Apocalypse Regression: I Am the SSS-Rank Nightmare

Chapter 87: Chapter 87: Gate Guardian

**

The first volley from the gate guardian filled the air with intersecting beams of hard white light.

Leon walked through it.

Eclipse Presence eroded the structured energy before most of the beams could fully form. Those dense enough to retain coherence struck the outer plates of the Void Monarch Set and left only brief scorched lines that the ash-gray undertone of his new class erased within seconds. The towering construct adjusted immediately, its adaptive weapon arrays shifting configuration mid-fire—beams giving way to rapid pulse storms, then to solid energy blades that extended in sweeping arcs meant to control space.

Leon closed the distance without changing pace.

The guardian met him at the base of the gate frame. One massive arm swept horizontally, the energy blade long enough to shear through several of the earlier constructs in a single pass. Leon stepped inside the arc, the Aura of Ashen Eclipse pressing hard against the weapon’s structure. The blade’s edge dulled and fractured along its length as Finality took hold. The Abyssal Stinger flashed upward, scoring a deep line across the joint of the swinging arm. Absolute Eclipse followed the cut. Gray cracks raced through the limb. The arm locked, then began to disintegrate from the inside.

The guardian responded with overwhelming force.

Its remaining arm and the branching crest on its head unleashed a concentrated discharge of multi-spectrum energy at point-blank range. At the same time the orbiting barrier nodes around the nexus accelerated, projecting overlapping planes of silver light that attempted to box Leon in. The metal platform beneath his boots shuddered as spatial anchors activated, trying to fix him in place.

Eclipse Presence met every layer at once.

The spatial anchors collapsed. The barrier planes developed spreading patches of ash and lost coherence. The point-blank discharge washed across Leon’s domain and came apart, the structured energy unraveling into drifting motes of fading light. He stepped through the dissolving barrage and drove the Abyssal Stinger into the guardian’s torso, just below the primary sensor cluster.

Necrotic Injection flooded the internal systems. This time the effect spread farther and faster than before. Circuits blackened in cascading sequences. The guardian’s movements grew heavier, less precise. It tried to separate, floating backward on anti-gravity fields while its remaining weapon array reconfigured for a sustained beam.

Leon did not allow the distance.

Ashen Tide erupted from his free hand—denser and more absolute than the old Calamity Tide. The wave of dark violet fire laced with gray ash slammed into the guardian at close range, stripping the outer plates and forcing the unit to the platform surface. The anti-gravity fields failed. The towering frame crashed down hard enough to crack the alloy flooring.

Leon was already moving up the fallen construct.

He climbed the torso in three strides, avoided a desperate upward slash from the remaining arm, and plunged the Abyssal Stinger directly into the core housing at the base of the neck. Absolute Eclipse released at the moment of penetration. The concentrated concept of decay tore through the refined internal architecture without resistance. White light flared once from the sensor crest—bright enough to cast sharp shadows across the entire hexagonal platform—then died.

The gate guardian locked in place.

Gray cracks spread across every plate and joint. Within seconds the entire twelve-meter frame began to break apart, collapsing into a spreading mound of dark metal fragments and fine ash that the windless air of Floor 9 left undisturbed.

Silence returned to the nexus.

[Gate Guardian Construct Destroyed.]

[Experience gained: 245,000.]

[Level Up! You are now Level 51.]

[Absolute Extraction Activated...]

Strength +19

Agility +15

Constitution +19

Mana +17

Maximum Mana permanently increased by +280.

The surge of power settled cleanly into Leon’s frame. He stood amid the settling ash and opened his status.

[STATUS MENU]

Name: Leon Graves

Class: Finality Sovereign – Ashen Eclipse (Rank: SSS)

Level: 51

Health: 22,380 / 22,380

Mana: 13,920 / 13,920

[ATTRIBUTES]

Strength: 801

Agility: 576

Constitution: 813

Mana: 715

Perception: 161

The numbers reflected the new baseline after advancement and the latest extraction. He closed the panel.

Around him the nexus continued to react to the guardian’s destruction. The orbiting barrier nodes lost power one by one and drifted downward, striking the platform with dull metallic sounds before going still. The dense circuits covering the gate frame itself flickered, then stabilized into a slower, more subdued pattern. The deep violet light filling the vertical frame remained active, but its frequency had shifted.

A clean system message registered at the edge of his vision.

[Primary Gate Nexus of Floor 9 – Local Guardian Authority Erased.]

[Administrative override conditions partially met.]

[Transit permissions to deeper Floor 9 sectors and the inter-floor threshold are now accessible.]

Leon walked to the base of the massive gate frame. Among the ash and fragments of the guardian lay a single intact object: a smooth, angular key of black metal etched with moving silver lines. When he picked it up, the Sector Control Key already in his inventory resonated faintly with it.

[Gate Nexus Key acquired.]

[Combined administrative rights expanded.]

[Full transit control over the primary Floor 9 gate is now available.]

He stored the second key.

The violet light within the gate frame deepened, becoming more stable and inviting. Pathways that had been locked now showed as open routes in the system’s spatial overlay—some leading deeper into the mechanical sectors of Floor 9, others angling toward the true threshold that connected this layer to the next.

Leon looked up at the starless sky and the slow-turning silver rings. Several of the rings had already begun to drift out of their previous alignment, as though the floor’s higher monitoring systems were recalculating after the loss of the gate guardian.

He adjusted the collar of his duster. The ash-gray undertone along the edges of the Void Monarch Set remained visible under the gate’s violet light.

The primary nexus of Floor 9 was under his control.

The Finality Sovereign stepped toward the open gate, the quiet pressure of Ashen Eclipse spreading across the platform behind him.

Whatever waited on the far side of the threshold would meet the same absolute end.

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