The Sovereign's Zero-Rank Return

Chapter 8: The Harmonic Liquidation

‎The air in the plaza of Black-Water Ridge did not just get cold it actually broke.

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‎Malakor, the Core-Breaker was a weapon made by the Ministry of Justice. He spent a lot of time learning how to use a kind of power that breaks things from the inside out.

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‎Malakor had a suit that helped him do this. When Orin Clay stepped into the area where Malakor was the chains on Malakors arms started spinning fast. The purple light coming from his mask got really bright. Made a shockwave that picked up the stones from the ground and held them in the air.

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‎Malakor said to Orin "You talk about spaces and missing sounds but everything has a special sound that makes it vibrate. If your center is empty I will just make your body shake until it falls apart."

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‎The chains came at Orin. He did not move. He just kept looking at Malakors mask with his silver eyes.

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‎[INCOMING HOSTILE FREQUENCY DETECTED]

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‎[AMPLITUDE: FATAL TO STANDARD BIOLOGICAL TISSUE.]

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‎[COUNTER-MEASURE PROTOCOL: ABSOLUTE ELEMENTAL INVERSION.]

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‎[DEPLOYING LEVEL 3 VOID SEED CAPACITY: 12%.]

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‎Orin said, "You do not understand how empty spaces work, Executioner."

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‎When the purple shockwave hit Orins cloak all the sound around them stopped. The chains were quiet the wind was quiet and everything was silent.

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‎Orin had a thing in his chest called a Void Seed. It made an empty space in front of him. The big shockwave from Malakors chains hit this space and just stopped.

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‎Malakor stumbled forward. Orin told Silas to hit the iron bracer on Malakors arm.

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‎Silas moved fast and hit the chains with his sword. The chains. Malakors special suit had to stop for a moment to fix itself.

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‎Orin told Kian to hit Malakor with an arrow. Kian shot an arrow at Malakors mask. It went right through.

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‎Malakors suit stopped working. He fell to the ground.

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‎The central plaza was really quiet. The guards were scared of Orin.

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‎Orin went to Malakors body. Put his hand on the center of Malakors chest plate.

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‎[CORE DEVOUR MATRIX:

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‎[HARVESTING ENTITY: STAGE 5 ACOUSTIC-CORE SPECIALIST.]

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‎[PROCESSING TARGET ASSET: HIGH-FREQUENCY HARMONIC MANA.]

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‎[CONVERTING MARGIN... SYSTEM CAPACITY INCREASING.]

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‎**[WARNING: HOST NERVOUS SYSTEM EXPERIENCING SEVERE SENSORY OVERLOAD. IMPLEMENTING COLD-SHIELD PROTOCOL VIA CRYOS-RESERVES.]**

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‎The Void Seed in Orins chest started spinning fast. The sound from Malakors body was pulled into Orins arm. He used it to make his suit stronger.

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‎In ten seconds the purple light was gone.

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‎Malakors body was empty and still with his chains around him.

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‎The central plaza was quiet and scary. The guards looked at Orin with a lot of fear.

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‎Orin said, "We got what we needed."

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‎[VOID SEED EVOLUTION STATUS: LEVEL 3 STABILIZED.]

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‎[NEW SYSTEM CAPABILITY UNLOCKED: HARMONIC DISRUPTION FIELD.]

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‎[HOST CONSTITUTION MODIFIED: ACOUSTIC TRAUMA IMMUNITY SECURED.]

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‎Orin looked at the chains. Said, "Kian, have your people pick up these chains. The metal is special. Can store sounds. If we melt it down and mix it with our steel we can make a secret communication network across the whole area."

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‎Kian was excited. Said, "An entire communication network? The Imperial Military uses birds and expensive crystals to send messages. If we build a network..."

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‎Orin said, "We will not just control the steel market. We will control the information.. The person who gets the information first gets to decide the price. Clean up the plaza, Maren. We have work to do in the capital."

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‎The Capital Ledger

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‎Aethelgard City was an fancy place. It had towers and nice gardens.. Behind the closed doors of the merchant guilds everything was not as stable as it seemed.

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‎Lord Varian Cross sat behind a desk, in the Cross Family Guild.

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‎Lord Cross was a smart man who only cared about one thing: getting richer. He did not care about traditions or what other noble families thought. He only cared about his familys wealth.

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‎Now his family was losing money. The northern silver mines, which were the source of his familys wealth were not producing as much silver as they used to. For three years the mines had been producing less and less. Lord Cross had decided to marry his daughter, Rhea to Felix Thorne in an attempt to get help from the government before his family went bankrupt.

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‎Then a document arrived at his office, and it changed everything.

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‎Rhea Cross was standing in the office wearing her silk robes looking very pale and tense. She watched her father as he read the document, which had the Vanguard Syndicates seal on it. Next to the document was a bar of metal that was very valuable.

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‎The metal was sitting on a tray. The room was getting colder and a thin layer of frost was forming on the desk.

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‎Lord Cross picked up his brass monocle. Read the document again. "This says we have to give thirty percent of our production to the Vanguard Syndicate " he said, his voice. Serious. ". We have to deliver it to their warehouses without paying any taxes." He looked up at Rhea. "You are a Stage 3 Frost-Core. What did you feel when you touched this metal?"

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‎Rhea said, "It has no friction Father. When I used my frost mana on it the energy did not slow down all."

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‎Lord Cross leaned back in his chair thinking. "If we use this metal to make weapons for our guards they will be much stronger. We won't need to hire mercenaries to protect our mines."

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‎Rhea was worried. "Felix will be very angry if we do this " she said. "He will try to hurt Orin Clay, the man who made this metal."

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‎Lord Cross looked at his daughter, his eyes cold and calculating. "Rhea you know a lot about cultivation. You don't understand business. Look at the date on this document."

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‎He showed her the date. Explained that the courier who delivered it had arrived just a few hours ago. "If Malakor, the man who was sent to kill Orin Clay had succeeded this document would not have arrived " Lord Cross said. "The fact that it did arrive means that Orin Clay is still alive and he is a smart man."

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‎Lord Cross signed the document. Then he gave orders to his clerk. "Create a company and transfer a lot of money to the Vanguard Syndicate ", he said.

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‎Rhea was very upset. "Father, if Felix finds out, he will be very angry ", she said.

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‎Lord Cross just told her to calm down and to keep pretending to be engaged to Felix. "Our loyalty is with Orin Clay now ", he said.

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‎The rain had. The sky was a deep purple color.

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‎Inside the Vanguard headquarters, Orin Clay was working on a project. He was making a device that would allow them to communicate with each other over long distances.

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‎Kian Frost was helping him. He struck the anvil one last time. The device was complete. It was working.

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‎Orin said, "This is the beginning. We will install devices like this in other locations, and we will be able to communicate with each other instantly."

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‎Then there was a knock at the door. Maren Vance came in holding a document from the Cross family.

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‎Orin read the document. Then he looked at the map on the wall. He drew a line on the map claiming an area of land for the Vanguard.

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‎Maren was surprised. "Orin, this is a declaration of war against the Thorne Clan ", she said.

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‎Orin just smiled, his eyes cold and determined. "Increase our recruitment and expand our transport fleet ", he said. "We are going to take over the Thorne Clan's supply line. We are going to win this war."

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‎The war started when my brother hurt me badly, Maren. Orin said this, and his silver eyes looked like the surface of the transmission node. They thought they removed me from the list. Now I am going to show them what happens when something small gets bigger and takes over the market. The Thorne Clan is going to lose everything. It starts tomorrow. The Thorne Clan will see what it means to make me angry. My brother and the Thorne Clan are going to be in trouble. The Thorne Clan will not be okay after tomorrow.