The Aerial Observation Platform hovered over the middle of the Eastern Territory, the only sound inside being the focused breath of Kaelus and Sylva . Below, the rest of the Obsidian Phalanx—Zane, Vara, Zathis, Jian, Kaelan, and Grund—leapt into the fray against the newly detected SS-rank monster.
The enemy was a colossal, six-legged beast encased in volcanic rock, later identified as the Cinder Colossus. It radiated immense Fire Element mana, its skin glowing with latent heat. The ground around it instantly scorched, and the air shimmered with painful thermal energy.
The Phalanx struggled immediately. The intense heat forced them to keep their distance, and the Colossus's sheer size made its movements unpredictable and devastating.
Zane took command of the attack strategy, dodging the massive, sweeping claws of the monster. "Kaelan! Grund! Contain its movement!"
The two tanks, Kaelan and Grund, slammed their shields and axes down, attempting to anchor the ground around the Colossus's massive feet with thick Wood bindings. The monster simply roared, and its thermal heat instantly incinerated the wood constructs before they could fully solidify.
Jian moved to the flank, launching concentrated Lava Bolts from his Tetsubo. The attacks struck the Colossus's rocky shell, but the lava element was met by the beast's immense internal heat, neutralizing much of its explosive force.
Zathis and Vara maintained the ranged offensive, using continuous Geyser and Typhoon blasts to attack its crystalline joints, but the brute force of the SS-rank was too overwhelming. They were being pushed back, unable to inflict critical damage.
Zane focused, momentarily withdrawing from the fight. He used his keen swordsman's intuition to observe the Colossus's pattern. Its movements were chaotic but highly repetitive: a massive sweep, followed by a stomp, then an elemental burst from its mouth. Zane quickly realized the monster, despite its rank, was relying on overwhelming strength rather than intelligence.
"Its pattern is rigid!" Zane roared over the heat. "Jian, keep the heat on its core! Vara, Zathis—predict the stomp, and hit the ground before it lands!"
Zane charged forward, utilizing his Flowing Steel mobility. He avoided the sweeping claw and used his Gravity Magic to instantly increase the weight of his longsword, turning his normal blade into a temporary sledgehammer. He struck the Colossus's leg joint, attempting to create a Petrify effect. The Petrify Element (Wind/Earth) held momentarily, brittle like glass, before the brute strength of the SS-rank monster shattered the effect.
The synchronized attacks began to take their toll. Jian kept the Colossus distracted with continuous, damaging heat. Zathis and Vara focused on anticipating the heavy stomp, creating localized Geyser eruptions and Typhoon vacuums beneath its feet, constantly disrupting its balance.
Zane saw his chance. The monster was momentarily disoriented. "Kaelan! Grund! Ultimate Defense! Draw its focus!"
The two tanks, recognizing the final phase, slammed their full power into a single, massive Wood-Earth Fortress directly in the monster's path. The Colossus ignored the pain from the flank attacks and focused its ultimate power—a devastating Fire Nova—onto the barricade.
As the Nova erupted, Zane darted forward, utilizing the distraction. He leaped, channeling all his force into his final strike. He aimed not for the armor, but for the monster's eye.
Zane Skill: Petrify Strike!
The focused Petrify magic struck the unprotected eye, instantly turning the organic tissue into brittle stone. The monster screamed, its Nova dissolving as its internal command center failed.
Jian seized the micro-second of paralysis and delivered the coup de grâce, slamming his Lava-infused Tetsubo straight into the monster's now rigid head. The fusion of Earth and Fire shattered the stone eye, breaking the SS-rank monster's defense
The colossal Cinder Colossus shuddered, its rocky body rapidly crumbling into dust and dispersing into mana, leaving behind a massive, dark red SS-Rank Fire Elemental Core.
The SS-rank battle raged far below, leaving Kaelus and Sylva alone on the Aerial Observation Platform. Kaelus knew he had to explain the crucial time anomaly.
"Sylva," Kaelus began, his voice lowered. "We need to know the time Atlas will invade. Actually, I do have information that may help, and this is why I need your brain."
"Okay, what do I need to know?" Sylva asked, immediately grabbing a paper and a charcoal stick to record data.
"In Grolnuk's journal, we know the initial attack was approximately a millennium ago," Kaelus stated. "But I have this other information I received fifteen years ago, that three years before that, the System in the Players' world was created."
"Wait, wait," Sylva said, frowning at the numbers. "So, this information you received is precisely eighteen years ago, right?"
"That's what I thought at first, but we need to consider where I received this information," Kaelus clarified. "As I said earlier, Sylva, do not ask—this is what I mean. Fifteen years ago, I was summoned into this world, but before that, I was in the other world where the real Players are."
Sylva stared, momentarily stunned by the implication of Kaelus's origin, but she quickly focused on the critical data: the problem in the timeline. "So we cannot exactly need to combine the time—because in Grolnuk's journal, there was a Player a millennium ago."
"Yes, that's right," Kaelus confirmed, amazed by her quick understanding. "We need to focus on the information first."
"Then it's not that hard to resolve, Kaelus," Sylva asserted, writing furiously while Kaelus watched attentively. "Wait, how?"
"It's simple," Sylva explained, "The fifteen years you've spent here and the millennium mentioned in the journal are in the same timeline. We can still consider it a millennium ago; it's just a matter of speech." She continued, "Even if it's precisely 1,000 years ago, adding the fifteen years is still fundamentally a millennium ago. So, the fifteen years doesn't vary that much. We just have to solve the problem of the three years in another world and the 'millennium' term in this world."
"How do we do that?" Kaelus asked.
"Simple—we just have to divide it. The ancient timeline suggests a proportional difference." Sylva performed the calculation on her paper: dividing the millennium (1,000 years) by the Player's three years (3 years).
Kaelus watched the result. "So, approximately 333 years or more in this world... and one year in another world... hmmm, 333 years... 340 years… 350 years.." Kaelus's eyes widened suddenly in a surge of shocked realization.
"Yes, Kaelus, that's right," Sylva said, confirming his internal deduction. "The timeline is profoundly distorted. We can safely say that 365 years in this world is just one year in the other world. In short, a year in this world is just one day in the Players' world. Kaelus, you were summoned into this world only 15 days ago in your original world."
The profound time distortion revealed the chilling truth: the invasion was happening exponentially faster than they could possibly imagine.