Supreme Summoner Overlord: Rise of the Endless Legion-Chapter 448: Five Minutes to Authority(5)

The command building was a converted warehouse on two floors. The lower floor had been cleared of everything except a long table and the tactical overlays pinned to every wall—maps of Kingsgate, maps of the region, charts showing monster density data, and the World-Carver Behemoth's movement patterns across the past three months.

The upper floor had Aegis Phalanx communication equipment that Reidar recognized as the same kind of technology he had seen in the past.

What Lyra'axis said to Reidar was alarming. She basically told him that she believed the priests didn't make empty threats to him. Most likely the Progenitor was at a higher level than Reidar.

The problem was what that implied, and it was that the World Carver Behemoth was obsessed with Kingsgate because the progenitor was here.

"So, I just need to kill him." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"You speak of it as if it were a practical matter," she said.

"It is a practical matter," Reidar said. "He needs to die. I expect to make that happen."

Lyra'xis looked at him. "You are at level 557. The Progenitor might even be at level 700 for all we know. How do you think you can actually do this? Overconfidence in this situation is an error."

"I'm not overconfident," Reidar said. "I actually know how to kill the bastard; it's just that it would eventually take some more time, but killing him is possible if his level is not too high."

"You talk as if you already done something like this."

Reidar nodded. "Multiple times, actually."

Lyra'xis remained silent.

Her eyes held on him for a moment. "All right then, if you are so sure you can do this, then be my guest. However, retreat if things go bad. If the progenitor is really as strong as I believe, we will need you in the future."

She paused.

"One more thing," she said. "The survivors in Kingsgate are watching what is happening. They have seen 110 flying monsters land inside their walls. They have heard reports of an army of undead and monsters moving through Kingsgate. They are frightened, and frightened people make poor decisions."

"I know," Reidar said.

"Then you understand how this situation is going to end, which is important," she said. "Not just whether the church is destroyed. How it is seen to end. Whether the people in this settlement believe the threat has been removed or whether they believe the threat has simply changed shape, with you being that shape."

"You are the strongest individual in this region. That means the survivors will look at you and decide what you represent. That decision will affect how they respond to everything that comes after."

Reidar remained silent.

"I'm warning you, Reidar, the power you have, if it is without context, is indistinguishable from the thing it is used to fight against," she said. "The church told people that they were protecting them. People believed them because the things the church did looked like protection. If your army moves through Kingsgate and all the survivors see is destruction, they will not separate you from the church."

Reidar said nothing for a moment. He was not going to tell her she was wrong, because she was not wrong.

"My summons are under orders not to harm survivors unless they show a clear connection with the church," he said. "Every location they have hit has been a church location confirmed. I have not burned down anything that was not already a weapon pointed at the people inside this city."

"I know," Lyra'xis said. "Which is why we are having a conversation instead of a different kind of meeting." She paused. "I am not asking you to change your approach. I am asking you to—"

It was at that moment that everything started trembling.

"What's happening?" Lyra'xis asked, but no one knew what was going on.

Then the heavy doors of the room burst open. One of Lyra'xis's soldiers rushed into the command room with eyes full of alarm and fear.

"Legate!" he shouted. "Urgent report from the observation posts!"

Lyra'xis turned to look at the soldier. "Speak!"

"Multiple portals," the soldier said. "They've appeared across Kingsgate. It's a simultaneous manifestation in at least seven confirmed locations, possibly more."

The room went silent.

Reidar felt his blood run cold. Portals. Multiple portals.

"It looks like Jorik didn't stay idle."

Lyra'xis's mandibles clicked, and then she turned to look at the soldier. "Locations?"

"Distributed throughout the city," the soldier reported. "Near the central plaza, the eastern residential sector, close to the walls—they're everywhere, Legate."

"That bastard…" Jorik was the guy he single-handedly wanted to kill the most, and he was sure Lena felt the same. It wasn't just because of the betrayal she had to go through.

"This guy is fucking unhinged."

He opened multiple portals in the middle of the city, a city with hundreds of thousands of people. It was almost like he didn't know what would happen if monsters came in droves here.

<No, he simply doesn't care…>

Jorik had escalated things beyond any measure of restraint.

The food plan had already been insidious. Corrupted provisions distributed through the church's network would have transformed people into monsters, but not all of them.

Some would, others wouldn't, and for sure, it wasn't immediate. There would have been time to identify the corrupted, to quarantine them, and to mount a response. It was a plague, designed to spread fear and dependency while the church consolidated its power, but it was still programmed and controlled. Evil, certainly, but predictable.

But this? Opening portals across Kingsgate at the same time?

This was extinction-level brutality.

Portals didn't discriminate. Whatever came through would tear through the city randomly. Survivors, Aegis Phalanx soldiers, children huddled in shelters, Lyra'xis's forces—none of it would matter.

The portals would flood Kingsgate with monsters in numbers that no defense could withstand. Not the survivors. Not the Kytinn with their four arms and compound eyes and decades of service records engraved in their carapaces, and maybe not even him, depending on what managed to cross the portals.

Everyone would die. The portals were the alternative: total annihilation.

Jorik wasn't just unhinged. He was ruthlessly pragmatic. If he couldn't control Kingsgate through fear and dependence, he would simply erase it. No survivors meant no witnesses. No opposition. No complications.

Just ash and silence.