Chapter 83: The Gauntlet of the King
The base of the Umbral Ridge was secure.
Thirteen million mortals swarmed over the blackened ore, mining the absolute lifeblood of the dimension with pickaxes.
The thousand newly forged Paladin-Mechs stood in a massive, glowing ring around the encampment, their holy cannons aiming into the dark.
Lucifer stood near the entrance of the largest cavern. The rhythmic, biological heartbeat echoing from deep underground vibrated through his iron boots.
He didn’t go in immediately.
He opened his system interface. The slaughter of the Void Beasts on the invisible highway had been absolute.
The Fate Energy tax from thirteen million buffed soldiers had pushed his resources to an astronomical level.
[Currency Status: Soul Tithes]
[Current Balance: 5,000,000,000,000 (5 Trillion)]
Lucifer’s void-swirling eyes narrowed slightly. He had already purchased the Sanctum of the Void and the Armor of Twilight. The massive influx of death energy from the recent massacre was currently unspent.
He didn’t intend to let it sit in his inventory.
Lucifer opened his Dimensional Vault and took out a small, intricately carved silver mirror.
He channeled his Void Arcanist mana, bypassing the normal magical frequencies of the mortal plane, and forced a direct connection into the Umbra.
The mirror rippled. The reflection of the dense gray fog vanished, replaced by the smooth, glowing white porcelain mask of the Broker of the Between.
"Sovereign of Obsidian," the Broker whispered. The thousand overlapping voices sounded strained, echoing through the unstable connection.
"You call from the blood-soaked ridge. The Umbra hums with the death of millions. Your harvest is... legendary."
"I am checking your Restricted Stock," Lucifer stated coldly. "Show me the top tier."
The Broker did not hesitate. It knew better than to stall a Warlord who had just vaporized an entire sector of its dimension.
The space between Lucifer and the mirror rippled, tearing open a small dimensional pocket.
A holographic projection materialized in the dense, gray air. It was a shifting, translucent menu of high-tier items, bathed in a sickly purple light.
Lucifer ignored the lower-tier artifacts. He scanned past the cursed blades and the Abyssal bone armor.
He was searching for something specific, something that could amplify his spatial control to match his Archmage-level mana.
His eyes locked onto a single, glowing entry at the very pinnacle of the list.
[Item: Gauntlet of the Void King]
[Tier: Mythic Accessory]
[Cost: 4,000,000,000,000 Soul Tithes (4 Trillion)]
[Description: Forged from the core of a collapsed singularity. Grants the wearer absolute physical dominion over space.]
"The Gauntlet," Lucifer commanded smoothly, pointing his iron-clad finger at the projection. "Process the transaction."
The Broker’s porcelain mask shifted, the black runes forming a wide, greedy smile despite its underlying terror of the God-Slayer.
"An exquisite choice, Sovereign," the Broker hissed eagerly. "The Gauntlet does not just cast magic. It allows the wearer to physically grab the fabric of reality. To tear portals with a clenched fist. To crush distance."
"I know what it does," Lucifer interrupted. "Deduct the Tithes."
The Broker swiped one of its lower skeletal hands through the air. The holographic menu flashed.
[Transaction Complete. -4,000,000,000,000 Soul Tithes.]
[Remaining Balance: 1,000,000,000,000 (1 Trillion).]
The silver mirror flared with blinding, bruised-purple light. A heavy, shifting mass of dark metal pushed its way out of the glass. Lucifer caught it with his left hand.
It was a single, massive gauntlet. It wasn’t made of iron or steel, but of solidified dark matter, layered in jagged plates that seemed to absorb the surrounding light.
Faint lines of black lightning crackled across the knuckles and along the forearm.
[Gear Status: Gauntlet of the Void King]
[Tier: Mythic Accessory]
[Effect 1: Spatial Rend (Allows physical tearing of dimensional boundaries without a casting sequence).]
[Effect 2: Absolute Crush (Multiplies Gravity Crush intensity by 500%).]
[Effect 3: Distance Negation (Physical melee strikes can connect across a 50-meter gap).]
Lucifer unclasped his standard iron gauntlet and let it drop heavily to the obsidian floor.
He slid his bare right hand into the Gauntlet of the Void King.
The moment the dark matter touched his skin, the magic engaged. The gauntlet resized instantly, molding perfectly to his forearm.
The black lightning crackling along the knuckles flared violently, syncing with his Void Arcanist core.
Lucifer clenched his fist.
The air around his hand cracked, like glass under pressure. He could feel the tension of space itself pressing against his knuckles.
He didn’t need to cast spells to control gravity anymore. He could reach out, grasp it, and bend it with his hand.
He turned away from the mirror and cut the connection. The Broker vanished.
Lucifer walked across the jagged ore of the Umbral Ridge. He stopped in front of Elara and Lyra.
The Eclipse Valkyrie stood at attention, her Mythic Void-Weave armor shifting flawlessly in the dim light.
She noticed the new gauntlet instantly.
"You purchased a King’s weapon," Elara noted, her voice thrumming with respect. "The density is terrifying. It makes your standard Gravity Crush look like a parlor trick."
"It is an equalizer," Lucifer said to her smoothly. He looked down at the dark metal plating. "The entity inside this mountain is a Level 75 Epic Boss.
A standard magical barrage will not breach its core defenses. I need to be able to physically rip its mitigation shields apart."
Lyra, the Dawn Saintess, leaned heavily on her silver broadsword. Her pristine white tabard was stained with soot from the holy barrage she had cast earlier.
"The beast is reacting to your power spike, Lucifer," Lyra warned, her blue eyes wide as she looked toward the massive, dark cave entrance.
The biological heartbeat echoing from the depths was growing noticeably louder. It pulsed with a frantic, aggressive rhythm that physically shook the loose ore at their feet.
"It senses the Mythic gear," Lucifer noted. His void eyes narrowed. "It won’t stay underground for long. It knows we are at its door."
"We go in," Elara stated flatly, stepping to Lucifer’s left flank. Her violet-flaming spear cast long, dancing shadows on the cave walls.
"No," Lucifer said.
He drew his ruby-red longsword with his left hand, leaving his new gauntlet free. The Carnage Core flared eagerly at his side. But he wasn’t about to fight a Level 75 boss in a tight underground arena.
He opened his Dimensional Vault.
He reached for the ultimate siege weapon he had forged back at the Citadel of Obsidian.
"System," Lucifer commanded. "Deploy the Star-Shatter Cannon."
The massive, dark spatial rift tore open in the air above the cave entrance.
It was not a hand-held weapon. It was a colossal, heavy artillery piece forged entirely from Star-Metal and Spectral Dragon Bone.
It was thirty feet long, mounted on a massive, heavy-duty aether-steel carriage.
The cannon dropped heavily onto the jagged Umbral Ore, cracking the stone with a loud sound.
[System: Mythic Siege Weapon Deployed.]
[Item: Star-Shatter Cannon.]
[Status: Unloaded. Requires High-Yield Ordnance.]
Lucifer didn’t hesitate. He reached back into his vault.
He pulled out a single, glowing silver sphere covered in pulsing red runes. It was the Doomsday Pearl he had looted from the Deep Gnome capital.
[Item: Doomsday Pearl (Legendary Consumable)]
[Status: Armed.]
Lucifer stepped up to the massive Star-Shatter Cannon. He pulled the heavy Star-Metal breech open with his left hand, set the Doomsday Pearl into the chamber, and slammed it shut.
The entire cannon vibrated as it powered up. The blue runes along the barrel shifted to a harsh, sickly green as the weapon absorbed the pearl’s necrotic energy.
"Elara. Lyra," Lucifer ordered, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "Get behind me. Activate all defensive wards."
The Eclipse Valkyrie and the Dawn Saintess did not ask questions. They moved instantly, stepping directly behind the Warlord.
Elara raised her violet-flaming spear, and Lyra ignited her silver broadsword, generating a massive, overlapping dome of holy and twilight magic.
Lucifer grabbed the heavy firing lever on the back of the cannon with his iron gauntlet.
The biological heartbeat from the cave rose to a frantic pace. A massive, horrifying screech of pure Abyssal rage tore through the darkness.
The creature was charging down the tunnel.
Lucifer did not aim. The cave was a massive choke point.
"Fire," Lucifer commanded softly.
He pulled the lever.
[System Warning: Catastrophic Ordnance Fired!]
[Weapon: Star-Shatter Cannon (Mythic)]
[Ammunition: Doomsday Pearl (Legendary)]
The Warlord didn’t just fire the cannon. His soul, bound to the Apex Multiplier, resonated violently with the unstable mana of the weapon the exact moment the mechanism engaged.
[Divine Talent: Apex Multiplier Activated!]
[Applying 1,000,000x multiplier to Explosive Yield...]
Lucifer’s eyes widened.
He had intended a 10,000x multiplier, the normal limit of his ability. But the extreme density of the Umbral Plane, combined with the unstable Doomsday Pearl, caused a system error.
The multiplier surged to one million.
The air around the cannon shattered like glass.
The physical laws of the dimension screamed.
"Run," Lucifer roared.
He didn’t use Zephyr’s Grace. He didn’t have the time to physically run out of the blast radius of a million Legendary bombs detonating simultaneously.
He raised his right hand, the Gauntlet of the Void King crackling with furious black lightning.
Lucifer didn’t cast Void Step. He physically grabbed the space in front of him and ripped it open.
"Spatial Rend," Lucifer commanded.
He tore a massive, jagged hole directly through the fabric of the Umbral Plane. He grabbed Elara and Lyra by their armored shoulders with his left hand and hurled them through the tear, stepping through instantly behind them.
The spatial tear snapped shut a microsecond before the cannon discharged.
They materialized flawlessly one hundred meters straight backward, crashing into the defensive line of the Paladin-Mechs.
The Star-Shatter Cannon fired.
There was no sound, the energy was too pure, too absolute. A beam of blinding white-green light, as wide as a river, erased the cave entrance, the mountain, and everything beyond it.
The explosion vaporized the heart of the Umbra.