novelraw Chapter 413: The Void’s Appetite
Chapter 413: The Void’s Appetite
A gargantuan pillar of lightning blasted from his hand, tearing through kilometers of solid mountain rock like a hot needle through silk. The beam erupted into the sky above the canyon, a violet spear of god-like power that made the entire Royal Army outside tremble in terror.
As the dust settled, the Worm Queen burst from the tunnel entrance, collapsing onto the canyon floor. The soldiers, despite their paralyzing fear, fell back on their hellish training. They raised their rifles, fingers on triggers, ready to fire on the titan.
Suddenly, every soldier’s headset crackled with a priority override from Crul.
[[ STAND DOWN. DO NOT FIRE. REPEAT: CEASE FIRE. ]]
The men froze, trusting the system implicitly. The Queen lay exhausted, her body smoking and covered in fresh scars. She had used every ounce of her ancient strength just to outrun the collateral damage of her new master’s joyride.
The silence that followed the colossal lightning strike was broken by a booming sound coming from the jagged hole Ethan had carved through the mountain. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Ethan was ascending the vertical shaft, not by climbing, but by leaping from wall to wall with explosive force. Each kick shattered the ancient rock, using the internal surfaces like a staircase of stone. He felt weightless, his senses sharpened to a razor’s edge, still vibrating from the sheer euphoria of the breakthrough.
"Crul, that was insane!" Ethan shouted in his mind as he neared the surface. "How did you know my body would just... drink the entire matrix like that? I thought we were just turning it off!"
[ I didn’t, Master, ] Crul replied, her voice tinged with a rare note of genuine surprise. [ This behavior is not in the records of Lord Amethyst. My intent was merely to disrupt the energy nodes and bypass the seal. However, your Void Body acted on its own. It sensed the massive, concentrated reservoir of power within the Eight Trigrams and treated it like a banquet. It forcibly siphoned every drop of stored mana to fuel your Spirit Core embryo. ]
Ethan paused mid-leap, gripping a ledge. "Wait, even you didn’t know? You’re a literal supercomputer."
[ Regarding the Void, there are no certainties, Master. In the collective memories I inherit, Void beings are the most elusive entities in existence. Only one other person in recorded history possessed a Void Body, and like you, he obtained it from a Nightmare Claw. Among all the known Void races, the Claws are the only ones with verifiable evidence of their traits. Everything else is myth and shadow. ]
Ethan grunted, pulling himself over the final lip of the crater and stepping out into the sunlight of the canyon. "Interesting. So I’m walking into the dark with a blindfold on."
The scene on the surface was one of absolute shock. Hundreds of soldiers stood frozen, their weapons lowered but their hands trembling. Before them lay the mountain-sized Worm Queen, panting like a beaten dog, and emerging from the smoking pit was their King, still cradling the unconscious Matriarch.
A medical team scrambled from one of the command trucks, their faces pale as they approached.
"My Lord! The Matriarch—is she...?" the head medic stammered.
"She’s fine," Ethan said, his voice calm but carrying an undeniable weight of authority. "She exhausted her essence. She just needs rest. Get her into the medical transport."
They carefully took Anne from his arms, placing her in a specialized medical helicopter.
"Take her directly to the capital," Ethan ordered, shielding his eyes from the dust kicked up by the rotors. "Five escorts. High-altitude flight path. Do not stop for anything. I will follow with the primary convoy."
The medical bird lifted off, flanked by five black attack choppers that roared over the canyon walls and disappeared toward the horizon.
Ethan didn’t climb into a cabin. Instead, he vaulted onto the roof of the lead heavy transport, sitting cross-legged as the massive engine turned over. He looked out over his army, his new "pet" following at the rear of the column, and the staggering wealth of Cold Steel tucked safely in the trucks beneath him.
"Move out!" he commanded.
The convoy roared across the desert floor, a mechanical beast cutting through the haze. Jason, unable to contain his curiosity or his nerves, scaled the side of the moving heavy transport and joined Ethan on the roof. The wind whipped at his tactical gear, but he stood firm, his eyes scanning the horizon and the disturbed earth behind them.
"Master," Jason shouted over the roar of the massive diesel engines. "That... thing back there. Was that truly the Worm Queen?"
Ethan leaned back against a reinforced crate, looking remarkably relaxed for a man who had just dismantled an ancient mountain. "That’s her. She’s our newest recruit."
Jason shifted his weight, his hand instinctively hovering near his sidearm. He couldn’t see the titan anymore, and the lack of visual contact made his skin crawl. He kept glancing at the ground, looking for a massive shadow or a tell-tale bulge in the sand.
"She’s traveling sub-surface," Ethan said, noticing Jason’s unease with a faint, knowing smirk. "Don’t worry. She’s already ahead of us. She’ll establish a new nest directly beneath our primary base. From now on, we’ll have an infinite supply of Worm Nectar. We won’t just have an elite squad, Jason. We’re going to build an army of millions."
A surge of pure euphoria washed over Jason. He had tasted the power of the Nectar himself; he knew the miraculous physical transformation it offered. The idea of creating legions of super-soldiers without the grueling, decades-long traditional refinement was inconceivable to any other faction. It was a cheat code for world domination.
"Then what is the immediate directive, sir?" Jason asked, his voice thick with newfound ambition.
Ethan’s gaze hardened, turning toward the distant coastline where the salt spray met the horizon. "We take total possession of the coast. Immediately. I want our forces deployed in a defensive net to stop the outsiders, but keep a sharp eye on the Union bastards as well. We are surrounded by enemies who think we are just an ’upstart’ group. We need must be cautious."
He pointed toward the rear of the convoy where the tankers were hummed with glowing blue liquid.
"The moment we hit the base, see to it that every member who passed the secondary trials is administered the Nectar. No exceptions. And Jason—start the blueprints for the coastal expansion. I want thousands of factories running within the month. We aren’t just a military force anymore. We are an industrial empire."
Jason snapped a sharp, crisp salute. "Understood, Master. By the time the Union realizes we’ve moved, the entire coastline will be a fortress they can’t even scratch."