Chapter 152: The Dark Priest
Chapter 152: Chapter 152: The Dark Priest
Chapter 152: The Dark Priest
The central plaza echoed with deafening cheers.
Three hundred Vanguard Knights raised their dented swords toward the sky. They screamed the name of their Lord Commander.
The toxic miasma clearing from the air felt like a massive victory. Gunther Stillbane stood in the center of the bloody pavement, soaking in the glory. He flashed a brilliant smile at his troops. He was the undisputed king of the block.
Then the temperature violently plummeted.
The loud cheers died in the throats of the Vanguard Knights. A suffocating pressure dropped directly onto the ruined plaza.
The air itself felt strangely sterile. The dark clouds hanging over the artificial city swirled, morphing into a sickly purple hue.
Gunther lowered his arms. His confident smile faded into a look of deep annoyance.
"Man, y’all just do not know when to quit," Gunther complained, shaking his head.
The Vanguard Knights fell to their knees. The gravitational pressure was not physical. It was spiritual. A terrifying presence was entering the battlefield.
A figure slowly descended from the purple sky.
He did not fall like a meteor. He drifted downward like a feather, completely defying the laws of gravity. He wore tattered robes. His skin was pale and stretched tight over a skeletal frame. Dark veins pulsed visibly beneath his neck.
He stopped descending ten feet above the plaza. He refused to let his boots touch the bloody concrete. He looked down at the Vanguard Knights with eyes full of sheer disgust.
"You cheer for a temporary delay," the ancient man spoke. His voice was raspy but amplified by immense magic, echoing across the entire district.
"How wonderfully pathetic. Humans are so easily amused by their own survival."
Gunther crossed his arms over his broad chest. He stared up at the floating man.
"Who is this dusty old head stepping on my block?" Gunther demanded, his voice projecting with heavy disrespect.
"You better get your feet on the ground before I pull you down myself. You messing up my victory speech."
The ancient man slowly turned his gaze toward Gunther. A narcissistic smirk twisted his pale lips. He looked at the Level 200 powerhouse like a scientist examining a particularly loud insect.
"I am Tharzek Noctis," the man declared smoothly.
"I am the Fifth Elder of the Eternal Eclipse. I do not walk on the same dirt as cattle. I stand above the world. You are merely gravel beneath my feet."
Gunther let out a loud laugh.
"Gravel?" Gunther echoed, stepping forward.
"Do you know who you are talking to? I am Gunther Stillbane. I just turned your entire monster army into a smoothie. You better fly back up to whatever nursing home you escaped from."
Tharzek Noctis did not lose his arrogant smirk. He floated closer, looking down his nose at the Lord Commander.
"You take pride in crushing mindless beasts," Tharzek noted mockingly.
"You are just as foolish as your brother. Cassian understood his place in the hierarchy, but he lacked vision."
Gunther stopped walking. His golden eyes narrowed slightly.
"Keep my brother’s name out your mouth," Gunther warned, his tone losing a fraction of its playful swagger.
"Oh, but he is the reason I am here," Tharzek chuckled.
"Your dear brother opened the gates. He deactivated the shields. He handed us this pristine city on a silver platter. He thought we made a deal to assassinate you."
The Vanguard Knights gasped in sheer horror. The Lord Commander’s own flesh and blood had orchestrated the invasion.
Tharzek spread his pale arms wide.
"A narrow mind for a narrow man," Tharzek continued, his narcissistic voice swelling with dark pride.
"We have no interest in a simple political assassination. We are here to rot this entire city. Millions of dying souls will generate enough corrupted mana to tear the spatial boundary apart. We will summon a King-Level Beast to cleanse this land."
Gunther stood perfectly still. The wind howled through the ruined plaza.
He processed the words slowly. His own brother had sold him out. Cassian had sold millions of innocent people just to secure a shiny chair in a glass tower. It was a massive, unforgivable betrayal.
Gunther looked down at his metal gauntlets. He rolled his neck until it popped loudly. He forced a dry chuckle from his chest.
"Man, I had a feeling this would happen," Gunther said, shaking his head with a strained smile.
"Must be because I was adopted, huh?!"
He played it off with a joke. He masked his deep pain behind his confident hood energy. But beneath the swagger, a terrifying rage ignited inside his core. His golden eyes burned with violent fury.
"You ain’t summoning nothing on my block," Gunther promised coldly.
Gunther stomped his heavy boot into the pavement. He channeled his immense mana, aiming to rip a massive stone spike right through the Elder’s chest.
Tharzek Noctis raised a single pale finger.
[Edict of Entropy: Silent World]
A wave of gray energy expanded from the Elder’s body. It washed over the entire plaza in a fraction of a second.
Gunther’s magical connection to the earth instantly vanished.
The ground did not shake. The stone spike did not appear. The golden aura surrounding Gunther’s body flickered violently and died.
The Vanguard Knights cried out in terror. They felt their own mana cores go entirely numb. The elemental energy in the air was completely erased.
The Edict did not just suppress magic. It enforced a conceptual law of decay, rotting the ambient mana until the world was completely silent.
Tharzek Noctis floated gracefully above the disabled soldiers.
"Your childish Valor means nothing to an Edict," Tharzek stated arrogantly.
"You are stripped of your earth. You are powerless. Kneel before your betters."
Gunther looked at the ground. He realized his magic was completely gone. The connection to the tectonic plates was severed.
Gunther slowly looked back up at the floating priest.
A massive grin spread across Gunther’s face.
"Powerless?" Gunther asked, letting out a deep laugh.
Gunther dropped his magical casting stance. He rolled his broad shoulders. He brought his fists up, settling into a raw, brutal boxing guard.
He was a Level 200 warrior. His magic was terrifying, but his physical statistics were monstrous. His muscles were forged from decades of frontline warfare. He did not need rocks to crush an old man.
"You think I need magic to beat a senior citizen?" Gunther mocked loudly, stepping directly into the gray zone of the Edict.
"I am Level 200, baby. My body is the weapon. Catch these hands."
BOOM!
Gunther did not cast a spell. He simply pushed off his back foot with explosive physical force. The concrete shattered beneath his boot.
He launched himself into the air, crossing the ten-foot gap in a blur of sheer speed.
Tharzek’s arrogant eyes widened in genuine surprise. The Cultist had expected the human to cower without his magic.
Gunther pulled his right arm back. His metal gauntlet gleamed in the dim light.
"Welcome to Bastion Six!" Gunther roared.
Gunther threw a devastating physical punch directly at the Dark Priest’s face.