SSS-RANK: Super Extraction System-Chapter 21: [21] An Audience with the Marquis

Chapter 21: [21] An Audience with the Marquis
The light hurt.
After hours of crawling through suffocating, damp tunnels, the brilliance of the ballroom hit them like a flashbang.
Wraith Squad stumbled out of the darkness and onto a floor of polished black marble. Above them or below them, given the inverted gravity of the spire hung crystal chandeliers the size of houses. They blazed with a pristine, white magical light that banished every shadow in the room to the edges.
The room was vast, a cathedral of opulence buried in the mud.
At the far end, raised on a dais of obsidian, sat a throne carved from a single piece of black crystal.
And sitting on it was Marquis Kain.
He didn’t look like a monster. He looked like a king in his court.
He wore a tailored suit of dark velvet, threaded with silver that caught the light. One leg was crossed casually over the other. In his pale, manicured hand, he held a crystal flute filled with a thick, red liquid.
He swirled the glass gently as the squad entered, weapons raised.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Kain set the glass down on a floating side table and applauded slowly.
"Right on time," Kain said. His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried across the massive room with supernatural clarity. It was smooth, cultured, and terrifyingly bored.
"Spread out!" Justin barked, his voice tight.
The squad fanned out instantly. Rhino took the left flank, his shotgun racked. Jinx scrambled behind a marble pillar, deploying her drones. Leon and Iron stood center, facing the throne.
Kain didn’t rise. He smiled, his red eyes locking directly onto Leon.
"Welcome to my Dominion," he purred. "I trust the tour was educational? The murals in the gallery are quite... evocative."
He leaned forward, his gaze intensifying.
"And you," Kain said, his voice dropping an octave. "The little shadow. The Heir. I have been waiting for you."
Leon felt a pressure slam into his mind. It was the Gaze again, but stronger this time. Focused. It felt like a drill boring into his skull.
[ SYSTEM ALERT ]
[ MENTAL ASSAULT DETECTED ]
[ PASSIVE: MENTAL RESISTANCE (MINOR) ACTIVATED ]
Leon gritted his teeth, shaking off the paralysis. "I’m here to kill you."
Kain laughed. It was a dry, chilling sound.
"Kill me? Oh, child. You are barely out of the cradle. You have a fragment of a dead god in your chest, and you think it makes you my equal?"
He stood up. The movement was liquid, blurring slightly as if he wasn’t fully anchored in reality.
"This ruin," Kain gestured around him. "This is not just a building. It is my will made manifest. Here, I am the law."
The air pressure in the room spiked. The chandeliers rattled.
[ WARNING: DOMINION FIELD DETECTED ]
[ TYPE: GRAVITY MANIPULATION ]
"Kneel," Kain whispered.
CRACK.
Gravity increased tenfold.
It hit them like a physical hammer. Rhino groaned as his knees buckled, the marble floor cracking under his weight. Jinx shrieked as she was flattened against the pillar. Justin fell to one knee, struggling to keep his head up.
Only Kain remained standing.
"Pathetic," the vampire sighed. "Is this the best the Federation can offer? A few toys and a stolen legacy?"
Leon was on his hands and knees. His bones creaked. It felt like the cathedral itself was sitting on his shoulders.
Iron, his Shadow Servant, flickered violently. The construct was destabilizing under the immense pressure.
"Get... up..." Leon hissed.
He focused his core. He reached into the Monarch’s Key Fragment.
[ MONARCH’S LEGACY: RESISTING... ]
[ SHADOW MANIFESTATION: REINFORCE ]
Shadows wrapped around Leon’s limbs, hardening into hydraulic-like supports. He forced himself to one knee. Then, with a roar of effort, he stood.
Kain raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised. "Oh? You can stand in my presence? Perhaps the vessel is stronger than I thought."
He snapped his fingers.
Gravity snapped back to normal.
Rhino gasped, sucking in air as the weight vanished. Jinx collapsed, coughing.
"I have no time for games," Kain said, his voice hardening. "I have invited guests coming, and I need to clean up the trash."
He waved his hand toward the ceiling shadows.
"Entertain my pets. If you survive, I might let you live long enough to watch me extract your core."
From the shadows of the vaulted ceiling, massive shapes shifted.
Thick, white cables of silk shot down, anchoring to the floor.
Down the lines descended nightmares. They were spiders the size of armored cars, with bloated, pale abdomens and multiple, glistening black eyes. Their legs were tipped with razor-sharp bone scythes.
[ HOSTILES DETECTED ]
[ TYPE: ARACHNE WEAVERS ]
[ RANK: C+ (SWARM) ]
[ COUNT: 6 ]
"Weavers!" Jinx screamed, scrambling back. "Don’t let them touch you! Their venom liquefies organs!"
Kain stepped back into the shadows behind his throne. He began to fade, becoming ethereal.
"Prove you are worthy, little shadow," his voice echoed from everywhere. "Or die like the rest."
He vanished.
The Weavers dropped to the floor with heavy, wet thuds. They hissed, mandibles clicking.
"Formation!" Justin shouted, favoring his left leg. "Rhino, hold the center! Jinx, support! Leon, kill them!"
The battle exploded.
Two Weavers rushed Rhino. He roared, his skin turning jagged grey.
[ ABILITY: RHINO-HIDE ]
[ DESCRIPTION: Increases density and impact resistance. ]
He caught the first spider’s scythe-legs, grappling with the beast. The second one flanked him, spitting a stream of green venom.
"Rhino!" Jinx yelled. She threw a disc.
[ ABILITY: EMP GRENADE ]
[ DESCRIPTION: Releases a pulse of disrupted mana, stunning magical creatures. ]
ZZZT.
The blast disrupted the spider’s nervous system for a second. Rhino used the opening to smash the first spider’s head with his shotgun butt, caving in its skull.
But three more were closing in on Leon.
They moved with terrifying speed, skittering across the polished floor, their claws scratching the marble.
Leon didn’t retreat. He ran forward.
[ SHADOW GLIDE: ACTIVE ]
[ DESCRIPTION: User becomes semi-ethereal, moving through physical space with reduced friction. ]
He slid under the first spider’s lunge, slashing upward with his shadow-steel daggers. He cut two legs off at the joint. The creature shrieked, collapsing.
Iron was right beside him. The Shadow Knight swung its greatsword, cleaving into the second spider’s carapace. Black ichor sprayed across the white floor.
"Behind you!" Justin warned.
A Weaver dropped from the ceiling directly onto Leon’s back.
Its weight crushed him to the floor. Mandibles snapped inches from his neck. Drool sizzled on his armor.
Leon struggled, but the creature was heavy. He couldn’t get leverage.
Thump.
The spider reared back to strike with its fangs.
Leon’s eyes flashed red.
[ SHADOW MANIFESTATION: SPIKE ]
He slammed his hand onto the floor.
A spike of solidified shadow erupted from the ground directly beneath the spider. It pierced the creature’s soft abdomen, impaling it.
The spider screeched and thrashed. Leon kicked it off him and rolled to his feet.
"Jinx! The webs!" Leon shouted.
The remaining Weavers weren’t just attacking; they were spinning. Thick, white webs were flying across the room, creating walls, cutting off the squad’s movement.
"I can’t cut them!" Jinx cried, her laser cutter failing. "They’re magically reinforced!"
"They’re separating us," Justin realized. "Isolate and kill."
A wall of web shot up between Leon and the rest of the squad. He was cut off.
Three Weavers turned their multiple eyes toward him.
Leon stood alone on his side of the barrier. Iron stood beside him, sword ready.
"Just us, Iron," Leon whispered.
The Weavers charged.
This wasn’t a fight. It was a butchery.
Leon moved faster than he ever had. He used Shadow Glide to phase through attacks. He used Iron as a shield, letting the shadow servant tank hits that would have killed him, then reforming the servant instantly with his mana.
He was a whirlwind of black steel.
He gutted the first spider. He blinded the second.
The third one, the biggest of the pack lunged. It sprayed a massive cone of venom.
There was nowhere to dodge. The web wall was behind him.
Leon raised his hand.
[ SHADOW MANIFESTATION: WALL ]
He commanded the shadows on the floor to rise up, forming a solid wall of darkness.
The venom splashed against the shadow-wall, hissing and boiling. It ate through the darkness in seconds, but it bought him time.
Leon burst through the dissipating shadow-wall.
He jumped.
He landed on the Weaver’s face.
He drove both daggers into its brain cluster.
The creature thrashed, throwing him off. Leon hit the ground, rolling.
The spider twitched and died.
Silence fell on his side of the web.
"Leon!" Rhino’s voice was muffled through the barrier. "You alive?"
"I’m clear!" Leon shouted back. "Cutting through!"
He slashed at the web wall with his shadow-steel daggers. The metal reacted to the magic, burning through the silk.
He stepped through the hole.
The rest of the squad was battered but standing. Rhino was covered in green slime. Jinx was shaking. Justin was reloading his last mag.
The floor was littered with giant spider corpses.
"We survived," Jinx whispered, sounding like she didn’t believe it.
"For now," Justin said. He looked at the empty throne. "That was just the warm-up."
Leon looked at the throne too. Kain was gone, but his presence was stronger than ever.
The air shimmered.
A voice echoed from the door behind the throne.
"Impressive," Kain purred. "You broke my toys. Come then, little shadow. Come down to the Spire. Let us end this."
Leon wiped the spider blood from his face.
"He’s calling us out," Rhino grunted.
"He’s leading us into a trap," Justin corrected.
"Trap or not," Leon said, sheathing his daggers. "It’s the only way forward."
He looked at his team. They were hurt. Tired. Scared.
But they were still standing.
"We finish this," Leon said.
He walked toward the door behind the throne. The final descent into the heart of the abyss.