The Sky Was Never Out of Range

KRA-THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

The deafening roar didn't belong on this world.

It sounded exactly like a dying star violently collapsing in on itself.

The sheer physical recoil was catastrophic.

The brutal backlash didn't just push Kael backward. It slammed his massive frame straight down into the floor with the crushing, inescapable weight of a falling mountain.

CRUNCH.

The solid concrete roof of the eighty-story skyscraper instantly shattered.

It violently cratered three feet deep right beneath Kael's heavy body.

The thick metal brace on his right shoulder completely exploded, sending jagged shards of iron flying blindly into the freezing air.

His healing collarbone snapped again with a sickening, brutal pop.

But the bullet had left the heavy barrel.

The heavy star-metal slug was entirely swallowed in a blazing shroud of dark matter and pure cosmic energy.

It shot perfectly straight up into the boiling, toxic clouds.

It moved so unbelievably fast that it didn't just burn the smog. It violently ripped a massive, screaming tunnel of empty vacuum straight through the sky.

A colossal, spiraling vortex of displaced clouds was torn wide open over the dead city.

For a single, terrifying fraction of a second, the pitch-black void of deep space was entirely visible from the ruined streets below.

The heavy slug pierced the very edge of the world.

It hung in the terrifying, dead silence of the stars for one perfect heartbeat.

And then, guided by the flawless, inescapable will of the cosmos, it began its terrifying descent.

✦ ✦ ✦

Fifty miles away.

Commander Jax could finally see the towering, pristine white walls of the massive Inner City looming in the distance.

He had actually survived.

He was tearing across the cracked, abandoned highway at terrifying speeds. The freezing wind was a deafening roar against his mechanical ears.

He frantically tapped the side of his heavy helmet, opening a desperate, direct line to his Guildmaster.

"Jax!" Marcus Thorne's frantic, terrified voice instantly answered.

"Tell me you have his head! Tell me the rat is dead!"

Jax swallowed hard. His artificial throat clicked heavily with pure fear.

"Sir," Jax shouted over the roaring hover-engines.

"It is an absolute slaughter. He is not human anymore. He wiped out the entire heavy unit in minutes. He is shooting straight through solid buildings."

"WHAT?!" Marcus shrieked. His voice cracked into a pathetic, high-pitched wail.

"You had fifty of my absolute best men! You had the heavy armor! How is he still breathing?!"

"I am falling back to the gates, sir," Jax reported.

His glowing digital eyes locked onto the massive steel doors of the safe zone, now only a single mile away.

"We need to wake the entire Guild. We need the heavy wall cannons. The sector is completely lost. He is an absolute nightmare, Marcus. We cannot—"

Jax never finished his sentence.

This text was taken from NovelPhoenix. Help the author by reading the original version there.

He didn't hear the heavy bullet. He didn't even see the flash of light.

The blazing slug, dropping straight down from the pitch-black edge of space at terrifying, impossible speeds, violently pierced the sky directly above his head.

It struck Commander Jax perfectly, flawlessly, in the absolute dead center of his reinforced metal skull.

The brutal, catastrophic impact completely defied every single law of reality.

FTHOOOOOOOM.

The sheer power of the blow hit the earth with the absolute wrath of a falling star.

Jax's metal head, his heavy armored chest, his speeding machine, and the entire stretch of cracked highway were instantly, violently erased from existence.

They were turned straight from solid steel and bone into a blinding, expanding cloud of roaring white fire.

The brutal shockwave hit the ground a fraction of a breath later.

A massive, blinding dome of pure, unadulterated force erupted outward. It flattened rusted cars, completely shattered the earth, and carved a massive, perfectly round, glowing crater directly into the road.

Boiling rock bubbled and hissed where the highway used to be.

Through the open radio line, Marcus Thorne heard the deafening, world-shattering roar of the impact, followed immediately by the cold, heavy weight of absolute silence.

"Jax?!" Marcus screamed into the receiver.

He paced his ruined office in a blind, sweating panic.

"JAX! SPEAK TO ME! WHAT HAPPENED?!"

There was only dead, empty air.

His elite hunters were gone. Every single one of them.

✦ ✦ ✦

Fifty miles away, on the ruined, heavily cratered roof of the towering skyscraper.

The howling wind slowly rushed in to fill the massive, screaming hole Kael had just torn straight through the heavens.

Kaelen Cross lay flat in the dead center of the crushed stone. His right arm was completely dead, his heavy shoulder shattered, and his pale face was completely covered in his own blood.

He slowly pushed his massive frame up using only his left arm.

He didn't wince. He didn't let out a single groan of pain.

He calmly reached over with his good hand, firmly grabbed his limp right arm, and violently jerked his broken shoulder upward.

CRACK.

The heavy bones ground sickeningly together, forcing the ruined joint back into place through sheer, stubborn willpower.

He slowly rolled his thick neck. His spine popped loudly in the freezing, dead air.

He looked up at the glowing platinum numbers hovering in his vision.

[Current Viewers: 1,602,400]

He looked at the cosmic chat box.

It was completely, terrifyingly frozen.

Over one and a half million immortal beings were completely, utterly speechless.

They had just watched a mortal man with no magic drop a falling star out of the dead sky, just to execute a fleeing coward fifty miles away.

Kael stared directly into the invisible eyes of the watching universe.

His silver gaze was terrifyingly calm.

"Target erased," Kael rasped, casually wiping the thick blood from his chin.

The chat instantly, violently exploded.

[User Zark: HE IS NOT REAL! HE IS LITERALLY NOT REAL! I AM TEARING MY OWN HAIR OUT! 😭🔥]

[User BloodGod: THE HEAVENS WEEP BLOOD FOR THE SNIPER GOD! ALL HAIL THE KING OF DEATH! 🩸👑]

[User Weapons_Nut_44: THE MATH! THE ABSOLUTE, FLAWLESS MATH! HE ACTUALLY FACTORED IN THE SPIN OF THE PLANET AND THE WEIGHT OF THE CLOUDS! I AM CRYING ACTUAL TEARS! 🤖😭]

[User Succubus_Envy_99: He just violently snapped his own shoulder back into place and wiped the blood off his face like it was nothing... God, if he can hit a target perfectly from outer space, imagine what those hands can do... I need a freezing shower immediately. 😩💦]

[User Galactic_Simp_42: I WOULD LET HIM DROP A METEOR ON ME! STEP ON MY THROAT, REAPER! BARK BARK BARK! 🐕🛐]

[User Point_Gamble_God: THE PARLAY HIT! THE IMPOSSIBLE ORBITAL DROP PARLAY ACTUALLY HIT! I AM BUYING THREE PRIVATE PLANETS! THANK YOU SNIPER DADDY! 💸📈]

[User S-Rank_Hater: BRO LITERALLY USED THE ENTIRE SKY FOR AN AIMBOT. VANGUARD COMMAND IS CURRENTLY SOILED IN THEIR EXPENSIVE PANTS! HOLD THIS MASSIVE L! 🤣👇]

[SYSTEM ALERT: MASSIVE DONATION TSUNAMI INITIATED!]

[Empress Xylar (User: DragonBoredom) has donated 100,000 Cosmic Credits!]

[Constellation Mecha-King has donated 50,000 Cosmic Credits!]

[User BloodGod has donated 75,000 Cosmic Credits!]

[Anonymous Entities have donated 120,000 Cosmic Credits!]

The glowing golden numbers rained down like a digital monsoon.

It was a blinding waterfall of pure, unrestricted wealth that completely flooded Kael's vision, turning the freezing, dark night into a glittering sea of gold.

[Total Cosmic Credits: 581,500]

Over half a million credits.

He wasn't just wealthy. He was currently holding more raw purchasing power than entire planetary empires.

Vespera rose slowly from the crushed stone.

Her dark, leathery wings folded elegantly against her pale back.

She stared down at Kael. Her glowing red eyes were entirely dilated, completely consumed by the sheer, godlike scale of his violence.

Her chest heaved heavily in the freezing wind.

She knelt back down, her flawless, pale hands reaching out to gently frame his heavily scarred, blood-soaked face.

She didn't mock him. She didn't offer a single sarcastic tease.

She simply leaned in and pressed her freezing, impossibly soft lips intensely against his. She kissed him deeply in the bitter, toxic rain.

The kiss tasted of hot copper, raw magic, and absolute, world-shattering victory.

She slowly pulled back. Her demonic eyes were shining with pure, undeniable devotion.

"I have never in my entire immortal life been so entertained," Vespera whispered warmly.

Her thumb gently wiped a heavy streak of blood from his cheek.

Kael didn't blush. He didn't pull away from the monster.

He just raised his good hand to his ear, opening the secure radio line back to the dark subway below.

"Nyx. Sera. We are done here. Pack it up," Kael ordered.

His gravelly voice was perfectly steady, completely hiding the agonizing pain of his shattered bones.

"The Vanguard is entirely blind. We own the night."

He stood up slowly, grabbing the heavy, smoking barrel of his legendary weapon. He slung the massive gun securely over his good shoulder.

The hunt was officially over.

It was time to build an empire.