Chapter 102: Anomaly Detected...
"Status report!" Zen’s voice slicing through the blaring alarms.
The scout in the hologram coughed, a spray of crimson hitting the projection lens. "They didn’t march, Your Majesty! It was an avalanche! A hyper-concentrated horde of mutated Void Beasts just dropped directly onto the primary staging ground! Thousands of them, all at once! They bypassed the perimeter entirely. We’re being overrun before the main army can even cross the gate!"
A heavy, suffocating wave of kinetic mana instantly flattened the air in the plaza.
Zen didn’t even have to look to his side to know who it was.
Valeria had already drawn her golden broadsword, vibrating with a deadly, high-frequency hum. Her crimson eyes were completely dilated, and her pupils shrunk into slits.
To a military general, an ambush was a tactical hurdle. To Valeria, it was a personal, unforgivable insult.
"They dare?" she snarled, her voice dropping into a demonic echo. "They dare defile the exact ground the Emperor is meant to step on?!"
"Valeria, wait for the heavy infantry..." Aurelia started, her hands flying rapidly across the teleportation terminal to stabilize the fluctuating magical coordinates.
"I wait for no one!" Valeria roared.
She didn’t stop to come up with a strategy or wait for backup. Enraged that her borders were breached and the Emperor’s landing zone was currently crawling with monsters, the Vanguard lunged herself forward.
Marble stones shattered under her boots as she propelled herself into the unstable portal alone.
Through the massive holographic feed floating above the plaza, Zen watched Valeria materialize in the center of the Abyssal Trench’s staging ground.
She didn’t look like a general; she looked like a localized natural disaster.
She slammed her broadsword into the earth, unleashing a kinetic shockwave that instantly pulverized a hundred mutated beasts into a fine, bloody mist.
She threw herself into the thickest part of the horde, going full berserker. She was a blur of red and gold, single-handedly holding the line in a blood-soaked frenzy, determined to clear a safe path for her Emperor.
While the other Goddesses watched the Vanguard’s slaughter with wide eyes, Zen remained perfectly, terrifyingly still.
His eyes narrowed at the drone feeds transmitting from the Trench, his analytical mind instantly isolating the variables.
Void Beasts were feral, mindless creatures driven entirely by a hunger for ambient mana. They didn’t understand the concept of a coordinated, concentrated ambush. They swarmed; they didn’t strike with precision.
"System," Zen commanded internally, his eyes flicking across the chaotic battlefield on the screen. "Pull the atmospheric telemetry of the Abyssal Trench. Overlay the movement vectors of the beast horde. Run a probability check on this formation."
[Processing local telemetry data...]
[Analyzing Void Beast movement vectors and topographical variables...]
[Probability of natural tactical formation among Void Beasts: 0.000%.]
Zen’s jaw clenched. Zero percent. It wasn’t just unlikely; it was statistically impossible.
[Anomaly Detected: Ambient spatial pressure surrounding the Abyssal Trench has been artificially modified. Localized gravity wells were subtly warped to create a frictionless, high-velocity ’slide’ along the eastern ridge. ]
[Conclusion: The beast horde was physically funneled into a massive chokepoint and dumped directly onto the Vanguard’s forward camp.]
Zen stared at the blue text, the horrifying genius of the trap instantly clicking into place.
The beasts weren’t setting an ambush; they were being poured into the staging ground like water down a drain. Someone had manipulated the gravity of the area, ensuring Valeria’s vanguard was hit with overwhelming force as soon as they opened the gate.
And there was only one person on the continent who possessed that level of precise, untraceable gravitational control.
"Emperor!" Selene cried out, stepping forward, her silver eyes locked onto the hologram where wounded scouts were being dragged into the forward medical tents.
Her holy aura flared to life, blindingly bright and dripping with desperate, self-sacrificial intent. "Your men are dying! They are bleeding for you!"
"I will bear their burden! I will cleanse their pain!" Selene declared, raising her glowing staff.
Without waiting for a command, the Sanctum Goddess rushed into the secondary portal linked to the forward triage zone.
The moment she crossed over, Zen watched her feed via the drones.
She instantly dropped to her knees in the mud, draining massive, reckless amounts of her own holy aura to forcibly seal the scouts’ wounds, visibly taking on their pain as she gasped for breath.
"Damn it, the spatial interference is completely scrambling the ley-lines!" Aurelia cursed loudly from the primary terminal, her perfect regal composure cracking under the pressure. "The Void energy from the horde is destabilizing the gate! If I don’t reroute the Crown’s entire network immediately, the portal will collapse and trap Valeria on the other side! I need ten minutes to stabilize the massive jump!"
Zen didn’t say a word. He stood near the center of the plaza, watching the board physically dismantle itself right in front of him.
The trap had sprung flawlessly. It was never about killing the vanguard; it was about splitting his protectors.
Valeria was pinned down on the front lines, blinded by her rage and entirely consumed by the horde. Aurelia was locked to the primary terminal in the capital, desperately trying to salvage the logistics of the jump so she didn’t fail her Emperor.
Selene had thrown herself into the mud of the triage tents, eager to play the bleeding martyr. And Nyx was currently bound to the shadows, fulfilling his direct order to guard Maya, who had been safely sequestered away from the unstable portal.
In a matter of sixty seconds, Zen had been cleanly isolated from his primary muscle and his loyalists.
"It seems the Vanguard’s eagerness has complicated the deployment," a calm, melodic voice noted.
Zen slowly turned his head.
Lyra, the Goddess of the Aether Domain, stepped forward smoothly. Her star-woven cloak drifted silently over the runic stones.
Unlike Aurelia’s manic panic or Valeria’s blind rage, Lyra looked unbothered.
"The main teleportation arrays are far too unstable to risk your crossing right now, Emperor," Lyra said smoothly, gesturing gracefully toward the violently sparking portal Aurelia was trying to fix. "The Void interference is too thick. However, I foresaw the possibility of spatial degradation."
She raised her pale hand. The space beside her seamlessly warped, folding inward like a crushed piece of paper. A sleek, perfectly stabilized tunnel of deep, shimmering purple light materialized in the air.
"I have stabilized a private, high-speed Aether-gravity tunnel," Lyra explained evenly, as if she were simply presenting a mathematical solution. "It is entirely insulated from the Void interference. It bypasses the chaotic battlefield below and exits directly onto a secured, elevated vantage point above the Trench. From there, you can oversee the battle in safety."
She took a single step closer to him, offering her hand.
"But the tunnel requires my direct, continuous gravitational focus to maintain its structural integrity," Lyra added. "And it can only hold the two of us. So... why don’t you allow me escort you safely, Emperor? Let the others handle the chaos they are so fond of."