The edges of the forest began to dissolve. Not into a blue forcefield like a normal battle royale. But into nothingness. The Void was eating the map. Forcing everyone toward the center.
And from the center a pillar of black light erupted. Piercing the canopy.
"He's calling us," Sebastian said. Looking at the pillar. His mask reflected the black light. "He's finished his preparations."
"Preparations for what?" Valerie asked. Shivering.
"To turn this tournament into a sacrifice," Sebastian said. He equipped [Shadowfang]. The dagger pulsed. Hungry for the blood of a god.
"Let's go say hello."
The center of the Verdant Labyrinth was no longer a forest. It was a wound.
As Sebastian and Valerie approached the coordinates of the black pillar, the lush, ancient redwoods didn't just fade away.
They had been surgically removed from existence. The ground ended abruptly at a jagged cliff edge. Overlooking a crater that shouldn't have been there. It was a massive, swirling bowl of nothingness. A void where the game's texture files had been corrupted and replaced by a seething, digital darkness that smelled like ozone and coagulated blood.
Floating in the center of this abyss, suspended by chains made of weeping code and purple light, was the Apostle.
He didn't look like a player anymore. His grey robes were tattered. But beneath them there was no skin. Only a shifting mass of polygons and shadows that refused to hold a consistent shape. He hovered above a platform made of fused bones. The remains of the players and mobs that had been unfortunate enough to be dragged into the center by the shrinking map.
"He's... he's eating the map," Valerie whispered. Her voice trembling. She gagged as the wind shifted. Carrying the stench of the pit toward them. It wasn't the clean smell of digital death. It was the heavy, cloying scent of a slaughterhouse that had been left to rot in the sun.
"That's not a game mechanic, Sebastian. That's a violation."
"It's a ritual," Sebastian corrected. His voice flat and cold behind his porcelain mask.
"He's using the mass death of the tournament to tear the server open from the inside."
He stepped off the edge of the cliff. [Sky Walk] caught him. The air solidifying beneath his boots with a dull thud. He walked out over the void. His black Auditor robes whipping violently in the updraft of corrupted mana.
The Apostle turned. His face was a hood filled with darkness. Save for two burning points of violet light that served as eyes.
"Zero," the Apostle's voice boomed. It wasn't a single voice. It was a chorus of screams layered over a deep, guttural growl. It vibrated in Sebastian's teeth. "Or should I call you 'Raven'? It matters not. The vessel is irrelevant. The soul is what tastes sweet."
"You talk too much for a glitch," Sebastian said. Stopping fifty meters from the bone platform. He flexed his hands. Feeling the infinite mana of the [Void Ocean] surging against his skin. Demanding release. "You made a deal with the Void. You traded your humanity for admin privileges. Pathetic."
The Apostle laughed. A sound like tearing metal. "Humanity? Humanity is weak. Humanity is flesh that rots and bones that break. Look at them." He gestured to the pile of bones beneath him. "They ran. They cried. They begged. And now? Now they are fuel."
The Apostle raised his arms. The void beneath him churned.
"You think you are a god because you can manipulate the system?" the Apostle sneered. "I am the system. I have rewritten the code of this world. And you are just a bug to be patched out."
The air pressure dropped instantly. Sebastian's ears popped.
"Witness the true face of the Apocalypse," the Apostle roared. "ARISE!"
He didn't cast a spell. He tore a hole in the air.
A massive vertical slit appeared in reality behind the Apostle. Dripping with black sludge. From the tear, shapes began to pull themselves out. They weren't standard game mobs. They were wet, unfinished things.
A creature the size of a tank dragged itself onto the bone platform. It looked like a bear turned inside out. Its muscles exposed and steaming. Its head a cluster of writhing tentacles. Behind it came a swarm of things that looked like spiders made of human hands. Then came the flyers. Harpies with faces of screaming women. Their wings dripping with necrotic acid.
It was a horde. Hundreds of Elite-tier abominations. Birthed from the corrupted data of the Void.
[System Warning: Anomaly Detected.]
[Entity Class: Void-Born Abomination.]
[Level: 40 (Elite)]
"Kill him," the Apostle commanded. Pointing a finger at Sebastian. "Peel the meat from his bones. I want his soul intact."
The horde shrieked. The sound was deafening. A physical wall of noise that shattered the silence of the arena. They surged forward. Leaping off the bone platform and rushing through the air. Running on invisible paths of corruption.
"Valerie!" Sebastian shouted without looking back. "High ground! Burn anything that gets past me!"
"On it!" Valerie screamed back. She was terrified. Her face pale as a sheet. But she raised her [Staff of the Dead]. A massive circle of fire erupted around her on the cliff edge. Turning the rock molten.
Sebastian drew the [Shadowfang]. The dagger pulsed. Drinking in the ambient horror.
"You brought an army," Sebastian whispered. His eyes narrowing as the first wave of inside-out bears closed the distance. "Good. I was worried I wouldn't have enough EXP to hit the level cap today."
The first beast lunged. Its maw opening to reveal rows of serrated bone shards. It smelled of bile and rot.
Sebastian didn't dodge. He stepped into the charge.
"Dimensional Sever."
He swung his arm. The air distorted. A line of absolute separation flashed through the void.
The bear didn't die cleanly. It was bisected from snout to tail. The two halves slid past Sebastian. Spraying a fountain of hot, black blood that sizzled against his mana shield. The internal organs spilled out into the open air. Grey, pulsing sacks of fluid that burst upon contact with the atmosphere.
But there were more. Dozens more.
A spider made of hands latched onto his leg. Sebastian felt the sharp grip of fingers digging into his flesh. Trying to tear the muscle away from the bone.
"Get off," he snarled.
He stomped. [Gravity Press] activated. Concentrated on his own leg.
CRUNCH.