The pitch-black war blade streaked toward the Eighth Pharaoh, faintly taking the shape of a black dragon’s head as it flew.

It was an enormous dragon head covered in scars. Though its fangs were crooked, they were all still razor-sharp!

Compared to Morineo, the Fire Phoenix who had only recently ascended to Rank Eight, this black blade and its wielder clearly posed a far greater threat to the Eighth Pharaoh.

The Eighth Pharaoh’s attempt to escape from the battlefield was abruptly halted.

His bone staff transformed into a grayish-white claw that shot forward to meet the oncoming dragon head.

The collision sent shockwaves rippling through space. Fresh claw marks were left across the dragon head, while a deep, glaring crack spread along the Eighth Pharaoh’s grayish-white claw.

Clang—!

A space-shaking hum echoed across the surrounding starry sky.

The vibrations shattered the meteoroids that were burning with Nirvana Flames into fine particles.

The pitch-black blade rebounded at blinding speed, snapping back into the grasp of a knight overlord clad in jet-black armor.

At first glance, the knight himself did not seem vastly more imposing than the Eighth Pharaoh.

Yet the moment his fingers closed around the weapon, the piercing aura he released shocked even the Eighth Pharaoh.

Among all the overlords arriving on the battlefield, this knight’s presence felt the most intense.

He was none other than the most renowned knight overlord in Magus World today—the founder of the Ylli Knight Alliance, Aeberton the Dark Knight.[1]

Though the Byrne Empire of Magus World was also known as the Knight Empire, it had yet to produce a single Rank Eight knight overlord.

Even Roland, the empire’s strongest powerhouse, remained only a peak Rank Seven knight.

Many claimed Roland’s strength rivaled that of Rank Eight beings, and that he had been designated as a potential bearer of one of Magus World’s civilizational treasures—the Supreme Knight Overlord Armor Set.

Still, Rank Eight remained an insurmountable barrier. Relying solely on his own strength, Aeberton had carved out his place among the Magus World overlords.

It was said that Aeberton had ascended to overlord even later than Roland, though the details of his rise remained unclear.

The Dark Knight hovered in the starlit sky, radiating an oppressive aura as ripples of dark laws spread outward from his body.

As a wielder of dark battle qi, this powerful knight appeared like a living source of darkness itself in the sky.

The Eighth Pharaoh’s gaze locked firmly onto him—or more precisely, onto the weapon in his hand.

“The Imperial Blade that the First Pharaoh lost within the Magus Civilization’s territory a hundred and seventy thousand years ago?!” the Eighth Pharaoh exclaimed, his voice trembling with disbelief.

The Eighth Pharaoh had ascended to Rank Eight only a hundred and ten thousand years ago.

That meant when the Imperial Blade vanished, he had still been a Rank Seven overlord.

In truth, the Eighth Pharaoh knew very little about the details of that era.

Within the Amenkha Empire, the loss of the Imperial Blade and the First Pharaoh’s defeat within the Magus Civilization were taboo subjects.

Only the first three Pharaohs and the current Emperor of the Amenkha Empire were likely privy to the details of those events.

All the Eighth Pharaoh knew was that the First Pharaoh had been defeated by the first Rank Nine being born in Magus World.

To be honest, the First Pharaoh had simply been unlucky.

Rank Nine beings could not endure within the Astral Realm. Throughout history, every Rank Nine entity born in a major top-tier civilization had vanished mysteriously not long after breaking through.

In the Amenkha Empire’s records, the longest any Rank Nine being had remained was no more than three thousand years—and that was only thanks to the empire’s powerful self-sealing techniques, which forcibly prolonged their presence in the Astral Realm.

For Rank Nine beings born in other planar civilizations, their existence after ascension often lasted only a few hundred years before they disappeared entirely.

To an overlord, the passage of centuries or millennia was all but a fleeting moment.

The First Pharaoh was simply unlucky to be around during the birth of Magus Civilization’s Rank Nine being!

One prevailing explanation for why Rank Nine beings could not remain in the Astral Realm was that the realm itself demanded balance, and these entities clearly shattered that equilibrium.

Their very existence was a fundamental flaw in the Astral Realm.

To preserve balance and order, such beings swiftly vanished after their breakthroughs.

As for where entities of Rank Nine and beyond ultimately went, no one knew—not even the Eighth Pharaoh standing here now.

Perhaps the First Pharaoh, standing on the verge of his own Rank Nine ascension, had glimpsed part of that truth.

But such matters lay far beyond the reach of lesser beings. After all, they had yet to fully explore the Astral Realm—why concern themselves with what lay beyond it?

As the Eighth Pharaoh recoiled in shock, Aeberton tightened his grip on the black blade and swung it viciously toward his opponent’s cheek, roaring, “This is the Dark Blade!”

This time, another pitch-black lawful shadow lunged straight at the Eighth Pharaoh. But it was no longer the shape of a dragon head.

The shadow resembled a scorpion instead. Its powerful, venomous stinger was sharply defined within the churning darkness.

“Hmph!” The Eighth Pharaoh snorted coldly. The white bandage he had just shed was flung out like a defensive shield, colliding with Aeberton's Dark Blade.

The violent collision of laws rippled once again through the surrounding star domain.

Through the intense and repeated law fluctuations, any being with keen senses would have immediately realized that an overlord-level battle was unfolding here.

With Aeberton’s timely arrival, combined with the relentless pressure from the Fire Phoenix, Hela, and Jormungandr, the Eighth Pharaoh’s plan to quickly escape into the spatial passage had clearly failed.

As for the Rank Seven Evileye Tyrant Monarch, it had momentarily faded from everyone’s focus.

With its Omnipotent Soul severely damaged, its body gravely wounded, and having just taken a furious palm strike from the Eighth Pharaoh himself, it now trembled in fear as it found itself hemmed in by multiple overlords on all sides.

Lady Bev of the Magus Civilization had clearly laid an elaborate trap, deliberately baiting her enemies into walking straight into it.

The Magus Civilization was really getting better and better at this kind of fishing tactic.

Last time, the victim had been the Gallant Federation. This time, it was the Amenkha Empire.

Just look at the lineup Lady Bev had assembled—in addition to the Rank Eight Dark Knight, and herself at the peak of Rank Seven, five newly arrived overlords now occupied the starry battlefield.

They were Kassedar of the Byrne Empire, a Rank Seven knight overlord nicknamed the Tiger Eye; Zenasus, soul overmage of the Pyro Secret Society; Clair, soul overmage of the Alveroth Empire; Klopp, knight overlord of the Western Archipelago; and a colossal dragon turtle of staggering size and mass.

From a distance, this dragon turtle bore some resemblance to Sein’s good friend, Tourmaline.

However, its sheer scale was on an entirely different level. While Jormungandr, the World Serpent, might surpass it in length, the dragon turtle’s mass and weight were in a class of their own.

Jormungandr was still too slender. A single stomp from this dragon turtle would likely crush it outright.

Even Hela, standing atop Jormungandr’s head, could not help but show a flicker of surprise at the sight of this massive creature.

“Heh, what is going on lately? Creatures just keep barging into Magus Civilization territory without invitation. Our Magus Civilization is not a place you can come and go from whenever you please,” Lady Bev said with a faint smile, looking at the Eighth Pharaoh of the Amenkha Empire as the situation steadily came under control.

A ripple of space spread outward around Bev.

It turned out that the Magus Civilization’s overlord-level entities in this starry sky were not limited to those already revealed!

A young Rank Seven soul overmage appeared. Half his hair was silver-white, and he was clad in a pristine white astrological robe. In his hand was a crystal sphere radiating the intense power of fate.

Facing Bev, he reported calmly, “I have sealed off the surrounding currents of fate. This will temporarily interfere with divination techniques and similar occult arts within this star domain.”

This white-robed soul overmage was none other than the renowned Rank Seven astrologer of Magus World—Jehovah Nordin.

Bev had only ever heard rumors of him. She never expected this master to descend upon this battlefield today.

However, Master Jehovah Nordin was clearly not suited for combat. After delivering his report, his figure dissolved into rippling distortions and vanished from sight.

Lady Bev’s smile widened further, and it was anything but friendly to the Evileye Tyrant Monarch and the Eighth Pharaoh King, who were now completely trapped here!

1. Translator’s Note: Wow, we finally know his real name. Grand Master Dark Knight of the Ylli Knight Alliance was first mentioned back in Chapter 952. I didn’t even remember this until I checked my glossary list. ☜