The sky above the Oakhaven valley did not merely darken; it decayed.
The standard blue firmament had been completely replaced by a bruised, swirling vortex of necrotic violet and static-choked gray. The atmospheric pressure was so immensely dense that the ambient oxygen felt thick, tasting faintly of ozone. Every time a soldier drew a breath, it felt as though invisible weights were pressing down directly onto their lungs.
"Form the vanguard! Shields up! Spellcasters, synchronize your mana circuits!"
The panicked, booming commands of the vanguard captains echoed across the jagged stone terrain. Thousands of elite, heavily armored knights moved in synchronized, rhythmic patterns, their iron boots clanking like a mechanical heartbeat against the earth. They split flawlessly down the middle, creating a wide, hundred-yard lane straight through the center of the valley.
Down this path walked a single fourteen-year-old boy.
Shin'ya moved with a slow, deliberate stride. His form-fitting, high-collared midnight black Abyssal Silk shirt absorbed the chaotic purple light, casting no reflection. The tapered dark trousers and heavy silver-buckled combat boots clicked rhythmically against the stone. To the thousands of hardened veterans watching him from the sidelines, his complete lack of a visible weapon or frantic mana signature didn't scream weakness—it screamed the terrifying, supreme confidence of a master who had already calculated the exact end of the world.
Internally, however, Shin'ya's inner gamer was undergoing a massive architectural system failure.
I WANNA GO HOME! I WANNA GO HOME RIGHT NOW! his inner voice screamed in a high-pitched, desperate panic. WHAT KIND OF BROKEN, UNOPTIMIZED WEBNOVEL ENDGAME WORLDBUILDING IS THIS?! WHY IS THE SKY PURPLE?! STOP CLEARING A PATH, I AM A LEVEL-ONE FRAUD WITH A PARASITIC SHADOW KNIFE, NOT THE CHOSEN ONE!
He had read enough light novels to expect a giant, glowing neon portal, or perhaps a cliché, oversized stone archway covered in ancient runes. But what hung suspended in the air fifty yards away completely shattered his expectations.
It wasn't a gate. It was a fracture.
It looked as though a colossal, invisible hammer had struck space itself, creating a three-story-tall, jagged, vertical rip in the universe. Inside the boundaries of the tear, there was no scenery, no terrain, and no light—only a swirling, bottomless void of starless, absolute pitch-blackness. Microscopic, spider-webbing tendrils of cracked space were actively bleeding outward into the air, accompanied by the sharp, metallic screech of tearing glass.
The game engine of this reality is literally splitting at the seams, Shin'ya realized, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird, though his face remained as still as carved marble.
Suddenly, the space around the fracture warped.
CRAAAAACK!
A sound akin to a splitting continent boomed from the void. The fracture violently snapped an inch wider. Instantly, a hurricane-force gale of compressed, freezing, toxic mana erupted outward from the rift. The shockwave of wind hit the vanguard like a physical hammer, sending dust and loose shale flying. Even with his low-gravity physical attributes, the pure kinetic force of the spatial expansion forced Shin'ya to slam his right combat boot into the dirt, taking a sharp, heavy step backward to keep from being knocked flat on his face.
But before he could even internally complain about his new clothes getting dusty, the fracture did the opposite.
The violent outward blast instantly inverted into a monstrous, terrifying vacuum. The rift began to greedily inhale, sucking the ambient air, the light, and the very dust back into the darkness. The gravitational pull was immense. Shin'ya's eyes widened slightly as the sudden, irresistible suction caught his frame, dragging his boots across the loose dirt—one, two sharp steps closer to the jagged edge of the void.
CRAP, CRAP, CRAP! IT'S A TRANS-DIMENSIONAL VACUUM CLEANER! he screamed internally, digging his heels into the dirt as his Abyssal Silk clothes whistled violently in the howling wind.
The vacuum abruptly cut off, leaving a dead, suffocating, absolute silence hanging over the valley.
And then, from the pitch-black depths of the reality fracture, the first entity emerged.
Shin'ya's hand instinctively drifted toward the hilt of the Ketsugai at his hip. He braced himself for a grotesque, multi-eyed shadow demon or a towering undead monstrosity.
Instead, a foot stepped out of the black void.
It was a creature crafted entirely from a pristine, blinding, porcelain white.
The beast slid gracefully through the fracture, its towering, twelve-foot-tall silhouette standing out like a beacon of purity against the dark sky. It possessed a sleek, chiseled, almost angelic musculature, but its face was a terrifying, smooth blank slate—devoid of a nose, eyes, or a mouth. In place of its features, a single, perfectly symmetrical golden ring was deeply carved into its forehead, pulsing with a faint, rhythmic radiance
Why is it White?! Shin'ya's inner anime nerd practically recoiled. Where are the spikes?! Where is the edgy dark armor?! A featureless faceless mannequin is infinitely more psychological horror than a giant demon! This game's art direction is completely unhinged!
"What... what is that thing?" a veteran vanguard captain stammered, his shield trembling. "It has no mana signature... but my detection spells are completely short-circuiting!"
"Do not let it advance!" an elite A-rank battle-mage screamed, his staff igniting with an intense, blazing crimson fire magic. "Vanguard Squad 4, engage! Annihilate the target before it stabilizes!"
Instantly, a coordinated squad of ten heavily armored A-rank veterans leaped forward. The battle-mages unleashed a barrage of Tier-5 Exploding Phoenix [Im just making names and have no idea how to introduce stuff now so I'm just throwing the names so you guys can understand]spells, sending massive torrents of white-hot fire screaming toward the creature. Simultaneously, three agile vanguard duelists crossed the distance in a flash, their enchanted broadswords glowing with aura blades.
The blinding-white creature didn't even move to dodge.
The torrents of fire slammed directly into its porcelain chest, and the broadswords struck its neck with a deafening metallic CLANG. But the moment the magic made contact, the golden ring on its forehead flashed. Instantly, the massive kinetic energy of the attacks was completely absorbed, vanishing into its body like water pouring into sand.
With a movement so blindingly fast it bypassed human perception, the creature simply waved its porcelain arm in a casual, backhanded motion.
BOOOM!
A localized shockwave of pure, condensed kinetic force erupted from its hand. The three armored duelists were instantly sent flying backward across the valley like ragdolls, their heavy steel chestplates imploding from the pressure. They slammed into the stone walls, completely knocked out.
The entire assembly hall elite froze. Absolute, paralyzing dread gripped the vanguard.
Shin'ya, whose face was completely locked in a stone-cold expression purely because his brain was temporarily short-circuiting from fear, quickly processed the data.
Oh, great. It's an energy-absorption tank, his inner voice whimpered. It eats magic and turns it into physical damage. If these idiots keep blasting it with flashy spells, they're just charging its battery! If it throws another backhand like that, my level-one durability is going to turn me into actual red paste!
Knowing he had to stop the vanguard from making the boss stronger, Shin'ya's inner anime nerd suddenly saw a golden opportunity. His fear momentarily crossed paths with his desire to look completely badass. He forced his muscles to stiffen, channeling the ultimate, cold-hearted regressor energy he had read about in a hundred web novels.
He took a slow, deliberate step forward, the shadows swirling around his boots. When he spoke, he purposefully lowered his voice into a chilling, low, masterfully detached whisper that cut right through the howling wind.
"Everyone, stand down," Shin'ya said, his deadpan gaze piercing the white monster. "You're only getting in my way."
OH MY GOD I ACTUALLY SAID IT! his inner voice immediately erupted into an ecstatic, frantic squeal. THAT SOUNDED SO COOL! I AM LITERALLY AURA-FARMING THE ENTIRE IMPERIAL ARMY RIGHT NOW! IF I DIE IN THE NEXT FIVE SECONDS, AT LEAST MY OBITUARY WILL SAY I WAS A BADASS!
The veterans gaped at him, completely paralyzed by the sheer, commanding presence radiating from his Joonghyuk Yoo-inspired silhouette.
Shin'ya's hand slowly gripped the hilt of the pitch-black Ketsugai He didn't want to fight, but Shadow Slip was his only dodge mechanic. He had to hit this thing with a physical, shadow-based strike before it noticed he was completely running on pure bluff.
The white creature's smooth, featureless face snapped directly toward Shin'ya.
VROOOOM!
The Pale Cherubim blurred out of existence, launching itself directly at him with the speed of a falling meteor, its porcelain fist raised to obliterate him.
OH NO IT'S COMING STRAIGHT FOR ME IDIEIDIEIDIE—
Right as the colossal white fist was about to turn Shin'ya into a statistics page, his entire body dissolved into a puddle of liquid, absolute darkness. The creature's fist slammed into the empty dirt, creating a massive, cratering explosion.
Before the monster could even register the miss, Shin'ya materialized flawlessly from the creature's own shadow directly behind its neck. His face was a mask of sheer, unadulterated deadpan focus, but internally, he was screaming at the top of his lungs.
DIE DIE DIE PLEASE JUST DIE AND LET ME GO BACK TO MY LUXURY TAVERN BED!
With all his physical velocity, he brought the pitch-black blade of the Ketsugai down. Because the blade manipulated physical shadows rather than elemental mana, the creature's absorption mechanic completely failed. The dark blade tore through the creature's pristine white shoulder. A deep, jagged black laceration cut open across its porcelain skin, and a thick, luminescent golden fluid erupted from the wound, staining its clean white coat.
The creature let out a silent, vibrating shriek of agony that shook the very valley.
Shin'ya landed back on the dirt, his combat boots sliding to a halt. His hand was trembling so violently from the adrenaline rush that he quickly flicked the blade just to make it look like a cool, intentional swordsman gesture. He stood there, staring up at the giant bleeding mannequin, his inner voice completely out of breath.
I actually hit it! Shin'ya's inner voice wheezed in sheer disbelief. Okay, it can bleed! But holy crap, my hands won't stop shaking! Sera, please tell me the vanguard captains are going to take over now, because I am officially out of stamina and my sanity meter is at zero!