The Umbral Plane was a sensory void.
Lucifer stepped through the jagged purple rift and landed flawlessly on the floating island of black rock. The air was incredibly dense, suffocatingly heavy with unshaped dark magic.
Behind him, the massive, chaotic column of thirteen million mortal soldiers poured out of the unstable portal.
They stumbled onto the black rock, their iron boots clanking loudly in the eerie silence.
The transition from a burning capital to a lightless, anti-gravity dinsion was terrifying.
n and won who had just escaped the Void Beasts looked around in absolute shock. The sky above them was a shifting, bruised-purple expanse.
Massive, ruined Precursor temples and twisted iron spires drifted through the gray fog. There was no sun and no ground beneath the floating island.
Panic rippled through the ranks of the Royal Guard and the conscripted militias.
"Hold the line!" High Ranger Celeste roared from the center of the staging area.
She sat atop her massive, armored dire wolf, her silver dagger drawn. Seasoned Phantom Rangers ford a tight ring around her, barking orders and physically shoving the terrified soldiers into organized battalions.
Celeste was operating with absolute, cold efficiency. Lucifer’s trust had forged her into a true commander.
"You are not running!" Celeste’s voice cracked over the panicked murmurs. "The capital is gone! You fight for Obsidian now! Form ranks, or you will be pushed off this rock into the Abyss!"
The threat of falling into the endless gray fog worked. The soldiers stopped shoving each other and began to huddle into tight, defensive blocks.
Lucifer stood near the portal, watching the massive army stabilize.
"They are terrified, Warlord," Elara noted quietly. The Valkyrie stood beside him, her Twilight wings folded.
"The Umbral Plane inflicts a natural psychological debuff. The Fog of Deceit suppresses morale. A mortal army of thirteen million will shatter if a high-tier Void Beast ambushes us."
"They won’t shatter," Lucifer replied smoothly.
He opened his Dinsional Vault.
Lucifer pulled out the massive, glowing scroll of aether-parchnt. The Awakened Contract.
It was the sa magical docunt he had used in the market square. Eight thousand, four hundred and fifty rcenaries had already signed it.
But Lucifer needed every single soul in this army bound to his command structure. He needed their Fate Energy to fuel his Carnage Core during the planar war.
Lucifer raised the heavy scroll high above his head.
"Listen to !" Lucifer’s voice echoed across the floating black rock, amplified by a pulse of Void Arcanist magic.
The chaotic murmurs of thirteen million soldiers instantly died. Every eye locked onto the Warlord in dark armor.
"You are standing in the Umbra," Lucifer declared. "This is not a siege. This is an invasion. The Crown cannot protect you here. The Church cannot save you here."
He pointed to the glowing scroll in his hand.
"I can save you," Lucifer stated coldly. "But you will pay for my protection."
He didn’t sugarcoat the reality. The Royal Army was used to being lied to by their generals. Lucifer offered them transparent truth.
"I am issuing the rcenary Edict to the entire expeditionary force," Lucifer announced. His voice rumbled with absolute authority.
"If you sign this contract, you fight under my banner. You gain the protection of my Vanguard. You gain access to my healing supplies. And you keep eighty percent of all loot and gold you scavenge from this dinsion."
The ntion of eighty percent loot share caused a massive ripple of shock through the conscripted Royal Guards and the peasant militias.
The King had always claid all battlefield spoils. Lucifer was offering them wealth beyond their imagination.
"The cost is twenty percent of your Fate Energy," Lucifer continued smoothly, not allowing them to celebrate.
"A fraction of your experience points from every kill will be permanently taxed directly to my core. You will level up slightly slower. But you will survive this war as rich n."
He lowered the scroll, letting the glowing blue runes illuminate his dark armor.
"Sign it," Lucifer commanded. "Or take your chances in the fog."
The silence on the floating rock was profound.
A lone, soot-stained rcenary near the front of the column stared at the scroll. He was a Level 22 swordsman.
"I’ll sign," the rcenary yelled, his voice cracking. He broke ranks and sprinted toward Lucifer.
He slamd his bloody thumb against the glowing aether-parchnt.
[System: Contract Bound. Target: Level 22 Swordsman.]
[Fate Energy Tax: Active (20% routed to Lucifer of Obsidian).]
The blue sigil flared and sank into his skin. Instantly, the rcenary felt a wave of comforting warmth wash over his freezing body.
The intense, psychological terror of the Umbral Plane vanished, replaced by the stabilizing, protective aura of Lucifer’s Warlord command.
"I feel the buff!" the rcenary shouted, looking back at the terrified army. "The fear is gone! I can breathe!"
That was all it took.
The dam broke.
Thirteen million soldiers surged forward. It was not a chaotic riot; it was a desperate, frantic scramble for survival.
The Royal Guards, the militian, the surviving paladins, they all rushed the Warlord, shoving each other aside to press their hands, their gauntlets, or their weapons against the massive, glowing scroll.
Lucifer stood perfectly still. He let the wave of humanity crash against him.
The blue sigils flared so fast the scroll beca a blinding, continuous strobe light of magic.
[System: Contract Bound. Target: Level 30 Royal Guard.]
[System: Contract Bound. Target: Level 15 Militia Spearman.]
[System: Contract Bound. Target: Level 35 Battle Mage.]
...
[Mass Contract Processing...]
Celeste rode her dire wolf through the crowd, her Phantom Rangers organizing the newly signed soldiers back into tight battalions.
The panic was completely gone. The soldiers were exhausted, but their eyes were clear. The Warlord’s command aura stabilized their minds perfectly.
Lyra, the Dawn Saintess, watched from a few paces away. She wore her sleek silver battle armor. She saw the sheer, incomprehensible volu of contracts being signed.
She stepped closer to Lucifer, speaking softly so only he could hear.
"You are taxing millions of souls simultaneously, Grand Marshal," Lyra whispered. Her blue eyes were wide with realization. "Every ti one of them kills a low-level crawler, you absorb a fraction of the death magic. You are building an infinite power loop."
"I am funding my Carnage Core," Lucifer corrected her smoothly.
He didn’t look at her. He watched the final few thousand stragglers press their hands against the glowing scroll.
"They get to live," Lucifer said, his voice a low, cold rumble. "And I get the fuel I need to kill the Void Gods. It is a perfect transaction."
Lyra fell silent. She couldn’t argue with the logic. The Warlord was ruthless, but he had just secured the survival of thirteen million people who would have died screaming in the dark.
The glowing scroll finally stopped flashing.
[System: Mass Conscription Complete.]
[Total Contracts Bound: 13,008,450 / Capacity Limitless.]
[Fate Energy Tax Network: Fully Operational.]
Lucifer rolled the heavy aether-parchnt up and shoved it back into his Dinsional Vault.
He turned his void-swirling eyes toward the dense, gray fog rolling over the floating island.
"The army is bound," Lucifer announced to his commanders over the comms rune. "Celeste, form the Vanguard. Elara, take the left flank. Lyra, hold the center with the Templars. Keep your holy aura active; they need the light."
"Understood, Warlord," Celeste’s voice cracked back, filled with sharp, military efficiency.
Lucifer drew his longsword. The Carnage Core on his hip imdiately flared a blinding, violent ruby-red light.
The cursed artifact sensed the massive, infinite network of death energy it was now connected to. It thrumd with terrifying hunger.
"We are not holding this rock," Lucifer commanded. His voice, amplified by Void magic, echoed across the millions of soldiers, clear and absolute. "We are marching unto the Umbra. Stay in formation. Stay in the light."
He did not wait for a response.
Lucifer stepped off the edge of the floating black rock. He did not fall.
He used a continuous, low-level pulse of Gravity Crush to anchor his boots to the invisible, chaotic spatial currents of the dinsion.
He walked on thin air, leading the thirteen million-strong Crusade directly into the fog.
The invasion had begun.
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