Titan King: Ascension of the Giant-Chapter 1454: Warmonger’s Arrival

Deep within a fracture of the Westreach Trench.

Orion’s voice cut through the crushing darkness, bringing a grim satisfaction to both Leonidas and Kraken.

"Makareth has awakened. I’m sending him down with the undead legion."

The news was welcome. They had just gained another heavy hitter—a tireless workhorse to shoulder the burden.

"That brat Makareth is up?"

"Hell yes."

"Now the invasion force on the surface has a real warmonger to lead the charge."

Invasion. Warmonger. When Leonidas used these words, they weren’t insults; they were accolades. He was a creature who saw no need to whitewash his nature or the grim reality of their crusade. As he often put it: We invade because we need to. We’re short on resources, short on land. We take what we need. If you don’t like it, what are you going to do about it?

"This changes things," Leonidas continued. "With Makareth, we now have three Archlords on the ground. That’s enough to hold the line before that Holy Order figures out what’s hitting them. It gives us time to crack the ocean wide open."

Technically, the avatars of Orion and Kraken only counted as Archlords in this state. Including them, the invasion force boasted five Archlord-level combatants. But the trio had to focus on establishing a foothold in the sea, leaving them unable to assist on land. Makareth’s arrival alleviated that pressure significantly.

Makareth was a High Demon who had condensed his own Lord’s Stone—a self-made monster. As an Archlord, he was a juggernaut. Against opponents of the same rank, he could easily handle three at once. Even facing a higher-tier Archlord, Makareth could hold his ground. His boast that he was "invincible beneath the Demigod level" wasn’t just hot air; he had the strength to back it up.

Coupled with the trump cards the Deputy Commander had surely given him, Makareth had every right to be arrogant.

For this invasion of Eldoria, Leonidas had brought a subordinate Archlord, as had Orion. The Stoneheart Horde’s representative was Elara.

"If nothing has gone wrong at the Siren lair, I need to ramp up the production of Ocean Hunters to a terrifying scale here," Kraken rumbled. "By the time the Sea Folk react, our lower-tier forces won’t be outnumbered."

Kraken had a point. He, Leonidas, and Orion had brought sea-based troops, but compared to the entire population of Eldoria’s oceans, their numbers were a drop in the bucket. Fortunately, war rarely started with a total eruption. This was their window to stockpile power.

"We’re just too poor. Our foundation is too thin," Leonidas lamented. "If it were the Cult of Four, they’d have already dropped countless deep-sea dreadnoughts and beast-level war fortresses on this place. A frontal assault is always the fastest way to crush an enemy."

He sighed, thinking back to the Silverwood Realm. The Cetus Giants Race had captured all those Cult of Four warships. Orion and his partners had hoped to scavenge something, but they ended up empty-handed and were forced out of Atlantis.

"If I destroyed the Realm Formation here, I could bring the Black Tower over," Orion mused. "With the demonic monsters the tower produces, the war would be a hell of a lot easier."

Orion had captured a Black Tower from the Cult of Four in the Silverwood Realm. With enough materials and energy, it could churn out endless waves of demonic monsters. More importantly, the tower itself was a mobile headquarters, eliminating the tedious work of building camps or nests.

Neither Leonidas nor Kraken responded. In the Champions Alliance, only the Commander had the power to simply shatter a Realm Formation at will. Even the Deputy Commander would need substantial time to analyze the structure before attempting to dismantle it.

More importantly, calling in the Deputy Commander meant splitting the cake. This was Orion’s war. Leonidas and Kraken were smart enough to keep their mouths shut.

"Bro, with your current strength, you can’t break the formation?" Leonidas asked. "Not even a crack?"

He knew Orion was powerful, but he needed to know the limit.

"If it’s just destruction, I could do it," Orion admitted. "But doing so now would be kicking the hornet’s nest. It would wake every sleeping Demigod and draw their eyes right to us. We’d be facing a total war instantly, surrounded on all sides."

Orion had gamed this out before the invasion began. The best approach was the Rite of Fatebound Offering. It allowed them to descend without shattering the Realm Formation, tricking the ancient, slumbering powers—or those wandering the void—into thinking this was merely an internal civil conflict.

The longer they could drag that illusion out, the more enemy strength Orion could cannibalize, and the higher their chances of total victory.

"Then we stick to the plan," Leonidas said. "Slow and steady."

Titanion Realm, Stoneheart City.

Twelve hours ago, something monumental occurred on the Utessar Continent, forcing Orion and Lilith to return to Stoneheart City to quell the rising panic.

The Human Kingdom had vanished.

To be precise, the entire kingdom had collectively migrated to another continent. For the humans living in Stoneheart City, the news felt surreal, impossible. But beneath the shock, many realized it was a harbinger of doom. When a massive population migrates en masse, it invariably means they are fleeing an irresistible enemy or a cataclysm.

"Mr. Greymount, what’s your read on this?"

On the second floor of the Silent Goblet, Nico, Kadir, and Tristan sat together. Though they had joined the Stoneheart Horde, they still held a lingering attachment to their former kingdom. Today, that thread had been severed.

"Honestly, there were signs before this," Tristan said, his brow furrowed. "The kingdom was rotting from the inside. Many nobles who had bought property here in Stoneheart began dumping their assets recently. And the Capital driving commoners toward The Northern Bastion of Menethis? That didn’t sit right. Commoners are the livestock of the nobility. Have you ever seen a shepherd drive his flock away?"

As a cross-realm merchant, Tristan had a sensitivity to void energy. When the massive fluctuation hit half a day ago, he had assumed it was a civil war—perhaps the Prince turning on the King. He hadn’t expected the entire capital city to simply disappear. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"The sheep were sent north," Nico said. "To The Northern Bastion of Menethis. I got the latest intel from Lilith—Prince Theodore didn’t leave. He’s still holding the line there."

The fat man wasn’t the smartest of the three, but he was the most resourceful, with the sharpest ears on the street.

"The Northern Bastion is the new pen," Tristan mused darkly. "But why would the King do this?"

Without more information, Tristan, Nico, and Kadir were left staring into the bottom of their glasses, unable to find the answer.