Chapter 177: Chapter 177: The Broken Seal
The celestial trumpets from the global announcement faded. They left the jade platform high above Demon Spirit Land surprisingly quiet.
Dante stared at the massive swirling green and white egg resting in the center of the loot pile.
He didn’t immediately reach for it. He was still processing the massive lore dump that had just occurred. He looked back at Erebus.
The evolved Celestial Anomaly was no longer a tiny erratic toddler.
The young teenager stood calmly, and her mismatched silver and crimson eyes tracked the swirling storm clouds surrounding the platform.
"You are fully combat operational now," Dante confirmed. He checked her interface one last time to ensure the system locks had actually lifted.
"I am, Master," Erebus nodded gracefully. "My soul is intact. I can access the offensive magic of my lineage without shattering the immediate environment."
"Good to know," Dante said and was satisfied.
He walked over to the loot pile.
Because of his [Zenith Incarnate] title, the Storm Demon King had dropped a staggering amount of Celestial-tier crafting materials, raw gold, and high-level armor pieces.
He activated the [Band of the Void-Walker] and vacuumed the generic loot into his infinite inventory. He left only the glowing pulsing egg sitting on the polished jade.
Dante crouched down and picked it up.
It felt incredibly light and almost weightless. It hummed with a constant gentle breeze.
[Item Appraised: Egg of the Storm]
[Tier: Celestial (Unhatched)]
[Description: A highly volatile unhatched Celestial companion. The essence of the Storm Demon King slumbers within.]
Dante stood up and held the massive egg with one arm.
He turned around and walked over to Lila.
The blue-haired Astral Arcanist was leaning heavily on her Dark Demon staff and looked exhausted.
Maintaining gravity wells against hordes of Gold-tier mobs had taken a massive toll on her digital stamina despite the constant mana restoration of Aura.
"Here," Dante said and held the egg out to her.
Lila blinked and stared at the swirling green clouds trapped inside the shell.
"What? Dante, no. That is a Celestial pet. That is the entire reason the server is currently tearing itself apart. You cannot just give that away."
"I do not need it," Dante said flatly.
"I have a Grade 8 Doom Harbinger for infinite sustain, and I just unlocked a fully combat-capable Celestial Anomaly."
"If I equip a third pet, the system will probably try to charge me property tax for cosmic density."
Lila hesitated and bit her lip. "But... I am just a support."
"You are my crowd control," Dante corrected her.
"You need mobility. You need something that can keep you alive when I am busy dropping meteors on the frontline."
"The Storm Demon King was a master of evasion and aerial superiority. Whatever hatches out of this is going to be incredibly fast."
Mei walked over and casually rested her massive cast-iron frying pan on her shoulder.
"Take the egg, Lila! Pip is getting lonely, and he needs someone to boss around."
"I do not boss people around!" Pip shrieked indignantly from the tunic of Mei and poked his tiny red head out. "I offer highly optimized tactical advice!"
Lila couldn’t help but smile. She reached out and carefully took the massive egg from the hands of Dante.
The moment she touched it, the system interface flashed a brilliant green.
[Binding Sequence Initiated.]
[Pet Acquired: Zephyr]
[Grade: 6]
[Designation: Celestial Griffin]
The egg didn’t crack slowly.
It violently shattered and exploded into a burst of green and white light that completely washed over Lila.
When the light faded, a creature was sitting obediently at the feet of Lila.
It was a Griffin, but it didn’t look like the massive heavily armored military mounts Dante had used in Ironhold.
It was small, roughly the size of a large dog, and covered in incredibly sleek aerodynamic feathers that shifted between pale green and stark white. Its eyes were bright intelligent gold.
Zephyr let out a soft trilling chirp and immediately rubbed its feathered head against the leg of Lila.
"Oh, he is beautiful," Lila gasped and dropped to her knees to pet the griffin.
Dante pulled up the stat sheet of the new pet through the party interface.
[Pet: Zephyr]
[Skill 1: TailStorm (Passive)]
[Description: Passively increases the movement speed and casting speed of the Master by 30%.]
[Skill 2: Updraft (Active)]
[Description: Instantly launches the Master 50 feet into the air, granting 2 seconds of slow-fall. Cooldown: 15 seconds.]
Dante nodded approvingly.
"Thirty percent casting speed. Your chantless gravity wells are going to deploy instantly now. And the updraft gives you an immediate escape option if melee targets close the gap."
"This is incredible," Lila beamed and scratched Zephyr behind the ears.
The system wasn’t finished.
The massive golden announcement that had hovered over the server for the last five minutes finally faded. It was replaced by a harsh aggressive red warning.
[System Event Concluded: Demon Spirit Land]
[All unauthorized entities are being forcibly expelled from the dungeon instance.]
The squad of Dante wasn’t expelled.
Because they had secured the final kill and claimed the ultimate reward, the system recognized them as the authorized victors of the instance.
But the rest of the server wasn’t so lucky.
Down in the lower levels of Demon Spirit Land, Vanguard’s Legacy, the Legion of Blades, and the Apex Coalition were still desperately fighting their way through the brutal trap rooms.
They sacrificed hundreds of low-level recruits just to disarm the massive iron ballistas and crushing stone doors.
They were bleeding money and experience points and were absolutely determined to reach the final chamber and claim the Celestial egg.
They didn’t get the chance.
The system didn’t offer a polite exit portal. It simply deleted them from the dungeon.
Thousands of players were instantaneously and violently teleported out of Demon Spirit Land.
They didn’t materialize gently in a safe zone.
The system forcefully ejected them directly back to the staging area outside the dungeon entrance.
The massive cavern outside the stone archway suddenly exploded with thousands of angry, confused, and heavily wounded players appearing simultaneously.
Silas materialized in the center of the staging area.
His pristine Silver-grade armor was covered in soot and digital blood from the trap rooms.
He stumbled forward and caught himself before he fell.
He looked around the cavern. He saw Kaeleus and Leonidas materializing nearby, and their armies were equally devastated and confused.
"What happened?!" Silas roared and opened his system interface frantically. "Did the server crash?!"
"Look at the chat logs, Guild Master!" Kael, his lieutenant, yelled and pointed a trembling finger at his datapad.
Silas ripped the datapad from the hands of Kael. He read the fading global announcement.
Dungeon Cleared by Guild: Aegis Vanguard.
The hands of Silas started shaking violently.
He had spent millions of credits buying health potions, buff scrolls, and high-tier defensive items to push through the traps.
He had sacrificed hundreds of his own guild members to disarm the mechanics. He had marched for hours through a hellscape.
And Dante had beaten him to it. Again.
The anomaly hadn’t just cleared the dungeon faster. He had completely and utterly wasted the time and resources of Silas.
Kaeleus was standing a few yards away and slammed his silver longsword into the stone floor. His military discipline was completely shattered.
"He stole the entire instance!" Kaeleus bellowed, and his voice echoed furiously across the cavern.
"The anomaly is mocking us! We lost half our vanguard to a ceiling trap, and he was already looting the final boss!"
Leonidas didn’t yell. The massive Paladin Guild Master just stared blankly at the stone archway leading into the now-closed dungeon.
"We are irrelevant," Leonidas whispered, and a profound sense of dread settled over him. "We are playing a game. He is rewriting the code."
Silas dropped the datapad. It clattered against the stone floor.
The Guild Master of Vanguard’s Legacy didn’t scream.
The manic arrogant fury that usually fueled his outbursts completely vanished. It was replaced by a cold, calculating, and deeply terrifying desperation.
He knew he couldn’t beat Dante in a fair fight. He knew he couldn’t out-pace the progression of Dante.
The anomaly was too fast. The stats were too high.
"He needs to gear up," Silas whispered softly to himself, and his eyes narrowed as a new plan formulated in his mind.
"He cleared a Celestial boss. He has unappraised loot. He has to return to the Capital to visit the NPC merchants."
Silas turned to Kael.
"Pull the remaining forces out of the staging area," Silas ordered, his voice dropping into a deadly calm register. "Do not engage the other guilds. We are returning to Aethelgardia immediately."
"Sir, the guild morale is completely shattered," Kael hesitated. "If we march them back to the city now, they will desert."
"I do not care if they desert," Silas stated flatly. "I do not need an army. I need an assassin."
Silas opened his private interface and accessed a highly restricted encrypted channel.
He wasn’t messaging a player. He was accessing a bounty board managed directly by the rogue factions of the system.
He was going to find someone who didn’t care about the invulnerability frames of Dante.
***
Back on the jade platform high above the storm clouds, Dante was completely oblivious to the latest desperate plot of Silas.
He had more pressing matters to attend to.
With the dungeon officially cleared, a massive swirling blue exit portal finally materialized in the center of the platform.
"Alright," Dante said, rolling his shoulders and dismissing [Voidsever] back into his wrist. "The event is over. Let us head back to the Emporium and see how much gold Sera made off the auction."
The squad moved toward the portal.
Lila was happily chatting with Zephyr, the tiny griffin flying excited circles around her head.
Mei was casually juggling her massive frying pan, completely unbothered by the sheer physical exertion of the dungeon.
Casanova was busy fixing his torn silk shirt.
Erebus walked quietly beside Dante.
The Half-Soul Celestial stopped at the edge of the blue portal. She didn’t step through.
Dante paused and looked down at her. "What is wrong? You do not like portals?"
Erebus looked up at him, and her mismatched silver and crimson eyes were completely serious.
"The shiny men are waiting," Erebus stated.
Dante frowned. "The Celestials? In the Capital?"
"They know I am awake," Erebus said, and her voice carried that heavy resonant authority.
"The system announced the integration of my soul fragment. They will be waiting for us when we return to the city."
Dante crossed his arms.
He remembered the warning of Alysia in the Glacial Wastes.
The Frost Sovereign had explicitly stated that if the Celestial Court discovered the location of Erebus, they would launch a full-scale crusade to execute the anomaly.
"Let them wait," Dante said smoothly, and a dangerous smile touched his lips.
"I have zero cooldowns, a reality-warping teenager, and a bag full of Celestial loot. If they want to start a holy war in the middle of the commercial district, we will give them one."
He gestured to the portal.
Erebus smiled slightly and stepped into the blue light.
Dante followed her and was completely prepared to turn Aethelgardia into a warzone.
Comments