The fanatical state Vaelian was currently exhibiting was strikingly similar to Orion’s subordinate, Dirtclaw. It was the absolute, unmistakable hallmark of a religious zealot.

Just looking at Vaelian, Orion could easily imagine that if he allowed himself to be corrupted by The Chapter of the Profane, he would be utterly doomed.

"Giant King, it is now yours!"

Seeing Orion remain completely silent, Vaelian forcibly pulled himself from his fanatical obsession and pushed The Chapter of the Profane forward, leaving the dark-gold page suspended in the air before Lilith.

Though it was only for a split second, Orion caught it. The moment Vaelian snapped back to reality, a fleeting flash of visceral terror and revulsion crossed his mismatched eyes.

In other words, The Chapter of the Profane was a cursed chalice.

Silence fell, stretching into a suffocating stillness. The moment Vaelian offered the page, he locked his gaze onto Lilith. Yet, the phantom will residing within her remained absolutely dormant.

This silent standoff lasted for a long time, stretching until the sky outside darkened and the magical lamps within the castle finally flared to life.

"Since a treasure has been delivered directly to my doorstep, it would be rude to refuse."

With those words, a towering, majestic silhouette materialized beside Lilith, snatching the hovering Chapter of the Profane from the air.

At the exact same moment, the overwhelmingly powerful aura of the Giant King violently swept across the City of Stoneheart, washing over the entire southern expanse of the Titan Continent.

"The Giant King!"

"For My Lord!"

"For our homeland! For the Stoneheart Horde!"

The most explosive reaction to the Giant King’s aura didn’t come from Vaelian, but from the bloodline warriors fighting and bleeding on the city walls. A tidal wave of roaring battle cries echoed into the sky above the city, completely drowning out the deafening shrieks of the swarm and pushing the bloodbath to a fever pitch.

"A remarkably wise decision, Giant King!" Seeing Orion probe and encapsulate The Chapter of the Profane with his divine power, an expression of profound, deeply satisfied pleasure spread across Vaelian’s grotesque face.

"Oh... I nearly forgot. Simply possessing The Chapter of the Profane is insufficient." Vaelian tilted his head. "The Giant King does not hail from our Profane Lands. The Divine Art requires a catalyst to take root."

Staring at Vaelian’s beaming smile, Orion felt a sudden, violent urge to bludgeon him to death. Deliberately holding back a critical piece of the puzzle was the absolute greatest hurdle to any alliance.

As Vaelian spoke, a dark-gold fruit roughly the size of a drake egg materialized in his hand. It was crawling with jagged, twisting runes. Surprisingly, at first glance, the fruit actually radiated a strong, almost welcoming sense of familiarity to Orion.

"This is a Fel Fruit. It serves as the physical vessel for the Divine Art inscribed upon The Chapter of the Profane. It is the absolute key to integrating yourself into the world’s cosmic laws."

"My apologies, Giant King, but I cannot give this to you just yet," Vaelian smiled. "The next time we meet, I promise to offer it to you with both hands." With a flick of his wrist, the Fel Fruit vanished into thin air.

Orion didn’t say a word. He stepped forward, closing the distance until he was towering directly over Vaelian, staring dead into that bizarre, repulsive face.

"If I’m not mistaken, I wasn’t your first choice," Orion stated coldly. "Before me, someone else already agreed to your little partnership and obtained a page of The Chapter of the Profane. They probably even received a Fel Fruit, didn’t they?"

Orion locked eyes with Vaelian. The cloaked figure’s gaze remained unbothered, acting completely indifferent to Orion’s deduction. If there was any change at all, it was a newfound glint of genuine appreciation in Vaelian’s eyes—appreciation for Orion’s sharp, tactical mind.

"No, no, no, Giant King. You misunderstand us entirely," Vaelian chuckled. "You were indeed not our first prospect, but rest assured, the first choice is merely serving as your stepping stone."

Orion remained silent, though a flicker of doubt crossed his eyes. Vaelian read the look perfectly and immediately elaborated.

"An Insect Queen like Moriphara is overwhelmingly powerful, but she is also deeply shrouded in mystery. Is her true strength exactly as our intelligence suggests? Not necessarily." Vaelian’s tone grew calculating. "According to our current intel, no one has ever actually witnessed the Insect Queen take the field personally. Therefore, a probing strike is absolutely mandatory!"

Orion understood immediately. The "first choice" to receive The Chapter of the Profane was nothing more than a sacrificial pawn—a guinea pig sent ahead to trigger the traps and gather hard data on Insect Queen Moriphara’s true capabilities. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. Vaelian and the faction backing him understood this rule perfectly.

"Giant King, I eagerly look forward to our next meeting!"

The cloaked Vaelian vanished, his departure abrupt and seamless. Orion made no move to stop him. After all, the entity standing before him was merely a phantom projection; there was no point in obliterating it.

"Orion, what countermeasures should we prepare?"

Lilith was brilliantly sharp. While Vaelian was present, she hadn’t uttered a single word. Now that the outsider was gone, she still refrained from asking any prying questions about Vaelian or The Chapter of the Profane. She knew full well that this was a cosmic game far beyond her weight class. Instead, she went straight to the logistics, asking Orion what defensive preparations she needed to orchestrate in advance.

Orion slowly shook his head. He didn’t have a solid read on this either.

"Thank you for bearing the weight," he said softly. Offering Lilith a brief word of comfort, he dissolved back into a phantom will, retreating into the space between her brows.

...

Far to the west of the Titan Continent lay a deep, abyssal ocean. But the creatures currently churning its violent, storm-tossed waters were not the native sea clans. They were a grotesque swarm of aquatic insectoids.

Aquatic horrors of every conceivable size infested every corner of the sea, mercilessly slaughtering the fleeing merfolk and sirens. It was a one-sided massacre—a systematic ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the deep-sea swarm.

Such a brutal, uncompromising purge only occurred in the wake of absolute defeat. And the one who had been defeated was Kairon, the native Siren Demigod of the Titanion Realm.

Deep on the ocean floor, within a hidden, mystic palace.

Having been ambushed and swarmed by multiple insectoid Demigods, Kairon had completely burned through years of stockpiled faith energy and suffered devastating injuries. If he hadn’t fled with blinding speed, he would have undoubtedly perished on the battlefield.

This was an absolute, suffocating dead end—a despair Kairon had never faced before. Fortunately, just before he could launch a spiteful, suicidal counterattack, a mysterious cloaked figure materialized inside his palace, right before his eyes.

"This is The Chapter of the Profane and a Fel Fruit. Together, they will serve as the vessel for your divine power laws, allowing you to seamlessly weave yourself into the cosmic fabric of this newborn world."

"Once you integrate with the world’s laws, you will possess the authority to fight back against the Insect Queen who is currently eroding them. It is your only chance to snatch life from the jaws of certain death."

"If you succeed, you can usurp the Insect Queen, claim absolute dominion over this newborn world, and ascend to a realm of power you’ve never even dared to dream of."

The cloaked figure’s words were not a lie. He knew better than anyone that when trying to persuade a cornered beast, absolute, brutal honesty was the most intoxicating bait.

If Kairon could actually defeat Insect Queen Moriphara within the arena of cosmic laws, by relying on The Chapter of the Profane, he could genuinely assimilate Moriphara’s divine laws and instantly seize control of half the world. At that point, whether he chose to advance or retreat, no matter which faction he faced, he would hold the absolute power to dictate his own fate.

Kairon stared dead at The Chapter of the Profane and the Fel Fruit floating before the cloaked stranger. His eyes blazed with desperate, unhinged fanaticism. It was the terrifying, unshakable obsession of a drowning man who had just been thrown a lifeline.

Therefore, when faced with an unknown stranger bearing unknown artifacts, Kairon reacted completely differently from Orion. He felt not a single shred of resistance or rejection. Naturally, his baseline paranoia was still there—but in the face of absolute annihilation, that caution shattered like glass.