Chapter 188
The chamber had become a furnace of ruin. Steam hissed from shattered pipes, molten slag poured from the walls like rivers of blood, and the Defiler Warden, towering, hideous, half-spider, half-human, bellowed in agony as Daniel and Melgil pressed their attack. Its central head, stitched together from countless female visages twisted toward Melgil, every mouth moving at once.
"Mo—therr… why… reject… me?"
The sound wasn't just a voice. It crawled inside the mind, scraping through thought like claws through wet stone. Daniel bit down hard, blood running from his nose as his mental wards strained. Melgil faltered for an instant, her knees trembling, eyes flashing with a thousand reflected faces.
Daniel didn't hesitate. He slammed the point of his gun blade into the floor, channeling his mana until blue arcs burst across the chamber like cracks in reality itself.
"Melgil—NOW!"
She understood instantly. Her glaive flared bright, brighter than lightning, brighter than flame. She leapt, spinning through the air, and drove the blade deep into the creature's chest. Daniel surged forward at the same moment, thrusting his electrified blade straight into its abdomen.
Two strikes one born of storm, one born of fire met in the monster's core.
The explosion was cataclysmic.
The Warden screamed, a sound of metal tearing, of souls splitting. Its body convulsed, tearing free from the chains that bound it. Black ichor sprayed across the walls, hissing wherever it touched, burning through steel and stone alike.
And then...The world broke.
A wave of psychic corruption burst outward. Every lamp shattered. Every chain snapped. The entire factory quaked as though the earth itself were choking.
On the Surface... The street ruptured.
A single shockwave ripped through the ground, tossing players off their feet. Barricades shattered, undead and human alike flung through the air. The sky itself seemed to flicker light artifacts bursting one after another, plunging the battlefield into pulsing shadow and flame.
Charlotte hit the ground hard, her weapon flying from her grasp. "What the hell was that!?"
Natasha staggered, bracing herself against a golem as cracks webbed across the pavement beneath them.
But triumph turned instantly to terror. From the ruptured cracks, black mist began to pour upward cold, writhing, alive. Screams echoed as the undead inhaled it and changed. Their bodies twisted, veins glowing with the same sickly violet light that pulsed from beneath the earth.
"Corruption surge!" shouted Addison Lazarus. "Everyone, back, back, now!"
Alexsei's golems moved to cover the retreat, smashing corrupted undead with brutal precision, but even stone began to crumble under the sheer psychic force leaking through the fissures.
Above the chaos, Natasha's voice cut sharp:"Daniel,whatever you did, finish it! Before it finishes us!"
Beneath the Factory
Daniel's armor was cracked, his hand trembling around his weapon. Melgil stood beside him, one wing burned, her demonic energy flickering unstable. The Defiler Warden still lived—half its body torn apart, yet regenerating, wires knitting through flesh like veins of light.
Its eyes, hundreds of them snapped open in unison.
"Now… we… are… awake."
Daniel's gut turned to ice. That wasn't a cry of pain anymore. It was clarity.
Melgil spat blood, her voice hoarse but defiant. "You didn't kill it," she hissed. "You woke it."
Daniel clenched his weapon tighter, lightning crawling up his arm. "Then we end it before it remembers what it is."
He lifted his hand toward the ceiling, feeling the tremor above, feeling the chaos on the surface through his Resonant Perception.
Two fronts.Two battles.One heartbeat away from collapse.
He grinned through the blood, eyes glowing with cold resolve.
"Melgil," he said, voice steady despite the shaking world, "let's remind this thing who we are."
And together, they lunged, storm and flame diving headlong into the mouth of the abyss.
The chamber was collapsing. Flames licked across the rafters, molten metal dripped like rain, and the very air rippled with corruption. The Warden loomed amidst the inferno, its spider limbs fused with scaffolding, its monstrous face reknitting itself from molten flesh. Each breath it drew was a storm of whispers: countless voices clawing to be heard.
Daniel and Melgil stood amid the ruin, two figures against a god of decay.
"Time's over," Daniel muttered, blood trickling from his nose and the corner of his mouth. His aura flared, lightning crackling along the floor, splitting the concrete beneath his boots. "If we don't end it now, the surface burns."
Melgil's glaive pulsed with the blue light of her infernal bloodline. Her wings, torn and bloodstained, unfurled once more, smoke curling off their edges like fading starlight. "Then we finish it as one."
The Warden shrieked and lunged, its limbs tearing through pillars and catwalks, raining debris like meteors. Daniel dashed forward, his motion a blur—each step exploding with electricity. He leapt, spinning midair, and unleashed a barrage of plasma shots that carved glowing trails through the darkness. The bullets hit like meteors, blowing through the Warden's spider legs one after another.
Melgil moved opposite him, a streak of sapphire flame. She drove her glaive into the creature's side and screamed an incantation older than the empire itself. Blue fire erupted upward, burning flesh and metal alike, wrapping the Warden in a cage of demon flame.
But it didn't die.It laughed, a sound like metal scraping bone.
The Warden slammed its body down, crushing the ground, sending Melgil skidding back. Its many heads screamed in unison, and a wave of psychic shock tore through the room, shattering Daniel's barrier sigils and dimming his lightning for a moment.
"Enough!" Daniel roared, planting his gunblade into the floor. The impact cracked the world. He poured every ounce of mana, every spark of his soul into the weapon, its core glowing white-hot. "Melgil! Follow my lead!"
She saw the fire in his eyes the reckless certainty and smiled faintly. "Don't die on me, thunder boy."
Daniel lifted his weapon.
"Plasma Genesis Burst."
The ground sang. Arcs of energy spiraled outward, connecting every shattered piece of steel, every flickering flame, every shard of mana still lingering in the air. The entire factory became a storm cage electric, divine, alive.
Melgil answered with her own fury. She pressed both palms together, whispering a ancient verse that split the veil between mortal and infernal realms.
"Domain Invocation: Infernal white flame."
Her attack exploded into white fire. The floor cracked, revealing glowing runes that spread in a circle beneath them. The air turned molten, the walls liquefied, and both their auras collided at the center, storm meeting flame, lightning feeding fire, fire devouring storm.
At the heart of it stood the Warden, screaming as the fusion of their powers tore its body apart layer by layer.
Its limbs writhed, stabbing through melting steel and shattered concrete, trying to anchor itself to existence. Every movement birthed waves of corruption, black smoke twisting into clawed silhouettes that were instantly burned away by the stormfire.
"KEEP PUSHING!" Daniel roared, his body trembling under the strain. Lightning danced across his arms, splitting his skin open with white fissures of raw energy. His weapon glowed white-blue, shaking violently, almost alive.
Melgil's wings blazed brighter, feathers turning into streams of light that disintegrated as they fell. "I AM!" she screamed back, her voice almost lost beneath the roaring chaos. Her infernal blood ignited, glowing veins spreading across her skin like burning veins of glass.
The Warden lunged, a final, desperate strike. Its head split open into a mass of shrieking faces, each mouth chanting a curse older than language. The air shattered around it.
Daniel and Melgil moved together.Their eyes met for half a heartbeat, enough to synchronize.
"NOW!"
Daniel slammed his gunblade down. Melgil thrust her glaive forward.
The circle of runes beneath them detonated.
A column of radiant white and infernal blue erupted upward, swallowing everything. The Warden's scream turned from rage to terror as its body disintegrated, first its limbs, then its torso, and finally its core, ripped apart by a fusion that neither holy nor demonic could name.
The guilds barely had time to react. The ground convulsed beneath them, sending shockwaves through the burning ruins.
"WHAT THE HELL " Natasha shouted as the air grew white-hot.
A flash, pure and blinding erupted from the central pit, turning night into a second sun. Every undead creature froze mid-motion, their eyes glowing once before turning to ash.
The remaining players were thrown off their feet as a massive wave of mana tore through the battlefield. The corrupted sky split open, and for the first time in hours—real light broke through the clouds.
Addison shielded his face, staring in disbelief. "That's… Daniel."
Alexsei's jaw clenched, his armor cracking from the pressure. "No—that's not just him. That's Melgil too. They're merging power signatures."
Above the battlefield, two colors blazed—lightning white and infernal blue—spiraling together like twin dragons piercing the heavens. The sight silenced even the dying.
Then came the impact.
A shockwave ripped outward in all directions, flattening undead ranks, scattering the remaining horde into dust. The city trembled, and every magic barrier flickered violently before stabilizing in a new, purer hue.
The world itself seemed to breathe.
A column of light and flame erupted from the center of the factory, slicing through the night sky like a divine lance. The shockwave swept outward—undead vaporized where they stood, corruption burned away in pure energy. Every surviving player was thrown back, shields shattering, armor cracking, but when the light faded, the battlefield was still. Silent. Clean.
The clouds themselves parted, revealing the stars.
Natasha lowered her weapon slowly, eyes wide. "holy cow! "
Addison exhaled shakily, watching the pillar of smoke and light rising miles high. "That… wasn't a spell," he murmured. "That was two forces colliding at the edge of godhood."
When the blinding light faded, the entire chamber was gone. The walls were melted glass, the floor a crater of molten steel. At its center, Daniel knelt with his gunblade buried deep into the ground, smoke rising from his armor. Beside him, Melgil stood breathing hard, her glaive melted halfway down its shaft, her eyes dim but burning with life.
Between them, the Defiler Warden twitched once, then fell silent. Its body, now half vaporized, crumbled into ash that scattered upward, like dust returning to the stars.
For a moment, only the sound of cooling metal filled the void.
Daniel let out a ragged breath and looked at Melgil. "Told you," he rasped, a faint grin cutting through his blood-streaked face. "We'd remind it who we are."
Melgil chuckled softly, leaning on her broken glaive. "You're insane."
"Yeah," he said, eyes flicking upward where light from the surface seeped through the cracks. "But it worked."
Above them, the dawn was breaking.
The light finally faded. What remained was silence — a heavy, ringing quiet that blanketed the entire second gate. Smoke rose in lazy pillars from the broken factories, their metallic skeletons still glowing faintly from the heat. The air was thick with the scent of burned mana and iron.
Slowly, the surviving guilds began to stir.Weapons clattered against the fractured ground, boots scraped over ash and rubble.
Alexsei's golems still stood, their molten armor cooling in the mist, silent guardians among the wreckage. Natasha Sokolov's bow was cracked, frost still steaming off the string. Around her, mages of the White Devil guild tended to the wounded and revived the fallen, their faces pale but alive.
Addison looked around, breath heavy. "Where's Daniel?"
No one answered , not at first. Then a faint tremor rolled beneath their feet, followed by the dull sound of collapsing steel. Every head turned toward the towering central factory, now split open like a cracked shell.
From within, two figures emerged.
Daniel walked first , or more accurately, staggered. His coat was half-burned away, armor dented and scarred. Lightning still flickered faintly around his shoulders like dying embers. Behind him walked Melgil Veara Gehinnom, her presence instantly bending the atmosphere.
The ground itself seemed to hum under her steps. Her silver-white hair flowed behind her, streaked faintly with molten blue, her eyes burning with an ancient, predatory gleam that no human could mimic. Even weakened, she carried the unmistakable aura of something that did not belong in this world.
Gasps rippled through the guild lines.Someone whispered, "Is that… the Veara Gehinnom?"
Addison stepped forward, jaw tight. "You...so you were here all along? You just appeared out of nowhere, no orders, no signal, and then this?" She gestured toward the scorched horizon. "Who even gave you the right to"
"Addison," Alexsei's voice cut through the air, sharp and firm.
She turned, startled. "Teacher—"
He didn't raise his voice, but the weight behind it froze her mid-step. "Enough. Let her be."
Addison blinked. "But she..."
Alexsei turned his gaze toward Melgil, expression grim. "That's not someone you can deal with. Unlike the Noble Lord, that woman won't even see you as a warrior…" He paused, his hand tightening hold on his wheelchair. "…She'll see you as prey."
A chill rippled through the survivors. Melgil tilted her head slightly, a faint smirk curving her lips not out of cruelty, but as if the truth amused her.
Daniel sighed beside her, glancing at Alexsei with a weary half-smile."Sharp as ever, Guild Leader. Rumors really do travel fast."
A faint crackle of static followed his words , the remnants of his overcharged aura flickering like dying embers. His voice carried both exhaustion and dry amusement, but beneath it was respect; Alexsei had read the situation perfectly without needing a single explanation.
Alexsei's eyes flicked toward him. "Rumors are one thing. Watching you both tear the world in half down there is another."
Daniel managed a tired grin. "You're welcome."
Natasha stepped forward, her tone cautious. "The corruption's gone. The Warden's gone too, isn't it?"
Melgil's glow dimmed, her voice low but resonant. "Gone, yes. But what it fed on… the roots of this city's sin… they're still here. Buried. Waiting."
A heavy silence followed. The guilds looked around at the destroyed district — the craters, the ash, the melted sigils on the ground that still pulsed faintly beneath the rubble.
Daniel sheathed his weapon with a metallic click. "Then we keep moving. This place isn't cleansed yet."
Melgil turned to him, her expression unreadable. "You speak like a human… yet your eyes don't lie. You saw what I saw down there."
Daniel didn't respond. But in his silence, every survivor could feel it a shared unease. Whatever the Warden truly was, its death had not been the end… but a door.
The wind howled through the ruins of the Second Gate, scattering dust and ash over the bloodstained ground. The surviving guilds—battered, burned, but alive, stood in silence as the heavy hum of mana resonated across the district. Then, above the shattered skyline,
the system's voice echoed.
[Tower Announcement: The Second Gate has been cleared.][Participants have met the victory condition: Termination of the Defiler Warden.][Calculating Contribution… Assessment Complete.][Primary Authority: Daniel Laeanna Rothchester — Holder of the Netherborn Flag.]
The last line struck like thunder. A ripple of murmurs swept through the crowd. Every player turned to look at Daniel—dust still clinging to his coat, lightning scars fading from his skin—then at the pale woman standing beside him.
[Assessment Result: Secondary Contributors under the Netherborn Flag—recognized and rewarded accordingly.][Team Members: Melgil Veara Gehinnom, Alexsei Sokolov, Natasha Sokolov, Addison Lazarus, Charllote Lazarus, Mary Kaye Lazarus and all subordinate united guild units.]
The light from the hovering system sigil descended, weaving threads of blue-gold radiance through the air. Each survivor was wrapped momentarily in shimmering glyphs, their wounds sealing, fatigue lifting from their limbs. But the whispers didn't stop.
"The Netherborn Flag?" someone muttered. "That's… impossible.""I thought the Netherborn were un seen force that work alone.""They're not even listed in the Tower's records as a guild or faction…""They were said to be one individual , not a group."
Confusion spread like wildfire. In the history of the Tower, the Netherborn were legend, an ancient designation tied to a single anomaly: a being who transcended both human and monster classifications. Every record mentioned only one at a time, always a solitary wanderer who defied the system's definitions. Yet now, the Tower itself had declared the Netherborn Flag as an active faction… and placed every fighter under Daniel's command within its dominion.
Melgil tilted her head slightly, faintly amused by the Tower's decree. The blue sigil light reflected off her white hair, giving her an almost ethereal presence. "So," she murmured, her voice carrying in the wind, "the Tower recognizes me as one of yours. How curious."
Daniel's expression didn't shift much. "It's not the first time it's happened," he said quietly. "The system's adapting… rewriting its own hierarchy."
Addison frowned. "You mean it's rewriting us."
The Tower's voice rang again, final and absolute:
[Additional Reward: Access granted to the Third Ascent Route.][Special Condition Met: Netherborn Authority acknowledged. Future events may adapt accordingly.][Warning: Anomaly Detected. Lower District instability increasing by 37%.]
As the voice faded, the sky above the industrial zone shimmered, faint fractal cracks spreading through the clouds like veins of light. For a brief moment, the air itself trembled—as if reality was adjusting to a decision it hadn't expected to make.
The guilds stood in stunned silence, their faces lit by the fading glow of the Tower's symbols. They had won, yes, but victory had come with something stranger, deeper, and far less certain.
The Netherborn Flag had returned to the Tower's ledger, and every survivor now carried its mark. Whether blessing or curse, none could yet tell.
And as Daniel looked at his palm, where a faint sigil of black and blue shimmered beneath the skin, even he wasn't sure what it truly meant.
Night fell over the Second Gate like a soft shroud, the once-burning industrial district now dimly illuminated by the hovering light artifacts still flickering from the battle. The air smelled of scorched metal and healing incense, a strange blend of war and peace. The guilds had made camp among the ruins, armor discarded, weapons stacked neatly by the fires, laughter rising now and then from small circles of survivors. After the chaos and blood, even exhaustion felt like luxury. Yet despite the faint traces of festivity, an undercurrent of unease lingered, circling around one quiet figure seated at the edge of the camp.
Melgil Veara Gehinnom sat beside Daniel's resting spot, a faint glow tracing the runes embroidered into her cloak. Her white hair shimmered like moonlight against the dark, her gaze unfocused yet sharp, as if she were half here and half elsewhere. She hadn't joined the laughter, hadn't eaten, hadn't even tended to her wounds. She simply sat, poised, unmoving, watching the flames with that unreadable calm that made the others whisper.
"Who is she really?" someone muttered near one of the campfires, the voice half-curious, half-nervous. "She came out of nowhere and fought that monster like it was nothing."
Addison Lazarus glanced toward Daniel's camp, her brow furrowed. "She wasn't listed among any guild registries. The Tower doesn't even recognize her as a registered climber."
Alexsei Sokolov, leaning against his golem's leg, gave a low chuckle. "That's because she doesn't need to be recognized," he said softly. "To the Tower, power like hers is its own introduction."
Charlotte crossed her arms, frowning as the firelight reflected off her armor. "Still, no one that strong just appears without reason. The Tower doesn't make mistakes—if it named her under Daniel's flag, that means she's bound to him somehow. I just want to know how."
Natasha, sitting nearby with her crossbow across her lap, added quietly, "She's not like us. Her presence feels… old. Heavy. Like something that's seen centuries pass." She glanced at Melgil's still figure, eyes narrowing slightly. "Even her aura doesn't fluctuate. It's like standing next to a still ocean, you can feel the depth, but you'll drown if you stare too long."
A few others nodded, whispering amongst themselves. Words like demon, ancient, and Netherborn passed between lips, hushed but trembling with speculation.
Daniel, who had been quietly repairing the damaged plates of his gauntlet, finally lifted his gaze toward them. "If you have questions," he said, his tone calm but edged with warning, "ask her. Don't assume."
The murmurs died quickly. The fire cracked once, then fell silent.
After a moment of stillness, Addison stood and approached Melgil with careful steps, her tone respectful but direct. "Miss Gehinnom," she began, "we owe you for what you did back there. But forgive my bluntness, we've all been fighting for months, and no one's ever heard of you. Who are you, really?"
Melgil turned her head slightly, the motion fluid and deliberate. The flickering light reflected in her eyes, blue like polished crystal, and when she spoke, her voice carried the kind of grace that silenced the night.
"I am," she said softly, "a shadow of an older world, one the Tower no longer remembers." Her words came measured, each syllable deliberate.
"Names are a fragile thing in places like this. But if you must call me something beyond what you already know… then call me what I am a remnant."
Addison blinked, unsure how to respond. "A remnant… of what?"
Melgil's gaze drifted toward the horizon, where the twin peaks of Karion faintly glimmered under the starlight. "Of the first ascent. Of those who built the path you now walk."
The camp fell silent again. Even the wind seemed to hesitate. Daniel didn't look surprised—if anything, he seemed to expect it.
Alexsei exhaled deeply, lowering his eyes. "Teacher," he murmured to Addison, "I told you. That woman doesn't see the Tower the way we do. To her, this place is a graveyard, not a challenge."
Melgil smiled faintly not mockingly, but with a melancholy that made her beauty almost tragic. "Your young eyes see this climb as a journey to reach the top," she said. "But for those who came before… it was a way to escape what waited beneath."
Her words hung heavy in the air, the weight of revelation pressing down like invisible stone.
For a long while, no one spoke. The fires flickered, throwing shadows across the broken walls, and the Tower's distant hum seemed to echo faintly above them all. In that silence, every survivor understood one thing clearly: the world they thought they knew, the Tower, the Gates, even their purpose here, had just grown far larger and far darker than they had ever imagined.
And as Daniel sat beside Melgil, silent but resolute, it became clear that whatever bond the Tower had forged between them was no accident. She wasn't just a guest in their ranks. She was a piece of something ancient that had chosen to return.
The night deepened, stars dimmed behind drifting ash clouds, and the hum of the Tower above grew faint, distant, like the slow heartbeat of a sleeping god. The fires across the camp had burned low, casting long, wavering shadows over the stone street. One by one, players surrendered to exhaustion, their murmurs fading until only the crackle of embers and the faint metallic creak of armor filled the silence.
Daniel remained awake. He sat apart from the others, hands resting loosely on his knees, his mind adrift in the lingering echoes of the battle. The Defiler Warden's death had not ended his unease; if anything, it deepened it. Something about the way the Tower had recognized Melgil under his flagthe way her power had resonated with the system itself, felt wrongly familiar, as though a hidden part of him already knew why.
From behind him came a whisper soft as falling snow."You're still awake."
He didn't turn immediately. He knew that voice, measured, cold, but laced with the faintest warmth, like fire buried beneath frost. Melgil stood there, the dying flames catching faint glimmers in her silver hair.
"I don't sleep easily," Daniel said quietly. "Not after something like that."
Melgil walked closer, her steps soundless on the broken ground. She stopped a few paces away, her eyes reflecting the campfire's last glow. "Nor do I," she replied. Then, after a brief silence, "You wonder what I meant earlier. About the first ascent."
Daniel's gaze lifted. "It sounded like you'd been here before."
"I was," she said simply. "Long before the Tower learned to call itself what it is."
He frowned, studying her expression. "You're saying this place existed before the Tower's creation?"
"Not before," Melgil corrected softly. "During its awakening. When it was still raw, unfinished a wound in the fabric of the world. Those who climbed then weren't challengers like you. They were… builders, sacrifices, explorers of a path not meant for mortals."
She paused, her gaze distant. "We called it the First Ascent. Few of us survived. Even fewer returned whole. The rest became echoes—guardians, phantoms, or worse, like the Warden below."
Daniel's jaw tightened. "So that thing"
"was one of us once," Melgil finished. Her tone was soft, but the sorrow in it was ancient. "It mimicked me because once, long ago, we shared the same origin. The same corruption. The Tower doesn't forget its children it repurposes them."
The fire popped, scattering sparks into the dark. Neither spoke for a moment.
Finally, Melgil looked toward the horizon, where the faint outline of the Third Gate shimmered far beyond the ruins, its dormant barrier pulsing faintly like a sleeping heart. "When the sun rises again," she said, "the Third Gate will awaken. Its system has already begun to stir. You'll have ten hours before it activates."
Daniel nodded, already calculating the time in his mind. "Ten hours…"
"Enough," Melgil said. "But only if we use it wisely." She took a small step closer, her expression unreadable. "I need to rest, and to recover my strength fully. My body hasn't walked this realm in centuries. I can heal faster if both return to your Void Space."
Daniel hesitated. The Void Space, his personal dimensional pocket wasn't something he opened lightly. It was a construct bound to his soul, where time flowed differently, reality bending around his will. Few even knew it existed.
"You're sure?" A faint smile curved her lips, elegant and knowing. "I feel more at home these actually, the cozy cabin you crated , feels more warm, unlike the previous castle like library you manifested, that space is our sanctuary our home ." She tilted her head slightly, her eyes gleaming like frost under moonlight.
" remember when you left a few days ago."
" i remain at the that cabin, and I felt its warmth fade," she continued softly, her tone barely above a whisper. "When you left the void, it was as if the whole place fell asleep with you. The air grew still, the fire dimmed, even the echoes of my own thoughts quieted. It's strange… I never thought a place shaped by your will could miss its creator."
" and i miss your hug, and your passionate kiss , as we sleep together, its different when we were at the mansion, "
Her words sent a shiver through him, something deeper, like she longed to have him alone.
He exhaled slowly and opened his palm. A sphere of dark blue light expanded between his fingers, rippling with streaks of lightning a doorway of nothingness yawning open beside them.
"Ten hours," he said, his tone steady but his heart uneasy. "Then the world wakes again."
Melgil nodded once, stepping closer. For a moment, the campfire's reflection danced across her pale face, and something tender and human passed through her gaze.
"Rest as well, Netherborn," she murmured. "We'll need our strength. The Tower isn't done with us yet."
With that, she stepped into the void, her form dissolving into shadow and light until only the faint echo of her presence remained.
Daniel closed his hand, sealing the rift. Around him, the camp remained silent, unaware that their world was already shifting again, that far above them, the Tower's runes had begun to glow, marking the dawn of the Third Gate.