Dungeon Corpse Stacker: I Absorb Everything to Become Ominous Monarch
Chapter 14: The Scythe of Sector 1

Chapter 14: Chapter 14: The Scythe of Sector 1

The high-frequency hum of the four Class-S Mana-Disruption Towers cut out in a single, terrifying microsecond.

A split second later, all four forty-story silver structures detonated from their midsections inward. Reinforced titanium girders snapped like dry twigs, sending millions of sharp glass shards and burning steel debris raining down over the three hundred heavily armored mercenaries stationed across the plaza.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

"WHAT THE—!"

Commander Drake—the leader of the Iron Blood Mercenary Corps, an S-Rank veteran of three foreign guild wars—stumbled backward against his command tank, shielding his face as a wave of heat and sulfur washed over his heavy adamantine armor.

"Commander!" a mercenary lieutenant shrieked over the blaring tactical comms, his voice laced with raw hysteria. "The disruption towers didn’t just fail! The mana cores inside them were detonated from the inside! Something tore through the subterranean power lines!"

"Regroup! Form a phalanx!" Drake roared, unsheathing his massive, six-foot fire-elemental greatsword that erupted into roaring orange flames. "Vanguards to the front! Mages, cast wide-area barrier spells! Don’t break formation!"

Three hundred elite Mercenary Hunters—veterans who had fought in lawless gate zones across the globe—moved with military precision. Heavy exo-suit vanguards locked their ten-foot tower shields together, while fifty elemental mages began chanting in unison, conjuring a massive, three-story-tall golden barrier around the front plaza of Apex Guild Headquarters.

They were ready for a battalion. They were ready for an army.

They were not ready for what stepped out of the dark.

RUUUMBLE!

The rain-soaked asphalt in the center of the grand plaza split open. A jagged, twenty-foot spatial rift tore through the air, burning with a sickening combination of dark violet lightning and holy gold fire.

Stepping slowly out of the spatial rift was Shadow General Ignis.

The seven-foot entity stood tall under the flickering neon lights of Sector 1. Its midnight-black plate armor, woven from the synthesized traits of four S-Rank Hunters and an S-Rank Boss, radiated a physical weight so suffocating that the surrounding concrete cracked beneath its iron sabatons.

In its right hand, it dragged its eight-foot executioner’s broadsword across the ground. The blade left a deep, molten groove in the pavement, dripping with black, corrosive fire.

Behind Ignis, stepping out of the shadows in five flawless rows, walked the Fifty Shadow Knights. Their glowing crimson visors sliced through the darkness like dying stars.

"A-A single summon...?" a mercenary mage whispered, his hands trembling so violently that the mana orb above his staff flickered and died. "Its stat density... it’s exceeding two thousand units... That’s not an S-Rank summon... that’s a walking calamity!"

Ignis raised its massive broadsword, pointing the black-flamed tip directly at Commander Drake’s front line.

"Sovereign’s Will," Ignis’s voice boomed from behind its horned dragon visor, vibrating straight through the heavy titanium breastplates of the three hundred mercenaries. "Erase them."

SWOOSH!

The fifty Shadow Knights didn’t march—they lunged forward like a wave of black lightning.

[Skill Activated: Monarch’s Domain (Rank-S)] [50 Shadow Knights Stat Boosted by 50%!] [300 Mercenaries Suppressed by 30%!]

The collision was catastrophic.

The three-story golden barrier erected by the fifty mercenary mages didn’t just fail; it shattered like thin ice under a falling anvil.

The ten Rank-S Shadow Vanguards—led by the shadowy form of Commander Boros—slammed their tower shields into the mercenary front line.

BOOM-CRASH!

Heavy exo-suits weighing two tons were launched into the air like ragdolls, their heavy adamantine plating caving inward under the sheer kinetic impact.

Shadow daggers flickered in the dark as the ten Rank-A Shadow Night Stalkers passed through the mercenaries’ ranks like ghosts, cutting throats, severing mana-conduits, and neutralizing entire squads before the men could even raise their weapons.

"Fire! Fire the heavy artillery!" Commander Drake screamed, his face red with desperate fury. "Mages, use high-tier elemental spells! Kill those shadowy bastards!"

Four heavy hover-tanks mounted with anti-monster plasma cannons fired simultaneously at point-blank range.

RAT-AT-AT-AT-AT!

Streams of superheated plasma chewed through the dark, raining down directly onto Shadow General Ignis.

Ignis didn’t even raise its broadsword to block.

[Passive Skill: Abyssal Carapace (95% Damage Reduction)]

The plasma streams hit Ignis’s chest plate and evaporated into harmless blue sparks. The seven-foot Shadow General didn’t take a single step back. It didn’t even flinch.

Ignis took a single, heavy step forward, gripping the hilt of its eight-foot broadsword with both hands.

[Skill Activated: Hellfire Cleave (Rank-EX)]

Ignis swung the broadsword in a massive, three-hundred-sixty-degree horizontal arc.

FWHOOSH-BOOM!

A hundred-foot-wide wave of black and gold fire erupted from the blade, sweeping across the plaza like a roaring scythe of extinction.

The kinetic wave sliced through the four heavy hover-tanks as if they were made of damp paper. The vehicles split cleanly in half before exploding into massive fireballs.

The wave of dark fire continued forward, swallowing eighty mercenary Hunters whole. Their enchanted armor melted instantly, their bodies turning into ash before their screams could even echo off the glass skyscraper walls.

In a single strike, one-third of the legendary Iron Blood Mercenary Corps was completely wiped off the map.

"M-Monster..." Commander Drake stumbled backward, his flaming greatsword slipping from his sweaty palm. "That thing... it’s not human... it’s a god of death..."

Standing at the edge of the roof fifty stories above, watching the absolute destruction of his three-hundred-man mercenary army through the torrential rain, was Guild Master Richard.

Richard was clutching his chest, his breathing shallow, his face completely drained of blood.

On the plaza below, amidst the burning wreckage of hover-tanks and the ashes of eighty mercenaries, a single figure walked out from the shadows of the alleyway.

Renan walked with slow, unhurried steps.

His midnight-black combat coat fluttered gracefully in the wind. The rain PARTED around his body, deflected by his passive [2,750 Mana] stat pressure. He didn’t carry a weapon. He didn’t wear armor.

He looked up at the fifty-story penthouse glass window, his purple pupils glowing through the dark rain with an absolute, terrifying promise.

Renan raised his right hand, making a simple, casual beckoning gesture toward Richard.

Come down.

Richard took three sharp steps back into his penthouse office, his hands trembling violently as he grabbed his satellite phone, dialing the emergency hotline of the President of the National Hunter Association.

"PICK UP! PICK UP, YOU FOOL!" Richard screamed into the receiver, tears of absolute panic streaming down his face. "SEND THE NATIONAL ARMY! SEND THE NUCLEAR MANA-BOMBS! HE’S HERE! RENAN IS HERE!"

CLICK.

The line went silent.

A quiet, cold voice came through the satellite phone’s speaker—not the President’s voice, but a voice Richard recognized all too well.

"The President isn’t coming, Richard," Renan’s voice echoed smoothly from the phone speaker. "I took his communication array ten minutes ago."

Richard dropped the phone onto the plush carpet.

BOOM!

The main reinforced steel doors of Apex Guild Headquarters’ grand lobby down below blew inward, blasting fifty yards into the interior atrium.

Renan stepped over the twisted steel threshold, flanked by Shadow General Ignis and fifty Shadow Knights, stepping into the heart of Richard’s empire.

Inside the grand fifty-story atrium, as the remaining two hundred mercenaries backed away in terror, Renan raised his hand toward the elevator shaft leading straight to Richard’s penthouse, his voice echoing through the entire building: "Ignis, clear the floors. I’m going up to collect his head."