Dungeon Corpse Stacker: I Absorb Everything to Become Ominous Monarch

The mountain air inside the Blackwood canyon grew suffocatingly dense. The sheer physical presence of the five-hundred-meter Shadow Dragon Leviathan, hovering directly over the inner courtyard of the Iron Aegis Fortress, generated a kinetic pressure so immense that the tungsten parapets groaned and cracked under the weight of the atmosphere alone.

Down in the courtyard, seven hundred and fifty surviving mercenaries backed away toward the main keep, their hands trembling violently around their spell-rifles and heavy shields. The sight of five thousand dark Shadow Knights and bone-armored Abyssal Beasts lining the high granite cliffs surrounding their fortress completely destroyed their will to fight.

”Look at the sky... that dragon is five hundred meters long...”

”We can’t fight that! Our anti-mana barrier is dead!”

”Drop your weapons! I’m not dying for Carlos’s mining empire!”

Dozens of mercenaries threw down their enchanted spears and adamantite swords, falling to their knees in utter terror as the glowing golden eyes of the shadow army locked onto them from every direction.

BOOM!

The heavy double doors of the inner keep were thrown open as Guild Master Carlos strode into the courtyard. His SS-Rank Granite Titan Armor flared with a violent, dark brown earth-element aura, and in his right hand he held a massive, four-hundred-pound adamantite war-hammer inscribed with ancient defense runes. Beside him, Vice-Guild Master Derek held his ruby staff, his face pale as death.

”Stand up, you coward scum!” Carlos roared, his gravelly voice echoing through the courtyard as he struck a kneeling mercenary with the back of his heavy gauntlet, launching the man twenty feet into the stone wall. ”We are the Iron Aegis Guild! We control the mines! We control the wealth of Sektor 2! A single rogue Hunter and his summon monsters will not dictate our fate!”

High above the courtyard, standing on the snout of the Shadow Dragon, Renan looked down at Carlos’s desperate display of authority with cold, quiet amusement.

”Carlos,” Renan’s layered, double-toned voice reverberated through the canyon, cutting through the howling mountain wind and the blaring sirens. ”You built your fortune by enslaving low-rank miners and selling black-market mana crystals to the Association’s corrupt directors.”

Renan took a single step off the dragon’s head, floating downward through the empty air like a descending dark deity. The black Monarch coat wrapped around his shoulders billowed gracefully as his boots settled lightly onto the shattered cobblestones of the courtyard, thirty paces from Carlos.

”Your fortress is breached. Your power grid is dead. Your men have thrown down their steel,” Renan said softly, his golden eyes burning with predatory intensity. ”Surrender your guild’s master vault and your stat core, or be extracted into the foundation of this mountain.”

Carlos’s face contorted into a mask of pure, bloodthirsty rage. ”Surrender to an outcast?! I spent twenty years building this guild with my own blood! I am an S-Rank Heavy Destroyer!”

Carlos slammed his massive adamantite war-hammer onto the courtyard floorboards.

[Skill Activated: ’Granite Titan Domain’ (Rank-S)]

Target Area: Iron Aegis Fortress Courtyard

Effect: Encases User in 50 Tons of Spell-Reinforced Granite Armor & Increases Physical Strength by 300%

BOOOOOOM!

The solid granite bedrock beneath the courtyard erupted upward. Tens of tons of dense mountain rock fused around Carlos’s massive frame, transforming him into a fifteen-foot-tall monolithic stone titan. The adamantite war-hammer in his hands grew to the size of a battering ram, radiating an immense gravitational force that cracked the surrounding buildings.

”Die, Sovereign!” the Stone Titan Carlos bellowed, raising his colossal hammer and charging forward with speed that belied his massive size, bringing the hammer down straight toward Renan’s head with mountain-shattering momentum!

Renan didn’t move a single inch. He didn’t draw a blade, nor did he deploy the Aegis of the Fallen Monarch.

Instead, Renan simply raised his left hand, extending a single gloved index finger directly toward the descending four-hundred-pound adamantite hammer.

[Skill Activated: ’Sovereign’s Gravitational Absolute’]

Target: Guild Master Carlos (Granite Titan Form)

Vector Force Applied: 100% Kinetic Neutralization

BANG!

The colossal, fifteen-foot stone titan came to a complete, dead halt in mid-air. The massive adamantite war-hammer, carrying enough kinetic energy to level a skyscraper, was stopped dead by the tip of Renan’s gloved finger. A massive sonic shockwave blasted outward, blowing away the surrounding rubble and shattering every glass window in the inner keep, but Renan’s body remained completely unmoved, his feet planted firmly on the stone floor.

”W... What?!” Carlos’s muffled, terrified voice echoed from deep within the granite armor. ”My attack... stopped by one finger?!”

”Your strength is built on rock and iron,” Renan whispered, his golden eyes glowing through the dark gap between them. ”Mine is built on the absolute authority of the Monarch.”

Renan closed his raised finger into a tight fist.

[Skill Activated: ’Vector Shatter - Gravity Compression’]

CRACK-CRACK-KABOOM!

The fifteen-foot Granite Titan armor surrounding Carlos violently imploded inward! The fifty tons of spell-reinforced rock shattered into fine, powder-like dust under the intense gravitational pressure. Carlos was thrown backward, crashing through three stone pillars of the inner keep before slamming heavily into the far wall, spitting blood as his SS-Rank adamantite armor cracked open like a dry shell.

”Argh! Cough!” Carlos gasped, slumping onto his knees, his war-hammer lying shattered on the floor beside him. He looked up through his blood-filled eyes at Renan, who was walking slowly toward him through the dust clouds.

Beside the ruined wall, Vice-Guild Master Derek dropped his ruby staff to the floor, falling onto his hands and knees in complete submission. ”Don’t kill me! Please! I’ll give you the keys to the master vault! I’ll give you the ledger of every corrupted Director in Sector 2!”

Renan stopped five paces from the broken S-Rank Heavy Destroyer. He ignored Derek entirely, looking down at Carlos with cold, unyielding judgment.

”You called yourself a destroyer,” Renan said, raising his palm above Carlos’s head as black miasma began to ooze from his fingertips. ”Now, become the shield that protects my expansion.”

”No... wait! I have three billion in the vault—” Carlos choked out, panic seizing his soul.

[Skill Activated: ’Absolute Corpse Extraction’]

Target: Guild Master Carlos (S-Rank Heavy Destroyer)

Processing Soul, Battle Experience, & Earth Domain Skill Core...

WHOOSH!

A violent surge of dark violet lightning shot from Renan’s hand, piercing straight into Carlos’s chest. The S-Rank Heavy Destroyer screamed in agonizing terror as his soul was forcibly pulled from his physical body. Within seconds, Carlos’s flesh and broken armor dissolved into black ash that scattered across the keep floor.

From the dark shadow pool left on the floorboards, a massive, towering shadow figure emerged. It wore heavy, black phantom plate armor formed from condensed obsidian rock, wielding a colossal, dark rune-inscribed war-hammer that crackled with dark earth energy. The new entity dropped onto both knees before Renan, bowing its massive head in fanatical, absolute obedience.

[Extraction Successful!]

[New Entity Acquired: Shadow Commander ’Carlos’ (Rank-EX / Heavy Destroyer)]

Special Ability: ’Titan Wall Domain’ (Creates a 200-foot impenetrable earth-shield around the Shadow Army).

+850 Strength

+350 Agility

+1,200 Vitality

+500 Mana

[New Physical Stat Total: 38,700 Points!]

Renan felt the massive influx of physical stat points integrate seamlessly into his core. He turned his golden eyes toward Vice-Guild Master Derek and the seven hundred surrendering mercenaries in the courtyard.

”Shadow Commander James,” Renan ordered softly.

”I am here, My Monarch,” James bowed from the shadows.

”Secure the Iron Aegis Master Vault. Take every refined mana crystal and integrate the seven hundred mercenaries into our labor division for Sector 2’s refineries.”

”By your command, Master,” James replied, waving his hand as hundreds of Shadow Knights moved swiftly to secure the fortress.

Renan walked out onto the high stone balcony of the inner keep, looking east toward Sectors 3 and 4 where the remaining regional guilds held their ground.

”Two regional guilds remain,” Renan whispered as the colossal Shadow Dragon Leviathan roared softly above him in the night sky. ”By sunrise, Sektor 2, 3, and 4 will kneel under one banner.”