The Rock Island came from below.
It rose through the cloud bank like a breaching whale—a massive slab of grey stone, easily a hundred metres across, its surface pockmarked with dark craters. From those craters, creatures crawled, slithered, and flew. Hundreds of them, pouring from every opening in a tide of grotesque shapes.
"Brother… there's a monster!" Aisha's shout cut through the morning air.
Essim was already moving. He pulled up his status as he ran toward the perimeter wall.
[STATUS]
Name: Essim
Level: 10 (8%)
Attributes: Strength 261 | Agility 203 | Intelligence 156 | Resilience 217
Class: Swordsman (Sacred Human)
Skills: Divine Slash Shadow, Sky Shattering Slash, Area of Light
Equipment: Divine Sword, Cloud Shoes, Gout Mantle, Tri-Colour Gloves, Dragonskin Helmet
Talent: Infinity Duplicate (EX) V.2
Total attributes: 837. The Blessing Potions—five per person, a hundred random points each—had been transformative. Combined with the Immortal Crystal Core's ninety percent experience bonus, Essim was operating at a level that would have seemed impossible twenty-four hours ago.
Behind him, two hundred soldiers fell into formation. Werewolves to the front, Iron Rhinos flanking, Mountain Sorcerers in the middle, Warrior Ants slipping underground.
The Rock Island collided with the City of Life's outer edge with a deep, resonant boom. The stone walls shuddered but held. And then the Void Monsters came.
The first wave was dominated by Stone Bats—leathery-winged creatures the size of large dogs, screeching as they swooped over the walls.
(Stone Bat — Warrior)
Level: 20
Attributes: Str 88 | Int 55 | Agi 81 | Res 63
Skill: Sharp Voice — High-frequency screech, silences enemies for 5 seconds.
Behind them came the Dead Earth Trees—lumbering wooden giants that punched roots through the ground to ensnare anything within reach. And scattered among the horde were the real threats: Protector-level monsters.
(Dark Mask — Protector)
Level: 20
Attributes: Str 130 | Int 122 | Agi 152 | Res 98
Skill: Shadow Body — Becomes a shadow. +50% speed, +10% damage, +50% reflexes.
The defence towers activated with a chorus of mechanical thuds and arcane hums. Lightning arced from the tower nearest the breach, chaining between three Stone Bats and dropping them smoking to the ground. Fire towers lobbed incendiary spheres into the densest clusters. Auto-Bow towers released hails of steel-tipped arrows.
[Auto-Bow Tower kills (One-Eyed Wolf | Lv. 10): EXP +69 | Kill Points +10]
[Fireball Cannon kills (Red Kijimu | Lv. 12): EXP +78 | Kill Points +12]
The experience was extraordinary—nearly double what he'd earned from equivalent kills before the promotion. The Immortal Core's ninety percent bonus was paying dividends already.
"Brother! Stop staring at numbers and fight!" Aisha's voice snapped him to attention. She was already in action, her new elven bow drawn, releasing arrows that exploded on impact in ten-metre radii of devastation. Each detonation sent Void Monsters tumbling like ragdolls.
[Killed (Autumn Leaf | Lv. 14): EXP +83 | Kill Points +14]
Essim drew the Divine Sword and leapt from the wall.
He landed among a cluster of Void Monsters and activated Divine Slash Shadow. His first cut killed a Dead Earth Tree outright—and five phantom slashes fanned out behind the strike, carving through three more creatures. The shadow blades hit at eighty percent of his full power, which at 261 Strength was more than enough to bisect anything short of a Protector.
[Killed (Autumn Leaf | Lv. 16): EXP +173 | Kill Points +16]
The battle became a rhythm. Essim advanced, cutting through waves of Warrior and Guardian-class monsters with mechanical efficiency. Each kill stacked Blood Energy from his secondary weapon bonus, pushing his Strength higher with each passing minute. Behind him, the Mountain Sorcerers turned the ground into quicksand, trapping dozens of Void Monsters for the Iron Rhinos to crush.
The Protector-class Dark Masks were the only real challenge. They moved like liquid, phasing in and out of shadow, striking from angles that forced even Essim to block rather than dodge. He killed them—his stats were simply too high for them to survive more than two or three exchanges—but they demanded attention.
[Killed (Dark Mask — Protector): EXP +4,600 | Kill Points +2,000]
Fifteen minutes.
That was how long it took to annihilate every Void Monster on the Rock Island. Five thousand creatures. The city's outer ring bore the scars—four defence towers destroyed, ten soldiers lost, a handful of buildings reduced to rubble. But the core was untouched.
• • •
Elsewhere in the Ascendant Realm, the event was proving far less manageable.
On a massive floating island bearing the flag of the European Alliance, a stern-faced commander named Otto Brandt barked orders from the city wall as thousands of arrows rained down on the approaching horde. A Void Monster rose above the rest and projected a transparent barrier a hundred metres wide, deflecting the volley. Cannon fire followed—hundreds of shells—only to be caught by a humanoid monster that lifted an entire slab of earth as a shield.
"Damn," Brandt growled. "These Protector-level ones are clever."
On the largest island in the Western Hemisphere, William Anderson—President of the American Alliance, wielder of the S-rank talent Prince of the Stars—addressed his war council. Seven palm-sized stars orbited his head, glowing softly. "Help me take the top spot," he said, his voice calm and absolute, "and I'll ensure you are generously rewarded."
The world was at war. And it had only been two days.