Chapter 188
The Warden's scream tore through the metal veins of the underworld, a shriek so deep it cracked the pillars supporting the entire district. The ground itself rippled like a living thing. Daniel lunged through the collapsing haze, blade flashing like a streak of lightning in the dark. He slammed it down onto one of the Warden's many limbs; the impact burst sparks across the cavern. Metal and flesh split, ichor spewing out in steaming rivulets that hissed against the molten floor.
The creature retaliated instantly. From its chest erupted a mass of human arms, each one malformed and reaching. They clawed through the air, shrieking in dozens of different voices — women, men, children , crying for mercy as they tried to drag him down.
Daniel gritted his teeth, twisting his sword in a sweeping arc that burned through them all. "You're not alive," he hissed. "You're memory made flesh."
The cut cleaved through the limbs, their remnants turning to ash and bone dust. But the Warden was adapting. Every time they cut it, its body remembered. Every wound sealed faster, the steel bones knitting with black sinew.
Melgil darted forward beside him, a blur of blue radiance and frost fire. Her glaive struck out in rhythmic, deadly precision , thrust, spin, cleave , each blow pulsing with the echo of her bloodline. The air around her shimmered like a frozen gale, coating the nearest steel beams in crystalline frost.
The Warden shrieked again, its many mouths folding open in impossible directions. It vomited a spray of molten bone shards that streaked through the chamber like bullets. Daniel raised his hand and slammed it downward , a pulse of mental energy expanded outward, slowing the projectiles midair. Melgil's glaive followed, slicing through them, shards raining harmlessly to the ground.
"Above us," Daniel said, eyes narrowing as he felt it — the surface battle, the minds of hundreds struggling against the tide. His telepathic resonance flickered with the chaos of their thoughts, screams, determination. "They're holding—barely."
Melgil's expression hardened. "Then we end this before it consumes them."
She lunged again, faster than sight, her body leaving afterimages of frost. Her glaive pierced deep into the Warden's abdomen, and with a surge of ancient wrath, she twisted. The blade detonated in blue flame, splitting open the creature's belly and revealing the pulsating red core beneath — a heart of mana and blood, encased in metal ribs.
The Warden howled, its spider legs stabbing wildly, demolishing the catwalks. Chunks of steel rained from above. Daniel ducked, deflecting falling debris with a telekinetic burst. His mind ached, his body trembling with strain, but he didn't slow.
"Now!" he shouted. "Its core, strike it before it seals!"
Melgil dashed forward, leaping across the pit toward the glowing heart — but the monster reacted too fast. Chains erupted from the floor, spectral and writhing, wrapping around her limbs. The Warden dragged her downward, its many heads laughing in maddened unity.
"Return to me… mother…"
Daniel's rage detonated. "Get your hands OFF her!"
He slammed his sword into the floor, channeling his will through every shattered gear and rusted beam in the chamber. Lightning burst outward like a storm given form — arcs leaping from pipe to pillar, from chain to chain , until the entire cavern became a cage of roaring white fire.
The chains snapped, the shockwave ripping through the Warden's lower limbs, blowing two clean off. The beast reeled, screeching as smoke and blood poured from its wounds.
Melgil broke free, flipped midair, and landed beside him, eyes blazing. "I'm not your mother."
Her glaive ignited fully, the frost fire now burning with a divine radiance. She and Daniel charged together , twin storms colliding against a god of rust and madness.
On the Surface
The tremors hit like thunder. Every street shook; every broken tower shuddered as shockwaves rippled from beneath the earth.
Alexsei Sokolov wiped the blood from his lip, his mana veins glowing blue as he poured more energy into his golems. "Keep the line tight! The barrier's weakening!"
The towering constructs responded instantly, forming a semicircle around the White Devils' last stronghold. Each golem punched, stomped, and crushed its way through dozens of undead, but the tide was endless.
Natasha stood on the collapsed rooftop above, her eyes sharp and cold. Her hands danced through runes midair, frost forming around her fingertips. "Azure Volley!" she hissed.
A dozen lances of ice shot down like falling stars, impaling the front ranks of the undead. The shockwave froze the cobblestone streets solid, locking hundreds of monsters in crystalline death.
Below her, Jacob rallied the survivors, his armor cracked and bloodied. "Mages, focus fire! Archers, take the rooftops! Shields—on me!"
They moved as one. Fireballs streaked into the night, arrows flared with holy sigils, and the vanguard crashed into the next wave. Screams and spells blended into a single roar.
Then the air shifted.
A pulse radiated outward from the factory , heavy, oppressive, full of psychic static. The Warden's awakening reached the surface. Undead halted mid-stride, twitching as dark energy crawled through their veins.
Natasha's eyes widened. "It's… controlling them!"
One of the undead generals—a hulking abomination of steel and bone—lurched forward, its eyes burning with crimson light. It swung a cleaver the size of a carriage, slamming it into the nearest golem. The impact shattered half its torso.
Alexsei roared and extended his arm. The shattered golem reformed mid-fall, spikes of stone bursting from its back as he reforged it through sheer will. "Not yet," he growled, blood dripping from his nose. "You don't die until I say so."
The golem slammed its massive fists together, then charged, tackling the abomination into a building. The impact exploded glass and stone outward, reducing the undead giant to chunks.
Natasha leapt from her perch, landing beside her brother, her hands glowing icy white. "If Daniel doesn't finish that thing soon, we're all corpses."
Alexsei didn't look at her. His gaze stayed fixed on the factory, where steam and light now erupted from every window. "He will," he said quietly. "He has to."
Another shockwave erupted from below—stronger this time. The cobblestones cracked, and black tendrils began snaking up through the gaps, pulsing like veins.
Natasha's magic flared, freezing the tendrils in place before they could burst through. "He's losing control of it! We have to reinforce the barrier!"
Alexsei nodded once, thrusting both hands to the ground. "All units, circle formation! Feed your mana into the array!"
Blue light erupted from their combined magic, wrapping the battlefield in shimmering runes. The barrier solidified again, just as another horde slammed into it.
"Hold!" Jacob bellowed. "Do not let them through!"
Beneath the Factory
The Warden screamed again, louder, tearing itself from its moorings. The last chains burst apart, and its massive body slammed to the ground. The impact cratered the steel floor, throwing Daniel and Melgil off their feet.
Daniel rolled, his ribs screaming in pain. He barely dodged as one of the monster's legs punched through where he had lain a heartbeat before. The ground fractured, molten sparks bursting into the air.
Melgil spun, glaive flashing in an upward arc. "Frost Judgment!"
A circle of runes exploded beneath her feet, and a pillar of azure flame erupted skyward, engulfing the Warden's torso. The heat turned the air to steam; frost and fire collided in a storm of light.
Daniel followed, channeling his energy into his weapon until it hummed like a dying star. He leapt, blade overhead. Lightning cascaded around him, each bolt striking his sword and feeding it.
He struck down, straight into the creature's core.
The impact detonated like thunder. Light flooded the chamber, blinding and absolute. The Warden shrieked, its flesh splitting, its form convulsing violently.
For one second, Daniel thought they had won.
Then he felt it. The heart didn't die, it multiplied.
Dozens of smaller hearts pulsed open across its chest and limbs, glowing red like a swarm of eyes. The Warden laughed, its many mouths twisting into a grotesque smile.
"Mo…ther…we…are…many…"
Its body erupted outward, birthing smaller horrors , spider-limbed parasites that screeched as they hit the ground, dozens of them crawling toward Daniel and Melgil.
"Damn it!" Daniel yelled, slashing through three, his sword blazing. "It's splitting!"
Melgil tore her glaive free from a corpse and spun. "Then we burn them all!"
Their blades danced, light and storm, cutting through the swarm. Sparks and blood painted the chamber, every strike followed by explosions of flame or frost. But there were too many. The floor itself began to split open, exposing molten light beneath , the Warden's core extending deeper, pulsing like the heart of a god.
Daniel's voice echoed across their shared telepathic link to the surface. "Alexsei! Natasha! The Warden's core, contain it! Don't let it reach the streets!"
Aboveground
The warning hit them like lightning.
Alexsei looked up just as the ground under his golems began to pulse. The veins of corruption glowed through the cracks, red light spreading in spiderweb patterns.
"Everyone, back!" he roared.
Too late.
The street ruptured. Black smoke and molten light burst upward, throwing soldiers and undead alike into the air. The barrier flickered violently.
Natasha raised both hands, screaming the incantation through gritted teeth. "GLACIAL PRISON!"
A wave of ice erupted from her palms, freezing half the street in one breath. The corrupted light slowed, encased beneath layers of frost. Her body trembled with the effort, blood dripping from her nose, but she held firm.
Alexsei placed a hand on her shoulder, his own mana surging. "Together, Tasha. Hold it!"
The ice thickened, blue lightning arcing through the frost. The corruption stopped spreading—for now.
The undead roared in frustration, hammering against the frozen earth. But the White Devils stood shoulder to shoulder once more, their weapons raised, eyes blazing.
Jacob's voice rang out, hoarse but unbroken. "You heard them below! Daniel's fighting for every breath, so we fight for his!"
Natasha smirked faintly through the blood on her lips. "Then let's show the dead what living looks like."
She drew a sigil in the air, and spears of frozen light rained from the heavens.
Alexsei's golems slammed their fists into the ground, sending shockwaves through the undead ranks.
And as the streets turned into a frozen battlefield of fire, lightning, and stone , beneath them, Daniel and Melgil faced the raging heart of the Warden one last time.
Beneath the Factory
Daniel's breathing was ragged, his armor scorched and cracked. Melgil's glaive burned dim, her shoulder bleeding freely, but her eyes were alive with fury.
The Warden towered before them, half its body torn open, the red glow within flaring like a dying sun.
Daniel's hand trembled on his weapon, but his voice was steady. "We end it here."
Melgil nodded once, her voice low, dangerous. "Then let's give it a death worth remembering."
Together, they surged forward,light and frost intertwined, toward the screaming god of metal and flesh that had once been her kin.
The factory roared with them.
The world shook.
And above, the White Devils held the line, praying that the earth beneath them would stop trembling before it swallowed them all.
The steel beneath their boots pulsed like a living heartbeat. Heat shimmered through the fractured cavern, turning the air molten. The Warden, half-destroyed and writhing, began to change. Its broken limbs retracted into its torso with the crunch of bending metal. Veins of molten iron webbed across its flesh, knitting its wounds together.
Then the voice came again , deeper this time, like the groan of the planet itself.
"We… were made… to guard… the core."
"And now… you trespass."
Its body erupted outward in a spiral of red light. The sound was deafening , a thousand screams compressed into one note of agony.
What emerged was something no longer mechanical.
Its final form towered above them , a hybrid of molten armor and sinew, crowned with an obsidian helm shaped like a cathedral spire. Wings of serrated blades unfolded from its back, each dripping molten blood that hissed as it hit the floor. Its ribcage hung open, revealing a blinding red sun that throbbed where its heart should be.
Daniel raised his sword, shielding his eyes from the glare. "It's fusing with the core itself."
Melgil's breath came out as frost in the rising heat. "Then if we destroy it, the whole factory goes down."
Daniel glanced at her, eyes flickering with lightning. "You hesitating?"
A small smile cut through the blood on her face. "I stopped hesitating the day I met you."
The Crater, Factory District , Surface
The silence didn't last long.After the explosion's light faded, only the howling wind and the hiss of molten rain filled the air. The ground steamed where fire met frost, and the clouds overhead twisted into a wounded halo of blue and crimson.
Then , a heartbeat. Another. And from beneath the dust, faint pulses of energy rippled outward — not of corruption, but of release.
One by one, the guild members who had fallen unconscious or paralyzed earlier began to stir.
Addison groaned, his gauntlets still smoking from battle. "What… what happened…?"
The moment his eyes opened, the oppressive weight — that sick, suffocating whisper of despair and madness — was gone. The Warden's influence, that invisible chain wrapping their minds, had vanished.
He sat up quickly, eyes darting around the shattered plaza. "Wait—where's Daniel? Where's Melgil!?"
A few meters away, Charllote Lazarus rolled onto her side, coughing, her sword and dagger half-buried in rubble. The faint heat of her fire-blades flickered weakly, but her eyes blazed alive the moment she felt the freedom in her body. The corruption that once crawled under her skin had faded , the burn marks along her arms cooling to nothing but soot.
She clenched her weapons and stood shakily. "They did it," she whispered, disbelief in her tone. "The Warden's gone."
Before she could speak again, a piercing screech echoed through the air , not from below, but from the horizon.
The undead were still coming.
Hundreds , thousands , drawn by the disturbance, rushing toward the barrier where the White Devil Guild had made their stand. The dome pulsed faintly, weakened but still standing, shimmering like a dying aurora over the survivors.
Beneath it, Natasha and Alexsei Sokolov held position, maintaining the array, both exhausted but unyielding. The horde outside battered endlessly at the barrier with weapons, claws, and raw mana.
"Reinforce sectors three through six!" Alexsei barked, mana still flaring along his arms. "Copy!" replied a surviving mage. Natasha gritted her teeth, trying to focus. "We can't hold forever! The core layer's cracked!"
Then, a shadow fell across them.
Dozens of figures emerged from the rubble behind the dome awakening, one by one — their guild marks glowing faintly as mana began to stabilize around them.
The Lazarus Guild had returned.
Charllote looked up at the barrier dome, her reflection glimmering across its translucent surface. Beyond it, the undead roared and clawed, endless waves of bone and armor pressing closer.
Her hand tightened on her sword. "No more running."
From the eastern ruin, a massive blur of motion burst through the broken street Sabine Lazarus, the East Lazarus Guild Leader, her body already shifting mid-stride. Bones cracked, muscles bulged, fur bristled with mana.
She landed on all fours, her humanoid tiger form towering, claws glowing orange-red as molten streaks coursed through her veins. Her roar shook the ground, scattering the nearest undead.
"About damn time!" she bellowed, her voice half-human, half-beast. "Who's still breathing?"
"Jacob, Oliver, Farrah, Rainey, Noah, everyone's up," Charllote shouted. "The Warden's gone! The field's clear!"
From the west, Jacob Lazarus rose from a crater of molten glass, magma still dripping from his arm guards. Lava pulsed beneath his skin, each heartbeat sending veins of molten light coursing across his chest.
He slammed his fists together, creating a wave of heat that burned away the nearest corruption residue. "Good. Then it's our turn to hold the line!"
Oliver Lazarus appeared next, emerging from the shadow of a ruined tower, a grin twisting his lips. He twirled two poison-tipped darts between his fingers. "The bastards outside the dome are thick as flies," he muttered, lifting his wrist launcher. "Let's thin the swarm."
His first volley soared high, then split midair , dozens of darts raining down like green comets. Where they struck, noxious mist erupted, melting undead flesh and choking the air.
"Don't breathe that in," Oliver called lazily. "Unless you hate having lungs."
A tremor shook the street.
Farrah Lazarus stepped forward next, her eyes glowing a vibrant emerald. "Enough poison, Oliver. My turn."She knelt, pressing her palm to the ground. The cracks in the earth pulsed , and then, vines as thick as serpents erupted from the pavement, lashing outward in a storm of thorns and roots.
The vines tore through the undead ranks, forming massive green walls that encircled the barrier dome, buying them precious moments.
Above her, a low hum filled the air , a storm of wings.
Rainey Lazarus stood atop the broken factory ruins, her arms outstretched, eyes shining amber. "Wake up, my little soldiers."
From the shadows came a living hurricane , millions of insects, locusts, beetles, wasps — swarming into the sky, forming living shapes that blotted out the moonlight. They moved as one, diving onto the undead ranks like a living wave, devouring everything they touched.
The air filled with the sound of wings and death.
"Disgusting," Oliver muttered with a grin. "But beautiful."
From the center of the regrouped guild, Noah Lazarus cracked his knuckles, his skin hardening into living metal, each movement ringing like struck steel. His body gleamed silver under the flickering light.
He looked at the hordes still pushing toward them and smiled grimly. "Let's see them break this."
He charged forward, slamming headlong into a cluster of abominations. Their claws screeched against his metallic skin as he plowed through, each strike of his fists breaking bone and shattering skulls.
Sabine joined him, pouncing across rooftops, claws tearing through undead armor like paper.
"Protect the barrier!" she roared. "White Devils are at their limit—don't let it fall!"
Within the Barrier Dome
Natasha's eyes widened as she saw the Lazarus Guild cutting through the horde outside. "They're—awake?!"
Alexsei's exhaustion cracked into relief. "Looks like Daniel's purge burned the Warden's control out of them."
A voice came from behind. "Then let's not waste the miracle he bought us."
Mary Kaye Lazarus, the High Strategy Guild leader, stepped forward, her archaeologist's shovel glowing with earthen mana. The ground trembled beneath her feet, responding to her will.
"Activate the second defense line," she ordered. "I'll handle the foundation."
She raised the shovel and slammed it into the ground. A ripple of brown-gold energy burst outward, and the shattered cobblestones rose, reshaping into a solid wall of stone and dirt around the dome.
The entire barrier stabilized, reinforced by layers of earth.
Mary Kaye wiped her brow and turned to Natasha. "Report, strategist."
"Daniel and Melgil neutralized the Warden under the factory," Natasha replied, her voice steady now. "They're alive, but trapped below the debris."
Mary Kaye's eyes narrowed. "Then we hold this place until they surface."
She faced the Lazarus Guild battling outside the dome, her voice amplified by mana. "East and High Strategy guilds , combine formations! Push the undead away from the barrier and clear the southern quarter!"
Her command carried like thunder.
Sabine's roar answered from the distance. "Understood!"
The battlefield came alive , guilds moving as one, spells igniting the night. Fire and frost, vines and lightning, poison and lava.
Charllote dashed alongside Sabine, her fire-blades blazing brighter than ever. "Let's carve a path for Daniel!"
"Then keep up!" Sabine shouted, claws slashing through a dozen undead in one sweep.
Jacob unleashed torrents of magma, flooding entire streets with molten death. Farrah's vines followed, sealing gaps and shielding allies. Rainey's insects harried the air, while Oliver's poisons turned entire groups of undead into black ash.
The combined might of two guilds crashed through the horde like a tide of vengeance.
Above the chaos, Natasha and Alexsei sustained the barrier, directing mana flows like conductors of an orchestra of war.
For the first time that night, the undead were pushed back.
Far beneath the smoking ruins, Daniel stirred.His vision swam, his ears filled with distant echoes of battle. Beside him, Melgil's faint breathing steadied.
Through the haze of dust, he saw the faint blue glow of her glaive flicker , and beyond it, the ceiling cracked open, letting in the faintest shimmer of moonlight.
He smiled weakly. "They're fighting up there…"
Melgil opened her eyes slowly, voice quiet but fierce. "Then we rise to join them."
Daniel grinned faintly. "Wouldn't dream of staying dead."
He pushed himself to his feet, sword crackling faintly with the residue of his power, and looked up toward the crater above , where his friends, his allies, his people, were holding the line against the endless dead.
And together, as the night burned with fire and light, the Lazarus and White Devil guilds made their stand , not as survivors, but as one army, forged from loss and fury.
The war for the city wasn't over. It was only beginning.
The ground shook as Daniel and Melgil climbed out through the shattered breach. Smoke and dust curled around them like living things. The sun was gone, only a red, dying glow filtered through the ash, painting the ruins in blood.
The surface was unrecognizable.
What had been a fortress line was now a wasteland of twisted steel and corpses. Tanks lay split open like carcasses. Banners burned beside the remains of command towers. Mages crawled through the dirt, dragging the wounded toward shattered trenches. In the distance, the First Gate loomed, half-collapsed, yet pulsing faintly with black veins of flame.
Daniel's armor was torn and scorched, splintered bone and soot streaking the plates. The last echo of the Warden still whispered in his ears—an ancient voice crawling through static. He turned to Melgil, whose robe hung in tatters, his face ash-streaked and pale.
"We made it," Melgil rasped. "But listen."
The ground answered him with a low, rhythmic hum. Not machinery. Not wind. A heartbeat, deep, deliberate—rising from beneath the ruin.
The soldiers around them froze. The dirt began to tremble. From the cracks came no claws, no howls, only the steady pulse of something vast and alive.
Melgil's voice trembled. "It's not dead. The Warden's core is still moving."
Daniel's jaw tightened. "No… it's feeding."
The corpses twitched first. Then they rose. Not shambling, but synchronized—drawn by unseen threads. Their torsos glowed faintly, black veins pulsing with molten light. Across the field, wrecked engines groaned and twisted, dragging themselves toward a single crater—the wound where the Warden had died.
The ground erupted. A column of smoke and blood tore upward as something enormous clawed its way free. It wasn't a creature, it was a mass of bodies fused together, armor and flesh welded by corruption. A skull of bone and machine rose at its peak, blue fire burning in its hollow sockets.
Daniel's hand tightened on his gun blade. "It remembers me."
Melgil's eyes widened. "That's no Warden. It's using its own death as a weapon."
The thing roared. The blast shattered walls, flipped tanks, and threw men like paper.
The Second Surge had begun.
The undead moved as one, soldiers, beasts, and machines reanimated by the same pulsing heart. The air was filled with the thunder of artillery and the grinding of treads through flesh. For every body that fell, three more rose.
Daniel's command crackled. "Eastern trench overrun! Northern wall collapsing! Mage citadel lost—"
"Regroup at the bastion!" Daniel barked. "Explosives and anti-core teams—on me!"
"Daniel, you can't kill that thing by force!" Melgil shouted over the din. "It's drawing from every corpse it touches!"
"Then we cut the source."
Daniel leapt from the ridge, charging straight into the chaos. Bullets whined past him. Explosions tore the air. He swung his blade, cleaving through an armored corpse in one strike, the impact splattering black ichor across his visor.
Behind him, Melgil fought to hold the flank. Gunfire and grenades thundered around him as he rallied the remnants of the line. "Keep firing! Aim for the joints!" he shouted.
But the creature was adapting. Its limbs reshaped into jagged tendrils of steel, slamming into the ground. Spires of bone erupted beneath tanks, impaling men by the dozen.
"Melgil!" Daniel roared.
"I see it!" Melgil fired a heavy repeater, bullets chewing through the tendrils, but they just kept coming.
Daniel slammed his weapon's barrel into the ground and pulled the trigger. The blast carved a trench of fire through the battlefield, sending shockwaves through the veins that fed the creature. For a second, it worked, the abomination staggered, its rhythm faltering.
Then the earth liquefied. Corpses melted, flowing back into the crater. The monster's chest swelled, its heart pulsing faster.
Melgil's voice cut through the static. "It's feeding on every death! Every one of them!"
Daniel looked around, the fallen twitched, whispering. "Daniel…" The sound wasn't from the living. It came from the beast.
Thousands of voices spoke his name, all at once.
"You left us… down there…"
His hands shook. The faces of his dead comrades flickered across his vision. Their eyes. Their screams. Every one of them trapped in that thing.
Melgil shouted, "Ignore it! Focus!"
But Daniel saw it now, the Warden's mind alive within the mass, its memories threaded through the dead. It wasn't just reviving. it was remembering.
"You can't kill what you helped create," the voice said from inside the light.
Daniel steadied himself. "Then I'll unmake it."
He charged again. Bullets tore through the air. The ground was a river of fire and blood. The monster turned toward him, its many mouths screaming his name. Daniel leapt, slashing through its tendrils, cutting a path toward the glowing knot in its chest.
He fired the gun blade at point-blank range. The explosion ripped open a wound in the creature's torso, exposing a core of blue flame.
"This ends now."
He drove the blade deep into the heart. The blast shook the battlefield, hurling him back through smoke and bone. He hit the ground hard, armor cracking, blood in his mouth, but the light was still there, beating faintly.
Melgil saw it. "He broke through, but it's still alive."
He glanced at the remnants of his detonator, nothing left. He turned to the soldiers. "Fall back! Form a perimeter!"
Daniel forced himself up, staggering toward the beast. "Not yet."
He pulled the final charge from his belt a plasma warhead, cracked but still armed. He sprinted, firing as he went, each shot tearing deeper into the creature's open wound. When he reached the core, he jammed the bomb into the cavity.
"For everyone you took," he whispered. "Burn."
He jumped clear as the explosion went off.
The world vanished in a storm of blue fire.
The shockwave erased the sky. Metal, bone, and flame collapsed inward, folding the monster into itself before detonating in a blinding flash. When the light faded, only a vast crater remained. No bodies. No heart. Only silence.
Daniel dropped to his knees. His armor hissed and cracked. The battlefield was empty—no movement, no sound but the wind.
"Melgil?" he called.
He saw her then, kneeling near the ridge, rifle in her lap, staring at the horizon.
"You did it," she said softly.
He managed a tired grin. "We did."
The first light of dawn cut through the ash. For the first time in years, the air was still,no screams, no heartbeat, just the faint hum of life returning to a dead world.