Chapter 116: Chapter 116: Pawns of the Divine, Cosmic Collateral
Dante stood in the center of the ruined and ice-coated suite. He looked up through the massive hole in the ceiling.
High above the pristine white marble towers of Aethelgardia, the sky was violently tearing itself apart.
The clear blue atmosphere of the capital city had been completely overwritten by a catastrophic clash of cosmic elements.
To the east, the sky was a deep and bruised crimson. It churned with clouds of dark red blood magic.
Swarms of massive and ethereal bats darted through the air and left trails of corrosive shadow.
To the west, a blizzard had formed.
A massive swirling vortex of blinding white frost and jagged ice spears aggressively pushed back the crimson clouds.
It froze the ambient moisture into razor-sharp hail that rained down on the protective energy shields of the city.
Dante didn’t need a spyglass to see the fight.
Lady Carmilla and Alysia were moving with the speed of falling meteors.
They clashed high in the stratosphere.
The impact of their weapons generated deafening thunderclaps that rattled the windows of every building in the capital.
The system didn’t flash a standard boss encounter warning.
It was entirely silent.
It was completely unable or unwilling to process the combat math of two God-tier entities actively attempting to murder each other over a populated safe zone.
"They are going to destroy the city," Dante muttered and watched a massive spike of ice shatter against a crimson barrier.
"Mother is angry," Erebus noted quietly.
The little girl hadn’t moved from her spot on the frosty floor.
She was methodically finishing her meat bun. Her solid red eyes tracked the chaotic flashes of light in the sky.
She didn’t sound worried or afraid. She stated it as an absolute objective fact.
Dante looked down at her. "She is fighting the Frost Sovereign."
"The snowflake lady is loud," Erebus said and licked some grease off her thumb. "Mother will squish her."
Dante didn’t share her confidence. Carmilla had actively fled the room the moment Alysia appeared.
The primordial Vampire had the raw cosmic weight of a Demon, but the Frost Sovereign was a designated Celestial Guardian.
In the rigid hierarchy of the lore of the Zenith Protocol, Celestials possessed an absolute and fundamental advantage over Demonic entities.
The battle in the sky raged for another five minutes.
Thousands of players in the streets of Aethelgardia had stopped whatever they were doing to stare up at the apocalyptic display.
The regional chat was completely paralyzed. Nobody knew what was happening.
Nobody knew if it was a scheduled server event or an unannounced invasion.
Suddenly, the crimson clouds completely dissipated.
A massive and blinding flash of white light illuminated the entire sky. It expanded violently outward in a perfect sphere of absolute zero frost.
The blizzard vanished.
When the bright light faded, the sky was completely clear.
Carmilla was gone. Alysia was gone.
The weather abruptly shifted back to the standard and serene blue of the capital.
"Well," Dante breathed out a cloud of white fog into the freezing air of the suite. "That escalated quickly."
Aura was still shivering behind the head of Dante. She let out a soft and cautious chime.
Dante dismissed [Voidsever] back into his wrist. He sat down heavily on the edge of the ice-covered and ruined silk bed.
He was the strongest player on the server.
He had Level 59 stats, Zenith-tier skills with zero cooldowns, and a weapon that completely ignored all physical mitigation.
He had casually wiped three thousand players and executed a Dark Demon boss.
But watching Carmilla and Alysia clash had completely recalibrated his perspective.
He was dominant among the players.
But compared to the top-tier NPCs, the true God-tier entities that the Zenith Protocol had seeded into the world, he was still just an ant holding a sharp stick.
If Alysia had decided to swing that frost greatsword at him instead of Carmilla, he would have been instantly deleted.
Even his [Aetherial Nectar] and [Sun-Forged Cuirass] wouldn’t have saved him from a direct hit from a Celestial Guardian.
The game was infinitely larger than guild politics and player leaderboards.
He needed to tread incredibly carefully around the high-tier lore figures.
"Boss?"
The voice of Casanova resounded nervously from the hallway outside the suite.
"Is it safe to come in?" the bard called out.
"The receptionist down here is literally having a digital breakdown because the roof of the VIP suite just exploded."
Dante stood up. He walked over to the heavy wooden door and unlocked it.
The rest of the squad was standing in the hallway and looking terrified.
Lila, Mei, Casanova, Sera, Nyx, and Garrick all stared past Dante. Their eyes were wide as they took in the completely frozen and ruined interior of the room.
"What happened in here?" Sera asked. Her business demeanor was entirely absent. "Did the system try to assassinate you again?"
"No," Dante said smoothly and stepped out of the freezing room. "I just had a quick meeting with the mother of my pet. It got a little heated."
Nyx adjusted her dark glasses and looked at the solid block of ice that used to be a bedside table. "Heated?"
"She is a primordial Vampire," Dante explained casually. "The Frost Sovereign showed up to arrest her. They took the fight outside."
The squad stared at him in complete and baffled silence.
"You met a primordial Vampire and a Celestial Guardian in a hotel room," Casanova summarized and rubbed his temples.
"Boss, normal players spend years just trying to trigger a dialogue option with those NPCs. You are actively dragging us into cosmic domestic disputes."
"It was not planned," Dante defended himself.
He looked down at Erebus.
She had wandered out of the suite behind him, and her massive Mythic-tier backpack bounced against her dress. She was holding an empty silver platter and looking expectantly at Dante.
"We need to get moving," Dante ordered and pulled up his system interface.
He retrieved another stack of hot meat buns from his infinite inventory and dumped them onto the platter. He instantly pacified the hungry half-soul.
"Where are we going now?" Lila asked nervously. "I really do not want to get caught in the crossfire of another god-fight."
"I have an SSS-Rank investigation quest," Dante said and checked his digital map.
"The Wyrm-Sealed Abyss. It is located deep beneath the Grand Cathedral in the temple district. The City Lord promised me access to the eastern gates if I complete it."
"The eastern gates?" Nyx asked. She quickly accessed her own datapad to pull up the geopolitical layout of the region.
"Dante, the eastern gates lead directly to the Path of Gods and Demons. That is a completely unmapped and forbidden zone."
"I know," Dante said. "But that is where I need to go to get my Class Advancement. The system mentors will not teach me."
Sera nodded briskly and recovered her composure. "Alright. The business does not stop."
"While you clear the Abyss, Nyx, Lila, and I will head back to the Astral Emporium. We need to organize the auction inventory and manage the public relations fallout from the server announcements."
"You just handed us the entire global economy. We need to secure it before Silas recovers his footing."
"Take Garrick with you," Dante suggested and looked at the oblivious tank.
"The [Spiteful Bulwark] is an incredible defensive tool, but a Level 70 investigation quest is going to throw mechanics that ignore standard physical barriers. I cannot protect him down there."
"I can hold the door at the shop!" Garrick beamed proudly. "Nobody is getting past my shield!"
"Perfect," Sera smiled thinly.
Dante turned to Mei and Casanova. "You two are with me."
"I am always ready for a rumble!" Mei cheered and rested the indestructible frying pan on her shoulder.
"I am going to die," Casanova muttered and adjusted his feathered hat.
The squad split up.
Sera led the logistics team back toward the commercial district.
Dante, Mei, Casanova, and the reality-warping toddler headed straight for the temple district.
The Grand Cathedral was a massive and towering structure built entirely from pristine white marble and glowing stained glass.
It sat at the absolute highest point of the city and radiated a powerful and holy aura.
Dante didn’t enter through the main doors.
The quest marker guided him around the side of the cathedral and led to a heavy iron-barred gate set into the foundation of the building itself.
The gate was completely shattered.
Thick and heavy iron bars were twisted and torn outward as if something incredibly large had tried to force its way up from the dark tunnels below.
"This is the entrance to the Wyrm-Sealed Abyss," Dante said and stared down into the pitch-black tunnel.
"It looks incredibly inviting," Casanova noted sarcastically and took a step back.
Dante drew the [Dawn-Breaker Blade]. The gold sword pulsed with holy light and pushed back the immediate darkness of the tunnel.
"Stay close," Dante ordered. "The system recommended Level 70 for a reason."
He stepped through the shattered iron gate and began the long descent into the dark.
The tunnels were vast and heavily eroded.
The walls were lined with massive and deep gouges that looked like they had been carved by claws the size of broadswords.
The air smelled of old dust and reptilian musk.
They walked in silence for ten minutes, and the only sound was the heavy clanking of the iron boots of Dante.
Suddenly, a loud voice broke the silence.
"There he is! Form up!"
Dante stopped immediately and raised his sword.
It wasn’t the roar of a dragon or the screech of a beast.
Dante peered down the dark tunnel.
The faint light from his sword illuminated a massive group of heavily armored players blocking the path ahead.
They weren’t Vanguard’s Legacy. They wore the silver and blue tabards of the Legion of Blades.
And standing at the very front of the massive formation and holding a glowing silver longsword was Valerius.
The warlord of the Veridian Alliance had arrived.
Dante looked at the massive army packing the narrow tunnel.
"Valerius," Dante said calmly.
"You are a very difficult man to track down, Dan," Valerius replied. His voice was cold and perfectly disciplined.
"But you cannot run a coordinated server blockade if you keep broadcasting your quest objectives to the global API."
Valerius stepped forward, flanked by hundreds of elite Legionnaires.
"You humiliated my lieutenant in the gulch," Valerius stated. "You mocked my global bounty with a punctuation mark."
"The Legion does not tolerate disrespect. We are going to lock you down, strip your anomaly status, and camp you until your capsule disconnects."
Dante didn’t trigger [Phantom Waltz]. He didn’t summon [Cyclone of Ruin].
He just sighed and lowered his sword.
"I really do not have time for this," Dante said.
Before Valerius could order his army to charge, a horrific growl rumbled from the deep darkness of the tunnel behind the formation of the Legion.
It wasn’t a player.
The true inhabitants of the Wyrm-Sealed Abyss had arrived.
