The moon over Oakhaven was not the pale, silver orb the citizens were used to. Tonight, it was strangled by a sickly, violet haze. High atop the ramparts of the West Wall, the wind died. It didn't just stop blowing; it vanished, as if the atmosphere itself were being sucked into a vacuum.
Kaelen stood at his post. His armor, the Star-Guard Plate, felt heavier than usual. The violet veins of energy in his greaves pulsed in sync with a distant, rhythmic thudding that no human ear could hear.
Inside the palace, Empress Yue slept. She was dreaming of Phoenix fire and golden halls, unaware that three miles away, the grass was turning to black ash.
[System Alert: The Veil of the Abyss has been breached.]
[Enemy: The Legion of the Rusted Crown.]
[Commander: General Malphas (Soul-Severing Peak / Undead Divinity).]
Kaelen's [Eyes of Truth] flickered. The world turned into a grid of thermal signatures and power levels. On the horizon, a line of darkness was swallowing the forest. It wasn't an army of men; it was a tide of entropy. Ten thousand Shadow Husks, soldiers who had died in wars forgotten by time, marched with a single, unified mind.
General Malphas rode a steed made of congealed blood and bone. He held a scythe that groaned with the voices of a thousand trapped souls. He had destroyed seven kingdoms in the last century. To him, Oakhaven was a snack—a minor spiritual node to be harvested.
"A wall of stone and a single scrap of iron," Malphas rasped, his voice a vibration of the air itself. "Do they truly think a mortal city can bar the gate against the Abyss?"
He raised his scythe, preparing to unleash a Soul-Tearing Wave that would kill every living soul within the city walls in their sleep.
But then, the "scrap of iron" moved.
Kaelen didn't leap. He didn't fly. He simply stepped off the eighty-foot wall. He descended through the air as if gravity were a suggestion he chose to ignore. When his boots touched the soil, there was no sound. No dust rose.
[System Prompt: Overtime Mode Activated.]
Multiplier: x500 All Physical Laws.
Constraint: Maintain the "Silence of the Grave." Noise exceeding 20 decibels will result in a 50% XP penalty.
Malphas laughed—a dry, rattling sound. "You wish to be a hero, little guard? I shall make your armor my new throne."
The General signaled the charge. Five hundred Wraith-Knights spurred their skeletal mounts, charging at Kaelen with the speed of sound. Their lances were tipped with 'Null-Ice,' capable of freezing a soul on contact.
Kaelen reached into his [Sub-Space Inventory]. He pulled out a small, cracked glass sphere.
[Item: The Silence Orb (Broken Divine Grade)]
He crushed it in his palm.
Instantly, a five-mile dome of absolute sound-suppression slammed down over the battlefield. The roar of the charging horses, the clank of armor, the General's laughter—it all died. The world became a silent film, eerie and terrifying.
Kaelen moved.
To the Wraith-Knights, he became a flickering shadow. He didn't use a sword. He used the World-Eater Halberd, but he didn't swing it for the edge. He used the weight.
With his x500 Multiplier, Kaelen's physical mass was now equivalent to a small mountain range. Every time he swung the halberd, the displacement of air was so violent it created a Vacuum Blade.
He spun the halberd in a slow, graceful arc.
In the silence, the front line of the undead legion simply... disintegrated. They didn't fall; they were pulverized into fine grey dust by the sheer pressure of the air Kaelen was moving. One hundred knights vanished in a single breath.
General Malphas felt a coldness he hadn't known since he died. He realized his "Soul-Severing" cultivation was useless. The man in front of him wasn't using Qi. He wasn't using magic. He was using Physics as a Weapon.
Malphas lunged, his scythe glowing with a green, necrotic fire. He aimed for the slit in Kaelen's visor.
Kaelen didn't parry. He caught the blade of the scythe with two fingers.
The green fire touched the Star-Guard Plate and was instantly swallowed. The "Void-Iron" of the armor was hungry. It didn't just block the magic; it ate it.
Kaelen tightened his grip. Snap. The Divine-grade scythe shattered like cheap glass.
The General stared at his broken weapon. In the absolute silence, he tried to scream a curse. Kaelen stepped forward, placing a single, armored palm against Malphas's chest plate.
[Skill: Heart-Piercing Void]
Kaelen didn't punch. He simply released a micro-burst of gravity.
The General's chest collapsed inward. His ribs, his spine, and his very soul-core were crushed into a point the size of a grain of sand. The "undying" General imploded, his essence sucked into the vacuum Kaelen had created.
The Morning After
The legion, seeing their God-Commander erased by a palm-strike, broke. They tried to run back to the Abyss, but Kaelen was faster. He flicked his halberd, clearing the remaining nine thousand husks in a series of blurs that lasted less than a minute.
When the first rooster in Oakhaven crowed, the field was empty.
Kaelen stood in the center of the blackened grass. He wiped a speck of dust from his pauldron.
[Quest Complete: The Midnight Shift.]
[Experience Gained: 25,000,000.]
[Level Up: 99 -> 100.]
[Reward: Essence of the Abyss (Ingested by Armor).]
The sun began to rise, painting the sky in oranges and pinks. The West Gate creaked open, and a patrol of regular guards walked out, yawning.
"Quiet night, isn't it?" one guard said to Kaelen, patting his shoulder. "Glad nothing ever happens on the West Wall. Easiest job in the world, eh, Unit 72?"
Kaelen didn't answer. He simply resumed his post, his back as straight as a spear, watching the empty horizon where an empire had died just hours ago.