The ledger wasn't messing around. That glowing new trade, the Chain-Reaction Doom, felt like holding a bomb with a burning fuse.
**Unleashing the Chain-Reaction Doom
I thought about backing down. But there's no quitting when you're already neck-deep in dooms.
So, I triggered the trade. The Chain-Reaction Doom spread like wildfire, disasters setting off disasters. Earthquakes toppled cities, then triggered floods, then wildfires, then famines, a spiraling nightmare with no end.
**The Wasteland Burns
The wasteland around me turned into hellscape territory. I felt the ledger's power buzzing in my veins, but every second using it shredded a little piece of my soul.
Even the Calamity Vanguard struggled to keep up. We fought waves of twisted creatures born from the chaos, explosions echoing like thunder, skies dark with smoke and ash.
**Syphine's Dark Revelation
In the chaos, Syphine pulled me aside. Her eyes, usually cold, looked almost desperate.
"There's more," she said. "The ledger's true purpose isn't to trade disasters. It's to feed the God of Calamity, to bring him back."
I wanted to scream. "Why didn't you say anything sooner?"
"Because I didn't know if you'd survive long enough to understand."
**Karys Returns
Just when I thought I might have a chance, the air ripped open again, Karys was back.
But he wasn't alone. Behind him, shadows twisted into monstrous forms: Hollow Auctioneers ready to claim every last doom I'd traded.
His voice cut through the chaos: "You cannot cheat the ledger forever, Dren. The final auction awaits."
**A Fight for More Than Power
The battle exploded around us, fire, dust, and blood mixing in a storm of chaos.
But this wasn't just about power anymore. It was survival, truth, and the fate of everything I'd ever known.
As the dust settled, I realized the ledger had one more secret for me: a hidden page, glowing with a doom no one had ever dared to trade, the Doom of Gods.
Next: The true scale of the apocalypse reveals itself. And the price for power? Your soul.
The ledger pulsed in my hands like a heartbeat gone mad. That glowing hidden page? The Doom of Gods.
**What the Doom of Gods Means
The ledger whispered terrible things: this doom could erase entire gods, even the God of Calamity himself.
But the price was clear. Trading it meant risking everything. My soul, my body, my very existence.
**Karys's True Offer
Karys stepped forward, calm and cold. "Trade this doom with me, and the ledger closes. You end the apocalypse's cycle."
Or, so he said.
**Dren's Choice
I stared at the ledger, the weight of the world crushing me. Close the ledger and end the nightmare? Or keep trading, keep growing, keep surviving?
Then the ledger burned hotter, like it wanted me to decide fast.
**Syphine's Sacrifice
Syphine appeared, her voice shaking for the first time.
"If you don't trade it, the ledger will consume us all."
She reached out, touching the ledger. Her form flickered, half human, half shadow.
"I'll help you delete the core, but it'll cost me everything."
**The Final Trade Begins
We made the trade. The ledger screamed, pages burning away.
The world shook. Gods wept.
And I felt something leave me, a piece of my soul, maybe the last shred of innocence I had.
As the ledger closed, a quiet voice whispered from the ashes:
"This is not the end. The merchant's journey has only begun."
Up next: The apocalypse resets. Dren opens a new kind of shop, but peace won't last long.
The ledger was closed. The apocalypse was paused, but only for a moment.
Because the ledger opened a door, a door to the Grand Market.
**What's the Grand Market?
Imagine a bazaar bigger than any city, floating between dimensions, where time loops on itself and emperors from different worlds bargain for dooms to change their fates.
I stepped through and felt like I was swallowed by a storm of voices, colors, and impossible things.
**Time-Looped Emperors and Discounted Dooms
The weirdest part? Some buyers were stuck in endless time loops, bidding over and over to escape their doomed ends.
Others sold "bankrupt" dooms, weird disasters that failed and were worthless, like the Doom of Excessive Butterflies (yes, it's as annoying as it sounds).
**Syphine's Betrayal
But nothing prepared me for the betrayal.
Syphine, who I thought was my only ally, leaked the ledger to a shadowy group called the Revenant Brokers.
Why? I don't know yet. But it hit me like a gut punch.
**New Players, New Rules
The market wasn't just about disasters anymore. It was politics, war, and power on a scale I couldn't even imagine.
I had to learn fast, trade smarter, and survive longer.
As I watched the auctioneer's gavel slam down on a Time-Collapse Doom, I knew one thing: the Grand Market was the real game.
I was just a beginner playing with fire.
Next: Doom War Arc begins, alliances shatter, wars ignite, and Dren crafts disasters unlike any before.
The Grand Market was madness in motion. Every corner buzzed with power plays and whispered betrayals.
**The Two Factions
Two massive forces stood out.
First, The Chronophage Dynasty, emperors obsessed with eating time itself, desperate for a "Time-Collapse Doom" to break their endless loops. They'd pay any price, use any weapon.
Second, The Last Garden, a group trying to buy all the dooms, desperate to stop the apocalypse before it spiraled completely out of control.
**The Auction Explodes
When the Time-Collapse Doom came up for bid, the market erupted. Emperors shouting, dooms traded like bullets, and tension snapping like a wire.
I jumped in, trading one of my crafted dooms for something I'd never seen before, a cosmic key said to unlock new realms.
**Betrayal Cuts Deep
Syphine was silent, watching. Then she vanished.
Later, I found out she'd tipped off the Revenant Brokers, and they were already moving to seize my ledger.
**Power Shift: Doom Crafting Unlocked
Amid the chaos, I unlocked a new power: Doom Crafting.
No longer just selling disasters from the ledger, I could now create custom apocalypses, designed to hit exactly where I wanted.
The Revenant Brokers were closing in. Somewhere in the shadows, Karys was waiting, his final auction still on the horizon.
The Grand Market was no longer just a place to trade disasters. It was a battlefield soaked in blood, lies, and desperation.
**Dren's Deadly Crafting
With Doom Crafting unlocked, I started creating twisted disasters designed to cripple armies, topple empires, and reshape worlds.
One was the "Glass Famine," crops that turned to crystal, useless and sharp, stabbing the earth itself. Another was "Shadow Fire," flames that burned cold, freezing everything they touched.
**Shattered Alliances
The Chronophage Dynasty's grip was tightening, but The Last Garden fought back with brutal force.
In the middle, I had to pick sides, or play them both to survive.
**Syphine's Return - But Changed
Syphine came back, but something was off. She was colder, sharper, like a blade ready to cut deep.
She warned me: "The Revenant Brokers have more than just armies. They have ghosts of every disaster ever traded, and they're coming for you."
**The Revenant Brokers' Strike
They hit the market's heart, a realm where no doom was supposed to reach.
Chaos exploded. Shops burned, bidders fled, and dooms went wild.
In the middle of the chaos, the ledger flashed a new, terrifying trade, "Parasite Doom."
The ledger's voice whispered, "This is your next step, merchant. But be warned, some trades never leave the soul."
The ledger's warning wasn't kidding. The Parasite Doom was like nothing I'd ever seen — a disaster that didn't just destroy, it consumed from the inside out.
**Unleashing the Parasite Doom
I crafted the Parasite Doom to target the Revenant Brokers' stronghold, their power base in the Market's shadowy underworld.
The parasites spread fast, worm-like horrors that burrowed through magic, minds, even souls.
Chaos exploded. Bidders screamed as their bodies twisted and warped. Shops burned, and the Market's shimmering walls cracked under the pressure.
**Betrayal and Blood
Amid the carnage, Syphine's face haunted me.
She'd warned me, but then vanished again.
Later, I discovered she'd brokered a secret deal with the Revenant Brokers, selling out part of my own ledger to save something... or someone.
**The Market Burns
With the Market's power fracturing, factions scrambled for control.
Emperors vanished in time loops, bids crashed, and the once-mighty bazaar became a warzone.
**Karys's Shadow Looms
Through it all, Karys watched. His voice echoed in the ledger: "The final auction draws near, merchant. Prepare to pay your debt."
As the Market's flames rose higher, the ledger offered a grim choice: trade your memories or lose everything you've gained.