Chapter 92: The Price of a King

Chapter 92: Chapter 92: The Price of a King

Azgalor walked toward them slowly. Under his Domain he didn’t need to hurry.

"Do you know why I came myself?" he said. "Not for gold. I have more gold than you can count. I came because the other Kings are watching. A King who lets a human empty his treasury is not a King for long. They will carve up my land before the year ends." He lifted the greatsword. "Unless I bring them your head. So you understand, Investor. This is not anger. This is business."

He swung.

Evelyn stepped in front of Donald and caught the flat of the blade on her crossed forearms. Holy fire flared around her arms, then shrank back. With her Speed cut in half, she was a fraction late. The edge slid along her right arm and opened a long cut from wrist to elbow.

The cut didn’t close.

[Status: Evelyn Vance — Bleeding. Regeneration disabled.]

She pushed the blade away with her shoulder and drove a punch into Azgalor’s knee. Divine Pulse turned the force into holy fire. The Demon King’s leg shifted two inches. That was all.

"Slow," Azgalor said. He backhanded her with his free hand, and she rolled across the glass and came up on one knee.

Donald stayed where he was. A new line had appeared in the corner of his vision.

[Stolen stats expire in: 02:10]

[Vessel damage: 31%. Healing disabled.]

Two minutes. After that he would be a Level 24 Investor with torn legs, standing in front of a Level 102 Demon King.

He looked at the black sky with [Valuation Eye].

[Domain: The Iron Sovereign’s Court]

[Fuel Source: Owner’s core.]

[Upkeep: 2% of owner’s maximum Mana per second.]

[Note: Owner’s chest armor is breached. Mana leak: 0.5% per second.]

He couldn’t buy the Domain. But it ran on Azgalor’s own mana, and it was expensive to keep running. If Azgalor spent a large amount of mana at once, the Domain would run short.

He needed Azgalor to throw his biggest attack.

"Sylvia," Donald said quietly over the comms. "What’s still in your shadow?"

Her voice came from somewhere under the glass. "Most of his vault. The void-steel pallets. Forty-one crates of condensed cores. Nine crates of abyssal herbs. The containment pedestal."

"Stay close to me. Don’t come up until I say."

Donald took two steps toward the Demon King and raised his voice so the wall could hear it.

"You said this was business. Fine. Here’s the balance sheet. Your treasury is sitting in her shadow right now. Your factory is empty. Your best Golems are puddles. Kill me, and you still go home broke." ℯⅇ𝙡.

Azgalor stopped walking.

For a second he said nothing. Then he raised the greatsword over his head with both hands.

The void energy along the blade thickened. The darkness around it pulled in until the sword looked like a hole in the air. The ground under Azgalor’s boots cracked in a wide ring.

[WARNING: Catastrophic Energy Spike Detected.]

[Enemy Skill: Sovereign’s Verdict (S-Rank Execution Strike)]

[Projected Path: Through Target ’Donald’, through Aegis Wards, into Genesis City Sector 2.]

The strike wasn’t aimed only at him. It would cut him in half and keep going, through the cracked shield and into the city behind it.

Donald raised his right hand.

"[Hostile Takeover]."

[Target Spell: Sovereign’s Verdict (S-Rank)]

[Appraised Value: 8,400,000 System Credits.]

[Current Balance: 350,000 System Credits.]

[Insufficient Funds.]

"Sylvia. Now."

The shadow under Donald’s feet spread out into a black pool. Sylvia came up beside him, holding the edge of it open with one hand.

"How much do you need?" she said.

"Everything that isn’t steel."

He pushed his left hand down into the shadow. His fingers hit the wooden edge of a crate. Then another.

"[Asset Liquidation]. All cores. All herbs."

Gold light ran down his arm into the dark.

[Liquidating: Condensed Abyssal Cores x41 crates — 7,650,000 Credits.]

[Liquidating: Abyssal Herbs x9 crates — 1,400,000 Credits.]

[Current Balance: 9,400,000 System Credits.]

Above them, Azgalor brought the sword down.

A black crescent came off the blade, as wide as the wall was tall, and flew straight at Donald.

"Buy it," Donald said.

[8,400,000 Credits Deducted.]

[Ownership Transferred.]

[Current Balance: 1,000,000 System Credits.]

The crescent stopped ten feet from his face. The black turned to gold, starting at the edges and moving inward.

Azgalor stared at it. He tried to pull it back. Nothing happened.

"I’m sending it back," Donald said. "Evie. His sword arm. Sylvia. The pallets."

Azgalor understood what was coming. He brought the greatsword up across his chest to block. That was the right move. The blade was near-indestructible. If the returning strike hit the sword, most of it would be wasted.

Sylvia sank, and came up again under Azgalor’s raised right elbow. She opened her shadow above the flat of his blade.

The first void-steel pallet dropped onto the sword. Ten tons. It broke apart on impact, the way she’d said it would. But it pushed the blade down four inches.

The second pallet fell a half second later, on the same spot. Then a third. Then a fourth.

The sword tip hit the glass.

Evelyn came in from the left. She didn’t try to punch through his armor. She wrapped both arms around his right wrist and locked them, putting all her weight on it with her wings beating backward. With half her Speed gone, she was still an S-Rank. For one second, the sword stayed down.

That left the crack in his chest plate open.

Donald pointed at it.

"Return to sender."

The gold crescent turned and flew back at twice the speed. It hit the crack Nyx had passed through and Evelyn had kicked open.

The chest plate broke apart. Black pieces of armor flew out in every direction. Azgalor was thrown backward forty yards, his boots tearing two trenches in the glass, and he landed on his back with a sound that shook the wall.

Evelyn let go of the wrist and dropped to the ground, panting.

Above them, the black sky split down the middle. Gray daylight came through the gap. Then the rest of the darkness pulled apart and was gone.

[Domain Collapsed: Owner’s Mana below sustain threshold.]

[Speed: 67 → 135]

[Mana: 68 → 136]

[Regeneration: Restored.]

The cut on Evelyn’s arm started closing at once. Donald felt the tearing in his legs slow down and stop.

On the wall, four hundred Awakeners were shouting.

Azgalor sat up.

His chest was open. Under the broken plate, his skin was dark gray, split in a wide line, and black blood ran out of it and hissed where it hit the glass. He put one hand over the wound and looked at it.

Then he stood.

"Eight million," he said. His voice was rougher now. "You spent eight million to wound me once." He picked up his greatsword. "How many more times can you afford it?"

Donald checked.

[Current Balance: 1,000,000 System Credits.]

[Stolen stats expire in: 00:20]

He didn’t answer.

Azgalor saw that and smiled.

Ten seconds later, the stolen stats ran out. Donald’s Strength fell from 145 back to 85, and the pain he had been holding back came in all at once. His knees hit the glass. His left arm shook inside the gauntlet. The chamber gauge read 12 out of 86.

Azgalor started walking toward him.

Evelyn stood up between them. Her arm had healed. Her hands were still empty.

"Get behind me," she said.

"Evie, he’ll—"

"Get behind me, Donald."

Holy fire came up around her fists again. It was small and unsteady. She had spent most of what she had holding the sword down.

Then Garrick’s voice came through the comms, rough and out of breath.

"Valkyrie. Look up."

Evelyn looked up.

Something was falling from the top of the wall, wrapped in burned cloth, trailing white light behind it. Aris had opened a gap in the shield above the northern gate, and Garrick was leaning out of it, red-faced, holding the mana-launcher he’d used to throw it.

"It’s not finished!" Garrick shouted. "The edge isn’t set! The grip is bare metal and it’ll burn your hand! But it won’t break!"

The cloth burned away as it fell.

Inside it was a long, plain blade of white metal, with no guard and no polish. It was still glowing from the forge.

Evelyn jumped, opened her wings, and caught it by the hilt.

The skin of her palm hissed. She didn’t let go.

She landed between Donald and the Demon King and pointed the unfinished sword at Azgalor’s open chest.

Azgalor stopped walking.