Chapter 46: The Ravager Awakens

  Location: Central Chamber – Valdira’s Underground Laboratory

  The laboratory had descended into chaos.

  Vanthsyn had vanished—either escaping into another dimension or fleeing to Earth.

  The sentinel AI Arbitra was destroyed.

  Defense systems collapsed.

  Red and yellow emergency sirens blared through the corridors as thick white steam filled the chamber.

  Cracked metal structures groaned under the pressure of failing power systems.

  At the center of the room stood a massive containment cylinder—now split in half.

  From within it…

  Something emerged.

  The Ravager – Ho Kwan

  Its body shimmered with fragments of Valdranite crystal embedded into its flesh.

  Half organic.

  Half mechanical.

  Its eyes glowed with a glitching red light like a malfunctioning cyborg.

  One arm reshaped itself into a morphing plasma weapon—its form shifting with emotional fluctuations.

  One side resembled a dragon claw.

  The other formed a curved spear-like blade.

  The creature’s voice echoed like distorted thunder.

  “I… am the final remnant of the Emperor’s will.”

  “I am the fragment of his memory… the one you all abandoned.”

  The Battle Begins

  Fran moved first.

  He launched himself from a broken platform high above.

  “You’re a new threat,” he shouted.

  “And I love new enemies!”

  His twin energy daggers crossed as he spun through the air, unleashing a Dual Slasher strike.

  The Ravager blocked the attack with one hand.

  A micro-explosion erupted.

  Fran was blasted against a wall—but he flipped back to his feet instantly, dodging the follow-up strike.

  Zoarfang dropped from a pile of rubble, his eyes glowing green.

  “If you carry Ho Kwan’s soul…”

  “My mother once fought him.”

  He cracked his knuckles.

  “And I know one thing.”

  “He can be beaten.”

  Zoarfang charged using his dhampir beast style, slamming his fist into the floor hard enough to shake the chamber.

  The Ravager leapt onto the ceiling like a mutant predator before firing shards of energy from its shoulders.

  Ritz zigzagged across the battlefield while firing specialized EMP rounds.

  “I’ve got bad news!”

  “The system can’t be locked!”

  “His code is layered—like Vanthsyn!”

  “But there’s Emperor DNA and Valdira’s coding mixed inside!”

  Suddenly Shinin appeared behind the Ravager, teleporting using his two-second rosary jump.

  His beast claws struck like Wolverine talons, slicing across the Ravager’s side.

  “If he inherited the Emperor’s power…”

  “We have to destroy him before he completes his—”

  The Ravager counterattacked instantly.

  Fran jumped in at the last second, deflecting the strike with his twin daggers.

  Ching Lee Steps Forward

  Standing calmly amid the chaos was Ching Lee.

  Lightning crackled around her hands.

  Her martial arts aura mixed sky energy with thunder force.

  “Lysa,” she said quietly, even though she had already returned to Earth through the rosary portal.

  “If this is truly a fragment of Ho Kwan…”

  “I won’t run.”

  “We still owe something to the man he once was.”

  Ching Lee dashed forward.

  Her palm struck the Ravager’s chest.

  A massive electric explosion erupted.

  Cracks formed across the Ravager’s armor—

  But they regenerated almost instantly.

  The Ravager’s eyes flickered like corrupted memory files.

  “Ching Lee…”

  “You died before I could kill you.”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Its voice deepened with rage.

  “But this time…”

  “I won’t merely survive.”

  “I will kill you again with my own hands.”

  Data Chamber – Hasyalys’ Discovery

  In the adjacent control room, Hasyalys worked rapidly across holographic terminals.

  “Vanthsyn wasn’t just creating weapons,” she said urgently.

  “He designed Ravagers as fallback placeholders in case his main plan failed.”

  She zoomed into the neural data.

  “Ho Kwan was used as an experimental subject.”

  “The system stabilizes his power through neural loyalty resonance.”

  Dr. Nadia’s voice trembled.

  “This system is generating something like a digital soul duplicate.”

  “If the Ravager reconnects to its original memories…”

  “It will fully evolve into a new Emperor Ho Kwan.”

  Elian calmly studied the swirling 4D code streams.

  “We need to break his synchronization with the Void Layer.”

  “If we don’t interrupt it now…”

  “He’ll start pulling memory data from every Valdira network archive.”

  The Ravager Evolves

  Back on the battlefield, the Ravager raised one arm.

  Energy storms formed along the cavern ceiling, linking with the old laboratory’s neural systems.

  “They call me a monster now…”

  “But you…”

  “You are merely ghosts of regret that will be buried inside Oblivarion’s stomach.”

  Gravity warped.

  Energy began draining into the Ravager.

  Everyone struggled to stay standing.

  Ritz shouted over the comms.

  “Big Sis Hasya! Can you shut down the power core?!”

  “He’s activating Evolution Mode Level 2!”

  Hasyalys responded instantly.

  “Thirty seconds!”

  “Distract him!”

  “Don’t let him reach Phantom Merge!”

  Final Assault

  Fran deployed vampire shadow bombs, creating multiple illusion clones.

  Shinin teleported around the Ravager repeatedly while shifting into different winged beast forms to confuse the targeting system.

  Ching Lee unleashed a long-forbidden technique she had never used against Ho Kwan before.

  “Thousand Steps of Light.”

  Her body split into ten lightning-fast afterimages, striking from every direction.

  Zoarfang entered Primal Mode.

  His eyes transformed into those of an ancient vampire demon.

  He attacked with savage—but calculated—precision.

  The Turning Point

  “Now!” Hasyalys shouted.

  She injected false data directly into the Ravager’s memory core.

  “Nadia—give him the sins he tried to erase!”

  Dr. Nadia activated the emotional recordings she had stolen from Valdira’s logs.

  “Face the past you tried to forget!”

  Suddenly—

  The Ravager froze.

  Fragments of Ho Kwan’s memories flooded its system.

  Images appeared in the air.

  Ching Lee.

  Their days training under Master Sein.

  The voices of Zedwan and Lysa echoing faintly.

  The Ravager staggered backward.

  “…Who…”

  “…am I…?”

  The Final Strike

  From the shadows—

  Elian appeared.

  His Warbinder Spirit Blade pierced straight into the Ravager’s core node connected to the Valdira Grid.

  The Ravager’s voice weakened.

  Almost human.

  “…Ching…”

  “…Lysa…”

  “…I… am… sorry…”

  A blinding explosion of white light erupted.

  Everyone was thrown backward.

  When the light faded—

  The Ravager was gone.

  Only shattered armor fragments remained.

  And one black Syavadark crystal core.

  Epilogue

  Ching Lee knelt and picked up the crystal.

  “I know…”

  “A part of Ho Kwan was still alive in there.”

  “And he never accepted what he became.”

  Hasyalys extracted the final surviving data from a smoking terminal.

  “This isn’t the end.”

  “It’s the beginning… of something far worse.”

  Elian looked up at the collapsing ceiling.

  “Vanthsyn is still alive.”

  “So are Valdira… and the mysterious entity Zahntu.”

  “And they know we just disrupted the first phase of their evolution plan.”

  Return to the Vampire Palace

  Following orders from their mother Lysa, Hasyalys called her siblings back to the vampire palace on Earth.

  The death of Yorukira Ikkira had to be explained to the vampire elders.

  Meanwhile, Ritz and Aisha searched for Shinin.

  But he had vanished.

  Along with the Ravager Ho Kwan.

  Ching Lee activated her rosary portal, teleporting everyone back to Lysa’s throne hall—hoping Shinin would automatically follow the linked teleport.

  But when they arrived…

  Shinin was nowhere to be seen.

  Instead, the vampire throne hall was already filled with Vampire Elders, their expressions cold and furious.

  They demanded answers.

  For the death of their prince.

  Yorukira Ikkira.