Chapter 201
The Calamity Centipede rose from beneath the broken earth, its impossible length coiling through molten fissures like a god unbound. Segments of obsidian armor clattered together, each plate the size of a fortress gate. Its hundred crimson eyes ignited in sequence, glowing through the smoke, cutting through the chaos like a field of suns. When it opened its mandibles, the sound was not a roar but the grinding of worlds, an ancient hunger reawakened.
Daniel stumbled back, one arm shielding his eyes from the glare. His lungs burned, his armor half-melted, and his mana flared uncontrollably, reacting to the sheer magnitude of the creature before him. This thing… it's not meant to exist in this world anymore.
Thrakir was already laughing. Blood streamed from his mouth, but his laughter was thick and gleeful. "You feel it, don't you, mortal? The end… the collapse of your fragile earth." His claws spread wide, absorbing the centipede's aura like a leech to flame. "Let it come! Let the beast consume us all!"
Daniel didn't answer. He charged.
The ground shattered beneath his feet as he launched forward, his blade, a searing arc of chaos and light, cutting toward Thrakir's throat. The demon parried with his forearm, the clash sending out a shockwave that cracked the air like thunder. Rocks vaporized. The centipede's nearest segment twisted violently, reacting to the burst of energy; it struck the ground with such force that a mountain ridge caved in.
The three-way war began.
Daniel and Thrakir's duel became a dance of destruction between the monster's writhing body. They fought atop its armored shell, leaping from segment to segment as the colossus rose higher, tearing through the clouds. Daniel's sword tore gouges through the demon's flesh, but every wound closed seconds later under a tide of molten blood. Thrakir's counterstrikes hit like artillery, each blow threatening to break Daniel's ribs or shatter bone outright.
Then the Centipede joined the fight.
From its mandibles, it unleashed a breath of mana decay, a stream of corroding magic that devoured everything it touched. Whole chunks of mountain dissolved to dust. Daniel dove from the blast, rolling across the centipede's side as it melted stone and steel in its wake. He barely had time to recover before Thrakir crashed into him again, driving him backward.
"Still breathing?" the demon snarled, his grin split with madness.
Daniel's only response was a fist to Thrakir's gut, chaos energy bursting out like a star. The explosion hurled both of them clear off the centipede's body, down into the burning chasm below.
They landed hard, Daniel on one knee, coughing blood, Thrakir laughing through broken teeth. All around them, the world moved. The centipede's vast body was curling inward, forming a spiraling vortex of magic at its core. Its scream tore through the sky as it began to feed on the chaos mana leaking from both combatants.
"Daniel…" a voice echoed faintly through the mind , as his Omni-Resonance consciously was activated , Melgil's voice, cracked, desperate. "You have to fall back! That thing's energy levels are off the charts! It's pulling from both of you!"
"I can't," he whispered, eyes locked on Thrakir, who was already crawling to his feet. "If we leave it unchecked, it'll consume everything."
He felt the Chaos Engine inside him flare, as if sensing his resolve. The black aura around his body deepened, flames turning dark violet, reality trembling with every breath he took. He'd never drawn this much before, not even during the Siege of the Floating Garrison.
Thrakir sensed it too. "You'll burn yourself out," he hissed. "Your body can't contain it!"
"Then I'll burn with it," Daniel said quietly.
They clashed again, chaos meeting chaos, light and darkness colliding until the sky turned red. The shockwave flattened forests miles away. The centipede, enraged by their defiance, slammed one colossal limb down between them, cleaving the earth into a glowing canyon.
Daniel darted up the creature's limb, using the chaos currents to propel himself higher—straight toward its head. Thrakir followed, his wings unfurling in jagged bursts of shadow. They met above the monster's skull, locked in a frenzy of fists and steel as the centipede's eyes began to charge with blinding light.
Then came the scream.
The Calamity Centipede unleashed its full wrath, an energy beam that tore through the battlefield, through mountains, through the sky itself. The blast swallowed them both, vaporizing everything in its path.
For a heartbeat, there was silence. Then, Daniel burst through the light, his body glowing with chaotic fire, dragging Thrakir by the throat.
"This ends now!" he roared.
And with a final surge, he drove the demon down into the centipede's burning eye, their combined power detonating like a miniature sun.
The shockwave tore through the valley, flattening what remained of the land. When the light faded, there was only ruin, ash and molten stone stretching for miles.
But in the heart of the crater, something still moved.
The crater boiled with fire and black steam. Everything was noise cracking stone, boiling air, the low, gut-rattling growl that belonged to something far older than either man or demon.
From the molten pit, the Calamity Centipede began to change. Its thousand-fold body convulsed and folded inward, bones grinding like continental plates. Obsidian plates melted and fused into a single carapace. The glow in its eyes burned white as its elongated form shrank, condensed, rebuilt itself.
Where the monster had sprawled across the valley now stood a humanoid figure, thirty feet tall and wrapped in armor grown from its own exoskeleton. Veins of molten gold ran beneath its skin. Each breath exhaled ash and raw mana, distorting the light around it.
Daniel staggered back, half-blind from the heat. "Impossible… it's adapting"
Thrakir laughed, though even his grin faltered. "No. It's evolving."
The transformed calamity moved before either could prepare. One swing of its arm split the air like glass, Daniel barely raised his blade before being hurled through a ridge of half-melted stone. Thrakir caught the second blow full on, his ribs caving in with a sound like thunder. The demon crashed to his knees, spitting fire and blood.
For a heartbeat, the two ancient enemies, man and demon, found themselves prey before the new god that towered over them.
The Calamity's voice was a grinding whisper, words not spoken but forced into existence through vibration." POWER… CONFLICT… SUSTENANCE "It lunged.
Daniel rolled aside as the creature's fist annihilated the ground where he'd stood. Shards of molten stone exploded outward. He countered, slashing upward, his chaos-fused sword cutting deep into the monster's forearm, but the wound closed almost instantly, sealed by a flash of molten light.
Thrakir joined in with a roar, driving a black spear through the creature's flank. The weapon hissed, melting as soon as it entered. He didn't care, he ripped another spike from his own shoulder and drove it deeper, screaming his rage into the thing's face.
The Calamity retaliated with a shockwave that threw both away like broken dolls. They hit the ground hard, meters apart.
Daniel pushed up on trembling arms, blood dripping from his mouth. His lungs burned with every breath, mana sparking wildly around him. Can't stop… can't stop now. He could feel Thrakir's energy flaring nearby, the demon lord still standing, still grinning despite the ruin of his body.
Thrakir spat a tooth into the dirt and turned toward Daniel. "You… still think this is about good and evil?" Daniel didn't answer. His eyes were locked on the monster as it advanced, each step leaving craters of molten stone. "You're fighting for people who are already dead," Thrakir hissed. "For ashes!"
"Then I'll protect what's left of them," Daniel said through his teeth. "Even if it's just the memory."
Thrakir's smile died. For a moment, the two regarded each other, not allies, not enemies, but two broken forces trapped in the same storm.
Then the Calamity struck again.
They moved together, Daniel and Thrakir, meeting the blow head-on. Chaos and abyssal energy collided in a burst that shook the horizon. The creature screamed, half its face blown apart, molten ichor spraying across the battlefield. But even that didn't stop it; it simply regrew, its body convulsing as more spikes and tendrils sprouted from its back.
The air itself grew heavy, vibrating with power. Daniel could feel the Chaos Engine in his chest overheating, mana veins burning his skin from the inside out. He could taste iron and ozone. One more push, he thought. One more.
He charged again, blade raised. Thrakir followed with a roar that was half-madness, half-glory.
Every strike they traded now shattered the air, each punch, each parry, each kick tearing up the ground. When their energies collided, lesser demons nearby exploded outright, reduced to vapor by the pressure alone. The sky darkened, clouds shredding apart from the force of their battle.
Thrakir hammered Daniel's ribs, sending him skidding across the ruined plain. "You can't win, human!" he bellowed. "You're lesser!"
Daniel wiped blood from his mouth, his smile faint but defiant. "Then I'll show you what a lesser being can do."
He surged forward once more, meeting both the demon and the monster head-on, his aura flaring like a dying sun.
And as their powers collided, the Calamity Centipede , now half-man, half-god, howled and began to unravel, feeding on their fury, its body fracturing into pure, chaotic light. The landscape twisted, gravity broke, the mountains themselves screamed.
The three forces, man, demon, and beast, were no longer fighting for victory. They were fighting to decide which one of them, the fate itself would let survive.
The storm of chaos swelled until even the air screamed. Mana bled from the earth in rivers of blue flame, rising in spirals that turned the sky into a sea of shifting colors—crimson, violet, black. The ground no longer held shape; it pulsed like a wounded heart beneath their feet, every heartbeat a tremor.
Daniel stood amid the storm, his armor half-vaporized, his skin scored with burning sigils where the Chaos Engine had fused into his body. Each breath tore his lungs, but his eyes—those burning rings of will, did not falter. Across from him, Thrakir loomed like a demon wreathed in molten shadow, his wings shredded but still beating with defiance. Between them, the humanoid Calamity towered, molten veins pulsing through its obsidian shell like rivers of lightning beneath glass.
The three of them radiated such force that the land itself seemed to bend away.
The Calamity moved first.
It vanished in a blur of heat distortion, appearing between Daniel and Thrakir with a sound like tearing metal. Its fist came down, not like a blow, but like an execution, an entire hillside exploded beneath the impact. Daniel darted aside, his boots grinding against liquefied stone. Thrakir answered with a roar, his claws dragging ribbons of darkness through the air as he met the creature head-on.
Their collision bent the light around them.
The shockwave leveled everything in a hundred-meter radius, trees, ruins, the bones of ancient beasts, all reduced to vapor. The Calamity's arm cleaved through Thrakir's chest, but instead of falling, the demon seized the limb and bit into it, his fangs breaking against molten armor. Black blood hissed on contact with gold-veined flesh. The Calamity screamed—not in pain, but in rage—and slammed its free hand into Thrakir's back, driving him into the ground so hard the crater glowed.
Daniel seized that instant. His sword, now a jagged extension of his will, shone like a fractured star. He dashed forward, each step detonating the earth, and leapt, his form blurring through the haze. He carved an arc of chaos energy across the Calamity's throat.
The blade met resistance, then gave. A geyser of molten light burst out, flooding the battlefield in radiance. Daniel landed hard, skidding backward as the creature staggered. Its wound closed seconds later, but not before it turned its gaze toward him.
"POWER… CONFLICT… SUSTENANCE…"The voice was deeper now, layered with echoes—like gods arguing inside a void.
Daniel felt it inside his skull, crushing thought. The Chaos Engine in his chest howled in answer, threads of unstable mana wrapping around him like chains. He refused to yield. "You want power?" he rasped. "Then choke on mine!"
He drew everything, every spark, every shred of chaos that his body could channel, and the world convulsed.A storm of violet fire erupted from him, a pillar that pierced the heavens. Reality rippled around its core. The Calamity lunged, but Daniel met it, not as a man, but as a storm made flesh.
Their clash split the world open.
The explosion that followed drowned the horizon in light. It tore a ring through the clouds, vaporized entire mountain peaks. Time itself seemed to hesitate, stuttering under the weight of their power. Thrakir rose again amidst the chaos, wings ablaze, one arm mangled but his grin returning, mad and glorious.
"You really are insane," he shouted over the roar, his voice cracking. "Good! Let's end this together!"
He hurled himself back into the fray, his demonic aura weaving into Daniel's storm, black and violet spiraling together into a maelstrom of annihilation. The Calamity reeled beneath the assault, its body splitting in multiple directions, light spilling from cracks in its armor like molten rivers. Its roar split the air.
Then, it changed again.
From its back erupted tendrils of golden energy, each tipped with a blade-like appendage. They lashed through the storm, carving lines through space itself. One struck Daniel across the chest, hurling him a hundred meters backward. Another pierced through Thrakir's shoulder, pinning him to a wall of fused stone. The demon howled and tore himself free, leaving half his arm behind, but still, he laughed.
"You think pain means anything to me?" he spat, summoning black fire from his remaining hand. "Let's see if a god can bleed!"
He hurled the inferno forward, an abyssal spear that carved through the creature's torso. The Calamity staggered. Daniel reappeared above it, both hands gripping his sword, chaos-fire spiraling around him in waves.
He dove.
The blade struck the creature's crown, and for a moment, the world broke.
The impact released a singular pulse. Mountains flattened. Clouds scattered to the horizon. The Calamity screamed, its form fracturing into shards of molten armor and light. But instead of dying, it pulled itself back together, reforming faster than before. The air around it began to warp, gravity itself bending toward its core. It was feeding on the destruction, on them.
Daniel fell to one knee, his body flickering between flesh and pure energy. "It's absorbing us," he gasped. "Our power's making it stronger!"
Thrakir spat blood and smirked. "Then we starve it."
Daniel met his gaze. For the first time, there was something like mutual understanding.
The Chaos Engine throbbed in Daniel's chest. Thrakir's demonic heart burned like a collapsing star. Both of them mortal and infernal, knew what had to be done.
Daniel's hand rose, palm glowing. "Link the cores," he said.
Thrakir hesitated, then grinned savagely. "You'll regret this, mortal."
Their auras collided ,not in battle, but in fusion. The shockwave that erupted from their union silenced the world. Chaos and abyssal power intertwined, forming a blinding sphere of dark light that burned through the storm. The ground below disintegrated, and for an instant, the three of them were suspended in nothing.
The Calamity screamed, its humanoid form expanding, cracking, failing to contain the overload. Golden fissures webbed across its body like veins of fire. Daniel and Thrakir, bound by their fusion, soared upward in one final strike.
Their voices overlapped, a human roar and a demonic bellow."For everything we've lost!"
They drove through the creature's chest, piercing the core of molten mana that pulsed like a dying sun.
The explosion was silent, too vast for sound to exist. A white void consumed everything.
When the light finally dimmed, the world was gone. The valley had become a crater so deep the clouds reflected in it like water. The once endless body of the Calamity was reduced to shards, each one cooling into glass. In the center, a single shape still glowed faintly, Daniel, kneeling amid molten stone, sword buried in the ground.
Thrakir was nowhere to be seen.
Daniel's armor was cracked, half of it fused to his skin. The Chaos Engine in his chest flickered weakly, sputtering sparks of violet light. He raised his head, staring at the crater's edge, where the last fragment of the Calamity's core pulsed like a dying heart.
Then, it shattered.
A tremor ran through the ground, and the light was gone.
Daniel exhaled slowly. The silence that followed felt wrong, empty, final.
He looked up at the sky, torn, colorless, the stars hidden behind ash—and whispered, "It's over."
But deep beneath the molten crust, something shifted. A single golden ember pulsed once… twice… waiting.
The rift still burned in the sky, a wound that refused to close. Its edges pulsed with molten light, bleeding fragments of unreality into the battlefield below. The air was thick with ash and the stink of scorched mana. Nothing moved, no bird, no whisper of wind—only the slow collapse of molten rock cooling into jagged glass.
Then came the tremor. Metal footsteps, measured, heavy, unyielding.
From the haze marched a hundred warriors of the War Forge, each one encased in runed golem armor eight feet tall. Their every step shook the earth. Sigils flared across their plates, pulsing like living veins of magma. Steam hissed from vents along their backs, and between them walked Siglorr Bouldergrove, the Forgemaster of the Deep Crucibles, his great hammer Auralmir resting against his shoulder like the weight of a mountain.
Their arrival made the surviving demons hesitate. Even the corrupted beasts paused, their advance faltering under the echo of approaching thunder. But the forgemaster saw none of it, only ruin.Bodies, thousands of them, scattered like broken dolls across the blackened field. Human, demon, dwarf, it no longer mattered. Death had made them all equal.
Duke Aereth Rothchester, the Silver Reaper, stood amid the carnage. His silver armor was charred black, his blade dripping with ichor that hissed as it met the ground. The corpse of a demon lord hung from his hand like discarded cloth. His expression was distant, hollow, his eyes reflecting the storm above.
When Siglorr approached, Duke Aereth turned, tossing the demon aside with a sound of disgust.
"You took your time, Forgemaster," the Duke rasped, his voice brittle with exhaustion. "Half the damned continent's gone, and now you decide to show up?"
Siglorr stopped a few paces away, the glow of his runes flickering against the ash. He looked older than he ever had, older even than the wars he'd forged for. His armor was cracked in places, his beard matted with soot. When he spoke, his voice was a low rumble, heavy as falling stone.
"Don't start with me, boy," he said quietly. "We came as soon as the forge gates stabilized. The transfer network was collapsing—some kind of interference, mana storms tearing through the ley lines. Every time we opened a path, something… pushed back."
Duke Aereth's eyes narrowed. "Something?"
Siglorr exhaled, staring out at the torn landscape. "A pulse. Power I've never felt before. It burned through the channels, fried the runes, shattered three gate anchors before we could force a passage." His gauntlet tightened around Auralmir's haft. "We lost many men before we even set foot here."
"lost ,not dead!"
The Duke looked away, jaw clenched. The sound of wind returned, a whisper moving through fields of corpses. It sounded too much like breathing.
Around them, the dwarven war golems stood in silence, the light of their cores dimming as they surveyed the devastation. Some knelt, touching the ground as if in prayer. Others simply stared, wordless.
Siglorr lowered his hammer and spoke again, softer now. "By the Forge's flame… I've fought gods, Aereth. I've seen mountains split by war fire. But this?" He shook his head slowly. "This isn't war. It's erasure."
Aereth let out a bitter laugh that never reached his eyes. "You think I don't know that?" He gestured at the bodies—men burned into glass, demons frozen mid-scream. "These were soldiers, Siglorr. My men. Your kin. They believed they were fighting for something. And now…" He trailed off, his hand trembling. "Now there's nothing left to bury."
A long silence followed, broken only by the soft hiss of cooling stone.
Siglorr looked around, the broken horizon, the twisted remnants of fortresses that once stood proud. His hammer slipped from his hand and hit the ground with a dull thud.
"I thought I was ready," he muttered. "I've spent my life building weapons, breaking them, building better ones. I thought… that if I forged strong enough, if I gave our warriors the best, we'd be ready for anything." He looked down at his hands, scarred and trembling. "But nothing we've made could've stopped this."
Aereth's gaze fell to the ground, where a shattered war-banner lay half-buried in soot. The symbol once proud was now unrecognizable.
"Do you still think the gods are watching us?" he asked quietly. "Because if they are, they must be laughing."
Siglorr didn't answer. He only looked at the rift in the sky, its molten edge rippling like a dying flame. For a moment, he seemed to see something beyond it, shapes moving in the light, colossal and patient.
"Maybe," he said finally. "Or maybe they're waiting."
Aereth turned to him. "For what?"
Siglorr's expression hardened, and the glow returned faintly to his hammer.
"For the rest of us to die… so they can start over."
Neither man spoke after that.
The dwarven line stood motionless behind them, a hundred living forges surrounded by silence and smoke. The wind carried the smell of iron and blood, and far above, the rift still pulsed, faint, but alive, like an open wound in the world that refused to heal.
And in that moment, even the mightiest warriors of the War Forge understood what they faced was no longer a battle.
It was the death of an age.
The rift did not fade. but the demons on the other side felt the battle tremors and vibration from were their lord went to conquer, the moment Thrakir life was no longer felt, the leser inferna demons no longer wanted to cross over, as the could see what was waiting for them, figthing golen were not the issue , he fact these war machines were using devine weapons that were forge with holy steel and fused to Mithril and dragons core shards ,
the Rift breathed. but uncertainty came with it. fusing many raw material to forge a weapon was one thing but a Devine weapon was a different situation , the energy these demons felt on heir realm was so massive , many demons with lower mana capacity fell unconscious and even got wounded from the residual clash of two different energies.
Each pulse sent ripples through the clouds, folding them inward like dying lungs. The sky trembled with the weight of what refused to end. From its bleeding edge, streaks of molten light cascaded downward, liquid stars falling to earth, carving rivers of fire through the wasteland below. The air shuddered, humming with a low, broken resonance, as if reality itself were struggling to remember its shape.
Siglorr Bouldergrove stood at the center of it all, the glow from his hammer faintly reflecting in his eyes. He felt the vibration beneath his boots, deep, rhythmic, like the beating of a buried heart.Something still lived under the ruin.
He looked down at the cooling glass that had once been earth. Beneath its translucent surface, a faint shimmer moved, slow, sinuous, like something vast shifting in its sleep. He felt it in his bones, that same pressure he'd once felt in the deep forges of Kald Trur, when magma spirits whispered through molten rivers. Only this presence was not elemental. It was aware.
Aereth felt it too. His hand tightened around the hilt of his sword. "It's still here," he murmured.
Siglorr didn't answer. His gaze was fixed on the rift above, watching as the light within it flickered—not fading, but fluctuating, like a dying sun trying to reignite.And then, for the briefest instant, he saw them, silhouettes in the blaze. Not demons. Not gods. Something older.
but its not coming from the rift … but … Melgil including his parents and the forge master ran toward Daniel. the three vassal retainers were the first one to get close to him but they didnt do anything as they just bow their heads and kneel and remain silent as it they knew what was happening, but for Duke Aereth Rothchester and his wife Duches Elleena Laeanna Rothchester the they didn't intend to loose him, they could hear his heart beating slowly and the rhythm was slowly fading , Daniel body wasn't responding but he was conscious , when Melgil hug him she saw cracks on his skin, she lowered her head to listen to his heart , while Duches Elleena kneel at his side and held his face and caress it , as tear feel down her cheeks,
Duke Aereth and Siglorr heald their emotions as a father , Duke Aereth could not bare to see his son fade, it was a honorable fight, many other warrior clans will openly accept this as a act of true valor, but seeing his son broken and dying, guilt entered his heart, they felt anger , because in his memory he was a resilient son and never back down from any fight or problem, as time and time again he recalls Daniel action and execution's to solve anything that might hurt their familiy and love ones, they trusted Daniels ability , power and skill too much , as he always come out of any problem safe, wounded but alive.
Shapes without mortal living form, thought without language, pressed against those who survive, the war forge golems turned around and walked toward the open rift, and saw the demons hesitation to cross over, Imgrim Bouldergrove, the younger brother of Siglorr , head guard and commander of the war golems stood in front of the rift and was carrying a large container at its back, it was a big a wine barrel, he remove the metal holder and let it fall to the ground, it dened the ground showing it was heavy , soon other war golems did the same thing nearly ten barrel size sealed and secure metal containers was facing the rift opening, when Olmar Bouldergrove, son of Siglorr walked forward with a different looking war golem, it stood seven feet tall and had four long arms and each arm had sigil crystals that can cast a powerful burst type of magic.
the remaining survivors that stood on top of their respective enemy move out knowing what the war forge master intended to do. Brie who was still alive but lost her right eye sight communicated with the remaining survivors , as she held her emotion, Maty Kaye was assisted by Cody and Charlotte who was further away from the rift remain silent as she press the wound on her side to stop the blood from coming out, Farrah had a broken leg , but with the help of her plants she was able to remain alive , Bonnie was crying and many more had mixed emotions after the battle finally ended . many of their comrades and guild members lost their life, the sheer brutality cant be explained but they were never the same . death creep in like a fever that they were now experiencing first hand, this wasn't the first time they witness death while clearing a tower quest, but the massive volume of severed body parts and blood was too much for all of them,
With one final surge of strength, Olmar Bouldergrove raised his war golem's arm high. The runes across its plated chest blazed in molten gold, the earth beneath it trembling as mana flooded its core. His deep voice echoed through the battlefield like thunder:
"By the forge and sacred flame , return to nothing!"
The golem's gauntlet split open, revealing ten glowing barrels , the broken Cores Daniel gave Siglorr , were created intro a compressed mana bomb forged by Siglorr himself. The air warped around them, space bending as the golem's internal runic arrays reached critical resonance.
Then, with one devastating strike, the golem's palm slammed forward.
A shockwave erupted. The ten barrels shot through the fractured air and plunged straight into the heart of the Rift. The dimensional gate screamed , a sound that wasn't heard by ears but by the soul itself. The black and violet vortex convulsed violently, arcs of unstable energy splitting the sky.
Mary Kaye, teeth clenched and mana bleeding from her fingertips, thrust her shovel downward.
"Terra Aegis , Seal the wound!"
The ground shuddered as titanic slabs of rock surged upward, layer after layer, fusing into a solid barrier. Within seconds, a massive wall ten feet tall, ten feet wide, and one meter thick ,ingulf and sealed the Rift completely, and thick dome covered it, the surface glowing red from the pressure of what was trapped behind it.
But the Rift did not go quietly.
The earth began to pulse, each beat heavier than the last. Mana leaked through cracks in the air like steam escaping a kettle. The survivors looked back only once , enough to see the wall bulging outward, glowing from within like a forge about to burst.
Brie screamed, "Everyone, get down!"
And then it happened.
A detonation unlike any in mortal memory tore through the battlefield. The sound came first , a thunderous, bone-rattling roar that flattened every tree and shattered every remaining piece of armor. The rock wall didn't explode outward , it vaporized, disintegrated by the sheer force of the collapsing Rift.
A column of blinding white light speared the sky, turning night into dawn for miles around.The blast wave followed, sweeping across the land like a hurricane made of fire and stone. The ground split open, tossing soldiers and shattered golems alike through the air.
Olmar's war golem , still kneeling before the Rift , raised its arms in defiance, shielding the others for a brief moment before being swallowed whole by the inferno.
The shockwave hit the survivors seconds later.Mary Kaye's rock shield cracked. Cody grabbed her just as the wall behind them caved in.Charlotte was thrown backward, the wind knocked from her lungs.Brie's mana barrier shattered, sparks of blue scattering like glass.Farrah's vines wrapped around whoever she could reach, pulling them down into the earth's embrace.Natasha Sokolov raised a glacial dome of ice, her mana nearly dry , it melted instantly, but it was enough to spare her guild from being incinerated.
When the light finally faded, the Rift was gone.Only a crater remained , vast, smoldering, and silent , its edges still glowing with molten stone. The sky above was torn open, a swirling scar of colorless clouds that bled faint light into the world.
Alexsei Sokolov, his floating chair sparking, raised a trembling hand to his temple. Through his remaining golems' eyes, he saw nothing but ash and ruin.
"Containment… complete," he rasped, voice breaking. "But at what cost…"
The survivors lay scattered, bruised and burned, but alive. Their ears rang, their eyes stung, their hearts pounded.
The Rift , the endless wound between worlds , was no more.But as the smoke thinned and the silence deepened, one dreadful thought whispered through every survivor's mind:
If that was only the Rift collapsing…
A few of the War Forge knights stepped forward, weapons raised, scanning the horizon through heat-distorted air. One knelt beside a half-buried corpse, the remnants of a soldier frozen in mid-scream, his face half-melted into the glass. The knight lowered his head and whispered a prayer through the metallic hiss of his vents.
The prayer was swallowed by the wind.
Then came the second tremor.
This one deeper. Heavier. The ground didn't just shake, it sank, shattered as the plains buckled inward, veins of molten gold splitting through the cracks like lightning under the surface. From deep below, a light bloomed, white-gold and furious.
Siglorr's instincts screamed. "SHIELDS!"
The War Forge responded instantly. Sigils ignited across their armor as they locked into formation, interlocking plates and mana-fields flaring like suns. The earth exploded upward in a geyser of light and fire. The shockwave hit like the wrath of creation, a roar that shattered the air and turned sound into silence.
When the brilliance cleared, a crater stood where the plain had been.And in its heart… the ember had awakened.
It was no longer a centipede, no longer a god in form or function.It was a concept made flesh , survival itself, burning and rebuilding endlessly. The humanoid shell from before now hovered above the molten pit, its chest open, revealing a core that pulsed like a miniature star. From its back unfurled six fractured wings of liquid metal, each trailing ribbons of golden plasma that etched holes through the storm clouds.
Its face was an unfinished mask of light, shifting, fluid, half-formed.It looked upon the living with no hatred, no emotion, only peace
Aereth stepped forward, every instinct screaming run, yet he didn't. "By the gods…" he breathed. "It survived that?"
Siglorr raised Auralmir, the hammer humming as ancient runes ignited one by one. "No," he said quietly. "It became that."
The entity tilted its head. Its voice came not as sound but as vibration, warping the air into meaning.
"CONFLICT IS CREATION."
The words rippled outward like shockwaves, turning dust into glass and blood into light. The dwarven golems staggered under the pressure, their runes flickering. One cracked outright, falling to his knees as molten steam poured from his seams.
Aereth grit his teeth and turned to Siglorr. "Can we kill it?"
Siglorr's gaze stayed on the glowing figure. "Kill it?" he muttered. "You can't kill a law of existence."
Then the creature moved.
The space it crossed simply ceased to be. One moment it hung above the crater, the next it stood among the War Forge lines, its hand piercing through a knight's chest like light through water. The warrior's armor glowed red-hot before collapsing into dust.
The line broke instantly.
"FORM RANKS!" Aereth roared, his sword blazing with lunar fire. He struck, the blade cleaving a vertical arc of white light across the creature's torso. The impact threw sparks like meteors. For a moment, the Calamity staggered—but then its body rewove itself, the wound sealing with a cascade of molten gold.
It didn't even bleed anymore.It recycled.
Siglorr charged in beside him, Auralmir howling as it met divine flesh. The hammer struck true—an impact that shook the air and made the rift above scream. The blow dented its chest, a wave of raw heat erupting outward. Golems melted. Stone boiled. But still, the Forgemaster stood, legs braced, roaring with effort as his runes flared white-hot.
"BACK TO THE CRUCIBLE, YOU ABOMINATION!"
He struck again, again, until his arms burned like iron left too long in the forge. The creature retaliated with a sweep of its arm, and Siglorr was hurled like a comet through a mountain of glass, vanishing in a plume of molten dust.
"Auralmir—!" Aereth shouted, but his voice was drowned by the sound of wings unfolding.
The Calamity spread its six luminous appendages wide. Each one cracked the sky like lightning veins, dragging lines of molten light that fell as burning rain. The landscape ignited once more, the air shimmering under impossible heat.
And through that firestorm, the Duke stood his ground. His silver armor was in ruins, his blade fractured, but his eyes still burned with purpose. He whispered an old knight's creed—"Even in the end, the blade must stand." Then he leapt.
He vanished into the storm, light and steel colliding against creation itself.
From far above, in the torn clouds, Siglorr emerged again—bloodied, half his armor slagged, his beard singed to cinders. But in his hands, Auralmir glowed with the full fury of the Deep Forge.He had opened every rune, every seal. The hammer was no longer a weapon.
It was a star waiting to die.
He hurled it downward.
The sky cracked.The hammer descended like the wrath of an ancient god, trailing a spiral of molten sigils. It struck the Calamity dead center, and the world exploded.
The light that followed drowned everything. Sound vanished. Color vanished. Only a single heartbeat of silence remained.
Then came the sound, a chime like shattering glass that echoed across creation.
When the smoke finally cleared, there was nothing left of the Calamity but scattered shards of golden crystal, cooling in the rain of ash. The rift above had dimmed to a faint ember.The age-old roar of chaos was… silent.
Siglorr fell to one knee, chest heaving, hammer reduced to a molten stump. Aereth lay nearby, barely conscious, his armor in tatters.
The Forgemaster looked up at the rift, now little more than a wound struggling to close.His voice broke the silence. "Maybe… maybe we stopped it."
Aereth turned his head weakly, eyes glassy. "Stopped?" he rasped. "No, Siglorr. We only delayed it."
Because deep beneath the glassed earth, where the shards of the Calamity fell, one piece still glowed.A fragment of gold, beating like a heart.
As the final light faded, Daniel knelt among those who cared and love him, his body faintly glowing from within. The voices of the dead whispered their gratitude, then faded one by one into silence. The sky above shimmered gold and silver as the first dawn of the new age broke through.
But deep within Daniel's heart, the Fragment of the Calamity pulsed again, quiet, as it manifested and entered Daniel body and quietly evolve and merge with the chaos engine, Daniel chaos energy capacity became larger from 45 thousand, to 100, the calamity centipede mana core was in par with the white Demon spider queen.
soon it move it was now intangible, Addison Lazarus saw it flew toward the dying young lord the lover and the mother never let go, Daniel felt warm , the emotions he felt was very comforting and new to a person like him. he was no longer moving and his mind half awake, when he heard the notification
Then came the voice, cold, mechanical, divine.
"Quest Complete: The Empire of Graves , Cleared."
Golden runes rippled across the sky like waves of fire. Siglorr's hammer, shattered but still glowing faintly, pulsed once in Daniel's hand before dissolving into light that sank into his body. He felt warmth surge through his chest where the golden fragment had entered him—an ancient power weaving itself into his soul. The ground beneath him, once cursed and dead, began to heal, veins of living green spreading through the ash.
QUEST REWARDS
Soul light Core (Legendary): A radiant sphere now rests within Daniel's spirit. It hums with the voices of the freed souls, granting him the power to channel their energy into divine light. His Spirit surges beyond mortal limits, rising by +200%, making him a beacon against malice and evil .
Fragment of the Calamity (Unsealed): Deep in Daniel's heart, the golden shard beats faintly like a second pulse. Its energy is ancient and unknowable, neither good nor evil, merely waiting.
Status: Active nerge with Chaos Engine
Title Unlocked:"Liberator of the Dead" , A name now whispered by the newly freed souls.
GLOBAL EFFECTS
The corruption that once plagued the Northern Realms collapses like dust. The Rift of Sorrows, the largest gateway of death, closes with a thunderous echo, its blood-red light fading to gray. For the first time in ages, the horizon gleams gold, and the wind carries not screams, but hymns.
Across the continent, temples flicker with sudden brilliance as 350,000 souls ascend to the Eternal Gate, their suffering finally ended. The world's corruption falls by 12%, a small yet vital step toward salvation. All territories once under the Empire of Graves' dominion are now neutralized; the dead no longer walk their land
PLAYER UPGRADES
The survivors stand bathed in golden light as energy surges through their bodies. The world itself seems to recognize their triumph.
Level Cap Raised: 75 → 90New Skill Tree Unlocked:Path of the Undying Flame – A branch born from soul and fire, allowing mastery over radiant and death-forged energy.
Stat Bonuses to ALL SURVIVING PLAYERS:
+300 Vitality: The body strengthened by divine renewal.
+400 Spirit: Minds sharpened and hearts fortified by the souls of the freed.
+200 Strength: Arms and will empowered by the echo of victory.
+2,000 Reputation: Earned through shared suffering and triumph; all kingdoms now recognize your valor.
+1,000 Favor with the United Guild Alliance: A symbol of unity forged in fire and faith.
The Empire of Graves was gone. The battlefield that had once groaned under the weight of death now stood eerily calm, ashen plains gleaming faintly under the pale light of dawn. But the silence did not last.
The ground began to tremble, softly at first, then with growing force. From afar, the Twin Peaks of Obrelin ,ancient mountains that had towered untouched since the dawn of the realm, shook violently. Massive slabs of stone peeled away from their surface, cascading downward in thunderous waves. The outer layers cracked and splintered, revealing something beneath, pillars of pure obsidian and light, impossibly smooth, humming with hidden power. The very mountains themselves were hollow. They weren't peaks at all. They were Gate toward the upper floors
A low hum spread through the air, resonating deep within the bones of every living being nearby. Then, a vast golden sigil ignited across the sky, forming intricate patterns that spiraled outward like a celestial clock resetting itself. Every survivor, whether kneeling, standing, or half-conscious, felt the pull of it, as if the world itself had just taken a new breath.
Then came the voice.Mechanical, divine, and absolute.
"ATTENTION: THE RESTRICTIONS TOWARD THE UPPER FLOORS HAVE BEEN REMOVED.""THE TOWER TUTORIAL HAS ENDED."
The words thundered across the realm, echoing through ruined cities, across plains, and into the deepest caverns. The meaning struck all at once.
The battlefield, the Empire of Graves, the entire massive region had only been the first floor.
Above them loomed the true Tower, now fully awakened. Its endless floors shimmered faintly in the distance, stretching beyond sight, beyond reason, each one radiating a new aura of challenge, promise, and danger.
The clouds above twisted, revealing the outline of a massive ring of light ascending toward the heavens. The real trial had just begun.
Daniel staggered to his feet, the fragment of gold within his heart pulsing like a living flame. Around him, the surviving players gazed skyward, their weapons still smoking, their armor cracked and bloodstained, yet their eyes burned with new purpose.
For the first time, the Tower of Eternity had opened its true path.
The Tutorial was over.The real game had begun.
The world groaned as the light from the sky dimmed to a steady, pulsing glow. The message still echoed in everyone's mind "THE TOWER TUTORIAL HAS ENDED." For a moment, no one moved. The silence that followed was not peaceful; it was heavy, the kind of silence that came before something vast and terrifying revealed itself.
Then, the air rippled. Every survivor's vision flickered with cascading runes of light as the System reinitialized. Notifications appeared, layered one atop another, painting the air with shifting holographic text.
SYSTEM UPDATE: ACCESS GRANTED TO THE UPPER FLOORS
Status: All tutorial restrictions removed.Eligible Players: 477 quest survivors recognized by the Tower.New Feature Unlocked:Ascension Pathway
The ground before Daniel cracked open in a smooth line, forming a wide circular platform of obsidian metal. Dozens of identical rings erupted from the ground across the plains, each humming with ancient energy. The center of every ring glowed with golden runes that spiraled like clockwork gears turning in unison.
Then, the announcement continued, calm, cold, absolute.
"ASSIGNING NEW FLOOR RANKS…""DETERMINING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE SCORES…""PREPARING ASCENSION GATES…"
The survivors watched as light beams descended from the clouds, striking each player one by one. The rays read their souls, their victories, their sacrifices. The light around Daniel flared brighter than most, it burned gold and white, so intense that even the air around him seemed to shimmer.
"PLAYER: Noble Lord Daniel Laeanna Rothchester""RANK: S RANKER -CLASS, MYRMIDON, DISCIPLE""TITLE: LIBERATOR OF THE DEAD. CHAOS BRINGER, NETHERBORN, MYRMIDON OF THE UNSEEN AND FORGOTTEN PRIMORDIAL""ACCESS GRANTED TO FLOOR 11: THE CROWN OF ETHER ."
The Twin Peaks, now hollowed into twin pillars, split apart with a deep metallic groan. Between them, a colossal rift of light opened, shaped like an archway leading into a different place, Through it, the faint silhouettes of floating islands missive continents could be seen , the second floor as world of its own.
A wind unlike any other swept through the land, cold, ancient, carrying the scent of stars and storms.
NEW QUEST UNLOCKED: "ASCENSION – THE SECOND TEST"
Objective: Enter the second floor and climb higher and uncover the truth of the Tower's design.Reward: Unknown.Failure Penalty: Permanent erasure from the System's registry.
As Daniel's body began to dissolve into light, the System's voice whispered one final time, softer than before, almost human:
"Welcome to the true Tower, Liberator. Your story begins anew."
The world folded inward.The sky split open, a blinding light consumed everything.
And from somewhere far beyond the clouds, beyond even the stars, unseen eyes opened—
—watching, waiting,for the next world to burn.