Chapter 91: THE LAST STAND OF PRESIDENT JAMES

The ancient, jagged wooden scabbard fell from President James’s trembling, sweat slicked fingers, clicking hollowly against the blood stained marble steps of the central dais. The sound echoed through the ruined Level 40 command chamber like the final tick of a dying clock.

In his right hand, James clutched the Relic of the Bloodless King an ancient, jagged obsidian dagger recovered from the uncharted depths of an SS Rank Gate twenty years prior. Its razor sharp, pitch black blade leaked a thick, viscous crimson mana that hissed like pure acid upon contact with the open air, corroding the surrounding polished stone into black, bubbling sludge in a matter of seconds. The toxic fumes curled upward, blackening the air and smelling of old copper and decay.

"Do you know what this truly is, Renan?!" James shrieked, his voice completely abandoning all remaining human dignity, authority, and composure. It echoed with a hysterical, frantic resonance that vibrated violently through the subterranean concrete ceiling and cracked the glass light fixtures above. "The World Federation called it an uncontainable bio hazard! They ordered it sealed beneath four hundred feet of solid lead plating and guarded by S Rank wards! But it is not a hazard... It is a key! A sacred key to absolute, divine evolution!"

Renan stood five paces down the marble steps, his dark Monarch blade held casually at his right side, its obsidian tip pointing lazily toward the blood soaked floorboards. His glowing golden eyes remained utterly emotionless, observing the chaotic, rapidly surging mana signature expanding around James’s shaking, pale physical body. The golden Monarch runes etched across Renan’s skin glowed with steady, unbothered power.

"A key used by a desperate, pathetic coward who finally realized his entire empire was built on sand, lies, and dead bodies," Renan said softly, his layered, double toned voice chilling the ambient temperature inside Level 40 to absolute zero.

"Silence! SILENCE, YOU CURSED MONSTER!" James roared, his dark eyes bulging wildly out of their sockets as thick, black, parasitical veins expanded across his neck, face, and forearms like crawling roots. "You built an army of dead puppets! You think you are a god among men?! I built the Hunter Association! I ruled this nation’s shadows! I decided who lived and who bled in the dungeons for three decades! If I am to fall today, I will drag you, your shadows, and this entire capital city into the dark abyss with me!"

PLUNGE!

With a sickening, wet crunch that echoed through the four hundred foot chamber, President James plunged the jagged obsidian blade of the ancient relic directly into his own sternum, driving it straight through his ribcage and into his heart!

"ACK !" James gasped violently, a thick fountain of black, corrupted blood spraying from his lips onto the golden crest of his tailored presidential suit.

[Warning: Class EX Relic Activation Detected!]

Item: ’Bloodless King’s Sacrificial Core’

Effect: Converts Host’s Life Force & Surrounding Blood into Unstable Ancient Mana

Target Entity: Mutating into Abyssal Relic Abomination!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A colossal, violent shockwave of crimson and black blood mana erupted from James’s torn chest, blowing back the air inside the four hundred foot command chamber with hurricane force! The massive mahogany conference table was instantly atomized into millions of flying splinters, and the heavy steel surveillance consoles along the walls buckled, cracked, and melted under the sudden, immense thermal feedback!

Shadow Commander Godfrey and Shadow Commander Katarina immediately stepped in front of Renan, raising their phantom adamantine shields in absolute unison to deflect the roaring crimson shockwave that threatened to tear the subterranean chamber apart.

CRACK CRUNCH SHRED!

President James’s physical body began to warp, snap, and expand in a horrific, unnatural display of biological mutation. His spine snapped backward with sickening metallic cracks as six extra jointed limbs made of hardened, obsidian bone burst wildly through his ribs, dripping with black fluid! His pale human skin tore wide open, replaced rapidly by thick, overlapping plates of crimson stained chitin armor that completely absorbed the ambient light in the room.

His human face dissolved entirely into a nightmare of torn flesh and bone, replaced by a jagged, split jawed maw dripping with dark corrosive acid, lined with four glowing, crimson compound eyes that burned with primordial, unadulterated madness!

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAR!

The mutated monster that was once President James unleashed a deafening, sonic roar that shattered the remaining reinforced concrete pillars supporting Level 40 of the subterranean bunker! Deep cracks spiderwebbed across the ceiling as multi ton blocks of stone rained down onto the marble floor below, sending clouds of thick dust into the air!

The entity’s physical structure had expanded to a towering twenty feet in height, radiating a chaotic, unstable mana signature that registered at a terrifying 38,000 Physical Stat Equivalent!

"MORTAL... FLESH... SHALL... BLEED!" the relic abomination gurgled, its layered, unnatural voice sounding like thousands of dying souls screaming in unison through its split, dripping jaw.

From the dark shadow pool swirling beneath Renan’s boots, Shadow General Ignis and Shadow General Alexander materialized instantly, their dark broadswords and phantom warhammers surging with midnight black dragon fire and kinetic mana.

"My Sovereign," General Ignis spoke, its phantom visor burning bright with black flames that consumed the falling stone dust. "Allow us to tear this pathetic abomination apart piece by piece."

Renan slowly raised his left hand, gesturing calmly for his generals to hold their positions. He stepped past Godfrey and Katarina, his leather boots clicking softly against the concrete debris.

His glowing golden eyes locked onto the twenty foot monster, the golden Monarch runes etched deep across his forearms, neck, and chest pulsing with an absolute, godlike density that completely neutralized and erased the oppressive crimson aura filling the room. The sheer weight of his 42,500 physical stat points created a zone of absolute silence around him, pressing the dust back down to the floor.

"Thirty eight thousand points of unstable, borrowed mana," Renan murmured, his double toned voice cutting through the monster’s deafening roaring like a frozen steel blade slicing through silk. "You sacrificed your humanity, James, only to become a larger, more fragile target."

Renan slowly drew his dark Monarch blade back, golden black Monarch energy swirling around the obsidian metal in a super compressed, roaring vortex that heated the air around him to a scorching temperature, turning the dripping acid on the floor to steam.

"Let me show you what true, absolute, and unyielding force looks like," Renan whispered.