Chapter 269 Who.

Chapter 269: 269 Who.

"Hey, boys!" Psyren cheered, popping up directly in front of her phone screen. She flashed a massive, manic grin into the lens. "It’s your absolute favorite babe, coming to you live with exclusive footage of my boss trying to aggressively conquer the world! You guys wanna see something crazy?"

She flipped the camera around, centering the lens squarely on me.

I flicked my wrists. The heavy iron bracers strapped beneath my suit sleeves instantly activated. Metallic plating cascaded outward in a rapid, fluid motion, heavy iron locking over my white undershirt and dark tie with a series of sharp, mechanical clicks. The heavy faceplate slid up from my collar, sealing shut over my head with a pressurized hiss.

Ah, livestreaming the literal apocalypse.

I really loved the future.

"Greetings, citizens of the world!" I boomed, letting the external speakers in my helmet amplify my voice into a terrifying, metallic echo that shook the bleachers. "Welcome to your doomsday! For tonight, the stars have aligned, the ritual is complete, and it is time to summon forth my army of the damned! Behold!"

I raised my gauntlet, revealing the Horadrix Cube. I fed a magnetic pulse into the hollow prop, letting it rise effortlessly into the air. It rotated slowly over my palm.

I actively manipulated the internal metal, causing the outer facets to shift and throb with an eerie, glowing light.

"Perhaps you fools thought me defeated when I failed to secure the Atoma Cell!" I projected to the camera. "But you could not be further from the truth!

"For I, the Iron Polaris, will always see my will done! Behold!" I gestured grandly around the gymnasium, giving Psyren the cue to pan the camera across the massive machinery and the glowing pentagram. "Through the ultimate fusion of forbidden sorcery and bleeding-edge science, my reign upon this world begins tonight! The demonic legions who will crown me ruler of this earth shall come forth! Now watch, people of Earth. Watch as I bring you your apocalypse!"

With a dramatic sweep of my arm, I sent the cube floating to the exact center of the runic designs on the floor. Which was, of course, utter theatrical bullshit. But it looked incredible on a screen.

I pointed a heavy iron finger at the hooded Steves. Right on cue, the clones began to chant in heavy, droning unison from their marks around the pentagram.

I didn’t understand a single syllable of the dead language, but the raw power behind the incantation was undeniable. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

The electric tension in the room thickened into a heavy buzz. As the Steves raised their arms, the chalk lines on the floor ignited with a blinding, blood-red light, casting the rest of the gym into a choking, oppressive shadow.

"Now," I hissed over my private comms.

"Powering up, baby!" Rhea cackled in my ear.

Heavy sparks spat from the ceiling. A blinding web of blue lightning violently arched between the massive Tesla coils, illuminating the gym in a jagged thunderstorm.

It wasn’t strictly necessary for the spell, but the harsh blue electricity contrasted the sickly red demonic light perfectly. It really sold the whole ’requiring massive industrial power’ angle.

Consistency in the details. That was the mark of a professional. And so was showmanship.

"And now!" I declared, extending both hands over the glowing rings. I used my magnetism to spin the cube rapidly in mid-air, its metallic facets shifting violently like a ghost was desperately trying to solve a Rubik’s cube. "Witness your end! Witness my... ascension!"

Right on cue, the center of the gymnasium roof violently detonated.

I swung around, my heavy iron cape swishing dramatically as chunks of shattered concrete and twisted rebar rained down onto the hardwood floor.

"Hold, villain!" Vanessa cried out, descending slowly through the jagged hole in the ceiling. Her cloak fluttered wildly around her, and brilliant sparks of pale magic flew off her fingers like glowing birds.

"Well, well, well," I sneered, crossing my armored arms in classic, unimpressed final-boss fashion. "The wondrous Hex has arrived to thwart my grand design one final time, hm? But you are a fool, little girl! You are too late! The ritual has already begun, and when it is finished, my demonic horde shall overrun this pathetic world!"

A sudden, blood-curdling wail erupted from the edge of the circle. One of the robed Steves violently dissolved into thin air.

Crimson light flashed violently from his eyes and mouth as his physical body was completely disintegrated into nothingness. The heavy, humming sound of the ritual immediately spiked in pitch.

"You are mad, Polaris!" Vanessa retorted, floating in a slow, dramatic orbit around me. "Utterly mad! And this will not go the way you think! You have made a tragic error! Your demonic horde will not come. Something far worse awaits behind that gate!"

A second Steve screamed, dissolving into a blinding flash of red light.

"What idiocy are you babbling about?" I demanded, watching a third Steve turn to ash. Then a fourth. The humming vibration of the spell was building so intensely I actually had to shout through my external speakers to be heard. "Do you dare—"

A massive blast of blinding heat erupted directly from the center of the pentagram.

I snapped my attention back to the floor. The hardwood was violently bubbling.

Thick, crimson light bled outward from the center of the circle, looking exactly like the floorboards had just been stabbed with a massive, invisible knife.

The air shimmered and rippled as the fabric of reality violently tore open, bellowing a wave of blistering fire into the gym. Horrific sounds rose from the glowing pit—a massive, overlapping chorus of howling wails and tormented screams.

Here we go.

I floated backward, putting a few yards between myself and the breach. I wasn’t entirely sure what Lilith had cooked up, but it was time to finally face Legion.

And he was massive.

A heavy, grotesque hand burst upward from the glowing ring, physically tearing itself free from the film of reality. Oh, fuck. He was one ugly son of a bitch. The flesh of his massive arm was composed entirely of warped, screaming human faces fused together.

More of him clawed out of the portal. A second arm. Then a third. A fourth massive limb reached out, aggressively dragging the hulking bulk of the demon onto the physical plane.

Rows of jagged teeth gnashed inside a head shaped like a long, mutated horse skull. Dozens of glowing, unholy eyes burned across his brow.

Tattered, leathery wings made of pink, flayed flesh snapped open from his impossibly skinny shoulders as he hauled himself completely out of the gateway.

"Who?" Legion howled.

God, his true voice was an absolute nightmare. It sounded like every single fused mouth across his body was weeping and whimpering underneath the rasping, violently aggressive bass of the demon’s primary vocal cords.

"Who has done this? Who has dared to summon me!"

Right. Here was the tricky part.

"Demon!" I shouted, cranking the volume on my helmet speakers to maximum. My voice thundered back at the grotesque monster. I leveled a heavy iron finger directly at his horse skull. "I have pulled you into this realm! I am your master! And you will obey my commands!"

Legion’s massive head snapped toward me. Just the physical weight of his gaze felt like I had opened a blast furnace. His dozens of burning eyes narrowed, then suddenly widened in absolute shock.

"You!" Legion snarled, the overlapping voices vibrating the remaining glass in the gym windows. "Polaris! You dare? You dare!"

"I do, demon! And you shall bow to your master!"

"Ready, boss," Rhea chimed brightly in my ear.

"Good," I hissed under my breath on the private channel. "Light this ugly fucker up."

A deafening, mechanical buzz erupted throughout the room. Legion’s horrific head twisted around, realization dawning on his grotesque features a split second before the heavy industrial electrodes fired. He snapped his gaze back to me, absolute fury burning in his eyes.

"You—"

The massive coils discharged. A blinding web of raw, high-voltage lightning violently arced across the gym, slamming directly into the demon.

Legion howled, rearing back in physical agony as millions of volts stabbed into his writhing form.

The light was so intensely bright I was forced to raise my armored forearm to shield my visor as the electric surge violently danced across his fleshy wings and screaming skin.

But peering from beneath my arm, I saw the monster react.

As the electricity cooked him, Legion’s skin began to rapidly harden.

The screaming faces fused into his arms went completely rigid, closing their mouths as they turned pitch black. Solid, jagged stone aggressively engulfed his entire body. The specific texture of the volcanic rock was terrifyingly familiar.

Oh, hell. It was the exact same dense, black granite that had made up his first puppet.

He retained the stolen powers of his previous hosts.

"Shit!"