A beam of light fired.
Piercing through the heart of the battlefield, the beam was so intense it could blind anyone who looked directly at it.
Ruuumble!
Countless waves of bone tried to block the light, but it didn't stop.
On the contrary—it continued unimpeded, piercing through the tides of bone and heading straight toward its target.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The tide of bone collapsed powerlessly.
All by a single beam of light.
It was neither a miracle nor a supernatural phenomenon.
It was the result of one man—and the technology of a humanity facing extinction—combined into one singular force.
That force shattered everything in its path and finally reached its destination.
Rrrumble!────
The beam of light scattered across the sky, and shortly after, a thunderous roar erupted as the terrain shook violently.
The Turncoat Queen, locked in a fierce power struggle within the surging tide of bone, also witnessed it.
"Hm…"
That flash of light created a brief gap.
As the relentless waves of bone hesitated under the intensity of the light, the Turncoat Queen wasted no time in devouring the nearby bone tide voraciously.
Because no one understood the nature of this battle more than her.
Crack!
Crackkk!
The bone tendrils that once clashed against each other were now caught in a one-sided consumption.
As the Turncoat King, Turncoat Queen, and even the Turncoat Bishop simultaneously began devouring parts of the Bone Lord's tide, the once-overwhelming sea of bone quickly diminished.
The sky, once completely bleached white, began to reclaim its natural hue.
"I suppose it's just as expected… truly a supreme delicacy."
The Turncoat Queen smiled, wiping bone fragments from her lips.
If the outermost layer—the mere surface hair—tasted this exquisite, what would the hidden core be like? She couldn't suppress her excitement.
"More, more, more, more, please! It's utterly divine!"
The Turncoat Queen laughed wildly as she continued consuming the surrounding bone tide with savage hunger.
The tide attempted to resume functioning, but the precarious balance had already collapsed.
The overwhelming waves of bone rapidly receded.
Not just thanks to the Turncoat King and Queen—but also the distant efforts of Pawn's group contributed greatly.
"Indeed…"
The Turncoat Queen looked on with a smile.
The strengthening of those destined to become the king's retainers was no bad thing—especially since they were proving useful right now.
"Still…"
Even while devouring the bone tide, the Turncoat Queen couldn't take her eyes off the distant center.
The true contender—the one to decide who the true king was—had yet to appear.
She thought this would be enough. Did something more need to happen?
To drag that immovable imposter from their throne?
But those doubts were silenced when the land in the distance began to quake violently.
The heavens opened. The earth upended.
Even amid such an apocalyptic vision, the Turncoat Queen did not look away.
"..."
Her bone tendrils stood on end, as if sensing a threatening predator.
The Turncoat Bishop, who had been fully focused on dealing with the bone tide, now wore a rigid expression.
There was no way he didn't recognize what was happening.
A body dyed entirely in bone.
A grotesque, warped form—too bizarre to define as any specific shape.
A colossal mass that seemed to encompass the landscape itself.
And more than anything, an overwhelming presence that invoked primal fear just by being seen.
The Bone Lord.
At last, the self-proclaimed king began to reveal himself.
"A-ahh…"
How long had she waited for this moment?
The Turncoat Queen trembled in rapture as she stared at the Bone Lord's emerging form.
Apparently, Pawn—no, Carl Marcus—had done his part.
"Truly… recruiting him was worth the trouble."
Indeed, to recruit Pawn for this fight, the Turncoat Queen had gone so far as to intervene directly inside the Ark.
It had been a dangerous gamble—any misstep could have resulted in the Ark launching a trace-back.
Not that the Queen would be threatened by such a trace, but it would cost her the route she had used to infiltrate the Ark.
And that was no small loss.
Knowing how troublesome it was to establish new access points, the Turncoat Queen had done everything she could.
"My king, the time has come."
As she approached the Turncoat King and spoke, he simply nodded.
The moment to determine the true king had arrived.
"Show us—who the real king is."
The Turncoat King gave no reply.
He simply moved.
With vast bone wings fully unfurled, his form blurred.
A speed beyond even sound.
With wings barely spread, he accelerated beyond human comprehension.
BOOOOM!──
In a blink, the Turncoat King reached the Bone Lord's position—and the two collided.
Though it was but a single exchange, the fact that hundreds of bone tendrils had become entangled showed how swift and high-level their clash had been.
Screeeeeeeech!───
The spear in the Turncoat King's hand flew toward the Bone Lord.
Not just one—hundreds of bone spears.
But the Bone Lord showed no need to defend.
Dozens, then hundreds of jaws opened wide, devouring all the incoming bone spears.
Screechhh!
A grotesque screech rang from the Bone Lord.
It didn't take much to feel that the sound was a sneer—not just to the Turncoat King, but to all who heard it.
"..."
This was not a battle—it was mutual consumption.
That was the essence of a war to determine kingship. The Turncoat King understood and abandoned wasteful long-range attacks.
Instead, he sharpened the bone tendrils across his entire body, preparing the true dagger aimed at the enemy's heart.
BOOM!
BOOM-BOOM!
Could such sounds truly be made from bone against bone?
Every time hundreds of tendrils clashed, it sounded like explosions detonating.
Swish─
The Turncoat King's hands moved quickly—parrying the incoming tendrils while simultaneously targeting vital points with precise strikes.
But his opponent was the Bone Lord.
Even against the near-perfect offense-defense unity of the Turncoat King, the Bone Lord maintained the upper hand, continuing to press.
Who else could casually overpower the Turncoat King?
Only the Bone Lord—undisputed apex among all Bone Parasite monsters.
"..."
Of course, the Turncoat King had no intention of remaining on the losing end.
If his foe's strength came from sheer size and overwhelming power, then he would leverage mobility instead.
This battle wasn't about brute strength alone.
It was a battle for true kingship.
And kingship had no use for fairness.
Fierce exchanges resumed.
The essence of mutual consumption remained unchanged—but the path to it was no easy feat.
For any creature, the act of eating was a moment of vulnerability.
Crackkk!
Crack!
Thus, even as they attacked, the Bone Lord and the Turncoat King hesitated to consume recklessly.
Unless it was a long-range move like earlier, a misstep would expose them to lethal counters.
"..."
The Turncoat King locked eyes with the Bone Lord.
And the Bone Lord looked back.
The current situation was evenly matched.
Strictly speaking, the Bone Lord had a slight advantage—but nothing significant.
However, beneath the surface, the truth was different: the Bone Lord remained relatively unscathed, while the Turncoat King had already expended considerable strength.
He could still stand—but that was all.
Unless he forced an opening and landed a critical strike, the match would devolve into a war of attrition—a battle he would surely lose.
The Turncoat King accepted the power gap between himself and the Bone Lord.
Acknowledging the strength of one's foe—
That too, was a king's virtue.
Swish─
The Turncoat King raised his hand.
Not to attack, but as a signal.
"To recruit brilliant talents and lead loyal subjects—that, too, is the mark of a true king."
A king is not one who does everything alone.
A king leads.
Therefore, solitude is unnecessary.
At his signal, the Turncoat Queen and Turncoat Bishop appeared at his side.
Only two retainers.
A pitifully small number by any standard—but the Turncoat King didn't mind in the slightest.
He could always recruit more.
Ruuuumble!───
The ground trembled.
Not from an earthquake.
Something was stirring beneath the surface.
But the anomaly wasn't limited to the ground.
In the sky, dark clouds began to gather.
These weren't ordinary storm clouds.
The Turncoat King hadn't fought the Bone Lord alone for nothing.
He had been buying time.
Time for the army led by the king to arrive.
Shhhk!
Perhaps sensing danger, the Bone Lord—who had been enjoying the fight in leisure—suddenly launched a surprise attack.
But to the Turncoat King and Queen, such a move was nothing more than a cheap trick.
"Getting desperate, are we? If you're resorting to this, you must be."
The Turncoat Queen smiled coolly.
Even while fending off the Bone Lord's assault, she remained composed.
The army of bone.
The Turncoat King's forces finally began to appear across the battlefield.
"They've arrived… our children."
Though the bone army now surrounded them, the Bone Lord did not remain idle.
This was his domain.
In other words, the territory itself was part of the Bone Lord.
Shhhk!
The bone tide surged once more.
Now that the Bone Lord had revealed himself, the scale of the tide was incomparable to before.
Naturally, even the bone army raised by the Turncoat King could not avoid being swept away.
[Kaaaaargh!]
[Kkikkik!]
Crack!
Crackkk!
It wasn't just that the tide engulfed them.
It opened its jaws wide and devoured them without mercy.
The king's forces were reduced to mere prey.
"Hm…"
Yet the Turncoat Queen didn't lose her smile.
She knew full well—an army wouldn't help much in this battle.
In fact, as seen now, it could become nothing more than food for the Bone Lord.
Even so, there was a reason she brought an army.
Because the soldiers arriving at this battlefield were prepared as disposable pieces for this very moment.
Creak, creeaak!
Proof of that was evident: as the Bone Lord devoured the army, the color of his bone tendrils began to shift ominously.
A toxin deadly to Bone Parasites.
Though unlikely to greatly affect the Bone Lord, every soldier in the king's army carried that very toxin.
"Please, enjoy your last supper to the fullest, false king upon your throne."
===BREAK===
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