Chapter 344: Death!
[Timeline: The Afternoon of the Advance]
[Location: The Imperial Capital – The Golden Palace]
Space folded inward, ripping a jagged black tear directly above the Golden Palace courtyard.
Damien stepped out of the spatial rift, dropping fifty feet through the cold afternoon air. He landed on the polished marble steps of the grand throne room, his boots cracking the ancient stone beneath him.
The air inside the palace was suffocating, thick with the smell of ozone, copper, and the distinct, rotting stench of the Abyss. The bodies of the Imperial elite guards were scattered across the courtyard, torn apart by unnatural forces.
Damien walked through the shattered mahogany doors. The grand throne room was a slaughterhouse. At the base of the dais lay the broken remains of the Dragon Kingdom Emperor and his royal heirs.
Their blood had been meticulously drained, flowing along carved grooves in the floor to feed a massive, glowing red ritual circle etched into the marble.
Sitting on the Emperor’s ruined throne was the High Envoy of the Abyss, a shifting, grotesque mass of dark flesh covered in yellowed eyes and jagged mouths.
But the Envoy was not alone.
Kneeling at the edge of the blood circle were twelve figures cloaked in tattered, writhing shadows. They were not mindless beasts or lesser fodder. Damien’s twilight-purple eyes narrowed as his [Sensory Intent] swept over them.
Twelve 7th-Order Void High Priests. Each radiated a suffocating, putrid aura of decay and madness. They wore robes made of flayed skin, their faces hidden behind masks of bone. Their combined pressure was enough to warp the light in the room, turning the grand hall into a localized hell.
"Zero," the High Envoy whispered, five of its mouths speaking simultaneously in a wet, grating chorus. "You walked directly into the maw."