I Killed the Hero and Took His Achievements-Chapter 56: The Sky Bleeds

[Location: HMS Profit Margin - The Bridge]

[Time: 12:00 PM (Technically)]

[Status: Eerily Calm.]

The sun was supposed to be high in the sky, but it wasn’t. The world was bathed in a strange muted twilight. The wind and birds seemed to be stopped, and even the ocean below paused its tides.

I stood on the bridge while swirling a glass of wine.

"Boss," Sparky’s voice was a nervous whisper over the comms. "The scanners... they’re dead. No signals, no background radiation. It’s like the universe just... muted us."

"It’s not muted," I said while staring at the viewscreen. "It’s holding its breath."

Seraphina shivered. She hugged her arms, and her new Harlot-Saintess robes fluttering slightly despite the lack of wind. "I feel a pressure, Cain. It’s not mana. It’s... malice intention. It’s like the sky is looking down at us, it hates what it sees."

"Of course it hates us," I smiled while taking a sip. "We just kidnapped their Auditor and stole 500 Trillion Credits. I’d be upset too."

Ahri was pacing back and forth while her nine plasma tails were twitching. "I don’t like this. I prefer it when things are exploding. Silence makes my fur stand up."

"Patience, little fox," I said. "The explosion is coming." I walked to the main console. I pulled up the [Sol Armistice Treaty] timer.

[System Check...]

[Treaty Status: Valid.]

[Time Remaining: 152 Days...]

Then, the text flickered. It turned red.

[System Alert: External Override.]

[Treaty Status: VOID.]

[Reason: Hostile Action against Galactic Bank Personnel.]

The timer dissolved into static. "There it is," I murmured. DROP. It started with a single drop. Not rain, not water. It was a drop of red liquid fell from the upper atmosphere. It hit the ship’s Void Shield. HISS. It sizzled, burned, and left a black scorch mark on the energy field.

"Acid rain?" Sylvia asked while stepping onto the bridge. She was fully armored, and her ice-dragon wings folded tight.

"No," I said. "Blood."

The sky began to change. The blue faded into a bruising purple. Then, like a wound opening, it turned into a violent arterial red. The clouds evaporated instantly, and boiled away by an unseen heat. The sun disappeared. In its place, the stars returned, but they weren’t stars, they were engines, and thousands of lights flickered into existence in the high orbit. They filled the sky from horizon to horizon. It wasn’t just a fleet, it was a metal firmament.

[Scan Complete.]

[Enemy Fleet Detected.]

[Count: 10,000 Ships.]

[Class: World-Breakers, Dreadnoughts, Carriers.]

"By the Avarice..." Seraphina gasped while falling to her knees. "There are so many... they block out the light!"

A sound began to build. A low vibrating hum that shook the rivets of my ship. It wasn’t coming from the ships, but it was coming from everywhere. It was a voice. "YOU REJECTED MY OFFER." It was the Monarch of Greed. He wasn’t projecting a hologram this time. Instead, he was projecting his voice directly into the atmosphere by using a sheer soundwave. The ocean below began to boil. "YOU STOLE MY ASSETS, CORRUPTED MY SYSTEMS, AND EVEN INSULTED MY AUTHORITY."

"I also stole your lunch money," I whispered to myself. "NOW I REJECT YOUR EXISTENCE." The red lights in the sky grew brighter. "INITIATE PROTOCOL: GLASS PLANET. Shields!" I roared. "Max power! NOW!"

Sparky didn’t hesitate. He slammed the master switch. VWOOM. The Planetary Shield, the blue grid I had hacked and reinforced was flared to life. It covered the planet in a dome of energy.

Just in time, the sky lit up. Tens of thousand lasers fired simultaneously. It wasn’t just a barrage, it was like a wall of solid light. A rain of destruction that descended like the wrath of god. BOOM.

The sound was deafening. It wasn’t just a singular explosion, it was like a continuous roar of impact. The lasers hit the Planetary Shield, the sky turned white. The impact was so massive that the planet itself was pushed slightly of its orbital axis.

"Shield integrity dropping!" Sparky screamed while his voice barely audible over the shaking. "80%... 70%... Boss! The grid is buckling! The thermal load is too high!"

"Hold it!" I ordered. "Divert all auxiliary power to the grid!"

"I’m trying! But they are using anti-matter beams! It’s eating the mana!"

I looked down at the planet. I saw panic. Cities were in chaos. People were running in the streets while looking up at the burning sky. A stray beam punched through a weak point in the shield over the Eastern Desert. It hit a mountain range. There was no explosion. The mountain just... ceased to exist. It was vaporized into a crater of molten glass in a millisecond.

"One hit," Sylvia whispered, her face pale. "One hit got through and erased a mountain. If that shield fails..."

"We all die," Ahri finished. "Instantly."

The bridge was silent. The crew looked at me. They were terrified. This wasn’t a fight they could win. This was an extermination. I looked at the red sky and the burning shield. I then took a sip of my wine. "Finally," I said. They stared at me.

"Finally?" Seraphina asked, her voice trembling. "Master... the world is ending!"

"No," I grinned viciously. "The beginning is ending." I smashed the wine glass on the floor. "They stopped talking and started shooting. That means they are afraid."

"Afraid of what?" Sylvia asked. "They have 10,000 ships!"

"They are afraid of me." I walked to the main console. I shoved Sparky aside gently. "They want a war? Let’s give them a war." I tapped the comms. "Sylvia. Get to the Dragon Roost. Wake up every wyvern, every drake, and every flying lizard we have. If it has wings, I want it in the air immediately."

"Yes, Master!" Sylvia saluted, her fear replaced by duty. She ran for the hangar.

"Ahri. Man the point-defense turrets. If a single fighter breaches the shield, I want it to turn into scrap metal."

"On it!" Ahri vanished in a burst of fox-fire.

"Seraphina." The Saintess looked up with teary-eyed. "Broadcast a global buff," I ordered. "Tell the people to pray. Not to the Goddess. To me. Tell them their faith is the only thing keeping the roof from falling on their heads."

"I... I will try!" She ran to the broadcast room.

I was alone with Sparky on the bridge. I grabbed the throttle for the Atlantis Thrusters. "Sparky. Disengage the safeties on the World Engine."

"Boss? If we do that, the city will... it will move!"

"That’s the point." I pushed the throttle forward. RUMBLE. The entire floating city of Atlantis, currently hovering over the capital, began to vibrate. "We aren’t going to hide under the shield," I said while my eyes were glowing with the chaotic light of my class. "We are going to punch them in the face."

I pulled the stick back. "Ascend." The city of Atlantis began to rise. Millions of tons of stone and gold lifted higher into the sky, moving toward the burning grid of the shield. "They want to annihilate the planet?" I laughed maniacally while echoing in the empty bridge. "Fine. Let’s see if they can annihilate a flying continent that fly straight to their face."

[System Alert]

[Operation: Sky-Fall Initiated.]

[Target: The Interstellar Fleet.]

I drew my sword, The Star-Slayer. It hummed, sensing the void above. "Let’s go say hello to the neighbors."

As Atlantis ascended, the sheer displacement of air created hurricanes on the surface below. But I didn’t care about the weather report, I cared about the course. I synced the Profit Margin’s navigation with the city’s core. "Link us," I commanded Sol. "Make the city respond to my helm."

"Affirmative. City linked. You are now piloting a metropolis."

"Good. Full speed ahead." We broke the cloud layer. The red light of the bombardment was blinding now. The shield grid was right above us, sizzling and popping under the strain.

"Sparky, lower the shield in Area 4. Just enough for us to squeeze through."

"Are you insane?! The moment I lower it, they’ll pour fire through the gap!"

"They won’t have time." I watched the tactical map. The enemy fleet was clustered directly above Area 4, pouring fire onto the shield’s weakest point. They were focused. "Drop it. Now." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Sparky hit the switch. The blue grid flickered and opened a hole five miles wide. The enemy commanders must have thought their bombardment had finally broken through. I imagined their brief moment of triumph. And then I imagined their faces when an entire city flew out of the hole at Mach 3.

"SURPRISE!" I shouted vociferously. Atlantis slammed into the enemy formation. It was glorious. The city’s forcefield, designed to withstand ocean pressure, acted like a sheer battering ram. We smashed through three Destroyers instantly. Their hulls crumpled like tin foil against the ancient Atlantean stone. Explosions blossomed in the vacuum. Silent and beautiful flowers of fire. The enemy fleet scattered in panic. They had expected missiles and fighters, but they hadn’t expected a floating city that rummage the ships.

"We’re through!" Sparky cheered. "We’re in space!"

I looked out the window. The red sky was below us now. Around us was the void, filled with the debris of the ships we just crushed. "Don’t celebrate yet," I said while pointing at the massive Golden Ziggurat looming in the distance. The Monarch’s flagship. "We just kicked the hornet’s nest. Now... we burn the hive."