The Titan Forge: Crushing Magic with Absolute Weight

Chapter 4: The Cleaners

It took Kaelen two hours to scale the vertical cliff of the Cursed Ravine.

When his bloody, dirt-caked fingers finally breached the top edge, the sun was just beginning to set, casting long, blood-red shadows across the rocky wasteland.

He hoisted himself up and dragged the 800-pound Obsidian Slab over the ledge. The sheer weight of the weapon cracked the solid bedrock beneath it.

Kaelen stood tall, breathing in the fresh, unpolluted air. His clothes were nothing but toxic-burned rags, revealing a torso sculpted from dense, flawless muscle.

Before he could even take a step toward civilization, he heard the crunch of heavy boots.

"I'm telling you, Captain, this is a waste of time," a whiny voice echoed from behind a cluster of boulders. "He fell into the Slag Pit. A Null like him is probably melted into toxic soup by now."

"Lord Cedric ordered us to confirm the kill, so we confirm the kill," a second, deeper voice snapped. "He wants the rat's head as a trophy to put on his desk. Spread out and check the edge."

Five men walked out from behind the rocks.

They wore the silver and blue chainmail of House Vance. Four were elite guards armed with enchanted longswords. The leader, Captain Thorne, held a polished wooden staff glowing with pale green mana. He was a Tier-1 Wind Mage.

They stopped dead in their tracks.

Standing right at the edge of the abyss was a towering, half-naked young man holding a rectangular black tombstone of a sword.

"K-Kaelen?!" one of the guards gasped, his eyes bulging. "Impossible! You fell three hundred feet into the rot!"

Captain Thorne narrowed his eyes, sensing absolutely zero mana coming from the boy. It was definitely the Null. But he looked... different. Bigger. More dangerous.

"Well, well," Thorne sneered, tapping his staff on the ground. "Looks like the garbage refused to stay in the bin. Save us the trouble of climbing down. Take his head, boys."

The four guards drew their glowing longswords and charged.

"Wind Enforce!" Thorne chanted, casting a buff on his men. The guards moved with unnatural, supernatural speed, their blades aiming for Kaelen's neck, heart, and legs simultaneously.

It was a flawless, coordinated magical strike.

Kaelen didn't retreat. He didn't blink. He just tightened his grip on the black slab.

"You're in my way," Kaelen whispered.

He didn't swing the sword. He simply thrust the 800-pound flat end of the slab straight forward like a battering ram.

CLANG! CRUNCH!

The enchanted longsword of the first guard struck the black iron and shattered into a dozen pieces. The momentum of Kaelen's thrust didn't even slow down. The flat iron slammed squarely into the guard's chest plate.

The heavy silver chainmail crumpled like tin foil. The guard was launched backward like a cannonball, his ribs instantly pulverized, coughing up a fountain of blood before he even hit the ground.

The other three guards froze in sheer terror. What kind of physical strength was that?

"Monster!" the second guard screamed, swinging his blade at Kaelen’s exposed shoulder.

Kaelen didn't dodge. He let the glowing sword hit him.

Clink. The enchanted blade bounced off Kaelen's bare skin, leaving nothing but a faint white mark. The guard stared at his vibrating sword in absolute disbelief.

"My turn," Kaelen smiled.

He swung the massive Obsidian Slab in a wide, brutal horizontal arc.

SWOOSH—SPLAT!

The absolute weight of the weapon cleaved through the air, tearing right through the midsections of two guards at once. Their magical armor offered zero resistance. They were literally cut in half by blunt force.

The last remaining guard dropped his sword and fell to his knees, screaming. Kaelen didn't hesitate. He brought the flat of the blade down, crushing the man into the dirt.

In less than ten seconds, four elite House Vance guards were reduced to bloody pulp.

[Ding! Defeated 4x Magic Swordsmen.]

[Absorbing residual mana from shattered weapons...]

[Titan Body Progression: 15/100.]

Captain Thorne stood frozen, his face pale as a ghost. His elite squad had just been butchered like defenseless sheep by a boy with no magic.

"Y-You... what kind of dark artifact is that?!" Thorne shrieked, his composure completely shattering. He raised his staff, his mana core flaring wildly. "Wind Blades! Die, you freak!"

Three massive, razor-sharp crescents of compressed green wind shot out from his staff, tearing deep trenches into the ground as they flew toward Kaelen's chest.

Kaelen didn't block. He simply walked forward.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

The Tier-1 magic slammed into Kaelen's Titan Body. His ragged shirt was shredded into confetti. But against his dense, system-forged skin, the magical wind blades felt like nothing more than a stiff breeze.

"Is that it?" Kaelen asked, his golden eyes locking onto the terrified mage. "Is that the pride of a noble spellcaster?"

"No... stay back!" Thorne screamed, frantically stepping backward, desperately trying to cast another spell.

Kaelen closed the distance in a single bound. He didn't use the heavy slab this time. He reached out with his bare, calloused hand and grabbed Captain Thorne by the throat, lifting the grown man off the ground with one arm.

"P-Please..." Thorne gasped, dropping his staff, his legs kicking uselessly in the air. "Lord Cedric... he'll kill you..."

"Cedric is next," Kaelen said coldly. "But before I crush his skull, tell me: where is he right now?"

"T-The Academy... the Grand Auction..." Thorne choked out, his face turning purple. "He's buying the... the Elixir of Awakening for his ascension ceremony tonight..."

Kaelen’s eyes narrowed. The Grand Auction. Cedric was using the very funds his uncle embezzled to buy his way to the top.

"Thank you," Kaelen whispered.

He tightened his grip. Snap. Thorne’s body went limp. Kaelen tossed the dead mage aside like a broken toy.

He picked up Thorne's glowing wooden staff.

[Ding! Tier-1 Wind Staff detected. Melt and Devour?]

"Devour it," Kaelen commanded. "I have an auction to crash."