Chapter 45: The Siege of Fortress Eternity
Chronos stood on the balcony of the highest tower of Fortress Eternity.
He didn't look like a clone anymore. He looked like a young god. His golden eyes were fixed on the empty sky, watching events that hadn't happened yet.
"T-Minus Ten Minutes," Chronos announced. His voice echoed, sounding like two people speaking in perfect unison. "The Sky Fleet arrives. Designation: Extermination Force."
I sat on a lawn chair behind him, cleaning Antakala with a silk cloth.
"Numbers?" I asked.
"Fifty Warships. Five Thousand Platinum Golems. Three Hundred Core Disciples. Ten Spirit Severing Elders. And one King."
"The King is coming personally?" I whistled. "I'm flattered."
Ria walked onto the balcony. She was fully interfaced with the fortress. Her skin glowed with flowing lines of blue data.
"Master. Defensive Arrays are at 100%. The Ghost Corps is manning the turrets. The God-Killer Railguns are charged to 98%."
"Good," I stood up and sheathed my sword. "Valerian! Anya! Get inside the bunker. This isn't a school brawl. This is war."
Prince Valerian ran out, wearing a full suit of heavy armor Ria had fabricated for him. "I'm fighting too! I can't let you have all the glory!"
"You can guard the snack supply," I said. "Go."
"But—"
"Go!"
I pushed him and Anya into the reinforced shelter. Anya hugged her bear, looking worried. "Big Brother? Will the bad men break our house?"
"No," I smiled, petting her head. "Because the bad men don't know that our house has teeth."
The Sky Darkens.
Exactly ten minutes later, the prophecy came true.
The clouds above District 9 boiled. The three suns were blotted out by massive shadows.
Fifty Aethelgard Dreadnoughts descended from the upper atmosphere. These weren't the small patrol ships I had destroyed earlier. These were flying fortresses, each bristling with mana cannons.
In the center floated the Royal Flagship, a behemoth of gold and white steel named The Hand of Justice.
Standing on the prow was King Aethelgard.
He wore full Divine Armor. His cape flowed like liquid blood. The pressure of a Demigod crashed down on the island, cracking the bedrock.
"RUDRA YE!" The King's voice was amplified by magic, shaking the windows of my fortress.
"You are charged with Treason, Theft, and Heresy against the Natural Order. Surrender now, and I will grant you a swift death."
I walked to the edge of the balcony. Seraphina stood beside me, her eyes burning with violet malice.
"Hey, King!" I shouted back, using Void Qi to amplify my voice. "You're blocking my sun. Move."
The King's face hardened.
"Arrogant to the end. Since you choose death... burn him."
He waved his hand.
All fifty warships opened their gun ports.
Hundreds of Mana Cannons charged simultaneously. The sky turned blindingly white.
"FIRE!"
BOOM.
Hundreds of beams of concentrated magical energy rained down on Fortress Eternity. It was enough firepower to erase a continent.
"Ria," I said calmly. "Shields."
Ria raised her hand.
"Void Shield: Activate."
A dome of translucent black energy erupted around the fortress. It wasn't a normal mana shield. It was generated by the World Heart of the 6th Era. It utilized Spatial Displacement.
The beams hit the shield.
Instead of exploding, they... slid.
The energy slid around the dome, diverted into the void below the island.
RUMBLE.
The attacks missed. The island was untouched.
The King frowned. "Void Shielding? Keep firing! Overload it!"
The barrage continued. The shield shimmered but held firm.
"My turn," I grinned.
I looked at the four massive cannons mounted on the roof of the fortress. They looked like sleek, silver needles pointing at the sky.
The God-Killer Railguns.
"Target the Flagship," I ordered. "But don't kill the King. Just... give him a haircut."
"Target locked," Ria's eyes spun. "Firing Solution: 100%."
THOOM.
It wasn't a laser. It was a physical projectile.
A solid tungsten rod, accelerated to Mach 20 by magnetic fields.
It moved so fast the human eye couldn't see it.
CRASH.
The rod punched through the Void Shield of the King's Flagship like it was paper.
It smashed through the prow of the ship, missed the King by three feet, and exited out the rear engine block.
The massive Dreadnought shuddered.
BOOM.
The rear of the ship exploded. The flagship listed violently to the right, smoke pouring from its guts.
"What?!" The King stumbled, grabbing the railing. "What kind of weapon pierces a Divine Barrier?"
"Reloading," Ria announced emotionlessly.
"Launch the swarm!" The King screamed. "Get in close! Their big guns can't hit small targets!"
The hangars of the warships opened.
Thousands of Platinum Golems and Elite Cultivators on flying swords poured out like a swarm of angry bees. They descended on the fortress, aiming to breach the walls.
"Ground defense," I signaled.
From the ramparts of Fortress Eternity, the Ghost Corps materialized.
General Ironwood (Ghost) stood on the wall, holding a minigun made of spirit energy.
"Open fire, boys! Show these magic-users what lead tastes like!"
The turrets on the walls spun up.
BRRRRRRT.
A wall of bullets and lasers met the incoming swarm. Cultivators fell from the sky, their barriers shattered by concentrated fire. Golems were blown apart.
But there were too many of them.
A group of ten Spirit Severing Elders broke through the defensive fire. They landed on the courtyard of the fortress.
"We are in!" The lead Elder shouted. "Destroy the shield generator!"
They charged toward the main door.
"Seraphina," I looked at my wife. "Would you like to do the honors?"
Seraphina smiled. Her dress dissolved into demonic armor. She summoned a whip made of black flames.
"I thought you'd never ask."
She jumped from the balcony.
She landed in the courtyard with a shockwave that cracked the pavement.
"Hello, boys," Seraphina purred. Her eyes glowed. Two massive black wings erupted from her back. "Welcome to hell."
She snapped her whip.
CRACK.
The lead Elder was bisected instantly. His shield didn't even slow the whip down.
The other nine Elders froze.
"A Demon?" one gasped. "A Demon Queen?!"
"Run!"
"Too late," Seraphina laughed.
She moved like a blur of violet death. It wasn't a fight. It was a slaughter.
The King Descends.
High above, King Aethelgard watched his army crumble.
His ships were being sniped by railguns. His ground troops were being mowed down by ghosts. His elite elders were being eaten by a Demon.
"Enough," the King growled.
He drew his sword. A massive, golden claymore that radiated the power of a Demigod.
The Sword of Judgement.
"If you want something done right..."
The King jumped from his burning flagship.
He plummeted like a golden meteor, aiming straight for me on the balcony.
"DIE!"
The pressure was immense. The sheer weight of his aura froze the air. Ria's sensors screamed warning.
A Demigod strike could shatter the island.
I didn't draw Antakala.
I stepped back.
"Chronos," I said. "You're up."
My clone stepped forward.
He looked at the falling King.
He raised one hand.
"Time Art: Loop."
The King swung his sword. The blade was inches from the balcony.
ZIP.
Suddenly, the King was back in the sky, falling again.
"What?" The King was confused. "I... I missed?"
He fell again. He swung again.
ZIP.
He was back in the sky.
"What is happening?!" The King roared.
"You are stuck," Chronos said calmly. "I have trapped your personal timeline in a 3-second loop. You will fall forever."
The King fell. Swung. Reset.
Fell. Swung. Reset.
To the army watching, it was humiliating. Their invincible King was glitching like a broken video game character.
"Break it!" The King screamed, burning his blood essence. "I am a Demigod! My will is absolute!"
He channeled all his power. The golden light intensified. He shattered the loop with brute force.
CRACK.
He broke free. He landed on the balcony, panting heavily.
"You..." The King stared at Chronos. "You manipulate Time? You are the Anomaly!"
He swung his sword at Chronos.
Chronos didn't dodge. He simply phased out of existence, stepping into the future. The sword passed through empty air.
I stepped forward, drawing Antakala.
"You look tired, Your Majesty," I said.
"You..." The King pointed his sword at me. "You are sheltering a Demon. You are using Forbidden Tech. The Arbiters will erase you!"
"The Arbiters sent an assassin," I said, my eyes flashing silver. "I killed him. They sent you. I'm beating you."
I raised my sword.
'Seal 3: Sword Emperor.'
'Concept: Gravity Well.'
I struck his sword.
CLANG.
My blade didn't cut his. It latched onto it.
I increased the gravity of my sword to 10,000x.
The King's arms buckled. His massive claymore suddenly weighed as much as a mountain. It dragged him down. He fell to his knees, struggling to hold his own weapon.
I placed the tip of Antakala under his chin.
"Checkmate," I whispered.
The battlefield went silent.
The soldiers saw their King kneeling before a student.
The warships stopped firing.
"Surrender," I ordered. "Or I separate your head from your shoulders."
The King looked at me with hate. But he was a pragmatist. He knew he had lost.
"I... yield."
I smiled.
"Good choice."
Suddenly, the sky cracked.
Not the crack of a ship arriving.
The crack of Reality Breaking.
A white beam of light shot down from the heavens. It didn't hit me. It hit the King.
"Failure," a voice boomed from the sky. It sounded like grinding stones.
The King screamed.
The white light consumed him. His armor melted. His flesh dissolved.
In one second, the Demigod King of the Middle World was erased. Not by me. By his masters.
A massive, holographic face appeared in the sky.
It had no features. Just a blank white mask.
THE HIGH ARBITER.
"Rudra Ye," the voice echoed. "You have exceeded the parameters of this experiment."
I looked up at the giant face. I wasn't scared. I was angry.
"You killed my kill," I shouted. "That's rude."
"The Aethelgard Clan has failed," the Arbiter stated. "The Middle World is compromised. Initiating Protocol: Planetary Purge."
The sky turned red.
Massive meteors began to form in the upper atmosphere. They weren't rocks. They were Null-Qi Bombs.
They were going to wipe the entire floating continent.
"You have 24 hours," the Arbiter said. "Run, little rat. Let us see how far you can get."
The face vanished.
The meteors began to fall slowly, ticking down like a doomsday clock.
I stood on the balcony.
The King was dead. The army was fleeing.
But the world was ending.
"Ria," I said quietly.
"Master?"
"How long until those meteors hit?"
"24 hours. The yield is sufficient to vaporize Aurelia."
I looked at Seraphina. She looked pale.
"They are going to reset the world," she whispered. "Like they did to the 6th Era."
I gripped Antakala.
"No," I said. "They aren't."
I turned to my team.
"Pack your bags. We aren't running."
I looked up at the burning sky.
"We are going to invade the High World."
"Invade?" Valerian squeaked from the doorway. "How?"
"The meteors came from somewhere," I pointed at the tear in the sky. "That hole goes both ways."
I grinned, a smile full of madness and ambition.
"If they want to purge us, we'll just have to go up there and eat them first."