Harem Of Eternal Yandere Beasts: My Legendary Wives

Chapter 83: The Seven

The battlefield went silent.

It was a profound, ringing silence that had nothing to do with the physical shock of the fighting, the presence of the Hunger Beyond, or the terrifying realization that their reality had just narrowly escaped absolute collapse. This silence was born of a single question. A simple, melodic question that cut through the dying winds of the plaza like a razor-sharp blade.

"Tell me, little king," the silver-haired woman murmured, her deep golden eyes remaining locked onto Orion. "How much has he told you about the other seven?"

Orion didn’t answer immediately. Instead, his gaze flicked to the side.

The Old Bastard had instantly looked away, his translucent gaze suddenly finding a particularly interesting patch of ruined cobblestone near his spectral boots.

*Interesting. Very interesting.*

The reaction alone was more telling than any verbal confession could have been. The ancient founder looked exactly like a thief caught with his hand inside the imperial treasury, his typical, unshakeable bravado evaporating into thin, guilty air.

### Ancient Friction

The Queen’s Mercy noticed the deflection immediately. A slow, knowing smile touched her lips. It was not a kind smile, but it was not cruel either; it was the look of someone who had known the Old Bastard for several millennia and had become intimately, exhaustingly familiar with his absolute worst habits.

Beside her, the Founder projection let out a sudden, roaring laugh. It was a boisterous, booming sound that echoed off the surviving pillars of the academy.

"He didn’t tell him, did he?" the Founder crowed, pointing a mocking finger at his ancient counterpart. "He kept him completely in the dark!"

The Old Bastard folded his translucent arms across his chest, scowling deeply. "I was going to," he grumbled, his voice dripping with defensive irritation. "I had a perfectly logical schedule."

The Founder laughed even harder, his spiritual form flickering with amusement. "You absolutely did not! You never follow schedules!"

"That is a baseless, slanderous accusation!"

"It is an objective historical fact, and you know it."

"I had a sequential training protocol mapped out!" the Old Bastard snapped. "You can’t just dump the entire history of the primordial era onto a developing mortal core! It causes conceptual indigestion!"

The Queen’s Mercy let out a soft, elegant sigh. The sound somehow carried the weight of ten thousand years of administrative frustration and disappointment. "You haven’t changed in the slightest, old friend."

The Old Bastard looked deeply offended. "I’ve changed a great deal, thank you very much! I’m far more cautious now."

"You once attempted to solve a major dimensional collapse by feeding a primordial star-dragon to the local space-time rift," she remarked dryly, her golden eyes twinkling with ancient mischief.

"And it worked!" the Old Bastard retorted, puffing out his chest.

"It exploded."

"Temporarily! The localized reality was perfectly stable for at least forty-eight hours before the secondary detonation."

The Founder nearly collapsed to the ground, his laughter ringing across the ruined plaza. Even the First Sovereign, still kneeling in absolute submission, let out a quiet, rueful chuckle.

*Interesting,* Orion noted, watching the interaction with a cold, calculating gaze. *Apparently, every single legendary, god-like being in this world knows the Old Bastard personally. And apparently, not a single one of them has an ounce of respect for his executive decision-making. That is incredibly reassuring.*

### The Reality of the Path

The Queen’s Mercy turned her attention back to Orion. The lighthearted amusement vanished from her face, replaced by a deep, genuine warmth—and beneath that warmth, a profound sense of concern.

"Answer me honestly, successor," she said, her voice dropping to a serious, resonant tone.

Orion met her golden gaze without flinching. "Almost nothing."

The Queen closed her eyes for a brief moment, letting out another quiet sigh. The Founder’s laughter died down into amused chuckles, while the Old Bastard muttered something entirely incoherent about being unfairly judged by history. Nobody paid him any attention.

"Of course," the Queen murmured, opening her eyes. "Then we have a significant problem."

Behind her, the Hunger Beyond suddenly moved.

The colossal void creature, realizing the tide of battle had turned catastrophically against it, was retreating. It scrambled backward through the air, trying desperately to drag its massive, faceless body back through the narrow, bleeding rift of the celestial seal.

The Queen did not even bother to turn her head. She simply raised her left hand, extending a single, pale finger, and snapped.

The sharp, clear sound echoed across reality.

At first, nothing happened. There was no explosion of golden light, no sudden manifestation of chains, and no booming shockwave. Yet, the Hunger Beyond stopped dead in its tracks.

It was not because the creature had chosen to halt. It was not because some invisible barrier had blocked its path. It was because the concept of distance had suddenly ceased to exist for it. The void entity was actively thrashing and fleeing, yet it was not getting any farther away. It remained trapped in the exact same coordinates of space, running in place like a desperate insect pinned to a board.

The battlefield froze in absolute awe.

*Terrifying. Extremely terrifying. She didn’t just manipulate space—she completely ignored the physical law of distance.*

Suddenly, the system interface flickered into view before Orion’s eyes. For the first time since he had awakened the system, the text appeared visibly shaken. The usual crisp, golden letters were slightly misaligned, as if the program itself was trembling.

◈ MYTHIC SUMMONING SYSTEM ◈

*Authority Analysis: [ERROR]*

*Reason: Absolutely, Under No Circumstances, Attempting This.*

*Status: Pretending We Do Not See It.*

◈ ◈ ◈

Orion blinked. *Even the system is terrified of her. That is a fascinating piece of data.*

The Queen’s Mercy tilted her head slightly, her gaze drifting toward the empty air right in front of Orion’s face where the system notifications usually hovered. A small, knowing smile played on her lips.

"Still as sarcastic and evasive as ever, I see," she murmured softly.

The system interface vanished instantly, flickering out of existence so fast it left a faint static pop in Orion’s vision.

The Old Bastard and the Founder exchanged a look, both of them chuckling quietly, while the First Sovereign looked slightly embarrassed.

*She can see it,* Orion realized, a cold chill running down his spine. *She doesn’t just suspect its presence. She can actually see the system interface. Almost nobody in this world is supposed to have that capability.*

### Sharing the Kingdom (47%)

The transfer metric continued to climb in the background, drawing power from the massive golden reservoir of the sky.

◈ FINAL INHERITANCE ◈

*Transfer Progress: 47%*

◈ ◈ ◈

Pure, unadulterated golden authority flowed through Orion’s spiritual network. *The King’s Right* felt stronger now, more complete and deeply rooted than before. The conceptual chains of light connecting him to the other survivors pulsed with a rhythmic, healthy heartbeat.

Through this massive web of connections, he could feel the presence of everyone linked to him. He felt Caelum’s steadying pulse, Lyra’s sharp focus, the determined spirits of the elite Hunters, and the quiet resolve of Selene and Vale.

It was a network. A kingdom.

The realization settled deep within Orion’s mind. The Authority of the King was not designed to create mindless servants or forced worshipers. Its true purpose was to forge allies—to bind a group of distinct individuals into a single, unyielding entity capable of sharing both power and pain. The distinction was subtle, but it was the difference between a tyrant and a ruler.

The Queen’s Mercy watched the realization dawn on his face. She nodded in quiet, elegant approval. "Good," she said, her voice filled with unexpected satisfaction. "You understand the fundamental truth of the path far faster than he did."

She pointed a finger toward the kneeling First Sovereign.

The man looked up, his expression a mix of embarrassment and defensive pride. "I understood it eventually," he muttered.

"Yes," the Queen replied coolly. "After you shattered half of the known dimensions and nearly drove your people to extinction. Quite an expensive learning curve, brother."

"Details," the First Sovereign sighed, looking away. "They are merely details."

"Extremely large, catastrophic details," she corrected.

The First Sovereign sighed again, offering no further defense. *Fair. Very fair.*

### The Primordial Truth

The Queen’s Mercy turned her gaze back toward the broken seal and the frozen, trembling form of the Hunger Beyond. Her expression slowly hardened, the warm, maternal light in her eyes fading into a cold, clinical frost.

Immediately, the entire atmosphere of the academy plaza changed. The remaining warmth in the air vanished, replaced by a biting, razor-sharp chill that made the hair on Orion’s arms stand up.

For the first time, the Queen looked angry.

The Hunger Beyond reacted to her shift in mood by trembling violently. The massive, world-ending anomaly that had terrified the grandmasters and shattered the sky was now vibrating with pure, primal terror.

The Queen took a single step forward. The space around her boots warped and shifted, the physical universe appearing eager to accommodate her movements, bending its own rules to ensure she did not have to exert herself.

She looked back at Orion. "Do you know what that thing actually is, successor?"

Orion looked at the terrifying, faceless entity of absence, then shook his head. "No."

The Queen nodded slowly. "Good. That means nobody has had the opportunity to lie to you about it yet."

She raised her left hand, and a brilliant, golden light erupted from her palm. The light expanded rapidly, casting a massive, detailed projection across the darkened heavens.

The ruined sky of the academy was temporarily replaced by an image of infinite, spinning worlds. There were thousands, millions, perhaps billions of realities drifting in a vast, interconnected sea of stardust. Orion immediately recognized the structure; it was the same golden network he had seen in the First Sovereign’s memories—the Foundation.

"This is the cosmic framework as it was intended to exist," the Queen explained, her voice echoing with a deep, historical resonance.

The projected worlds brightened, and the golden threads connecting them pulsed with a vibrant, healthy light. The network was beautiful, perfect, and alive.

Then, a tiny, dark crack appeared at the edge of the projection. It was barely visible, a minor blemish on an otherwise flawless canvas.

"Before the rise of cultivation," the Queen continued, her voice growing somber, "there was only the silent expansion. But the dark spread. Slowly, patiently, like a disease. Like rot. Like an insatiable hunger."

The projection shifted, showing the darkness creeping along the golden threads. Worlds began to dim and disappear. Entire realities collapsed into nothingness as the black rot consumed them.

Orion felt a cold dread settle in his chest as the truth dawned on him. "The Hunger Beyond isn’t an invading force from another world," he murmured.

"No," the Queen agreed, her golden eyes flashing. "It is older than the first cultivator. It is older than the Sovereign Path. It is as old as existence itself—the literal decay of reality."

"Can it be killed?" Lyra asked from the steps of the plaza, her voice barely a whisper.

The Queen looked toward her, the expression on her face grim. "No. You cannot kill the concept of nothingness. You cannot slay a vacuum."

The answer fell like a lead weight upon the survivors. Nobody liked that reality.

"But," the Queen added, her voice rising with a sudden, powerful authority, "it can be contained."

### The Nine Locks

The golden projection shifted once more.

Orion saw nine colossal figures appear around the edges of the cosmic network. They were nine massive, conceptual pillars, each radiating a unique, absolute Authority that stabilized the surrounding space. One of the pillars shone with the golden light of *Command*—the King’s Right. Another radiated the soft, silver light of *Mercy*—the Queen’s Mercy.

The remaining seven pillars were shrouded in thick, mysterious light, their specific functions hidden from view.

"The Nine Authorities," the Queen said, pointing toward the pillars. "They were never meant to be weapons of war. They were locks. Together, they formed the absolute seal that kept the Hunger Beyond isolated in the deep void."

She turned her gaze back to Orion, her words striking him with the force of a physical blow.

"The Sovereign Path was never the true objective of our ancestors, little king. The path was merely a crucible. A standardized method to test, refine, and select individuals strong enough to inherit the nine keys."

The revelation left the battlefield in stunned silence.

The Old Bastard looked deeply uncomfortable, shifting his spiritual weight from foot to foot. The Founder projection looked thoroughly guilty, while the First Sovereign simply closed his eyes and looked away.

*Interesting. Very interesting. This was the true secret of the Sovereign lineage. The cultivation, the stages, the breakthroughs—it was all just a glorified selection process to find people capable of acting as universal padlocks.*

### The Last Stand (50%)

Suddenly, the transfer metric surged forward, crossing a monumental threshold.

◈ FINAL INHERITANCE ◈

*Transfer Progress: 50%*

◈ ◈ ◈

A massive wave of golden authority erupted from Orion’s body, sending a brilliant shockwave of light across the entire plaza. The conceptual chains linking him to the survivors flared with blinding intensity. The celestial lock strengthened, the sky seal stabilized, and the fractured pieces of the heavens began to heal at an incredible speed.

The Queen’s Mercy turned sharply, her golden eyes widening in genuine surprise. She clearly had not expected him to adapt to the transfer so rapidly.

A bright, genuine smile illuminated her face. "Fascinating. You adapt far faster than any successor I have ever witnessed."

The Old Bastard puffed out his chest, looking immensely proud, while the Founder looked utterly shocked. Only the First Sovereign looked worried—a reaction that Orion noted with careful concern.

Then, the Hunger Beyond reacted.

Realizing that the window of opportunity was slamming shut, the void creature let out a desperate, screeching roar. It did not try to run this time. Instead, it lunged forward with terrifying, reckless speed.

It did not target the seal, the grand array, or the survivors on the steps. It locked its entire, empty existence onto Orion.

The battlefield exploded into frantic motion. Lyra lunged forward, her spear humming; Caelum tried to raise his sword; the Founder projection unleashed a massive wave of spiritual energy. But they were all too slow.

The Hunger Beyond was an entity that existed outside the laws of the physical universe. It ignored the distance the Queen had imposed, bypassed the physical barriers of the plaza, and appeared directly in front of Orion in the span of a single millisecond.

A massive hand made of absolute nothingness reached out, poised to erase Orion from existence.

Then, the Queen moved.

She did not run or leap. She simply appeared between Orion and the void creature, her silver robes flowing gently around her as if she had been standing there the entire time.

The Hunger Beyond froze, its empty hand hovering just inches from her face.

The Queen looked up at the towering monstrosity, her golden eyes gleaming like twin suns. A dangerous, cold smile touched her lips—the smile of a warrior who had finally cornered an ancient, hated enemy.

She spoke a single sentence, her voice carrying a power that made the entire planet tremble.

"Tell your master..."

Brilliant, golden authority erupted from her body, shattering the sky and forcing the very concept of reality to kneel in her presence.

"...I’m awake."