Chapter 143: Chapter 143: The Sky Burns
Chapter 143: The Sky Burns
The Ashfall Marches were completely silent for exactly three seconds.
Rolf threw the crushed corrupted core into the bloody mud. He let out another deafening howl.
The surviving Corrupted Paladins stared at the lifeless corpse of Commander Kaelen. Their absolute invincibility was shattered. The fanatic zealots of the Zenith Academy suddenly felt something they had ignored for centuries.
They felt pure mortal terror.
The front line of the Vanguard broke. The towering High-Orcs dropped their heavy broadswords and began to stumble backward.
"Push forward!" Rolf roared. The Silver Wolf pointed his blood-soaked claws toward the retreating enemy. "Leave no survivors!"
The Beastman infantry surged over the razor-wire trenches. They ruthlessly hacked down the fleeing Paladins. The mud ran black with monster blood.
I watched the glorious slaughter from the high iron walls. The ground war was officially won.
But the Zenith Academy was not finished.
A dry echoing laugh vibrated across the entire battlefield. It sounded like grinding tombstones.
The colossal magical projection of Vexis hovered high above the dark clouds. The skeletal apprentice of Archlich Malacor looked down at his routed army with absolute disdain.
"Flesh is so incredibly disappointing," Vexis hissed. His voice carried a terrifying necrotic weight. "Commander Kaelen was a foolish brute. But his failure provides me with excellent raw materials."
The green soul-fire in Vexis’s empty eye sockets flared violently.
"Rise and serve the true masters of the Academy!" Vexis chanted.
FWOOSH.
A massive wave of sickening green energy exploded from the dark clouds. It rained down over the Ashfall Marches like a toxic plague.
The green light slammed into the bloody mud.
The dead Corrupted Paladins violently twitched. Their severed limbs snapped back into place. Commander Kaelen’s crushed chest plate popped outward as his lifeless corpse was forcibly dragged back to its feet.
But they were no longer living monsters. They were undead thralls.
A thick suffocating cloud of green miasma began to roll off their rotting bodies. It spread rapidly across the trenches.
"Grik!" Anise shouted over the screaming wind. She grabbed my iron arm. "That is the Aura of Absolute Decay! If your soldiers breathe that miasma, their internal organs will instantly rot into sludge!"
I looked down. The Beastman infantry was coughing violently. The front ranks stumbled as the toxic green fog wrapped around their legs.
I did not issue an order over the radio. I took matters into my own hands.
I stepped up onto the heavy brass railing.
"Watch the sky," I commanded Nyssa. "I will handle the dirt."
I leaped directly off the fifty-foot black iron wall.
WHOOSH.
I plummeted toward the battlefield like a mechanical meteor. I did not brace for impact. I ignited my magical core to its absolute maximum capacity.
CRASH.
My heavy boots slammed into the mud directly between Rolf and the resurrected corpse of Commander Kaelen. The massive kinetic impact created a shockwave that blew the toxic fog backward.
I stood to my full towering height. I unleashed my Tier 1 Law.
"Burn," I growled.
The Fire of Rage erupted from my Ironclad armor. It was not normal red flame. It was a blinding superheated crimson inferno.
The system had classified my Law as an Incineration of Concept. It did not just burn physical oxygen. It fed on the very concept of magic.
The crimson flames violently clashed with the green necrotic miasma.
FWOOSH. HISSSSS.
The battlefield became an absolute furnace. The toxic decay shrieked like a dying animal as my rage utterly consumed it. The green fog dissolved into harmless gray smoke in mere seconds.
The heat was unbearable for the undead.
The resurrected Commander Kaelen lunged at me with his broken hands.
I did not even draw my weapon. I unleashed a concentrated wave of pure crimson fire directly from my chest plate.
The intense flames washed over the undead High-Orc. The corrupted holy armor melted instantly. The rotting flesh turned into fine black ash before he could even take a second step.
The entire front line of undead thralls crumbled into dust under the sheer conceptual weight of my rage.
High above the battlefield, the colossal skeletal projection flickered and distorted.
"What is this magic?!" Vexis shrieked. The mocking arrogance was completely gone from his raspy voice. "You are burning the absolute tether of death!"
"I am burning you," I replied coldly.
I looked up at the dark swirling clouds. I tracked the magical frequency anchoring the giant projection. I pinpointed the exact physical location of the Lich hiding in the sky.
I channeled my massive mana reserves into my spatial ring.
VWOOM.
I vanished from the muddy ground.
I materialized two thousand feet in the air.
I was standing directly on the broad scaly back of a colossal Abyssal Wyvern. The wind whipped violently around my heavy Ironclad plates.
Vexis stood only ten feet away from me. The undead mage wore tattered gray robes. He held a twisted black staff topped with a screaming human skull.
The Lich physically recoiled in pure shock.
"You teleported into the high stratosphere?!" Vexis hissed backing away toward the edge of the Wyvern.
"You talk too much for a dead man," I stated.
Vexis raised his black staff. He channeled his highest tier death magic.
"Soul Rend!" the Lich screamed.
A blinding beam of concentrated necrotic lightning erupted from the screaming skull on his staff. It struck me directly in the center of my chest.
BZZZZT. CRACKLE.
The dark lightning spiderwebbed across my armor. It was designed to rip a mortal soul directly out of its biological vessel.
But I was not a fragile mortal. I was the Sovereign.
My massive Aegis Rating and my overwhelming Conceptual Weight completely grounded the attack. The dark lightning fizzled and died against my brass plating. I did not even take a single step backward.
Vexis stared at my unblemished armor. His green soul-fire trembled.
"Archlich Malacor will tear your kingdom apart!" Vexis threatened desperately. He raised his staff to cast another spell.
I did not give him the chance.
I lunged forward with terrifying mechanical speed. I grabbed the Lich by his skeletal throat with my left gauntlet.
CRUNCH.
I lifted his frail floating body high into the freezing air.
"Let Malacor come," I growled directly into his empty eye sockets. "I need new bones for my foundry."
I pushed my Fire of Rage directly into my left hand.
The crimson flames surged outward. They flooded into Vexis’s skull. The intense heat completely suffocated the green soul-fire burning inside his head.
"NOOO!" Vexis shrieked in absolute agony.
I squeezed my brass fingers.
SNAP. CRUNCH.
I shattered the Lich’s skull into a thousand tiny white fragments.
The magical tether holding his undead body together instantly broke. His tattered gray robes collapsed into a pile of useless dust.
The giant skeletal projection in the sky immediately vanished.
The Abyssal Wyvern beneath my feet realized its master was dead. The massive beast shrieked and began to violently barrel roll to shake me off its back.
I simply stepped off the scaly hide.
I fell backward into the open sky. I activated my spatial ring one final time before I hit the ground.
VWOOM.
I materialized perfectly back on the high iron walls of the Velkrath Imperium.
Nyssa and Anise rushed to my side.
I looked out over the Ashfall Marches. Without Vexis controlling them, the remaining Abyssal Wyverns panicked and scattered into the night sky. The ground forces were completely wiped out. The surviving undead thralls had collapsed back into the bloody mud.
The massive siege was over. The Forge had won.
DING!
[System Alert: Holy Vanguard annihilated.]
[Massive IP and LP deposits calculated.]
[Warning: Zenith Academy Threat Level escalated to ’Total War’.]
I dismissed the blue screen. The victory was absolute. We had crushed their A-Grade commanders.
But as I looked out at the burning horizon, a deep heavy rumble vibrated beneath my metal boots. It was not coming from the sky. It was coming from deep underground.
The Labyrinth beneath the city was reacting to the massive release of magic.
"Sovereign," Silas spoke through the radio static. His voice sounded deeply unsettled. "The enemy is dead. But the lower mining sectors are reporting a massive cave-in. Something breached Strata 4."
I narrowed my red eyes.
The Zenith Academy was bleeding. But the ancient progenitor threat sleeping beneath my kingdom was finally starting to wake up.
The siege is won! Grik totally dominated Vexis, and Rolf secured his place as the ultimate Vanguard. But we cannot rest just yet, the Labyrinth is shifting!
