Titan King: Ascension of the Giant

Soraya knew, even then, that it wasn't just Orion watching her. An entire host of allied lords and Archlords had their gazes fixed upon her, waiting.

Back then, all she could think about was breaking through, about not squandering the resources, not failing Orion's trust, and not disappointing the esteemed patrons of the allied forces. Under that colossal pressure, the cocoon around her soul had finally shattered.

Now, with Lorelia asking her for the secret to that transformation, Soraya was genuinely at a loss for words.

"Your Lord's Stone was a gift from Lord Orion. The resources came to you too easily. Deep down, you do not know how to cherish them, how to seize a true opportunity."

Soraya couldn't find the words to teach, but Vexis, the lich who stood beside them, had no such difficulty.

"You live a life of comfort, sheltered under our protection. You are timid, content to scheme from the shadows," Vexis's voice cut through the air, sharp and cold as ice. After fighting alongside Lorelia for so long, she had come to understand the Spider Queen's nature completely.

And because a bond of sisterhood had formed between them in the crucible of war, she did not hold back.

"You wish to advance? The path is simple. Shatter these shackles, and you will become a Lord."

"Lady Vexis… I think you may be right," Lorelia said, taking the harsh words to heart. Then, a sly grin spread across her face. "But I have discovered something strange. You used to refer to the Master as 'Lord.' Now, you call him 'My Lord.'"

She leaned in close to Vexis, tilting her head up. Her scarlet eyes, which could be so terrifying, now held a disarming glimmer of playful curiosity.

"You have not yet reached the Lord-tier," Vexis stated, her voice taking on a flat, mechanical tone. "You cannot comprehend the gulf between a Alpha and a Lord, let alone an Archlord."

"You must remember this, little Lorelia: every Archlord is a being of absolute terror. With a flick of their wrist, they could turn us to ash. Not just you. Me and Soraya as well."

The words were so devoid of emotion that they made Lorelia feel, for the first time, as small and fragile as an ant.

"To not know true fear," Soraya murmured with a sigh, "is sometimes a form of bliss."

Orion's ascension to Archlord was a blessing for his subordinates, a shield against their enemies. But for the women in his life, it was a source of immense pressure. Soraya felt a deep uncertainty in her heart, wondering if she would truly be able to walk beside him to the very end.

At least I am not the one under the most strain, she thought, a grim consolation. The pressure on those succubus sisters must be a thousand times greater than my own.

She felt a subtle shift in the air between herself and Vexis. In the past, knowing that the lich served a terrifying peak Archlord, Soraya had always been cautious, wary of causing any trouble for Orion. But now, things were different.

Now that her lord and lover stood among the Archlords, Soraya felt her spine straighten, an unconscious assertion of newfound equality.

In the sky above, watched by countless lords, Orion was making no progress.

The storm of phantom tridents he unleashed was relentless, yet each one halted inches from Grand General Dorian's body, caught in the temporal mire before being contemptuously swept aside.

"It's useless," Dorian's voice boomed, amplified to carry across the entire battlefield. "You cannot wait for reinforcements. Your partner, I assure you, is in a far more desperate state than you are now!"

The General was deeply frustrated. Since Orion had discovered his near-invincibility in close combat, the giant had refused to engage him directly. Worse, this unending barrage of tridents, while unable to harm him, was infuriating. It created the public perception that he, Dorian, was on the defensive.

He had no ability to close the distance in an instant, leaving him to passively endure the assault. If his own troops began to believe he was losing, it would be a blow to their morale. His taunt was a calculated gambit to control the narrative.

"You are far too confident!" Orion's reply thundered back, equally loud and clear. "While I may not be able to crack your turtle shell at this moment, that does not mean it cannot be broken. My partner is stronger than you can possibly imagine."

He let his own forces know, with unwavering conviction, that this was merely a stalemate, a mutual checkmate. There was no need to worry.

"Rather than play these word games," Orion continued, his tone shifting, "I am more curious as to why you Silver-Eyed launched this war so suddenly. We have reached this point; surely you wouldn't mind indulging my curiosity?"

The situation was deadlocked. Orion hoped to pry some useful intelligence from the General. To this day, neither he nor Leonidas knew what had plunged them into this realm-spanning, seemingly baseless war.

But Dorian was a veteran of a hundred campaigns. He saw the linguistic trap and the intent behind it instantly.

"You want to know?" He let out a booming, cathartic laugh filled with all the pent-up hatred of a general who had watched his people die in wave after wave of senseless conflict. "I will not tell you! I want you to die in ignorance and fear! HAHAHAHA!"

"We are the Eye-Race!" he roared, spurning the outsider name. "And you will not defile our world any longer!"

"You will not be laughing for long," Orion's voice dropped, becoming flat and cold with deadly promise. "When you and your partner lie dead at my feet, I will personally lead my armies across the mountains."

"I will slaughter every man of your race. I will take your women and children as plunder, spoils for my soldiers to enjoy."

"We will erase your people. We will make your women breeding tools for new generations of warriors."

"I will seize your technology, burn your histories, and shatter your heritage, until not a single trace of the Silver-Eyed remains in this realm or any other. Your entire race will become a forgotten speck of dust in the annals of history."

It was a vile threat, a string of words crafted with surgical precision to enrage Grand General Dorian. When faced with the promise of total genocide, Orion believed, even the most disciplined mind would crack.

"You think you can do that?" Dorian bellowed, his voice trembling not just with rage, but with a strange, ecstatic excitement. "The ones who die will be YOU! IT WILL BE YOU!"

BOOM!

As if summoned by his furious cry, a cataclysmic rupture tore through the sky at the very spot where Leonidas and the Sage had vanished.

A transparent, crystalline tesseract materialized with the sound of collapsing space.

And inside it, a figure was suspended.

It was Leonidas.

His dragon wings were shattered, his four mighty claws severed from his limbs. All that remained to shield his broken body was the tattered half of his tail.