Chapter 18: The Black Prison, Section 6

An enemy attack?
The chubby warden’s eyes rolled slightly, but no sign of panic appeared on his face. He was only briefly stunned, as if utterly surprised.
“Oh? Truly the most exciting news of the year. My dear Captain Mari. You know, being trapped in this filthy, garbage-filled place is driving me mad. Well then. An enemy attack—I like that. Captain, I’d like you to tell me how you plan to deal with this attack.”
“Kill them, sir!” The Mummy Captain snapped to attention, straightening his body. “Throw them into the sulfur pools so you can hear their agonized screams as they die. Let their bones dissolve into water and flow into the Black Prison’s sewers. My lord warden, whatever you demand is our order.”
“Excellent, absolutely excellent!!” The chubby warden laughed heartily. He stretched out his plump hand, trying hard to pat the captain on the shoulder but failing, ending up merely touching his chest. Then he left the room without looking back, calling out from afar, “Well then, Captain, I’ll wait in the arena for good news from you. If possible, I’d like to see these fearless fools wailing before me. Of course, if you can, please deal with that pile of rot on the bed before you leave. Honestly, I have no appetite to see it anymore.”
“As you wish, my lord warden,” the captain replied cheerfully with a slight bow. Then he turned his head slightly, his cold gaze shifting to a corner of the room. There, a voluptuous yet scarred elven beauty was curled up naked, trembling uncontrollably. Seeing the captain’s gaze, she became terrified, making strange noises and shaking her head frantically, as if trying to escape.
Another wretch trying to gain the warden’s pity through beauty… The captain shook his head slightly. Didn’t these pitiful creatures understand? There was no pity to be given here. No matter how beautiful the body, in the eyes of that perverted human officer, it was nothing but rot. The same applied to him as well.
“Slap!”

With a soft snap of his fingers, the captain refused to glance back at that corner again and left the room without turning his head. Behind him, several giant bone spines suddenly erupted from the wall beside the elven beauty, piercing her through instantly. With a shrill scream, blood gushed out like a fountain. Her beautiful body was hung suspended in the air by the bone spines; after struggling uselessly for a while, she stopped moving. Her once gorgeous face quickly turned gray and pale, soon assuming the color of a dead fish.

The alarms continued to blare, and the entire prison seemed to be shaking as figures wrapped in black cloth rushed around frantically. Though it appeared chaotic, it was actually well-organized. All prisoners were quickly sent back to their rooms, clearing the prison. Then, numerous heavy metal valves slammed shut, dividing the prison into numerous sections of varying sizes. By the time the captain reached his room, the entire prison was fully prepared for battle.

What is efficiency? This is efficiency. The formidable reputation of the Bone Guards wasn’t just talk. On this planet, in this prison feared by all living beings, the Bone Guards were like gods. No one, no creature, could stand before them without trembling. And Captain Mari was the most powerful among these Bone Guards.

Dark cloth strips were lifted, revealing charred bones. Their withered fingers looked terrifying like ghostly claws. In the small room, the cloth covering the captain’s body gradually disappeared, and in just a moment, he was completely bare. What had once been a mummy-like figure was now nothing but a skeleton, just like the undead in the famous Earth-based game World of Warcraft! (I strongly protest against 9City’s “harmony” for changing my beloved undead thief into a zombie. Angry.)

With a twist of two fingers and a crisp snap, one wall of the room suddenly retracted, revealing a dark hole. Immediately afterward, a dark figure emerged from within. It was an exquisite set of black armor, radiating menace from head to toe. The entire armor set was made up of countless tiny black bone plates, reflecting a cold glow under the room’s lights.

Reaching out, he picked up a bone fragment and gently pressed it against his shoulder. With a crackling sound, the fragment immediately fixed firmly in place. Captain Mari was swift with his hands and feet; the crackling sounds continued nonstop. In the blink of an eye, the charred skeleton vanished completely, replaced by a monstrous figure entirely black, resembling a miniature mech.
“Order: Team One, move out. Team Two, provide support. Team Three, stay in ambush. If the enemy lands, Team One shall make first contact,” the captain said suddenly, looking up at the empty room.
If anyone else were present at that moment, they would surely think the captain was insane—talking to an empty room. But in fact, as soon as he spoke those words, the room reacted. A section of the wall showed ripples like water, and then a terrifying skull appeared out of nowhere, bowing respectfully to the captain.
“Your wishes are our orders, great Lord Mari. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen you outfit armor. This will be interesting, won’t it? Can those outsiders really earn your attention to this extent?”
“Hmph!” A cold snort came from beneath the black mask. “Just the fact that they managed to evade Black Prison’s scans is worth my effort. Black Prison hasn’t had any intruders in a long time. I’m looking forward to it.”
With that, he turned and left the room.
Meanwhile, Kuroha’s group was still plummeting from an altitude of over a thousand kilometers above the planet. More than three hundred mechs covered the sky like a dark storm cloud. Following the route Kuroha had planned, they descended straight from outer space, like bayonets aimed straight at the enemy’s throat.
In fact, this forced invasion was somewhat similar to a special forces’ surgical strike. The biggest difference was the lack of precise target information and the inability to identify the enemy’s weak points.
But for Kuroha, this wasn’t a big problem. Without target data, he could simply use his control abilities. As long as he could locate the mechanical parts of the prison, nothing should be able to stop him. As for weak points… Kuroha sneered. That depended on whether the enemy cooperated. If possible, he preferred to dive straight down through the top of the prison—it would save a lot of time.

Time is money. From the moment the mechs were launched from the warships, Kurokami never thought he could deceive his opponents. All they demanded was one thing: speed. Seizing the moment when the opponents had just discovered them and hadn’t yet reacted in time, he would tear through their bodies with devastating attacks—this was the true essence of his assault. And the foundation of all this was still speed. Speed as fast as lightning, speed as fierce as a storm. Aggressive like fire, swift as the wind. Only in this way could he obtain what he wanted at the lowest cost.

What Kurokami didn’t expect, however, was that unlike the troops he had seen before, the Bone Guards of the Black Prison were far stronger than he had anticipated. In fact, as the Blood Wolf mechs descended at high speed with howls, a similarly dark tide of bone warriors had silently gathered on the ground. All of them were pitch-black bone mechs, towering six meters tall, their bodies covered in thick, hard bone plates. Each mech’s shell was adorned with spikes of various sizes, making them resemble jagged mountain peaks stretching for kilometers. At that moment, such a group of Bone Guards was gathered on the surface of Black Prison Planet. They lurked there silently, as if they had existed since ancient times. Not a single one made a sound; they simply lay there quietly, looking up at the sky.

Following their gazes, Kurokami’s group saw the sparks generated by their forced descent—like a meteor shower, dazzlingly beautiful.

“Click!” The eyes of the lead bone mech suddenly flashed several times, emitting a crisp clicking sound. Then, the massive mech suddenly stood up. A stream of messages came from within it.

“Team leader reporting: Target detected. Approximate number is three hundred. Type of mechs unknown. High speed. Armor and firepower unknown. Requesting permission to attack.”

“Attack authorized,” came the voice of Captain Mari from inside the mech. With his words, all the “mountain peaks” of spikes rose at once, and the roar of their engines instantly shattered the silence of the night sky. Their brilliant exhaust trails tore through the air surrounding them. In an instant, these black bone mechs became demons in the night, charging forth wildly.

The soil turned charred, and the ground was torn apart piece by piece by their force. The brutality of the bone mechs became evident in an instant, leaving undeniable traces on the surface of Black Prison Planet. Having shed their disguise, they finally revealed their bloodthirsty fangs.

At the same time, the screen in front of Black Hair faithfully reproduced this scene as well. Watching those rushing black bone armor, Black Hair suddenly showed an expression that should have appeared long ago. He typed a few keys, and immediately the image of Blood Pupil appeared on the screen beside him.
“Blood Pupil, I’m giving you a hundred men. Fifteen minutes.”
“Understood, boss,” Blood Pupil replied without hesitation, letting out a few eerie laughs. His blood-red mech immediately turned sideways, like a diving fighter jet, suddenly deviating from the main group’s path and charging straight at the bone armor. Behind him, a full hundred Blood Wolf mechs followed closely, each one seemingly on adrenaline, letting out deafening howls over the public channel.