"This is the footage captured by the surveillance cameras. My king, please have a look."
Muravsky operated the datapad and displayed the battle footage for the Mad King.
Puhachi's cybernetic eye rotated, focusing on the enemy forces that had slaughtered their way into the upper hive and were heading straight for his Hive Spire.
When he saw the giant in the footage, his mechanical eye glowed red.
Seconds later, Puhachi abruptly stood up.
"Good! Excellent!"
His crimson mechanical eye swept over everyone in the room, and he sneered.
"Fools, now you will see, this is the moment you understand how fragile flesh truly is."
"That brute thinks he's strong, but compared to me, me-with my perfect body, he's nothing more than a toy."
"Bring up the surveillance footage beneath the Spire. You worthless lot, open your eyes and watch closely."
With that, Puhachi strode out of the palace.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. One thought surfaced in most minds:
'Omnissiah above, please grant that giant victory. Let him slay the Mad King!'
As the elevator reached the ground, Puhachi couldn't wait; he rammed the iron doors open and charged outside toward the Hive Spire.
As he ran, the full battlefield came into view.
To his shock, his meticulously crafted steel legion, despite outnumbering the enemy several times, held no advantage and was being beaten back.
This is illogical.
His cyber-eye flashed. He activated a dynamic scanner installed in his left eye to assess the battlefield.
He first locked onto two targets: Thierry Vieira and a burly man he didn't recognize. Both were tearing through his steel soldiers like paper.
The scanner deemed them moderate threats, so he lost interest.
He then pushed the scanner to its limits and finally locked onto the giant.
In the next instant, the scanner sparked violently, and Puhachi lost all vision in his left eye.
"Impossible! ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE!"
He stared at the giant with his remaining eye. Someone had actually exceeded the scanner's analysis threshold, this defied all of his understanding.
His body trembled. He charged directly at the giant.
Puhachi would not allow anything that violated reason and truth to exist. The heretical giant had to be purged.
Nareth had noticed the mechanical being the moment it stepped out of the Spire Tower. He quickly connected it to the identity of the Mad King of Lukevo.
Swinging his massive halberd to clear a swath of enemies, he was just about to execute the enemy leader, when Puhachi rushed toward him.
"Heretic! Die!"
A mechanical buzz mixed with electrical static came from Puhachi's voice synthesizer.
He raised his left arm, a 3.2-meter-long folded mantis blade, and slashed downward at Nareth's head.
Nareth parried with his halberd.
Clang!
The blade tip cut a deep groove into the weapon's shaft.
Forged at great cost and tempered many times, the mantis blade held the upper hand.
In that moment, the noise in Puhachi's mind fell silent.
"Machines are invinci—"
His voice cut off mid-sentence.
Suddenly, a massive force surged from the halberd.
BOOM!
The mantis blade shattered. Fragments tore through the air and struck several charging steel soldiers.
One shard pierced clean through a soldier's alloy armor, punctured his heart, and burst out the other side.
A spinning pivot joint smashed into another's throat, blood erupted like a fountain.
"Mistake... it's all a mistake..."
Puhachi heard the mechanical wails of his failing body. He swung his mechanical arm at Nareth.
But Nareth caught the punch effortlessly with his left hand.
With a simple flick, Puhachi's body flew through the air uncontrollably.
Nareth then swung the Mad King like a massive flail, first to the left, crushing several steel soldiers into pulp, then to the rear, sweeping away another cluster of enemies.
Finding the "weapon" unexpectedly effective, Nareth charged into the densest part of the enemy horde, swinging Puhachi like a windmill. Enemies dropped like harvested wheat.
The steel soldiers desperately charged Nareth, trying to rescue their king, their guide to mechanical ascension.
They surged like a tide toward the giant.
Only to shatter against a reef harder than steel, flung in all directions.
Nareth kept swinging Puhachi madly until.
BOOM!
The mechanical body finally shattered under his ferocious strength. Only then did he stop.
At that moment, having broken Lukevo's rules with such barbaric behavior, Nareth felt the potion within him mostly digested.
"King Puhachi is dead!"
The steel soldiers' eyes widened. Their faith was shattered. They collapsed to their knees in despair.
"The Mad King is dead!"
Back in the palace at the Spire Tower, the hall erupted in cheers. Most nobles raised their arms and shouted, celebrating the end of a dark era.
They turned to the retreating mutants:
"Don't let the Mad King's lapdogs escape!"
While nobles vented their fury, Thierry ran to confirm Puhachi's corpse. Once sure the Mad King was truly dead, he immediately knelt before Nareth.
"My king, I, Thierry Vieira, swear upon you once more, with the honor and soul of my house to serve you loyally, forevermore!"
"I accept your allegiance."
Nareth replied deeply, "Gather your men. Follow me to the Spire."
"Roslov, take your forces. Round up and detain the enemies."
"Establish a defensive perimeter."
"Yes, my lord!"
Roslov accepted the order and moved swiftly.
Led by Thierry, Nareth reached the palace.
As he entered, he saw the golden hall stained red with blood, corpses lying in pools of it.
He glanced toward the lavishly dressed nobles, and before he could speak, they all dropped to one knee.
"We pledge our loyalty to Lukevo's liberator!"
Nareth fell silent. He activated his Spirit Vision and scanned the room. Most nobles had auras of bright yellow and white—signs of joy, relief, and light.
Now he understood.
"I accept your allegiance."
"My king, the entire Hive welcomes your rule, except for Kivior-15, Magos of the Third Altar."
Nareth had already prepared for this. He turned to the Lukevo nobles and asked sternly:
"Has there been a sharp drop in productivity recently?"
The nobles were stunned. 'How did this giant know? Did Thierry tell him?'
"My king, I am Count Muravsky. Wise as you are—it is indeed so."
Nareth nodded. His judgment was spot on.
Puhachi, obsessed with machines, contemptuous of flesh, bordering on madness, clearly never took the xeno pirate-induced food crisis seriously.
If even remote Tizca was affected, then densely populated, central Lukevo would have been hit even harder. But no one dared report it, and Puhachi never cared about fragile flesh.
"I need a representative to tell the Magos that I will restore and increase Lukevo's productivity."
The nobles looked at one another before turning to Muravsky.
"My king, I will go. I believe that the Magos does not want war to continue in Lukevo."
"My king, I will go with Count Muravsky."
Thierry volunteered. Nareth agreed immediately.
"Good."
"Tell Magos Kivior-15 that if he doubts me, he may confirm with Magos Kaminsky."