Chapter 51: The Apex Dog
The concrete ceiling of the underground data hub violently caved in. Massive chunks of stone and twisted steel rebar crashed down onto the terminal desks, instantly crushing the expensive magical equipment into fine dust. Kanos leaped backward, narrowly avoiding a boulder the size of a car that smashed into the exact spot he was standing a second ago.
Thick gray dust instantly filled the entire room, making it incredibly hard to see or breathe. Kanos coughed harshly. He shielded his eyes with his arm, trying to look through the chaotic debris. The blaring red warning lights in the room sparked and died completely, leaving them in near total darkness.
From the gaping hole in the ceiling, a figure slowly descended. The person did not fall. They floated down smoothly, completely defying the laws of gravity.
The dust slowly settled. The figure stepped onto the broken floorboards with a heavy, metallic thud. He was a terrifyingly massive man, easily standing over two meters tall, wearing a completely different style of armor from the regular executioners. His gear was heavily plated in dull, matte black metal. There were no glowing magic runes on his gauntlets. There was no silver helmet. The man’s face was exposed. He had a brutal, square jawline, a shaved head, and eyes that glowed with a terrifying, unnatural bright yellow light.
"Sector Four Anomaly verified," the man spoke. His voice was deep, booming, and completely lacked the robotic filter of the lower ranked guards. "I am Grand Inquisitor Vane. You have caused a significant disruption to the natural order of Yomalvara. Prepare for permanent deletion."
Sili crawled backward desperately until his back hit the cold wall. "Boss, that is him! He is manipulating the localized gravity field! Run!"
Kanos did not run. He quickly reached into his cargo pocket, his fingers tightly gripping his wooden brush and the bottle of deep violet ink. He was already exhausted. His brain still ached terribly. But surviving meant pushing past the breaking point right here and right now. Kanos opened the bottle with his thumb and rapidly dipped the brush.
He drew a single, thick circle in the air followed by a sharp jagged line. He completely bypassed the complex hound anatomy to save time. He just needed a raw, brute force distraction.
"Manifest," Kanos ordered through gritted teeth.
The dark violet smoke exploded from the brush. It solidified instantly into a massive, formless blob of pure anti magic void. The creature looked like a giant, spiked sludge monster. It roared soundlessly and hurled its massive body directly at Inquisitor Vane, intending to swallow the man whole and drain his energy.
Vane did not even draw a weapon. The giant man simply raised his right hand. He did not chant a spell. He just casually swiped his hand through the air.
An invisible, catastrophic wave of pure kinetic force erupted from Vane’s palm. The shockwave hit the void sludge mid air. The impact was deafening. Kanos’s creation, designed to completely eat magical energy, stood absolutely no chance against pure, unfiltered physical force. The kinetic wave instantly blew the dark violet sludge apart, scattering the heavy smoke into harmless tiny particles against the back wall.
Kanos’s eyes widened slightly. Sili was entirely right. The void ink was highly specialized for eating magic. It was utterly useless against a man who fought by editing the physical gravity and kinetic values of the system.
"Your little parlor tricks do not work on me, bug," Vane sneered coldly. He took a heavy step forward. The concrete floor beneath his boot instantly cracked and spiderwebbed outward from the sheer concentrated gravity pushing down on him.
Vane threw a punch toward Kanos from ten meters away. He did not move his body. He just punched the empty air.
Kanos instantly felt an invisible force the size of a wrecking ball flying straight at his chest. Before Kanos could even try to dodge, Belida leaped right into the line of fire. The giant knight slammed his boots into the broken floor and swung his black greatsword with both hands, using the wide flat blade as a shield.
CLANG!
The invisible kinetic punch hit Belida’s sword. The impact was completely absurd. Belida, a massive man heavily specialized in pure defense, was instantly blown backward. His boots carved two deep trenches into the stone floor as he skidded violently for five meters. Belida coughed up blood, his arms shaking uncontrollably from the sheer force of the block.
"Strong shield," Vane commented flatly. "But highly inefficient."
Papuyu suddenly appeared directly behind Vane. She used the chaotic dust perfectly to mask her approach. The female hitman leaped into the air, aiming both of her sharp daggers straight into the unprotected gaps of Vane’s neck armor. Her movements were flawless and absolutely lethal.
But inches before the steel blades touched Vane’s skin, Papuyu’s entire body froze violently in mid air.
"Gravity lock," Vane said without even turning around.
Papuyu gasped for air. She was completely paralyzed, suspended in the air by an invisible crushing weight pressing down on every single bone in her body. The pressure was so intense she could not even twitch a finger to drop her daggers. Vane casually backhanded the air. Another kinetic shockwave hit Papuyu squarely in the chest, sending her flying violently across the room until she crashed hard into a concrete pillar. The assassin dropped to the floor, completely unconscious.
Belida roared in anger. The knight charged forward, gripping his greatsword tightly. He completely abandoned his defensive stance, pouring all his remaining physical stamina into one brutal downward slash aimed directly at Vane’s skull.
Vane simply raised his left forearm. He caught the razor sharp edge of the giant black sword directly on his bare metal bracer. Sparks flew wildly. The ground beneath Vane shattered entirely, but the Inquisitor did not even flinch. He easily blocked Belida’s absolute strongest attack with one arm.
"You are obsolete code, old knight," Vane stated coldly. He grabbed the blade of Belida’s sword with his bare hand and delivered a devastating front kick straight into Belida’s stomach.
Belida folded over, spitting a massive amount of blood. The knight was thrown backward, crashing into the ruined terminal desk next to Sili. Belida struggled to get up, but his legs finally gave out. He collapsed onto his side, breathing heavily and completely out of the fight.
Kanos stood alone in the middle of the ruined room. His entire team was wiped out in less than thirty seconds. Vane slowly turned his glowing yellow eyes toward Kanos. The Inquisitor cracked his neck lazily, walking slowly over the rubble toward the exhausted illustrator.
"Your meat shields are broken," Vane said, stopping five meters away from Kanos. The crushing gravitational pressure around the man made the dust in the air fall instantly to the ground. "You have no magic left. You have nowhere to run. It is time to close your file, anomaly."
Kanos wiped a thick trail of blood from his nose. His vision was swimming. His body felt incredibly heavy, affected by the edge of Vane’s gravity field. But Kanos did not drop to his knees. He did not show an ounce of fear. He stared directly into Vane’s glowing yellow eyes with a look of pure, calculating coldness.
Kanos slowly slipped his right hand into his cargo pocket. He grabbed the small piece of regular wood charcoal he had saved since his very first day in this hellish world.
"You rely way too much on your physical invincibility," Kanos whispered quietly. He pulled the charcoal out, keeping it hidden behind his thigh. "Let’s see how your gravity handles a localized reality overwrite."
The final stand was about to begin.
