Blood dripped from Ethan's sword and hit the stone floor. Drip. Drip. Drip. The sound was the only thing he could hear over his own heartbeat. He had just killed the beast that no one else could kill. He should have felt happy. Instead, cold fear crawled up his back."It's over," he said, breathing hard. "We finally did it." He looked at the glowing artifact on the altar in front of him. Ten years of pain led to this one moment. Ten years of hunger, blood, and loss. He reached out his hand to grab it."Don't touch that," a voice said behind him.Ethan froze. He knew that voice. He had heard it every single day for the last five years. "Kael?" Ethan turned around slowly. "What are you doing?"Kael stood in the shadows with his sword pointed straight at Ethan's chest. Mira stood on his left side. Sera stood on his right. None of them smiled. None of them looked happy that the fight was won. "Put the artifact down," Kael said. "Now.""Kael, it's me," Ethan said. "We just beat the boss to

The weapon hummed inches from Ethan's forehead. He could feel the heat coming off it, like standing too close to a fire."Wait," a voice said. It was Ren. He grabbed Vance's arm and shoved it upward just as the weapon fired. A bolt of black energy screamed past Ethan's ear and blasted a hole clean through a car window behind him."What are you doing?" Vance shouted, ripping his arm free. "Move, Ren! He's mine to kill!""Not yet," Ren said. His voice stayed calm, almost bored. "He's mine to test.""Test?" Vance snarled. "This isn't a game." "Everything is a game now," Ren said, glancing at Ethan with that same knowing smile. "Or did you forget already?"Vance's jaw tightened. For a moment Ethan thought the man would shoot anyway, rules or no rules. Then Vance lowered his arm, glaring hard enough to burn a hole through Ethan's chest."Fine," Vance said. "But this isn't over. Nobody hits my men and walks away clean." "Duly noted," Ren said.Vance turned and stormed off, barking orders at

The floor gave way beneath them both. Ethan grabbed for Lila's wrist as the ground disappeared, catching her just before she fell out of reach. They dropped together, tumbling through darkness, stone and dust falling around them like the whole world was collapsing at once."Hold on!" Ethan shouted.They hit the ground hard, rolling across a wide stone floor in a chamber far below the one they had just left. Ethan groaned and pushed himself up, still gripping Lila's wrist tight."Are you okay?" he asked.Lila didn't answer right away. The gold light still glowed faintly beneath her skin, dimmer now but not gone. Her eyes had returned to their normal blue, wide with confusion and fear."What just happened to me?" she whispered."I don't know," Ethan said. "But we need to move. Now."A deep growl rolled through the chamber, low and heavy, shaking loose dust from the ceiling above them. Ethan turned toward the sound and felt his stomach drop.The goblin king stood at the far end of the ch

Kael turned and started walking toward the narrow side street, confident, unhurried, like a man leading a lamb to slaughter and enjoying every step of it.Ethan followed two paces behind, Lila still leaning heavily against his side, his mind racing through every option he had left. Mira's traps sealed the alleys. The crowd blocked the main road. Kael's fake kindness led straight into whatever ambush Vance had planned.There was only one path he hadn't accounted for. His own."Lila," Ethan whispered, barely moving his lips. "Can you run?""Barely," she whispered back. "Why?""Because we're about to."He reached into his pocket, fingers closing around something small and cold he'd carried since waking up in his old bedroom that morning, a habit so old it survived even the regression itself. A single silver token, etched with a symbol only a handful of people in his old life ever recognized. A guild founding token, pulled from a locked chest in his childhood home before he'd even left th

The System notification arrived three days later, cutting through the quiet hum of the warehouse like a blade.[Divine Attention Escalating: Named Monster Dispatched.][Target: Ethan Voss — Guild: Conqueror's Dawn.][Estimated Arrival: 24 Hours.]Ethan stared at the words for a long moment before calling everyone together."A named monster," he told the gathered guild members, most of them still new enough to flinch at the term. "Something with a real title, real power. Sent on purpose. This isn't a random spawn.""Sent by who?" one of the newer recruits asked."Something old," Ethan said. "Something that's decided we're worth paying attention to."He didn't say Lila's name out loud, though he suspected everyone in the room already knew exactly why a god might be watching them this closely. She stood near the back, arms crossed, jaw tight, saying nothing.They spent the next day preparing. Ethan drilled formations into recruits who'd barely held a weapon a week earlier. Kael organized