Galaxy's First Ruler

For a moment, time seemed to have stopped.

The momentum that the Dreamers and their weapons had carried almost instantaneously vanished. A ripple originated in space with Aldrich as the center, and like a soundless explosion, it burst out.

BOOM!!!

The Dreamers got thrown back, getting dragged by an unseen force. The weapons, as if hit by an impenetrable wall, got blasted away. And the arrows got broken on impact. Even the wall behind Aldrich, on which the attacker had impaled the 4 Barons with spikes, caved inwards.

Aldrich saw many Rare Ranked Dreamers losing their limbs one by one. Even the state of Barons was far from being called good. Only the Viscount Ranked leader had minor injuries, as he had used his enormous spike to hold himself at a place some 200 meters away from Aldrich.

Alas, this was only the beginning of their horrors.

Aldrich still had his right hand raised, and the blue-green glow seeping out of his sleeve hadn't receded. Aldrich's eyes met those of Viscount and he slowly said, as if he wanted the leader to read his lips from afar.

"Absolute Pull."

The Dreamers, who were still getting dragged away, halted. The strained weapons that had got blasted away in the air momentarily hovered at their position. And the Viscount's spike, unable to handle the sudden jerk, broke in half.

Once again the space rippled with even more intensity, and like a sheet of cloth it seemed to get pulled towards Aldrich from all around. It wasn't alone in this process, as the ripple brought with itself everything within a radius of 500 meters around Aldrich.

AAAAHHHHH!!!

The weapons dashing towards Aldrich struck each other and got their trajectory changed as a result. And many of them had their paths intertwined with those of Dreamers. The screams of being sliced open and getting cut in half reverberated in the space, and even their cries of anguish got pulled towards Aldrich.

Two more spikes materialized in Viscount's hand as he buried them in the ground to resist the pulling force. But the rest of the Dreamers could neither match his strength nor methods to do the same. As the hacked-apart pieces of many Dreamers and a few surviving ones neared Aldrich, two words again echoed in the ears of many like a death knell.

"Almighty Push."

This was the terror of Rumoks.

The Rumoks worked on the principle of absorbing Mana from outside and the accuracy of their symbols and engraving. They had nothing to do with RECORD or a Dreamer's Mana reserves. There was no escape from them, and there was no way to avoid them.

The only thing that could be done was to face them head-on and resist.

By the end of this third cycle of hack and slash, the rocky ground had been turned into blood red. In every direction, there were hands, legs, and heads cut apart, unidentifiable to whom they originally belonged. The few Barons that had survived were grunting in pain, begging for death. Except for the Viscount, none of the attackers were in one piece anymore.

Aldrich slowly walked towards the Viscount in the red jacket, who was shuddering with every step of Aldrich. The sheet of blood layered over the ground left no stain on Aldrich's black boots. Aldrich neared the leader with his hands behind his back, as most of his attention was on the notification in front of him.

[…

Time Left: 15 minutes

The Dreamers can choose to form a Party that would be in effect till the end of the Raid

Warning: The number of Dreamers required to form a Party is insufficient

Bonus Skill 'Language Proficiency' is now activated till the end of the Raid

…]

Aldrich looked down at the kneeling Lvl 32 Viscount. There were deep cuts and bruises all over his body, but they didn't seem deadly enough. Just as the leader's hands quivered and a mist of Mana gathered in his hands to form spikes, Aldrich narrowed his eyes.

INTIMIDATION!

"Aahhh…"

The Mana scattered, and the Viscount couldn't help but whimper away from Aldrich in pain and fear. His muscles spasmed, and the fear of getting devoured alive overtook his senses. The horror in his eyes had exponentially increased as he saw Aldrich's mask wriggling as if it was alive.

"NO! My Lord… My Lord, please don't kill me. I… I thought you were with the Barons who got teleported here… for their Random-Allocation."

The idea of Aldrich being a Baron had already gone miles away in that state. How could a single Baron annihilate so many Dreamers with such ease? How could a mere Baron make a Viscount fear him? The questions ravaging the leader's mind weren't needed to be said out aloud for Aldrich to guess them.

"My Lord… It's a misunderstanding. Yes… yes, that's all it is. You might have heard of the Red Jackets, right? Our leader…"

Unfortunately, Aldrich didn't need him to be alive to prod everything out of this Viscount.

"Sha. You... are lucky."

Aldrich's incomprehensible words cut off Viscount's urging. The one-horned mask on his face squirmed, and like a snake's lunge, it extended towards the Viscount. It felt like Aldrich's neck itself had elongated. The Devil's aura, combined with the primal fear, made the Viscount even forget to up any resistance.

Munch!!!

The mask opened its mouth wide and snapped off Viscount's head in one bite before coming back to Aldrich's face.

"Hmm? Sha, finish the meal."

"Daddy… I… don't… like… taste."

A wry smile came on Aldrich's face as he hardened his tone.

"Huh! That doesn't how things work, Sha. If you don't eat him properly, no Baron Ranked Items for you for a month."

"NOO! Daddy… so… bad. Cl... Close… your… eyes."

Aldrich felt quite amused at Sha's request. He closed his eyes and even restricted his Divine Sense within him. He could only hear a weird sound like an alligator swallowing its prey alive.

"Ok… done."

By the time Aldrich opened his eyes, hearing Sha's voice, no traces of the headless Viscount could be found anymore.