The massive basalt slab completely sealed the entrance behind them.

Casanova slumped against the cold black stone. He slid down until he was sitting on the floor. He dropped his lute and buried his face in his hands.

"This is it," Casanova groaned.

"We are going to slowly suffocate in here, or the Void-Blight is going to mutate us into giant slugs. I never even got to kiss player number sixty-five."

Dante ignored him.

He walked to the center of the circular chamber. He stood over the piles of golden loot left behind by the twelve destroyed Golems.

He quickly vacuumed the coins and basic crafting materials into his infinite inventory without bothering to check the stats.

"Get up," Dante said and looked at the heavy bronze double doors at the far end of the room. "The dimensional fracture is right behind those doors."

"How do you know?" Casanova asked and did not move from the floor.

"Because my Intuition stat is telling me there is something massive on the other side," Dante replied. "And the purple mist is actively seeping under the doorframe."

Before Dante could take another step toward the bronze doors, a low and mechanical grinding noise echoed from the sealed entrance behind them.

It wasn’t the basalt slab lifting.

A small fist-sized hole opened in the center of the black stone wall.

Dante turned around and his eyes narrowed.

"Miss me?" the voice of Darius echoed through the small hole. He sounded muffled and incredibly smug.

"I thought you left," Dante said and kept his voice perfectly level.

"I lied," Darius laughed.

"So you are going to open the door and fight me?" Dante challenged.

"I am an Enforcer, Dan, not an idiot," Darius scoffed. "I saw what you did to those Golems. I am not fighting you. I am just going to cook you."

A small and glowing red object was suddenly shoved through the fist-sized hole in the stone wall. It bounced off the polished floor and rolled to a stop right in front of Casanova.

Casanova stared at it. It was a thick and highly compressed scroll wrapped in glowing iron chains.

[Item Identified: Inferno Scroll]

[Tier: Diamond]

[Type: High-Yield Environmental Hazard]

[Description: Instantly fills an enclosed space of up to 5,000 square feet with localized and absolute fire. Damage scales infinitely over duration. Illegal in designated safe zones.]

"Diamond tier?" Casanova shrieked and scrambled backward like a crab. "Where do you guys keep getting these end-game items?!"

"Silas has very deep pockets," Darius said through the hole. "Enjoy the barbecue, Dan."

The fist-sized hole in the stone slammed shut with a sharp click and completely sealed the chamber once again.

On the floor, the iron chains wrapping the Inferno Scroll snapped.

The scroll didn’t explode. It unspooled rapidly and laid flat against the basalt floor.

A blinding and white-hot light erupted from the parchment.

The temperature in the sealed room spiked instantly. The air didn’t just get hot. It ignited!

Massive and rolling waves of localized fire washed across the floor and rapidly climbed the walls.

It was a completely unavoidable and room-wide area-of-effect attack designed to turn enclosed spaces into crematoriums.

"Boss!" Casanova yelled and threw his arms up to shield his face as the flames rushed toward him.

Dante didn’t panic.

He didn’t try to use [Aegis Deflection]. You couldn’t parry an environment.

He drew the [Crimson Edge].

"I am really starting to hate Vanguard’s Legacy," Dante muttered.

He didn’t wait for the Diamond-tier flames to reach him.

He stepped directly into the expanding fire and triggered his Zenith-tier skill.

[Skill Executed: Wrath of the Firebird]

He slashed the red blade horizontally.

The massive forty-foot phoenix projection erupted from his sword.

The white-hot and shrieking bird of primordial flame didn’t just fly across the room. It aggressively expanded and filled the entire volume of the circular chamber.

The fire of Dante was Zenith-tier. It was conceptually and mathematically superior to the localized fire generated by the Diamond-tier scroll.

The two fires clashed.

It wasn’t an explosion. It was consumption.

The Wrath of the Firebird completely devoured the flames of the scroll. It overrode the environmental hazard with its own and far more destructive code.

The entire room was bathed in the blinding light of the phoenix. It completely suppressed the trap of Darius.

Dante stood in the center of his own flames. Because he was the caster, the Firebird projection dealt absolutely zero damage to him.

Casanova was hiding behind Dante and peeked out with one eye. "Did it work?"

"It worked," Dante said and watched the Firebird projection slowly fade away to leave the room completely clear of fire. "But now I am actually annoyed."

Dante didn’t turn back toward the bronze doors. He walked straight up to the sealed basalt slab at the entrance.

"Stand back," Dante told the bard.

Casanova scrambled to the far side of the room.

Dante didn’t use a skill. He just raised his right hand.

The black brand of [Voidsever] pulsed violently on his wrist.

The thick black smoke erupted and rapidly formed the massive and jagged greatsword in his grip.

[Passive Activated: Absolute Severance.]

Dante gripped the dark bone hilt with both hands, pulled the blade back, and swung it as hard as his base stats allowed directly into the center of the two-foot-thick solid basalt slab.

The black metal didn’t bounce off the stone. It didn’t shatter it.

Because Voidsever ignored 100% of physical defense, the blade simply passed straight through the solid rock like a hot knife through butter.

Dante carved a massive ten-foot-tall circle directly into the center of the containment slab. He pulled the sword back and kicked the carved circle with his iron boot.

The massive chunk of solid stone fell forward and crashed heavily into the dirt tunnel outside.

Dante stepped through the newly created hole. He stepped out of the trap and back into the tunnel.

On the other side of the stone, Darius and his twenty men were standing around and waiting for the screaming to start.

They were all completely relaxed. Their weapons were sheathed, and they chatted casually.

When the massive chunk of stone fell and Dante stepped out of the smoke, the casual chatting stopped instantly.

Darius stared at him. The Enforcer looked at the solid basalt wall, then looked at the massive hole perfectly carved through it.

"That is a hard-lock containment zone," Darius whispered, his eyes wide. "You cannot break that."

"I did not break it," Dante said and rested the massive black blade of Voidsever on his shoulder. "I ignored it."

The twenty members of Vanguard’s Legacy didn’t hesitate.

They saw the jagged and light-absorbing sword, they saw the impossible hole in the wall, and their morale completely snapped.

They broke formation and sprinted frantically down the tunnel. They abandoned their commander without a second thought.

Darius didn’t run with them.

The face of the Enforcer twisted from shock to absolute panicked determination.

"You think you are untouchable?" Darius shrieked and backed away slowly. "I have an S-Rank innate talent! I have been saving it for Silas, but you can have it!"

Darius threw his hands forward and pointed both palms directly at Dante.

[Player ’Darius’ has activated Innate Talent: Stat Siphon.]

A beam of sickly green light shot out of the hands of Darius and connected directly with the chest piece of Dante.

[Debuff Applied: Siphon.]

[Effect: Drains 50% of the total base stats of the target and temporarily transfers them to the user for 60 seconds.]

Dante felt the immediate drop.

The heavy [Sun-Forged Cuirass] suddenly felt significantly heavier.

His health pool plummeted from 9,100 down to 4,550. His attack power dropped. His movement speed felt sluggish.

On the other end of the green beam, Darius was laughing hysterically.

The Enforcer visibly bulked up.

His dark leather armor stretched tight against his suddenly expanding frame.

The sheer volume of stats flowing into him from Dante was unprecedented. He had effectively just stolen the stats of a localized raid boss.

"I feel it!" Darius roared. His voice boomed in the narrow tunnel. "I have five thousand health! My attack power is over a thousand! I am a god! I am going to rip you apart, Dan!"

Darius drew his broadsword. The blade hummed with the stolen power.

He dropped into a combat stance and fully intended to charge Dante and finish the job.

Dante didn’t look worried. He didn’t summon Aura to cleanse the debuff.

He just watched Darius.

"You stole fifty percent of my stats," Dante said calmly.

"I took everything that makes you strong!" Darius sneered and took a heavy step forward.

"You took half of my base stats," Dante corrected him. "You did not take my armor passives. You did not take my Zenith-tier skill multipliers. You just have raw numbers."

Darius froze. The manic and god-complex grin slowly slid off his face.

Dante pointed the jagged black tip of Voidsever at the Enforcer.

"My defense was halved to 1,400," Dante explained and spoke slowly. "Your stolen attack power is roughly 1,000. Do the math, Darius. You still cannot pierce my baseline mitigation. And this sword ignores one hundred percent of your stolen defense."

Darius looked at his own system interface. He looked at the math.

The realization hit him like a physical blow. He had stolen enough power to wipe out an entire guild. But against the guy he stole it from, he was still mathematically useless.

"No," Darius whispered.

"Yes," Dante said and took a step forward.

Darius didn’t charge. The Enforcer turned around and ran.

He didn’t just run. He moved with terrifying and absolute speed.

Because Darius had stolen half of the base stats of Dante, he had also stolen half of his movement speed.

But more importantly, the sudden display of speed revealed exactly how Darius had been surviving in Overture.

The Enforcer had dumped every single one of his level-up attribute points into Agility out of sheer paranoid cowardice.

Combined with the stolen stats of Dante, Darius was moving so fast he was practically a blur.

He sprinted down the twisting tunnel and kicked up a massive cloud of dust. He abandoned the fight entirely.

He was running at Mach speed and was determined to put as much distance between himself and Voidsever as possible.

Dante stood in the tunnel and watched the dust settle. He didn’t even bother trying to chase him.

"Well," Dante sighed and dismissed Voidsever back into the brand on his wrist. "That was embarrassing for both of us."