Chapter 115: Chapter 115: A Clash of God-tier NPC
Dante rented the largest and most expensive private suite in the ’Silver Griffin Inn’. It was a high-end establishment located near the center of the residential tier of Aethelgardia.
He didn’t care about the exorbitant gold cost.
He had billions of credits and needed a secure instanced room where other players couldn’t bother him.
He locked the heavy wooden door behind him and unclipped his dark cape. He tossed it over a plush velvet chair.
He dropped heavily onto the edge of the massive silk-sheeted bed and let out a long exhausted breath.
"Alright," Dante said and rubbed his eyes. "Everybody out."
He tapped the pet interface.
Two distinct flashes of light illuminated the dim suite.
Aura popped out first.
The tiny silver Grade 8 Doom Harbinger floated happily near the ceiling. Her three starlight tails wove intricate geometric patterns in the air.
Erebus materialized a second later and landed softly on the thick rug.
"I am hungry," Erebus stated flatly and walked directly toward the table.
"Do not eat the fake fruit," Dante sighed and opened his infinite inventory.
He pulled out a massive stack of Silver-tier [Magma-Seared Meat Buns] and set them on a silver platter near the bed.
Erebus immediately abandoned the fruit. She sat cross-legged on the floor next to the platter and happily munched on the steaming buns.
Dante leaned back and watched his two incredibly broken pets.
He needed to review his combat logs before heading into the Wyrm-Sealed Abyss.
A Level 70 SSS-Rank investigation wasn’t a standard dungeon run. It was a massive leap in difficulty.
Before he could pull up the interface, the ambient audio of the inn completely vanished.
The soft crackle of the fireplace, the distant hum of the city outside the window, and the chiming of Aura all ceased simultaneously.
The Intuition stat of Dante didn’t ping. It violently spiked and caused a sharp physical pain behind his eyes.
He shot to his feet and instantly summoned [Voidsever].
The room was completely frozen.
Aura was suspended mid-air and completely motionless.
The steam rising from the meat buns in front of Erebus was paused. It hung in the air like a solid object.
Time had literally stopped.
The shadows in the corner of the private suite began to violently compress and writhe.
They didn’t form a portal. They simply darkened until the fabric of reality itself seemed to tear open.
A woman stepped out of the shadows.
She was incredibly tall and exuded an aura of absolute crushing cosmic weight.
She wore an elegant sweeping crimson gown that seemed to drip with liquid blood. Her skin was perfectly pale, and her dark hair cascaded over her shoulders.
But it was her eyes that made Dante freeze.
They were solid unbroken pools of absolute crimson. Exactly like those of Erebus.
Dante didn’t try to swing his sword. He knew immediately that he was completely outmatched.
The system didn’t even attempt to generate a stat block above her head.
The interface was entirely blank and overwhelmed by an entity whose power exceeded its scanning parameters.
"You have been very busy, little Outworlder," the woman spoke. Her voice was smooth, cultured, and layered with a terrifying predatory echo.
She looked past Dante. Her solid red eyes locked onto the tiny girl sitting on the floor.
Erebus wasn’t frozen by the time stop.
The Half-Soul Celestial slowly stood up and dropped her half-eaten meat bun. She looked at the towering woman in the crimson dress.
Erebus didn’t attack. She didn’t throw a telekinetic tantrum.
She took two steps backward and quickly hid directly behind the heavy iron boots of Dante. She peeked out nervously from behind his leg.
"She does not remember you," Dante noted carefully. He kept his grip tight on the hilt of his primordial greatsword.
"No, she would not," the woman said. Her voice softened slightly as she looked at the terrified child.
"Half of her soul was ripped away and sealed in that miserable crypt ten thousand years ago. Her memory matrix is completely fractured."
The woman turned her gaze back to Dante.
"I am Lady Carmilla," she introduced herself. It sounded more like a threat than a greeting. "I am a primordial entity. A Vampire of the Demon lineage. And I am her mother."
Dante stared at her.
Erebus was a Celestial boss. Carmilla just explicitly stated she was a Demon.
"The lore says the Celestials and Demons fought each other in the First War," Dante pointed out logically and refused to lower his guard.
"They did," Carmilla smiled and displayed perfectly white and slightly elongated fangs.
"But war makes for strange bedfellows. The Zenith Protocol categorizes us into neat tidy factions, but the truth is far messier."
"My daughter is a hybrid. It is the reason the system fears her. It is the reason they tore her soul apart and locked her in the dark."
Carmilla took a slow step forward.
The sheer cosmic pressure radiating from her forced Dante to brace his legs just to remain standing.
"I felt the binding contract the moment you forced the system to execute it," Carmilla stated. Her crimson eyes narrowed.
"You bound my daughter to your soul matrix. You turned a primordial hybrid into a pet."
"I got her out of a sealed room," Dante corrected defensively.
"And I feed her. She was literally going to collapse the entire dungeon because she tripped over a pair of boots."
Carmilla let out a short elegant laugh. "She always was temperamental."
The ancient Vampire looked up. Her gaze shifted to the tiny frozen silver fox suspended near the ceiling.
The expression of Carmilla changed from predatory amusement to genuine shock.
"An Aether Sprite," Carmilla whispered. Her voice dropped into a reverent hush.
"And not a standard wisp. She has absorbed the residual energy of an Annihilation-Tier executioner. She is a Doom Harbinger."
Carmilla looked back at Dante. Her crimson eyes swept over his dark armor and the massive black sword in his hands.
"You are an anomaly, Outworlder," Carmilla declared. Her tone was entirely serious.
"You carry a shattered primordial blade. You are bound to a Doom Harbinger. And you have successfully leashed a Half-Soul Celestial hybrid."
"Your cosmic weight is dense enough to warp the fundamental code of this server."
"I just have good luck," Dante deadpanned.
"Luck is a myth invented by those who cannot read the math," Carmilla countered smoothly.
She looked back down at Erebus who was still clutching the leg of Dante.
The primordial Vampire sighed with an ancient heavy sound of resignation.
"I came here intending to shatter your soul and reclaim my child," Carmilla admitted bluntly. "But seeing the company you keep... I realize she is safer with you."
Dante raised an eyebrow.
"Safer with me? I am currently being hunted by three massive armies, and I am about to dive into a Level 70 dragon pit."
"The armies of insects mean nothing," Carmilla dismissed them with a wave of her hand.
"The system is preparing a purge. The Orthodox remnants are stirring in the Capital."
"If I take Erebus back to my domain, the Celestials will sense her complete signature and launch a full-scale crusade to finish what they started ten millennia ago."
Carmilla stepped closer and ignored the raised sword of Dante.
She crouched down and brought herself to eye level with the terrified little girl hiding behind his armor.
"You stay with him, little shadow," Carmilla said softly. Her voice carried a rare and genuine warmth.
"He is an anomaly. The system cannot easily track him. He will keep you hidden until you are strong enough to reclaim the other half of your soul."
Erebus stared at her with wide and unblinking red eyes. She didn’t respond and simply tightened her grip on the leg of Dante.
Carmilla stood back up. Her elegant crimson dress flowed around her.
"Protect her, Outworlder," Carmilla commanded and locked eyes with Dante.
"If you let her die, I will personally ensure your physical body back on your home planet is drained of every single drop of blood."
"I will add it to the list of death threats I have received today," Dante replied smoothly.
Carmilla smirked and prepared to step back into the shadows.
Before the primordial Vampire could fade into the darkness, the temperature in the frozen room violently plummeted.
The air didn’t just get cold. It completely flash-froze.
Thick and jagged spikes of pure absolute-zero ice erupted from the floor, walls, and ceiling of the private suite.
The frost rapidly expanded, coated the furniture, and shattered the windows.
The smug expression of Carmilla vanished instantly. She spun around, and her hands glowed with concentrated dark red blood magic.
"You followed me," Carmilla snarled and glared at the center of the room.
The air distorted and completely froze into a solid block of translucent ice.
The block shattered into a million glittering shards to reveal a new figure standing in the center of the suite.
It was a woman clad entirely in gleaming flawless white armor that looked like it was carved from a glacier.
She wore a simple elegant silver crown, and her eyes were a piercing luminescent icy blue.
She held a massive double-edged greatsword forged from pure frost.
[Entity Identified: Alysia]
[Faction: Frost Sovereign (Celestial Guardian)]
[Level: ???]
"You breached the wards of the Capital, Carmilla," Alysia spoke.
Her voice was cold. It echoed with the absolute authority of a blizzard.
"The treaty strictly forbids Demons from entering the inner sanctum of the Veridian Alliance."
"I am visiting my daughter, Alysia," Carmilla hissed. Her red magic violently clashed with the encroaching frost.
"And the treaty is a joke. You Celestials broke it the moment you sealed her away."
Dante stood in the corner of the room and still held Voidsever. He was entirely ignored by the two God-tier NPCs.
Alysia didn’t look at Dante. She didn’t look at Erebus. Her icy blue eyes were locked entirely on Carmilla.
"You are a threat to the stability of the server," Alysia declared and raised her frost greatsword. "Your presence here is an act of war. You will be purged."
Carmilla laughed harshly, and the sound vibrated the ice-coated walls.
"You think you can purge me, little snowflake? You are just a warden. I am a primordial."
Carmilla didn’t cast a spell. She completely abandoned her physical form and dissolved instantly into a swarm of thousands of glowing blood-red bats.
The swarm completely shattered the ceiling of the private suite. It blew a massive hole straight through the roof of the inn and poured out into the bright blue sky above Aethelgardia.
Alysia didn’t hesitate.
She launched herself straight up through the hole. Her white armor left a trail of freezing mist as she aggressively pursued the fleeing Vampire.
The two God-tier entities vanished into the sky.
The second they cleared the building, the absolute time-stop completely shattered.
The ambient noise of the city rushed back into the room. The fire in the hearth crackled loudly. The steam rising from the meat buns resumed its lazy drift toward the ceiling.
Aura unfroze and instantly zipped down from the ceiling to hide behind the head of Dante. She was terrified by the lingering and overwhelming cosmic pressure in the room.
Dante slowly lowered Voidsever and let the primordial blade rest against the ice-covered floor. He looked at the massive gaping hole in the ceiling of his incredibly expensive private suite.
He looked down at Erebus.
The little girl was still standing behind his leg and was entirely unfazed by the apocalyptic clash that had just occurred three feet in front of her face.
She walked back over to the silver platter, picked up her half-eaten meat bun, and sat down on the frosty floor.
"Okay," Dante said and stared at the ruined ceiling. "So that just happened."
