Chapter 44—The Five Overlords’ Assembly.
Chapter 44—The Five Overlords’ Assembly.
At the deepest sub-level of Zone Zero, shrouded beneath kilometers of dense basalt bedrock, lay the Obsidian Chamber.
For centuries, this subterranean colosseum served as the sacred sanctuary where the five absolute rulers of the Void Syndicate gathered to carve up the underworld’s vast criminal empire, dictate slave trade routes, and control the illegal entry portals into Mythic Dungeons.
Tonight, however, the atmosphere within the hall was thick with suffocating tension and unbridled anger.
Four massive stone thrones forged from polished obsidian sat elevated along a curved marble dais. At the center, where the throne of Lord Vane once stood, lay only empty darkness and shattered banners.
"Vane was a fool, but he was an S-Rank warlord!" barked Lord Jax, the ruler of Sector 2, slamming a heavy gauntleted fist onto his armrest. Jax was a hulking, cybernetically enhanced berserker whose skin pulsated with crimson blood runes and glowing alchemical tubes.
"You tell us a nameless surface rat waltzed into his auction house, flattened his enforcers, and claimed Sector 4 without firing a single spell?"
Across from him sat Lady Vaspera, the Sovereign of Sector 3, a refined, lethal assassin draped in shimmering obsidian spider silk. Her icy silver eyes flickered in the dim torchlight as she delicately turned an iron dagger between her pale fingers.
"It was not a nameless rat, Jax. Reports from the subterranean sewers confirm it was Kaelen, the disgraced sovereign candidate whom Marquis Vance supposedly executed six months ago. He did not die in the abyss. He returned... stronger."
"Nonsense!" spat Lord Balthazar of Sector 5, a skeletal necromancer wrapped in rotting dark robes and holding a staff crowned with a dragon’s skull.
"No player survives an S-rank execution squad! If this Kaelen thinks he can usurp Vane’s seat and dictate terms to the Syndicate, I shall rot his flesh and turn his bones into my personal thralls!"
At the highest throne sat Lord Malakor the Younger, the heir to the ancient blood relics and undisputed leader of Sector 1.
Unlike his loud companions, Malakor remained deathly silent. His pale, gaunt face was crisscrossed by glowing black veins, and his yellow eyes stared coldly into the center of the chamber.
"Silence, all of you," Malakor’s raspy, corrupted voice echoed through the vast hall, cutting through the heated arguments like a frosted blade.
"Vane’s vault was breached, his private guard obliterated, and Brigadier General Darius returned to the surface earlier tonight, reporting empty canals. Kaelen is not merely alive. He has brought the Silverwing heir and the master swordsman under his banner. He is coming for us."
BOOMMM!
Before Malakor could finish his sentence, the colossal ten-ton obsidian doors sealing the chamber violently buckled inward. A deafening sonic boom reverberated through the basalt walls as the heavy stone hinges sheared apart like brittle twigs.
A wave of crushing, violent spatial pressure flooded the hall, instantly extinguishing every torch.
Through the rising clouds of pulverized stone and swirling dust, four figures strolled into the light. At the front walked Kaelen, his dark coat billowing gently, his galaxy-bright violet eyes glowing with supreme, terrifying composure.
Flanking him on the right was Lyra, her hand resting gracefully on her holy blade, and on the left stood Tsubaki, his pitch-black katana held loosely at his side. Slightly behind them, leaning against the ruined doorway, was the Red-Eyed Player, his white porcelain mask catching the dim violet light of Kaelen’s aura.
"You speak of me as if I were absent, my lords," Kaelen said smoothly, his voice carrying an absolute, cosmic authority that vibrated through the bedrock beneath their feet. "There is no need for emergency summits behind closed doors. I am here."
Jax surged out of his throne, his cybernetic arms locking into massive battle cannons that hummed with volatile plasma magic. "Impudent bastard! You dare barge into the Obsidian Chamber?!"
"This seat belonged to Vane," Kaelen replied calmly, walking directly toward the empty central dais. "As the one who erased him, Sector 4 is mine. But I did not come here merely to sit at your table. I came to inform you of the new order."
Balthazar’s skeletal face twisted in rage. "Inform us?! You are a rat in our cellar!"
"From this day forth," Kaelen continued, ignoring the necromancer entirely, "the Shadow Sovereign claims exclusive authority over all subterranean access routes leading to the Mythic Dungeons. All tribute paid by the surface nobles to the Syndicate will be rerouted to my vault. You may retain your sectors... provided you acknowledge my absolute reign."
"INSOLENT FOOL!" Jax roared, his eyes bursting with crimson rage. "DIE!"
Jax unleashed a devastating barrage of high-density plasma rockets directly at Kaelen’s head. Simultaneously, Balthazar slammed his dragon-skull staff against the stone dais, summoning a tide of screaming, spectral shadow beasts that surged across the floor like a black tidal wave.
The combined assault of two S-rank Overlords carried enough destructive force to pulverize an entire city block.
Lyra shifted her stance, her holy blade flaring with golden light, while Tsubaki’s hand tightened on his hilt. But Kaelen merely raised his left hand, spreading his fingers casually in front of his chest.
---
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Skill Activated: Void Sovereign Capacity — Absolute Compression
Effect: Creates a localized singularity that absorbs all matter and energy within its radius.
Cost: 1,200 Units
---
A pitch-black singularity no larger than an apple materialized in the air in front of Kaelen’s palm. The space around the sphere distorted violently, warping light, gravity, and physical matter into a swirling cosmic vortex.
FZZZZZZT!
The explosive plasma rockets were sucked instantly into the black sphere, collapsing inward without producing a single spark of heat. Seconds later, Balthazar’s screaming shadow-beasts were dragged into the gravitational maw, their spectral forms stretched thin like threads of thread before being completely swallowed and compressed into nothingness.
The entire chamber fell into dead, suffocating silence.
Jax stared in horror at his smoking arm cannons, his cybernetic HUD flashing endless red error warnings. Balthazar stumbled backward against his throne, his skeletal staff cracking from the sheer feedback of devoured mana.
Kaelen casually closed his hand, dispersing the singularity with a faint pop. Not a single strand of his hair was improper.
"Is that the full strength of the Void Syndicate’s rulers?" Kaelen asked softly, his violet eyes narrowing into two icy points of absolute, lethal pressure. "Because if it is... this assembly will need new lords by midnight."
Lady Vaspera slowly lowered her daggers, taking a cautious step back into the shadows. She knew when she was outmatched. "He absorbed two S-Rank ultimate skills... without taking a single step backward."
From the head throne, Lord Malakor slowly stood up. He did not draw a weapon. Instead, he raised his pale hands, bowing his head slightly toward Kaelen — a gesture of reluctant, terrified respect.
"Enough," Malakor commanded, his voice trembling slightly. "Jax, Balthazar... stand down unless you wish to be erased where you stand."
Jax gritted his teeth but slowly lowered his weapons. Balthazar sank back into his seat, clutching his cracked staff in trembling hands.
Malakor walked down the marble dais, stopping ten paces in front of Kaelen.
"You possess power beyond the mortal limits of this world, Kaelen. Vane was a worm compared to you. If you wanted to slaughter us all and take Zone Zero by force, you would have done so already. What is your true objective?"
Kaelen folded his arms across his dark coat.
"The Mythic Dungeons... and the truth behind the System. I know the Void Syndicate holds the keys to the ancient ruins beneath the capital. I want the location of the Heavenly Seals."
Malakor’s yellow eyes widened in shock. He glanced briefly at the Red-Eyed Player standing near the broken door, then looked back at Kaelen, letting out a long, heavy sigh.
"So... you know of the Grail," Malakor whispered, his voice dropping to a secretive rustle. "The ancient core is capable of rewriting the rules of this death game.""Explain," Kaelen ordered coldly.
"The entrance to the Grail Chamber lies within the deepest Mythic Dungeon beneath the Royal Palace," Malakor revealed, pointing his clawed finger toward the subterranean ceiling.
"But the gate is locked by three ancient relics—the Three Heavenly Seals. Without all three, no player, no matter how powerful, can break the barrier."
Malakor reached into his dragon-hide mantle and produced a fragment of glowing, crystalline parchment covered in ancient divine runes—the exact matching piece to the celestial map Kaelen had recovered from Vane’s vault.
"And the second?" Lyra asked, stepping forward with her hand on her sword hilt.
"The Second Heavenly Seal sits inside the private treasury of King Alden himself, guarded by the royal executioners," Malakor answered.
"And the third?" Kaelen pressed, his spatial sense locked firmly onto Malakor’s heart.
Malakor turned his gaze toward the back of the hall, pointing his pale finger directly at the masked figure leaning against the shattered doorframe.
"The Third Heavenly Seal..." Malakor declared, "has been in the possession of your informant all along. Isn’t that right, Red-Eyed Player?"
Tsubaki’s eyes narrowed instantly as his hand rested back on his katana, while Lyra turned toward the masked player in disbelief.
The red-eyed player remained still for a long moment. Then, slowly, he pushed off from the stone wall and let out a soft, amused chuckle that echoed through the quiet chamber.
"As expected of the heir to the blood relics," the Red-Eyed Player murmured softly, adjusting his porcelain mask. "You are sharper than you look, Malakor."
Kaelen slowly turned his head to look at the Red-Eyed Player, his galaxy-bright violet eyes gleaming with intense curiosity and unyielding focus.
"It seems," Kaelen said, a subtle, dangerous smile playing on his lips, "our partnership just became significantly more interesting."