BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Molten lava slammed across the battlefield like a tide.
Even through a screen, the heat felt suffocating—like the air itself was burning.
The livestream erupted into panic.
"It's over! Anyone taking that head-on is DEAD!"
"Raven!! No—Raven!!"
"LOOK—LOOK!!"
At the very last moment—
just as the lava wave was about to swallow Raven Shaw whole—
a figure appeared in front of her.
Not broad. Not towering.
Just a lean silhouette… standing perfectly still.
Yet in that instant, he cut off the heat like he'd erected an invisible wall between her and hell.
For reasons Raven couldn't explain, her chest tightened with something strange.
But she didn't have time to process it.
Because the chat was already screaming.
"That's LAVA!! He didn't even hesitate?!"
"Adrian?! Wasn't he still by the Titan a second ago?! How is he HERE?!"
"What speed is that?! When did he arrive?!"
"…For some reason, I suddenly feel safe."
Yes—
the one standing in front of her was Adrian Vale.
His Holy Sword Kagune had compressed into a tight formation, forming a shield-like barrier.
No matter how violent the molten tide was—
it couldn't break through.
SSSSHHH—SSSSHHH—SSSSHHH!
The lava hissed and screamed as it burned against the holy blades.
Raven finally snapped back to reality.
"Adrian! What are you doing?! Move!"
Adrian didn't answer.
Only the endless sizzling responded.
Raven's voice sharpened with fear.
"Are you insane?! That's lava! You can't block that forever!"
"Shut up." Adrian's tone was low—flat—final.
Raven froze.
Not because she cared about being snapped at—
but because she could hear it now.
Adrian's breathing.
Heavy.
Forced.
Like he was swallowing pain one mouthful at a time.
Raven's throat tightened.
"Adrian… you—"
Before she could finish—
Adrian's body jolted.
And the holy blades moved.
SHK—!!
They didn't fold back.
They cut upward.
A single, clean motion—like drawing a line across the world.
The "shield" vanished—
and the livestream's hearts stopped.
He just removed his own defense?!
But the next second—
everyone went blank.
Because Adrian's upward slash unleashed a colossal sword-light.
A pale, world-cleaving arc that surged forward and up—
as if it intended to split the sky itself.
It crashed into the molten tide—
and the impossible happened.
Lava… split.
Not slowed.
Not redirected.
Split.
From above, it would look like someone tore a burning ocean in half with a blade.
A straight, absolute cut—so clean it felt unreal.
The molten sea stayed separated, trembling at the edges, unable to close—
as if even lava feared the aftertaste of that sword.
Raven stared, speechless.
Only now did she realize something terrifying:
Adrian hadn't even needed to go all-out against the Mountainrock Titan.
If that sword-light had landed on the Titan's body—
it wouldn't have had time to erupt.
It would've been bisected on the spot.
BOOM… BOOM…
The sword-light continued to stretch outward, carving into the distance, refusing to end.
But lava was still lava—dead matter, not a living will.
After a long moment, it began to crawl back together…
slowly.
Normal.
No longer a raging wave—just sluggish molten flow.
That brief window was all Adrian needed.
He flashed backward—
then, without hesitation, scooped Raven up in a clean carry and moved.
Raven's breath hitched.
Not from embarrassment—
from the violent wind tearing past them as Adrian relocated at high speed.
When they finally landed in a safe zone, he set her down like nothing happened.
Adrian adjusted his glasses, calm as ever.
Then his eyes flicked to her face.
"…Why are you staring?"
Raven's cheeks—barely, faintly—were warm.
She clicked her tongue to cover it.
"Because you're a lunatic," she said, voice a fraction too sharp. "That was lava."
Adrian's expression didn't change.
"You're alive."
Raven had no immediate comeback.
In the livestream, the chat was losing its mind.
"WHAT WAS THAT SWORD STRIKE?!"
"ONE SLASH… AND THE LAVA SPLIT??"
"How many hidden tricks does this guy even have?!"
"Forget SS—SSS or whatever comes next, it's getting deleted too!"
"Adrian Vale is the final boss—no debate!"
Adrian naturally didn't hear any of it.
He simply looked back at the battlefield—then glanced at Raven.
"You saw it, didn't you?"
Raven played dumb.
"Saw what?"
"You already know," Adrian said, tone dry.
Raven smirked. "That you don't know how to talk to people?"
Adrian's eyelid twitched.
The chat immediately piled on—
laughing, teasing, making it weirder than it needed to be.
Raven ignored them.
This wasn't the time for nonsense.
Because behind them, the battlefield was still glowing red-hot—
and the air still smelled like scorched stone.
The points finally arrive
It was only now—late, as if delayed—that the Will of Blue Star acknowledged the Titan's death.
[Congratulations! Dragonia contestant Adrian Vale has defeated an SS-rank Divine Domain creature! Points awarded: 250,000!]
[Leaderboard update detected.]
[Changes as follows:]
[Rank 1: Dragonia — 1,952,000]
[Rank 2: Miracle Nation — 15,200]
[Rank 3: Northbear Nation — 9,300]
[Rank 4: Oceanpouch Nation — 6,400]
[Rank 5: Eastern Isles — 1,700]
[…remaining ranks omitted…]
In the I Watch the Divine Domain studio, silence reigned for a full second—
then chaos.
Sienna Blake counted the zeros with a trembling voice.
"T-ten… hundred… thousand… ten-thousand… hundred-thousand… a MILLION?! This is real?!"
Captain Ryan Cole rubbed his eyes like he didn't trust them.
"Nearly two million points… and a single SS kill is worth two hundred fifty thousand. So the real bulk came from those C-rank waves."
Dr. Elias Hart swallowed.
"C-ranks… a few hundred of them… plus an S-rank and an SS-rank… it adds up. If this keeps going—Dragonia's final settlement reward… might be an SSS-tier chest."
The studio's faces turned feverish.
"SSS chest…"
"What even comes out of that?"
"At this rate, Dragonia speedran the apocalypse in a day…"
The world outside goes quiet
While Dragonia was celebrating—
the rest of the world stared at the same truth with dead eyes.
S-rank Destruction Tyrant.
SS-rank Mountainrock Titan.
Those were already unbelievable.
But the part nobody could forget—
was Adrian's final sword-light.
Everyone understood what it implied:
Even SS-class beings might be one-hit targets to him.
So what was the point of "competition" anymore?
What did "alliance" matter?
Even if every country's remaining contestants joined forces—
could they stop Adrian Vale?
The answer felt obvious.
And that thought crushed hope into dust.
In the war room of the Divine Nation Alliance, the atmosphere turned heavy enough to drown.
Someone finally spoke, voice hoarse.
"Do we… keep treating Dragonia as the enemy?"
No one answered.
Because what could they say?
Insults wouldn't work.
Threats wouldn't work.
Force wouldn't work.
Even "working together in the Divine Domain" sounded like a joke now.
At the head of the table, their leader exhaled a long, defeated breath.
No plan came out.
Only a quiet realization:
From this point on, survival was the best outcome they could pray for.
"Extinction Gate"—the Doomsday Nation Gate—earns its name
Time blurred.
The gate event neared its final stretch.
Dragonia's side remained calm.
After the SS fell, nothing that arrived afterward even counted as a challenge.
Anything below A-rank—no matter how many—was just numbers.
But for other nations…
the Divine Domain was a slaughterhouse.
Contestants fell in waves.
Some fought and died.
Some fled and hid—watching helplessly as Divine Domain creatures broke through their gates.
And once those creatures crossed—
they manifested in the real world at hundredfold scale.
Cities turned into ruins.
Borders became funeral lines.
"Extinction Gate" wasn't a dramatic title.
It was a literal description.
One detail chilled everyone who noticed:
The creatures seemed to prioritize humans.
Animals, stray cats, dogs—
as long as it wasn't human, they often ignored it.
Like they existed for one purpose:
to feed on mankind.
The more people thought about that, the colder they felt.
And in the middle of this worldwide collapse—
there was only one "safe island" left.
Dragonia.
If not for the internet, Dragonia's citizens would struggle to believe what was happening elsewhere.
And that contrast made everything worse.
Then, a new announcement arrived.
As despair spread, the hidden powerhouses of the world—those who had been fighting in the shadows—shared the same bitter thought:
If only we were the ones who entered the Divine Domain…
This wouldn't have happened.
And as if the world itself heard them—
the Will of Blue Star spoke again.
[Detected: contestant casualties within the Divine Domain have exceeded 90%.]
[Initiating "Blue Star Deathmatch" to replenish contestant numbers.]
The words hit like a hammer.
A brand-new nightmare.
One that didn't come from the Divine Domain—
but from Blue Star itself.
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