Timeless Assassin - Chapter 821

821: Destruction 821: Destruction (Sector Eleven Military Base, Planet Nemo, Leo’s POV) *BOOOOM* *KA-THRUM* Another destroyer split apart in the sky as Leo’s blade-light carved straight through its reactor, the vessel blooming into a violent flower of fire and twisted metal as burning fragments rained down over the already ruined base, feeding the inferno that was quietly consuming everything below.

“That makes… what, twelve?” Leo murmured lazily, counting half in his head as another ship began to list helplessly, its engines failing while alarms flared across its hull.

He did not bother finishing the thought, as his wrist flicked again, sending another sharp arc of dagger-light slicing through the air toward yet another battleship that had been foolish enough to hover within his strike range.

*SHING* *CRRRRK* *BOOOOM* The hit severed the engine ring from its main body, as the ship tilted sideways and began its death spiral, the screams of thousands trapped within swallowed by the roaring flames and distant thunder.

“Keep coming,” Leo said quietly, his gray eyes narrowing as he searched for his next target, his aura held suppressed for now, so that he could unfold it when the ground assault eventually began.

———- (Meanwhile, aboard a Destroyer Ship, A Righteous Legion Commander’s POV) From the deck of a mid-range destroyer still several kilometres out, a Legion Commander watched the battle unfold with a clenched jaw, as ship after ship fell apart in the distance, ripped open by a single Transcendent’s ranged attacks.

“This is insane,” he muttered, his knuckles whitening as another explosion lit the horizon, marking yet one more destroyed vessel from their side.

“Sir, should we increase firing frequency?” one of his officers asked, voice tight, as the tactical screen flickered with red markers disappearing at an alarming rate.

“Increase firing frequency on what?” the Commander snapped, eyes flashing in irritation and raw fear.

“The targeting systems cannot even keep up with his movements.

At this rate, we are only wasting ammunition and giving him bigger targets to destroy.” He stared hard at the shifting image of Leo on the display, watching the small figure weave effortlessly between bombardments, as if the entire onslaught were little more than a training exercise to him.

“He is too small for the ships to target accurately, these vessels are made to destroy cities, not individuals…” the Commander muttered, more to himself than anyone else, as a decision solidified in his mind.

“Signal the rear formations.

All carriers and destroyers behind the first line are to land and deploy troops on the surface,” he ordered abruptly, his voice turning sharp.

“We will swarm him from all directions on foot.

If we force him to stay grounded, numbers will crush him eventually.” He ordered, as the troops obeyed immediately.

———- Meanwhile, Leo watched with mild curiosity as several ships began to break away from bombardment formation, their cannons ceasing fire as they lowered altitude, boarding ramps opening in preparation for deployment.

“Finally,” he said, a faint smirk tugging at his lips as he slowed and turned his attention fully toward the ground.

Rows of dropships descended from the larger vessels, slamming into the fields surrounding the base, as hundreds of thousands of soldiers poured out in organized squads, their lines stretching as far as the eye could see, banners fluttering as officers barked commands.

The sky, which had been filled with warships, slowly transitioned into a storm of descending troops, as entire battalions formed encirclements around his position, their auras flaring as they prepared for a combined strike.

“Much better,” Leo murmured.

“This will be the real test of where my limits currently lie.” He said, as he began scanning the enemy troops movements.

*THRUMM* *Step* *Step* *Step* The ground trembled as wave after wave of troops arrived, Masters and Grandmasters lining up at the front, Transcendents further back coordinating battalion formations, while artillery arrays were deployed behind them, charging in layered formations.

Soon, the open space around Sector Eleven looked less like a base and more like a sea of metal and flesh, as hundreds of thousands of soldiers tightened their encirclement around Leo with each passing moment.

“Shadow Dragon!” a Transcendent shouted through an amplified vocal technique.

“You are surrounded.

Lay down your weapons and surrender.

Your execution is already guaranteed, but we may consider granting you a cleaner death if you cooperate.” He threatened, as Leo tilted his head slightly, absorbing the absurdity of the offer as a soft chuckle escaped his lips.

“No wonder that brain dead Yu Zu is your Commander,” Leo replied calmly, his voice carrying clearly through the charged air.

“I was wondering how someone as low IQ as him ever made the rank of Commander, but looking at you now, I finally understand how….

So in the end, Yu Zu is a half blind king in a kingdom of blind men.” He mocked, before finally unleashing his aura.

*FWOOM* The moment his aura unfolded, the world seemed to change texture.

Weight crushed down upon the battlefield in an instant, an invisible mountain dropping from the sky and pressing itself over every living thing present, as air thickened into something almost solid, forcing its way into lungs that no longer wished to expand.

*CHOKE* *THUD* Master tier warriors in the outer rings crumpled immediately, eyes bulging as their knees hit the ground, their bodies collapsing face-first into the dirt as their weapons fell from nerveless fingers.

The second line of Masters struggled for a few agonizing seconds longer, veins popping along their temples as they tried to channel mana in resistance, only for their wills to shatter under the relentless pressure, leaving them twitching weakly before falling still.

Grandmasters were forced to lock their stances, legs spread wide as they braced themselves against invisible currents that threatened to fold them in half, their own wills flaring desperately like candles in a gale.

While the Transcendents gritted their teeth, their bloodshot eyes fixed on Leo as they tried to stabilize their squads, barking orders through clenched jaws even as their spines bowed unwillingly.

“So this is what your so-called righteous army is really made of,” Leo said, his expression calm as he watched hundreds of thousands drop across the field like stalks of grain flattened by a storm.

“Before a single Cult soldier, you’re nothing but ants…” he murmured, his aura intensifying further as he pushed it up to the maximum his body could produce.

*FWOOM* The already brutal pressure doubled, turning the battlefield into a choking nightmare.

Grandmasters who had been barely standing dropped to one knee, some vomiting blood, others passing out entirely as their minds simply failed to keep up.

Transcendents had their limbs feel as though they were weighed down with mountains, their thoughts slowing as instinct screamed at them to retreat, to flee, to abandon any thought of fighting this alone.

However, it was already too late, as what followed was less a fight and more a systematic execution.

*Slash* *Slash* *Thud* Leo cut down the Transcendents first, his body flickering between them like a shadow given form, as each step brought him in front of another top Lieutenant who were the top priority for him to eliminate.

*SHLICK* *CRACK* One Legion Commander’s neck parted in a clean line.

Another had his chest pierced through before he could complete a defensive technique.

While a third tried to unleash an area skill, only for his casting arm to vanish at the elbow, followed by his head.

*Thud* *Thud* *Thud* With every Transcendent that fell, the morale of the soldiers around them lost coherence, as the belief that they could whether this storm quickly disappeared.

Minutes stretched into hours.

Leo waded through living waves of soldiers, each step painting fresh arcs of crimson through the air as his daggers sheared through armor, bone and flesh alike with unerring purpose, his movements devoid of wasted motion, his expression calm even as the world around him turned into a literal river of blood.

Artillery lines were shattered.

Tank columns were sliced into scrap.

Emergency dropships were severed mid-takeoff, their crews never making it off the ground.

Each time a new battalion arrived from orbit or distant sectors, it met the same fate.

His aura weakened them.

His blades finished them.

As under the relentless grind of his killing campaign, disciplined formations devolved into panicked clusters, then into fleeing mobs, then finally into silent mounds of cooling flesh.

By the time eight hours had passed, the sounds of battle had faded into nothing.

There were no more shouted orders.

No more artillery booms.

No more engines roaring overhead.

Only the quiet crackling of scattered fires, the distant groan of collapsing structures, and the faint, lingering echoes of screams that no longer existed.

Leo exhaled, feeling the ache in his limbs at last, as he withdrew his aura in a slow, controlled manner, allowing the atmosphere to lighten little by little, although there was no one left conscious to appreciate the relief.

What remained of Sector Eleven and the surrounding plains barely qualified as a battlefield anymore.

It was a graveyard.

As far as the eye could see, the land had transformed into a grotesque landscape of corpses, charred wreckage and congealed blood that turned the soil black and red.

Bodies lay in overlapping layers, piled so densely in some areas that the original ground was no longer visible, and was instead replaced by a morbid terrain of limbs and armor.

Streams of blood had flowed together during the worst of the slaughter, forming dark rivulets that carved their way between the heaps of the dead, pooling in shallow craters until they reflected the smoky sky above like stagnant, crimson mirrors.

While in the middle of it all, a particularly high mound of bodies rose above the rest, formed from officers, elite squads and failed vanguards who had tried to push closest to Leo and paid the price for their bravery.

Leo sat atop that mound with his elbows resting loosely on his knees, his daggers planted point-first into the flesh and armor beneath his feet, his chest rising and falling slowly as he caught his breath.

The smell of iron and burned oil clung to everything.

The wind carried nothing but ash and silence.

For a long moment, he simply sat there, eyes half closed, listening to the nothingness he had created.

Then, without a word, he reached into his robes and drew out the [Emperor Suppression Manual].

The familiar weight settled into his palm as he opened it, the pages turning with a soft rustle that somehow felt louder than all the explosions that had shaken the planet over the last few hours.

As a line of shimmering red text floated up before his eyes, clear and undeniable.

[Target extermination progress: 432,000,000 / 2,000,000,000] Leo stared at the numbers in silence, allowing the magnitude to sink in.

Four hundred and thirty-two million lives.

Four hundred and thirty-two million deaths.

All compressed into a single brutal offensive on a single planet.

“Four hundred and thirty-two million…” he repeated under his breath, his voice quiet, neither proud nor regretful, simply acknowledging what had been done.

“Not bad, that’s enough progress for one planet” he said, as he closed the manual with a soft snap.

*Snap* The book vanished back into his storage ring as he pushed himself slowly to his feet, standing tall atop the mountain of corpses, his silhouette framed against the blood-stained horizon, as the first cold gusts of wind began to sweep across the dead plains of Nemo.

“There is still work to do,” Leo murmured, as he took one last look at the silent graveyard he had created, before turning his gaze toward the sky once more, already thinking of the next world that would burn.

But before that, he had a Commander to kill and a humiliation tape to release to the universe.