Chapter 182: The Void Steel Catastrophe

The Azure Sea was entirely black under the heavy storm clouds.

I stood at the absolute prow of my flagship. The freezing ocean wind battered my S-Grade Hive Chitin armor. My glowing red visor pierced the thick oceanic fog. Directly ahead of our Steampunk fleet the dark horizon was burning with a blinding golden light.

The Holy Armada had arrived.

It was a terrifying display of raw magical superiority. The Pope had sent fifty towering wooden galleons. The ships were completely saturated with divine energy. Massive overlapping golden shields linked the entire fleet together in one impenetrable magical dome. The sheer conceptual pressure of the holy light was meant to vaporize anything it touched.

I looked down at the vanguard of my own formation.

Spread out across the churning black water were hundreds of massive flat iron barges. They carried the newly modernized Beastman horde.

Ten thousand Minotaurs, Centaurs, and Reptilian brutes stood shoulder to shoulder. They gripped their heavy Void Steel kinetic rifles. They braced their thick iron tower shields against the crashing waves. They were the absolute meat shield of the Imperium.

But the true threat of the Forge was completely invisible.

Three hundred feet below the crashing waves the Iron Leviathans waited in absolute silence. Dozens of heavily armored black submarines hovered in the crushing depths. They were completely undetectable. Their torpedo tubes were fully loaded with Nyssa’s newly forged Void Steel munitions.

On the deck of the towering central holy dreadnought stood the Grand Inquisitor.

He was a Level 82 fanatic. He wore pristine white armor laced with glowing gold runes. He stood near the wooden railing and looked down at my iron fleet. He saw the black smoke belching from our steam engines. He saw the primitive beastmen standing on the flat barges.

The Grand Inquisitor threw his head back and laughed. His deeply arrogant voice was amplified by a localized holy spell. It echoed clearly across the dark ocean.

"Is this the great nightmare of the East?" the Inquisitor mocked.

"You bring floating scrap metal and filthy animals to face the judgment of heaven? The Pope sacrificed ten thousand pure souls to bless these shields! We are entirely untouchable! Burn the beasts to ash!"

The cannons of the Holy Armada flared with blinding light.

A devastating volley of pure holy plasma launched into the sky. The golden artillery rained down perfectly onto my iron barges. The Beastmen roared in absolute defiance. They locked their iron tower shields together.

The holy plasma slammed into the metal. The sheer concussive force killed hundreds of beasts instantly. The air filled with the smell of scorched fur and boiling seawater.

But the Blackhorn battalion held the line. They did not break formation. They absorbed the divine punishment exactly as I commanded.

I raised my right hand. The pitch black Flame of Death violently ignited around my brass gauntlet.

It was the ultimate signal.

Deep beneath the ocean Nyssa executed the firing sequence. The Iron Leviathans unleashed their payload. Dozens of massive Void Steel torpedoes shot through the black water.

They moved with terrifying kinetic speed. They breached the surface of the ocean directly in front of the Holy Armada.

The Grand Inquisitor sneered. He watched the heavy black projectiles fly toward his ships.

"Fools," the Level 82 fanatic spat. "Our divine barrier is absolute!"

The Void Steel torpedoes slammed directly into the massive golden shields.

There was no explosion on the surface of the barrier. There was no kinetic resistance. The hyper dense black metal simply absorbed the holy magic on contact. The torpedoes phased directly through the impenetrable divine dome like ghosts slipping through a wall.

The Inquisitor’s arrogant smile completely vanished.

The Void Steel munitions slammed directly into the wooden hulls of the holy dreadnoughts.

The result was an absolute catastrophic apocalypse.

The heavy kinetic warheads detonated deep inside the galleons. The pitch black explosions violently shattered the structural integrity of the fleet. Massive wooden masts snapped in half.

The overlapping golden shields violently short-circuited and collapsed into raining sparks. Entire holy ships were instantly vaporized into massive clouds of burning splinters and boiling steam.

The invincible Holy Armada was completely crippled in less than ten seconds.

The screams of dying Paladins filled the cold ocean air. The central holy dreadnought was rapidly taking on water. Its massive hull groaned and split under the abyssal pressure.

"Vanguard!" I roared over the chaos.

"Take the flagship!"

I ignited my heavy boot thrusters. I launched my massive green body directly across the churning ocean.

Rolf leaped from the flagship right beside me. The Silver Colossus cleared a hundred feet of open water in a single bound. Directly behind him came Ursa.

The Level 74 Dire-Bear had fully expanded into his colossal four story beast form. The massive predator crashed into the ocean and swam through the burning wreckage with terrifying speed.

We slammed onto the slanting wooden deck of the sinking holy dreadnought.

Dozens of elite Paladins rushed forward with glowing swords to protect their Grand Inquisitor.

They did not even reach me.

Ursa violently pulled his massive dripping body over the wooden railing. The Dire-Bear let out a deafening bloodcurdling roar. He charged directly into the holy infantry. He did not use magic. He used pure primal violence.

He swung his colossal claws and ripped a heavily armored Paladin completely in half. He caught a second holy warrior in his massive jaws and crushed the man’s steel helmet like a fragile eggshell.

Ursa was making an absolute statement. He was painting the deck of the holy ship in blood to prove his fanatical loyalty to his new Apex.

Rolf laughed savagely. The Alpha General swung his massive double bladed battleaxe and cleaved through three Paladins in a single devastating kinetic spin.

I ignored the slaughter. I walked slowly up the slanted wooden stairs toward the raised quarterdeck.

The Level 82 Grand Inquisitor backed away. His pristine white armor was covered in soot and the blood of his own men. He stared at the burning ruins of his absolute fleet. His entire worldview was actively collapsing.

"You broke the divine barrier," the Inquisitor whispered in absolute horror. He raised a trembling glowing sword toward my chest.

"You are a demon."

"I am an engineer," I replied coldly.

I stepped onto the quarterdeck. The burning wreckage illuminated my heavily scarred green face. The Flame of Death sparked violently against my heavy brass knuckles.

I was Level 72. He was ten levels higher. But he was already a dead man standing on a sinking ship.