The Forbidden Godly Beast

Chapter 6: The Return of the Defect and the Capital's Terror

The majestic gates of the Surya Capital, reinforced with ancient steel and glowing with thousands of protective golden runes, had stood undefeated for over three centuries. To the citizens inside, those walls were an absolute symbol of security. To the royal guards patrolling the battlements, they were a barrier that kept the trash of the outer world exactly where it belonged—in the dirt.

Commander Varian stood atop the eastern watchtower, his golden armor gleaming under the pale morning light. He took a sip of his warm wine, his eyes lazily scanning the horizon where the Forbidden Forest met the open plains.

"Any sign of Prince Kael's hunting party?" Varian asked, his voice rough.

"No, Commander," a young guard replied, bowing deeply. "But with His Highness's Gold-Rank Four-Winged Falcon and the elite disciples, capturing the Heavenly Starlight Lotus should be as easy as plucking a leaf from a tree."

Varian smirked, nodding in agreement. "True. Once Prince Kael returns with the lotus, the royal family will secure their rule for another hundred years. No one, not even the remnants of those fallen clans, will ever dare to look down upon—"

Varian’s words were violently cut short.

A sudden, suffocating wave of cold air swept across the plains, instantly freezing the wine in his cup. The temperature didn't just drop; the very spiritual energy in the atmosphere seemed to scream in absolute terror. The sky above the Forbidden Forest, which had been bright with the morning sun, rapidly bruised into a deep, malevolent purple.

"What... what is that pressure?" the young guard whimpered, his knees shaking so violently that his spear clattered against the stone floor.

From the edge of the forest, three miles away, the ground began to ripple and explode. Massive cracks tore through the earth, sprinting directly toward the capital gates. And then, a sound echoed—a heavy, rhythmic thudding that sounded like the heartbeat of a dying world.

THUD. THUD. THUD.

Every step shook the massive, three-hundred-foot stone walls of the capital. The protective golden runes on the gates began to flicker erratically, turning from bright gold to a panicked, unstable red.

"Sound the alarms!" Varian roared, his face draining of all color as he pulled his sword. "Prepare the defensive formations! A high-level beast tide is approaching!"

The massive bronze bells of the capital rang out, their frantic tolling sending the entire city into an immediate state of panic. Thousands of civilians ran into their homes, while hundreds of armored cultivators and royal elders rushed toward the battlements, their faces grim.

But as the mist on the plains finally parted, the guards didn't see a tide of thousands of monsters.

They saw only one.

Emerging from the shadows was a creature of absolute nightmares—the Ancient Abyssal Fiend. It stood forty feet tall, its crystalline midnight armor reflecting no light, making it look like a walking void. Four colossal wings made of dark, crackling divine flames expanded from its back, scorching the grass beneath it into black ash with every breath. Above its horned head, a crown of violet fire burned with the authority of an ancient demon god.

But what made Commander Varian’s heart completely stop wasn't the monster. It was the figure standing calmly on its head.

A young man clad in a dark aura, his long black hair fluttering in the chaotic wind. His skin was flawless, and his eyes—two burning orbs of deep violet fire—held a level of cold, merciless calm that made the high-ranking elders on the wall gasp for breath.

"No... it can't be," an elder from the Fire-Sword Clan gasped, dropping his staff. "That facial structure... those features... That is the traitor's son! Shaktivel!"

"Shaktivel?!" Varian screamed, his mind refusing to accept the reality. "The cripple who was exiled yesterday for summoning a defective corpse? How is he riding an Earth-Rank demon? Look at his cultivation base!"

Using his spiritual senses, Varian tried to read Shaktivel’s energy. The moment his mental scan touched the young man, a violent backlash exploded in Varian’s mind. It felt as if he had tried to look into a volcano. He stumbled back, spitting a mouthful of blood.

"The... Peak of the Ninth Layer of Qi Condensation!" Varian choked out, his eyes wide with sheer horror. "He was a mortal yesterday! How can anyone jump nine layers in a single night?!"

The Ancient Abyssal Fiend stopped exactly one hundred yards away from the massive iron gates. The absolute silence that followed was heavy enough to crush a man's chest.

Shaktivel looked up at the thousands of trembling soldiers on the wall. He didn't say a word. Instead, he reached down onto the beast’s back and lifted a limp, broken figure by the hair, tossing it forward onto the dirt road in front of the gates.

The figure rolled twice before stopping face-up under the morning light.

"Kael!" Varian gasped.

Prince Kael, the pride of the royal family, was unrecognizable. His golden robes were shredded and covered in dried blood, his face was pale and smeared with mud, and most terrifyingly—the brilliant spiritual aura that usually surrounded him was completely gone. His dantian was a shattered ruin. He was nothing but a crippled, broken mortal.

"You... you dare harm the Prince of the Surya Empire!" the High Priest, the very man who had banished Shaktivel the day before, stepped onto the watchtower, his face twisted in a mix of rage and primal fear. "Shaktivel! Your Shakti clan was wiped out for treason, and now you return with demonic arts? The Emperor will flay you alive!"

Shaktivel finally spoke. His voice wasn't loud, but fueled by his peak Ninth Layer Qi, it reverberated through every street, every home, and every soul inside the capital like a divine decree.

"My father was no traitor, High Priest," Shaktivel said, his violet eyes locking onto the old man. "Your royal family coveted our clan's ancient inheritance, so you framed us and slaughtered my bloodline while I was too weak to fight back. Yesterday, you called my companion a corpse. You stripped me of my birthright and threw me to the wolves."

The Ancient Abyssal Fiend let out a low, bass-heavy growl that caused the stone battlements to crack.

"But the wolves didn't eat me," Shaktivel cold-smiled, a dangerous, terrifying glint appearing in his eyes. "They gave me their teeth. I told you yesterday, High Priest... the next time I saw these walls, they would be burning."

"Activate the Grand Array!" the High Priest screamed in panic, his hand shaking as he pointed at Shaktivel. "Fire the spiritual cannons! Destroy that anomaly!"

The golden runes on the wall suddenly blazed with blinding light. A massive, transparent golden dome of energy emerged, enveloping the entire capital in its absolute defense—the Surya Dragon Shield, a Grade 4 array capable of resisting the attacks of ten Foundation Establishment experts. Simultaneously, twelve massive bronze cannons on the wall began to charge with blinding elemental fire, targeting the shadow monster.

"Fire!" Varian roared.

Twelve beams of condensed, mountain-destroying fire erupted from the cannons, tearing through the air and converging directly onto Shaktivel and his beast. The explosion was deafening, filling the plains with a massive cloud of white-hot smoke and dust.

The guards on the wall let out a collective sigh of relief. "We got him!" "No one can survive the elemental cannons head-on!"

But before the cheers could even form, a massive, chilling voice echoed from within the smoke.

"Is that all the light your little sun can produce?"

The smoke didn't just clear; it was violently sucked inward. The Ancient Abyssal Fiend stood completely unharmed, its crystalline armor glowing slightly darker. Its gigantic jaws were wide open, and a black vortex, large enough to swallow the watchtower itself, was effortlessly consuming the remaining explosions, turning the destructive fire into raw energy for its own stomach.

Gulp.

The shadow beast’s violet fire eyes flared. Inside Shaktivel, the absolute peak of the Ninth Layer Qi began to condense, compressing into a single, solid drop of spiritual liquid inside his shattered dantian area—the first step of forming a Divine Foundation Base.

"My turn," Shaktivel whispered. He raised his right hand, pointing his index finger straight at the massive golden dome of the city array. "Break it."

The Ancient Abyssal Fiend raised its massive right claw, coated in a thick, spinning vortex of absolute spatial darkness. With a roar that shattered the glass windows of every building within five miles, it brought its claw down onto the golden shield.

CRACK.

The moment the dark claw touched the Surya Dragon Shield, the golden energy didn't just resist—it began to dissolve. The black vortex on the beast's claw began to devour the array's spiritual energy whole. Deep, jagged fractures spread across the massive golden dome like a spiderweb.

"The array... it's absorbing our energy!" the High Priest screamed, falling to his knees as the array core inside the palace violently shattered into a thousand pieces.

BOOM!

The Grand Array of the Surya Capital exploded into a shower of useless golden sparks. The shockwave blew back the guards on the wall, sending hundreds of them tumbling to the ground below.

The undefeated gates of the capital were now completely wide open. The absolute defense of the empire was gone in a single strike.

Shaktivel slowly walked to the edge of the shadow beast’s head, looking down at the terrified soldiers and the trembling High Priest. The morning sun was completely blocked by his beast’s four massive wings of dark flame, casting the entire capital into an artificial, terrifying night.

"The debt collection begins today," Shaktivel said, his voice cold enough to freeze blood. "Tell the Emperor to get off his stolen throne. The true master of the southern skies has returned."

With a powerful flap of its fiery wings, the Ancient Abyssal Fiend stepped through the shattered gates of the capital, bringing an absolute, inescapable darkness to the empire that had dared to call them trash.