Chapter 373
The Will of the Dead.

The March of the Undead.

Countless undead surged forward like a wave of swords.

Chris tightened his expression and met their blades head-on.

Using dark magic to neutralize the undead’s spells, he wielded his sword to block Drenne’s strikes.

He managed to hold them off, but the situation was grim.

Anyone could see Chris was being pushed back.

And Drenne, even with her overwhelming advantage, showed no sign of weakness.

Bit by bit, she was wearing him down, accumulating damage until he would inevitably collapse.

As time passed, Chris’s complexion grew paler and paler.

“No! If this keeps up, Christian will die!”
Idrinne bit her lip hard.

There was no sign of a comeback.

“It’s about time to finish this,” Drenne said coldly.

Whoosh!

A thick, white aura enveloped the area.

At last, Drenne began to unleash her true power.

Her Domain.

The Land of the Dead.

A piercing scream echoed.

It wasn’t an illusion.

Thousands, tens of thousands—an uncountable number.

They cast curses upon Chris and blessings of death upon Drenne.

The death energy that had been building in Chris’s soul intensified, draining the color from his face.

The shadow of death approached, and his limbs began to lose warmth; the pounding of his heart grew faint and erratic.

Meanwhile, vitality surged from Drenne’s entire body.

A terrifying storm of energy burst forth from her.

Seeing Chris’s defeated expression, Drenne pronounced her cold sentence.

“It’s time to pay for your arrogance.”

Domain Skill.

Death’s Blade.

A shriek tore through the air.

Thousands upon thousands of undead screamed as the death energy they radiated infused Drenne’s sword.

Unless Chris could overcome this overwhelming force, death was inevitable.

With his current strength, it was impossible.

His face drained of all color.

“No!!”
Idrinne was about to rush forward without hesitation.

Suddenly, something incomprehensible happened.

Chris’s expression shifted, and a sly smile spread across his face.

“That’s enough now.”

Then, Andril shone brightly.

Dark magic sliced through the death energy.

The death energy of the countless spirits shattered and scattered, and Drenne’s eyes widened.

“What?!”
She couldn’t understand the situation.

This was an attack no one could withstand by sheer power.

‘He wasn’t even hiding his strength.’

Chris’s form had changed.

His attainment had deepened suddenly.

“How?”

Chris spoke calmly.

“Oh, I just had a realization.”

“What? Don’t talk nonsense!”

“It’s true. It’s not uncommon, you know?”

Gaining insight during battle.

It happened sometimes.

But there were degrees to it.

This wasn’t just a single realization—his attainment had completely transformed.

It seemed he had advanced several levels.

“Ah, it’s not just one realization. Maybe… five or more?”

“…What kind of nonsense is that?”

“Why? You helped me.”

Chris smiled mischievously.

“Thanks to your death energy, I’ve experienced near-death dozens of times.”

At the brink of death, humans sometimes do things that defy logic.

The Divine King’s power was the embodiment of that.

But Chris shook his head as he trained in that power.

‘I don’t like it.’

To activate the Divine King’s power, one had to actually reach the brink of death.

That didn’t suit his style.

‘And with my talent, it’s hard to push anyone to the brink of death.’

Instead, Chris modified the Divine King’s power to fit himself.

The Mask of Near-Death.

He mentally simulated near-death experiences, gaining the extreme effects without actually dying.

‘I haven’t perfected it yet.’

He amplified minor crises in his mind to feel like death.

It was absurdly difficult to perfect.

But it was enough.

‘At least against Drenne, it works best.’

Drenne’s power was death itself.

So simulating near-death was easy.

Each of her attacks was an opportunity for realization, so Chris deliberately baited her into attacking as if in crisis.

‘Her attacks weren’t just brute force—they carried deep insight, which helped me.’

Experiencing near-death while being struck by enlightened attacks fueled his inspiration.

“Thanks. Because of you, I’ve gotten so much stronger.”

“Shut up!!”
For the first time, Drenne lost her composure and shouted in anger.

Whoosh!

She unleashed her full power.

But the battle had changed.

Chris was no longer being pushed back.

They were evenly matched.

‘Now that I’ve gotten all the effects from the fake near-death, I can stop pretending to be overwhelmed.’

Chris thought to himself.

‘Time to move to the next stage.’

He had grown stronger in an instant, but that was only the beginning.

‘Come on, for me.’

Whoosh!

Chris’s sword swept through the air.

Dark magic, radiant light, swordsmanship—he used everything without holding back.

“You bastard!”

Drenne bit her lip hard.

Her attainment was still slightly ahead of Chris’s, but the gap was narrow enough to be overturned.

Chris’s unpredictable assault made her hands and feet dizzy.

She could lose this.

A wave of crisis washed over her, and she made a decision.

“I’ll end this.”

Ssshhh.

Her domain began to shift.

Domain Transformation.

King of the Dead.

The mournful wails of the spirits faded.

Instead, shadows rose from the ground one by one, taking human form.

“Hmm?”

Chris twisted his lips.

They were familiar faces.

Wraiths.

Sculptors.

Those who had recently met death at Chris’s hands now appeared as Drenne’s undead servants!

And they weren’t ordinary undead.

‘They can use nearly 90% of their former power. There are limits, but still.’

The stronger the summoned undead, the fewer could be maintained and for shorter durations.

Still, it was a deadly threat.

Each Sculptor and Wraith was a formidable foe.

“I’ll kill you.”

Whoosh!

The Sculptors and Wraiths unleashed their own domains.

Domain.

Enemies of the World.

Domain.

Abyssal Corruption.

These two domains merged with Drenne’s own.

At the same time, Drenne moved.

Her domain shifted again.

The shadows of the dead reflected in the world became more solid.

Almost like the real world.

Though incomplete, it was the Nine-Star ‘Genesis Descent’!

“This is the end.”

Drenne’s death carried absolute finality.

Ultimate Skill.

Death Sentence.

With two terrible curses and perfect death closing in, Chris’s breath caught.

‘…This can’t be stopped.’

A true death crisis.

There was only one way.

He had to become strong enough to dispel it all.

In other words, he had to step into the Nine-Star realm.

‘I have to do it.’

At the crossroads of life and death.

All other thoughts vanished, and in a world where time seemed frozen, Chris’s mind raced wildly.

Everything he had experienced flashed before him like a slideshow.

This life, past lives.

Not just about attainment.

Joyful moments, sorrowful moments.

All the paths of his lives shone brightly in his mind, and those paths were the beginning of another world.

Thump. His heart beat once.

‘…What do I want to become?’

At the moment of death, he returned to the source and asked.

He had been running around trying to save the world.

But what he truly wanted from the start was his own happiness.

He had to become strong.

Stronger than anyone.

And he could.

Because he was a being greater than anyone.

‘I won’t lose to those pathetic things.’

Nothing could break him.

Arrogance that looked down on all the world.

At that moment, the nature of the domain rippling around him changed.

The grandeur and nobility of the ruler of all ages filled it.

It was as if a king had descended.

Everyone in the arena began to tremble.

Someone gasped in shock.

“W-What is this?”

“That’s not a domain.”

Whoosh!

The entire scene shifted.

The curses of the Sculptors and Wraiths were crushed and scattered by the darkness that emerged anew, and Drenne’s death lost its authority.

An abyssal chasm.

A throne towering endlessly above, with all else reduced to insignificant creatures beneath it.

Genesis Descent.

The Throne.

Chris had stepped into the Nine-Star True Spirit realm!!

At last, Chris was becoming the Soma King.

“N-No way?!!”

Drenne’s hands and feet trembled.

She was overwhelmed by Chris’s Genesis Descent Throne.

All her fighting spirit seemed to vanish.

“I’ve also stepped into the Nine-Star realm. I won’t lose!!”

Drenne screamed, desperately drawing on her power.

Whoosh!!

A thick aura surged wildly.

Ultimate Skill.

Fallen Heaven’s Fang.

She directly manifested the power of the Fallen Heaven Star based on the Nine-Star realm!

The Fallen Heaven’s Fang, which reaped the souls of the living, descended upon Chris.

But—

“It’s useless.”

Chris reached out.

Flare!

Dark power surged against the Fallen Heaven’s energy.

That alone was enough to shatter it.

The power of the Throne forced the inferior energy to submit and vanish.

“Ah.”

Had he sensed the death approaching?

Drenne let out a groan.

“Still, I’m grateful to you. Thanks to you, I’ve achieved something great.”

Christ twisted his lips.

“Now, rest easy.”

Koooo—

Darkness infused with light rippled from Christ’s hand.

A surge of magic.

But this was different from before.

Unlike the unstable, uncontrollable power that had run rampant previously, this was calm and steady.

Both darkness and light were under Christ’s complete control.

Fwaaah!

Drenne tried to muster his strength, but it was useless.

The magic sliced through his body, and for a moment, silence fell over the hall.

Then, with a shattering roar, Drenne’s body vanished without a trace.

Victory.

“It’s over. Is there anyone else who dares challenge me? If not, I shall take my place as the lord of the fortress.”

The entire hall fell into stunned silence.

No one could accept the reality.

Drenne had been defeated, and Christiaan—the sworn enemy of the Four Kings’ Fortress—had become its lord.

It felt like a nightmare.

At that moment, a terrifying energy settled over the hall.

Christ turned his gaze and smirked.

‘Just the right timing. Neither too early nor too late.’

A pale-faced man was staring coldly at Christiaan.

It was Pliton, the lord of the Four Kings’ Fortress!

“Lord Christiaan, newly appointed as the fortress lord, I offer my greetings.”

Was that a sneer?

Pliton’s aura sharpened even further.

His power was incomparably stronger than before.

He had truly reached the rank of nine stars!

But Christ didn’t seem intimidated.

Maybe in the past, but now, he too had stepped into the realm of nine stars.