Chapter : 2011
Lucifer wasn't alone. On his right stood Mammon, the Devil of Greed, dressed in a suit that looked like a mockery of human fashion, his eyes gleaming with gold data streams. On his left was Beelzebub, the Devil of Gluttony, his massive form covered in armor plates that looked like insect chitin fused with steel.
Lucifer stepped to the edge of the ramp. He didn't need to shout. His voice was amplified by speakers hidden in his armor, booming out over the island with perfect, digital clarity.
"How adorable," Lucifer said. His voice echoed, sounding tallic and cruel. "Look at them, brothers. The 'Pure' Devils sitting at a table with monkeys. Signing papers. Playing nice."
He laughed, and the sound was distorted by static.
"You think a piece of paper will save you?" Lucifer sneered, looking directly at the Avatar of Satan. "You think holding hands with humans will stop the future? You are obsolete. You are dust waiting to be swept away."
Asmodeus roared, standing up and knocking his chair over. "Lucifer! You traitor! You sold your soul to machines!"
"I didn't sell it," Lucifer replied smoothly. "I invested it. And the returns are magnificent."
He raised his hand. The cybernetic nodes on his arm flared with light.
"Gamma Team," Lucifer commanded, speaking not to demons, but to the unseen soldiers inside the ship. "Deploy the Scramblers. Let’s see how brave they are when we turn off their magic."
From the belly of the ships, heavy tal pylons were dropped. They fell like bombs, slamming into the ground around the pavilion with earth-shaking thuds.
THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.
Four black towers stood in a circle around the eting place. Before anyone could react, the towers activated. They began to spin, emitting a high-frequency screech that drilled into the brain.
"Cover your ears!" King Liam shouted, pulling a heavy, modern-looking pistol from his jacket.
But it was too late for the mages.
The "Mana-Scrambler" towers didn't just block magic; they agitated it. They sent out a resonance frequency that made mana vibrate violently.
Queen Seraphina scread. She fell to her knees, blood running from her nose. Behind her, the royal mages of Altamira collapsed, thrashing on the ground as their own internal energy turned against them. It was like their blood was boiling.
"My magic!" one mage cried out, clutching his head. "It burns! I can't control it!"
"Physics," Lloyd muttered, his eyes scanning the chaos for a way out. "They are using sound waves to disrupt concentration. It’s not an anti-magic spell; it’s a jamr."
Lloyd looked at his own hands. He felt the vibration in his Steel Blood. It was uncomfortable, like a buzzing bee inside his veins, but he could handle it. His power wasn't purely magical; it was physical. But for the pure mages, this was torture.
"Is that all you have?" Asmodeus yelled, fighting through the pain. He tried to summon his demon form, but the transformation fizzled out in sparks of black smoke. The jamr was working. "Coward! Co down here and fight!"
"Oh, we aren't here to fight," Lucifer said, his smile widening. "Fighting is ssy. Fighting is for beasts. We are here to clean up the trash."
He gestured to Mammon. "Brother. Show them what real influence looks like."
Mammon stepped forward. He adjusted his silk tie and smiled. His eyes flashed with a scrolling code of green light.
"Cognitive Hallucination Field," Mammon whispered. "Upload."
An invisible wave of psychic energy pulsed out from the ships. It didn't hit the kings or the Devil Princes. It hit the guards.
The Royal Lion Guards of Bethelham. The Elite Janissaries of Zakaria. The Holy Knights of Altamira. These were n and won sworn to die for their rulers. They were the best of the best.
But the human brain is a fragile machine.
Lloyd watched in horror as the eyes of the guards glazed over. They stopped looking at the enemy ships. Their heads snapped down. They looked at the table. They looked at their kings and queens.
But they didn't see their leaders anymore. The psychic virus was rewriting their perception. It was overlaying a digital hallucination over reality.
To the guards, King Liam didn't look like their king. He looked like a monster. Queen Seraphina looked like a demon ready to strike. The Sultan looked like an assassin.
"Traitors!" a Lion Guard scread, drawing his sword. "They have replaced the King! Kill the monsters!"
"Protect the Queen!" an Altamiran knight yelled, but he wasn't looking at the enemy. He was looking at Lloyd. "Death to the imposters!"
Chaos erupted.
Chapter : 2012
The protectors turned into executioners. The circle of steel that was supposed to keep the leaders safe suddenly collapsed inward.
"Treason!" the Sultan of Zakaria shouted, scrambling back as his own bodyguard swung a massive axe at his head.
King Liam moved fast. He kicked the table over, creating a barricade. "Lloyd! Plan B! We need Plan B right now!"
Lloyd stood in the center of the madness. The sky was filled with alien ships. The air was screaming with jamming frequencies. The ground was swarming with brainwashed soldiers trying to kill their own commanders.
It was a perfect ambush. It was technology dismantling magic.
Lloyd looked up at Lucifer, who was watching the slaughter with a bored expression.
"You think you're smart," Lloyd whispered, his hand reaching into his pocket dinsion. "You think you broke the ga."
The Major General woke up. The cold, calculating machine inside Lloyd’s head took over.
"Let's see how you handle a glitch."
________________________________________
The Pavilion of Winds, which had been a place of diplomacy just five minutes ago, was now a slaughterhouse.
The sound was unbearable. The high-pitched screech of the Mana-Scrambler towers mixed with the roar of the dropship engines and the screams of confused, terrified soldiers created a wall of noise that made thinking almost impossible.
"Kill them!" a brainwashed knight roared, swinging a heavy mace at Queen Seraphina.
"Get down!" Lloyd shouted.
He didn't use magic. He used montum. Lloyd tackled Seraphina, knocking her out of her chair just as the mace smashed into the stone where her head had been a second ago. Splinters of rock flew through the air.
Lloyd rolled, pulling the Queen behind the overturned stone table. King Liam was already there, firing his pistol with cold precision.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Three guards dropped, shots to the leg. Liam wasn't killing them; he was disabling them. He knew they were innocent victims of Mammon’s mind gas.
"This is bad, Lloyd!" Liam yelled over the noise. "We can't fight our own armies! We need to shut down that signal!"
Lloyd peeked over the edge of the table. The situation was a nightmare.
On the other side of the pavilion, the Devil Princes were struggling. The Mana-Scramblers were affecting them worse than the humans. Their bodies were flickering, phasing in and out of their human disguises.
Asmodeus had managed to grab a brainwashed guard by the throat, holding him back, but the Demon Prince was sweating. His skin was turning grey. "My strength..." Asmodeus growled. "It feels like... sludge. I cannot summon my armor!"
Leviathan—Eun-ha—was on her knees. She was clutching a datapad, her fingers flying across the screen. "They are hacking the ambient mana field!" she shouted to Lloyd. "It’s a denial-of-service attack on the laws of physics! I can't counter it! I need more ti!"
"We don't have ti!" Lloyd yelled back.
Above them, Lucifer raised a hand. "Finish them."
From the dropships, the Fire Fly Gamma Team rappelled down. These weren't brainwashed dieval soldiers. These were corporate troopers. They wore black, sealed combat suits with green visors. They carried pulse rifles that didn't shoot bullets, but hard-light energy beams.
They hit the ground running, moving with military precision. They took up positions behind the pillars and opened fire.
Pew. Pew. Pew.
Blue bolts of energy slamd into the stone table, burning hot holes through the rock.
"Suppressing fire!" Lloyd ordered.
He looked at the Avatar of Satan. The old man was still sitting in his chair, unmoving. He seed unaffected by the mind control, but the Mana-Scramblers were keeping his massive, true form locked deep underground. He was a statue in the middle of a firefight.
"Great King!" Lloyd shouted. "Can you move?"
Satan looked at Lloyd slowly. "The noise... is very loud," he said calmly. "It is difficult to focus."
"Useless," Lloyd hissed.
He looked at his own resources. He checked his internal status. The Steel Blood in his veins was sluggish, fighting the interference frequencies. But his spatial inventory—his pocket dinsion—operated on a different frequency. It was a Void power, separate from the planet's mana field.
It was still active.
"Okay," Lloyd said, his mind clearing. "They brought guns to a sword fight. That was their first mistake."
He looked at Liam. "Cover . I need three seconds."
"You've got two," Liam said, reloading his pistol.
Lloyd stood up. He didn't run. He walked right out into the open.
The Fire Fly troopers saw him. Their visors locked onto him.
"Target identified," a trooper’s amplified voice said. "Designation: KM Evan. Priority One. Capture or neutralize."
They aid their rifles.
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