System S.E.X. (Seduction, Expansion, eXecution)

Chapter 414: The Blood Toll

Ethan’s convoy moved like a serpent of steel across the wastelands, kicking up a dust cloud visible for miles. However, as they crossed the technical border of Celestial territory, the horizon was interrupted by a series of concrete barricades and armored vehicles arranged in a perfect semi-circle.

Flashback: Three hours prior.

In the central office of the Celestial base, the Zone Manager, a weathered man named Varek, listened to direct orders from his Leader over an encrypted channel.

"Stop them, Varek. I don’t care if you have to use your men as human shields," the Leader of Celestial spoke, his voice cold and cutting. "We know Ethan returned from the canyon. Either they’re carrying legendary loot or they’re limping back from a beating, but they won’t cross our territory without paying the toll. I need you to delay them; the Scavenger Leader and I are en route with reinforcements."

"Sir, Ethan’s forces aren’t like a small gang. Reports say their technology has evolved," Varek replied with a hint of hesitation.

"I don’t care. The Desert Oasis Leader got cold feet and wants to negotiate, but we don’t. If they have something, it belongs to us by right of proximity. Use the .50 caliber machine guns if you have to! No Body Refinement warrior survives a rain of lead of that caliber."

Present Day: The Celestial Checkpoint.

The convoy did not slow down. In the cabin of the lead vehicle, the driver of the Falcon 19 unit adjusted his headset.

"Sir, we have a Celestial blockade two kilometers out. The Zone Manager is calling on an open frequency, demanding we stop for ’security inspection and transit payment,’" the soldier reported.

Ethan, sitting on the roof of the main truck with the wind hitting his face, didn’t even flinch. His amethyst eyes flashed with absolute disdain.

"Do not stop," Ethan ordered coldly through the comms system. "If they don’t move, drive right over them."

Varek, from behind the barricade, raised his hand. "FIRE!"

Dozens of heavy machine guns began to spit fire. The rhythmic thudding of the .50 caliber rounds was deafening—a hail of lead designed to disintegrate any conventional vehicle and shred the flesh of low-ranking cultivators. But when the bullets slammed into the Royal tech armor, only metallic pings were heard. The projectiles ricocheted or flattened against the metal like harmless marbles.

"What the hell?!" Varek screamed, watching as his best weaponry failed to even scratch the paint on the trucks. "Keep firing! Aim for the tires!"

"Falcon 19 here," the squad leader’s voice echoed on Ethan’s channel. "They have initiated hostilities. Permission to clear the path?"

"Wipe them out," Ethan replied.

In a perfectly coordinated move, the top hatches of the trucks slid open. Ethan’s soldiers—their bodies vibrating with the energy of the Worm Nectar—emerged with laser rifles. There were no wasted bursts. Each shot was an explosion of energy that tore through the concrete barricades and the chests of the Celestial men as if they were made of paper.

In less than sixty seconds, the checkpoint was a graveyard of twisted metal and lifeless bodies. Varek, miraculously alive after taking cover behind an engine block, crawled toward his radio with trembling hands.

"Leader! We couldn’t stop them! I repeat, the vanguard has been eliminated in seconds!" he shouted desperately as the convoy passed him by without even breaking its stride. "They aren’t human! Their weapons... their cars... you need reinforcements immediately or they’ll wipe us off the map!"

Miles away, in a command vehicle racing toward the zone, the Leader of Celestial clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white.

"How is this possible?!" he roared. "Even the best peak Body Refinement warriors can’t just ignore a .50 caliber like that. How many monsters does Ethan have under his command?"

The Scavenger Leader, sitting beside him, felt a sudden prickle of regret. They had set out to hunt a wolf, but it seemed they were heading straight into the maw of a dragon that was only just starting to show its claws.

Varek dragged his shattered body away from the burning wreckage of the barricade, his fingers trembling as they fumbled with the radio. "Leader... they’re... they are..."

Static hissed through the channel. On the other end, the Leader of Celestial roared into his receiver, his voice cracking with anxiety. "They are what? Speak, damn you! They are what?!"

Varek’s eyes widened, reflecting the massive wall of iron now crested over the hill. He had thought the first few trucks were the whole convoy. He was wrong. Behind the vanguard, hundreds of heavy transport vehicles were advancing in a terrifying, synchronized phalanx that blotted out the desert sun.

He opened his mouth to scream a final warning, but he never got the chance. A needle-thin beam of concentrated violet light hissed through the air, cauterizing a perfect hole through his temple in a fraction of a second. His head snapped back, and his lifeless hand dropped the radio into the sand.

"Target neutralized," a Royal marksman reported coldly from the hatch of a moving scout car.

Jason checked his tactical display, watching the red blips of the Celestial outpost fade into gray. "Sector clear, Master. We’ve broken their first line. However, we have a long road ahead. At our current armored pace, we’re looking at a thirty-hour push through the heart of the old states."

Ethan leaned back against the cold steel of the transport’s roof, the wind whipping his hair.

"Thirty hours is plenty of time," Ethan said, his voice dropping into a low, resonant tone. "Maintain the formation. If any other ’toll collectors’ show their faces, don’t even bother calling me. Just erase them. I’m going to enter a deep state of meditation. Only wake me if a Leader-tier combatant interferes."

"Understood, sir," Jason replied, signaling the convoy to increase speed to its cruising maximum.

Ethan closed his eyes, his consciousness slipping away from the physical world and back toward the silent, white expanse of his Soul Space. As the hum of the massive engines faded into a distant vibration, he began to circulate the newfound power of his Spirit Core embryo, preparing to stabilize the terrifying energy that now called his body home.