The motel was called The Last Stop. A cliché name, tacky, and way too fitting for their situation. It sat on the edge of a cracked Nevada highway, far from the center of Vegas that was currently burning. The neon letters ‘L’ and ‘S’ on the sign were dead, so it read only The a t op. Inside room number 4, the atmosphere was silent. The only sounds were the hiss of alcohol hitting an open wound and Oliver’s restrained groans. “Hold still,” Claire whispered. Her hands, covered in scratches and dried mud, gripped a medical needle. She was stitching the torn flesh on Oliver’s right shoulder, the same shoulder that had been ripped open by the pressure of the dam water. “I don’t feel it,” Oliver lied. He sat on the edge of a dead-spring mattress, shirtless. His skin was pale, almost translucent, covered in black veins pulsing like worms beneath the surface. “My nerves are disconnected from my brain.” “Liar,” Claire replied without looking up. She pushed the needle in

The glass cabin rose slowly. Too slowly. It felt like a transparent coffin being pulled toward heaven, carrying two living corpses and one bored Devil. Below them, Las Vegas was no longer a city. It was a crater of fire. Black smoke billowed from the ruins of luxury hotels, forming dark pillars that propped up a blood-red sky. Inside the cabin, time seemed to stretch. Every second dragged, as if the world itself wanted to prolong the suffering trapped within that narrow space. Oliver sat in the velvet chair, his breathing heavy and wet. Every time he inhaled, a gurgling sound echoed in his chest, fluid in his lungs. His left kidney, recently “taken” by the System, still sent waves of pain that made his Wireframe vision flicker and glitch. Across the table, Lucyan sat with his legs crossed. He held a champagne glass, though it contained not alcohol, but pure Liquid Mana. He swirled it idly, savoring the apocalyptic view below. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Lucyan asked

Chapter 75: Pride Falls That sound was not an explosion. It was a scream. Not a human scream, not an animal scream. It was the scream of Mana. The scream of a universe violated by corrupted code. The moment Oliver’s severed right hand, its blood already turned into digital poison, touched the surface of the crystalline pillar of the Bank’s Heart, the world seemed to stop for a single second. SPLAT. The black blood did not drip downward. It was absorbed. The pure crystal that had once glowed with calm blue light was instantly contaminated. Black veins spread rapidly from the point of contact, crawling upward and downward, burrowing into the core of the pillar like the roots of a vicious parasitic tree. ZIIIIIIIIING! The crystal pillar vibrated. The frequency was so high that Oliver’s teeth ached. “ARGH!” Oliver, sprawled on the ground without his right hand, vomited again. The Hunter X System inside his body panicked completely. It could feel

That sound was not an explosion. It was the sound of Death. Not the death of a person, but the death of a concept. The moment Oliver’s severed right hand, drenched in viral blood, touched the surface of the Bank’s Heart crystal, the world did not immediately explode. The world... stopped. As if time itself was holding its breath. The blue light that had illuminated the underground cavern for thousands of years, the light that fueled every spell, every curse, and every form of immortality on earth, suddenly flickered. Once. Twice. Then it died. Replaced by black. A pitch-black shade, like squid ink injected into clear water. It spread rapidly from Oliver’s point of contact, crawling across the entire surface of the massive crystal pillar. The veins of magic embedded in the cavern walls began to wither, turning into a dull gray. "LET GO!" Lucyan’s roar shattered the silence. The Demon King landed beside Oliver. His eldritch face, filled with e

The crystal did not explode. It died. That was the most horrifying thing Claire had ever witnessed in her life. The Pillar of the Bank’s Heart, the source of all miracles, curses, and immortality on Earth, changed color in a matter of seconds. From blinding neon blue, to dull gray, then into absolute black. A black that absorbed light. A black as deep as a TV screen abruptly unplugged. ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING... The high-pitched screech that had shattered eardrums suddenly dropped in tone. Zing... zung... wung... Then... silence. Complete stillness. No more hum of energy. No more static vibrations in the air that made the hairs on their skin stand. No more crushing weight of magical gravity pressing on the chest. The crystal cavern had become nothing more than an ordinary cave. Dark, cold, and damp. “What...” Lucyan’s voice sounded shrill and weak in the darkness. “What did you do to my treasure?” Claire switched on her cracked tactical flashlight. The