Free Web NovelChapter 43: Chapter 43: Abyssal Emperor
The holy capital of Aethelgard did not fall with grace; it was violently dragged into the Abyss.
The pristine white cobblestone streets, which had not seen war in over five hundred years, were instantly painted in thick, visceral crimson. The five thousand Abyssal Brutes flooded through the shattered mythril gates like a tidal wave of jagged black iron and muscle.
The city’s conscripted militia and surviving Holy Knights desperately tried to form choke points in the narrow avenues, but it was a mathematical impossibility. A Level 30 Platinum Knight was simply no match for a Level 40 Void-iron Brute swinging a three-hundred-pound trench-mace.
[Party Kill: Holy Knight (Level 35) x12. +24,000 EXP.]
[Party Kill: City Militiaman (Level 15) x80. +40,000 EXP.]
Riding atop his massive Obsidian Behemoth, Kaelen moved through the central promenade like a dark god surveying his harvest. He didn’t even need to raise a hand. His Level 68 void aura passively crushed the surrounding air pressure, violently suffocating any archers hiding on the balconies before they could loose their arrows. freewebnøvel.coɱ
Beside him, Elara Valerius rode in silence. Her emerald eyes reflected the burning, corrupted violet flames that were rapidly consuming the city’s commercial district. There was no pity in her gaze. This city had exiled her to the slums, spat on her name, and left her to die. Now, she was returning as the Forge-Master of its destruction.
"The Noble District is heavily barricaded ahead, Master," Lyriel reported, dropping flawlessly from the shadow of a burning bell tower to land on the Behemoth’s spiked shoulder. Her daggers dripped with the corrosive remnants of a dozen elite snipers. "House Valerius has rallied the remaining Vanguard Knights. They are attempting a last stand."
Kaelen’s violet eyes narrowed with dark amusement. "Elara. Would you like to say hello to your cousin?"
Elara’s breath hitched, a wicked, vindictive smile spreading across her flushed face. "I would love nothing more, Master."
At the gates of the Noble District, Cassius Valerius stood behind a massive barricade of overturned carriages and enchanted platinum shields.
The young Patriarch was trembling violently, his expensive drake-scale armor completely covered in the ash and blood of his retreating men. Behind him, the wives, daughters, and concubines of the noble houses huddled in absolute terror, watching the approaching tide of monsters.
"Hold the line!" Cassius screamed, his voice cracking with sheer panic as the heavy, rhythmic thundering of the Brutes’ footsteps echoed up the avenue. "For the glory of Valoria! The Goddess will not let us fall!"
"The Goddess isn’t coming, little lord," a cold, smooth voice echoed perfectly from the shadows of the barricade itself.
Before Cassius could even turn his head, Lyriel melted out of the two-dimensional darkness beneath his boots. With a flash of silver, her poisoned dagger severed the hamstrings of the two elite Vanguard Knights flanking him. The men collapsed, screaming in agony as the Wyrm-Blight toxin instantly dissolved their nervous systems.
Cassius roared in fear and swung his broadsword blindly at the elf.
Lyriel didn’t even dodge; she simply wasn’t there. Her Level 65 agility made her a literal blur. She reappeared perfectly balanced on the edge of Cassius’s blade, looking down at him with a predatory, mocking smirk.
"You are too slow, boy," Lyriel purred.
A deafening CRASH suddenly shattered the barricade.
Seraphina charged through the wall of overturned carriages like a meteor. The fallen High Paladin didn’t bother with technique. She gripped the massive Eclipse Breaker and brought it down in a devastating overhead strike.
Cassius desperately threw up his heavily warded shield, channeling his wind mana to deflect the blow.
The Mythic-Tier greatsword didn’t deflect. It devoured the wind mana instantly, flaring with corrupted golden light, and cleanly cleaved straight through the platinum shield, the drake-scale armor, and Cassius himself.
The young Patriarch of House Valerius was split perfectly in two.
[Kill: Lord Cassius Valerius (Level 48). +18,000 EXP.]
The remaining noble guards dropped their weapons and fell to their knees in absolute despair.
Seraphina rested the blood-soaked blade on her shoulder and looked past the carnage toward the terrified noblewomen huddled in the courtyard. "Elara," she called out, stepping aside.
The Forge-Master dismounted the Behemoth and walked through the shattered barricade. Elara looked down at the severed remains of her cousin, then up at the weeping noblewomen who had once mocked her existence.
"Gather them," Elara commanded the Brutes, her voice dripping with cold, absolute authority. "Strip them of their silks. They belong to the Alchemical Forge now. They will carry my slag and polish the Master’s armor until their hands bleed."
At the very peak of the city stood the Grand Cathedral.
The towering structure of white marble and gold was rapidly crumbling. The Aegis Barrier’s violent detonation had shattered the stained glass windows and collapsed the northern spire.
Inside the inner sanctum, the Supreme Pontiff was making his final, desperate stand.
The ancient man was bleeding profusely from his eyes and ears. He stood before the massive, shattered altar, surrounded by the corpses of the clerics who had burned their life force to power the fallen shield. In his trembling hands, he held a massive, glowing crystal—a Tier 6 Holy Relic containing a fragment of pure, undiluted divine energy.
The heavy oak doors of the sanctum were violently blown off their hinges.
Kaelen walked perfectly into the Cathedral. The ambient holy magic aggressively clinging to the marble floor violently hissed and died the moment it touched the hyper-dense void aura bleeding from his boots.
"Demon!" the Pontiff shrieked, his voice magically amplified, shaking the remaining pillars. "You have corrupted my Vanguard! You have slaughtered my flock! But you will not take the seat of the Goddess!"
The Pontiff crushed the Tier 6 Relic in his hands. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
"Miracle of the Seraphim!"
A blinding, cataclysmic pillar of pure, white-hot holy fire erupted from the Pontiff’s body. It didn’t just illuminate the room; it threatened to completely vaporize the physical realm. The spell was designed to summon a localized avatar of divine retribution—a suicide tactic that would level the entire city block.
The holy fire roared toward Kaelen, completely engulfing the center of the Cathedral in a blinding inferno.
But the flames didn’t reach him.
Kaelen didn’t dodge. He didn’t cast a barrier. He simply tapped into the Abyssal Trinity buff actively linking his core to his three generals. The massive, permanent +200% Mana Regeneration trait flooded his veins with an infinite, cooling ocean of dark power.
Kaelen raised his hand. His void mana condensed into a localized black hole in the center of his palm, possessing a density so absolute it warped the very fabric of gravity inside the room.
He gripped the pillar of holy fire.
The Pontiff’s eyes widened in sheer, mind-breaking disbelief as the cataclysmic miracle was violently snuffed out. Kaelen’s dark magic aggressively devoured the light, completely crushing the Tier 6 spell into a handful of dead, grey ash.
"A god who demands you burn your own life to summon her is no god at all," Kaelen whispered, his deep voice echoing in the sudden, terrifying silence of the ruined Cathedral.
Kaelen vanished.
Bypassing the physical distance entirely, he materialized directly in front of the Pontiff. He reached out and grabbed the ancient, frail man by the throat, lifting him entirely off the marble floor.
The Pontiff weakly clawed at Kaelen’s iron grip, his golden aura completely extinguished by the suffocating weight of the Abyss.
"Look at your Cathedral, old man," Kaelen commanded, his glowing violet eyes boring into the Pontiff’s soul. "Look at the ashes of your faith."
Kaelen didn’t give him a chance to pray. He channeled a concentrated spike of void mana directly into his palm, violently crushing the Pontiff’s throat and shattering his cervical spine in a single, brutal motion.
[Kill: Supreme Pontiff (Level 95 Apex Caster). +450,000 EXP.]
Kaelen carelessly tossed the lifeless body of the kingdom’s highest religious authority onto the shattered altar.
The moment the Pontiff’s heart stopped beating, a massive, deafening chime echoed across Kaelen’s peripheral vision. The glowing blue text of the System rapidly expanded, illuminating the dark, ruined Cathedral.
[Epic Quest Completed: The Eclipse of Aethelgard.]
[Massive Experience Threshold Met! Leveling Up...]
[Level Up! You are now Level 69.]
[Level Up! You are now Level 70.]
System Notification: Maximum Level Cap for ’Dungeon Master’ Reached.]
He took a deep, heavy breath as the raw, unadulterated power flooded his spiritual pathways. The stone floor beneath his boots began to violently melt, unable to withstand the sheer density of his existence.
[Initiating Class Evolution...]
[Evolution Successful.]
[New Class Acquired: Abyssal Emperor (Mythic Tier).]
[Territorial Override Complete. The Kingdom of Aethelgard is now permanently designated as Floor 12 of the Obsidian Labyrinth.]
He slowly turned around. Through the shattered archway of the Cathedral doors, he could see the burning, ruined capital city sprawling out below him.
Seraphina, Lyriel, and Elara walked up the marble steps, stepping over the corpses of the fallen Holy Knights. They knelt flawlessly at the threshold of the sanctum, bowing their heads to the dark god who had just conquered the surface world.
The Silver Crusade was dead. The nobles were in chains. The Church was completely broken.
"Rise, my generals," he commanded, his voice carrying the absolute, unquestionable weight of an Emperor. "The continent is finally ours."
