Building My SSS-Rank Universal Empire: From Trash to Cosmic Overlord-Chapter 186: Let us begin
Things moved quickly after that. Chief Takoda and Flagbearer Pomora flew back to their fortress in case another monster wave came after them.
Vale himself took to the air together with Slya, Tiber, and Manefor. They were absorbed into the Tower, in a room made for guests, while Vale remained in the core area.
They could see what was happening outside through the viewing wall. Vale sped through the air toward the direction he was told the monsters were heading, and before long, he saw them—the army of monsters.
There must have been hundreds of them, and they weren’t normal monsters either. They were made of ice and frost, like human statues but taller and bulkier, with helmets covering their faces.
Vale recognized them immediately. They were the same monsters they had seen in the ruin with the Rift seed back in the second layer. They marched on the ground as one, their footsteps shaking the earth and covering it in cracking frost.
The trees and plants in their way were flattened, frozen, and then shattered, their blue-tipped spears gleaming in the light. Vale was confused, and he felt uneasy. Why was it now that the Rift was pulling something like this?
The monsters had numbers to their name, but they were weaker. A quick scan had told Vale that they were at the rank of a normal Knight at best, but not all of them had even reached that rank—most were at the Squire rank.
’...what’s going on? Is this a major attack from the Rift, or is it just trying to test something out? Is it planning something? No matter how strong the Rift is, it can’t bring out even a quarter of its forces outside in one go... That’s why the threats of the Rift were managed... because they can’t bring all their monsters out at once, so it’s easy for the Knights to hunt them...’
Vale followed the flow of the marching monsters for a while and waited for the others to join him. The three fortresses sent their enchanted towers, and with four towers combined, they began attacking the monsters.
And... it was easy. The monsters weren’t strong enough; they couldn’t even use skills, and with the towers floating above them, all they did was send their attacks down, destroying the ice monsters.
Vale half expected a higher-ranked monster to swoop down on them at any moment, but none appeared, and they finished off the last of the ice monsters with ease.
Vale then commanded the other three towers to patrol the areas around the Rift for unusual activity. At the same time, he sent messages to the Flagbearers to set up a patrol routine and to wait for what would happen next.
On a hunch, instead of going to the Scuffed Bones fortress to spend the night, he went to the Forsaken Tribe’s territory. And that was how the meeting on clearing the Rift was delayed—and stopped.
That night, Vale thought about what might be happening. He felt anxious for some reason, as if several things had been set in motion at once without his knowledge. It was as if he was at the center of a tide that was closing in from all around him.
’...and the recent move by the monsters just makes everything worse... What’s the goal? Is it to do something, or was it coincidental?... Is it a threat not to attack it?...’
’...Back then, I already guessed that the Rift was creating a large army, but what’s the use of an army that can’t be used? The most the Rift can do is keep all the Flagbearers busy, never enough to break out of the Borderland...’
Finally, Vale forced himself to calm down and think about his next plan carefully.
’...The Rift must be planning something... so the best thing I can do is act fast since I don’t know what the Rift might be planning... Act fast... No time to stall...’
He looked out the window of the room he was in, and his face hardened. "I must make my move before they do whatever they are planning."
Then he sighed, and his face softened under the moonlight. With the plan settling in his mind, he felt calm. No need to worry anymore. The only thing that remained was to act.
☆☆☆☆☆☆
It was night in the Borderland, but somewhere, the light of the moon failed to penetrate the thick darkness that suddenly bubbled up from the ground.
The darkness trembled and shook before it transformed into a figure—Kren. The man stared at the night intently, then reached out with his hand and drew a symbol in the air.
The symbol hung there, quickly joined by others that drank all the light in the surroundings. Then, the symbols bled together, forming a door covered in translucent light, as if it were a mirror.
Kren looked into the mirror and saw darkness, but he felt a searing gaze fall on him so sharply that it was as if blades were peeling his skin to look into his soul. He dropped to his knees at once. "My Lord."
A voice came out of the mirror door, a voice that warped and twisted through the air, threatening to split Kren’s ears. "How is it?"
"Everything is going as expected. We don’t have control over what they are doing, but it is well within our plan," he answered. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
"And the boy?"
"He is as he is, My Lord."
"Very well. Let us begin."
A hand reached out from the door, covered in layers of darkness, but a dark claw glinted. The claw lifted and reached downward toward Kren’s head, beginning to carve words of power and symbols onto his forehead.
Each time a symbol was written, it disappeared into his flesh. At first, Kren was silent and still, but soon he began to sweat and then whimper.
Black blood dripped from his nose and poured down his mouth as he took heavy breaths. His figure flickered between thick darkness and solid form, and his face changed into different faces, as if he were changing masks.
Finally, the hand stopped writing and vanished into the mirror door.
His face settled back into that of Kren, and he composed himself again. Without another word, the mirror door vanished, collapsing into melting darkness.
Kren turned his eyes toward a distant fortress that loomed like mountains falling atop each other. He smiled. "Time to see how they’re doing."
