Chaos' Heir Chapter 986: Powerless

Chapter 986: Powerless

The human soldiers couldn't even begin to understand what had transpired but had far bigger problems at hand.

The evacuation had been swift, but the wall's fall had been too sudden and extensive. Some soldiers couldn't make it to safety before floors and metal crumbled over their heads or from under their feet, leaving alive and dead troops stuck under the debris.

Moreover, a series of war cries echoed past the V-shaped tear, accompanied by heavy steps. It didn't take a genius to connect those noises to the battalion outside, so the soldiers knew the enemy was coming.

Orders resounded throughout the fort's insides. The various team leaders shouted different tasks to address the many concerns. Some troops headed for the debris, jumping on tall biped robots to salvage their surviving companions. Meanwhile, everyone else lifted rifles or took control of defensive weaponry to prepare for the imminent a.s.sault.

Grey smoke still filled the V-shaped tear, preventing the human soldiers from inspecting the sandy battlefield. However, the teams in charge of the scanners updated their companions through the devices in their ears, triggering more orders. The rifles-wielding troops arranged themselves into an orderly line before the hole in the metal wall, ready to fire blindly at the incoming enemy.

However, a foreign figure suddenly appeared among the soldiers' ranks. A caped man donning a strange bone crown landed inside before the firing line without making a sound. His arrival would have almost gone unnoticed without the light radiated by alien blue eyes.

Khan ignored the many rifles lifted before him to study the fort's insides. The place had multiple floors, planning to make full use of the battle's arrangements. A surface-level square expanded directly past the broken wall before rising into tower-like structures that featured unmovable heavy weapons.

The alien blue light went over the heavy weaponry before rising even further, finding a vast stage connected to the opposite wall. A reinforced, square structure stood at its bottom, and much of the fort's synthetic energy flowed into it.

'That must be the control room,' Khan concluded.

The fort's insides were rather spartan and simplistic. It had many exposed locations that an airborne attack could have easily exploited. Clearly, Brigadier General Meadrey had shoved most of the allocated resources to the walls and weaponry without expecting that those defenses could crumble so soon.

The heavy weapons inside the fort and the surviving turrets on the walls could still pose a challenge to the incoming Scalqa, but the control room was in Khan's reach now, and nothing could save it from his power.

The inspection had barely lasted a few seconds, but Brigadier General Meadrey had picked battle-hardened soldiers for his battalion. That short time had been enough for some troops to react to Khan's arrival, and few even pointed their rifles at him.

That wasn't enough to unleash a round of bullets. The team leaders didn't give the order, and Khan's innately overbearing presence made many soldiers tremble in fear. His previous feat, sudden appearance, and heavy aura almost deprived them of their will to fight. Still, they already had their fingers on the trigger, and one shook violently enough to fire a shot.

The bullet tore through the air and landed directly on Khan's left temple, knocking the bone crown off his head and hiding his face behind white smoke. The world seemed to come to a halt, with all the soldiers silently staring at the invader. Some even dared to harbor hope, but only terror followed.

A faint gale blew the smoke away, revealing Khan's monstrous face. No injury tainted his skin, but a thick spiderweb of black blood vessels had covered his temple and its surroundings, completely s.h.i.+elding it from the bullet.

Khan's eyes were still on the distant control room as if nothing had happened. However, they slowly fell on the trigger-happy soldier, submerging him in their blue light and making him drop his rifle.

"You can face my soldiers," Khan announced. "I take no pleasure in killing ants."

Khan could disappear and teleport to the control room after the statement but didn't. He calmly stepped forward, walking toward the firing lines while his eyes returned to the most protected part of the fort's insides.

A profound and unshakable sense of defeat captured the soldiers on the square. Khan had brushed off a bullet to the head as if it were mere air, so the troops couldn't even imagine how to take him down. They could only step aside and let him walk through their ranks as they watched the black blood vessels disappear inside his face.

The battle was being broadcast to multiple relevant parties. Many scanners were pointed at the fort's insides, and the scene they recorded sent reverence, respect, and fear to the watchers' hearts. Khan's enemies willingly created a path for him, giving birth to an emotion too profound and mystical to describe.

Khan advanced in a straight line before his steps brought him into the air. He walked diagonally through the fort, slowly approaching the distant control room. The heavy machinery and consoles across the fort stopped working at his pa.s.sage, saving the incoming battalion from a preemptive strike.

Khan eventually stepped on the elevated stage on the opposite wall and advanced until he reached the control room. Its black reinforced surface partially blocked his senses, but he only placed his palm on it, and cracks immediately opened.

That destruction was almost gentle compared to what the defensive wall had suffered. Cracks silently expanded over and through the control room, stretching over its entire surface before giving in to the damage. Those reinforced surfaces simply split apart, turning into a rain of metal shards.

The room's four walls and ceiling crumbled, covering the vast stage in debris and exposing its insides. Two columns of larger consoles with appointed soldiers stretched ahead, and a broad-shouldered man stood between them.

The soldiers had covered their heads and crouched on their seats to s.h.i.+eld themselves from the rain of metal shards, but the sparks and smoke that rose from their consoles startled them, making them jump back. The screens and holograms on and from those machines went dark, leaving them confused and speechless.

Among the soldiers, only the broad-shouldered middle-aged man remained calm, his stern face pointed at Khan. He nodded at his troops without diverting his eyes, and the latter hurried off the vast stage.

Only Khan and Brigadier General Meadrey remained in the area after a few seconds, standing face-to-face a few meters away. The latter looked stern and resolute, but Khan's eyes were emotionless. That soldier at the peak of the fifth level couldn't stir his interest or attention.