Esper Harem in the Apocalypse

Chapter 1147 1147: Shadows and Code

While Rudy handled the decoy in the primary node, Kim dropped directly into the subterranean corridors of Node Four.

The heavy, reinforced concrete hallways were bathed in the harsh red glow of emergency lighting. As soon as the spatial rift sealed behind her, the base alarms shrieked.

Kim drew a pair of glowing energy daggers from her waist. The two Under Blades assigned to her squad flanked her and unsheathed long monomolecular katanas from their backs.

A squad of armored HWSD enforcers rounded the corner with raised pulse rifles.

"Intruders in Sector B!" the point man shouted.

Kim sprinted straight at them. She slid under the first volley of plasma fire and drove her glowing dagger upward into the weak point beneath the lead enforcer's thick chest plate. The man crumpled to the floor. The Under Blades followed her path seamlessly, their artificial bodies processing combat data faster than a human mind. They carved through the guards in a spray of blood and severed metal.

Kim kicked open the steel doors leading to the central vault.

'Let us see the prize,' she thought, spinning her daggers to clear the blood from the blades.

She looked toward the center of the massive room expecting the condensed payload. A colossal server rack occupied the space. Thick cables pumped glowing red coolant into the machinery. The rig generated a massive energy signature completely devoid of actual mana.

'This is just a glorified heater,' Kim realized with a sigh of annoyance.

Kim tapped her earpiece. "Node Four is a bust. We found a server farm generating a fake magic signature."

"Nodes Six and Seven are also decoys," one of the Under Blades reported over the secure psychic link. "The targets were rigged to collapse upon entry."

"Decoys," Rudy said over the comms. "Lu Bela, report your status."

Deep within the western mountains inside the fortified structure of Node Five, Lu Bela stood among fallen HWSD guards. She had simply locked down the life support systems in the outer corridors upon entry to suffocate the opposition before a single shot could be fired.

The artificial goddess walked up to the highly encrypted vault door at the heart of the facility. Her optical sensors flared brightly with a swirling galaxy pattern. She pressed her bare hand against the reinforced steel. The system bypassed the quantum encrypted firewalls in a fraction of a second.

The metal doors hissed and the ground opened. A blinding wave of pure condensed mana spilled into the corridor. The sheer volume of magic radiating from the chamber dwarfed anything previously recorded in the modern world.

"Target acquired, my Lord," Lu Bela reported over the comms. "I have located the true containment vessel. The twenty two thousand compressed hero souls are secured within Node Five."

"Excellent," Rudy replied.

The space next to Lu Bela violently shattered. A crimson spatial rift tore open to allow Rudy to step out of the void directly into the western black site. He adjusted the cuffs of his tailored black suit and locked his dark eyes onto the blinding light spilling from the open vault.

Rudy stepped into the center of the vault to examine the massive containment vessel. Swirling blue and gold energy from twenty-two thousand compressed souls cast bright reflections across the steel walls.

"This is quite the battery," Rudy remarked with a smirk. "Let us take it home."

He extended both hands toward the glowing structure. A colossal rift of pure void opened directly beneath the machinery. The spatial tear swallowed the entire vessel in a single motion. The blinding light vanished completely. The underground room plunged back into total darkness.

"Job done," Rudy said over the comms. "Recall your units and return to the Keep."

Lu Bela nodded and stepped through a newly opened portal alongside him. They materialized back in the war room of the Orcelona Keep. Kim arrived a moment later with her Under Blades.

"The prize is secured," Lu Bela reported. "The vessel currently sits within the deepest subterranean levels of the castle."

Kim deactivated her energy daggers and leaned against the obsidian table. "That was almost too easy. The HWSD forces completely relied on their decoys."

'Their arrogance makes them predictable,' Rudy thought, tapping the holographic map. "They have nothing left to negotiate with."

Rudy walked down the dark stone stairs and entered the deepest subterranean level of the keep. Kim and Lu Bela followed close behind him. The massive containment vessel sat in the center of the obsidian room. Swirling blue and gold energy from the compressed souls illuminated the dark walls.

Kim crossed her arms and looked up at the towering machine. "Are you going to absorb them all at once? That much condensed mana might cause a physical backlash."

Rudy let out a loud laugh. He walked right up to the glowing metal casing.

"I have absolutely zero need for more power," Rudy said with a wide grin. "My strength is already infinite. Absorbing this would be entirely pointless."

Meanwhile, deep beneath the capital city, the digital facade of the Bureau shattered entirely. The parasite controlling the dead founders abandoned its holographic avatar. The physical servers in the mainframe room melted into pools of black sludge and shifting flesh.

Massive grotesque entities ripped themselves out of the digital network to enter the physical plane. They possessed countless multi-jointed limbs and clusters of glowing red eyes spanning across twisted asymmetrical bodies. The illusion of human governance vanished. The architects of the new world were actual cosmic anomalies… the eldritch horrors wearing human infrastructure like a skin suit.

One of the towering monstrosities dragged its spiked appendages across the metal floor. A chorus of distorted voices erupted from a tear in its fleshy chest.

"The anomaly has stolen our harvest," the creature screeched. "The human disguise is no longer viable."

Another horror uncoiled from the ceiling to join the grotesque assembly. "We will consume the pest and devour his entire timeline."

The entire subterranean hive resonated with a terrifying unified shriek. The eldritch horrors officially declared a full-scale war to reclaim their stolen power.