Chapter 324: A Skeleton Falls from the Heavens
Federal Headquarters. Subterranean Shelter Perimeter.
Two hundred Night Watchmen stood as the terminal line of defense. Behind them,
one hundred thousand civilians huddled in the dark. Before them, thirty thousand
Anomalies waited in the ruins.
Kenji's voice crackled through the comm-channel of every active defender.
"All units, finalize your positioning. Today, there is no tactical retreat.
Today, we fight until the final spark of our Od is extinguished. Today, we
inform these monsters that humanity does not subscribe to its own liquidation!"
Two hundred warriors let out a collective, desperate roar.
"WE WILL NOT SUBMIT!"
The shout echoed through the crimson night. But in the next micro-second, the
shriek of thirty thousand horrors drowned it out.
The Scourge began its final advance.
The "Unranked Scum" and Tier 1 pests led the charge, surging like a flood of
rot. Their velocity was extreme; they breached the outer engagement zone in
heartbeats.
"FIRE!"
The Watchmen pulled their triggers. A hailstorm of lead tore through the air.
The bullets were effective against the unranked thralls, but against the
Tier 1s, the kinetic damage was statistically insignificant. Their bodies were
perforated only to knit back together instantly. Their skulls were shattered
only for new bone to sprout from the gore.
"Dammit!" a Watchman snarled, drawing a tactical dagger and lunging at the
nearest monster.
A flash of steel. The Anomaly was severed. But in the next heartbeat, five more
swarmed him. The Watchman disappeared beneath a tide of reaching claws. A single
scream cut through the noise, then went silent.
"HOLD THE LINE! DO NOT DEVIATE!" Kenji's voice commanded.
But every soul on the field knew the data: this was merely a slow-motion
termination.
Just then, the sky died.
It wasn't the dark of clouds obscuring the moon. It was an absolute, heavy,
"Void-Black" that made the lizard-brains of every living and dead thing shiver
with instinctual dread.
Pedestrians, Watchmen, and Anomalies alike tilted their heads upward.
And then, they saw it.
A gargantuan silhouette plummeted from the heavens.
It was a Skeleton King, encased from skull to tarsus in heavy, obsidian plate
armor. In its gauntlets, it gripped a Bone-Cleaving Greatsword that was taller
than a human male. The sapphire-blue soulfire in its sockets pulsed with a calm,
clinical rhythm.
It radiated zero bloodlust. Zero pressure. It simply hovered in the mid-air for
a heartbeat, observing the theater beneath its boots.
BOOM.
The Skeleton King landed. The impact of his massive metal boots shattered the
asphalt, sending a shockwave through the mud and stone. Dust and grey debris
spiraled into the air.
The thirty-thousand-strong charge stalled.
It wasn't stopped by a wall, but by a logic error. The Anomalies were confused.
What is this variable? Why does it possess no scent? Why does it stand in our
path without releasing a strike?
The Tier 2 and Tier 3 horrors halted their advance. Their higher-order instincts
were screaming a red-alert: Predator detected.
But the Unranked and Tier 1 pests possessed no such parameters. They only
recognized a physical obstacle preventing their meal.
"ROAR!"
A Tier 1 Anomaly hissed, lunging for the Skeleton King's throat. It was a blur
of motion, reaching the target in milliseconds.
The skeleton didn't even draw its blade. He simply raised a gauntleted hand and
delivered a casual, horizontal swat.
THWACK.
The Tier 1 Anomaly was launched across the sector. Its frame disintegrated
mid-flight, its very Rules unravelling into a cloud of black mist before it even
hit the ground.
Total liquidation. In one move.
The silence was absolute. Even the Watchmen stopped breathing. That was a Tier 1
monster. It usually requires a coordinated squad effort to process. And he... he
slapped it out of the archives?
Several Tier 1s, lacking the logic to flee, lunged in a pack. Ten... fifteen...
twenty horrors swarmed the armored skeleton.
The soulfire in the King's sockets flickered with a sharp irritation. He slowly
raised the massive greatsword.
And then, he spoke.
"[Warning.]"
The voice was a flat, resonant vibration that carried zero emotion.
"As of this cycle, this Coordinate is annexed by the Evernight Empire."
"All sentient biological and spiritual units are granted a choice: Vassalage."
"Those who submit shall receive the Sovereign's Providence."
"Those who decline are categorized as Enemies. Processed for immediate
liquidation."
"This is the Sovereign's Decree. It is non-negotiable."
The Skeleton King pointed his blade toward the host of monsters.
"You are granted ten seconds for the choice-protocol."
"10." "9." "8..."
The Tier 2s and 3s looked at each other. They understood. They perceived the
absolute Hierarchy of the Dead. This skeleton was their God.
But the low-tier pests continued their charge.
"7... 6... 5..."
A dozen more Tier 1s lunged, their maws open.
The countdown terminated.
"[Warning Invalidated. Commencing Sanitation.]"
In the next micro-second, the Skeleton King moved.
His velocity bypassed the visual receptors of every human present. A single
flash of obsidian light cut through the night.
Pfffsch.
Fifteen Tier 1s were neatly severed in two. They didn't even hit the ground;
they evaporated into the Void before the gravity could take them.
But that was only the prologue.
The Skeleton King began a methodical "Cleanup." His movements were
simple—efficient sweeps of the blade. But every swing deleted a sector of the
Anomaly host. Against his Tier 6 output, the Tier 1s were made of wet parchment.
In less than sixty seconds, over a thousand Anomalies had been cleared from the
map.
The Skeleton King ceased his movement. His armor was spotless. There was no
blood, for the Anomalies left nothing behind but ash. He turned his skull to
face the remaining host.
"Does any other unit decline submission?"
The voice was still calm. But this time, not a single horror moved. The Tier 2s
and 3s had reached a consensus of terror.
"We... we submit..." a Tier 3 Umbra-wraith whispered, its voice shivering. "We
adhere to the new Protocols..."
The other high-tier monsters joined the surrender. They chose persistence over
pride.
The Skeleton King gave a slow, approving nod. "Satisfactory."
"Vassal units: retire one hundred meters from this bunker. Await Imperial
processing."
"Non-compliant units: depart this sector immediately. You will not be pursued.
However, if you manifest within Imperial jurisdiction again, you will be
processed with zero warnings."
The Tier 2 and 3 horrors retreated instantly. They didn't look back.
But a few mindless Tier 1s still lingered, twitching with hunger.
The King's soulfire pulsed. "It appears a secondary sanitation cycle is
required."
He raised his sword.
Clang. Flash.
The remaining stragglers were erased. The thoroughfare before the bunker was now
a void of life and un-life.
Federal Headquarters. Command Center.
Kenji, Silas, and the entire council stared at the holographic feed.
Thirty thousand monsters. Neutralized by a singular skeleton in less than five
minutes.
"What... what manner of deity is this?" Silas whispered, his voice cracking.
Kenji didn't answer. He stared at the blue soulfire on the screen.
"The Evernight Empire..." he murmured. "Is this the scale of their power?"
He realized, with a sinking feeling, that the seven hundred "Recruits" Bochi
mentioned were now manifesting across the planet.
In every sector of the Eldritch Realm, the sanitization had begun.
☆☆☆
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