Beyond the Apocalypse
Chapter 723: World Snake

Chapter 723: World Snake

"ARRRHHHHGGGG!"

Vlad roared his voice a violent eruption that split the battlefield. Wrathful energy exploded from his body in a violent surge, sending shockwaves into the sky.

The sheer intensity of his fury cast a red storm overhead, dyeing the sky in the color of blood. A burning cloud of wrath and fury cloaked the skies above the Void Heart Fortress, mirroring the inferno within him.

He launched forward like a missile of rage.

The three High-Legend Automatons responded in perfect unison, each moving with flawless mechanical precision. Their platinum-armored bodies moved like falling stars, streaking through the city as they dived toward the True Depravita of Wrath.

And then, they collided.

The impact was colossal.

Fists clashed with metal. Wrath battled steel.

Vlad’s punch drove into the chest of one Automaton, creating a crater in its armor and launching it backward like a missile. He followed immediately, his hand taking a knife-stance as he sliced through the second with such force that the pressure alone severed armor plates and sent rings of red energy tearing through the air. But the Automatons were relentless.

One kicked Vlad in the ribs, the force so immense it twisted the fabric of space itself, sending him tumbling into a stone tower that exploded into dust. Before he could fully recover, a second Automaton barreled into him, smashing him through the ground and embedding him in the bedrock.

Still, he rose.

With blood trailing from his mouth and his bones screeching with every movement, Vlad countered with a spin and an uppercut that launched one of the metal titans into the sky. He caught another by the wrist and, roaring with fury, hurled it into the third. The two collided with a shockwave that sent debris raining across the battlefield.

But the Automatons felt no pain.

They returned instantly, their eyes glowing with red light, fists swinging with enough force to distort gravity. Each strike left tremors that warped the air and cracked the city beneath them.

Yet Vlad advanced.

Inch by inch.

Strike after strike.

He bled, broke, and healed—his True Depravita Constitution restoring him as quickly as he was torn apart. He fought like a storm personified, each movement pushing him closer to the core tower at the heart of the Void Heart Fortress.

Behind him, Graecia’s Sages and Half-Step Legends had poured into the city. Though they lacked the power to topple the tower, they burned their wills and bodies to eliminate every Guardian and Sage Vorometallic they encountered. Their determination and power cleared the streets, granting the full Legends space to engage the real threats.

Their bravery made the impossible possible.

With the flanks cleared, Graecia’s top warriors pressed toward the core tower. They gave everything—blood, magic, soul essence—just to keep the enemy off Vlad’s back. Their mission was simple: let the Hero of Wrath reach the heart of darkness.

Once more, Vlad found himself within striking distance.

He could see the obsidian spire—barely three hundred meters away.

But time was no longer on their side.

The battle had dragged on for hours, and even with the Berserker Potions surging through their veins, Graecia’s forces had reached a deadly stalemate. The Vorometallicae were fighting with fanatic intensity. The tower was still standing. The core of the Void Heart Stronghold was untouched.

If this impasse wasn’t shattered soon, the tide would turn—and Graecia would be swallowed whole.

Vlad’s heart thundered inside his chest, beating so fast and violently that if not for his Depravita regeneration, it would’ve burst. He gasped for breath, lungs burning from the constant pressure.

"I need more power... More power!" he screamed in his mind, every fiber of his body desperate to break through, to strike, to end it.

And then—it happened.

"BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!"

An explosion thundered across the battlefield.

A sea of Depravita Aura flooded the sky.

But it did not come from Vlad.

It came from... a small yellow cat.

The battlefield stopped. Even the Automatons faltered. Everyone turned to see what was unfolding.

The cat’s body began to warp and ripple, its flesh morphing, its bones vanishing into light. From that tiny form emerged a monumental psychic pressure, waves of power reshaping the air itself. The cat’s flesh dissolved into light, and then into something far stranger—a form that was not flesh, nor spirit, but a manifestation of will.

The soldiers and Legends stared in awe.

The Sages and Half-Step Legends who had fought in the Korokor Stronghold recognized it instantly. They had seen it before—when Vlad, too, had crossed this threshold.

This was the birth of a True Depravita.

"He’s becoming the True Depravita of Gluttony!"

Vlad’s heart surged with shock—and joy.

The yellow cat exploded in light again—and then imploded into a single, black dot, suspended in the air. The dot pulsed with mystery, a celestial object in miniature. It was beautiful. Terrifying. Unknowable.

It defied logic.

It devoured the energy around it.

Everything—the blood-stained wind, the scattered magic, the very wrath flooding the sky—was consumed by the singularity. It drained the strength from Legends, Guardians, and Sages alike, drinking their aura, absorbing their essence.

And still—it wasn’t finished.

Rivers of blood that flowed through the broken streets were pulled upward, torn from stone and corpses, funneled into the dot. It absorbed it all.

And then, the impossible:

Spirits began to rise from the battlefield.

The dead—those who had fallen moments or hours before—manifested as flickering souls, glowing and drifting in the air. Each was pulled inexorably toward the black dot, their final remnants consumed.

It was horrifying. Divine. Absolute.

The battlefield was frozen in terror and reverence. The Vorometallicae watched with silent dread. The Graecians stared in disbelief.

All the energy, all the blood, and all the spiritual power that the black dot consumed began to condense into a single force, a single power, a core. And from it an entity began to arise, it was a creature that seemed capable of consuming the ocean and devouring the sky.

It was truly a World Snake.