Dungeon Corpse Stacker: I Absorb Everything to Become Ominous Monarch
Chapter 13: Countdown to Extinction

Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Countdown to Extinction

The ticker running across the bottom of the global news broadcast was highlighted in flashing, blood-red text:

[EMERGENCY BROADCAST: SECTOR 2 FINANCIAL DISTRICT DESTROYED — NATIONAL HUNTER ASSOCIATION DECLARES CLASS-S DOMESTIC TERROR EMERGENCY]

Inside the penthouse office of Apex Guild Headquarters in Sector 1, the silence was suffocating.

The glass walls—reinforced with bulletproof mithril plating—offered a panoramic view of the glittering metropolitan skyline. But inside, the air tasted of copper, heavy sweat, and unadulterated panic.

Guild Master Richard stood behind his massive obsidian desk, his chest wrapped tightly in medical mana-bandages beneath his dark suit. His face, usually polished and commanding for press conferences, was pale, his eyes sunken with dark circles.

On the holographic display floating before him, twelve high-ranking members of the World Hunter Council and the National Defense Board were screaming simultaneously.

"Richard! What the hell is going on in your city?!" an elderly councilman slammed his fist onto his desk in Geneva. "Two S-Rank Directors are crippled! Fifty elite Association guards have vanished without a trace! And the media is reporting that a former porter from your guild is controlling a private shadow army!"

"Our stock prices have plummeted by eighty percent in twelve hours!" a female guild board member shrieked. "Investors are withdrawing their funds! The National Guard is threatening to place Sector 1 under martial law!"

"SILENCE!" Richard roared, slamming his palms onto the obsidian desk.

The holographic screens flickered with static. Richard’s breathing was heavy, his broken ribs throbbing with intense pain where Renan had struck him two days prior.

"The situation is under control," Richard lied through his teeth, his knuckles turning white as he stared at his glowing personal phone resting on the desk.

The message sent seventy-two hours ago still burned into his eyes:

"You have 72 hours remaining."

There were only four hours left on that timer.

"I have hired the Iron Blood Mercenary Corps," Richard announced, his voice trembling slightly despite his desperate attempt to sound confident. "Three hundred S-Rank and A-Rank veteran Hunters from the northern war zone. They have set up a three-tier defensive perimeter around Sector 1 Headquarters. We have installed four Class-S Mana-Disruption Towers. No skill, no domain, and no shadow magic can penetrate this building!"

"You better be right, Richard," the elderly councilman warned coldly before severing the holographic feed. "If that demon steps foot into Sector 1 and defeats your mercenaries, the Council will authorize an orbital mana-strike to erase the entire sector—including you."

The holograms vanished, leaving Richard alone in the cold, cavernous penthouse.

He slowly walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the perimeter below.

Sector 1 Headquarters was a fifty-story monolith of dark glass and steel. Surrounding the plaza were three hundred heavily armored mercenary Hunters equipped with anti-magic shields, heavy plasma cannons, and mechanical exo-suits. Four massive, glowing silver towers stood at the corners of the compound, radiating a high-frequency hum that disrupted all external mana flows.

It was an impenetrable fortress. A domain that no single man could ever breach.

So why was Richard’s heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird?

"Because you know it won’t save you, Richard," a quiet, smooth voice whispered from the dark corner of the office.

Richard spun around, drawing his backup golden rapier in a flash of blinding movement. "WHO’S THERE?!"

From the deep shadows behind the leather sofa, a tall man in a tailored white suit stepped forward. He held a silver pocket watch, tapping his finger against the glass face.

It was Vice-Chairman Edward—the head of the Underground Syndicate’s executive board, and the man who secretly funded Apex Guild’s illegal dungeon operations.

"Lower your toy, Richard," Edward said dryly, setting the silver watch onto a glass side table. "I didn’t come here to fight you. I came to deliver the Syndicate’s final decision."

Richard gritted his teeth, his rapier trembling slightly in his grip. "The Syndicate...? You’re bringing reinforcements?"

Edward scoffed, pulling a pair of white silk gloves from his pocket. "Reinforcements? Do we look like fools? We watched the live feed from Sector 2. That boy didn’t just break Commander Boros; he absorbed three thousand monster carcasses in thirty seconds and synthesized fifty S-Rank shadow puppets."

Edward stepped closer, his eyes cold and devoid of sympathy.

"The Syndicate is cutting all ties with Apex Guild," Edward declared flatly. "We have frozen your overseas accounts. Your asset keys have been handed over to the Ominous Faction."

"YOU TRAITORS!" Richard snarled, stepping forward with his blade raised. "I gave your syndicate forty percent of all illegal dungeon loot for five years! You owe me!"

"We owe you nothing, dead man," Edward replied smoothly, stepping backward into the shadows of the doorway. "In our line of work, we don’t bet on sinking ships. The boy is not a human hunter anymore. He is a walking disaster, and Sector 1 is his next feeding ground."

Before Richard could lung forward, Edward vanished into the corridor, leaving behind only the cold ticking of the silver pocket watch on the table.

TICK. TOCK. TICK. TOCK.

The timer was running out.

Meanwhile, five miles away from Sector 1, deep inside the abandoned subterranean subway tunnels beneath Sector 3.

The dark tunnel was dead quiet, save for the hum of high-density mana crackling through the air.

Renan sat cross-legged on a raised stone platform in the center of the tunnel. His tattered black coat was gone, replaced by a sleek, midnight-black combat coat woven from the shadow threads of his [Monarch’s Domain].

His purple eyes were closed, his breathing deep and rhythmic.

In front of him hovered a brilliant, golden-crimson system window—the upgraded interface of his Tier-2 Sovereign System.

[Feature Active: Corpse Synthesis (Rank-S)] [Available High-Grade Components for Synthesis:]

Component 1: S-Rank Hunter Soul (Leon - Offense/Speed)

Component 2: S-Rank Hunter Soul (Boros - Defense/Mass)

Component 3: S-Rank Hunter Soul (Vance - Agility/Stealth)

Component 4: S-Rank Hunter Soul (Kael - Sword Mastery/Holy Fire)

Component 5: Tier-S Boss Carcass (Abyssal Arachnid - Acid/Carapace)

Renan opened his eyes, the deep purple glow in his pupils illuminating the damp concrete walls of the tunnel.

"Four S-Rank Hunter souls and one Tier-S Boss carcass," Renan whispered, his voice echoing softly. "Combine all five components into a single entity."

DING!

[Warning: Synthesizing Five High-Grade Components will consume 1,500 Units of Mana!] [The resulting entity will exceed standard Rank-S parameters!] [Do you wish to proceed with Synthesis?]

"Synthesize," Renan commanded without a second of hesitation.

[CORPSE SYNTHESIS INITIATED.]

RUMBLE!

A violent shockwave of dark violet lightning erupted from Renan’s chest, spreading across a thirty-meter circle on the tunnel floor.

Five distinct streams of glowing light rose into the air:

A sharp gold stream (Kael’s Sword Mastery)

A heavy bronze stream (Boros’s Defense)

A dark crimson stream (Leon’s Offense)

A pitch-black stream (Vance’s Stealth)

A sickly green-violet stream (The Abyssal Arachnid’s Acid)

The five energy streams collided in mid-air, spinning into a blinding, roaring tornado of condensed mana.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!

The concrete ceiling of the subway tunnel began to crack under the immense physical weight of the fusion. The air pressure dropped so low that the moisture in the tunnel instantly condensed into crimson frost on the walls.

Inside the swirling energy tornado, a humanoid shape began to forge.

Skeletal structures woven from hardened monster carapace locked together. Muscle fibers enriched with S-Rank physical density wrapped around the bones. Dark, metallic plate armor forged from pure shadow energy materialized over its chest and limbs, covered in intricate golden runes that crackled with black lightning.

BOOM!

The energy tornado collapsed inward, snapping violently into the newly created entity’s chest.

The blinding light faded.

Standing in the center of the magic circle was a figure seven feet tall. It wore a heavy midnight-black cloak over jagged obsidian armor. In its right hand, it held a massive, eight-foot-long executioner’s broadsword that radiated a terrifying mixture of holy gold and dark violet flame.

Its face was concealed behind a horned dragon visor, through which two burning crimson eyes glowed like dying stars.

DING! DING! DING!

A golden-crimson system notification flared in front of Renan’s face:

[Corpse Synthesis Successful!] [New Entity Created: Shadow General - Ignis (Rank-EX)] [Entity Stats:]

Strength: 2,200

Agility: 1,980

Vitality: 2,100

Mana: 2,500 [Entity Unique Skills:]

Passive: Abyssal Carapace (95% Damage Reduction)

Active: Hellfire Cleave (Rank-EX)

Active: Phantom Mirage (Rank-S)

The seven-foot Shadow General slowly lowered its massive broadsword, dropping onto one knee before Renan. The concrete floor cratered three inches under its weight as it bowed its horned head.

"My Sovereign," a deep, booming voice echoed from beneath the visor, sounding like the roar of a subterranean volcano. "Command me."

Renan slowly stood up from the stone platform.

He flexed his fingers, feeling the unbreakable spiritual link connecting his mind to the new Shadow General. With Ignis leading his fifty Shadow Knights, his army was no longer just a threat—it was a force capable of crushing an entire national military division.

Renan walked toward the tunnel exit leading up to Sector 1, his coat fluttering in the cold underground draft.

He opened his System window, checking the countdown timer:

[Time Remaining: 00:15:22]

Fifteen minutes.

"Ignis," Renan said softly, stepping into the dark staircase leading to the surface.

"Yes, my Sovereign?"

"Summon all fifty Shadow Knights," Renan’s purple eyes flashed with an unholy, absolute radiance in the pitch-black tunnel.

"Tonight, we burn Apex Guild to the ground."

Above ground in Sector 1, as the countdown clock on Apex Guild’s main display hit zero, the four Class-S Mana-Disruption Towers suddenly exploded simultaneously from within, as a massive seven-foot Shadow General stepped out of a tearing spatial rift in the center of the plaza, holding an eight-foot broadsword dripping with black fire.