My Seven Wives Are Beautiful Saintesses - Chapter 174

Chapter 174: Chapter 174: The Spider’s Downfall and the Empress’s Vow
With the Demonic Faction subjugated and bound by the terrifying Soul Pacts, the Void Emperor Vahn was ready to launch his first major offensive against the newly formed Celestial Empire. His target was chosen with precise, ruthless strategy and a calculated familial necessity: the Holy Land of Darkness.

The Holy Land of Darkness, a vast territory cloaked in perpetual night and ruled by the formidable Matriarch Arachne (Lilith’s mother), was the most spiritually corrupt and militarily powerful of the Demonic strongholds. Conquering it would secure the entire southern flank of the impending war and provide the Void Empire with a massive influx of powerful, dark energy cultivators.

However, the choice was fraught with peril.

Lilith and her mother had a deep-seated, agonizing feud, intensified by the fact that Matriarch Arachne was the killer of Lilith’s father. This invasion was not merely military; it was an opportunity to resolve a toxic, lifelong grievance that haunted the Empress of Darkness.

Lilith, the Empress of Darkness, stood before Vahn in the war room, her usual composure fractured by visible hesitation.

“Husband,” Lilith whispered, her shadow aura wavering. “I… I know this is the optimal move. Her power is too great to leave unchecked. But to face her, knowing what she did, and knowing what she is… I feel the cold core of her hatred. I fear the confrontation.”

Vahn immediately stepped toward her, his Void Shattering Realm aura wrapping around her like a protective mantle. He held her face gently, his eyes filled with absolute conviction.

“You are not fighting her for me, Lilith. You are fighting her for yourself. You are the Empress of Darkness. She stole your light, your father, and your freedom. You have the power now to seize justice and closure. I will not make you harm her, but I will not let her remain a specter in your heart. You must meet her, and you must prove that you are the superior power.”

Lilith looked at his unwavering support, and the hesitation melted into a cold, fierce resolve.

“You are right. I must face the past to rule the future.” She straightened her spine, her darkness aura returning with renewed, crushing intensity. “I will go with the army.”

—

The invasion of the Holy Land of Darkness was swift and devastating.

Vahn led the invasion from the Imperial Dreadnought, flanked by the three Empresses and Luminaire. Below the flying behemoths, the forces of the Void Alliance were a terrifying sight: the meticulously structured, technologically advanced Necrotic Dynasty Army marching alongside the chaotically powerful formations of the newly subjugated Demon Monarchs.

Matriarch Arachne’s army was immense, consisting of countless Demon Generals and legions of fierce, shadow-bred warriors. They were masters of chaos and spiritual corruption, capable of swallowing entire human armies whole.

Nevertheless, against Vahn’s overwhelming technological might, the Matriarch’s defense crumbled.

The Behemoth Warships unleashed concentrated volleys of Shadow-Void Cannons, ripping apart the Matriarch’s defensive spell matrices and fortified positions with impunity.

The Allied Demon Monarchs, led by the pragmatic Blood Monarch, engaged the enemy forces with savage loyalty, their power amplified by Vahn’s resource injections and tempered by the fear of his Soul Pacts.

Aria’s War Saintess aura was the final, critical element. Leading the vanguard, Aria’s lightning-infused attacks carved paths of pure destruction through the enemy ranks, forcing the Matriarch’s generals into a panic. Her strategic command was impeccable, ensuring the Void Alliance forces maintained perfect synchronization despite their disparate origins.

The battle lasted only a few hours. The Matriarch’s army was utterly routed, their forces shattered by a superior power they had never imagined existed.

Matriarch Arachne herself materialized on a desolate hilltop, a figure of stunning, mature beauty twisted by malice, her form covered in ancient, dark spider silk armor. She faced the Imperial Dreadnought as it hovered menacingly above her.

Lilith descended from the ship, her face pale but resolute. Her mother’s familiar hatred was a tangible thing, smothering the air.

“Lilith!” Matriarch Arachne shrieked, her voice saturated with spiritual venom. “You betrayed your kin! You brought this mongrel and his light-whoring sister to destroy everything I built! You are a traitor to the darkness!”

“You betrayed me first, Mother,” Lilith stated, her voice trembling slightly. “You killed Father. You taught me nothing but cruelty. I choose freedom and life over your stagnant, poisonous realm.”

The Matriarch’s face twisted into an expression of pure malice. She launched no attack, but her words were the ultimate spiritual curse.

“I wish you were never born of my womb, Lilith! You were a mistake! A cursed blight on my power! I renounce you! May you suffer the same betrayal and solitude you inflict upon me!”

Lilith’s composure finally broke. The Matriarch’s absolute rejection, delivered in the presence of her husband and fellow Empresses, tore through her heart. She sank to her knees, the pain of a lifetime of abuse and abandonment flooding her soul.

Vahn descended instantly, appearing beside Lilith. He held her close, shielding her from the Matriarch’s venomous aura.

“She is wrong, Lilith,” Vahn whispered gently. “She is wrong about your worth, but she is right that you have chosen to break the cycle. You made the right choice. She is a relic of cruelty. You are the Empress of the future.”

Lilith found her strength not in Vahn’s comfort, but in the white-hot, purified hatred of her mother’s ultimate rejection. This was not a wound to be healed; it was a poison to be neutralized.

In an emotional breakdown fueled by absolute rage, Lilith focused her Empress of Darkness power. Her spiritual core convulsed, channeling her pure, focused hatred into an irreversible spiritual curse.

“You want darkness, Mother? You want solitude?” Lilith shrieked, her voice raw with centuries of pain. “Then I curse you to the only form you deserve!”

A beam of refined, absolute darkness essence erupted from Lilith’s hand, striking the Matriarch.

Matriarch Arachne let out a horrifying, unnatural scream as the curse took hold. Her powerful body began to shrink, compressing until she was nothing more than a grotesque, small spider. The spider still radiated immense spiritual power, but it was trapped in a tiny, pitiful form with three glowing eyes.

Lilith herself had cursed her mother to Eternal Imprisonment as a small spider with three eyes. She could never revert back to her true, powerful form.

Lilith stared at the tiny, thrashing creature, tears streaming down her face. She couldn’t be so cruel as to kill her own mother, even after the Matriarch’s monstrous actions. This sentence, a life of impotent, endless spiritual existence, was the best closure she could manage.

A Shadow Guard quickly placed the small, cursed spider into a smooth, dark jar, sealing it with a restrictive spiritual formation. The little spider was later caged in a small jar, destined to be kept in the deepest dungeons of the Imperial Palace, a permanent trophy of Lilith’s victory over her past.

With the Matriarch neutralized, Vahn immediately set about integrating the remnants of the defeated army. The shivering hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers, now leaderless and terrified of the Void Emperor’s power, were given two choices: join the ranks of the Void Empire or face the annihilation that befell Korthax.

The overwhelming majority swore allegiance to the Void Emperor. Vahn had secured the Demonic rear, secured a massive fighting force, and, most importantly, secured the emotional liberation of his Empress. The battle lines for the war against Emperor Sirius and the Celestial Empire were now fully drawn.

—

The victorious Void Alliance Armada, now swelled by the newly integrated, trembling legions of the Holy Land of Darkness, began its solemn journey back to the Imperial City, Necrotis.

The atmosphere was one of strained triumph; the power gained was immense, but the internal cost to Empress Lilith was heavy, and the threat of the Celestial Empire loomed larger than ever.

​Vahn, standing on the deck of the Imperial Dreadnought, felt the subtle shifts in the continent’s spiritual energy. He knew the swift and brutal conquest of the Matriarch Arachne would provoke an immediate, powerful reaction from Emperor Sirius.

​

​The planned route back took the vast armada over a treacherous range of tall, jagged mountains—a natural choke point between the newly conquered Dark Territories and the Southern Continent.

Vahn, Aria, and Lilith had meticulously reviewed this path, preparing for minor skirmishes.

​However, the Celestial Empire had been faster and more cunning than anticipated.

​Unknown to Vahn’s primary intelligence network, Emperor Sirius had deployed an elite, hidden force led by one of his supreme commanders, preparing a massive, sophisticated ambush just beyond the peaks.

Using advanced spiritual formations adapted from the Six Great Holy Lands, the Celestial forces had erected a layered Trap Formation designed to ensnare and dismantle the massive Behemoth Warships upon crossing the mountain crest. The formation was expertly camouflaged, cloaked by powerful illusions and silence spells that even Lilith’s spirit sense had failed to detect completely.

The armada was flying directly into the fatal embrace of the Celestial trap.