Dungeon Corpse Stacker: I Absorb Everything to Become Ominous Monarch
Chapter 27: The Iron Trap of Sector 3

Chapter 27: Chapter 27: The Iron Trap of Sector 3

The main subterranean elevator shaft of Sector 3 hummed with a heavy, industrial vibration that rattled the stalactites hanging from the cavern ceiling.

The hundred-foot steel platform slammed onto the damp stone floor, venting clouds of white hydraulic steam. Out from the fog stepped three hundred elite mercenaries clad in heavy silver-and-red composite plate armor, their rifles hummed with high-grade mana cartridges.

At their head walked three terrifying figures.

In the center was Director Vance—a veteran S-Rank Offense Specialist from Guild Apex. Over six feet tall, with slicked-back silver hair and a sharp, cruel sneer, Vance held a nine-foot crimson broadsword that hummed with a corrosive blood-flame aura.

Flanking him were the two dreaded S-Rank Executioners of the Apex Inner Council: Kael the Shadow Blade and Gundyr the Iron Titan.

"Check the perimeter," Vance commanded, his voice cold and echoing through the damp limestone corridor. "The surveillance feed inside Vault 9 went dark ten minutes ago. If that porter trash thinks he can scuttle through the sewer lines like a rat, seal every drainage hatch with magma charges."

"Director Vance," Kael the Shadow Blade whispered, his body wrapped in flickering black shadow-cloth, two curved silver daggers held in a reverse grip. "The ambient mana pressure in this corridor... it feels unstable. Something is clogging the air."

Gundyr the Iron Titan—a massive eight-foot tall juggernaut wearing three-ton adamantine plate armor—groaned as he rested his giant war-hammer on his shoulder. "It’s just damp cave air, Kael. Stop jumping at shadows. When I find that F-Rank porter, I’ll crush his skull between my bare palms."

Vance narrowed his eyes, his gloved fingers tightening around the hilt of his crimson broadsword. "Quiet. He’s here."

STEP.

The sound was quiet, yet it cut through the hum of the hydraulic elevator engines like a razor slicing through silk.

Emerging from the pitch-black corridor leading out of Vault 9 was Renan.

He walked alone, his midnight-black combat coat swaying gently against his boots. His face was calm, his posture relaxed, and his dark purple pupils glowed through the gloom with an ice-cold, predatory radiance.

Behind him, emerging silently from his shadow plane, stood Shadow General Ignis and the twelve newly converted Shadow Mercenaries.

"Director Vance," Renan said softly, stopping twenty paces from the three hundred Apex soldiers. "Guild Master Richard sent his top executioners to die in a dark cave. He must be getting desperate."

Director Vance sneered, stepping forward as his nine-foot crimson broadsword erupted into a ten-foot blade of boiling red blood-flames.

"Desperate?" Vance laughed dryly, spitting on the stone floor. "You killed a few low-tier mercenaries and got cocky, porter. You think surviving a Class-S gate makes you invincible? You’re still just an F-Rank trash who got lucky with a black-market artifact!"

Gundyr the Iron Titan let out a roaring laugh, stepping forward with his massive three-ton war-hammer. "Director! Let me handle him! I’ll break his spine in two seconds!"

"Do it, Gundyr," Vance ordered coldly. "Leave his limbs broken. Guild Master Richard wants him alive for the interrogation."

BOOM!

Gundyr kicked off the limestone floor, shattering the stone into a ten-foot crater. The eight-foot juggernaut lunged forward like an iron meteor, raising his giant war-hammer high above his head, bringing it down straight at Renan’s skull with sixty tons of kinetic impact.

[Skill Activated: Titan’s Earth-Breaker (Rank-S)]

"DIE, RAT!" Gundyr bellowed.

Renan didn’t dodge. He didn’t order Ignis to step in.

He simply stood his ground, raising his bare right hand into the open air above his head, spreading his fingers wide.

CLANG-BOOM!

A blinding shockwave of kinetic force blew through the cavern corridor, shattering the sodium street lamps and blowing back thirty front-line mercenaries.

Director Vance’s eyes widened under his silver brow. Kael the Shadow Blade gasped, dropping his daggers an inch.

Gundyr’s massive, three-ton adamantine war-hammer—delivering sixty tons of downward crushing force—had stopped dead in mid-air.

Caught effortlessly in Renan’s bare right palm.

Not a single scratch appeared on Renan’s skin. His boots hadn’t even sunk a millimeter into the stone floor. The passive physical density of his 2,430 Strength and 2,710 Vitality treated the S-Rank juggernaut’s attack like a weightless feather.

[Physical Attribute Check:] [Renan Strength: 2,430] [Gundyr Attack Output: 1,120] [Result: Absolute Domination.]

"Is this the strength of an Apex Executioner?" Renan asked softly, his purple eyes looking directly into Gundyr’s horrified pupils through his iron visor.

"I-Impossible..." Gundyr stammered, sweat pouring down his face, his massive arms trembling as he poured every drop of his S-Rank mana into the hammer, but it wouldn’t budge an inch against Renan’s palm. "My physical strength is S-Rank... How are you catching sixty tons with one hand?!"

"Because your S-Rank," Renan whispered, "is my baseline."

Renan squeezed his bare fingers around the adamantine hammerhead.

CRACK-SHATTER!

The legendary three-ton adamantine war-hammer snapped into dozens of jagged metallic fragments, falling onto the damp stone floor like useless gravel.

Before Gundyr could even attempt to retreat, Renan’s left fist shot out like an artillery shell, driving straight through the center of Gundyr’s three-ton adamantine chest plate.

BOOM-THUD!

Renan’s bare fist punched clean through the S-Rank juggernaut’s chest, exiting out his back plate in a shower of shattered steel and clotted blood.

"Gah... hrrgk..." Gundyr gasped, his eyes bulging as blood poured from his mouth onto Renan’s dark sleeve.

Renan pulled his arm back coldly, letting Gundyr’s massive eight-foot corpse collapse onto the stone floor like a hollow sack of iron.

[Target: Live S-Rank Executioner (Gundyr) Defeated.] [Initiating Forced Extraction...]

THRUSSH!

A thick, pitch-black shadow spear erupted from Renan’s palm, impaling Gundyr’s shadow. The juggernaut’s S-Rank physical attributes and life force were drained in seconds, leaving behind a hollow, dried-up husk.

DING! DING!

[Forced Extraction Successful!] [Target: S-Rank Executioner (Gundyr) Extracted!] [Attributes Extracted: Strength +280 / Vitality +310]

A massive dark pillar of smoke erupted from the corpse, forging a towering ten-foot Shadow Titan clad in obsidian adamantine plate armor that knelt on one knee before Renan.

Three hundred Apex mercenaries took three collective steps back, their faces drained of all color, their hands trembling violently around their rifles.

"Gundyr... killed in one punch..." Kael the Shadow Blade whimpered, his stealth cloth flickering frantically as panic consumed his mind. "Director Vance... this man... he’s not an F-Rank porter... he’s a monster!"

Director Vance’s face twisted into a scowl of pure, murderous rage, though a cold drop of sweat trickled down his temple.

"STAY IN FORMATION!" Vance screamed, raising his nine-foot crimson broadsword high into the air. "MAGES! UNLEASH WIDE-AREA FIRE SPELLS! KILL HIM AND BURY THIS ENTIRE CAVERN!"

Fifty Apex mages raised their glowing staves, chanting high-tier fire incantations. A sea of boiling, red flames erupted across the cavern ceiling, raining down toward Renan’s position in a hundred-foot torrent of destruction.

Renan looked up at the descending wave of fire, his dark coat swaying in the heat draft.

"Ignis," Renan commanded quietly.

FWHOOSH!

Shadow General Ignis stepped forward, pulling its eight-foot broadsword back with both hands.

"Command me, my Sovereign," Ignis boomed, its visor burning with dark violet fire.

"Extinguish them."

Ignis swung its broadsword in a massive horizontal arc.

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

A hundred-foot-wide wave of dark violet shadow flames erupted from Ignis’s blade, slicing straight through the descending sea of red fire, cutting through the fifty Apex mages, and severing the legs of fifty front-line mercenaries in a single, roaring arc of dark destruction.

BOOM-CRASH!

Half the cavern corridor was turned into a burning graveyard of dark violet fire. Screams of terror and agony echoed off the limestone walls as fifty Apex mercenaries were vaporized instantly.

Renan stepped through the dark violet flames, his purple eyes locking onto Director Vance and Kael the Shadow Blade, who stood frozen at the elevator platform.

"Now," Renan said softly, stepping into his shadow as black smoke wrapped around his body.

"Where were we, Director Vance?"

At the main elevator platform, Director Vance frantically tried to press the emergency override button to send the lift back to the surface—only for a cold, bare hand to reach out from his own shadow plane, clamping onto his neck from behind: "You can’t escape your debts, Vance."