Panic instantly consumed the subway station.
"The barrier!" a man screamed, pointing at the fading blue particles floating in the air. "The Safe Zone is gone!"
Without the barrier, the thick, suffocating aura of the apocalypse flooded into the station. The temperature plummeted.
Kael stood at the base of the stairs, his face grim. The Blood Moon event wasn't supposed to happen until the final day of the tutorial, Day 30. It was the "Final Exam"—a massive wave of high-level monsters meant to cull the weak before the survivors moved to the First Floor of the Tower.
The Architect had fast-forwarded the entire tutorial just to kill Kael.
"Elara!" Kael commanded, his voice slicing through the panic. "Get everyone into the maintenance tunnels! Deeper into the Catacombs! Now!"
"What about you?!" she yelled back, already ushering terrified people toward the rusted door Kael had unlocked earlier.
"I'm staying here," Kael said, his eyes glowing a fierce, blinding gold.
As the last of the survivors squeezed through the Catacomb doors, the ground began to shake. It wasn't just footsteps. It was the rhythmic, heavy thud of something massive landing on the streets above.
Kael walked slowly up the subway stairs, emerging back into the ruined courtyard of the high school.
Under the crimson light of the Blood Moon, Seattle looked like a literal layer of hell. The sky was filled with winged gargoyles, and the streets were crawling with abominations. But none of that mattered.
Hovering fifty feet above the courtyard, illuminated by the red light, was a humanoid figure with six wings made of black, jagged glass. It held a flaming spear that radiated heat so intense it melted the asphalt below.
[World Boss: The Fallen Seraph - 'Azrael'][Level: 35][Threat: Apocalyptic]
A Level 35 boss. The ultimate test of the Tutorial. And Kael was only Level 10. His stats were overpowered for Day 1, but against Azrael? It was suicide.
But Kael didn't retreat into the subway. He stood perfectly still under the raining ashes of the burning city, gripping the Monarch's Dagger tightly. His eyes darted to the corpse of the Warlord he had killed.
He didn't need to fight this battle alone.
"Arise." Kael's voice was low, terrifying, and dripping with authority.
From the corpse of the ten-foot Goblin Warlord, a colossal, pitch-black armored knight erupted. It was a massive Shadow Warlord, holding a gigantic shadowy guillotine blade. It roared, the sound distorted by static, shaking the ground.
Beside it, Shadow Arthur materialized, his Azure Blade glowing with phantom blue light.
Kael looked up at the Fallen Angel, a vicious, feral grin stretching across his face.
The sky tore open above Azrael, unleashing a shower of flaming meteors directly toward Kael's position.
"Kill it," Kael commanded his two Elite shadows, raising his own dagger to meet the fire of heaven. "Show this 'Architect' what a glitch can really do."