FINAL INHERITANCE CONDITION MET ◈

*Successor Candidate Confirmed.*

*Beginning Core Transfer... 1%*

◈ ◈ ◈

The Old Bastard’s translucent face lost all its remaining color.

And Orion suddenly realized that whatever was happening to his body now wasn’t part of anyone’s original plan.