Dungeon Corpse Stacker: I Absorb Everything to Become Ominous Monarch
Chapter 22: The Shattered Citadel

Chapter 22: Chapter 22: The Shattered Citadel

The sound of the two-hundred-foot mithril gate exploding was not a sharp metallic clang; it was a low, resonant thrum that shook the tectonic plates beneath Border Sector 0.

When Renan’s bare fist struck the center of the Capital Iron Wall, the sheer kinetic shockwave—amplified by his 5,280 Strength and 9,800 Mana—did not merely dent the adamantine plating. It compressed the surrounding air into a visible, hundred-yard-wide ring of white plasma that cleaved the wall’s foundation in two.

CRACK-SHATTER-BOOM!

The three-mile-long, two-hundred-foot-tall structure, reinforced by six subterranean Class-S mana cores, buckled inward like damp parchment.

Millions of tons of shattered mithril girders, enchanted stone blocks, and severed defense turrets rained down over the outer district plaza. The shimmering, golden hexagonal barrier cast by four hundred high-tier mages shattered instantly, backfiring into their mana circuits and turning them into ash before they could even hit the ground.

Six thousand elite Association Hunters were swept away by the atmospheric shockwave, launched hundreds of yards through the air like weightless autumn leaves.

Standing at the epicenter of the destruction, on a floating slab of cracked marble forty yards above the smoldering crater, were the Three Pillars of the Nation.

Commander Thorne’s eight-foot titan frame slammed onto his knees. His four-ton obsidian tower shield had split completely down the middle, the crimson mana core inside leaking useless trails of spark and smoke. His face was covered in deep lacerations, dark blood trickling from under his visor.

"I-Impossible..." Thorne wheezed, his heavy lungs burning as he gasped for air inside the dust-choked vacuum. "A physical strike... without a weapon... it bypassed six Class-S defensive nodes...?"

Beside him, Archmage Zephyr landed heavily on his boots, his glowing white robes shredded by the kinetic blast. His staff tipped with the Tier-S Dragon Core was cracked, its blue luminescence flickering wildly like a dying flame.

To Thorne’s right, Shadowblade Ren dropped out of his shadow concealment, his silver mask cracked down the center, revealing sharp, terror-stricken dark eyes.

"His stat density isn’t just high, Zephyr," Ren rasped, clutching his bleeding ribs. "His physical structure has surpassed the human threshold. He isn’t using skills—his raw mass is warping the space around him."

Through the thick, rising veil of gray dust and burning sulfur, a single figure walked slowly across the ruined threshold of the Capital.

Renan walked with calm, measured steps.

His midnight-black combat coat fluttered gracefully in the hot wind rising from the burning rubble. His dark purple pupils glowed through the dark fog with an absolute, terrifying calmness.

Behind him, Shadow General Ignis and two thousand eight hundred Shadow Knights stepped through the gap in the wall, their obsidian armor gleaming under the flickering neon lights of the Capital’s outer district.

Renan stopped twenty paces from the Three Pillars. He slowly raised his eyes, looking at the three strongest Hunters in the nation as if they were nothing more than minor obstacles on a dirt road.

"Is this the ultimate defense of the Capital?" Renan asked softly. His quiet voice carried across the smoldering battlefield, vibrating straight into the bone marrow of every surviving soldier. "A wall built on hollow titles and shiny metal."

Commander Thorne gritted his teeth, his eyes turning blood-red with desperate, primal fury. He forced his giant eight-foot frame to stand, raising his cracked war hammer with both hands.

"DON’T LOOK DOWN ON US, YOU PORTER TRASH!" Thorne bellowed, his voice echoing across the crater as he flared his ultimate National-Level skill: [S-Rank Skill: Titan’s Undying Domain].

Thorne’s body expanded to twelve feet tall, his skin turning into indestructible, pitch-black adamantine stone. The ground beneath his sabatons cratered ten feet deep as his physical strength surged past two thousand points.

"I am the immovable wall of this country!" Thorne screamed, lunging forward like a roaring meteor, swinging his ten-foot war hammer straight at Renan’s skull. "DIE!"

Renan didn’t dodge. He didn’t even raise his arms into a guard.

He simply stepped forward with his left foot, extending two fingers—his index and middle finger—straight into the path of the descending twelve-foot titan war hammer.

CLANG!

The sonic shockwave blew away the surrounding smoke for two hundred yards.

Archmage Zephyr and Shadowblade Ren froze mid-step, their jaws dropping in absolute, unadulterated horror.

Thorne’s twelve-foot adamantine war hammer—delivering over fifty tons of physical impact—was stopped completely dead in mid-air.

Caught firmly between Renan’s two bare fingers.

[Physical Comparison:] [Renan Strength: 5,280] [Thorne Strength (Buffed): 2,100] [Result: Absolute Domination.]

"Your wall lacks substance, Thorne," Renan said softly, his purple eyes looking directly into Thorne’s terrified pupils through his cracked visor.

Renan twisted his fingers.

CRACK-SHATTER!

The legendary twelve-foot titan war hammer snapped into hundreds of metallic shards, falling onto the ruined pavement like useless gravel.

Before Thorne could even process the destruction of his ultimate weapon, Renan’s left hand shot out like a striking viper, grabbing Thorne by his massive adamantine throat and slamming his twelve-foot body face-first into the concrete road.

BOOM!

The road cratered ten feet deep. Thorne spat out a fountain of dark, clotted blood, his black adamantine armor cracking down the middle as his S-Rank titan domain instantly collapsed.

"THORNE!" Archmage Zephyr screamed, raising his cracked staff into the air. "DON’T LET HIM EXTRACT HIM! [NATIONAL-LEVEL SKILL: METEOR CATACLYSM]!"

The dark violet sky above Border Sector 0 split open. Three massive, hundred-foot burning mana meteors shot out from the clouds, screaming down toward Renan’s position at hypersonic speeds, intending to vaporize the entire crater—including Thorne.

Renan didn’t even look up at the descending meteors.

He raised his left hand toward the sky, opening his palm wide.

"Monarch’s Disruption," Renan whispered.

CRACK-LE!

A wave of pitch-black shadow energy erupted from Renan’s palm, shooting three hundred yards into the sky like a giant shadow palm.

The shadow palm caught all three hundred-foot flaming meteors in mid-air and squeezed.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

The three National-Level meteors didn’t explode—they were crushed into harmless blue mana dust that dissolved into the rainy wind like falling snow.

Archmage Zephyr fell onto his knees, his staff slipping from his numb, trembling fingers. "He... he crushed a National-Level spell... with a hand gesture..."

Beside him, Shadowblade Ren tried to activate his stealth skill to retreat, but a cold, heavy hand clamped onto his shoulder from behind.

"You’re fast, Ren," Renan’s voice whispered into the assassin’s ear. "But your shadows belong to me."

GRAB!

Renan slammed Shadowblade Ren and Archmage Zephyr together, throwing their broken bodies next to the bleeding Commander Thorne inside the central crater.

The Three Pillars of the Nation lay broken, bleeding, and utterly defeated at the feet of the former F-Rank porter.

Renan stood over them, dark violet lightning beginning to crackle around his knuckles as he opened his System extraction menu.

"You called yourselves the pillars of this country," Renan said, his voice cold, calm, and echoing through the rainy night. "Tonight, I tear your foundation down."

DING!

A crimson system panel flared over the entire crater:

[Targeting: 3 National-Level Hunters (Thorne, Zephyr, Ren)] [Initiating Forced Mass Extraction...]

CLIFFHANGER BARIS TERAKHIR:

As the dark violet extraction lightning consumed the Three Pillars of the Nation inside the central crater, a frantic emergency broadcast played across every television screen in the Capital:

"The Iron Wall has fallen. The Sovereign is inside Sector 0."