The Black Temple
The desert burned beneath a blood-red sunset.
Wind screamed across the dunes as the Iron Wolf Battalion advanced toward the next temple a colossal black pyramid half-buried beneath the sands of Baalania. Crimson symbols pulsed across its stone walls like veins carrying blood through a dead god.
Somewhere inside waited another black box.
Another demon prison.
And this time, the Wolves intended to destroy it before anything escaped.
Darius Vane stood at the front of the squad, heavy rifle resting against one armored shoulder. His cybernetic eye scanned the temple entrance repeatedly.
“No hesitation,” he said coldly. “If that box opens, we burn the entire structure down.”
Elias Rook checked the magazine of his rifle beside Lucien.
Ghostlight still looked exhausted from the last battle. Pale. Quiet. Fragile.
Which was exactly why Elias never let him leave his sight.
“You stay behind me,” Elias said calmly.
Lucien frowned slightly. “I’m not helpless.”
“I know,” Elias answered. “That’s what worries me.”
Kael smirked.
“Oh, he’s doing the protective hero thing again.”
“Shut up, Kael,” Elias replied immediately.
Ahead of them, Orion Hex stared at the temple with visible excitement.
“You know,” the massive engineer muttered, “architecturally speaking, this place is incredible.”
Darius looked at him.
“We’re about to fight demons.”
“Yeah, but look at the stone reinforcement angles!”
No one answered.
Then the sand shifted.
Darius stopped walking instantly.
“Contact.”
The assassins appeared without warning.
Black-robed figures erupted from the dunes like shadows given form, curved blades flashing under moonlight. They moved impossibly fast faster than human eyes should track.
One lunged directly toward Lucien.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK.
Elias fired before the assassin even reached him.
Blue tracer rounds tore through the attacker’s chest midair, launching the body backward into the sand.
Another assassin appeared behind Elias instantly.
Kael intercepted him first.
Steel flashed.
The assassin’s arm hit the ground before the rest of him did.
“Too slow,” Kael grinned.
Then twenty more appeared.
The dunes exploded into chaos.
Assassins sprinted across walls, flipped through gunfire, and vanished into blowing sand before reappearing somewhere else entirely.
“THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!” Orion yelled.
Darius grabbed one attacker by the throat and slammed him through a stone pillar hard enough to shatter it.
Another assassin jumped onto his back.
The Steelborn commander immediately smashed himself backward into a wall, crushing the attacker between reinforced armor and solid stone.
Blood sprayed across black rock.
“Hesitation kills!” Darius roared.
More assassins charged.
Elias stepped in front of Lucien again, rifle firing with brutal precision. Every shot dropped another attacker before they reached the younger operative.
The Golden Hound moved calmly even in chaos.
Controlled.
Protective.
Deadly.
An assassin suddenly slipped past the gunfire and sprinted directly toward Lucien with twin glowing blades raised.
Elias reacted instantly.
He threw himself between them.
The blade slammed into Elias’ shoulder armor instead of Lucien’s throat.
Elias grabbed the assassin’s wrist mid-strike and fired point-blank into the man’s chest.
The body collapsed at his feet.
Lucien stared at him.
“You got hit.”
Elias shrugged despite the dented armor.
“You’re still alive.”
Then the temple doors opened.
Everyone froze.
A giant emerged slowly from the darkness.
Over seven feet tall.
Wrapped in black robes and heavy cloth armor.
Broad shoulders like stone walls.
Golden symbols burned across dark muscular arms.
The man carried no gun.
Only a massive curved blade larger than a human body.
Orion blinked.
“…That’s not normal.”
The giant warrior stopped at the top of the temple stairs.
His glowing golden eyes locked onto the Wolves.
Then he spoke in a deep calm voice.
“You should have stayed away from this place.”
Darius raised his rifle.
“Move.”
The warrior didn’t.
Sand suddenly spiraled around him like a living storm.
“I am the Sentinel,” he said. “And none foreign may touch a scared box of Baal.”
Then he charged.
The desert exploded beneath his feet.
The giant crossed the distance impossibly fast and slammed directly into Orion Hex.
BOOM.
The impact launched the massive engineer through two stone pillars.
“ORION!” Lucien shouted.
Gearwolf burst from the rubble laughing like a maniac.
“Oh, NOW we’re talking!”
The Sentinel swung his enormous blade again.
Orion caught it with the reinforced arm of his mech suit.
Metal screamed.
Shockwaves cracked the temple floor.
The Sentinel pushed harder.
And Orion’s armored boots began sliding backward through solid stone.
“…Why is he THIS STRONG?!” Orion yelled.
The Sentinel punched him directly in the chest.
The mech suit dented inward violently.
Orion flew across the courtyard and crashed into a staircase hard enough to collapse it.
Darius immediately opened fire.
Heavy rounds hammered into the Sentinel’s chest.
The giant barely flinched.
The bullets shattered against glowing skin.
Kael stared.
“Oh that’s unfair.”
The Sentinel grabbed a broken pillar with one hand and hurled it across the battlefield like a missile.
Elias tackled Lucien aside milliseconds before impact.
The pillar exploded against the temple wall behind them.
Dust filled the air.
More assassins descended from the rooftops.
The Wolves were surrounded.
Darius planted himself in front of the squad like a steel wall.
“No retreat,” he growled.
His cybernetic eye glowed brighter.
“We finish this here.”
Across the battlefield, Orion slowly stood from the rubble, smoke rising from his damaged mech armor.
The Sentinel waited for him silently.
Two giants staring each other down.
Then Orion grinned beneath cracked goggles.
“…Okay,” he muttered.
Rocket launchers unfolded from his shoulders.
Energy cannons charged with blinding blue light.
“Science versus magic.”
The Sentinel lowered his blade.
The storm around the temple intensified.
And then both monsters charged at each other.
Chapter — Steel Fang Descends
Miles away from the Black Temple, another war was beginning.
The night desert trembled beneath the engines of Iron Reign attack carriers as the Steel Fang Legion moved into position above a massive Baalanian caravan crawling through the dunes below.
Dozens of armored wagons moved in formation beneath black banners marked with glowing golden symbols. Hooded guards surrounded the convoy while mounted assassins raced along the outer edges like wolves protecting prey.
At the center of the caravan sat the cargo.
A black box.
Even from the air, it radiated wrongness.
General Magnus Krell stood inside the dropship watching the convoy through crimson tactical displays. His mechanical jaw clicked once.
“Target confirmed.”
Behind him, Raze Volkov cracked his neck loudly and grinned like a psychopath moments before execution.
“Oh, this is gonna be fun.”
The massive Steelborn shock trooper loaded the spinning barrels of his oversized rotary cannon onto one shoulder.
Nearby, Silas Forge adjusted the glowing cables connected to his arms. Pale interface tattoos flickered beneath his skin as strange holograms rotated around a floating black metallic orb in his hands.
Unlike Raze, Silas showed no excitement.
Only calculation.
“The caravan formation suggests layered magical shielding,” he said quietly. “Probability of direct destruction: thirty-eight percent.”
Raze laughed.
“Good enough.”
Magnus turned toward the squad.
“The Iron Wolf Battalion searches for answers,” he said coldly.
His glowing eyes narrowed.
“We are here to erase problems.”
The dropship doors opened.
Cold desert wind screamed inside.
“Deploy.”
Steel Fang jumped.
The squad crashed into the dunes like meteors.
The Baalanian caravan barely had time to react.
Raze opened fire first.
BRRRRRRRRT.
His rotary cannon roared like a mechanical dragon.
Entire wagons exploded instantly.
Bodies vanished beneath storms of armor-piercing rounds as mounted assassins were shredded from their beasts mid-charge. Fire swallowed the front half of the convoy within seconds.
Screaming filled the desert.
Raze laughed louder.
“RUN FASTER!”
The giant Steelborn walked directly into the battlefield while firing nonstop, shell casings pouring around him like rivers of brass.
One assassin sprinted toward him through explosions with glowing blades raised.
Raze punched him hard enough to launch the body across the dunes.
Another leaped onto his back.
Raze grabbed the attacker by the face and slammed him beneath the spinning rotary cannon.
The gun thundered once.
Nothing recognizable remained.
Meanwhile, Silas Forge walked calmly through the chaos behind him.
Explosions reflected in his emotionless eyes while the floating black orb rotated slowly beside his shoulder.
The Heavy Metal specialist touched the orb gently.
“Experimental payload ready.”
Golden magical arrows suddenly streaked toward him from the caravan.
The orb moved instantly.
A black energy shield unfolded around Silas milliseconds before impact.
The arrows disintegrated on contact.
Silas barely blinked.
Then he raised one hand toward the center of the convoy.
“Goodbye.”
The orb shot forward.
Fast.
Too fast for human eyes.
The Baalanian guards noticed too late.
The black sphere landed in the middle of the caravan.
For one second
Nothing happened.
Then the desert disappeared beneath white fire.
BOOOOOOM.
A catastrophic explosion tore through the dunes.
Shockwaves flipped wagons through the air like toys.
Sand became glass instantly.
Flames swallowed half the convoy in seconds.
Even Raze stopped shooting just to stare.
“…That was AWESOME.”
Burning debris rained from the sky.
Half the caravan was gone.
Erased.
But not all of it.
Through the flames, dark energy suddenly rose into the air like living smoke.
Magnus narrowed his eyes.
At the center of the surviving convoy stood a black-robed wizard holding a twisted obsidian staff.
Golden symbols burned across his arms.
The surviving wagons floated slightly above the ground inside a massive dome of black magic.
Silas looked genuinely interested for the first time.
“…Impossible.”
The wizard slowly raised his head.
His face was hidden beneath cloth wrappings except for glowing silver eyes.
Around him, surviving assassins emerged from the smoke untouched by the explosion.
Fast.
Silent.
Dozens of them.
The wizard spoke one sentence in an ancient language.
The shadows moved.
Suddenly the assassins vanished.
Raze frowned.
“…Where’d they go?”
CRACK.
One assassin appeared behind a Steel Fang soldier instantly and slit his throat before vanishing again into darkness.
Another appeared above Axel Draik’s mech and plunged glowing blades into its armor joints.
Sparks exploded everywhere.
“CONTACT CLOSE!” Axel roared.
The battlefield became chaos.
These assassins were even faster than the temple warriors.
And the black wizard calmly watched all of it from beside the protected black box.
Magnus slowly stepped forward through burning sand.
His mechanical jaw tightened.
Then he spoke coldly into squad comms.
“Kill the wizard.”
The assassins appeared everywhere at once.
And behind the magical barrier
The black box began to move.
No comments:
Post a Comment