Chương 117: Chapter 116: The Old Shadow Legion's Uprising

The deep purple sky over the capital of Tartarus suddenly shifted to a color as red as dried blood. From the colossal geological rift behind the station, a hundred thousand Extremist-faction Demon-race soldiers, clad in pitch-black spiked armor, wielding massive blades and war hammers wreathed in purple flame, poured out like a giant swarm of ants. They were the Old Shadow Legion: an ancient war-cult garrison sealed in magical war-stasis within underground barracks until the Floor 10 seal fracture awakened them.

They surrounded the entire Economic Free Zone. Leading the army was former Marshal Barbatos — a demon commander over four meters tall, four curved black horns rising from his head, with a Rank S combat evaluation and enough visible mana pressure to make the station lamps flicker. Barbatos swung his five-meter death scythe, slicing a flagpole on the platform clean in half, tilting his face up to the sky and roaring.

"Traitors! You dare trade your sacred shadow souls for bowls of instant noodles and bottles of human hot sauce! Today, I will take the head of that half-breed brat Lucian Vance and burn this iron carriage to the ground, restoring the holy throne of war to the Demon race!" The hundred thousand rebel troops struck their weapons together in unison, the shock of it cracking marble slabs around the rail line.

On the steps of the VIP carriage, Lucian reached into his coat pocket, pulled out a gold-inlaid pocket watch, and flicked it open with a click. He glanced at the hands, then turned to Astra and Carmilla standing on either side of him.

"Ten fifteen. The next three-thousand-ton ore shipment departs at ten twenty-five. Can you two clear this crowd out in five minutes? Don't get blood on the locomotive's paint job — the cleaning crew's expensive." Astra gripped the hilt of the Sun-Slaying Dragon Sword, her ash-grey eyes blazing.

"Understood! For peace and strawberry ice cream!" Carmilla glanced at Lucian, her full red lips curling into a mischievous smile.

"Understood! For hot sauce and the Young Master!" CLANG! Eleanor drew the Royal Holy Sword from its sheath and stepped forward, positioning herself directly in front of Lucian, her white-and-gold cloak snapping in the wind.

"This time, let me protect you." Lucian pulled his magical abacus back out of his pocket and pointed behind them.

"You protect Car 3. It's full of thousand-year-old wine my dad smuggled over for sale. Break one bottle and it's ten gold docked." Eleanor shot him a glare, but the corner of her mouth curled slightly upward as she turned and swung her sword, raising a dome of holy light to seal off Car 3 entirely. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Ting! Ting! A Unified System V2. 0 notification appeared before him. [BATTLEFIELD OBJECTIVE RECORDED: PROTECT LOGISTICS ASSETS!] [SUCCESS CONDITION:] keep personnel, train, and cargo intact until the next departure window. RATATATATAT! Atop the armored locomotive, Evelyn sat behind a dual-barreled automated arcane machine gun, pulled her goggles down, and squeezed the trigger tight. Compressed Tartarus suppression rounds rained down at armor joints, weapons, and the ground ahead of the left flank, shredding their charge formation and forcing the ambush units behind cover without turning the platform into a graveyard. WHOOSH!

Astra kicked off the roof of the carriage, her entire body streaking through the air like a platinum shooting star, launching straight into the middle of the hundred-thousand-man formation. The Sun-Slaying Dragon Sword in her hand flashed with a concentrated arc of light. SLASH! A single sweeping strike cut weapons from grasping hands, split a line of empty pavement in front of the charge, and opened a terrified, nonlethal path straight to Barbatos.

At the same time, Carmilla moved through the shadows like a black whirlwind. She swung both hands, and tens of thousands of shadow-rose thorns erupted from the ground, binding the legs of every rebel officer nearby. Barbatos roared in fury, swinging his death scythe down straight at Astra's head.

"Die, you traitorous—" Blink. Silent Blink. Lucian appeared in midair, directly above Barbatos's head. His Read the Fine Print skill scanned the death scythe in 0. 1 seconds, revealing a mana fracture at the joint of the handle. Lucian pinched a silver coin between two fingers. Layered Focus placed a hair-thin mana thread through the existing fracture. Lucian flicked the coin into that exact point, using precision rather than force to make the damaged joint fail. CLICK! BOOM!

The death scythe exploded into hundreds of scrap metal fragments. The recoil pressure slammed straight into Barbatos's chest, sending the four-meter giant coughing up a mouthful of fresh blood, dropping to both knees on the marble floor. Total fight time: exactly two minutes thirty seconds. The Old Shadow Legion watched their former Marshal disarmed by a single coin, then watched the Goddess of Light and the Demon-race General hold blades to their leader's throat.

Officers shouted retreat orders; weapons began clattering down across the front ranks as bound commanders, blocked routes, and the intact train made the point for them. Within minutes, most of the legion had surrendered or withdrawn into containment lines. Lucian landed lightly back on the carriage steps, checking his pocket watch.

"Ten nineteen. Contained a minute ahead of schedule." At his feet, Barbatos knelt in a pool of black blood, all four horns trembling violently. He lifted his bloodshot eyes to Lucian, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, and broke into a savage smile.

"Don't celebrate too soon... before I was caught, I already triggered the blood-sacrifice ritual down at the underground vault..." He pointed at the platform floor, splitting apart violently beneath them.

"The gate to the Abyss on Floor 10 of the World Tower is now fully open! The beast that devours time itself... is about to rise and swallow every one of you whole!" BOOM! The ground beneath the central station collapsed into a bottomless black chasm, a temporal roar echoing up from eternity itself, shooting straight into the sky.