Dungeon Corpse Stacker: I Absorb Everything to Become Ominous Monarch
Chapter 20: The Awakening of the Sovereign

Chapter 20: Chapter 20: The Awakening of the Sovereign

The air split apart with the sound of a shattering mountain.

When Renan’s straight punch struck the center of Catherine Vance’s legendary diamond shield, the kinetic shockwave didn’t just break the magic barrier—it compressed the atmospheric moisture in a two-mile radius into an instantaneous sonic boom.

CRACK-SHATTER!

Catherine’s eyes bulged until blood trickled from her eye sockets.

The S-Rank [Diamond Aegis Domain]—a defense forged from the heart of a Tier-S Diamond Golem, capable of taking three orbital mana-strikes without a scratch—exploded into millions of razor-sharp crystal shards. The golden-white mana core inside her shield collapsed inward, detonating directly against her chest plate.

"AAAHHH!"

Catherine shrieked as her three-hundred-pound diamond armor shattered like thin porcelain. The shockwave blew straight through her body, snapping both her shoulders before launching her two hundred yards down the highway, crashing into a row of armored personnel carriers.

Standing directly behind her, the remaining three S-Rank Guild Masters—Kaelen Voss, Jared Drake, and General Ironclad—were hit by the residual kinetic wave.

BOOM!

General Ironclad’s heavy three-ton mechanical exo-suit was lifted off its hydraulic tracks, tumbling backward across the asphalt like a discarded toy. Kaelen Voss’s lighting staff snapped in half, the electric mana backfiring into his arms and charring his silk mage robes black. Jared Drake, the shadow assassin, was blown out of his stealth concealment, tumbling across the blood-slick pavement.

In a single, casual punch, the defensive anchor of the Regional Coalition was destroyed.

Renan didn’t pause. He stepped through the floating diamond dust, his dark purple pupils burning with a cold, absolute hunger for stats.

[Skill Activated: Phantom Blitz (Rank-S)]

SWOOSH!

Renan’s body vanished from physical space.

Kaelen Voss, scrambling on his knees in the mud, frantically tried to draw a backup mana scroll. "N-No! Stay away from me! I am a high-tier elementalist! I command the thunder—"

Renan materialized directly in front of him.

GRAB!

Renan’s bare hand clamped around Kaelen’s throat, shutting off his vocal cords and mana flow instantly. He lifted the S-Rank Elementalist four feet off the ground with one arm.

"Your thunder is quiet, Kaelen," Renan whispered softly.

[Target: Live S-Rank Guild Master (Kaelen Voss - Elementalist) Detected.] [Initiating Forced Extraction...]

CRACKLE!

Thick, pitch-black shadow tendrils erupted from Renan’s palm, driving straight through Kaelen’s silk robes into his chest. Kaelen’s body twitched violently in mid-air as his high-tier lightning mana circuits were violently siphoned into Renan’s palm. In less than eight seconds, the famed Elementalist was reduced to a shriveled, pale husk that crumbled into grey dust in the wind.

DING! DING!

[Forced Extraction Successful!] [Target: S-Rank Hunter (Kaelen Voss) Extracted.] [Attributes Extracted: Mana +480 / Agility +210 / Skill Acquired: Thunder Domain (Rank-S)]

To the left, Jared Drake—the shadow assassin—desperately activated his ultimate movement skill, diving into the shadow of a burning tank to escape.

"You use shadows as a hiding spot, assassin," Renan’s voice echoed directly behind Jared’s ear inside the dark shadow realm. "I am the shadows."

Renan reached into the shadow plane, grabbing Jared by his spine and ripping him out into the physical world before slamming him face-first into the concrete highway.

BOOM!

[Target: Live S-Rank Hunter (Jared Drake - Assassin) Detected.] [Initiating Forced Extraction...]

THRUSSH!

Another shadow tendril drove through Jared’s chest. The assassin let out a brief, muffled gurgle before his S-Rank agility attributes were completely absorbed, leaving behind nothing but a pile of ash on the asphalt.

DING! DING!

[Forced Extraction Successful!] [Attributes Extracted: Agility +350 / Perception +290 / Skill Acquired: Shadow Strike (Rank-S)]

In less than ninety seconds, three S-Rank Guild Masters had been reduced to dust.

The remaining two thousand three hundred Coalition Hunters completely lost their sanity. Weapons were tossed onto the road. High-tier mages fell onto their knees, weeping and praying to whatever gods they believed in.

"HE’S NOT A HUNTER! HE’S A MONSTER! HE’S EATING OUR GUILD MASTERS!" a coalition officer shrieked, clawing at his own face in sheer, unadulterated madness as he tried to crawl backward.

Renan turned slowly toward General Ironclad and Catherine Vance, who lay bleeding and broken against the crushed transport trucks.

General Ironclad, his mechanical exo-suit sparking violently, spat out blood as he looked up at Renan. "You... you demon... the National Military will launch orbital strikes... they will turn this entire sector into a radioactive crater..."

Renan stopped three paces away, looking down at the two broken commanders.

"Let them drop their suns," Renan said softly. "My army will drink the fallout."

Renan raised both palms toward the dark, stormy sky.

[ABSOLUTE MASS EXTRACTION INITIATED.]

RUUUMBLE!

The entire three-mile pitch-black dome over Sector 1’s Northern Gate began to vibrate with terrifying intensity.

From the two thousand three hundred dying, broken, and terrified Coalition Hunters scattered across the eight-lane highway, thousands of pitch-black shadow tendrils sprouted simultaneously from the pavement.

"NO! PLEASE! SPARE US!" two thousand men screamed in unison.

The shadow tendrils impaled the shadows beneath their feet, draining their living mana, their attributes, and their obedience into Renan’s core.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Two thousand three hundred massive pillars of pitch-black smoke rose into the afternoon sky, blotting out the remaining light of Sector 1. The smoke condensed rapidly, forging two thousand three hundred new Shadow Knights clad in midnight-black plate armor with glowing purple visors.

Combined with his previous army, two thousand eight hundred shadow soldiers stood in perfect, terrifying military ranks across the highway, kneeling on one knee before Renan.

Renan then reached out his palms over General Ironclad and Catherine Vance, executing his final forced extraction.

DING! DING! DING! DING!

[Forced Extractions Completed!] [All 5 Regional Coalition Guild Masters Neutralized!] [Mass Corpse Extraction Summary:]

Strength +1,250

Agility +1,180

Vitality +1,320

Mana +2,100

BOOM!

A blinding, dark violet shockwave exploded outward from Renan’s body, shattering the highway pavement for half a mile. His physical stats crossed into unmeasurable territory. His veins burned like streams of liquid violet fire, his skeletal structure emitting a metallic hum that vibrated the ground beneath his boots.

[UPDATED STATUS PROFILE]

Name: Renan

Class: Ominous Monarch (Tier-2 Sovereign - Peak)

Title: Shadow Sovereign of the Abyss

Strength: 5,280

Agility: 4,880

Vitality: 5,360

Mana: 9,800

Suddenly, the system window in front of Renan’s vision shattered like crystal, reforming into an magnificent, ancient golden-crimson interface wrapped in dragon sigils.

DING! DING! DING!

[QUEST COMPLETED: The Slaughter of the Five Pillars!] [Condition Met: All 5 Regional S-Rank Guild Masters Executed.] [Condition Met: Physical Stats Exceeded 5,000 Points.] [SYSTEM TIER-3 EVOLUTION TRIGGERED!] [System Status Upgrading: Tier-2 Sovereign -> Tier-3 Monarch Awakening!]

[Unlocking Tier-3 Features...]

Shadow Army Capacity Limit Removed! (Infinite Expansion)

Feature Unlocked: Domain of the Abyss (Global Range Expansion)

Feature Unlocked: Monarch’s Throne (Spatial Territory Creation)

Renan slowly lowered his hands, feeling the infinite, unyielding ocean of dark power expanding inside his chest. He didn’t feel human anymore. His perception extended across the entire country; he could hear the heartbeat of citizens ten sectors away, feel the mana currents flowing through every gate in the province.

He turned his gaze toward the south—toward the sprawling capital city where the President of the National Hunter Association and the World Council stood in state emergency meetings.

Behind Renan, Shadow General Ignis and two thousand eight hundred Shadow Knights stood up in unison, drawing their shadowy broadswords, awaiting their Sovereign’s final command.

Renan took a single step forward, his voice quiet, calm, and carrying across the stormy skies of the entire nation:

"Ignis."

"Command us, my Sovereign," Ignis boomed, bowing its horned head.

"Prepare the legion," Renan whispered, his purple eyes burning through the dark fog with absolute, divine authority.

"We are marching on the Capital."

In the emergency war room of the Capital, the President stared in absolute silence at the satellite feed showing two thousand eight hundred Shadow Knights marching down the highway—while a blood-red system notification appeared on every smartphone in the country:

"The Monarch has Awakened."