Defiance of the Fall

[World Lord of Kerkos VI killed. Kerkos VI considered neutral for two weeks.]

Zac breathed out in relief upon seeing the prompt, its message further confirmed by the huge surge of Kill Energy entering his body. He was confident in his skills, but there were all kinds of odd techniques and counters out there. The World Lord might have had a cloning method that let him swap out targets at the last second or possess a means of survival even with an axe through his head. Thankfully, it really was his target lying on the ground before him, his body ravaged by forcibly materializing and being dragged back through the one-way vortex.

The World Lord escaping their planet during the invasion would make things harder for the defenders, but the Calamity Company wouldn't benefit nearly as much as if they managed to kill him. The System mostly considered it a tactical retreat rather than a surrender or defeat. For one, there wouldn't be any prompts, and some of the more critical features of the War System wouldn't immediately trigger.

The Kan'Tanu obviously didn't want their leaders to run, but they weren't madmen who required all their men to fight to the death—such treatment was reserved for the lower castes and the warslaves. In contrast, the cultists valued their elites and leaders quite a bit. Depending on how connected this Hegemon was, he might just face some light punishment by his superiors before being reassigned.

He even had a chance of getting his world back, considering most invaders retreated after sacking the world. Only the larger factions dared hold onto planets in the foreign sector, having their own powerhouses to shore up the defenses in case a Kan'Tanu elite was sent to reclaim it.

The pull had shattered the spectral chain of his skill, but [Arbiter of the Abyss] was still running. This wasn't anything new—like [Vanguard of Undeath], it could be maintained indefinitely as long as he had the energy to spare.

However, there was one interesting aspect that differed from when he first got the skill. The chain around his left arm was currently unresponsive to calls, but Zac could feel it slowly filling with energy. He'd be able to trap another elite with a spectral link in thirty seconds or so.

[Arbiter of the Abyss] was the last skill to be upgraded to E-grade. The complexity of [Vanguard of Undeath] and his hesitance of direction had delayed him for years. He'd only taken the step inside the mysterious temple where he got the second piece of his seal. By the time he entered the Perennial Vastness, he had barely used it in an actual fight. But like his other skills, it had been elevated to Peak Mastery long ago.

The first two upgrades hadn't changed anything. It simply made the directional domain stronger while allowing the chain to move significantly faster. The chain itself was key to making the most of the skill, but it had been a bit slow before. He had essentially been forced to use trickery and misdirection to mark his targets and summon the spectral chain that multiplied the taunting effect.

The taunt itself hadn't gotten any stronger at Peak Mastery, but it was already very impressive, like the battle just now had shown. Instead, it had pushed the chain's speed to its peak and could now move far quicker than even Alea's upgraded chains. Most importantly, the upgrade made the spectral chain rechargeable. The spectral chain could still only last for ten seconds after deployment, but it would now charge up another chain after a minute.

It was perfect for a protracted battle where Zac roved through the army in search of leaders. He'd take out one, and the charge would be ready by the time he reached his next target. He could even alternate between targeting the armies and leaders by using [Deathmark] or [Arbiter of the Abyss] while the other was on cooldown.

This time, Zac doubted he'd get the chance, though. He could feel how the air went out of the sprawling Kan'Tanu army after the proclamation spread through the ranks. It was like the whole battlefield had frozen, where most cultists tried to compute how their leader had fallen just a couple of minutes after the fight started. The only ones who didn't seem to care were the death guard behind him.

Their Heart Curses were going out of control, and they had lost the last of their rationality upon seeing their leader fall. They ignored the prompt as they pounced on Zac. He doubted they were even able to read the prompt in their current state, and not just because the writhing tendrils had emerged from many of their eye sockets.

The steel giant had already disappeared after its summoner died, and the berserker, with their feral instincts and ineffective curses, had no chance to withstand Zac's refined technique. The guard was cut down in seconds, leaving Zac alone in a field of Death. The next group of cultists was miles away. Everyone closer had either been killed by the metallic storm or the lasers. He could see more than a few cultists glance in his direction, but none attempted to rouse a response.

The world becoming neutral was a huge blow to any attempts at turning things around. For one, it was almost impossible to get any more reinforcements even if the World Lord had recalled the warriors from Kerkos VI's other battlefronts. It wasn't that the planet's Teleporters had been blocked, but the features most factions relied on in the System Era required the planet to actually be assigned to someone.

For instance, Zac's administrators had adjusted the Teleportation Arrays in his Empire to work dependent on an individual's rank and role. His soldiers could teleport to war bases they were assigned to, but civilians could not. Without these settings, people could only access arrays in their private list of teleporters. For most people, this was only their hometown and a few neighboring cities.

The world becoming neutral removed that option. Any reinforcements would have to travel the conventional ways or rely on others with teleportation access, just like Zac had used the Marshall Clan to clean out the incursions. But it was easier said than done to ferry a whole army that way.

The same was true for any off-world Kan'Tanu. They couldn't use their sect's credentials to teleport over. Only those with Kerkos VI on their list could come over, though Zac planned on jamming the Nexus Hubs before word spread.

There were various problems facing the locals beyond the matter of the teleporters. Whoever took over the role as leader of the planet's capital would be able to use the defenses already there, but they wouldn't have access to the town shop. Who'd even want to take on such a hopeless role, and who'd be foolish enough to follow them?

The Kan'Tanu were reeling from the prompt, but the Calamity Company had been waiting for this moment. The statues hidden behind the walls were activated, and twenty Miasmic glaives rose toward the sky. The Kan'Tanu's iron cage had been battered well beyond the initial breach while Zac dealt with the leader, and seeing the terrifying glaives was the straw that broke the camel's back.

The army began to unravel like Joanna had guessed, beginning with the vast number of reservists in the back lines. They ran for their lives, leaving the front lines to fend for themselves. The elites and leaders weren't much better off. With every additional deserter, it became harder to maintain control. The frontlines, who saw the miasmic blades fly toward them, were desperate to escape, even if it meant cutting a path through their compatriots.

Zac shook his head at seeing how quickly things fell apart. It really drove home that this planet wasn't some hidden base of Kan'Tanu elites. It was simply slightly richer than the average Early D-grade world at the edge of the Zurbor Sector. The World Lord should have kept his head down and leveraged his resources for steady victories in the Neutral Battlefronts, but getting his hands on the powerful Array Towers had made him greedy.

Speaking of, it would be a shame to leave such good things for the Kan'Tanu.

Three hours later, the situation had stabilized. The battle took longer than necessary since they'd opted to turtle up behind their protective barrier as long as possible. There was no point in sending your soldiers into the meatgrinder when you could pepper the Kan'Tanu with your cannons from a safe vantage. They even had cheaper munitions for this very purpose.

Only when they'd taken out all the frontline arrays and broken the defensive line did the soldiers of the Calamity Company flood out from their fortified position, and even the staunch of heart cultists panicked by that point. Millions of Kan'Tanu had fallen, but even more had run for the hills. Hunting down the escaping wasn't worth the time or effort, and they had instead chosen to stabilize their position.

Their losses were minimal, but it had proven harder than expected to capture the valuable Array Towers. It turned out they had self-destruction switches held by their controllers, and seven of the twelve towers had been blown up before they could be secured. Zac had managed to kill the Array Masters in one, Carl sniped another, while they were simply lucky with the last three. Their controllers had opted to flee without blowing up the towers.

The towers had since been defused, and Zac hoped for good news.

"Moving these towers comes with some risk," Ciru said. "They need to be dismantled, and the wrong method will lead to a critical failure."

As Zac had expected, the D-grade Array Towers weren't actually mobile. They had been set up over a month ago, according to their investigations, and their purpose was solely to trap unwitting enemies. This was the third time the World Lord of Kerkos VI had tried this scheme. He'd mostly sent reservists and dissidents into the Neutral Battlefronts, sacrificing them while lowering the guards of his enemies.

Zac almost felt like the System had taken offense to the shameless tactic and sent the Atwood Empire his way.

"Is there anything we can do to decrease the risk?"

"Well, getting the schematics would help," Ciru said. "We can also figure out some things by studying the rubble of the broken ones."

"I'll see what I can do," Zac said, though he wasn't hopeful.

It was highly unlikely a native had created these towers. Most likely, they'd been bought and shipped over by a local Array Master division. And while everyone technically was part of the same faction in the Zurbor Sector, there was no way the sellers would supply the schematics of their wares. Even unified regions generally had standard economies for most of the population.

Zac returned to the command within the temporary fort. It looked like a simplified version of the large battleroom back in Port Atwood, with screens and arrays displaying all kinds of data. Instead of the large map displaying the war progress across the Zecia sector, there was a holographic depiction of Kerkos VI in the middle.

Just like the map on Earth, it was something provided by the System. This one wasn't free, though. The map was generated by one of the cheaper purchases in the Merit Exchange, the Early D-grade [Elite War Mapper]. It was a one-time purchase of 10,000 Faction Merit and something Zac had chosen to splurge on for his Elite Divisions.

There was also a standard War Mapper for sale for only a tenth of the price, but it lacked the critical feature that had made Zac spring for the upgraded version. This map came with over two-dozen markings, all shining with different intensities. Each was a location that would award Faction Merit, and the intensity indicated the amount.

They would have discovered many of these locations by simply asking any random prisoner, but many of the best resources were often hidden and hoarded by a local faction or the World Lord themselves. But nothing could escape the System's gaze, and Zac expected the mapper to have paid for itself within two months.

The most radiant light was unsurprisingly the planet's capital, situated on the opposite side of the world. It would take over a month to travel there by foot and nine days using flying treasures. Zac obviously wouldn't wait that long, which was why there were twenty enormous metal cubes unfurling into Cosmic Vessels outside.

Zac had set a goal of one week for every campaign during the council, and that number wasn't picked at random. The Neutral Battlefronts would take two to four days, depending on your luck. Adding two days to unfurl their Cosmic Vessels and another two to package them, and you had a week.

You'd also need a day or two to extract all the planet's value and merit, but you weren't always this unlucky with spawning locations. The World Lord of Kerkos VI had picked the battlefront furthest from the capital for his ambushes, which meant most invading forces would be pressed to reach the capital and return within the two-week span of relative safety.

Other times, you'd find the capital within walking distance. After all, the capitals usually held the densest accumulation of citizens, which meant a few of the planet's Battlefront Arrays would be placed nearby. Those times, you could skip the Cosmic Vessels and finish the campaign a few days early. Few worlds were like Earth, where Port Atwood had a much smaller population than many of the cities on Pangea. His archipelago only had one on an island neighboring Port Atwood, which had become Battlefront One.

Skipping the Cosmic Vessels meant fewer resources would be harvested, but they were after merit rather than materials. And that was mostly accrued through the capital and the rare strategic locations such as curse farms. Everything else was just a bonus.

"Have you found any targets for those guys?" Zac asked as he walked over to Joanna.

"There are two promising mining towns within three day's journey," Joanna said. "Both are within the top twenty richest deposits, and there are several well-off families there. Even with the best stuff smuggled or hidden away, they should be able to extract a few hundred D-grade Nexus Coins from them."

"Alright, give them the coordinates," Zac nodded. "Remind them of our rules about our rules for sacking cities and have some observers join them."

"Of course," Joanna said.

"Found anything else?" Zac asked.

"I think we've figured out how that guy could afford such good toys," Petrus snorted. "That guy you split apart has extracted the cores in half of the mines."

"What?" Zac said with surprise. "He's cutting off his revenue stream for some quick merit?"

Spiritual Mines weren't like those of old Earth. In a sense, mining was closer to farming than the simple extraction of resources. As long as there was a core, more spiritual metals would grow over time, just like how new crystals slowly sprouted in his mines on Demon Island.

Any spiritual mine would have a Nexus Vein beneath, but that wasn't considered the core. It was rather the Natural Treasures that had been born in their depths. The vein provided the energy and unique treasures that elevated the environment to birth better materials. Zac still remembered how the cave surrounding the [Mind's Eye Agate] was crammed full of Supreme-quality Twilight Crystals.

If you removed the Treasures, the mine would degrade into something that only produced low-quality materials—essentially killing the goose that laid the eggs. If you were adventuring like Zac was in the Twilight Chasm, you wouldn't care, but any proper leader would leave the Natural Treasures inside their mines. You'd do anything in your power to nurture them and bolster their effect on the surroundings.

To think that the World Lord had extracted the lifeblood of his world. Zac could have understood it if he was facing destruction, but the planet was seemingly doing fine even before.

"The lord wasn't a local," Petrus explained. "He was sent over at the start of the war, according to our investigations. I guess he had connections with an Array Clan and hatched a scheme to rack up some merit. He likely didn't care about harming the resources at all. He'd be long gone before it became a problem. And in chaotic times like these, who's keeping track? He could point his fingers at us if it ever became a problem."

"Can't believe he's pawned off our reward," Zac snorted. "Well, there should still be a lot of good stuff remaining."

"What's your next move?" Petrus asked.

"Thirty hours after the ships are up and running. I want everything the World Lord hadn't gotten his hands on yet. Make it a competition. Those who extract the most wealth and merit will get a bonus," Zac said. "I'm joining the group heading to the capital."

"And then?"

"And then we go again. The next campaign starts in six days," Zac said as he turned toward the exit. "Welcome to our new normal."