Outpost 404 was entirely consumed by panic.

The massive three-headed Cerberus Void-Dragon blotted out the violet sky above the safe zone.

The ambient lighting of the entire region shifted to a sickly and pulsating purple.

The sheer cosmic pressure radiating from the Annihilation-Tier entity forced low-level players to physically drop to their knees.

The massive wooden gates of the Outpost were shattered.

The Void-Blight had not just mutated the animals in the forest. It had mobilized them.

A horde of thousands of corrupted boars, massive blighted spiders, and toxic wolves flooded out of the tree line. They laid siege to the safe zone.

The Guild Masters were completely frantic.

"Archers, focus on the sky! Tanks, plug the gate!"

His orders were completely useless.

A coordinated volley of five hundred arrows shot upward from the Outpost. They were aimed directly at the massive dragon circling above.

The arrows didn’t even reach the target.

The sheer atmospheric pressure generated by the massive wings of the Void-Dragon created a localized gravitational field.

The arrows hit the invisible barrier and instantly disintegrated into dust. They failed to register even a single point of chip damage.

The dragon didn’t even acknowledge the players. It was completely ignoring the ants scrambling on the ground.

"It is immune to ranged attacks," Silas whispered. His face went pale. "We cannot even hit it."

Suddenly, a blinding flash of celestial white light erupted from the center of the Outpost plaza.

The Blade-Saint shot into the sky like a localized comet.

The Outpost Elder had abandoned his standard NPC scripting completely.

He didn’t use a portal. He simply ignored gravity.

He soared upward. His radiant greatsword trailed a massive arc of pure and white energy.

"Face me, abomination!" the voice of the Blade-Saint echoed across the entire region. It completely drowned out the roars of the mutated horde below.

The Cerberus Void-Dragon finally stopped circling.

All three massive and tumor-covered heads snapped toward the glowing figure rapidly approaching.

The center head opened its jaws. It unleashed a concentrated beam of absolute and light-devouring dark matter directly at the Blade-Saint.

The guardian didn’t dodge.

He swung the radiant greatsword upward and executed a perfect two-handed parry.

The celestial blade clashed with the dark matter beam.

The resulting shockwave shattered every single glass window in Outpost 404!

Players were knocked flat onto their backs by the concussive force alone.

The sky literally split. A massive shockwave ring tore away the purple blighted clouds and revealed the digital stars beyond.

The Blade-Saint held his ground in mid-air. His sword actively pushed back the dark matter beam.

"He is fighting it!" a player in the Outpost screamed and pointed up at the sky. "The NPC is fighting the boss!"

Down in the merchant district, another massive surge of energy erupted.

The roof of the apothecary violently blew off.

A massive pillar of swirling and prismatic purple fire shot into the sky.

Lady Vespera didn’t use a door. She launched herself directly out of her subterranean laboratory.

She wasn’t wearing her elegant purple dress anymore.

Her true form was terrifying.

She was clad in sleek and shifting armor that looked like it was woven from actual starlight.

A pair of massive and burning wings of phoenix-fire erupted from her back. They trailed long ribbons of superheated plasma.

Her violet eyes burned with absolute and uncontained magical authority.

The system updated her status for the entire server to see.

[Entity Identified: Lady Vespera]

[Faction: Celestial Guardian (Awakened)]

[Level: ???]

"You dare bring the Void to my sanctuary?" the voice of Vespera resonated through the sky. It carried an echo that made the air itself vibrate.

She raised both hands.

The sky above the dragon instantly ignited!

A massive and localized meteor shower of purple phoenix-fire rained down. It completely bypassed the gravitational barrier of the dragon.

The meteors slammed into the back of the massive beast and exploded with the force of tactical warheads.

The Void-Dragon shrieked.

The left head snapped violently toward Vespera and unleashed a torrent of corrosive acid.

Vespera simply vanished.

She teleported through the acid stream and reappeared above the right head. She unleashed another massive barrage of point-blank magical fire.

It was an apocalyptic aerial duel.

Two unknown and god-tier guardians were actively engaging an Annihilation-Tier calamity in the sky.

They moved so fast that normal players couldn’t even track their movements.

The sky was a chaotic blur of clashing dark matter, celestial light, and phoenix fire.

Down on the ground, the spectacle offered a brief moment of hope.

"They are winning!" an officer of Vanguard’s Legacy yelled and rallied the frontline. "The NPCs are taking the aggro! Push the horde back! Clear the gates!"

The players on the ground surged forward.

They clashed violently with the mutated horde flooding the Outpost.

The sheer volume of double EXP and the desperation to survive turned the safe zone into a brutal and grinding war of attrition.

Dante didn’t stay in the caverns.

He had used [Meteor Stride] to launch himself straight up the vertical shaft the dragon had created. He carried Casanova by the collar of his shirt.

They landed on a high and rocky ridge just outside the Outpost walls. It overlooked the entire battlefield.

Casanova immediately dropped to his knees and gasped for air. He stared up at the apocalyptic battle in the sky.

"I thought NPCs just sold potions and gave out fetch quests," Casanova wheezed. His eyes were wide.

"They are not NPCs," Dante said. He watched the Blade-Saint trade massive and shattering blows with the center head of the dragon. "They are guardians. The system planted them here to protect the recruitment node."

Dante didn’t look relieved. His Intuition stat was practically screaming at him.

The fight in the sky looked even, but Dante understood combat math better than anyone on the server.

The Blade-Saint and Vespera were dealing massive structural damage to the dragon.

But the beast wasn’t an aggressive monster. It was a Calamity.

It was an executioner.

The Cerberus Void-Dragon wasn’t trying to win a duel. It was trying to survive long enough to trigger its wipe mechanic.

"It is charging," Dante stated. His voice was completely flat.

"Charging what?" Casanova asked and looked frantically back up at the sky.

The dragon suddenly stopped fighting back.

It tucked its massive and tattered wings tightly against its body.

All three heads threw themselves backward and exposed its glowing tumor-covered chest.

The dark matter within the core of the dragon didn’t glow.

It actively devoured all the ambient light in the sky and created a massive and terrifying sphere of absolute nothingness.

"Get down," Dante ordered. He grabbed Casanova and threw him behind a large boulder.

Dante didn’t hide.

He drew the [Crimson Edge] and braced his boots against the rocky ridge. He waited for the shockwave.

He didn’t have to wait long.