As my fingers brushed the cold, ancient leather of the Book of Ancient Kings, a violent tremor rocked the golden room. It wasn't a physical earthquake, but a mental one. A flood of dark, ancestral knowledge surged into my brain, showing me visions of a thousand fallen empires and the kings who ruled them from thrones of bone. The Merchant's mocking laughter echoed one last time, sounding like dry leaves skittering over a grave, before the golden walls began to peel away like burning parchment.
[Item: The Book of Ancient Kings has been consumed.] [The Sovereign's Authority has deepened.] [Shadow Soldiers are undergoing 'Great Evolution'...]
I opened my eyes, and the luxury of the golden vault was gone. I was back on the cracked marble steps of the City Bank, but the world had transformed in those few minutes. The purple haze of the First Wave had been swept away by a violent, freezing wind. The sky above was no longer just red; it was a bruised, angry crimson, and the numbers in the sky were flashing a terrifying, final zero.
[28:23:59:59] [The Second Wave: The Orc Invasion has begun.]
I felt a sudden, explosive growth in the mana pathways of my body. My five Shadow Gargoyles, which had been crouching at my feet, began to scream in a high-pitched, ghostly frequency. Their stone-like bodies melted into pure, liquid shadow before hardening into the shapes of men. They stood six feet tall, encased in midnight-black plate armor that seemed to absorb the dim light. They were no longer beasts; they were Shadow Knights, their blue fire eyes burning with the discipline of an elite guard.
But the real change was behind me. The Abyssal Colossus let out a roar that shattered the remaining glass in the bank's windows. Its smoke-body solidified into heavy, interlocking iron plates forged from the void. It grew to a staggering twelve feet, its muscles rippling like cooling lava.
[Shadow Titan -> Shadow Commander Tusk (Level 20)!]
"Tusk," I whispered, the name feeling right on my tongue. The giant knelt, the weight of his shadow-hammer cracking the concrete.
GROOOOAR!
The sound came from the north—the sound of metal being torn and screams being cut short. Three blocks away, a bus was sent tumbling through the air like a toy. The Orcs had arrived. These weren't mindless ghouls; they were walls of green muscle and hate, carrying notched axes that had already tasted human blood.
[New Quest: The First Wall.] [Objective: Save the 200 survivors trapped in the Central Shopping Mall.] [Reward: Skill Book - 'Sovereign's Call', 2000 Exp.]
"In my past life, this was where the city died," I said, my voice cold and echoing through the Monarch's Shroud. "Not this time."
"Nero! Scout the roof!" I commanded. The small dragon chirped, his scales now tipped with a silver frost, and he shot into the air like a black arrow.
"Tusk! Clear the path. Kill everything that isn't human."
Tusk didn't run; he leaped. The ground beneath the bank steps exploded as the Shadow Commander launched himself two stories into the air, landing in the middle of a street-clogging Orc squad. The sound was like a bomb going off. I watched as he swung his hammer, sending three Orcs flying through a brick wall in a spray of green gore.
I didn't wait to watch. I used Shadow Blink.
I appeared on the roof of a parked ambulance right in front of the Central Shopping Mall. A group of twelve Orcs were currently laughing, taking turns kicking at the reinforced glass doors while a crowd of terrified survivors screamed inside. One Orc, a scout with a jagged bone-dagger, raised his weapon to shatter the barrier and begin the slaughter.
"Wrong house, you green bastards," I said.
The Orc turned, but I was already moving. My Agility had skyrocketed with the level-up. I was a black blur. My Shadow-Slaying Blade hissed as it cut through the air, decapitating the scout before his brain could even register my presence.
[Exp +150]
The other eleven Orcs roared, their eyes turning blood-red as they charged. They were Level 12—elites compared to the ghouls.
"Domain of the Monarch!"
I slammed my foot onto the pavement. A circle of pitch-black energy ripped outward, covering the entire street. The ground turned into a bubbling sea of ink. The Orcs' heavy boots sank into the shadows as if they were walking through wet cement. Their movements slowed to a crawl.
"Kill them," I commanded.
My five Shadow Knights rose from the ink behind the Orcs. It wasn't a fight; it was an execution. The Knights moved with terrifying, silent precision, their greatswords slicing through iron breastplates as if they were made of tin. I danced through the chaos, my blade finding the gaps in their neck guards and the slits in their helmets.
Rip. Slash. Thud.
In sixty seconds, the street was silent again, littered with the massive, cooling bodies of the invaders.
"Arise," I said, reaching out my hand toward the corpses.
The shadows of the dead Orcs began to stretch and twist, standing up like puppets on a string. Slowly, eleven new shadow soldiers rose—slightly smaller than Tusk, but possessing all the strength of the Orcs they once were.
[Shadow Orcs (Level 12) added to the army.] [Shadow Army: 17/50]
I walked up to the glass doors. The survivors inside—mothers holding children, office workers in torn suits—were staring at me in total horror. They didn't see a savior. They saw a boy in a cloak of feathers, standing in a lake of black smoke, surrounded by armored demons.
"The basement. North wing. Go now and don't come out until the screams stop," I said, my silver eyes flashing with a cold light.
I didn't wait for them to respond. I turned toward the center of the mall, where the floor was vibrating. I could feel a much larger, more violent mana signature pulsing from the food court. The Orc Chieftain was there, and he was currently tearing through the ceiling to get to the main group of survivors.
"Tusk! With me!"
The giant shadow smashed through the mall's main entrance, clearing a path of twisted metal and glass.
"Let's go, Nero," I said, my grip tightening on my sword. "I'm not leaving this mall without a new General."