Adrian Vale exhaled slowly, listening to the [System Prompt] echo in his mind, and waited in silence for the sublimation to finish.
Sure enough—
the moment the prompt ended…
a warm current surged up from deep inside his body.
It flowed through his limbs and bones like molten gold, quietly reinforcing every part of him.
This sublimation didn't change his face.
But to everyone watching—
Adrian's presence rose by an entire level.
He stood there with his eyes closed, unmoving…
and yet a pressure rolled off him so heavily that even through a screen, people felt their scalps tighten.
The livestream exploded instantly.
"Bro… am I tripping? Why do I feel like Adrian just got even stronger?!"
"EVEN stronger?! He already stomped an S-rank—what's next, full godhood?!"
"This is absurd. Nothing in the Divine Domain can stop him anymore!"
"Isn't that a good thing?! Dragonia is one step away from rising to the top!!"
If the viewers could feel it—
Raven Shaw felt it even more clearly.
She stared at Adrian's back, her gaze tilting slightly, disbelief slipping into her voice.
"…Like this, and he can still get stronger?"
She couldn't help it.
Every time Adrian finished devouring…
his strength jumped again.
What kind of principle was that?
Eat → get stronger.
It was straight-up cheating.
Adrian, of course, didn't hear any of it.
His focus was entirely on the final seconds of the sublimation.
And when the warmth finally faded—
the new power left behind didn't feel "gentle."
It felt explosive.
Bigger than any previous jump.
Even Adrian's eyes flickered with a rare trace of surprise.
Then the voice returned.
[Congratulations! New Form Unlocked — Fifth Form: Holy Sword Form!!!]
Adrian froze for a beat.
Holy Sword Form?
…He unlocked Holy Sword Form?
Most people wouldn't understand what that meant.
But Adrian did.
Among Kaneki's strongest evolutions—
this was one of the peak forms.
A form that didn't just "increase stats"…
it changed the entire quality of his combat.
If Adrian had been terrifying before—
then after Holy Sword Form…
he had stepped into something that couldn't be measured the same way anymore.
He clenched his fingers slightly, feeling the surge of new authority in his body.
And for the first time in a while—
he genuinely looked forward to what was coming next.
The world outside: silence, collapse, and desperate hope
Back in the real world—
the moment Adrian finished killing the Destruction Tyrant…
the Divine Nation Alliance executives watching Dragonia's stream fell into total silence.
Every face in the room looked grim.
It wasn't even their own countries burning that made them look like this—
it was Adrian's strength.
Finally, one trembling voice broke the dead air.
"…What… what kind of existence are we fighting?"
No one answered.
Because everyone was thinking the same thing.
Yeah. What the hell are we fighting?
That had been an S-rank.
S-rank meant "end of the world."
And Adrian had erased it like it was a warm-up.
Was this reasonable?
Was this fair?
Was this even real?
No one came to save them from that realization.
Not the executives.
Not the viewers.
Not even the hidden powerhouses across the world—
because they were shaken too.
They knew how hard an S-rank should be.
They knew what "heaven and earth" looked like in a real fight.
And yet Adrian had crushed it so cleanly that even they couldn't explain it away.
If anything—
it made the Divine Domain feel even more terrifying.
Because now everyone understood a brutal truth:
If a monster like Adrian existed…
then the Divine Domain could absolutely contain things even worse.
Some people even said it out loud.
"If we ever get another chance to enter the Divine Domain… I want in."
"Even if it's dangerous—I want to see it with my own eyes."
The true apocalypse continues… everywhere except Dragonia
Across the globe, the disaster still raged.
Other nations were being torn apart in different ways:
Some had their contestants wiped out, their gates breached.
Some couldn't handle endless waves and let creatures slip through.
Some contestants simply ran—abandoning their countries to chaos.
In comparison…
Dragonia, the nation that prepared the most, was somehow the least affected.
People even joked bitterly:
"We did the most preparation… and ended up needing it the least."
But it wasn't luck.
It was the same reason every time.
Dragonia's representatives were too strong.
And while the world's armies fought back—
modern weapons could kill a lot of C–D rank creatures…
but the numbers were too insane.
The creatures appeared scattered with no pattern.
Troops couldn't arrive fast enough.
Casualties climbed.
Cities fell.
And the only reason some nations didn't collapse entirely—
was because hidden "non-human" powerhouses finally stepped into the open.
Not every country had people like that.
So smaller nations without them…
could only shake in fear and pray.
That was when the pleas began:
"Please… can someone send help?"
"Any help… anyone…"
Most countries couldn't.
Not because they didn't want to—
but because their own homes were already burning.
And the perfect excuse always existed:
"Those people aren't under government command. They move by their own will."
A hopeless dead end.
Except—
Dragonia.
Because Dragonia, unbelievably, was still clean.
So Dragonia's powerhouses—idle, restless, and watching the world bleed—
finally moved.
Some couldn't watch the slaughter anymore.
Some were itching after seeing foreign powerhouses show off.
Some simply wanted to test themselves…
after witnessing Adrian's ridiculous dominance.
Whatever their reasons—
Dragonia's hidden experts stepped out in force.
A true luxury dream team.
And the moment they began interfering—
the smaller nations' survival chances immediately improved.
Dragonia's "Luxury Team" appearsWatermonkey Nation — Master Fahai descends
In the central city of Watermonkey Nation, the streets were already ruins.
Blood.
Collapsed buildings.
A real apocalypse.
Then a voice rang out like a bell.
"Prajna Buddhas… Prajna paramita hum—"
"AN!"
Golden light detonated across the sky, dyeing the clouds in gold.
A wave of shrieks followed—
creatures disintegrating under the radiance.
Fahai folded his hands, eyes half-lidded.
"Hmph. Trivial tricks."
A roar erupted behind him.
He didn't even turn.
He simply finished the sentence he'd started.
"…and you dare show off in front of me?"
A blade of light split the air—
then the gold surged so violently it shaped itself into a coiling dragon.
"Great Might Heavenly Dragon!!"
The dragon roared—not the beasts.
And when it crashed downward—
everything below was "purified" into silence.
Buckley Nation — the metal-splinter reaper
Buckley Nation's capital was also rubble.
But above the ruins—
countless razor-thin metal shards screamed through the air.
They moved like living things.
Turning into needles.
Turning into blades.
Turning into hooks.
Harvesting beasts in seconds.
Every creature that had been unstoppable to civilians—
was reduced to corpse after corpse.
High above, a handsome man in a pale-blue robe drifted past, eyes calm.
As if none of it mattered.
He landed on a tall building and looked down.
"That should be enough."
The shards suddenly returned—
swirling around him like affectionate pets—
then snapping into place on his arms as sleek metal bracers.
"Next city."
He vanished.
Soundal Nation — the young Daoist, earth as his weapon
A young Daoist stood amid torn streets, fingers forming a seal.
"Kun Formation—Earth River Cart!!"
The ground shattered.
Stone spikes erupted like spears, piercing forward in a line.
Roars stopped mid-scream.
The beasts were skewered clean through.
The Daoist exhaled, wiping sweat that wasn't really there.
"That should be enough."
Behind him—
a field of bodies lay piled like broken wood.
Dragonia's intervention stunned the world.
People finally understood:
Dragonia wasn't just strong because of Adrian and Raven.
Dragonia had been hiding an entire world of monsters inside its own borders.
The small nations who were saved began openly supporting Dragonia.
And without anyone realizing it—
the foundation of Dragonia's future "world dominance" was quietly being built.
But that was later.
Right now—
the Divine Domain still hadn't finished showing its teeth.
Back to the Divine Domain: ten hours in… then the sky breaks
Back at Dragonia's gate—
nearly ten hours had passed since the gate war began.
During that time, Adrian and Raven had dealt with wave after wave of lower-ranked creatures.
Nothing below B-rank could even make them blink.
Other surviving contestants worldwide had also learned the hard way:
they stopped trying to "stand their ground."
They switched to survival tactics.
They reduced losses.
They slowed breaches.
Not perfect—
but enough to ease pressure in the real world.
Then—
right when the stream was still cheering Dragonia's stability—
the world shuddered.
"BOOOOM—!!!"
It felt like a boulder had fallen from the heavens.
And that was exactly what happened.
A meteor—
burning, spitting sparks, carrying the aura of extinction—
dropped straight from the sky.
The air twisted.
Space seemed to warp.
And when it hit—
everything vanished.
Trees.
Boulders.
The ground itself.
Creatures caught nearby didn't even get to scream.
They turned to ash.
For a moment…
people genuinely thought it was a nuclear blast.
The livestream lost all composure.
"A METEOR?! Why is there a meteor?!"
"No way… don't tell me this is another S-rank?!"
"This looks worse than the Destruction Tyrant…!"
"S+??"
Even the real-world powerhouses watching felt their hearts tighten.
This wasn't just "strong."
This was catastrophe.
A natural disaster with intent.
And then—
the warning hit.
[WARNING!! Dragonia contestants Adrian Vale and Raven Shaw are about to encounter an SS-rank creature!! Prepare for battle!!!]
The chat froze.
"SS-RANK?! Are you kidding me?!"
"Just killed an S-rank and now SS?? Is this targeted?!"
"Other countries get C and D, and we get S and SS??"
"If an SS breaches and manifests 100x in the real world… the planet is DONE."
"I feel the Will of Blue Star is actually trying to kill us."
Even the Divine Nation Alliance executives—who hated Dragonia—
found themselves praying Adrian could stop it.
Because if an SS-rank manifested 100x…
it wouldn't just be Dragonia's end.
It would be humanity's.
Raven feels helpless… Adrian feels excited
The meteor's destruction didn't stop.
The forest had become a sea of fire.
The air reeked of scorched earth.
Raven's expression tightened.
For the first time in a while…
she felt something close to helplessness.
Can humans even fight something like this?
She didn't know.
But when she looked at Adrian—
she saw something terrifying.
Not fear.
Not tension.
Excitement.
His lips curved faintly.
His gaze sharpened like a blade.
He had just unlocked Holy Sword Form.
And now—
an SS-rank creature was arriving right on schedule.
A perfect stage.
A perfect test.
"Heh…"
Adrian's voice was low, almost pleased.
"How interesting."
The ground still burned.
The sky still screamed.
And somewhere beyond the smoke—
the true "end of the world" was stepping closer.
And for the first time…
the viewers realized something worse than SS-rank might exist.
Because Adrian—
looked like he'd been waiting for this.
The Holy Sword Form's first appearance… was about to begin.
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