Strongest Kingdom: My Op Kingdom Got Transported Along With Me

Chapter 408: Chapter 407: Tier 8 Artifacts (part 1)

The fused sphere gently collided with the gigantic demonic hand.

There was no violent impact.

No deafening explosion.

For the briefest moment, the world became eerily quiet.

Then...

A tiny crack appeared on one of the hand’s fingers.

Crack.

The sound was almost inaudible.

Yet the moment it echoed through the heavens...

Everything exploded.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The collision unleashed a catastrophe beyond imagination.

The world itself seemed to split apart.

A blinding pillar of light shot upward, piercing through the clouds and disappearing beyond the sky.

Four elemental laws erupted at once, crimson flames devoured the heavens, golden lightning shattered the air into countless fragments, endless torrents of water swept across the land like ancient dragons awakened from their slumber, while countless blades of wind cut through everything in existence.

The demonic hand answered with overwhelming power.

Its black runes illuminated one after another.

The surrounding darkness surged like an endless sea.

The Law of Decay burst outward with unimaginable force.

The two powers collided head-on.

The resulting shockwave erased everything nearby.

The remaining mountain peaks instantly disappeared.

The surrounding forests became dust before anyone could even see them vanish.

Entire rivers evaporated.

The ground sank thousands of meters, forming a crater so enormous that it could swallow an entire city.

The sky itself fractured.

Gigantic cracks spread through space for hundreds of kilometers.

Reality seemed moments away from collapsing.

Even the battlefield far away suffered the aftermath.

The city walls shook violently.

Thousands of soldiers were thrown from their feet.

Tier 6 experts instinctively raised their strongest defenses.

Yet many were still blasted backward by the terrifying pressure.

Above the battlefield...

The gigantic hand remained where it was.

But now...

A shallow cut stretched across the center of its palm.

Dark crimson blood slowly dripped from the wound.

Each drop carried terrifying power.

The blood hadn’t even reached the ground before it dissolved into countless fragments of dark energy, incapable of existing within this world.

For several moments, it’s silence.

Then, a deep voice echoed from beyond the endless darkness inside the spatial crack.

The voice was calm, ancient and indifferent.

Yet every word carried enough authority to shake the heavens.

"...Not bad..."

A faint chuckle followed.

"...Mortal."

The surrounding space trembled simply because the voice existed.

"You actually managed..."

"...to scratch me."

There wasn’t any anger within those words.

Only mild surprise.

As though someone had unexpectedly been pricked by an insect.

Then the gigantic hand slowly closed around the grotesque abomination.

The three heads immediately revealed expressions of absolute worship.

"Our Lord..."

"Our Lord..."

"Our Lord..."

Darkness gathered beneath the creature.

The enormous hand began retreating toward the spatial crack.

The abomination would soon disappear into whatever terrifying place existed beyond reality.

The ancient voice echoed once more.

"I will take my pet, now."

The crack slowly began closing. Reality attempted to repair itself.

It seemed the battle had reached its conclusion.

Or so the being beyond the crack believed.

Alix quietly watched the retreating hand. His expression remained completely calm.

Then...

A faint smile appeared on his face.

"Hey."

His voice wasn’t loud.

Yet it somehow reached beyond the collapsing layers of space.

The gigantic hand paused ever so slightly.

Alix slowly lifted his left hand.

"Who said, you could simply take my prey?"

Silence.

Then, a low chuckle echoed from beyond the dimensional rift.

"So..."

"You wish to stop me?"

Every syllable carried an indescribable pressure.

Even the surrounding laws instinctively retreated before its authority.

To ordinary cultivators, hearing that voice alone would have shattered their souls.

Unfortunately, its opponent was Alix.

Without answering, Alix reached toward the empty air beside him.

Alix’s hand disappeared into the ripple of space beside him.

When it emerged again, he was holding a jet-black compass no larger than his palm.

It had no needle.

Instead, countless concentric rings slowly rotated around a dark crystal embedded at its center. Every ring was engraved with impossibly ancient symbols, symbols that seemed to change each time one looked at them. Some resembled stars. Others looked like shattered worlds. A few seemed to be living laws carved into solid form.

The artifact gave off no aura.

No pressure.

No fluctuations of mana.

It was so ordinary that anyone below a certain realm would mistake it for a worthless antique.

Yet that was precisely what made it terrifying. Its power did not leak.

Not even the smallest trace escaped. Everything was perfectly sealed within.

Tier 8 Artifact.

World-Locking Compass. An artifact forged solely for one purpose. To deny escape.

To imprison everything within the space it designated.

Whether one escaped through space, the void, dimensional folds, or even hidden realms, as long as they remained beneath the artifact’s limits, they could not leave.

It did not attack.

It did not defend.

It simply declared one absolute rule.

No one leaves.

Alix gently brushed his thumb across the surface of the compass.

Click.

One of the rotating rings stopped.

Then another.

Then another.

One by one, every ancient ring locked into place.

The dark crystal at the center slowly lit up.

There was no flash of light. No explosion, or violent surge of mana.

Instead, color vanished, the crimson blood.

The gray Decay Law.

The blue sky above the shattered mountains, everything faded.

The entire world became a sea of black, white, and gray, even sound disappeared.

No wind.

No heartbeat.

No movement.

It was as though the world itself had forgotten how to breathe.

Only Alix remained untouched.

His eyes quietly observed the motionless world around him.

Then, a deep metallic chime echoed through the colorless silence.

Dong...

The sound spread endlessly.

Invisible ripples expanded from the World-Locking Compass.

They ignored mountains.

Ignored space.

Ignored the countless cracks spreading across reality.

Everything they touched froze.

The collapsing dimensional rift suddenly stopped shrinking.

The gigantic demonic hand halted in place.

Even the endless darkness beyond the crack became completely still.

The ancient being beyond the rift remained silent for the first time.

Then...

Its calm voice finally returned.

"...A sealing artifact?"

There was no longer amusement in its tone.

Only surprise.

The enormous fingers slowly tightened around the grotesque abomination.

Yet...

Nothing happened.

The hand couldn’t move, not because it lacked strength. But because the surrounding space had become an unbreakable prison.

The laws governing this region had changed.

The World-Locking Compass had rewritten them.

The ancient voice spoke again, slower this time.

"...Interesting."

Darkness beyond the dimensional crack surged violently.

The being attempted to force its way back.

Space groaned under the pressure.

Hairline fractures spread across the invisible prison.

The World-Locking Compass trembled faintly inside Alix’s hand.

Even a Tier 8 artifact had its limits.

After all...

The existence beyond the crack was clearly far stronger than the abomination.

Yet Alix simply smiled.

He slowly raised the compass.

The black crystal at its center shone brighter.

The countless ancient symbols engraved across its surface awakened one after another.

Each rune illuminated with a pale silver light.

The colorless world became even quieter.

The pressure increased severalfold.

The dimensional crack, which had begun trembling under the ancient being’s strength, abruptly stopped moving once more.

The gigantic hand could no longer retreat.

Nor could it advance.

It remained suspended between two worlds.

Caught, and trapped.

The three heads of the abomination suddenly became frantic.

"No..."

"Our Lord..."

"Save us..."

They struggled wildly inside the giant hand’s grasp.

The Decay Law exploded in every direction.

Gray storms ravaged the colorless world.

Yet every strand of law that touched the invisible prison instantly dispersed into nothingness.

Their power was meaningless here.

The ancient voice fell silent again.

Several long moments passed before it spoke.

"...What an interesting mortal."

The words echoed through the colorless world like the judgment of an ancient god.

The dimensional crack slowly expanded once more.

The endless darkness behind it seemed to become deeper, as though an entire universe of death was awakening.

"I admit..."

"...you have exceeded my expectations."

The enormous hand slowly flexed.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

Hairline fractures instantly spread throughout the invisible prison created by the World-Locking Compass.

The ancient silver runes floating through the monochrome world flickered violently.

The compass in Alix’s hand emitted a low humming sound.

For the first time since its activation...

It began to tremble.

The being chuckled softly.

"But..."

"...do not think a mere Tier 8 artifact is enough to imprison me."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

An indescribable aura erupted from beyond the dimensional crack.

It wasn’t mana.

Nor Qi.

Nor ordinary laws.

It was a higher authority.

The darkness behind the crack suddenly expanded by hundreds of kilometers.

Invisible pressure descended upon everything.