Chapter 125: The Embryo of the Void
Chapter 125: Chapter 125: The Embryo of the Void
Chapter 125: The Embryo of the Void
The air inside the Iron Leviathan turned to lead.
It was not a gradual shift. It happened in a fraction of a second. An overwhelming, suffocating pressure slammed down on the train carriage, crushing the oxygen out of the students’ lungs.
Nyx fell to one knee. She clutched her throat, gasping for air.
Aegon dropped his Blood Fire Spear. The heavy weapon clattered loudly against the metal floor. His hands shook uncontrollably as his combat instincts screamed at him to run.
Draven Mordis did not fall.
He stood near the shattered front entrance of the VIP lounge, staring out the reinforced mana-glass. The train was halted inches away from the destroyed bridge. Beneath them lay the bottomless, toxic abyss of the Miasma Gorge.
And floating directly above the abyss was a nightmare dressed in crimson robes.
Draven instantly recognized the horrific spiritual pressure. He triggered his A-Rank [Void-Step].
SWISH.
Draven teleported backward, grabbing Lucien and Estella by their collars. He threw them violently into the center of the lounge where the rest of the squad was grouped.
Before anyone could react, Draven stepped into the narrow front vestibule of the carriage. He slammed his hand against the manual emergency console.
CLANG!
A massive, three-foot-thick durasteel blast door slammed down from the ceiling. It sealed the main lounge off entirely, locking Strike Team Zero safely inside the heavily armored, shielded compartment. The only thing separating Draven from his squad was a thick panel of reinforced viewing glass in the center of the door.
Aegon rushed forward. He slammed his fists against the glass.
"Draven! What are you doing?" Aegon shouted. His voice was muffled through the heavy metal. "Open this door!"
"Stay inside," Draven commanded coldly, his voice broadcasting through the internal comms. "Do not try to break the glass. If you step out here, you die."
Estella ran up beside Aegon, her eyes wide with genuine panic. "Draven, who is that out there? Let us help you!"
"You cannot," Draven replied flatly.
Draven turned his back to the glass. He walked out of the vestibule and stepped onto the crumpled, ruined hood of the Iron Leviathan. The freezing Wildlands wind whipped at his black Vanguard coat. The toxic gray fog swirled violently around him.
The Miasma parted like an obedient servant.
The man in the crimson robes slowly descended. He stopped in mid-air, floating ten feet away from Draven. His face was pale, angular, and completely devoid of emotion. His eyes were solid, pitch-black pits of pure void.
A Level 100 Church Executioner.
Draven’s mind raced. His memory of the original novel locked onto a specific name.
’Morvath the Hollow,’ Draven realized.
This was not a random Cultist. This was a future Elder of the Church of the Eternal Eclipse. In the original timeline, Morvath was a major antagonist who fought the protagonist, Neville Hennesy, to a bloody standstill for three consecutive days. He was a monster who broke the conceptual rules of magic.
"You have caused the Eclipse a great deal of trouble, Draven Mordis," Morvath spoke. His voice did not come from his throat. It echoed directly inside Draven’s mind, cold and hollow.
"You sent twelve rats and a flock of mutated birds," Draven replied smoothly. He kept his posture perfectly relaxed, betraying no fear.
"I expected a better welcoming party from the Church."
Morvath offered a slow, chilling smile. It did not reach his dead eyes.
"They were merely the anchor to halt your metal beast," Morvath explained, glancing at the shattered tracks.
"Lord Commander Helion Goldmane thinks highly of you. You are a variable the High Council did not predict. The Capital Elders requested your head on a spike."
"Come take it," Draven provoked.
Draven did not waste another second on words. He engaged his SS-Rank Vector Manipulation. He isolated the kinetic vector of Morvath’s heart. He planned to violently reverse the blood flow and crush the Executioner’s internal organs into paste.
Draven clenched his fist.
VWOOM.
The invisible kinetic force shot forward. But before it could reach Morvath’s chest, it struck an invisible wall of dark red energy radiating from the Cultist’s body.
The SS-Rank spatial pressure simply dissolved. It faded into absolute nothingness.
Draven’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"Humanity relies too heavily on the stolen mana of this planet," Morvath mocked, raising his pale right hand.
"You call it the Power of Valor. You treat the elements and physics like toys. But true power does not manipulate reality. True power erases it."
A dark red, pulsating seed materialized in the palm of Morvath’s hand.
"[Embryo of the Crimson Void]," Morvath chanted softly.
CRACKLE.
A spherical shockwave of black and red energy exploded outward from Morvath’s palm. It expanded instantly, forming a fifty-meter dome that completely swallowed the front half of the train, the ruined bridge, and the VIP lounge.
---
Inside the lounge, absolute chaos erupted.
Estella gasped in pain, dropping to her knees. The glowing cosmic energy at the tip of her Stardust Staff violently snuffed out. The weapon shrank, reverting back into a dull, heavy silver bracelet around her wrist.
"My mana," Estella whispered in horror. She clawed at her chest. "It is gone. There is nothing there!"
Lucien drew his rapier, desperately trying to channel his lightning. The steel remained completely dead. Aegon tried to summon his blood-fire, but his veins felt like ice. Cole stared at the Vanguard terminal as the holographic screens inside the carriage flickered and died entirely.
The absolute dead zone had erased all magic.
---
Outside on the hood of the train, Draven felt the agonizing snap.
It was like having a limb violently amputated. His S-Rank Tactical Radar went completely blind, plunging his mind into darkness. The god-like connection he held over the physical vectors of the universe was severed.
He could not bend space. He could not alter gravity. He could not project a barrier.
He was cut off.
Morvath floated downward, his boots landing softly on the metal hood of the train just a few yards away from Draven.
"You are nothing without your stolen laws, Mordis," Morvath sneered.
Deep within the thick Miasma fog, a low, terrifying chorus of snarls began to echo. The shadows in the gorge shifted. Dozens of massive, heavily armored Razor-Hounds were crawling up the cliffside, drawn by the Executioner’s command.
Draven stood alone on the edge of the abyss, surrounded by monsters, completely stripped of his System powers. He was just a mortal man facing a god. Or was he?
Morvath drew a serrated, black blade from his robes.
"Tear them apart," Morvath ordered the beasts. "Leave nothing but bones."
---
[A/N: Edict unlocks after reaching Level 200 and Embryo unlocks after reaching Level 100 for the Cultists!]