Chapter 130: A Million Life’s Lost

A young girl trembled as the cold barrel of a blaster pressed hard against her temple.

?Blood trickled down her forehead, running past her eyebrow before dripping onto her pale cheek. Her clothes were torn, and her small hands shook uncontrollably as she struggled to hold back her tears.

?The building around her had been transformed into a battlefield.

?Broken furniture littered the floor, shattered windows allowed the distant sounds of gunfire to filter inside, and several unconscious mercenaries lay scattered across the lobby. Outside, the sounds of Dominion forces securing the surrounding streets grew increasingly distant.

?The man holding the girl glanced frantically toward the entrance, his breathing ragged beneath his skull mask.

?"DON’T MOVE!"

?His shout echoed through the hollow building.

?The Dominion soldiers positioned beyond the entrance immediately halted. Several raised their weapons, but none dared to fire.

?The man tightened his grip on the girl’s shoulder, pressing the blaster harder against her head.

?"I SAID DON’T MOVE! ANYONE TAKES ANOTHER STEP, AND I’LL BLOW HER BRAINS OUT!"

?His gaze darted between the soldiers, searching for any sign of hesitation he could exploit.

?He was the last member of the Crimson Reckoning remaining inside the building.

?His comrades had already been captured after the Dominion forces overwhelmed their defenses. Some had surrendered, others had been subdued after fierce resistance, and a few had attempted to escape before being apprehended.

?He alone had managed to evade capture, until now.

?Unfortunately, his luck had run out when the soldiers cornered him inside the lobby. With no escape route and no allies left to support him, he had seized the nearest hostage as a final, desperate measure.

?Now, he intended to use her to bargain for his freedom.

?"Listen carefully!" he shouted, his voice cracking. "You’re going to lower your weapons and let me walk out of here! I’ll release the girl once I’m safely away from this place!"

?The soldiers exchanged uneasy glances.

?At the center of the formation stood the captain responsible for the operation. His expression remained stern, but his eyes betrayed the severe dilemma confronting him.

?The hostage-taker was cornered, yet the girl stood directly in front of him. A poorly aimed shot could kill her, but allowing the criminal to escape could endanger countless other civilians.

?Neither option was acceptable.

?"Captain!" An officer hurried toward him, his face tense. "We’ve assessed the surrounding buildings, but we can’t establish a clean line of sight for the snipers. The target keeps moving, and the girl is directly in front of him. There’s a serious risk of hitting her if they fire."

?The captain closed his eyes briefly. "Understood."

?He looked toward the entrance again. The man inside was becoming increasingly agitated, his movements erratic, and his finger resting dangerously close to the blaster’s trigger.

?They were running out of time.

?The captain drew a slow breath, preparing to issue his next order.

?Before he could speak, something unexpected happened.

?The girl suddenly twisted out of the man’s grip and ran.

?For a brief moment, nobody moved. The girl stumbled through the shattered entrance, her small legs carrying her toward the waiting soldiers.

?The Dominion soldiers immediately rushed into the building, weapons raised as they advanced toward the hostage-taker, and then they froze.

?The man stood in the middle of the lobby, his blaster still raised.

?A perfectly round hole had appeared in the center of his forehead.

?Crimson blood trickled down his face before his knees buckled and his body collapsed onto the floor.

?The captain stared at the corpse in complete silence.

?The officer beside him looked equally stunned. Neither had heard a gunshot. Neither had seen anyone fire.

?And yet, the hostage-taker was dead.

?The captain slowly lowered his weapon before turning toward the girl.

?"Secure the building," he ordered after a heavy pause. "Get the girl medical attention, then investigate what happened here."

?His gaze lingered on the corpse.

’?What the hell killed him?’

?He had no answer.

?And he wasn’t the only one.

?Across Planet Roca, the exact same phenomenon was unfolding on an astonishing scale.

?At a residential complex, a mercenary attempting to flee through a maintenance corridor suddenly collapsed, a small hole appearing in the side of his head.

?At a shopping mall, three members of the Crimson Reckoning were preparing to execute a group of hostages when tiny spatial portals materialized beside them.

Before they could react, invisible projectiles passed through their skulls, killing them instantly.

?At a transport hub, a squad of mercenaries abandoned their positions and attempted to escape through a service tunnel. They had barely made it halfway when several portals appeared around them.

?One after another, they fell.

?Some were running. Some were fighting. A few were attempting to surrender.

?It made no difference.

?Wherever the marked members of the Crimson Reckoning appeared, spatial portals no larger than a gun barrel materialized beside them.

The portals opened without warning, delivered their deadly payload, and vanished before anyone nearby could comprehend what had happened.

?The attacks were instantaneous. There were no visible projectiles to track, no muzzle flashes to identify, and no meaningful opportunity to react.

?Even experienced Evolvers found themselves helpless against the phenomenon. Some tried to erect defensive barriers, only for the attacks to strike before their abilities could activate.

Others attempted to evade, but their movements were far too slow to escape a projectile that emerged directly beside them.

?The Dominion forces could only watch as the attackers fell like cut wheat.

?At first, they suspected an unknown high-tier Evolver had joined the battle. Then the reports began arriving, one location, ten locations, a hundred, a thousand. The number continued climbing exponentially.

?Within moments, the Crimson Reckoning’s remaining forces were being systematically purged across the planet.

?Hostile lives were extinguished by the thousands. The vast majority belonged to the mercenaries who had participated in the operation, though many were the organization’s core operatives.

Regardless of rank or location, anyone marked by the Kraken and identified as a hostile target was met with swift, absolute execution.

?The Dominion forces had never witnessed anything quite like it. What had begun as a desperate struggle to liberate hundreds of thousands of occupied locations had transformed into a planet-wide slaughter.

?And far above Planet Roca, the being responsible for the execution regarded its work with quiet satisfaction.

?The Kraken’s enormous body floated in the vacuum of space, its countless tentacles slowly lowering as the last of its spatial portals dissolved into nothingness.

....

[Weekly Goals]

200 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter

50 Golden Tickets = 1 Bonus Chapter