The smell of blood and ozone replaced instantly by roasted nuts and expensive perfume.
Sebastian materialized in the staging area of the Imperial Capital's Grand Arena. The transition seamless. His consciousness snapping back into the vessel of "Raven," the Level 15 Auditor. The headache vanished. The fatigue evaporated. He flexed his hands. Feeling the hum of infinite mana coursing through his veins.
He was a god again.
"Welcome, contestants!" A magically amplified voice boomed from the sky. Shaking the marble pillars of the waiting room. "The Grand Magic Tournament begins in ten minutes!"
The staging area was a cavernous hall beneath the arena stands. Filled with the elite of the server. Players in glowing legendary armor polished their greatswords. Mages floated a few inches off the ground, surrounded by orbiting elemental orbs. The air thick with tension and the competitive ego of a thousand gamers who thought they were the main character.
Sebastian adjusted his porcelain mask. He stood in the corner. Leaning against a pillar. His black academic robes making him look like a lost NPC amidst the peacocks of the player base.
Valerie materialized beside him a moment later. She stumbled slightly. The phantom trauma of the real-world attack still lingering in her mind. She looked at her hands, checking for the gun that wasn't there. Then gripped her [Staff of the Dead].
"Focus," Sebastian murmured. His voice low. "You are Lady Valerie of House Sterling. You are a fire mage. The spiders are gone."
Valerie took a deep breath. Her eyes hardening. "Right. The Core."
She looked around the room. "I see players from the top guilds. There's 'Ironheart' from the Covenant. And 'Nightshade' from the Assassin's League. But... where is the competition?"
"The competition isn't the players," Sebastian said. His eyes scanning the crowd. "It's the interlopers."
His [Eye of the Void God] scanned the room. Filtering out the noise. He ignored the high-level players. He was looking for anomalies.
He found one.
Standing near the main gate, separated from the other players by an invisible aura of repulsion, was a figure cloaked in tattered grey robes that seemed to absorb the ambient light. He held no weapon. He wore no armor. But the air around him warped and twisted. As if the game engine was struggling to render his existence.
[Player ID: The Apostle]
[Class: ???]
[Level: ???]
The Apostle turned. Even across the crowded room, his gaze locked onto Sebastian. Under the hood, there was no face. Just a swirling vortex of darkness where features should be.
"He sees me," Sebastian noted. Feeling a prickle of recognition. Not fear. Recognition. That mana signature... it was the same as the Void Parasite he had crushed in the Academy dungeon. The same as the hunger in the Wailing Woods.
"Is that a player?" Valerie asked. Following his gaze. "His status is... glitched."
"He's a player who made a deal," Sebastian said coldly. "He traded his humanity for admin privileges granted by the Void. He's the reason the Red Moon is rising so fast."
Suddenly, the gates to the arena floor groaned open. The roar of a hundred thousand spectators—NPCs and players alike—washed over them like a physical wave.
"CONTESTANTS! ENTER THE CRUCIBLE!"
The players surged forward. Eager for glory. Sebastian and Valerie moved with the current. Stepping out into the blinding sunlight of the Arena.
It was colossal. The Colosseum of Arcanum made the Ironhold pit look like a sandbox. The stands stretched up into the clouds. Filled with screaming fans waving banners. In the Emperor's Box, high above the carnage, the Emperor himself sat upon a throne of gold. Flanked by the Archmages of the realm.
But the arena floor wasn't sand. It was a portal.
In the center of the vast space, a massive, swirling vortex shimmered. It was a pocket dimension generator.
"The rules are simple!" The Grand Marshall announced. Flying above the arena on a griffon. "One hundred contestants. One map. The last one standing wins the title of Grand Magus and the treasures of the Empire! Teaming is allowed, but remember... only one can claim the Core!"
The crowd roared.
"Battle Royale," Valerie whispered. "Classic."
"The map will be large," Sebastian analyzed. "Forest, ruins, or city. It randomizes. But the objective remains the same. Survive. Kill."
He looked at the Apostle. The cloaked figure walking toward the portal. Ignoring the jeers and cheers of the crowd. As the Apostle passed a group of NPC guards, the guards flinched. Clutching their heads as if in sudden pain.
"He's corrupting the data just by walking," Sebastian observed. "If he wins, he won't take the Core to build a Sanctuary. He'll use it to open a permanent gate for the Void."
"So we have to kill him," Valerie said. Her fire aura flaring.
"We have to erase him," Sebastian corrected. "But first, we have to survive the fodder."
The countdown appeared in the sky. Massive burning numerals.
10... 9... 8...
Sebastian checked his inventory. His [Shadowfang] was ready. His [Ring of Space] stocked with potions and engineering supplies. His skills cooled down.
"Stick close," he told Valerie. "When we land, we move to high ground. Do not engage unless you can kill in one hit."
3... 2... 1...
"BEGIN!"
The hundred contestants charged the vortex. Sebastian grabbed Valerie's arm.
"Heavenly Steps."
They didn't run. They vanished.
----
The world twisted. Color inverted. Gravity ceased.
Then they slammed into solid ground.
The smell of pine and wet earth filled Sebastian's nose. They had spawned in a dense, ancient forest. Trees the size of skyscrapers blocked out the sun. Casting the forest floor in perpetual twilight. Massive roots twisted across the ground like petrified serpents.
[System: Welcome to the Verdant Labyrinth.]
[Players Remaining: 100]
"We're together," Valerie breathed a sigh of relief. Checking her surroundings. "Spawn randomization didn't split us."
"Because I anchored us," Sebastian said. Releasing her arm. "Movement."
He didn't wait. He blurred into motion. Running up the trunk of a massive redwood tree. With his [Sky Walk] passive, he ran vertically as easily as he ran horizontally. He reached a branch fifty meters up and crouched. Activating [Eye of the Void God].
The forest was alive with mana signatures. To his golden vision, the players were bright beacons of red and blue light moving through the darkness below.
"Two teams to the east," Sebastian called down to Valerie. Who was hovering halfway up the tree using a flight spell. "One solo player to the west. And... something big in the center."
"The Apostle?"
"No. A boss mob. The map isn't empty. The organizers threw in some surprises."
Suddenly a scream echoed from the east.
"Help! What is th—"
The scream cut short by a wet, crunching sound.
[Players Remaining: 97]
"Three down in ten seconds," Sebastian noted. "Someone is efficient."
"Should we hide?" Valerie asked. "Let them kill each other?"
"Hiding is for prey," Sebastian said. He dropped from the branch. He didn't use [Featherfall]. He plummeted like a stone. Only activating [Sky Walk] at the last second to cushion the impact. He landed silently. "We hunt. I need the EXP to hit Level 20 before the final circle. I need to unlock the next tier of Engineering to install the Core."
He moved west. Toward the solo signal.
The player was a Ranger. Clad in camouflage gear. Moving stealthily through the underbrush. He was good. He moved against the wind. Checking his angles. A pro.
But he was playing a game. Sebastian was fighting a war.
Sebastian didn't sneak. He simply walked out from behind a tree. Ten meters in front of the Ranger.
The Ranger reacted instantly. He drew his bow and fired a [Explosive Arrow] in one fluid motion.
"Die, noob!"
The arrow streaked toward Sebastian's chest.
Sebastian raised his hand.
"Chrono-Stasis."
The world turned grey. The arrow froze in mid-air. The flames on its tip suspended like a painting. The dust motes stopped dancing. The Ranger's face frozen in a rictus of aggression.
One second.
Sebastian stepped forward. He didn't run. He walked calmly around the frozen arrow. He closed the ten meters. He stood directly in front of the Ranger.
He placed his hand on the Ranger's chest.
[Skill: Force Palm (Monk Tier 1) -> Evolution -> Void Palm (Forbidden Tier)]
"Resume."
Time snapped back.
BOOM.
The Ranger didn't even know he had been hit. The arrow he fired exploded harmlessly against a tree trunk in the distance. But at the same moment his chest cavity imploded.
The [Void Palm] didn't just push. It deleted the space between the impact point and the target's spine. The Ranger's armor was untouched. But his internal organs were liquefied instantly.
[-9,000 (Void Damage)]
The Ranger collapsed. His eyes wide with confusion. He dissolved into blue pixels before he hit the ground.
[Players Remaining: 96]
"Ruthless," Valerie whispered. Landing beside him. She looked at the spot where the player had been. "You didn't even give him a chance to fight."
"He shot first," Sebastian said. Looting a pouch of gold from the remains. "And fair fights are for people who want to lose."
He turned east. The screams were continuing there.
"Come. The big fish are eating the small fish. We need to be the shark."
They moved through the forest. Sebastian was a blur of motion. A reaper in auditor's robes. A team of three Warriors tried to ambush them from a ravine. Sebastian used [Heavenly Steps] to teleport behind their healer. Snapping his neck with a physical strike before the tanks could even turn around. Valerie incinerated the remaining two with a [Firestorm]. Her magic amplified by the staff Sebastian had given her.
It wasn't a battle. It was an extermination.
[Players Remaining: 50]
Within an hour half the lobby was dead. Sebastian stood in a clearing. Surrounded by the loot of a five-man party he had just dismantled. He wasn't even out of breath.
"Level 18," Sebastian checked his stats. "Close."
But then the forest went silent. The ambient sounds of birds and wind vanished. The temperature dropped twenty degrees in a second.
A message appeared in the sky. Written in letters of bleeding shadow.
[System Announcement: The Apostle has summoned the Void.]
[The Map is shrinking.]