The Red Gallery still smelled of blood. Chains clinked against pillars where bodies sagged, drained into irrelevance. Selena leaned lazily on the long black table, crimson lips still wet, her eyes glowing with the aftertaste of frenzy and restraint.
And then—
[Ding!]
The system's voice cut through the Gallery like a bell forced into bone. Not local. Not private. It vibrated through every wall, every soldier, every prisoner, every trembling feeder. It carried everywhere.
[Global Announcement.]
[Attention all Lords.]
[An Unknown Lord has exterminated five territories within a single cycle.]
[Classification: Aberrant. Title pending.]
The words rolled outward. The feeders in their barracks clutched one another, whispering. Ghouls froze, their ropes slack in their hands. Even Bone Dogs pricked their ears as if the sound were meat.
The wasteland itself listened.
Selena laughed softly, the sound warm and wrong. "Exterminated," she whispered, savoring the syllables like wine. "How polite."
Lucas stood beside her, face expressionless, hand on the table as though to steady the stone. His silence felt heavier than the announcement itself.
[Ding!]
[World Protocol: All active Lords notified.]
[Reputation Shift: Threat rating — Severe.]
[New global objective seeded: Locate and eliminate the Unknown Crypt Lord.]
Selena turned, blood still shining on her chin, and looked at Lucas with amused reverence. "The world just said your name without knowing it."
He did not answer. He watched the banners above them twitch, sigils curdling into sharper shapes. The Night Castle enjoyed the attention—it thrummed with approval, like a predator's chest vibrating at the smell of prey.
Far away, across wastelands and ruined valleys, other Lords heard the same voice.
In a shattered fortress carved from salt, a man with iron chains braided into his beard slammed his fist against his throne. "Five? In one cycle? Lies!" But his lieutenants whispered, and fear gnawed the edges of his arrogance.
In a marsh city where huts floated on oil-black water, a woman in green silk paused her weaving and smiled thinly. "Unknown Lord… interesting. Night favors secrets."
In the high mesas, where tents snapped beneath banners painted with suns, a youth barely sixteen clutched his sword tighter. His father was already dead. If five more territories could vanish in one cycle, how many cycles did he have left?
The world noticed. The world remembered. The world feared.
Inside the Night Castle, the feeders began to cry quietly in their barracks. Some wept in relief—they belonged already, perhaps safer than the unclaimed. Others wept in despair, realizing the leash around their throats had been braided into the spine of the world.
Selena paced along the table, barefoot, blood dripping onto the black stone in neat crescents. "They'll all look at the horizon now," she said, amused. "And when they see smoke, they'll whisper your name. 'Unknown Lord.'" She licked her lips. "I prefer King."
[Ding!]
[Mutation Update: Global Reputation integrated into Cruelty Index.]
[Effect: Fear propagation doubled; cooperation among enemy Lords ↑.]
[Risk escalation: Global Audit probability 63%.]
Lucas finally spoke. "Good."
Selena raised her eyebrows, smile widening. "Good?"
"Fear is faster than armies," he said. "Now the world will deliver itself."
She tilted her head, crimson eyes gleaming. "And when they deliver themselves, shall I set the table?"
His silence was answer enough.
The Command Link hummed. Vicarius, the Death Knight, stepped from shadow into the Gallery, his frost aura chilling the brazier flames until they sputtered. He kneeled, helm bowed. "The system's voice reached even the dead," he intoned. "The men in chains heard it and broke."
"Broke how?" Lucas asked.
"They whispered," Vicarius said. "Names not their own. Names that begged to be forgiven."
Selena clapped softly, delighted. "Delicious. Even their prayers are counterfeit."
Lucas gestured with one hand. "Tighten the walls. No rumor leaves except the one we want."
Vicarius inclined his head and dissolved back into shadow.
Outside the castle, on the ridges where the pyres of Ramius and Torrhen had burned, smoke still curled. Survivors crawled back to their villages with broken stories. They had seen a queen of blood and a lord with no face, had seen banners fed to fire, had heard screams turned into law.
Now, with the global announcement echoing in their ears, those stories grew teeth.
The Night Empire was not rumor anymore. It was fact.
[Ding!]
[World Event spawned: Alliance of Necessity.]
[Condition: Multiple Lords may declare war simultaneously on the Unknown.]
[Reward: Collective survival, tier upgrade tokens, systemic favor.]
Selena stretched like a satisfied predator, crimson eyes alight. "They're going to huddle like rats again," she purred. "And we will gut them in circles."
Lucas walked to the balcony overlooking the yard. The feeders knelt in uneven rows, guarded by Bone Dogs whose eyes burned faintly. Ghouls tightened chains, shadows deepened beneath the spires, and the castle itself seemed taller for being seen.
"They know us now," Lucas said quietly, though the castle carried the words everywhere. "That means they'll come. Not one. Not two. Many."
Selena joined him, pressing her bare shoulder lightly against his arm. "And when they come, my King, shall I turn the banquet into a war?"
He looked at her, at the blood still shining on her lips, at the hunger carefully folded into elegance. Then he looked at the feeders below, trembling in chains, their throats marked with crescents. Then at the banners above, sigils crawling like veins.
"They already made it a banquet," he said. "We'll simply serve more guests."
The system chimed once more, colder, sharper, like iron scraping on slate.
[Judicant proximity confirmed.
Audit threshold: 72%.
Warning: Observation has begun.]
Selena's laughter spilled into the night, silken and merciless. "Let the world watch, Lucas. We'll give them a spectacle worth remembering."