The Forbidden Forest of Grendel was not a place of trees and leaves. It was a cathedral of thorns, where the roots drank the souls of those who lost their way. It was the perfect place for an execution.
Kian stood in a clearing, the silver runes on his skin pulsing with a rhythmic, predator-like glow. Beside him, Vara held her new obsidian daggers, her violet eyes scanning the canopy. Behind them, a pathetic trail of 'Battery-Slaves'—including the hollowed-out Lyra—stumbled in a trance, their life-force acting as a beacon.
"They are here, Master," Vara whispered, her shadow elongating and sharpening like a blade.
From the mist, they emerged. Not one, not two, but a battalion of One Hundred Paladins of the Silver Order. These weren't the bloated nobles of the city; these were the 'Iron-Souls,' each with a weight of 500 or more. At their head stood a man clad in armor made from dragon-bone: General Magnus, the 'Mountain-Crusher.'
"Kian of the Void," Magnus's voice was a tectonic rumble. "You have turned our capital into a graveyard. You have consumed the soul of an Inquisitor. For these sins, there is no trial. Only erasure."
Magnus raised his hand, and the hundred Paladins moved in perfect unison. Their 100 souls began to resonate, creating a 'Great Soul-Net'—a golden canopy of energy that locked the space around the forest. No teleportation. No escape. The pressure was so immense that the trees around Kian began to turn into dust.
"You brought a hundred men to kill one Zero?" Kian asked, his voice disturbingly calm. He didn't raise his Hammer. He just looked at the ground.
"I brought a hundred men to ensure not a single atom of your existence remains," Magnus roared. "ARCHERS! DIVINE BOLTS, FIRE!"
A thousand arrows of pure soul-light rained down, turning the sky into a curtain of gold. Each arrow was designed to 'anchor' a soul to the physical plane so it could be tortured. But as the arrows reached Kian's 'Void-Zone,' they began to slow down. They didn't hit him; they began to orbit him, caught in a gravitational pull that shouldn't exist.
"You think weight is power," Kian said, stepping forward. The silver runes on his chest flared with an abyssal violet light. "But the heavier you are, the faster you sink into the dark."
[System Notification: Resonance Level – OVERLOAD.]
[Hidden Skill Activated: DECONSTRUCTION FIELD.]
Kian slammed his Hammer into the earth. But this time, he didn't strike a monster. He struck the Roots of the Forbidden Forest. The forest, which had consumed thousands of souls over centuries, was a 'Battery' far larger than any Inquisitor.
"FORGE: THE LEGION OF THE DAMNED!"
The ground exploded. But it wasn't dirt that flew into the air; it was the 'Shadow-Essence' of every king, warrior, and thief who had ever died in Grendel. The 100 Paladins gasped as their 'Great Soul-Net' was suddenly corrupted. The golden light turned into a sickly, necrotic purple.
"What… what is this?" Magnus stammered, his dragon-bone armor cracking. "You're using the forest's dead? That's forbidden! That's Necromancy!"
"It's not Necromancy, Magnus," Kian said, his hair now a halo of spectral flames. "It's Mass-Forging. I'm not raising the dead. I'm turning your 'Weights' into my 'Tools'."
The arrows of light that were orbiting Kian suddenly reversed direction. Powered by the forest's ancient spite, they flew back at the Paladins. But they didn't kill them. As each arrow pierced an 'Iron-Soul,' the Paladin's body began to 'melt' and reshape. Their armor fused with their bones, and their screams were silenced as their souls were rewritten.
[FORGING PROGRESS: 1%... 25%... 60%...]
[Result: 100 'Void-Knights' created.]
In less than a minute, the battalion of heroes had vanished. In their place stood a hundred silent, towering figures in obsidian plate-armor, their eyes glowing with the same cold, blue fire as Kian's.
General Magnus was the only one left standing. He looked at his men—his brothers—who were now kneeling before the 'Zero' they had come to execute.
"Monster…" Magnus whispered, his spirit breaking. "You are the end of everything."
"No," Kian said, walking toward him, the Hammer dragging behind him, carving a deep trench in the soul-soaked earth. "I am just the beginning of the 'One'."
Kian grabbed Magnus by the throat. He didn't kill him. He looked up at the sky, where the ten suns of the High Council were glowing brighter than ever, preparing their ultimate strike from the Heavens.
"Watch closely, Magnus," Kian said, his voice echoing across the continent. "I'm about to show your Kings how to forge a real God."
Kian raised his Hammer high. The entire Forbidden Forest began to shrink, its thousands of trees and millions of souls being sucked into the Hammer's head. The weapon grew until it blotted out the moon.
[END OF CHAPTER 7]