The System announcement appeared.

[WAVE 2 CLEARED]

[HIDDEN CORRUPTION SOURCE DESTROYED]

[WAVE 3 BEGINNING]

[WARNING: REMAINING HOSTILE COMMAND UNITS ADVANCING]

The battlefield roared in the distance and James heard Finn shouting orders.

Then Finn’s voice came through the party channel again, breathing much harder than before. "James, two more ogres just appeared with the final wave. Dark-empowered. Kael’s got the circlet active but we’re under heavy pressure."

James looked at his reanimated ogre and gave one mental command.

Move.

He ran back toward the battlefield with the ogre crashing through trees behind him.

James burst from the forest and saw Team Zero still fighting.

They were injured but still standing. Finn was holding one corrupted ogre back with his axe and shield while bleeding from a cut above his eye. Aria had blood running down her left arm but kept moving and killed goblins trying to flank Kael. Elliot fired arrows from behind a broken barricade with his quiver half-empty. Kael stood in the center with the Apostle’s Radiant Circlet glowing fiercely, white divine light pushing back the dark aura pressing down on the battlefield.

[PURIFY ACTIVATED]

[DARK MANA CORRUPTION REDUCED]

[PARTY HOLY RESISTANCE MAINTAINED]

[CORRUPTED ENEMY EMPOWERMENT WEAKENED]

The circlet’s effect was visible now because the corrupted goblins moved slower within its range while the dark veins on the ogres pulsed irregularly instead of steadily.

The stream viewers exploded when James returned with the reanimated ogre following behind him.

@TowerWatchIE: HE CAME BACK WITH IT.

@GreenTowerFan: That’s the ogre he killed.

@RaidStatsGuy: Reanimated monster entering the main battlefield.

@PriestWanted: The circlet is weakening the corruption. This might actually work.

James pointed at the corrupted ogre Finn was fighting and sent his reanimated ogre forward.

The two massive creatures slammed into each other.

Team Zero fought the final wave together.

The two remaining corrupted ogres were still dangerous and the goblins were stronger than the first wave, but the destroyed statue had weakened their coordination. They were no longer moving in perfect formations.

Finn and the reanimated ogre held the front line. Finn’s axe cut through corrupted goblin shields while the reanimated ogre grappled with one of the corrupted ogres and kept it from reaching the rest of the team.

Aria cleared the left flank with her spear and killed goblins trying to circle around to Kael. She was bleeding from multiple cuts but didn’t slow down.

Elliot shot corrupted archers from the watchtowers and targeted goblin horn-bearers trying to restore coordination among the scattered goblin groups.

Kael maintained the circlet’s Purify effect and called out enemy movements while the divine light reduced the dark corruption empowering the enemies.

James fought in the flexible mid-position and used everything he had.

He summoned skeletons from fresh goblin corpses to block gaps in the formation.

[SUMMON UNDEAD SKELETON ACTIVATED]

[MANA COST: 45]

[CURRENT MANA: 864/1,080]

He fired Necro Blast at corrupted ogre joints to weaken their movements.

[NECRO BLAST ACTIVATED]

[MANA COST: 10]

[CURRENT MANA: 854/1,080]

When goblins clustered too tightly near a barricade, he detonated corpses.

[CORPSE EXPLOSION ACTIVATED]

[MANA COST: 28]

[CURRENT MANA: 826/1,080]

The first corrupted ogre fell when Finn landed a heavy overhead strike after James weakened its knee joint with repeated Necro Blasts. The creature’s leg gave out and Finn’s axe split its skull.

The second corrupted ogre lasted longer because it was stronger, but the reanimated ogre pinned it long enough for Aria and Finn to finish it. James detonated corpses around its legs to keep it from escaping while they struck from both sides.

The corrupted ogre finally collapsed with Aria’s spear through its throat and Finn’s axe buried in its chest.

The final goblins broke formation when their empowerment faded completely. Team Zero cleaned them up quickly.

Elliot shot the last goblin archer from a watchtower and the battlefield went silent.

Team Zero stood among the dead.

They were injured, exhausted, and covered in blood, but they were alive.

For a moment, none of them moved. Finn was still gripping his weapon with blood running down his face. Aria was breathing hard and favoring her left arm. Elliot lowered his bow slowly and stared at the empty battlefield. Kael kept the circlet active because he didn’t trust the dark aura to vanish immediately.

James stood near the reanimated ogre and watched the settlement.

Then the System notification appeared.

[FLOOR 9 CLEARED]

[ALL WAVES CLEARED]

[HOSTILE COMMAND STRUCTURE DESTROYED]

Another notification followed immediately.

[SIDE STORY CLEARED: HIDDEN CORRUPTION]

[CAUSE OF FLOOR 9 ANOMALY REMOVED]

The stream chat froze for half a second as viewers processed what they were seeing, then exploded when they realized Team Zero hadn’t just cleared Floor 9 but had given Ireland the first confirmed Floor 9 clear in the world.

The MVP calculation appeared.

[CALCULATING MVP...]

[MVP: JAMES GANNER]

[MVP REWARD: 20,000 TOWER CREDITS]

[REWARD ITEM: S-RANK ORE ACQUIRED]

[ABYSSAL STAR METAL]

The stream erupted in chaos.

The viewer count climbed even faster as clips spread across Irish and international Challenger networks. People weren’t just reacting to Team Zero surviving. They were reacting to Ireland becoming the first country in the world to clear Floor 9.

Donations flooded in through the TRB stream platform at a rate James had never seen. Most were in euros from civilians and public viewers. Challenger-tagged donations came in separately through Tower Credits.

[DONATION RECEIVED: €50,000]

[DONATION RECEIVED: €75,000]

[DONATION RECEIVED: €100,000]

[CHALLENGER DONATION RECEIVED: 5,000 TC]

[VIEWER COUNT: 689,204]

The viewer count kept climbing.

[VIEWER COUNT: 812,677]

[VIEWER COUNT: 1,034,902]

Over one million people were watching now.

@DublinClimber92: THEY CLEARED IT.

@RaidStatsGuy: First confirmed Floor 9 clear in the world.

@MageUnionWatch: Ireland cleared Floor 9 first. This is history.

@GreenTowerFan: The necromancer is MVP. No debate.

@PriestWanted: The circlet saved them.

@CivilianViewIE: I watched the world’s first Floor 9 clear live.

@GlobalTowerFeed: Ireland just passed every country stuck at Floor 9.

@TowerMarketWatch: The value of that circlet just exploded.

James barely registered the comments. He was too tired to care about the donations or the viewer count.

The return countdown began.

[RETURN TO WAITING ROOM IN: 60 SECONDS]

Finn sat down heavily on a broken barricade and breathed hard while knowing he was alive and that was enough.

Aria laughed once from pure disbelief and leaned against her spear. "We actually did it."

Elliot looked like his legs might give out, but he stayed standing.

Kael finally deactivated the circlet and the divine light faded. He removed it carefully and held it like something precious.

James glanced toward the forest where the statue had been destroyed. The dark aura was completely gone now and the forest looked normal again.

He opened his inventory and checked on the egg.

[INCUBATION PROGRESS: 99.9%]

The egg still hadn’t hatched, and that bothered him more than he wanted to admit, but he closed the inventory and didn’t mention it because he wouldn’t discuss it on stream or in front of Team Zero.

Whatever the egg needed to hatch, it would have to wait.

The white light of the return sequence filled the battlefield and Team Zero disappeared.

Far from the battlefield, in a place that wasn’t Earth, a woman sat in a dark chair.

The room around her was beautiful in a dangerous way, with walls that looked like they were carved from obsidian and decorated with symbols that hurt to look at for too long. Candles burned with black flames that gave no warmth.

The woman was beautiful too, but in the same dangerous way as the room. She had sharp features, dark hair that fell past her shoulders, and eyes that reflected light strangely. She wore black robes that looked expensive and impractical for combat.

She watched a floating image that showed the destroyed statue in the forest clearing. The connection was broken now and the ritual was ruined, but she didn’t look angry—she looked amused.

The image shifted to show James standing on the Floor 9 battlefield just before the return sequence activated. The woman studied him with interest for several seconds before the image faded completely.

She leaned back in her chair and smiled while speaking softly to the empty room.

"What an interesting world this is," she said softly to the empty room.

Her smile widened.

Somewhere far from the battlefield, the woman continued to watch.