"Why did you try to kill my student?"
Stephos scoffed almost immediately, rolling his shoulders slightly as if disappointed rather than threatened.
"I expected a better reaction than that, you know. You're supposed to be traumatized seeing me again, not standing there asking questions like nothing happened."
Veneri didn't react to the provocation.
"I'm not scared of you. I'm just surprised you're still alive."
Stephos let out a short laugh at that.
"I can kill you here and now if I wanted to."
Veneri laughed in response to the threat.
"Even if you tried, you'd fail. You're an Overlord Rank Krepsuna now and I can see that, but you're not here to kill me. If you were, you would have done it a long time ago."
Stephos clicked his tongue softly.
"You've gotten pretty bold. I guess but not even me joining the Overlord Ravagers made you scared, huh."
"What do you want Stephos?"
"I just wanted to see you before things get interesting. Call it curiosity, or maybe I just felt like catching up before the chaos starts."
Veneri clapped twice. His expression was completely flat despite the sarcastic gesture.
"Wow, good commentary. A villain telling me his evil plan before he does it. How original."
Stephos let out a short laugh at that, shaking his head slightly as if entertained by the response.
"Relax, I'm not done yet. I've got more to say, so let me enjoy this a bit."
Veneri exhaled quietly as he waved his hand without looking back. In the next instant, Ervadelle vanished completely. Stephos raised an eyebrow slightly at that.
"You don't think she'll suffocate in there?"
"My inventory is blessed by a Celestial so it's habitable. Did you actually die? I saw your son months ago. Don't remember his name though."
Stephos chuckled at that.
"Deities don't die that easily. At worst, they reincarnate or they get brought back by someone with a Primordial Divinity. It's not exactly the end of the story. My son was an idiot, you see? He broke the laws of the world concerning Divinity and thought he accomplished something, but all he did was reinforce the system that already existed. Now every Divine Rank being within the Dynasties shares a Divinity because of that mistake. So if anything, he made them stronger."
He sighed before looking up at the night sky.
"Anyway, I didn't stay dead for long. A Phantasm in Spheraphase pulled me back, turned me into a Krepsuna and from there, things just escalated. I climbed the ranks, became an Overlord I got a bit of a redesign out of it too."
He held his long orange hair and made his orange eyes glow too.
"My eyes changed and my skin got darker. Though I must admit, I can't quite compare to your handsome face. Too bad. I guess we're not all equal in the eyes of the universe."
Veneri watched him in silence for a moment. Stephos had always been talkative. This however, felt more deliberate and drawn out than necessary
"You're talking more than usual."
"What can I say, I've got time."
Veneri didn't entertain that response for long.
"I know why you're here. You and your Ravagers are about to start chaos across the Hidden Citadel."
Stephos's smile widened slightly at that. He actually clapped once in approval.
"Exactly. I represent this realm, the Graveyard of Bones. By the time we're done, it's going to be completely overrun."
"..."
"The Therianthropes your Skyrover and Fedres friends are protecting are all going to be turned, one way or another. You won't be able to stop it. Also, you can't stop an Overlord Krepsuna at your level."
"You're right, I can't stop you. So that's why the Krepsunas weren't around during the day."
"Too late for that kind of thinking. Everything's already in motion."
As if on cue, the distant sound of chaos broke through the night. Screams echoed from the direction of the temporary base, mixed with the unmistakable sounds of conflict erupting all at once. Ervadelle couldn't hear it, but Veneri could. He faced that direction as the situation unfolded exactly as Stephos had implied.
"They dug underground, came up from beneath and hit them from above. If you try to leave and help them, I'll kill you right here. Actually, I was planning to kill you anyway."
Veneri didn't respond at first. He understood the situation clearly now in a way that didn't leave room for denial. He couldn't win this fight, at least not in a direct confrontation, because an Overlord Rank Krepsuna stood on the same level as a Primordial Deity. He was still only at the Fourth Enlightenment.
The gap wasn't something he could bridge through skill alone, no matter how refined his techniques were or how much control he had over them. Still, his expression didn't change. There was one thing he hadn't used yet. He kept it in reserve precisely for situations where the difference in power couldn't be overcome through conventional means.
"Can you let me go?"
Stephos didn't even hesitate.
"No. Also, the Reniatsus of the Graveyard of Bones are already corrupted, I made sure of it. They'll turn soon and once they do, they'll take control of the entire realm and wipe out everything your Dynasties are protecting."
There was no visible panic in him that matched the scale of what Stephos was describing. Instead, he closed his eyes for a brief moment. When he opened them again, his lips parted as he began to speak.
The words that came out weren't something Ervadelle would have understood even if she had been there to hear them. The moment those words could be heard, space shifted violently.
Stephos's amused loom was was gone as his body began to shake.
"Agh—what is this—"
The ground trembled again. Faint cracks began to spread through the air itself like fractures in glass that shouldn't have been visible. The pressure in the air increased sharply. Stephos staggered slightly as his eyes widened in genuine shock.
"How are you using a Hidden Truth on me—"
Veneri didn't respond, The sky got darker further and the cracks in space spread in lines that distorted everything they touched.
"Stop—do you even understand what you're invoking—"
The words didn't reach their conclusion because in the next instant, the distortion got stronger and Stephos's form flickered violently. His presence destabilized before vanishing entirely. The pressure collapsed just as quickly as it had built. The cracks faded and the sky returned to its previous state. Veneri stopped speaking.
"He escaped. Too bad. I wanted to kill him through the Hidden Truth tribulations."
He didn't dwell on it for long. He accessed his inventory. Ervadelle appeared beside him instantly as he adjusted back to the outside world. Her head turned around before locking onto him with clear confusion.
"What just happened? I heard screaming. That man is gone too."
Veneri didn't waste time explaining everything.
"The base is under attack. We're not going to help them."
"What do you mean we're not helping them?"
"The Dynasties can handle it. My subordinates already arrived. They'll take care of the situation there."
Before she could question it further, he shifted the focus entirely.
"We're going after the Reniatsus of this realm. They're already corrupted, so they need to be eliminated before they stabilize."
Ervadelle's grip on her weapon tightened slightly as she tried to keep up with the sudden shift in priorities.
"We're going to fight them? What's a Reniatsus?"
"I will fight them, not you. You'll just watch. This is part of your training. Oh, and a Reniatsus is a ruler of a realm."
He grabbed her before she could also more questions. The ground beneath them cracked slightly from the force of his acceleration and in the next second, they were going in the opposite direction of the barricade.