Chapter 251: Where it All Began, The Grand Throne Room

Iron-Scale stepped through the vaulted doors and placed his boot on a skull. A spiraling staircase stretched upward into the gloom, constructed entirely from fused human bones.

The macabre architecture cracked under the boots of the Vanguard operatives as they ascended the final tier.

A towering mass of armor and rotting flesh completely blocked the passage to the summit.

The monstrosity consisted of dozens of Aethelgard royal guards stitched together into a single nightmare. Countless arms protruded from its bloated torso, gripping rusted broadswords, bent halberds, and glowing magical staffs.

The fused heads of the fallen knights groaned in unison, their eyes burning with bright arcane light. The beast raised a cluster of staffs and unleashed a chaotic barrage of fire and ice down the narrow stairwell.

"Scatter and blind the heads." Iron-Scale launched himself off the bone railing to evade a cascading wave of frost. He channeled his emerald core, sending a violent gust of wind to deflect an incoming fireball into the cavern wall.

The resulting explosion showered the staircase in burning debris. Syra sank into the shadows beneath the fused steps to entirely bypass the magical onslaught.

Torix scrambled along the underside of the spiraling staircase. The Arachne commander directed his Deep-Weave Hunters to swarm the creature from above.

The giant spiders dropped onto the monster’s fused shoulders and sprayed thick layers of monomolecular webbing directly over the glowing eyes of the royal guards.

The beast shrieked wildly as the silk cut off its magical tracking senses.

Deprived of sight, the amalgamation swung its dozens of weapons in erratic, sweeping arcs. A rusted broadsword cleaved through a cluster of spiders, sending severed arachnid limbs tumbling down the stairs. The creature stomped its boots against the bone steps, attempting to shake the remaining hunters loose.

Iron-Scale spotted an opening forming in the chaotic defense.

"Take the weapon arms." Iron-Scale kicked off a protruding ribcage to close the distance. He generated a concentrated cyclone around his twin daggers and sliced clean through a tangled mass of sword-wielding limbs.

Syra materialized directly behind the beast’s knee joint. She drove her condensed shadow blade deep into the fused tendons, severing the primary support structure of the abomination.

The towering mass of flesh lost its footing and crashed against the bone railing. Iron-Scale gathered a massive updraft of emerald mana and unleashed a localized gale directly into the beast’s exposed chest cavity.

The sheer force tore the stitched corpses entirely apart. Rotting meat and shattered armor plummeted over the edge, disappearing into the dark abyss below. The spiraling steps leading to the peak stood completely unobstructed.

Iron-Scale drove his star-iron boot into the massive doors. The fractured stone gave way with a resounding crack, spilling the Vanguard operatives into the sprawling chamber beyond. The Grand Throne Room stretched before them in complete ruin.

A toppled golden chair lay crushed against a shattered marble pillar. Violet light erupted from a vast chasm dominating the center of the room.

A figure cloaked in crimson robes stood at the edge of the chasm. Violet energy chained the mage directly to the depths of the pit. The operator channeled the stolen souls up from the dark to animate the surrounding walls.

’Take the caster out. ’ Red projected his command to the squad.

The robed mage raised a crystal staff to summon dozens of glowing purple spears.

Syra sank into the shadows beneath the ruined throne. Iron-Scale charged across the polished floorboards and brought his twin daggers forward as the mage unleashed the magical barrage.

Iron-Scale channeled his emerald core to summon a sweeping gale. The wind caught the projectiles and redirected them into the vaulted ceiling.

Torix scaled the ruined pillars and directed his Deep-Weave Hunters forward. The giant spiders dropped from the ceiling to spray monomolecular silk over the operator. The webbing anchored the mage to the floor.

Syra materialized directly behind the captive and drove her shadow blade through the back of the caster’s neck.

The mage collapsed onto the marble tiles. Syra pulled her blade free and stepped back to watch the body bleed out.

The violent purple light erupting from the Dispose Pit continued to blaze. The mechanical groaning of the mobile fortress rumbled through the floorboards. The stolen souls kept flowing upward from the abyss.

"The engine is still running." Iron-Scale kicked the lifeless mage aside. "This caster was just a conduit."

Up in the sanctuary, Red stared at the telemetry feed on his console. He looked at the shattered golden throne and the gaping chasm. The royal mages had ripped the future from his chest in this exact room. They had thrown his empty husk into that pit to be forgotten.

’The true core is buried at the bottom.’ Red stated. ’That is where everything began. You have to go down there to kill the machine.’

Iron-Scale walked to the edge of the vast hole. He peered down into the swirling purple depths. Syra stepped beside him to inspect the sheer vertical drop. They scanned the crumbling stone architecture to locate a physical path descending into the darkness.

Torix clattered his mandibles to spray a dense coating of monomolecular silk over their armor. While Syra stepped forward to wrap the three of them in a shroud of pure darkness. And Iron-Scale channeled his emerald core to summon a violent cyclone around the group as the final defensive layer.

They stepped off the shattered marble edge to plummet into the violet abyss.

The Vanguard operatives crashed through the blinding light to land on a stone floor. They stood inside an impossible architectural nightmare stretching endlessly in every direction.

Entire corridors and vaulted chambers hung upside down or jutted out sideways from a bottomless void.

Clusters of luminescent purple crystals grew from the shifting masonry to cast a sickly glare over the twisting hallways. Thousands of drained human husks floated through the sprawling expanse with empty vessels suspended in the void. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The bodies drifted aimlessly between the disjointed rooms like discarded debris in a flooded river.

It seemed like a whole new world.