Chapter : 1849

  The crushing pressure of the demonic vines had reached a critical threshold. Suspended ten feet in the air, encased in the matte-black armor of the Aegis Suit, Lloyd Ferrum was no longer fighting a physical battle; he was fighting a mathematical one. The warning alarms inside his helmet were screaming, a cacophony of red lights and digital chimes that warned of imminent structural collapse.

  [Alert: External Pressure at 9,000 PSI. Shield Integrity Critical.]

  [Warning: Biological Siphon Active. Mana Reserves Depleting at 15% per second.]

  Lloyd’s vision blurred at the edges. It wasn't just pain; it was the literal extraction of his vitality. The "Blood Array" beneath the city wasn't just drinking his magic; it was pulling at the threads of his life force. He felt cold, a deep, marrow-freezing chill that no amount of thermal regulation could fix. He didn't waste a single second re-analyzing the trap. He already knew the physics: the city was a vacuum, and he was the high-pressure gas being sucked into it. He knew that using his "Steel Blood" would only turn him into a lightning rod for the drain.

  Below him, Ben was fighting his own losing battle. The Ironwood Sovereign was pinned under a mountain of writhing purple flesh. But Ben wasn't screaming. He wasn't begging.

  "Spirit: Sloth," Ben rasped, his voice barely audible over the tearing sound of the vines. "Stasis... Field... Self."

  Ben wasn't trying to break free anymore. He knew he couldn't overpower the drain. So, he did the only thing a master tactician could do in a hopeless situation: he hit the pause button. A sphere of grey, heavy light expanded around Ben’s body. It didn't push the vines away, but it froze the time within his own cells. He put himself into a magical coma, slowing his metabolism and his mana output to absolute zero. He became a rock. The vines clawed at him, but they couldn't drink from a stone.

  "Stubborn bastard," Lloyd grunted, impressed despite the agony. "He bought me time. Now I have to use it."

  There was only one card left to play. It was a dangerous, forbidden card that he had kept locked away in the deepest, darkest corner of his System Inventory.

  "System," Lloyd’s voice was a strained rasp, amplified by the neural link. "Initiate the 'Parasitic Overwrite.' Force-kill the Ferrum Bloodline active circuits immediately. I don't want a drop of iron in my marrow for the next ten minutes."

  The System Administrator’s cold, genderless voice echoed in his skull, sounding hesitant for the first time.

  [Warning: Forced termination of the Ferrum Bloodline will cause immediate biological shock. The host’s cellular structure is currently reinforced by heavy metals. Removing this reinforcement while under pressure may result in skeletal fracture. Nervous system integrity will drop to 40%. Do you wish to proceed?]

  "Proceed," Lloyd grunted, tasting copper in his mouth. "Do it now, or we become fertilizer."

  [Acknowledge. Unlocking Void Wood Protocol. Disengaging Iron Will.]

  Lloyd felt a sickening snap deep inside his bones. It felt as if his very DNA was being unspooled and re-wound by a careless hand. The cold, metallic comfort of his "Steel Blood"—the power that had defined him, protected him, and made him a Sovereign—vanished instantly. It was replaced by a hollow, agonizing emptiness. His body felt like a house with the foundation ripped out. For a split second, he was just a normal human being crushed by a monster.

  But in that vacuum, he invited the Void.

  He triggered the [Void Wood: Life-Eater Protocol].

  This was not a benevolent nature spirit. This was a power he had purchased and refined during his year of preparation in the Soul Farm, a biological "black box" designed to counter the Abyss's own parasitic nature. It was not a plant; it was a conceptual predator that existed to consume entropy.

  The pain was unlike anything he had felt in two lifetimes. It wasn't the clean, sharp sting of a sword; it was the feeling of thousands of tiny, dull needles growing from the inside of his bone marrow outward. The grey, petrified wood didn't care about his skin or his expensive suit. It forced its way through his pores, tearing through the inner lining of the Aegis Suit’s gauntlets.

  "Argh..." Lloyd let out a low, guttural groan as thick, gnarled roots erupted from his forearms.

  Chapter : 1850

  They were the color of a dead moon—a dull, lifeless grey. They didn't grow toward the light; they twitched and thrashed, seeking the highest concentration of mana like a shark seeking blood. They wrapped around Lloyd’s own arms, tightening like tourniquets, pulsing with a hunger that threatened to consume Lloyd’s own mind if he lost focus for even a second.

  "Calibration check," Lloyd muttered, his teeth gritted so hard they threatened to shatter.

  He activated his [All-Seeing Eye]. The world turned into a blue grid. He looked at the grey roots writhing on his arms. He had to program them in real-time. He visualized the wood not as a tree, but as a series of biological logic gates. He had to write a code that told the parasite what to eat, so it didn't eat him.

  If (Mana Frequency == Demonic), then (Consume).

  If (Target == Ben), then (Filter/Protect).

  If (Feedback == Toxic), then (Reroute to Spirit Core).

  If (Source == Host), then (DORMANT).

  He was coding his own survival while being crushed. The grey roots began to vibrate, emitting a low-frequency hum that caused the purple demonic vines to shiver. Lloyd wasn't just using a new element; he was performing a "System Reformat" on his own soul. He forced the grey roots to bypass his human nervous system, plugging them directly into the Golem Heart of Anubis that powered his suit to use as a regulator.

  "Input accepted," Lloyd whispered, his eyes glowing with a dull, predatory grey light. "Now... let's see who has the higher suction power."

  He drove the roots forward. They didn't strike like spears; they burrowed like maggots. The tips of the Void Wood were covered in microscopic, rotating teeth that ignored the demonic vines' armor. They plunged into the wet, purple flesh of the plants, seeking the central sap-vein.

  Thwack. Thwack. Squelch.

  Dozens of grey roots buried themselves into the vine that was holding Lloyd. They clamped on tight, sealing the connection. Lloyd was now physically plugged into the trap.

  The moment the connection was made, the "Blood Array" underground felt the intrusion. The city’s trap tried to increase its suction, trying to pull the "wood" into its maw. The trap thought it had found a new, tasty source of fuel. It pulled harder, trying to drag Lloyd’s soul down into the earth.

  "Big mistake," Lloyd said, a savage, sarcastic smirk appearing on his face despite the blood trickling from his nose. "You just plugged a high-speed drain into a black hole."

  He closed his eyes and flipped the switch in his mind. He didn't push back; he pulled. He opened the floodgates of the Void Wood’s hunger.

  Part 2

  The reversal of the energy flow was so violent that the air around Lloyd literally cracked. The sound was like a thunderclap trapped in a small room—a sharp, booming implosion that shook the dust from the buildings surrounding the square. The "Blood Array" beneath Gator City, which had been designed as a one-way street for mana, suddenly found its valves forced open in the opposite direction.

  Lloyd initiated the [Hostile Takeover].

  Using the Void Wood as a high-speed data cable, he didn't just take his mana back; he "hacked" the city’s energy grid. Through his All-Seeing Eye, he saw the red lines of the Blood Array flickering. He began to dump "Void Noise"—stagnant, unusable, heavy energy—into the city’s circuits while pulling the refined, concentrated demonic mana into himself.

  It was a dirty, brutal tactic. He was polluting their system while drinking their fuel.

  "Iffrit! Fang!" Lloyd roared in his mind, his mental voice booming through his inner world. "Open the filters! I’m bringing in the trash, and I need you to burn it into usable fuel! Don't let the corruption touch the core!"

  Inside his soul, the two Transcended Spirits reacted instantly. Iffrit, the Demon King of Annihilation, roared with delight. He manifested in the center of Lloyd’s core, acting as a massive, spiritual furnace. As the black, oily demonic mana was sucked in by the Void Wood, it passed through Iffrit’s flames. The "evil"—the madness and the corruption of the Abyss—was burned away, leaving behind raw, purified energy.

  Fang Fairy acted as the stabilizer. Her blue lightning arced through the flood of power, weaving a net of electricity that ensured the influx didn't cause Lloyd’s heart to explode from the pressure. She howled, running circles around the core, converting the raw power into speed and reflex.

  The visual impact on Gator City was catastrophic.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Chapter : 1851

  As Lloyd drained the "Blood Array," the infrastructure of the city began to fail. In the distance, the sickly yellow lights of the feeding stalls flickered and died. The magical torches lining the streets sputtered out. The "warmth" of the cobblestones vanished, turning into a biting, unnatural cold as the mana was ripped from the earth.

  Demons hiding in their shops and homes screamed as their localized wards failed. The "noise" of the city—that constant, hungry hum—was silenced, replaced by the terrifying sound of a vacuum.

  The massive purple vines, the "Garden of Hunger," were the first to die. They didn't just fall; they underwent rapid cellular decay. The vibrant, bruised color drained from them, leaving behind a dull, sickly white. The thorns turned to dust and blew away. The vines that were crushing Ben lost their strength, turning brittle and snapping like dry twigs.

  "Look at that," Lloyd muttered, his voice sounding like two stones grinding together. He felt his mana reserves refilling, overflowing, and then doubling. "The vacuum is out of breath."

  He pushed the roots even deeper. He wasn't satisfied with just the vines. He followed the "nerves" of the trap all the way to the palace foundations. He felt the massive reservoir of power Rubel had been hoarding—the "Gluttony Reserves." This was the energy meant to power the city’s shields for a decade.

  He opened his mouth and let out a sound that wasn't human. It was the roar of the Life-Eater.

  The suction increased by ten-fold. The grey roots on his arms grew thick as ship’s cables, pulsing with a blindingly dark light. The stone floor of the square began to sink as the energy holding the earth together was harvested. The red tiles turned grey and crumbled into sand.

  Ben, who had been in stasis, felt the crushing weight vanish. The grey bubble of his Sloth spirit flickered and died as he woke up. He gasped, sucking in air, and looked up. He watched as the "invincible" garden was reduced to grey powder in a matter of seconds.

  He saw Lloyd suspended in the center of a swirling vortex of ash and mana, looking less like a man and more like a conceptual error in the Abyss’s logic. The air around Lloyd was warping, bending under the weight of the gravity well he had created.

  Lloyd’s HUD was a mess of red and green data, scrolling so fast it was a blur.

  [Mana Reserves: 100%... 150%... 200% (OVERFLOW)]

  [Aegis Suit Integrity: Stabilizing.]

  [External Grid: 88% Depleted.]

  [Warning: Host body temperature critical. Cooling systems engaged.]

  The Aegis Suit whined, its high-grade servos screeching under the mechanical stress of containing a mana surge that far exceeded its design specifications. The matte-black plating vibrated so violently that the sound became a high-pitched, uncomfortable hum, audible even through the thick protective layers of the armor. Thick plumes of white steam hissed and erupted from the thermal vents located in the shoulders and back, a desperate and automated attempt by the suit’s internal cooling systems to prevent a total mechanical meltdown. Deep within the chest plate, the Golem Heart of Anubis hammered at a dangerous, erratic rhythm, struggling to stay synchronized with the frantic, wet pulsing of the grey roots that were still physically tethered to Lloyd’s flesh.

  "Time to shut it down," Lloyd whispered, his eyes narrowing as he watched the final data streams redline across his internal visor.

  He didn't simply stop the siphoning process; he executed a lethal "Core-Jam" protocol. With a precise mental command, he gathered a massive, concentrated pulse of stagnant, unusable Void energy and hammered it back down through the roots into the city’s magical plumbing. He intended to "clog" the Blood Array's intake valves with spiritual garbage, ensuring the parasitic trap could never be reset or reused against them.

  The results were immediate and seismic. The ground beneath his feet groaned with a deep, agonizing, subterranean rumble—a sound that felt like the heart of Gator City itself was suffering a massive cardiac arrest. The vibration was so intense it shattered the remaining windows in the central square and caused the nearby obsidian buildings to list dangerously to the side. Above them, the red sky of the Gluttony State flickered erratically before fading into a dull, muddy brown. The city’s legendary defensive shield, a structure that had stood for decades as a symbol of demonic superiority, suddenly shattered into millions of invisible mana shards with a sound of breaking glass that echoed for miles across the plains of the Abyss.

  Chapter : 1852

  Lloyd did not retract the roots. Unlike previous times he had utilized the Void Wood, he allowed the grey conduits to remain extended from his forearms, acting as temporary storage vessels for the sheer volume of energy he had just harvested. The grey roots were visibly swollen, their lunar-colored bark glowing with a deep, internal crimson heat as the stolen life force began to condense. He fell to one knee for a moment, landing in a crouched position as the excess energy crackled across his armor like static electricity. His black coat was shredded, hanging from his frame in scorched ribbons, and every inch of his armor was coated in a thick, choking layer of grey ash.

  However, through his visor, his eyes were burning with a terrifying, overcharged brilliance. He didn't look like a man who had just survived a death-trap; he looked like a man who had successfully consumed a star and was now looking for the next course. He stood up slowly, the servos of the Aegis Suit whirring and grinding with newfound, raw power as the Golem Heart began to regulate the massive influx of energy.

  He turned his gaze toward the palace balcony, which was now shrouded in total darkness as the city’s power grid collapsed into failure. "Uncle Rubel," Lloyd said, his voice carrying with mechanical clarity through the silent square. "You really should have checked the voltage and the filtration on your trap. It was far too low for a technician of my caliber."

  He began walking toward Ben, his heavy, mana-saturated roots dragging slightly across the shattered red tiles of the square. Each step he took left a faint glow on the ground as the energy within the roots began to knot and coalesce near his wrists, preparing to manifest the literal fruit of his victory. He didn't look back at the destruction he had caused; to his engineer’s mind, this wasn't a miracle or an act of heroism. It was simply a successful "re-piping" and "system flush" of a fundamentally broken machine. The war for the city had just entered its final phase, and the engineer was now fully fueled and ready for the harvest.

  Part 1

  The deafening roar of the battle had vanished, replaced by a silence that felt heavier than the stone buildings surrounding them. In the central square of Gator City, the dust began to settle. It coated the broken red cobblestones in a layer of fine, grey ash—the only remains of the massive, carnivorous vines that had tried to consume Lloyd Ferrum and Ben just moments ago.

  The air was hot and thick. It smelled of ozone, burnt magic, and scorched earth. It was the smell of a machine that had been pushed past its breaking point and then destroyed.

  Lloyd remained on one knee in the center of the crater he had created. He didn't move immediately. He was listening to the sounds of his own survival. His Aegis Suit was hissing loudly, like a steam engine venting pressure. Thick plumes of white steam erupted from the thermal vents located on his shoulders and back, releasing the incredible heat generated by the Golem Heart during the rapid energy transfer. The suit’s internal cooling fans whirred aggressively, vibrating against his ribs as they struggled to bring the internal temperature down to a safe level.

  Inside his helmet, red warning lights blinked on his display, slowly turning to amber, and finally to green.

  [System Alert: External Threat Neutralized.]

  [Mana Siphon: Disengaged.]

  [Cooling Sequence: Active.]

  Lloyd let out a long breath, fogging up his visor for a second. He looked down at his right arm.

  The grey roots of the [Void Wood] were still attached to him. They had burst from his skin to consume the enemy trap, acting as high-speed conduits for the city’s energy. Now, they were no longer thrashing or seeking fuel. They were retracting. The thick, gnarled wood pulsed with a deep, rhythmic crimson light. It looked less like dead timber and more like living veins carrying a massive amount of pressurized blood.

  The roots were pulling back into his forearm, moving with a wet, shifting sound that made Lloyd grit his teeth. It wasn't painful, exactly, but it felt deeply unnatural—like snakes moving under his skin. The wood was condensing all the stolen mana from the city’s "Blood Array" into a single point in his palm.

  "Processing complete," Lloyd whispered, his voice raspy and dry. "Output ready."