anovelconsole Chapter 531: Golden Authority
Chapter 531: Golden Authority
A while ago.
Water dripped from Xavier’s black hair as he looked in the mirror to inspect his physical return. He pulled on a fresh shirt, fastened his tactical belt, secured his weapons, and slung his heavy duffel bag over his shoulder.
He walked down the pristine, carpeted hallway and stopped at Klatos’s room. He hit the door chime. No response. He hit the panel again, driving his knuckle into the glass. But there was no response.
Xavier frowned, adjusting the strap of his bag. He assumed that he had gone down to the reception area.
Xavier took the grav-lift to the ground floor. The doors parted to reveal the main lobby.
Bodies littered the expensive marble floor. The concierge lay draped over the mahogany desk, her hand still clutching a datapad. Two security guards were piled near the entrance. Xavier drew his sidearm immediately, sweeping the corners of the massive room.
He looked for blast marks or deployed chemical canisters, but he found nothing. He walked over to the concierge and checked her pulse. She was completely dead. There were no wounds and absolutely no signs of a struggle.
He stepped through the sliding glass doors into the street. The entire commercial district of Helior Prime was a graveyard. Hover-transports had crashed into storefronts and light poles. Thousands of corpses choked the sidewalks. Civilians, merchants, and enforcers were slumped over benches and piled across the pavement.
A voice echoed behind him. It grated against his mind, a chaotic overlap of ancient syllables. Xavier pivoted, his weapon raised, scanning the empty street. There was no one there.
The voice spoke again. It was coming from his own duffel bag.
Xavier dropped the bag onto the pavement and unzipped the main compartment. The Black Covenant jacket rested inside. The dark fabric seemed to drink the light from the surrounding streetlamps.
The whispers crawled directly from the threads, demanding a host. Xavier pulled the jacket from the bag and slid his arms into the sleeves. The material locked onto his frame instantly, turning as black as a starless void.
He walked back into the hotel, bypassing the dead lobby, and took the grav-lift straight to the roof terrace.
The high-altitude wind whipped at the dark fabric of the jacket as Xavier stepped onto the landing pad.
A sleek corporate interceptor sat parked on the VIP landing pad. The pilot was slumped over the yoke, suffering the exact same fate as the rest of the district.
Xavier dragged the corpse out of the cockpit and threw it onto the concrete. Then, he climbed into the pilot’s seat, engaged the thrusters, and tore into the sky. He banked the craft hard, flying directly toward the orbital docks where Kylus’s ship was waiting.
The interceptor tore through the exosphere, shedding the planet’s gravity. Kylus’s ship hung in the orbital void ahead. Xavier didn’t hail the bridge, nor did he wait for the automated docking sequence. He slammed the aero-craft onto the outer hangar deck.
The landing struts shrieked against the metal grating, sparking violently as the small ship skidded to a halt.
He kicked the cockpit canopy open and dropped to the deck.
The hangar was dead quiet, but the ambient energy inside the vessel was completely wrong. A sickly violet illumination bled from the main corridor access.
The Black Covenant jacket clung to his shoulders. The dark fabric seemed to drink the violet light, reacting to the demonic magic saturating the ship. The whispers in the threads grew louder, a chorus of ancient violence eager to be unleashed.
But it was having no effect on Xavier.
Xavier walked toward the medical bay sector. The deck plates vibrated under his boots. A monstrous roar echoed down the hall, followed by the sickening crunch of metal and bone.
Someone was fighting.
He let the newly acquired golden authority bleed out from his core. The divine energy manifested instantly, taking the shape of glowing butterflies that swarmed ahead of him. They flooded the corridor, eating away the violet corruption coating the walls.
He followed the swarm straight into the carnage.
"Who gave you permission to touch my people?" Xavier asked.
The massive reptile froze. Its yellow eyes darted from Xavier’s face down to the dark fabric resting on his shoulders.
The monster stumbled backward, its heavy claws gouging deep, jagged lines into the metal deck. Shock warped its elongated snout, replacing the predatory sneer with genuine, unfiltered disbelief. It completely ignored Rin and Requiem bleeding out at its feet.
"The Black Covenant," the beast hissed. It pointed a trembling, scaled digit directly at Xavier’s chest. "How do you possess that artifact? That mantle belongs to the First Abyssal Commander. It is a sacred relic of the Demonic Society. You have absolutely no right to touch it, let alone wear it."
The reptile bared its rows of needle-like teeth. Venom dripped from its gums, sizzling as it ate through the floor plating.
"Strip it from your flesh this instant," the monster demanded, though its voice shook. "Take it off, or I will signal the vanguard fleet right now. I will drop another orbital lance directly onto this sector and vaporize every last one of the billions of civilians crawling on this pathetic rock, and—"
The creature choked on the threat. The words died in its throat.
The slit pupils in its yellow eyes expanded until they consumed the entire sclera. The beast took another panicked step backward, its heavy tail slamming into the ruined bulkhead. The horrific implication of its own statement had finally processed in its brain.
"Wait," the reptile roared, its voice cracking with sudden terror. "The lance already fired. We confirmed the strike. Helior Prime was glassed from orbit. How are you standing here?"
The beast threw its massive arms wide, gesturing frantically at the golden butterflies still swirling around Xavier’s boots. Kylus, coughing up blood nearby, stared at Xavier like he was looking at a ghost.
"Nothing survives a direct kinetic bombardment," the monster stammered, stepping back again. "Even the High Seraphs burn to ash. The Star-Forged Titans shatter into dust. The Void-Born Leviathans melt under that magnitude of destruction. It is physically impossible for you to be alive!"
Xavier tilted his head. He looked at the mangled bodies of his crew, at Reva pinned against the wall, at Arlen clutching her broken wrist. Then he looked back at the reptile.
"You talk too much for a dead lizard," Xavier said.
He took a single step forward. The metal deck beneath his boot instantly caved in, warped by an invisible, crushing weight.
"You destroyed my hotel room," Xavier continued, his voice void of any emotion. "You hurt my friends. And now you’re bleeding on my ship."
He raised his hand, pointing a single finger at the towering monstrosity.
"Give me one reason I shouldn’t turn your spine into a necklace."