Chapter 122: The Preparations... (Part 2)
Chapter 122: Chapter 122: The Preparations... (Part 2)
Chapter 122: The Preparations... (Part 2)
"What exactly do you need from me to burn the Capital to the ground?" Helion asked.
Draven leaned back in his leather chair. He looked at the strongest human alive and gave a completely unexpected answer.
"Nothing."
Helion frowned, his thick eyebrows furrowing in genuine confusion.
"Nothing? You are launching a shadow war against a cosmic empire and the highest authority of humanity, and you need no resources from a Warlord? Stop with the jokes already! If you want nothing from me, then why am I even here?!"
"I already possess all the intelligence I need regarding the future," Draven stated calmly.
"Our first destination is the closest fortress to our borders. Bastion Six. The Subterranean City."
Helion’s eyes narrowed.
"Bastion Six is a political snake pit. It is completely buried underground, and the noble families there rule the dark tightly. You will need a massive intelligence network to navigate it."
"I already have one," Draven replied.
"Under my orders, Sirius Statanham has been quietly expanding his underworld syndicate beyond Bastion Seven. His spies have already infiltrated the Subterranean City. I have all the eyes and ears I need to secure the Warlord Legacy hidden down there."
Helion let out a low chuckle, shaking his head. He was looking at a first-year student who was already commanding underworld Dons like chess pieces.
"Then what is my role in this?" Helion asked, crossing his massive arms.
"I need you to do the hardest thing for a Warlord to do," Draven said, his tone turning deadly serious. "I need you to stay completely still."
Helion remained silent, listening closely. "Explain."
"You are the nuclear deterrent, Commander," Draven explained.
"The Capital Elders and the Cult have their eyes fixed on your mana signature twenty-four hours a day. The moment you leave Bastion Seven, the Cult will flood this city with a billion mutated monsters. You are the only reason the Capital has not completely purged this sector. You must remain here as the anchor. It is your existence that the High Pontiff of the Church of the Eternal Eclipse fears. Your existence makes it impossible for them to attack this place without losing 90% of their strength."
"That is terribly boring," Helion scoffed, a heavy, frustrated sigh escaping his lips.
"But it is necessary. I will hold the line here. What else?"
"One final thing," Draven said, extending his hand.
"I need unrestricted clearance. An Identity Verification Badge. Moving between Bastions requires wading through layers of Vanguard bureaucracy. We need to bypass it."
Helion reached into his desk drawer. He pulled out a heavy, platinum badge engraved with the golden lion crest of Bastion Seven. He tossed it across the desk.
Draven caught it effortlessly. It was a Vanguard Ambassador Badge. It granted Strike Team Zero absolute diplomatic immunity in the outer Bastions.
"I know exactly where every single entity is located in this world due to the grace of the Embracing Hands," Draven spoke softly, slipping the badge into his spatial ring.
"I know exactly where those two King-Level Beasts are hiding as they prepare the Megarift."
Helion gripped the edges of his desk, his golden eyes flaring with sudden killing intent.
"Then tell me. Let me march into the mud and crush them."
"No," Draven denied immediately.
"Not yet. I am not strong enough to kill them myself, and if you leave these walls, Bastion Seven burns to ash. I need you to keep your patience, Commander."
Helion gritted his teeth. The urge to hunt the alien colonizers was boiling in his blood.
"Strike Team Zero needs time to grow strong enough to face this calamity," Draven continued.
"Have patience. I promise you, the day will come when you will get the chance to personally rip the heads off those Beasts."
Helion stared at Draven for a long, agonizing moment. Then, the Warlord slowly relaxed his grip on the desk.
"I will wait," Helion agreed heavily.
The Lord Commander stood up from his desk. He walked around the heavy oak wood and extended his massive, scarred right hand toward Draven.
Draven stood up and gripped the Warlord’s hand.
It was a silent, Blood-Iron Oath. The strongest man in the light, and the deadliest ghost in the shadows, officially uniting against the end of the world.
Helion looked down at the young Commander.
"Tell your squad to grow strong quickly, Draven," Helion ordered. His golden eyes flared with an overwhelming, terrifying aura that shook the very air in the office. It was a chilling reminder of why he was humanity’s apex.
"Because when my leash is finally taken off... I am going to paint the Wildlands red with alien blood."
Draven smirked. "I will pass on the message."
---
The Next Morning.
VWÜÜÜM-HIIISSSSSS!
Thick clouds of supercooled exhaust and cryogenic vapor billowed across the mag-lev platform of Bastion Seven’s central transit hub.
Standing at the edge of the platform was Strike Team Zero. All ten members were gathered, dressed in their sleek, black tactical Vanguard uniforms.
They carried their custom weapons and spatial rings, looking less like a group of Academy students and more like an elite mercenary hit squad.
Before them rested a marvel of advanced Vanguard engineering.
It was a colossal, hyper-velocity armored train that stretched for hundreds of meters down the electromagnetic rails.
Its exterior was plated with seamless, matte-black nano-composite armor and lined with glowing blue hard-light shielding arrays.
Massive, automated plasma-railguns and high-frequency particle turrets were mounted on the roof of every carriage.
It was a rolling military fortress, powered by a central mana-fusion core, designed to punch straight through the Miasma-filled wastelands.
The Iron Leviathan.
"This thing is massive," Cole whistled, adjusting his mechanical gauntlets as the train’s anti-gravity thrusters emitted a low, bone-rattling hum.
"Are we really taking this all the way to Bastion Six?" Nyx asked, her dark eyes scanning the heavy artillery and kinetic sensor arrays mounted on the train cars.
Draven stood at the front of the group, the platinum Ambassador Badge resting safely in his pocket. He looked back at his squad. They had no idea they were walking into a shadow war, but they were ready.
"Board the train," Draven ordered.
"It’s time to explore the World!!"