King Boleslaw hastily donned the exquisitely crafted power armor of the First King, gifted to him by the Magos Kivior. He regained a shred of courage as he strapped on the multi-barrel las cannon to his arm.
He remembered when he was eighteen, clad in the same armor, testing its power on the training field. A single salvo had obliterated a Miguel steel training dummy.
King Boleslaw shouted to his personal guards, "Follow me into battle! Kill the traitor!"
Then, he strode toward the palace gates.
He had only taken three steps when the gates exploded with a thunderous crash.
The king's guards charged at Nareth.
King Boleslaw raised both arms. At last, he had a chance—he pulled the trigger without hesitation. Dozens of laser beams blazed towards the door.
These beams, powerful enough to pierce armored vehicles, punched through the back of several loyal guards' skulls. He felt no sorrow; as long as he could kill that demon-like enemy, anything was worth it.
He saw two beams strike the giant, piercing his armor.
His eyes widened. The giant didn't fall—he wasn't even truly harmed. As the dazzling light faded, Boleslaw could see, through the holes, only slightly dimmed skin.
'Monster!'
In the next instant, Nareth blinked in front of King Boleslaw and sent him flying over ten meters with a single punch.
When Howard and the others reached the top of the palace, they found King Boleslaw embedded in a wall, now a living sculpture.
The blonde noble stood stunned for a few seconds before coming to his senses. A new era had arrived. As one of the earliest to swear loyalty, he needed to prove his worth to the new king.
"My lord, if you wish to control the Tizca Hive Capital, you must win the support of the Mechanicus.
Nareth, noticing his composure, grew suspicious and activated his spirit vision.
With training and gene awakening, he had begun fusing this spiritual vision with his superhuman senses.
Rather than the usual gentle tap on the forehead, he activated it through sheer willpower in a second.
"You seem to have a plan. Speak."
"My lord, what truly matters to the Mechanicus is the industrial output of Tizca Hive—its tithes of resources and manufactured goods."
"House Fender has long had close ties with them. I am willing to represent you in talks with Kaminsky."
Nareth saw that Howard's aura glowed red with fervent enthusiasm and white with positivity, typical of someone who had just pledged loyalty and was eager to prove himself.
"Very well. You will represent me in negotiations with the Mechanicus."
Nareth and Howard quickly set the basic terms: Howard would handle the discussions; Nareth would make the final decisions.
He deactivated spirit vision and took the communicator that Howard offered. After confirming the channel, he spoke.
"Order your forces to enter the outer defensive perimeter of the spire tower and establish a line of defense."
Thanks to Howard's defection and the collapse of morale, several turrets were still operational.
Nareth's trusted men couldn't yet handle such complex weaponry, and the loyalty of the Fender family still needed testing, so he tasked them with the outer defenses.
"At once, my lord."
Howard immediately left with his family's guards, securing the defenses around the hive tower.
Bukayo and Roslov approached. The boy's dagger dripped with blood. Having completed his revenge, he spoke:
"My lord, I have eliminated all remaining members of the Boleslaw family."
"Only Prince Robert of the Boleslaw line remains. He's off-world."
"I interrogated his wife. She said the Oceanus, Vostroya's agri supplier, was attacked by xenos. Kaminsky visited in person, and Robert led his forces to respond."
By the time the prince returned, Nareth would already control everything. More pressing now was the xeno threat.
"Xeno raiders?"
"My lord, she didn't know the details, only that Magos Kaminsky requested it, and Robert personally led the response."
Nareth nodded. To understand the alien situation better, he would need to investigate later.
Then Roslov reported, "My lord, the sire tower has been sealed. The purge is underway."
Nareth ordered Roslov to maintain defense and cleanse the spire of remnants. He turned to Bukayo:
"Scout the upper hive. Go alone."
"Yes, my lord."
The two also found communicators on the corpses. After syncing channels, Nareth sent them off and returned to the "Kingdom of Disorder" alone inside the empty palace.
Nareth suddenly felt a lightness—a floating sensation in his body.
'Could it be? After advancing to Sequence 8, my physical body can enter the Kingdom of Disorder, too?'
In the next moment, his body vanished from the palace.
Upon entering the Kingdom of Disorder, he immediately noticed that the realm of black mist had transformed again.
Beneath his feet, the black stones concealed thirty-three layers of space within the swirling fog.
Each layer had countless buildings faintly visible. At the very top stood a majestic, towering palace.
He tried to go to the opposite side, and instantly appeared on the bottommost layer of that side.
He then tried ascending, but his body remained still; he lacked the authority for those higher layers.
He approached a stone house and compared this space to the previous "shadow" side.
'This place feels more real, time flows, space has meaning, even the buildings truly exist'
'The other side is like this one's shadow, illusory, unbound by physical laws, infinite and dreamlike.'
With a thought, he returned to the real world.
'The Kingdom of Disorder's changes… it could serve as a refuge, and my physical body can now enter the true kingdom.'
Nareth's eyes lit up. Countless thoughts swirled in his mind. He decided to test his ideas later to see which might be possible.
With another thought, he appeared before the Blasphemy Slate in the shadow side, and as expected, more changes had occurred.
The Sequence 9 potion formulas for 22 paths were now unlocked, except for two: "Abyss" and "Prisoner."
As for Sequence 8, only the "Barbarian" potion was revealed.
He focused on the Sequence 7 potion for his own path:
Sequence 7 "Briber" Potion Recipe:
Main Ingredients:
1 Night Shard
1 Umbral Specters
Secondary Ingredients:
1100 mL of Black Vosvoth
1 Holograph of a Space Ape
Abilities: [...]
Nareth frowned. He realized he couldn't reach Sequence 7 anytime soon.
Not only were three of the ingredients dim on the slate, indicating they were unavailable, but he also understood their rarity:
Umbral Specters: the easiest to find, dwelling in the void and attracted to warp resonant zones. A ship engaging in warp travel would likely attract one. But few tech-priests or engineers noticed the tiny 80mm creatures.
Space Ape: Old Ones' creations, they roamed the galaxy in nomadic packs of a dozen or so, with survival as their only goal.
Night Shards: psionic crystals from the Vraksian nomads, used by Imperial astropaths as divination foci. The Vraksian have a nomadic empire in the Segmetum Obscurus, like the apes, finding them would take luck.
Slightly disappointed, Nareth thought:
'Once I conquer Vostroya and secure cooperation with the Mechanicus, I'll expand beyond this planet—and gather potion ingredients along the way.'
Returning to the real world, he walked to the wall.
When he pulled the ring off King Boleslaw's hand, he hadn't yet mastered his new strength, so he yanked the entire hand off, like pulling a carrot out of the ground.