Did Bellamy truly believe a simple spatial lockdown could stop him? Did he think a handful of Fifth-Order guardians could tether a soul that didn't even belong to this world?
"Stop playing the philosopher, Bellamy. It doesn't suit you."
Murderous intent flared in the King's crimson eyes. He raised a pale hand, ready to signal the execution of the arrogant intruder. But before he could speak, the hall was filled with unrestrained, mocking laughter.
"Hahaha!"
Controlling the Enderman, Steve doubled over, cackling as if he had just heard the most pathetic joke in the world.
"You want to kill me, Bellamy? You'll have to reincarnate into a better life before you're even close to my level. I can't wait to see the look on your face when you meet my true Fifth-Order legion."
At the naked provocation, Bellamy's pupils contracted. His instincts screamed that something was wrong. "Seize him! Now!"
ROAR!
The Strength-type guardian Steve had been using as a backrest exploded into motion. Its massive arm shot out like a hydraulic piston, aiming to crush the Enderman's neck.
Steve was faster. "Easy there, big guy." His voice held a teasing lilt. "I know this gloomy palace is a bit much for you. Don't worry; I'm taking you somewhere with better lighting—the Biological Research Institute."
Before the words had even finished echoing, the Enderman reversed its stance. Its spindly, deceptively strong arms clamped around the guardian's waist in a vice-like grip.
Thousands of kilometers away, at the edge of the Outpost Base, a Villager under Steve's mental command stood beside a specialized stasis chamber. Inside, an Ender Pearl hovered in a delicate gravitational field. The moment Steve secured his grip on the zombie, the Villager slammed a physical plate down, breaking the stasis field.
Crack!
The pearl struck the plate and shattered.
Vooom!
Inside the King's palace, the laws of space were forcibly overridden by the pearl's recall. The guardian's vision blurred; its punch hadn't even connected before reality twisted into a violet haze. Together with Steve, the two vanished before Bellamy's very eyes.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Dozens of Fifth-Order strikes slammed into the empty air where they had stood a millisecond before. The black-ice floor cratered, sending shards flying, but the target was gone.
"Till next time, Bellamy."
From a far corner of the hall, another Enderman scout—tasked with the distraction—spoke in Steve's voice before flickering away in a burst of purple light.
"Damn it!"
Bellamy trembled with a cold, focused rage, smashing the arm of his throne into splinters. "He... he abducted one of my generals right in front of me." It wasn't just a loss; it was a public humiliation.
Outpost Base: Teleportation Hub.
Whoosh!
Two figures tumbled out of the void. Before the Fifth-Order zombie could process the change in scenery, it found itself in an unfamiliar wilderness, surrounded not by its icy court but by a group of strange, blocky inhabitants.
ROAR!
The creature went berserk, bellowing with a sky-shaking fury as it lunged to rip apart the tall black figure that had abducted it.
"Tsk, tsk." Steve shifted the Enderman away in a blink. "Biting the hand that frees you? I rescued you from that pretentious King for a free medical checkup, and this is the thanks I get? Since you won't behave, we'll have to use compulsory measures."
Vooom!
Steve's primary consciousness seized the colossal entity circling overhead.
ROAR!
A draconic cry—regal, ancient, and far more terrifying than any undead screech—descended from the heavens. The zombie jerked its head up to see a black dragon blotting out the sun. Purple-white glacial energy gathered in its gaping maw.
[Arctic Dragon-Breath]!
FWOOOSH!
A concentrated jet of absolute zero frost struck the zombie's legs. Muscles harder than tempered alloy were instantly encased in a crystalline prison. The zombie struggled, but its lower body was a frozen sculpture, locked firmly to the earth.
Next, the Ender Dragon's titanic frame slammed down with the force of a falling mountain.
Crunch!
Her jaws clamped onto the zombie's reaching arms. With a violent jerk, she tore them free.
"Done. Take it away."
With the crippled guardian dangling from its maw, the Ender Dragon beat its massive wings and soared toward the research center.
Biological Research Institute.
"Cooper, I've got a delivery for you!" Steve's voice boomed over the base's broadcast system before the dragon had even touched down. "Fresh, live Fifth-Order specimen—prepare for gene extraction immediately!"
Inside the lab, Cooper—who had been obsessing over data arrays—snapped upright as if injected with pure adrenaline. "A Fifth-Order?!" The old man's beard quivered with excitement. "Hurry! Bring out the heavy-duty containment units and the high-spec extractors!"
BOOM!
The Ender Dragon thudded onto the institute's square, dropping the unfortunate victim along with its severed limbs.
"I'll stand guard," Steve said, settling the dragon nearby. Its glowing purple eyes pinned the zombie to the ground—the ultimate security system.
Steve then guided the Enderman into the lab. "Cooper, you mentioned a breakthrough in the Rage Gene project?"
Cooper nodded eagerly, pointing to a complex genetic map on the monitors. "We re-sequenced the core strain and found the size-control fragment. We can excise and amplify it. In short, we're crafting a serum that allows our units to alter their physical scale at will. It's entering clinical trials now."
"Variable scaling?" Steve's eyes lit up. The strategic value was immense—tiny for infiltration, gargantuan for a siege. It meant his team had finally moved past crude extraction; they were now rewriting the very code of life. "Excellent work. Keep pushing, Cooper."
By then, the Fifth-Order zombie had been trussed in alloy chains and carted into the high-security vault. The hunt for the King had officially begun.