Beyond the Apocalypse-Chapter 1076: Reaching the heart of the Third Layer (I)

Determination and wrath burned brightly in the True Depravita’s gaze as he surged forward.

The air ahead of him twisted violently, rippling like water struck by a sudden force. In the next instant, countless ghostly figures erupted into existence. They came in waves—howling, shrieking, writhing forms forged from the tortured souls of thousands of Legendary Devils. Their faces were locked in eternal agony as they lunged toward Vlad, driven by hatred and despair, seeking only to tear him apart.

Vlad swung the Quietus Sword with overwhelming force.

Each strike erased dozens of spirits at once, cleaving through spectral bodies and dispersing them into nothingness. He advanced relentlessly, cutting down wave after wave, his movements precise and merciless. The screams of the damned echoed through the streets as the ghosts were annihilated one after another.

But the onslaught did not end there.

As the final wave of spirits dissolved, shadows around him thickened unnaturally. From within them, massive presences emerged—Devil Lords stepping out in unison, their auras colliding and overlapping as they closed in from every direction.

The second wave of Devil Lords consisted of three massive entities, each radiating overwhelming pressure the moment they emerged from the shadows.

One of them resembled a colossal humanoid volcano, its body formed from layers of molten stone and cracked obsidian, rivers of magma flowing endlessly across its surface.

Another was a tall, slender figure whose left forearm had been replaced entirely by a massive infernal bow, its string forged from condensed hellfire and screaming souls.

The last was a three-headed dragon, each head exhaling a different element—fire, poison, and corrosive lightning—while its wings stirred the air with suffocating heat.

They attacked in perfect coordination.

The first strike came from the archer Devil Lord. The moment his bowstring snapped forward, the arrow vanished from sight, reappearing an instant later directly in front of Vlad.

The projectile carried overwhelming power and terrifying speed—far too fast to dodge. Blocking it would have been just as dangerous; the sheer force behind the arrow would have halted Vlad’s momentum completely, creating the opening the other two Devil Lords needed to crush him with their combined attacks.

At the final possible moment, the Quantum Eye activated.

Vlad’s body shimmered, slipping out of physical reality just as the arrow passed through his chest without touching him. The projectile continued onward, screaming through the air as if nothing had happened.

Immediately, wide smiles appeared on the faces of the Devil Lords.

They knew how the Quantum Form worked. Once deactivated, it could not be used again for several seconds. That window was all they needed. The archer Devil Lord was already drawing a second arrow, pouring even more power into the shot, while the volcano and dragon Lords unleashed torrents of magma, flame, and corrupted mana, preparing to bury Vlad beneath an apocalyptic barrage.

But then—something went wrong.

Just as the Devil Lords believed victory was within reach, Vlad deactivated the Quantum Form earlier than expected. His hand snapped out with blinding speed, fingers closing tightly around the shaft of the first arrow before it could vanish into the distance. The force of the impact tore into his arm, but he did not slow.

Instead, Vlad twisted his entire body.

Using the momentum of his sprint, the residual velocity of the arrow, and his own monstrous strength, he hurled the projectile back like a spear, amplifying its speed far beyond its original force.

The archer Devil Lord’s eyes widened in shock.

He had no time to react.

Before he could loose the second shot, his own arrow pierced straight through his chest. The tip burst out through his back in a violent spray of blood as the impact sent his massive body flying backward, smashing through buildings and crashing into the streets far behind the battlefield.

The volcano and three-headed dragon Devil Lords froze for a fraction of a second, horror flashing across their faces at the sight of such a devastating counterattack.

Driven by fear rather than courage, they poured even more power into their spells. Waves of magma, infernal fire, and volatile mana surged toward Vlad, converging in a cataclysmic blast meant to annihilate him entirely.

The eyes of the True Depravita of Wrath blazed.

He tightened his grip around the Quietus Sword and spun it in a wide arc around his body. Gray flames erupted from the blade, forming a rotating circle of death that surrounded him completely. As the incoming attacks struck the barrier of gray fire, their momentum slowed drastically, as though reality itself resisted their advance.

That single moment was enough.

Vlad burst forward, forcing his way through the weakened infernal assault and leaving the two Devil Lords behind him. The gray flames dispersed as he accelerated once more, his speed increasing.

The volcano and dragon Devil Lords stared at each other, teeth clenched in fury and fear.

If their attacks had even slightly wounded Vlad, they could have retreated into the shadow realm and allowed the next formation to take over. But he had emerged without so much as a scratch. Their gazes drifted toward the distant form of the archer Devil Lord lying broken among the ruins, blood pooling beneath his motionless body.

That could have been any of them.

Fear tightened around their hearts, but retreat was not an option. Gritting their teeth, they roared in defiance and chased after the True Depravita of Wrath.

Vlad sensed them following, but he did not allow it to distract him.

His focus remained absolute as he continued to accelerate toward the heart of the city.

And the city did not allow him to run unchallenged for long.

As Vlad crossed into the next sector, the ground beneath his feet dissolved into a lattice of crimson sigils. Space twisted sharply, distances elongating and compressing in violent pulses. Every step threatened to send him spiraling into folded corridors that looped back on themselves—an infinite maze designed to drain speed and momentum.

Vlad’s eyes narrowed.

He did not slow. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The Law of Space bent to his will, threads of distorted distance snapping taut as he forced a straight path through warped reality. Streets stretched like rubber and then recoiled, collapsing behind him as he surged forward. Entire avenues imploded under the strain, swallowed by spatial backlash.

That was when the third group struck.

Five Devil Lords emerged from concealed dimensional slits above and below him, their arrival perfectly timed with the spatial distortion. They were smaller than the previous group, but denser—refined killers rather than siege engines.

One was a woman of living shadow, her body flickering between existence and void. Another was a hunched beast covered in rotating infernal seals that absorbed kinetic force. The remaining three moved as one—triplets bound by a shared soul, their attacks overlapping in impossible patterns.

They attacked without warning.

Chains of shadow snapped around Vlad’s limbs as gravity spiked a thousandfold. The sealed Devil Lord slammed his palms together, releasing a shockwave that should have shattered Vlad’s bones from within. The triplets unleashed intersecting blades of cursed law, aiming to pin Vlad in place rather than kill him outright.

For the first time, Vlad’s advance halted.

For less than a heartbeat.

Gray flames erupted from the Quietus Sword as Vlad twisted, severing the shadow chains with a single sweep. Space inverted beneath his feet, redirecting gravity sideways as he tore free and dashed forward, dodging the attack from the triplets.

The next second, Vlad reappeared directly in front of the sealed Devil Lord.

One punch.

Not empowered. Not embellished.

The Devil Lord’s chest collapsed inward as space compressed violently, folding his body into a singularity that detonated an instant later. Vlad did not look back as he resumed his sprint, leaving the remaining four scrambling to disengage.

They did not remain behind for long and immediately pursued.

Vlad did not care about the rising number of Devil Lords coming after him and focused on the next sector, which greeted him with silence.

Too much silence.

Vlad felt it before it activated—the pressure of restrained power coiled beneath the streets, inside the buildings, within the air itself. His instincts screamed.

He accelerated but was not fast enough.

The city detonated.

Entire districts exploded upward as layered traps triggered simultaneously. Spatial mines tore open reality, releasing storms of destructive force. Above him, a colossal sigil burned into existence, raining fire.

The True Depravita of Wraht burned his energy as he forced his way through the corridor of destruction, only for three Devil Lords to appear before him.

One was a massive knight encased in infernal armor etched with chronal runes. Another floated headless, wielding twin scythes that cut not flesh, but the soul. The last was little more than a mass of eyes and mouths, chanting endlessly.