Strongest Kingdom: My Op Kingdom Got Transported Along With Me

Chapter 409: Chapter 408: Tier 8 Artifacts (part 2)

The monochrome world shook violently. The frozen space cracked apart.

The silver runes engraved by the World-Locking Compass shattered one after another.

Crack!

Crack!

Crack!

Each shattered rune released an explosion capable of destroying mountains.

The dimensional prison was beginning to collapse.

Even Alix could feel the immense pressure pressing against him.

His robes fluttered wildly.

The ground beneath his feet disintegrated into countless fragments.

The World-Locking Compass vibrated more violently with every passing second.

Several new cracks appeared across its dark crystal.

Even a Tier 8 artifact had limits.

And the existence beyond the crack was forcing those limits through nothing more than the pressure of its projection.

Alix narrowed his eyes.

"I see..."

"I suppose you’re stronger than I expected."

There wasn’t the slightest hint of panic in his voice.

Only acknowledgment.

The ancient being laughed, the sound was deep and ancient.

"You possess treasures beyond your cultivation."

"You possess strength beyond your realm."

"You even possess laws that should not belong to someone like you."

"It is... fascinating."

The gigantic hand slowly pushed forward.

Every centimeter it advanced shattered another layer of the dimensional prison.

The World-Locking Compass let out a mournful cry.

Its countless rotating rings slowed. The artifact was reaching its limit.

The being spoke once more.

"Kneel."

"I may allow you to become one of my servants."

Alix simply smiled, and said. "

He reached into the void again.

Another ripple spread through space.

A second artifact appeared in his hand.

Unlike the World-Locking Compass, this one radiated overwhelming destructive intent from the moment it emerged.

It was a dagger.

Barely thirty centimeters long.

Its blade was forged from translucent crystal that resembled frozen starlight.

Tiny galaxies seemed to revolve endlessly inside the blade.

The edge was impossibly thin.

Merely looking at it made the surrounding space split apart.

There were no decorations.

No jewels.

No extravagant craftsmanship.

Only absolute simplicity.

As though every unnecessary detail had been removed so that only one purpose remained.

To kill.

Tier 8 Artifact.

Starfall Godslayer Fang.

A assassination artifact, that can only be used once a month.

Forged by compressing the destructive power of a dying star into a single strike.

The ancient being fell silent.

For the first time, its voice became noticeably colder.

"...Another Tier 8 artifact?"

"You continue to surprise me."

Alix looked down at the crystal dagger.

"I wasn’t planning to use this."

"It’s a shame to waste it."

Then he slowly raised the weapon.

No mana flowed into it.

No complicated activation sequence appeared.

The artifact simply recognized its master.

A single drop of Alix’s blood landed upon the crystal blade.

The entire world froze.

The galaxies imprisoned inside the dagger abruptly stopped rotating.

Then...

Every star within them collapsed into a single point.

An overwhelming killing intent spread throughout the monochrome world.

Even the ancient being stopped advancing.

For the first time, its massive hand instinctively loosened its grip around the abomination.

"...Impossible."

The calmness in its voice disappeared.

"That weapon..."

Before it could finish speaking. Alix flicked his wrist.

He didn’t throw the dagger. He simply made a cutting motion through the air.

The artifact disappeared, no explosion.

Only a single line of silver light that silently crossed the colorless world.

It ignored distance.

Ignored space.

Ignored the dimensional crack itself.

Everything before it was meaningless.

The line of light reached the gigantic demonic hand.

Then continued beyond it.

But nothing happened. The ancient being slowly laughed.

"...Is that all?"

The words had barely left its mouth...

When a razor-thin line appeared across the center of the enormous hand.

Then another.

And another.

The cuts rapidly spread across the entire projection.

The ancient runes covering its skin dimmed one after another.

"No..."

The voice finally contained genuine disbelief.

"This projection..."

Crack.

The sound echoed like breaking glass.

The gigantic demonic hand split cleanly into thousands of perfectly smooth fragments.

Each fragment remained suspended for a brief moment before dissolving into countless particles of black light.

The dimensional crack violently shook.

The darkness beyond it churned like an enraged sea.

The gigantic demonic hand dissolved into countless fragments of black light before vanishing into the collapsing dimensional crack.

A furious roar continued echoing from beyond the rift.

"MORTAL!"

"I WILL REMEMBER YOU!"

The darkness churned violently, as though the ancient existence wished to force its true body into this world.

Unfortunately, the projection sustaining the dimensional connection had already been destroyed.

The crack rapidly shrank.

Its edges collapsed inward.

Layer after layer of distorted space folded back into itself.

The terrifying pressure that had weighed upon the world gradually disappeared.

Within seconds, the dimensional rift sealed itself completely.

Silence returned.

Only Alix and the grotesque abomination remained standing above the devastated wasteland.

The World-Locking Compass slowly dimmed.

Its countless silver runes faded one after another until not a single one remained illuminated.

The black crystal at its center lost its brilliance.

Alix calmly closed the artifact and stored it back inside his System Inventory.

Then he looked toward the crystal dagger still resting in his hand.

The Starfall Godslayer Fang no longer radiated the breathtaking brilliance it possessed moments earlier.

The countless miniature galaxies imprisoned within its translucent blade had vanished.

Its crystal surface became dull, almost colorless, as though all the stars inside had burned themselves out.

Even its terrifying killing intent had completely disappeared.

It now resembled nothing more than an ordinary crystal dagger.

The power compressed within it required time to recover.

One month.

After thirty days, the dying star sealed within its core would reignite.

Alix lightly brushed the flat of the blade with his thumb before returning it to his inventory.

"It’ll be ready again in a month."

His voice was calm.

As though using a priceless Tier 8 artifact had been no more significant than drawing an ordinary weapon.

Then...

His attention shifted back toward the abomination.

The creature stood completely frozen.

Its three heads stared blankly at the place where the dimensional crack had vanished.

Disbelief filled every twisted face.

"Our Lord..."

The crying head whispered.

"...is gone."

The laughing head no longer laughed.

Its lips trembled uncontrollably.

"He..."

"...left us..."

The terrified head simply stared at Alix.

Its pupils shrank until they became tiny black dots.

For the first time since the battle began, the monster understood fear.

Not the fear of pain.

Not the fear of injury.

But the fear of true death.

The blood fountain behind it suddenly surged violently.

Its ancient sacrificial runes blazed with desperate crimson light.

The remaining blood within the basin poured into countless streams that wrapped around the creature’s grotesque body.

The fountain was trying to restore its strength, trying to save it.

Alix watched silently.

His expression remained unchanged.

There was neither excitement nor satisfaction in his eyes.

Only calm.

He slowly raised the silver-white Tier 7 sword in his right hand.

The blade pointed toward the heavens.

Then...

One law after another quietly gathered around it.

Each elemental law flowed naturally along the edge of the blade.

None of them competed with one another.

They simply obeyed.

As though the sword itself had become the center around which the elements revolved.

The surrounding world gradually fell silent. Even the raging Decay Law began retreating.

The abomination sensed it immediately. Its three heads screamed in terror.

"No!"

"No!"

"NO!"

The gigantic sphere of decay descended.

It swallowed the sky, and earth.

It sought to erase everything before it.

Alix took a single step forward. Then, he swung his sword.

There was no flashy technique, and no grand declaration.

Only one clean, perfect slash.

SHIIIIIIING!

A line of light crossed the battlefield. It was so thin that it almost couldn’t be seen.

Yet wherever it passed, the world separated.

The enormous sphere of decay split perfectly in half.

The Decay Law collapsed without resistance.

The six-meter abomination froze.

A perfectly straight line appeared from the top of its middle head. And all the way to the ground beneath its feet.

Time seemed to stop.

The blood fountain behind it suddenly became still.

The crimson streams connecting it to the creature snapped one after another.

The three heads slowly turned toward Alix.

Their expressions were no longer twisted by madness.

The three head lowered its gaze toward its own body.

"...thank you..."

Crack.

The sound echoed softly.

The grotesque body split apart along the line left by Alix’s sword.