A giant blue magic barrier slammed down over the entire ceiling, and the voice of the S-rank Guild Master echoed through the stone halls with a deadly threat to burn the outer sectors to ash. In our world, the upper guild leaders controlled every core extraction license in the city. They sat at the top of towering white spires, treating the lives of lower-sector workers like numbers on a ledger. They believed their S-rank power made them untouchable gods who could destroy entire districts just to cover up their illegal slave trade. The Guild Master thought a public threat would make us crawl back into the dirt and surrender. He had no idea who he was dealing with. I did not let go of Julian. I pressed the edge of my greatsword a little deeper against his neck until a thin li

The floor beneath our boots shook so hard that several fighters lost their balance and fell against the marble walls. In our world, the capital city had stood safe behind its high white stone walls for a thousand years, protected by ancient core barriers that kept the outer sector monsters away. But the red sky above told a terrifying truth. The ancient seal at the bottom of the world had just broken, and whatever was waking up down in Sector Zero did not care about noble families, guild contracts, or human laws. Amina stared at her glowing map as the red warning lines split into a dozen new directions. "That rumble..." Amina said, her voice tight as she grabbed my arm. "That was not an earthquake, Kofi. That was the core seal of the deep rift breaking open." Jade pushed her

A giant red countdown timer appeared right in the middle of the sky above the capital, blinking with a cold, unforgiving light that every single person in the city could see. In our world, time was the only thing the high lords and ancient guilds could never buy, control, or trade for gold. When the deep rift broke open, the system gave every district exactly seventy-two hours before the First Sovereign Core woke up and burned the entire mountain into gray dust. Standing on the high rooftop next to the smoking defense cannons, we knew that beating the noble families and taking over the S-rank tower was only the beginning of a much harder war. Amina stared at the giant red numbers, her face completely calm as her mind raced to find a way out. "Seventy-two hours," Amina said, her voice cutting through the strong rooftop wind. "That is