Sand kicked up in blinding sheets as they sprinted toward the glowing dome. Elias adjusted his grip on his light-attuned focus, his boots sinking into the shifting desert dunes. "Can you run any faster, you giant ape?" he muttered, his voice barely carrying over the howling wind. Jasper grunted, his massive frame kicking up twice as much dust with every heavy step. "I am carrying eighty pounds of gear and pure muscle, Elias. Cut me some slack." Both men panted, their lungs burning from the dry desert air. Golden runes rippled across the massive barrier enveloping Ironreach like liquid fire. Humming with an oppressive, high-pitched frequency, the divine energy made their teeth ache. It was a blockade designed to keep things in—and keep anomalies like them out. "We need a gap," Elias said, halting just outside the barrier's perimeter. He raised his hand, channeling a thin, hyper-concentrated needle of S-Tier Light magic. "If I can frequency-match their divine matrix, we can slip through without triggering the alarm." Jasper watched the city walls with a dark scowl. "Make it quick. I smell smoke, and it does not smell like the forge fires." Heavy, black plumes were already rising past the golden dome, staining the pristine sky with soot. Elias closed his eyes, his dirty-blonde hair whipping around his face. Concentration lined his forehead as his S-Tier magic hummed to life. Instead of a blinding flash, he produced a soft, resonant vibration that perfectly mirrored the barrier's frequency. With a sharp flick of his wrist, he parted the golden energy just enough for them to squeeze through. "Go, go, go," Elias hissed. They slipped into the shadowed streets of Ironreach, the oppressive heat of the barrier washing over them before sealing shut behind them. --- Silence hung heavy over the outer districts, a suffocating contrast to the usual clinking of dwarven hammers. Empty mugs and spilled ale littered the cobblestones of the lower ring. It looked like a ghost town, but the metallic tang of blood in the air suggested a far worse reality. "Up ahead," Jasper whispered, his deep voice dropping to a gravelly rumble. He pointed toward the main thoroughfare leading to the Great Plaza. Dozens of high-tier paladins marched in perfect, terrifying unison, their polished silver armor reflecting the artificial golden sky. Elias ducked behind a stack of iron crates, pulling Jasper down beside him. "Look at their standards. Those are the Arbiters' elite vanguard." "They are executing people," Jasper growled, his large fists clenching so hard his knuckles turned white. Screams echoed from the plaza, sharp and desperate. Dwarf merchants, blacksmiths, and tavern keeps were being dragged from their homes, forced onto their knees in the dirt. A paladin commander with a towering golden crest on his helmet stood atop a stone dais, holding a long scroll. "By decree of the High Arbiters," the commander's voice boomed, amplified by magic. "Any citizen who has harbored, aided, or traded with the heretical anomalies shall face immediate purification." A massive broadsword, glowing with holy fire, hovered over the neck of an elderly dwarf blacksmith. Jasper's eyes darkened, the black pupils dilating until they nearly swallowed the gray of his irises. "Purification. That is just a fancy word for corporate downsizing via execution." "Easy, big guy," Elias warned, placing a hand on Jasper's massive shoulder. "We need a plan. If we rush in blindly, we will get surrounded by their entire army." "I am tired of planning," Jasper muttered, his voice cold and flat. Memories of his past life flashed behind his eyes. He remembered the endless hours of unpaid overtime, the managers who took credit for his work, and the crushing weight of being a disposable asset. He had died a slave to a system that did not care if he lived or died. Now, these self-righteous zealots were doing the exact same thing to innocent people, treating them like expendable resources. They were destroying a city just to root out two guys who wanted nothing more than a cold beer and a quiet retirement. --- Another group of prisoners was dragged into the light of the plaza. Among them was a familiar, stout figure with a braided red beard and a stained leather apron. Borin. It was the very bartender who had poured them their first pints of Void Stout and smiled as they complained about their bad backs. "Please," Borin pleaded, his voice raspy as a paladin kicked his knees out from under him. "We are just simple merchants. We did not know who they were. They paid in standard coin!" The paladin commander did not even look down at him. "Ignorance is no shield against divine judgment. Prepare the blade." A paladin raised a heavy, two-handed sword, the blade crackling with searing light. Borin closed his eyes, his shoulders trembling as he braced for the strike. Seeing the helpless dwarven bartender brought back every ounce of Jasper's old-world powerlessness. He remembered standing in his boss's office, taking the fall for a project he didn't ruin, unable to speak up because he needed the paycheck. He remembered the absolute humiliation of being crushed by a corrupt authority. Something snapped inside him. Jasper's S-Tier Dark magic flared, not as a gentle stream, but as a violent, gravitational pull that made the air itself warp. "Hey," Jasper said, stepping out from behind the crates. His voice was not loud, but it carried an unnatural, heavy resonance that silenced the entire plaza. Every paladin turned, their glowing weapons pointing toward the massive figure walking toward them. Elias cursed under his breath but immediately stood up, his S-Tier Light magic ready to back his friend. "Well, so much for a stealth mission," Elias muttered, a grim smirk playing on his lips. --- "Identify yourselves!" the paladin commander demanded, though the fear in his voice was palpable as the sky above them began to distort. "We are the guys who are going to put you out of business," Jasper rumbled. He raised his right hand, palm facing the center of the paladin formation. Darkness did not just emanate from him; it devoured the light around him. Golden glow from the divine barrier seemed to bend, pulled toward his outstretched palm like water down a drain. "Die, heretic!" three paladins lunged, their holy swords blazing. They did not even make it three steps. Jasper closed his fist. "Event Horizon," he whispered. A speck of absolute, pitch-black darkness materialized in the center of the paladin formation. It was no larger than a pebble, yet the sheer gravity of it instantly crushed the cobblestones beneath it into dust. Before anyone could scream, the speck expanded into a swirling, violent sphere of pure void. Sound ceased to exist. The absolute gravity of the S-Tier Dark magic pulled the paladins inward, their heavy armor twisting and buckling like cheap tin cans. Their screams were swallowed by the vacuum before they could even escape their throats. Stone buildings groaned, loose debris and weapons flying into the swirling vortex. Borin and the other dwarf prisoners were spared, Jasper carefully controlling the gravitational field to leave a safe pocket around them. But the paladin corps was not so lucky. In a span of three seconds, fifty elite holy warriors were compressed into nothingness, leaving behind only a crater of shattered, blackened stone. Jasper lowered his hand, his chest heaving as the black hole vanished, leaving a ringing, terrified silence in its wake. Dwarves stared in utter shock, their mouths hanging open. Borin looked up at Jasper, his eyes wide with a mixture of terror and awe. "You... you saved us," Borin stammered, clutching his bruised neck. Elias walked up beside Jasper, looking at the massive crater. "Clean work. But I think you just kicked a very angry hornet's nest." --- Suddenly, the artificial golden sky above Ironreach shattered like glass. The temperature in the plaza skyrocketed in an instant, turning the cool desert air into a suffocating furnace. Stone pillars began to groan, their solid foundations softening under an unnatural, sudden wave of extreme heat. Above them, a figure descended from the heavens, bathed in a light so bright it was blinding. Arbiter Michael himself descends from the heavens, his twelve golden wings radiating a heat so intense it begins to melt the stone structures of Ironreach.

Chapter 26: The Hostile Takeover