I Was Mistaken for the Reincarnated Evil Overlord-Chapter 99: The Rift War Opens

The world went quiet for a single breath.

Then the rift screamed.

It didn't open with grace or elegance. It tore through reality like claws raking through silk. Mana surged outward like a tidal wave. Stones cracked, air rippled, and the mountains themselves seemed to flinch.

The Rift War had begun.

From within the glowing wound, they came.

At first, shadows, long-limbed things crawling on reverse-jointed legs. Then bodies. Hulking ogres with iron runes burned into their hides. Warped trolls draped in stolen armor. Wargs stitched from corpses. Bone-crested goblins that didn't blink, didn't scream, just charged.

Behind them: a wall of fog. Dark, oily, whispering.

The enemy didn't pour out, they exploded.

From Darin's vantage, he saw it all.

"Signal the strike teams," he ordered, mana flaring through his throat. "Wave One—go!"

The horns blared from three points of the summit.

The battle began.

[Alvin – East Flank, Thermospire Approach]

The trolls came first, massive things that smelled like dead bears dipped in rot.

Alvin spun his transforming weapon into twin-bladed axes and lunged. His foot hit a pressure plate, activating one of the dwarven flame lines. Fire erupted across the ridge, bathing the lead trolls in screaming agony.

His axes hit the next one mid-belly. A burst of kinetic shock knocked it off balance, but it didn't fall.

So Alvin turned the weapon again, into a spear—and pinned the beast through the eye.

Behind him, dwarves slammed their shields together and braced for the next wave. On the ridgeline above, gallikarn archers unleashed volley after volley.

"Hold formation!" Alvin barked. "Don't let them stack! Keep the cliff edge clear!"

He turned to help a fallen soldier—

Then froze.

A figure stood in the fog just beyond the line.

Oni. Tall. Cloaked in blue-black fire. A blade longer than a man rested on one shoulder. His eyes glowed with cold mirth.

"You look like a tactician than a fighter with your looks" the figure asked, voice like a blade through water. "Good. I've always wanted to kill the smart one first."

Alvin straightened.

"So be it."

[Vincent – Western Cliffside, Flame Spur Outpost]

The goblins were worse than expected.

These weren't skittery thieves.

They were tacticians. They came in waves, two real, one illusion. Their bone-crested helms deflected weak magic. Their movement was coordinated. Every sixth carried cursed blades that burst into shadowfire.

Vincent danced through them with impossible elegance.

His twin swords flashed in wide arcs. Sparks danced from his boots with every twist, every leap. He kicked one goblin off the cliff, backflipped over another, and impaled a third mid-spin.

"Stop sending things that die in one hit!" he shouted, laughing. "At least make it interesting!"

Then—his laughter stopped.

A figure emerged at the back of the horde.

Short. Slender. Hooded. The air around them twisted unnaturally. They weren't walking, they were floating. Dozens of daggers, some floating, some held, gleamed at their belt.

"I heard there was a show-off here," the assassin said. Their voice was cold and sexless. "You like being watched?"

Vincent rolled his shoulders.

"Well, at least you're dressed like a proper villain. Let's go."

[The Sorceress – Central Spire, Mage Line]

She stood with her hands outstretched, mana spiraling from her fingertips into three interconnected circles.

Blue. White. Crimson.

Each circle held a squad of mages, their energy amplified through her tri-bond tether. Bolts of lightning shot from their formation, frying wargs mid-leap. Fire rained like arrows. Ice walls erupted on command.

Behind her, the Stranger's enchantment team chanted like lunatics.

Everything was holding.

Until a wave of frost crashed through the lower passage, freezing one mage formation solid.

The Sorceress turned.

Her breath caught.

A woman walked through the mist, skin pale as marble, clad in blood-red armor. She didn't walk. She glided. And every step froze the stone beneath her.

"You," the Sorceress whispered. "You shouldn't be alive."

The woman tilted her head, eyes glowing blue.

"You abandoned me in the Cradle of Flame, traitor. Did you think I would forget?"

The Sorceress raised her staff, fire dancing along the shaft.

"I hoped," she said.

Then she launched the first strike.

[Darin – Command Ridge]

Darin saw it all happening.

Every front. Every breach.

He held back the panic.

Instead, he did what he'd learned to do, trust his people.

He called down three reinforcement waves, sent gallikarn squads to the southern flank, and pulled Grull from the rear to the central charge path.

Grull roared, ripping through enemy lines like a siege weapon with legs. His club shattered bone and stone alike.

Darin turned to the elven Arcanum general. "Flare now. Target that warg cluster near the dwarf line."

The elf hesitated, then nodded. "You see patterns well… for a human."

"It's the blacksmith training," Darin replied. "Now set it off."

The flare exploded, and with it, the ground collapsed beneath the wargs—into a dwarven spike pit.

Efficient. Precise.

The Circle held.

Then the air changed again.

He felt it before he saw it.

Dark mana. Refined. Heavy. Familiar.

A new figure stood at the rift's edge.

Not a beast. Not a goblin. Not a troll.

A man.

No. Not quite.

Something in between.

He wore a long coat of red leather and bone clasps. His skin was ashen. His hair was silver, braided down to his waist. His eyes—

Darin froze.

His eyes were the same color as the mark on Darin's arm.

The man smiled.

"I was wondering when you'd show yourself," he said, voice smooth. "We've been waiting a long time, little Lord."

Darin swallowed. "Who are you?"

"A gift," the man said. "From your past self. One of the last gifts he left behind."

The Overlord stirred in Darin's mind.

"That… is one of mine."

"You made him?"

"No. I made what became him."

The man bowed.

"My name is Kael. Herald of the Scarred Flame. Keeper of the Pact. And I've come to see if you're worthy of being my Overlord."

He raised his hand.

A curved blade of darksteel appeared in his palm.

"Duel me. Or watch your command die."

Darin stepped forward, warhammer glowing.

"Then I'll prove it."

[Reeka – Upper Archer Ridge]

Reeka crouched with a row of Gallikarn huntresses.

Grumble sat on her shoulder like a living crown, tail flicking.

The archers had already taken down over sixty enemies, coordinating with dwarven volleys and elven flare signals. It was working.

Then came the scream.

A warped Gallikarn, its feathers blackened, its body swollen with cursed mana—landed on the ridge, flanked by six more.

"They turned our kin," someone whispered.

The corrupted Gallikarn stepped forward. "Your new master sends his greetings. He says the Shadow Beast's mate must fall first."

Reeka's hands tightened on her bow.

Grumble hissed.

Then he jumped right at the corrupted gallikarn.

[Grull – Central Front]

Grull crushed the last ogre with a single slam.

Then paused.

Another cyclops stood across the battlefield, twice his size, armor plated, eye glowing with the fire of a volcano.

"Brother," the larger one rumbled. "You kneel to the False One."

Grull snorted.

"I stand where the mountain stands."

The larger cyclops drew a flaming axe the size of a house.

"Then we break the mountain."

Grull stepped forward, cracking his knuckles.

"I'd like to see you try."

[The Stranger – Enchantment Ridge]

The Stranger stood amidst his enchanters, calmly carving a symbol into the air with a piece of charred ant bone.

"Maintain focus!" he said. "This is the third-best moment of my life!"

One of his apprentices screamed as a corrupted elemental surged toward them—

Then stopped.

Because across from the Stranger, a tall, robed woman now floated mid-air.

Her voice was made of wind and glass.

"Enchanter of the New Path. They say you serve the Overlord. I say you die first."

The Stranger blinked.

Then grinned.

"Marvelous! Duel me! But only after you fill out the proper paperwork."

Every front now had its duel.

Every commander confronted.

And everyone of them ready to die for their cause.