Author's Preface
"I'm sorry, Serenya," the Wanderer whispered into the roaring wind. "Valorians don't want to be saved."
The earth beneath him began to tremble.
"But I can make sure they pay for their Valorian justice."
The ground shattered open. Massive leylines tore free from the depths of the earth like titan snakes, swaying unnaturally as they arched high into the pale sky.
The Wanderer grunted in agony. His skin began to peel away, only to regenerate and tear open all over again. The Spiral in his socket was the worst, it burned with the heat of a thousand suns.
He slammed his right palm over his eye, screaming into the storm, but the blazing light burned even brighter, searing his own flesh into ash upon his hand.
Around him, every soul on the battlefield froze in horror as they watched a man being skinned alive and reborn in a relentless loop.
Then came the void.
The Spiral began pulling energy from everything around it. The mages shrieked as their internal circles were drained dry. The Blue Vanguard’s armor glowed red before being stripped of every drop of magic and crumbled into white dust.
The scene was accompanied by a symphony of agony. The Wanderer screams tore through the battlefield along the uncontrollable mana, till it turned into something more twisted. His unhinged laughter echoed off the crumbling walls.
"Yes..." he choked out through a half-deformed mouth. "I remember this ecstasy... MORE!"
The colossal serpents of the leylines thrashed through the sky before snapping downward, driving straight into his chest. Energy meant to sustain the entire world was forcefully pumped into his core.
Inside him, his five mana circles grew to ten.
Then fifty, a hundred, a thousand, until infinite rings of compressed mana collapsed around his heart, forming a miniature star of mana.
His physical form expanded, doubling in size as his muscle and bone shifted under the strain. From his empty right shoulder, a new limb ripped outward. An arm forged of crackling energy.
From his bleeding left eye blue flame ignited, crowning his titanic figure in an infernal blaze.
[WARNING: The current vessel state cannot sustain World Ender Protocol for long]
[Estimated full physical collapse within 5 minutes]
"Five minutes is more than enough," the Wanderer growled.
The Wanderer moved so fast that everyone witnessed thought he teleported somehow.
He materialized atop the high walls of Valoria. The ramparts cracked beneath his titanic mass.
Altharion was hurled onto his back by the shockwave. The blind king scrambled backward over the broken stone, his face pale, his voice trembling in panic.
"What... what kind of monster are you?!"
"A monster, huh? I've been called that a lot."
The Wanderer flexed his new arm, watching the mana crackle across its length, before turning back to Altharion. "Maybe I am."
Altharion shrieked, scrambling backward on his hands and knees. "What are you waiting for?! Kill him! Wulfric, fire the cannons!"
Wulfric trembled. "My Lord... we are within the blast radius! It will tear the entire wall down!"
"I said fire them!"
Frantically, Wulfric pulled up a device and roared the order into it.
The Wanderer turned to Wulfric. "Thank you for your service, General."
With a flick of his hand, Wulfric's upper body disintegrated into ash, his legs remained standing for a second before collapsing onto the stones.
Panicking, Altharion scrambled to his feet and sprinted down the rampart.
In an instant, the Wanderer materialized in front of him. "Where to, my King?"
Altharion gasped, turning around to run in the opposite direction, only for the titanic figure to block his path yet again. "We still have a few minutes to spare."
Deafening thunders echoed from the heart of the city as the hidden Mortal Cannons fired their condensed payloads into the sky. The blasts arced upward, descending rapidly toward the ruined gate wall.
Altharion ducked in horror, throwing his arms over his head and waiting for obliteration.
A second passed. Then two. But the impact never came.
Slowly, the blind king raised his head. Hovering above the Wanderer's upturned palm was every single cannon blast, compressed together into a sphere of volatile magic.
The Wanderer glanced up at the pulsing sphere, then looked down at the shivering king. "Want to taste your own cannons?"
"Stop!" a voice called out from the stairwell.
Zeek crawled out onto the shattered wall, dragging his body across the stone.
"I told you to think carefully about which side you chose, Captain," the Wanderer said.
Zeek hauled himself closer, gasping for breath as he looked up at the terrifying titan. "Altharion deserves to die! But if you kill him now, Valoria will fall into chaos! Look at yourself... look at what you’ve become!"
The blue blaze around the Wanderer flickered for a second as he stared down at the captain.
[4 minutes until total vessel collapse]
His expressions hardened back and launched the condensed sphere high into the atmosphere.
"You are right," the Wanderer said to Zeek.
The sphere exploded behind him, illuminating the world like a second sun.
He looked back at Altharion. "He needs to suffer more first."
Zeek lunged forward, clutching at Altharion's robes. "No! Listen to me!"
Before Zeek could finish, the Wanderer seized Altharion by the collar and vanished into thin air.
An instant later, he reappeared, hovering high above the main square of Valoria. Below, thousands of terrified citizens spilled into the streets, looking up at the sky in panic.
"This is your King!" the Wanderer's voice thundered across every district of the capital. "The man who elevated himself above every soul in this realm!"
He hauled Altharion close to his face. "Watch your legacy crumble."
Then, he cast his blazing gaze down at the panicked crowd. "You are just as guilty! You stood by in silence while he butchered innocents! You cheered in this very square after every execution!"
His energy flared outward, darkening the sky above the capital.
"Taste your own justice, Valorians!"
The Wanderer pointed a finger toward the royal palace, and bolts of lightning erupted from his tip, piercing through the sky.
The grand palace exploded into a cloud of dust and debris. Shockwaves rippled outward for miles, leveling the surrounding noble manors and stone towers like houses of cards.
"Please... please! You have done enough!" Altharion sobbed, clutching at the Wanderer's energetic arm. "I will abdicate the throne! I will surrender the kingdom to the people! Just stop this!"
"Too late," the Wanderer sneered.
He looked across the burning capital. "You never cared for your people... so what do you care about?"
[3 minutes until total collapse]
A massive Nullstone caught the Wanderer's eye near the inner citadel. "Ah... your precious stones. Of course."
"No!" Altharion shrieked, his voice breaking in terror. "Anything but the stones!"
The Wanderer sliced through the air, hurling Altharion's body into the Nullstone. The impact didn't break the stone, but the king's body did. His ribs and spine fractured on impact.
The Wanderer blurred, catching him by the throat midair.
"Don't pass out on me just yet," the Wanderer said.
Altharion choked, blood spilling over his chin. "You don't understand! Please! You can't destroy the rest of the stones!"
"Watch me."
The Wanderer raised his palm high above the city, then slammed it into a tight fist.
Simultaneously, all the remaining Nullstones across Valoria shattered into millions of sparkling shards. The sky rained crystals, as citizens screamed and scrambled through the falling debris.
"No..." Altharion whimpered, gasping as the two Nullstone fragments in his own eye sockets cracked.
The Wanderer looked into the empty sockets. "This is justice."
Altharion began to laugh like a madman as blood streamed down his cheeks. "You fool..."
The king drew a concealed dagger from his hip and buried it into his own heart. He looked up at the wanderer. "You have no idea... what you've just unleashed..."
The Wanderer stared down at the dying king, confusion tightening in his chest.
Altharion coughed up a final clot of blood, his body going limp as his breath ceased.
The Wanderer released his grip, carelessly letting the corpse fall onto the ruins below.
"Lived as a tyrant. Died as a coward."
Suddenly, the sky tore open, revealing a cosmic rift spanning the horizon. Looking down through the tear was a slit-pupil eye the size of a city.
A wet squelch echoed through the atmosphere as the eye rolled left and right, surveying the ruined world below, until it finally locked its gaze directly onto the Wanderer.
The iris flared red as the whole sky trembled.
[2 minutes remaining]