Dungeon Corpse Stacker: I Absorb Everything to Become Ominous Monarch
Chapter 28: The Fall of the Executioners

Chapter 28: Chapter 28: The Fall of the Executioners

The cold steel elevator platform trembled as dark violet shadow-flames licked against its hydraulic shafts.

Director Vance thrashed frantically, his polished leather boots kicking thin air three feet above the ground. His hands, once known for wielding a nine-foot broadsword with terrifying lethal precision, clawed desperately at the iron grip clamped around his throat.

Emerging directly from Vance’s own shadow plane behind him was Renan.

Renan’s face was inches from Vance’s ear. His midnight-black combat coat fluttered gently in the heat draft, and his purple pupils burned through the dark fog with an ice-cold, unyielding radiance.

"Ugh... hrrgk..." Vance choked, blood bubbling over his lips as his S-Rank blood-flame aura withered under the crushing spiritual pressure of Renan’s [Monarch’s Domain]. "Renan... stop... Guild Master Richard... will pay you... hundreds of millions..."

"Richard offered me ten thousand credits to die in that Class-S gate, Vance," Renan whispered, his voice quiet, flat, and devoid of a single grain of mercy. "You thought my life was worth less than a broken potion vial."

To Vance’s left, Kael the Shadow Blade—the last remaining S-Rank Executioner—panicked. He activated his ultimate movement skill, dissolving into a black shadow-cloth mist to plunge off the elevator platform and escape into the subterranean sewer line.

"You use shadows as a hiding spot, assassin," Renan said without even turning his head. "I am the shadows."

SNAP!

Renan snapped the fingers of his left hand.

[Skill Activated: Shadow Manipulation (Rank-S)]

The pitch-black shadow plane beneath Kael’s feet erupted into a dozens of razor-sharp shadow spears, piercing Kael’s shadow mist and pinning his physical body directly to the limestone wall twenty yards away.

"AAAAAH!" Kael shrieked as four obsidian shadow blades impaled his shoulders and thighs, suspending him five feet above the cavern floor.

Renan turned his focus back to Director Vance, tightening his bare fingers around the director’s throat. The sound of Vance’s cervical vertebrae creaking under the physical weight of [2,430 Strength] echoed through the ruined elevator plaza.

[Target: Live S-Rank Director (Vance - Offense Specialist) Detected.] [Initiating Forced Extraction...]

THRUSSH!

A thick, pitch-black shadow spear erupted directly from Renan’s palm, driving straight through the center of Vance’s red composite chest plate into his heart.

"GAAAAAAAH!"

A blood-curdling shriek tore from Vance’s throat, amplifying across the subterranean cavern before echoing up the hundred-foot elevator shaft to the surface city above.

The extraction was brutal and absolute. Vance’s muscular frame shriveled into thin, leathery skin in seconds. His high-tier blood-flame mana was violently drained, turning from boiling red fire into dark purple streams that poured straight into Renan’s raised hand. His silver hair turned white, brittle, and caved into fine dust.

DING! DING! DING!

[Forced Extraction Successful!] [Target: S-Rank Director (Vance) Extracted!] [Attributes Extracted!] [Strength +310] [Agility +260] [Vitality +290] [Mana +410] [Skill Acquired: Active - Blood-Flame Cleave (Rank-S)]

CRUMBLE!

Director Vance’s remains collapsed onto the elevator floor like a hollow, dried-up twig before shattering into a pile of gray ash that blew away in the hot draft.

Renan released his grip, stepping off the platform toward the pinned assassin, Kael the Shadow Blade.

"P-Please..." Kael whimpered, tears of sheer terror carving clean streaks through the grime on his pale face as Renan approached. "I was just following orders... I have a family in Sector 4..."

Renan stopped three paces away, looking at the pinned assassin with eyes devoid of warmth.

"When you executed porters in the dark, did you listen to their pleas about their families?" Renan asked softly.

He extended his left palm toward Kael.

THRUSSH!

A shadow tendril drove through Kael’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 white ash against the limestone wall.

DING! DING!

[Forced Extraction Successful!] [Target: S-Rank Executioner (Kael) Extracted!] [Attributes Extracted: Agility +340 / Perception +270 / Skill Acquired: Shadow Step (Rank-S)]

Two massive dark pillars of smoke erupted from the ash piles, solidifying into two new S-Rank Shadow Commanders:

Shadow Commander Vance: A tall shadow warrior wielding a nine-foot broadsword wrapped in dark violet flames.

Shadow Commander Kael: A razor-thin shadow assassin holding two liquid-black daggers.

Along with Shadow General Ignis and Shadow Titan Gundyr, Renan’s army now possessed four powerful shadow leaders to command his expanding legion.

Across the ruined elevator plaza, the remaining two hundred Apex mercenaries dropped their rifles onto the wet floor, falling onto their knees simultaneously, trembling in absolute, speechless terror.

"Spare us... Lord Sovereign... spare us..." they wept in unison.

Renan turned his back on them, looking toward Boss Victor, who stepped out from the darkness of Vault 9, clutching his data slate with shaking hands.

"Victor," Renan said softly.

"Y-Yes, Lord Renan?!" Victor bowed deeply, his forehead nearly touching his boots.

"Take control of every illegal supply depot, black-market bank account, and monster carcass yard in Sector 3," Renan commanded, his voice cold, calm, and leaving no room for argument. "Execute any syndicate boss who hesitates to submit."

"Consider Sector 3 completely yours, Lord Renan!" Victor stammered eagerly. "With Director Vance and the executioners dead, the underground syndicates are already declaring their total loyalty to the Ominous Faction!"

Victor tapped his screen, pulling up a glowing golden blueprint of Sector 2.

"However, Lord Renan..." Victor hesitated, his voice dropping into a nervous whisper. "Guild Apex’s main financial fortress isn’t in Sector 3. It’s the Gilded Vault Bank in Sector 2."

Renan looked at the holographic blueprintfloating in the dim cavern air.

The Gilded Vault Bank was a reinforced subterranean fortress built beneath Sector 2’s financial district. It held billions of credits in unregistered mana stones, dragon cores, and property deeds belonging to Guild Apex and high-ranking corrupted officials of the Hunter Association.

"The Gilded Vault is protected by three Association Directors and a Class-S magical barrier," Victor explained. "If we seize that bank, we completely sever Guild Apex’s financial circulation. Guild Master Richard won’t even be able to pay his remaining mercenary divisions."

A cold, predatory smile flickered across Renan’s face as dark purple lightning crackled around his knuckles.

[Current Attributes Profile:]

Strength: 3,050

Agility: 2,900

Vitality: 3,310

Mana: 4,880

"Three Association Directors and a Class-S barrier..." Renan whispered softly, his purple eyes burning with an unholy radiance through the gloom.

He stepped into his shadow, his body dissolving into a violent vortex of pitch-black smoke, taking Ignis, the Shadow Commanders, and his shadow soldiers with him into the dark.

"Gather the shadow army, Victor," Renan’s voice echoed through the dark cavern as he vanished.

"Tonight, we bankrupt Guild Apex."

CLIFFHANGER BARIS TERAKHIR:

In the subterranean vault chamber beneath Sector 2’s Gilded Vault Bank, three Association Directors stood before a ten-foot glowing gold barrier as the stone floor above them began to crack: "He’s here... The Sovereign is at the vault doors!"