Author's Preface
The ground trembled before Blue even saw them. He turned toward the fog, eyes narrowing as shapes began to form again, but this time, it wasn’t just the ghouls. Low, hunched figures tore through the haze first. Hounds. Their bodies were twisted, skin pulled tight over bone, jaws hanging open as they sprinted forward on all fours. Above them, something shifted in the sky, dark shapes circling. Then they dropped. Bat-like creatures dove through the air, wings stretched wide, their movements erratic and fast, letting out piercing screeches as they closed in from above. Blue’s grip tightened. “…Of course it’s not just them.”
The horde didn’t slow. They surged forward all at once. The first hound reached him in seconds, leaping straight for his throat, then everything hit at once. Claws. Teeth. Bodies crashing in from every direction. Above, those creatures descended, tearing through the air as they struck. Blue didn’t have time to think. The pendant reacted. A translucent barrier flared into existence around him, catching the impact in a single instant. The force of it rippled across the shield as claws scraped against it, jaws snapped, wings slammed into its surface from above. The pressure was immediate.
Blue’s teeth clenched as he held his ground inside the barrier, watching the mass press against it from every side. “…Yeah… that would’ve been bad.” The shield wouldn’t last forever. He knew that. His breathing steadied. Then, he gathered everything. All of it. Every thread of qi he could reach, every ounce he had built, everything settled deep within his dantian and he pulled it forward. The pressure inside him surged, heavy and violent, like something pushing to break free. “…Alright.”
The barrier flickered and dropped. For a split second, everything rushed in. Then Blue released it. A massive wave of qi erupted from his body, expanding outward in all directions. It formed a dense, gray dome that swallowed everything within fifty feet of him... above, below, all around. The impact was immediate. Hounds were thrown back, bodies slamming into the ground as the force tore through them. The flying creatures dropped from the air, their wings collapsing as they crashed down into the dirt. Everything within the radius hit the ground at once. Silence. For just a moment, nothing moved. Blue stood at the center of it, breathing heavy, the dome fading as quickly as it had appeared.
Then his body moved. No hesitation. No thought. He stepped forward, blade already in motion, cutting clean through the first neck before it could even twitch. Another followed. Then another. He moved through them like something unrestrained, striking fast, precise, heads separating from bodies before they had the chance to rise again. One after another. No wasted movement. No pause. By the time the last body stilled, the field around him was quiet again.
Blue stopped. His breathing was heavier now, chest rising and falling as the tension slowly left his body. He looked down at the pendant in his hand. “…You saved me again, grandfather.” For a moment, he just stood there. Then he closed his hand around it, tightened his grip and started forward. The tower still waited. Blue approached the tower. His system pinged.
[System Ping]
[Black Power Analyzed]
[Boss Remaining 1/1: Old God]
[Objective: Kill the Lich to cleanse the anchor]
Blue’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Only one boss and it's another fucking old god... seriously?" The last one he faced had been the dragon, the one who commanded constellations. For the first time, it settled in. This wasn’t a normal gate. This was far beyond an A rank. “…Again…” His jaw tightened. "Why does this keep happening?"
High above, the lich stood. It looked down at him. “You reek of my brother.” A pause. Its gaze didn’t waver. “No matter. You die today.”
The lich dropped from above, slamming into the ground in front of Blue. Tattered black robes hung from its frame, a crown resting crooked on its head. What little flesh remained clung to bone, thin and decayed, with jagged edges pushing through in places. In one hand, it held a long staff of rotted wood, a large black crystal embedded at the top. The other hand hung low at its side, fingers curled tightly as if gripping something unseen.
“You’ve done well defeating my horde,” it said, its voice low and hollow. “Commanding the dead is but one power bestowed to me by Him.” A faint pause. “Now… feel the others.”
Without hesitation, the lich raised its staff and pointed it at Blue. A sphere of black energy formed instantly, and before Blue could react, it had already reached him. It struck his stomach. His body folded around the impact as the force carried him backward, dragging him across the ground before slamming him into a tree stump nearly fifty feet away. The air left his lungs in a sharp gasp. For a split second, everything went still. Then the sphere pulsed. Blue’s eyes widened. Right as it began to swell, he forced his qi outward, grabbing hold of the energy for the briefest moment and threw it upward. The explosion went off above him and erupted nearly twenty feet overhead. The shockwave still hit. Dirt and debris scattered as the force slammed down around him. Blue dropped to one knee, breathing hard, his chest tight from the impact. Across the clearing, the lich watched. “Very good… very good,” it said, almost amused. “You shall entertain me a while longer.”
The lich didn’t wait. Three more spheres of black energy formed at the tip of its staff and shot forward while Blue was still on one knee. Each one detonated just before impact, the explosions chaining together and kicking up a thick cloud of dust and debris. For a moment, the clearing disappeared. Then, Blue stepped out of the smoke, dragging a hand across his brow and wiping away the blood. He was still standing. And he was smiling. “…Alright.”
He pushed off the ground and rushed forward, closing the distance before the lich could fire again. His Jian came up in a clean arc, striking toward its neck and bounced. The blade rang against the staff. Then bone. No give. No damage. "...what the hell?" Blue thought to himself.
The lich didn’t move. It laughed. “…More… more… entertain me more…” It raised its staff high above its head. A massive sphere of black energy formed in the air above Blue, hanging there like a weight pressing down on everything beneath it. Blue stepped back instinctively. Then the world changed. Black lightning tore down from the sky. It struck the ground all around him, violent and erratic, blasting apart the earth with no pattern, no warning. Blue moved as best he could, weaving through the strikes, barely keeping ahead of them until one hit. It caught his leg. The moment it did, his body locked. His leg went numb instantly, refusing to respond. Blue staggered, dropping slightly as he tried to force it to move.
The lich laughed again. “Ha… ha… ha… give up. You are no match for me.” Its voice shifted, almost reflective. "I was once like you… until he came.” A pause. “Do not fight the inevitable. He takes… but gives back tenfold.”
The ground shifted. More ghouls clawed their way up, but these were different, armored, heavier, their movements slower but more deliberate as they rose around him. Blue’s breathing steadied. Then, a faint golden light from his pendant surfaced around him. It spread across his body, subtle at first, then stronger, mending torn flesh, easing the damage left behind by the lightning. The decay faded. The numbness began to recede.
Blue stood. “…By him…” His eyes locked onto the lich. “…you mean Hatred?”
The lich froze. For the first time since the fight began... it reacted. Then a loud resounding. “YES… YES! HATRED! Come to me… he will give you all you need.” The lich raised the grimoire in its hand, the pages flipping on their own as its voice shifted into something Blue had never heard before. “Khar’veth nox mal’thir… Vel’kara shuun… Dreth’kai morzan… Ulveth… ULVETH… NARKAI!”
The sky went dark instantly, as if something had swallowed the light. A dense black smoke rolled in from every direction, swallowing the ground and rising around him. The ghouls began to scream as it touched them, their bodies twitching violently. Blue coughed once, then again, his chest tightening as the same numbness from the lightning spread through his body. His limbs grew heavy, unresponsive, and he forced himself to look toward the lich. It stood untouched.
“…Of course it doesn’t…” The pressure built. Then his system pinged. No breakdown. No explanation. Just one line.
[System Notification]
[Stop fighting it. Let it flow.]
Blue frowned. "Stop fighting what? Let what flow?" His body wouldn’t move anyway, so forcing it wasn’t an option. He closed his eyes and focused inward, steadying his breathing as best he could, drawing his awareness toward his dantian. That’s when he felt it. The divine energy. It wasn’t calm. It was pushing, pressing against the walls of his dantian, like it was trying to break free. Blue tightened his focus, then slowly eased his control over his qi, trying to follow what the system meant. He stopped forcing it, stopped trying to direct anything, letting his breathing settle. The pressure didn’t go away. If anything, it built. Something inside him was still holding it back. Blue’s brow tightened as he opened his eyes, looking up toward the blackened sky. “…Fine.” The thought crossed through his mind. “I’ll be your fucking champion.”
That was it. The moment the thought settled, something inside him gave. The divine energy burst free. It surged through his dantian and into his qi all at once, no longer restrained. The gray of his qi shifted as the two mixed, threads of gold weaving through it as the energy spread through his body. Around him, the black smoke broke apart, peeling away as if it could no longer take hold. Blue stood. The numbness was gone. The pressure was gone. Everything felt different.
Across from him, the lich froze for a brief moment. Then it began to tap its staff against the grimoire, a twisted excitement creeping into its voice. “Ahh… yes… Yes…” The lich stepped toward Blue and took a slow, deliberate breath, the sound sharp enough to carry through the clearing. “Ahhh…” Its head tilted slightly. “Not just my brother…” Another inhale. “But them as well… the Golden Ones.” Its grip tightened around the staff as it raised it again, the black crystal beginning to glow. “Their champion…” A faint, twisted satisfaction crept into its voice. “What a blessed day this is.”
A sphere of black energy began to form around the Lich's staff, but Blue was already moving. He pushed off the ground and closed the distance in an instant, Jian drawn, his qi wrapped tightly around the blade. It no longer held its dull gray color. Threads of gold ran through it now, faint but unmistakable. He didn’t slow. The moment the sphere began to take shape, Blue’s blade struck the staff. The energy collapsed. The sphere dissipated before it could fully form. For the first time since the fight began the lich reacted. It jumped back sharply, its balance shifting just enough to show it had been caught off guard. Blue didn’t stop. He pressed forward, blade already moving again. The lich raised a hand, pointing past him. “Get him.” The command snapped through the air. Around them, the armored ghouls surged forward once more. But this time, Blue didn’t hesitate. For the first time since entering the gate… it felt like he had the advantage.
As the armored ghouls attacked Blue, he could feel it in his strength. His muscles, his body, felt stronger —lighter, faster. He cut through the ghouls with ease, each strike cleaner than the last. More rose as he cut down the ones before them. Behind the horde, he saw the lich. Arms stretched wide, the grimoire floating in front of him, its pages turning on their own as he chanted, lost in something deeper than focus, something closer to a trance.
“Khar’veth… nox malthir… Velkara… shuun…” Blue rushed forward, trying to reach him, to interrupt whatever spell he was casting, but the ghouls surged again, forcing him to keep swinging, to keep pushing through them. “Diuftai… morqan… Velzthuun… kar...eth…”
The last of the ghouls fell just as Blue broke through. He rushed the lich, The lich’s head snapped up, eyes locking onto him, teeth chattering as the final word forced its way out. “ULVETH.” And that’s when it hit. A dark energy surged up from the earth, splitting the ground apart beneath them. It didn’t explode outward, it rose, flooding the land like something alive. The lich laughed, the sound sharp and unhinged. The energy tore through everything. The remaining bodies of the ghouls withered instantly, collapsing into nothing. Trees splintered and decayed where they stood. Rocks cracked and crumbled. Even the tower behind the lich began to break apart under the pressure of it.
“Revel in his power!” the lich shouted. Then, it stopped. The laughter cut off. Shock.
Blue stood there. Unharmed. The gold threaded through his qi held steady, pushing back against the decay, shielding him from the spell as it passed over him. The lich stared. “I see… I see…” A twisted grin spread across what remained of its face. “You truly are their champion.” A pause. “Befitting of the title.”
As Blue moved to strike the lich, a gate appeared behind it. The moment it formed, Blue stopped. The presence on the other side pressed against everything, heavy enough that even the air seemed to shift. Blue didn’t need to see who it was.
“We need him… for now,” the voice said. The words carried through the field, deep and absolute, leaving no room for question.
“…Hatred.” He would recognize that voice anywhere.
The lich’s expression twisted with clear disappointment. It looked back at Blue, its grip tightening slightly around its staff. “…Seems the fun is over… for now.” A faint pause. “We’ll meet again… champion.” Then it stepped back. The gate snapped shut. Silence followed. The dark energy that had flooded the land began to fade, pulling back into the earth as the decay receded. What had been a wasteland moments ago slowly shifted, the murky black giving way to a dull blue as the sky above cleared. Blue stood still, breathing steady as the gold threaded through his qi began to settle, drawing back into his dantian, returning to where it had rested before. Then... his system pinged.
[Gate Cleared]
[Objective Updated: Find the Anchor]
[Use this new power wisely, Champion]
Blue made his way toward the anchor. The tower had crumbled once the Lich left through that gate. The anchor stood exposed in the center of the debris. Blue looked around as he walked toward the anchor. Trees began to sprout leaves, dead grass and earth began to spring back to life. The dark clouds that loomed overhead receded to show a clear blue sky, the sun of this world and other planets that could be seen. Blue stopped and stared at the sky of this world. "Good lord, this is gorgeous. Those planets look bigger than the moon. Earth is so dull compared to these places." Blue smiled and looked back down toward the anchor... he approached and cleared it without resistance. As the energy from the anchor was cleansed and settled in his dantian... Blue looked back where Hatred had appeared. "What did he mean he needs me alive?" Blue stood for a moment in silence, contemplating Hatred’s words to the lich. "I wish you guys could be here. I could really use some help. I have a feeling shit is about to get very complicated." He muttered to himself As his mind settled on Jinhu, Ilho and the others.
For a moment there was silence, then a gate opened behind him, the one that would lead back home. A thought crossed his mind as he turned and stared at the gate. "This is twice now. Both promotion raids… and both ended up not being what i signed up for." His jaw tightened slightly. “…The Association. That bastard Titus… there is no way this keeps happening by accident.”