The horrifying truth settled deep into the marrow of the Cardinals. The Oculus Stone offered absolutely no mercy. It projected the butchery with agonizing clarity.
Standing within the grand plaza of the Cathedral of Darkness was not a sprawling invading army. The Eternal Death stood entirely alone. The creature wore tattered robes woven from writhing shadows. Skeletal hands gripped an elongated scythe, bleeding negative energy directly into the night air. It required no army. The citizens of Kami Miyako were doing the horrific work for it.
Tens of thousands of refugees formed an orderly queue. The sub-harmonic pulse of the [Eye of Vecna] kept the population perfectly docile. Raising its bone scythe, the undead executioner moved with fluid methodology. It decapitated the first person in line before moving seamlessly to the next. The victims offered absolutely no resistance. The rhythmic flash of the blade accompanied a growing mountain of severed heads.
Witnessing this mind-breaking display, several high priests inside the bunker fainted outright. Priestesses vomited onto the polished flagstones. They found themselves completely unable to tear their eyes away from the methodical genocide.
"Astrologer," Cardinal Yvon whispered. Stumbling backward, his face paled. "Where is the vanguard? Where is the Grand Marshal? Scan the base of the cathedral."
Swallowing a dry sob, the Thousand League Astrologer hovered her trembling hands over the crystal. She manipulated the magical lens to pan the projection downward beneath the feet of the marching citizens.
The image stabilized. A collective gasp sucked the remaining oxygen from the subterranean bunker.
Butchered remains belonging to the elite defenders surrounded the base of the dark sanctuary. Four hundred Vanguard Paladins lay scattered alongside seasoned Temple Guards and retired Scripture members. Blood transformed the marble into a stagnant lake.
Grand Marshal Beren rested at the absolute apex of this gruesome pile.
The greatest military commander of humanity had not died fighting a glorious duel. Gazing through the crystal, the Cardinals observed his legendary adamantine armor caved inward like cheap tin. His heavy gorget lay crushed completely flat, and his massive greatsword rested nearby, shattered into a dozen useless fragments.
The undead monster had not even drawn a weapon to kill him. No! It had just crushed his throat using a single bare hand before tossing him aside like discarded refuse.
A terrible gasp echoed through the subterranean hall.
The Pontifex Maximus clutched his chest violently. The knees of the Supreme Leader buckled. His eyes rolled backward to expose stark white sclera as his face turned a terrifying shade of purple.
The compounding shock proved lethal. Witnessing the erasure of his holy city broke his fragile heart, and watching his citizens willingly march toward the slaughter while seeing the absolute pinnacle of human martial strength swatted down like a fly finalized the fatal blow.
"Your holy exsalency!" a cadre of medical priests screamed.
They rushed forward as the Supreme Leader collapsed onto the stone floor.
"His heart! He is in cardiac arrest! Bring the high-tier healing scrolls immediately!"
The bunker descended into chaotic triage. Golden healing magic flared over the convulsing body. The surviving pillars of human governance turned their backs on the dying leader. The Supreme Executive Council could only stare at the crystal.
The cradle of humanity functioned merely as a pyre. Flames licked the sky in every cardinal direction to form a bruised crown of crimson and gold along the horizon. Thick smoke choked the magical sensor itself.
"How many?" Raymond Zag Lauransan said.
The voice of the Cardinal of Earth sounded like grinding millstones. Thick dust coated his immaculate brown robes. Sweat and grime matted his hair.
He stared at the illusory projection and watched the primary temple of the Earth God slowly buckle. Heavy stone columns snapped under the intense heat. The grand dome collapsed into a churning lake of green fire. This reinforced structure had stood proudly for six centuries.
"How many divine realms have been liquidated?" Raymond asked the empty air.
Berenice Nagashia Santini leaned heavily against a stone map table beside him. The Cardinal of Fire possessed hollow, red-rimmed eyes.
"I do not know," Berenice whispered. Her voice lacked its usual fierce passion. "I stopped counting after the third residential district fell. The major temples are gone. The arcane libraries and grand granaries are reduced to ashes. It is not just a siege, Raymond. It is an erasure."
"By just one undead!" Maximilian Aurelius Laguier roared.
The Cardinal of Darkness slammed his fist violently onto the table. Raw, impotent rage replaced his refined judicial elegance entirely.
"One creature! And the Miko Princesses! And the First Seat! Our last line of defense was butchered like cattle while we hid in the dark!"
Medical priests chanted frantically in the corner. The chest of the old man stopped heaving. Golden healing magic sputtered against the unyielding limits of mortal age and profound psychological trauma. The world of the Supreme Leader had ended. His physical body chose to follow.
Ginedine Delan Guelfi stood with his back to the corpse. As the eldest surviving member, the mantle of Acting Supreme Leader fell heavily upon the hunched shoulders of the Cardinal of Water. He looked older than the burning ruins above.
"This is a crushing defeat," Ginedine stated.
Eerie calm anchored his raspy voice, though his gnarled hands trembled violently against his polished cane.
"But if we collapse now, humanity dies with us. We must focus on the foundation. We are taking the World-Class Item. We are taking the Black Scripture. Even if we must live like rats in the desert dirt, the bloodline of the Six must endure."
"How?!" Raymond rounded on the old man.
A terrified light burned in his eyes. Raymond gestured wildly at the scrying stone. The mountain of severed heads in the plaza had doubled in size.
"That monster is currently sitting in our holiest plaza! It is harvesting the citizens! Astrologer reports confirm the demonic artifact has hypnotized tens of thousands! They are lining up in the blood-soaked streets to have their throats slit one by one!"
Grabbing his own hair, Raymond pulled at the roots. His sanity frayed visibly at the edges.
"But the spell is imperfect, Ginedine! The mind control of the artifact breaks upon lethal contact! Do you know what that means?!"
Ginedine widened his eyes. Cold dread settled deep into his stomach.
"The sound," Raymond choked out as tears spilled down his soot-stained cheeks. "They march in silence. But the second that bone scythe touches their skin, the pain shatters the hypnosis. They wake up. They snap out of it at the exact millisecond of their death. The screaming, Ginedine. The sound of fifty thousand people waking up just to feel their heads leave their shoulders. Even the wind carries it down here!"
Berenice clapped both hands tightly over her ears. A violent wave of fresh tears broke through her stoic facade.
"I cannot," Berenice sobbed. She sank slowly to her knees beneath the map table. "I cannot hear this anymore. I cannot."
Muffled by a mile of solid bedrock, the distant thud of falling bodies continued above them. The harvest of Kami Miyako operated with perfect efficiency. The Slane Theocracy was actively dying. Its surviving architects were forced to listen to every single drop of spilled blood.