Reincarnated in a novel: I am the villain!-Chapter 309: The Gap and Promise

The difference between the 8th Order and the 9th Order wasn’t a matter of simply possessing more mana.

The 8th Order was the mastery of a Concept, becoming a Law of the world. The 9th Order the realm of Demigods was the ability to impose that Law upon the universe, crushing all other rules beneath it.

When the entity from the deep finally reached the precipice of the chasm, it didn’t roar as Its mere presence deleted the sound of the battlefield.

The roaring cannons fell silent. The screams of the dying mercenaries faded into a muted hum.

Duke Ferro, the massive iron construct, suddenly dropped to both knees. The superheated steam venting from his gears instantly cooled, turning into heavy, freezing water.

"My... my furnace..." Ferro choked out, his internal fires sputtering under an invisible, conceptual weight.

Next to him, Duke Aurum’s floating palanquin plummeted to the earth, crashing into the mud. The gold plating on his skin lost its lustrous shine, turning dull and heavy.

Even Damien, standing miles away near the secondary trench, felt the [Greedy King’s Intent] inside his soul roar in absolute defiance as the suffocating pressure tried to force him to the ground.

His Eclipse Core spun violently, creating a thin, protective film of energy just to keep his internal organs from rupturing.

A massive, decaying hand gripped the edge of the chasm.

It was a Primordial Blight-Behemoth. A 9th-Order entity.

It looked like a walking graveyard. Its body was composed of fossilized abyss-wood, tectonic plates, and the rotting corpses of lesser leviathans fused together into a bipedal nightmare that stood five hundred feet tall.

It hauled itself out of the pit, eclipsing the bleeding spatial scars in the sky.

But as terrified as the defenders of Layer 6 were, the Behemoth wasn’t looking at them with the eyes of a conqueror.

It was looking back down into the chasm, its massive, hollow eye sockets weeping rivers of necrotic sludge.

It was a Demigod, an entity that had ruled the 8th Layer for tens of thousands of years... and it was terrified.

It was running for its life.

Driven by blind, apocalyptic panic, the Behemoth raised a foot the size of a city block, intending to step right over the defensive line and crush the Chrome Core of Argentum beneath its heel.

"Stand down, children."

The voice was soft, cultured, and carried absolutely no inflection of panic. Yet, it shattered the Behemoth’s silence instantly.

A blinding pillar of pure white light descended from the highest point in the sky.

The Platinum Prince landed on the blood-soaked earth directly in the path of the colossal Behemoth.

In his physical form, the Demigod of Layer 6 looked tiny compared to the walking mountain of rot. He wore a pristine, flowing suit of white void-silk. His pupil-less eyes burned with the intensity of twin supernovas.

He didn’t draw a weapon. He simply raised a pale, flawless hand and adjusted his collar.

"I have spent the last five thousand years drowning in absolute boredom," the Platinum Prince said smoothly, looking up at the descending foot of the Behemoth.

"I finally find a human who introduces me to the concept of ’Cinemas’ and ’Casinos’. I have a vested interest in this city’s infrastructure now."

The Prince’s eyes narrowed, a lethal, blinding light leaking from his irises.

"I will not have you tracking mud on my new carpets."

The Behemoth’s foot crashed down.

"Domain Expansion..." the Platinum Prince whispered.

"...The Stagnant Eternity."

VWOOOOM.

The world lost its color.

A sphere of absolute, blinding platinum expanded from the Prince, washing over the battlefield in a microsecond.

When the light touched the falling foot of the Behemoth, momentum died. Physics ceased to exist.

The colossal foot stopped exactly one inch above the Prince’s pristine white hair.

It stopped the rotting flesh, the fossilized wood, and the tectonic plates instantly underwent a violent, conceptual transmutation.

The grey rot turned a brilliant, shining silver. Then it turned white.

"What..." Damien whispered, his cross-shaped pupils dilating as he watched the phenomenon through his 8th-Order sight.

"Damn!t," Damien realized, a cold sweat breaking on his neck. "What kind of power is this, he’s is practically overwriting its existence."

The Platinum Prince flicked his finger upward.

TING.

A sound like a crystal glass being struck by a silver spoon echoed across the silent battlefield.

The transmutation spread like a virus. The blinding platinum color shot up the Behemoth’s leg, racing through its massive torso, spreading across its graveyard of a body.

The 9th-Order beast let out a horrific, garbled shriek, trying desperately to pull its leg back, trying to burn away the Prince’s Domain with its own necrotic aura.

But the Rot of the Deep was no match for the absolute Stagnation of the Prince.

"To be wealthy is to preserve," the Prince lectured, floating slowly into the air until he was eye-level with the massive beast’s head.

"And what is preservation, if not the total cessation of change?"

In less than three seconds, the shrieking stopped.

The five-hundred-foot-tall Primordial Blight-Behemoth was entirely frozen. It had been completely transmuted into a solid, flawless statue of pure platinum.

It was a monument to absolute power.

The Platinum Prince floated in front of his new statue, examining it with a critical eye.

"A bit gaudy for my taste," the Prince mused, crossing his arms.

"But it will make a fine centerpiece for the new plaza."

Down below, the Dukes of Argentum gasped for air as the suppressing weight of the Behemoth was replaced by the cold, sterile authority of their ruler.

Duke Aurum wept tears of joy, staring at the five-hundred-foot mountain of precious metal.

"Such wealth... such absolute perfection!"

But the Prince didn’t celebrate. He turned his glowing white eyes away from the statue and looked toward the bleeding spatial scars tearing the sky apart.

Then, he looked down into the chasm.

His flawless face tightened.

"Do not celebrate yet, Dukes," the Platinum Prince ordered, his voice echoing like a tolling bell. "That was merely the first."

THOOOOOM.

From the depths of the pit, three more distinct, apocalyptic auras surged upward. The tectonic vibrations were so severe that the newly formed platinum statue began to vibrate.

"Three more 9th-Order entities are approaching the threshold," the Prince stated, descending back toward the frontline.

He looked at Damien, who was standing amidst the wreckage, his Eclipse Core burning brightly.

"I can hold the Demigods, Zero," the Platinum Prince said, his tone dead serious. "My Domain can suppress them, but they are bringing the rest of the 8th-Order Warlords with them. The true stampede is right behind them."

The Prince pointed his pale finger at Damien.

"Save this city Zero, and I will help you throughout you stay in the abyss and even help you leave."

Damien drew the Pantheon Sword. The blade ignited, a blinding white light that cut through the gloom of the battlefield.

He looked at the Dukes, who were slowly getting back to their feet, their pride wounded but their survival instincts screaming.

"You heard the Prince," Damien grinned savagely beneath his mask, the [Siren’s Chord] amplifying his voice to reach the entire surviving army.

"Good, as long as you take care of the Demi-Gods, then you can rest assured!"

"For under the Demi-god, I am invincible"

Saying this, he looked at his DP points with a smile on his face