The air was thick with dust and blood.
The stranger was gasping for breath, his kendo blade trembling in his hands. Every time he raised his weapon, Jax was already there—
a golden blur striking from impossible angles.
"Enough!" the visitor roared, trying to retreat.
But the entire world seemed to close in around him.
Every blow from Jax was faster, heavier, deadlier.
His fists glowed with golden light, the echo of millions of prayers resonating through each strike.
The stranger staggered, coughing blood. His eyes revealed something he had never felt before.
Fear.
He tried to flee, bending reality itself as he had done so many times before.
His body vanished in a blink, moving across miles in an instant—
But when he arrived... Jax was already there.
The Dream World activated without warning.
Clouds rolled in, wrapping the scene in a ghostly veil.
Shadows. Whispers. Illusions.
Reality itself twisted into spiraling nightmares.
The outsider turned, trying to escape the dream field—
and he did, only to take another punch straight to the face.
His blood splattered through the air, falling like dark rain.
"Damn it!" he roared. "Damn it! Damn all of you! If I can't escape—
then I won't die for a bunch of fucking bastards!"
His scream ripped through the heavens.
And then… laughter.
First one.
Then another.
Then dozens more.
Deep, ancient laughter echoed from beyond the horizon.
The shadows rose like pillars of fire.
One by one, they appeared—
Titanic figures wrapped in divine armor, bodies overflowing with godlike power, faces hidden behind crowns of bone, gold, stone, and ivory.
Each one a myth.
Each one a conqueror.
Jax stared, wide-eyed.
He couldn't recognize them, but he could feel it—
their power was far beyond Demon Kings or Beast Kings.
Several names flashed in his mind:
The Demon Empress.
The White Stag Emperor.
Poseidon, Lord of the Oceans.
But there were dozens.
Scores.
All of them.
At once.
"It can't be…" Jax whispered, a chill crawling down his spine.
"It can't be that they're all here…"
Each newcomer spoke in a different tongue, their voices overlapping like echoes from different ages—
yet the message was the same.
"I ruled this world for a generation."
"I bent kingdoms and civilizations to my will."
"I was a conqueror."
One after another, they introduced themselves.
A procession of long-dead emperors who had once ruled the world…
and vanished without a trace.
An endless line of monarchs that time had forgotten.
The air grew heavy.
Every breath felt like inhaling molten lead.
Their shadows were so vast they blotted out the sun.
Jax clenched his fists, mind racing for answers.
How?
How could no one have known?
How had they stayed hidden for so long?
How could such monsters exist in secret while he believed he ruled the world?
Then the Human Emperor stepped forward.
His armor was simple, but his aura was more oppressive than all the others combined.
His eyes—two abysses of white light—locked onto Jax.
"So we finally meet, 'god,'" he said, his voice tearing through reality itself.
"I am the Human Emperor. Once, I ruled everything you see. I see you've smashed the face of my Sacred General, hehe... quite impressive—but nothing beyond what we can do ourselves."
The ground trembled beneath his feet.
The other emperors raised their weapons to the sky—
an army of legends, forgotten by history, now standing before Jax.
The Human Emperor's voice thundered like divine judgment.
"Show some respect before you dare negotiate with me. This… is for my Divine Generals."
His calm was lethal—colder than death itself.
The swordsman from before… had been nothing but a general.
What Jax faced now were not mere enemies.
They were ancient monsters—the true rulers of the world.
The Human Emperor vanished in a blink and appeared in front of Jax, driving a fist straight into his abdomen.
The impact was so brutal it hurled Jax's clone across miles of stone and steel, crashing through his own golden wall, which collapsed with an earth-shattering roar.
The emperor walked forward slowly, but each step warped space, moving him kilometers in an instant.
He appeared before Jax again, in the blink of an eye.
"Kneel and swear loyalty to the Ancients," he ordered coldly.
"Or be erased by those who once defended this world."
"You're far too weak. Perhaps in a thousand years you could lay a finger on me."
One by one, the emperors advanced, forming a semicircle around him.
The pressure they emitted was suffocating—so dense it turned the air solid.
Every breath hurt.
Jax's clone narrowed his eyes, spat blood, and let it splash across the emperor's face.
A gesture of defiance… or pure insanity.
The Human Emperor watched him in silence, then smirked faintly.
"Still not convinced," he murmured. "Very well. Let me remind you of your place."
The world trembled.
Ten emperors moved at once.
Every blow was a verdict.
Every strike, a mountain crashing down upon him.
Jax was hurled, crushed, and dragged across the ground—
blow after blow, without a moment to breathe or defend himself.
His form began to crumble, his energy flickering like a candle in a storm.
Finally, they grabbed him and forced him to his knees.
Dust filled the air as the clone barely managed to lift his head.
"Lick the ground," the Human Emperor commanded, his eyes full of disdain.
"Lick the ground like the dog you are… or die resisting."
Silence followed.
Even the wind dared not move.
The power radiating from the Ancients was overwhelming—
so intense that even the statues, the soldiers, and the shadows trembled before them.
Jax said nothing.
His breathing was ragged.
His hands shook.
But still—he did not bow.
The Human Emperor studied him, torn between disgust and curiosity.
"You're stubborn," he said quietly. "That… might be your undoing."
With a flick of his wrist, the Ancients' spiritual energy exploded once more.
The ground split apart, the heavens cracked, and Jax's clone was reduced to a miserable, broken state.
Yet even through the pain and dust… he still looked at them.
Unflinching.
Unyielding.
The emperor sighed, as if tired of a bug too stubborn to die.
"Still… I'll admit," he said. "Your spirit is worthy of an emperor."
"Too bad you were born in the wrong era."
With a simple motion, darkness enveloped Jax.
His body fell, lifeless and still—
but his eyes still burned like a flame refusing to die.
The silence was shattered only by the laughter of the Ancients, echoing through time itself.
Laughter filled with arrogance, power… and madness.