Dead silence. Absolute silence.

  More than 20,000 mercenaries outside the city stared in disbelief at the scene. Their minds couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. That wasn’t magic, that was a miracle… no, that was divine punishment.

  “Too little…” That demonic voice rang out again, this time with a lingering sigh, echoing across the deathly silent battlefield: “Not even enough for a warm-up. Who else… wants to be my lunch?”

  “It’s a monster!!!”

  I don’t know who shouted it first. Immediately afterwards, the entire Osia privateer fleet collapsed. Gold coins and magic engines were nothing compared to their own lives at this moment. The steam-powered mechs turned tail and ran, trampling each other; Count Waldo on the command ship ordered all connections to be severed, turned the ship around, and fled frantically, fearing that if they were even a step too slow, they would become a pile of minced meat on the ground.

  In just five minutes, the once-mighty army was completely wiped out.

  —-----------

  Throne Hall.

  After confirming that the last enemy had escaped radar range, Sergei let out a soft groan.

  “Puff…”

  The "demon king" who had just been exuding domineering power suddenly went limp and slid off the throne.

  “Boss!” The four demon generals were shocked and rushed to support him.

  Sergei’s visor automatically disengaged, revealing a face as pale as paper. He was drenched in cold sweat and had no strength left to move a single finger. That sudden "gravitational collapse" had not only depleted the armor’s reserves but also drained his newly awakened life force.

  “It’s okay… I won’t die.” Sergei gasped for breath and pushed away the vampire who tried to feed him tomato juice. He struggled to lift his head and look at the empty square on the holographic screen, and the shocking dark red stain on the ground—the marks of a thousand crushed lives. As a former special forces soldier, he had witnessed countless bloody scenes. Reason told him that this was the price he had to pay for survival.

  But… as he stared at the bloody, mangled "two-dimensional painting," a chilling sensation rose from his stomach… no, from the depths of his soul. That wasn’t disgust. Nor was it fear.

  Gurgle. Sergei heard himself swallow. That was a kind of… appetite.

  That was the instinct the Black Hole Armor transmitted to its host when its energy was depleted—eating. The armor screamed, yearning to break free, and lay on the ground licking the life-energy-rich remains of flesh and blood to replenish its energy.

  “Damn it…” Sergei clutched his chest tightly, his nails almost digging into his flesh, forcefully suppressing the urge to turn himself into a monster. “I am not a beast… I am not…”

  He gritted his teeth, his voice horribly hoarse, “Send the order… seal off the square. Dispose of those… those corpses. Immediately! Burn them to ashes! Don’t let me see them!”

  “Yes!” Watching the busy figures of the demon generals, Sergei slumped down on the steps, looking at his own black claws that were trembling slightly. He won this round. But just now… he almost lost to instinct.

  “System,” Sergei asked coldly in his mind, “how long can I live if I don’t eat people?”

  [Warning: Current energy reserves are dwindling. 0.3%]

  [Expected Hibernation Countdown: 12 Hours. After hibernation, the armor will automatically take over the host's body and activate an "indiscriminate predation mode" to survive.]

  “So, if I don’t find something to feed you, I’ll turn into a man-eating zombie?” Sergei chuckled self-deprecatingly. “Is this the price of a god-slaying weapon? What a terrible design.”

  [Recommendation: Biomass cannibalism (eating humans) is extremely inefficient and unsustainable.]

  [Searching for alternatives]......[High-order clean energy reactions were found.]

  A new map window popped open on his retina. It was located in the Far Northern Wasteland, with blinking coordinates.

  [Target Type: Divine Container]

  [Characteristics: Light and Dark Twin. Contains high-purity power of rules within its body.]

  [Suggested Solution: Not devour, but establish a "symbiotic link."]

  [Explanation: This target is like an infinitely renewable reactor. The host can absorb its overflowing energy through contact without damage, repairing its armor without harming the target, and even helping the target stabilize its rampaging energy.]

  “Symbiotic link? So… a humanoid power bank?” Sergei looked at the coordinates, and his previously cold gaze finally softened a little. If eating people was like drinking dirty water to quench thirst, then this "container of God" was a pure spring.

  “If I find her, I won’t need to be a monster anymore, right?”

  [Definitely. This is the only survival path that allows the host to maintain humanity and rationality.]

  [Furthermore, according to data analysis, the container is currently in an "unawakened" state.]

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  [Those in a state of "wandering" are highly susceptible to being recovered or destroyed by the Papal States.]

  “Reclaimed by the Papal States?” The image of that sacred yet cold voice (Sol) flashed through Sergei’s mind. If the Church found it, the fate of that "container" would likely be worse than death—it would be erased from consciousness and turned into a pure battery, just like he had been.

  A sense of shared suffering and responsibility, mixed with the instinct for survival, enabled Sergei to stand up again.

  “Then there’s nothing we can do.” Just as he was about to issue the command, the system alarm in his mind suddenly became sharp and piercing.

  [Warning: Energy prices fall below... 0.1% Threshold!]

  [Unable to maintain armed mode. Forced execution of "Low Power Protocol"]

  “What?” Sergei was taken aback. “Wait a minute—”

  Before he could finish speaking, a dramatic change occurred.

  Sizzle sizzle—Click!

  A sharp, excruciating pain, as if his entire skeleton were being crushed by a hydraulic press, exploded instantly. Sergei didn’t even have time to assume a defensive stance before his body stiffened abruptly, and his knees slammed heavily onto the black stone floor.

  “Ugh—!!!” He gritted his teeth and let out a low, painful growl.

  The black chitinous shell covering his entire body did not recede gently, but rather, like countless rusty steel needles, harshly pierced through his pores, blood vessels, and nerves in a violent extraction. That was the armor forcibly contracting to save its life. Ignoring its host’s feelings, it frantically gathered the nanofluids distributed throughout his body towards the single energy core.

  “Boss?!” Julius and Grom were shocked and were about to step forward to help him up.

  “Don’t…come any closer!” Sergei squeezed out the words through gritted teeth, veins bulging on his forehead, cold sweat pouring down his face. Three seconds felt like an eternity.

  With a final, grating, nerve-wracking screech, the grotesque "abyssal monster" vanished completely. In its place stood Sergei, drenched in sweat and deathly pale, with a piece of… well, let’s just say it was tightly gripping his left wrist, radiating intense heat: a Black Smart Bracelet.

  [Forced Standby Mode: Activated.]

  [Current Status: Extremely Weak.]

  “Ha ha…” Sergei braced himself on one hand, panting heavily. He glanced at the still-smoking bracelet on his wrist, a ruthless glint in his eyes. “Is this… what they call ‘standby’? It almost killed me with pain…”

  He wiped the cold sweat from his face and, under the horrified and worried gazes of the demon generals, managed to stand up, albeit unsteadily, thanks to the physical prowess of a special forces soldier.

  “Boss, your body…” The lich looked at Sergei, who was now devoid of any magical energy, and his soul fire flickered violently.

  “It’s nothing. It just ran out of power.” Sergei straightened his tattered collar and forced himself to regain his composure and dignity—even though his legs were still trembling slightly from the intense nerve pain he had just experienced.

  “Julius, Grom!” He didn’t explain his earlier embarrassment, but instead issued the order directly, as if the pain he had just experienced had never existed. “You all take good care of the house. I have to go on a long trip.”

  “Boss, are you going out?” Grand Duke Julius asked with some concern. “Although the merchants from Osia have run away, there’s still a big problem behind them—the Ironblood Empire’s ‘Black Steel Legion’ is still there.” Julius pointed to the edge of the holographic map. Unlike the routed Osia mercenaries, the group of blue dots representing the Ironblood Empire did not collapse. After witnessing the horrific scene of the "gravity collapse," they quickly retreated five kilometers, set up camp on a high ground, and adopted a defensive posture.

  “They’re watching us like a pack of wolves,” Grom the Orc said in a low voice. “If we show the slightest weakness, these regulars will pounce.”

  “Because they are a regular army, they understand ‘respect’ better than businessmen, but they are also more difficult to deal with.” Sergei stared at the blue dot of light, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes. “The empty city tactic won’t scare them away; we need to use another method.”

  He quickly adjusted the deployment, issuing three highly targeted instructions:

  First, targeting the Ironblood Empire: military deterrence and the "mound of corpses" (a symbol of destruction).

  “Grom, take some men to clean the square. Pile all the thousand mech and wyvern corpses that were crushed into pancakes at the city gate.” Sergei instructed. “Don’t burn them. Build them into a ‘corpse tower’, facing directly towards the Ironblood Empire’s garrison. The Ironblood Empire reveres force. This corpse tower is the best boundary marker. It’s sending a signal: ‘Anyone who crosses the line shall die.’ As long as this tower stands, the cautious and ruthless commander will not dare to launch an attack lightly.”

  Second, regarding the defeated Osia troops: on-site infiltration and spreading rumors.

  “Elise (Dark Elf), you don’t need to go far. Infiltrate the ‘Gold Coin’ command ship, which Osia is currently retreating, or infiltrate their wounded soldiers’ camp.” Sergei continued. “I want you to spread a message on their communication channels: the attack just now was not an act of war, but rather a demonstration of ‘ancient magical technology’ by the Demon King’s castle. This is a Product Demonstration. Tell those terrified merchants: the Demon King doesn’t want war, he only wants business. The ‘gravity weapons’ and ‘abyssal ore’ here are negotiable. Turn their fear into greed, and they won’t think about revenge, but about how to come back and bargain.”

  Third, regarding comprehensive defense: Electronic Warfare.

  “Kel’Thuzad, use all your remaining mana on ‘signal camouflage.’ I don’t require you to have real defensive towers, but I require you to create one hundred ‘high-energy reaction points’ on the Ironblood Empire’s magical radar. Let them think we’re ready to launch a second gravitational collapse at any moment.” Sergei explained. “That’s it. This is Strategic Fraud. As long as the radar’s red light remains on, they have to sleep in their armor until they suffer a mental breakdown.”

  After Sergei finished speaking, his gaze swept over the four men. “Did you understand? They used the corpse tower to intimidate soldiers, offered incentives to lure businessmen, and used false signals to buy time.”

  “This is called—Asymmetric Hybrid Warfare.”

  “Brilliant… truly brilliant.” The lich pushed up his glasses, his bone pen flying as he jotted down notes. “By exploiting the enemy’s psychological weaknesses to keep them in check, we created a standoff outside the city, turning them into our watchdogs.”

  “It’s just a stopgap measure.” Sergei tightened the black bracelet on his wrist, feeling the last bit of energy within it. He knew this fragile balance couldn’t last long; once the Papal States realized what was happening and dispatched real clergy, the charade would be exposed.

  “Until I bring that ‘human power bank’ back… I’m leaving this home to you.”

  “Yes, sir!” This time, the four demon generals answered in unison. Their gazes towards Sergei held not only awe for a powerful figure, but also a deep respect for this "tactical mastermind."

  Sergei turned around, his black cloak drawing an arc in the air. He looked toward the far north on the map, where the Ironblood Empire’s borders lay, and in the most lawless territory where the Papal States’ reach was most difficult to extend.

  “Wait for me, Aria.” He murmured to himself, and his figure vanished instantly into the shadows of the main hall. “Whatever you do, don’t die at someone else’s hands.”