Chapter 66: Black Architecture and The Conqueror’s Tribute
The white marble tiles beneath Kanos’s boots cracked violently, the shards scattering everywhere. His right hand, now made entirely of pitch black obsidian stone, plunged deep into the floor. Kanos no longer needed a brush. He no longer needed parchment paper. He injected the void energy directly from his arm straight into the Zenith’s magical grid.
This giant building used to be holy white and gold. Now, thick black veins crawled rapidly from where Kanos stood, spreading like a starving virus swallowing all the reflected sunlight.
Sili backed away slowly, clutching his leather bag incredibly tight. His cracked glasses slipped down to the tip of his nose. The skinny guy watched the white marble pillars around the plaza turn pitch black in a matter of seconds.
"Boss," Sili swallowed hard. "You are literally rewriting the physical code of an entire flying fortress by yourself. The main system down there must be crashing hard trying to read this mass material change."
Kanos did not turn his head. His eyes stayed focused on the dark energy constantly pouring out of his black arm. The pain in his head did not appear at all. This obsidian arm truly acted as a perfect converter. He pulled leftover wild magic energy from the air, transformed it into empty void material, and attached it straight to the building’s structure. Everything happened without draining a single point of his health.
"White marble is too bright," Kanos spoke flatly. The black veins on the floor finally stopped spreading, leaving a complex geometric pattern glowing a dim purple under their feet. "I need a comfortable workspace for my eyes. And this place needs a new defense system before other guests show up."
Belida walked closer to Kanos. The giant knight rested his black sword casually on his shoulder. His eyes swept across the plaza, which now looked exactly like a demon king’s castle. The golden winged angel statues at the end of the bridge were completely reduced to rubble, replaced by statues of bat winged shadow hounds drawn directly by Kanos.
"This fortress is now entirely cut off from the Sensor Bureau’s surveillance in the lower city," Belida gave a quick report. "Papuyu already checked all the access elevators. She set up shadow wire traps at every entrance. If any rats try to ride up to the Zenith without an invitation, their bodies will be diced into meat cubes before the elevator doors even open."
Kanos pulled his right hand out of the stone floor. No dust or dirt stuck to his obsidian skin. It was perfectly clean. He curled his fingers slowly, feeling the flow of absolute power in his palm. He had managed to claim the highest headquarters in this world without sacrificing a single member of his crew.
But Kanos knew perfectly well this was just the beginning of the real war.
"Sili," Kanos turned around to face the information broker. His gaze was incredibly cold and calculating. "How long will it take for the Crimson Lions guild to gather their first tribute material?"
Sili hurriedly opened a small notebook from his jacket pocket. "Guild Master Vorn promised to return before sunset. He took all his elite members down to the fiftieth floor to harvest monster cores and black steel ore." Sili grinned widely, showing his slightly yellow teeth. "They are terrified of you, boss. They will definitely bring the absolute maximum harvest so they do not get slaughtered by your shadow hounds."
Kanos nodded slowly. He needed those materials. His right arm could indeed print weapons without draining his blood, but he still needed raw materials to consume and turn into masterpieces. He had a massive plan to turn his entire crew into absolute killing machines entirely unbound by the Yomalvara system rules.
The soft chime of a bell suddenly echoed from the direction of the main plaza gate. The blue glass elevator slowly rose from the sea of clouds below the Zenith fortress.
Papuyu emerged from the shadows of a black pillar. The female hitman had already drawn both of her twin daggers, standing by and waiting for whoever stepped out of that elevator. Belida lowered his greatsword, dropping into a low stance. Kanos’s eighty shadow hounds stood up simultaneously, staring sharply at the glass doors with their jaws half open.
The elevator stopped smoothly. The glass doors slid open.
Vorn, the Guild Master of the Crimson Lions, stepped out panting heavily. His golden armor, usually shining brightly, was now covered in thick green blood stains and monster claw marks. Behind Vorn, dozens of elite adventurers dragged five giant iron carts fully loaded with glowing monster cores and chunks of rare crystal rocks.
Vorn swallowed hard seeing the drastic changes in the Zenith plaza. The holy white building he knew had turned into a pitch black fortress radiating absolute death. Vorn instantly dropped to his knees on the cold stone floor, bowing his head deeply in front of Kanos.
"We brought the tribute you requested," Vorn spoke with a trembling voice. Cold sweat poured from his temples. "One hundred high tier monster cores. Three hundred tons of black steel ore. We cleared out the entire nest area on the fiftieth floor without leaving a single thing."
Kanos walked casually toward the iron carts. He narrowed his eyes, inspecting the quality of the loot brought by the surface adventurers. He picked up one blood red monster core that was still pulsing softly. The tip of his obsidian finger absorbed a tiny bit of energy from the stone, analyzing the density of its magical structure.
Kanos gave a faint smile. The artist had finally acquired the absolute best paints in the world for his brand new canvas.
"Good work," Kanos tossed the stone back into the cart. He looked at Vorn, who was still groveling in fear. "Now it is time for me to keep my promise and pay you for your hard work."
A strong wind blew across the Zenith plaza, carrying the cold air from the high altitude clouds. Vorn was still kneeling on the black stone floor, his eyes constantly darting in panic toward the dozens of shadow hounds surrounding the elevator. The Crimson Lions members behind Vorn did not even dare to breathe too loudly. They all knew their lives now depended entirely on the mood of the guy in the gray cloak standing in front of them.
Kanos slowly rubbed his pitch black right arm. He walked casually around the five iron carts full of treasure. In his original world, processing rare raw materials like this would require days of smelting using high temperature furnaces. But here, he was the smelting furnace itself.
"Stand up," Kanos gave a short order without even looking at Vorn.
Vorn stood up immediately, even though his legs were still shaking a bit. He brushed the dust off his golden knee armor. His eyes kept following every single movement of Kanos’s obsidian hand.
Kanos stopped in front of the cart filled with black steel ore. This steel was famous for being the hardest metal in the entire Yomalvara system, usually only cuttable using high tier magic. Kanos placed his right palm flat on top of the giant chunk of black steel.
A loud hissing sound echoed instantly. The solid black steel melted at an impossible speed. The dense metal turned into a thick liquid glowing bright blue, then absorbed completely into the pores of Kanos’s obsidian skin. The process continued until half the cart was entirely empty. The elite adventurers held their breath in pure horror, watching metal that hard getting swallowed whole by a single human hand.
Next, Kanos moved to the monster core cart. He grabbed twenty blood red crystals the size of his fist and crushed them all at once. The crystals shattered into thick red smoke, which was immediately sucked dry by his right arm.
Kanos took two steps back. He closed his eyes for exactly three seconds. His brain instantly constructed a three dimensional schematic with extreme complexity. He combined the absolute density of the black steel with the raw kinetic explosive power of the red monster cores.
Kanos opened his eyes. His gaze was cold as ice. He raised his right hand into the open air and began pulling lines.
It was not just one or two lines. Kanos’s hand moved with insane speed, forming hundreds of black strokes in the air in less than five seconds. The lines interconnected, thickened, and solidified. Red sparks and black lightning exploded around his hand as the weapon’s structure formed perfectly.
BAM!
A massive double bladed battle axe dropped heavily onto the plaza floor, completely shattering the stone tiles beneath it due to its insane weight. The axe was pitch black with glowing red veins constantly pulsing along its handle and blades. Not a single weapon in the Yomalvara system catalog had a design this brutal.
"Take it," Kanos pointed at the axe with his chin. He looked at Vorn casually. "That is the payment for your guild’s hard work today."
Vorn swallowed hard. He hesitated to step forward. His steel armored hands reached for the handle of the giant axe. Vorn took a deep breath and lifted the weapon with both hands. His arm muscles bulged, struggling to support the incredibly heavy weapon.
Suddenly, the red veins on the axe glowed blindingly bright. Pure kinetic energy exploded from the blades, wrapping Vorn’s entire body in a terrifying red aura. The system interface above Vorn’s head flickered wildly, showing a massive spike in physical strength stats breaking completely past his maximum level limits.
"Insane," Vorn whispered with a trembling voice. He stared at the axe in his hands with pure worship. "This weapon has absolutely no level restrictions. The energy inside it keeps flowing straight into my body."
"Swing it," Kanos ordered in a bored tone. "Prove the quality of my merchandise."
Vorn did not need to be told twice. He twisted his body and swung the giant axe with all his might toward the empty clouds beyond the edge of the plaza.
No fire magic came out. No ice or lightning elements either. What came out was a pure, incredibly brutal explosion of air pressure. A giant shockwave shot forward, splitting the sky and creating an ear splitting sonic boom. The shockwave hit the peak of a rocky mountain located three kilometers away from the flying fortress.
The mountain peak was instantly reduced to dust in a matter of seconds. The top of the mountain was sliced completely flat, looking exactly like it had just been trimmed using a giant razor blade.
Every elite adventurer on the plaza dropped their jaws to the floor. Even the strongest weapons from the royal capital required minutes of charging time just to destroy a small cliff. Kanos’s custom made axe had just wiped out a mountain peak purely from a normal physical swing without any spells.
Vorn instantly dropped his weapon. He prostrated himself again in front of Kanos. This time it was not out of fear. It was purely out of absolute, blind loyalty driven by sheer greed. If a single weapon could make them this strong, the Crimson Lions guild would conquer the entire continent in a month.
"We swear our absolute loyalty to the Zenith," Vorn shouted loudly. "We will bring every single material in this world to you, My Lord!"
Kanos stuffed his hands back into his pockets. He did not care about the respect at all. He was just building his supply chain. As long as these surface dogs kept working for him, he would keep supplying them with manufactured weapons.
Sili walked quickly toward Kanos. The skinny broker’s face looked incredibly serious, a sharp contrast to the joy of the guild members around them. Sili gripped his stolen data slate tightly.
"Boss," Sili whispered very quietly so Vorn would not hear. "We have a new problem. And this is not something you can just slice with a custom axe."
Kanos turned his head, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. "What is it?"
Sili showed his data slate, which was flashing a bright warning red. "The Zenith main control room just caught an external transmission signal. The signal is coming from outside the continent. The Central Axis just realized the Marrath Sensor Bureau has been wiped off the system map."
