The midnight express mag-train between Sector 7 and Sector 1 cut through the underground transit tunnels at five hundred kilometers per hour.Ethan sat in the shadows of an empty maintenance car, his back pressed against the corrugated steel wall. He had wrapped the elongated, six-and-a-half-foot frame of the Abyssal Sovereign Greatsword in heavy canvas insulated with lead foil, muffling the rhythmic, predatory heartbeat of the calcified dragon eye embedded above its crossguard.Across his lap rested a portable terminal linked to Gary’s secure proxy relay. The screen was updating at an uncontrollable pace.[GLOBAL NETWORK SURGE: DATA LEAK CONFIRMED]Target Origin: Independent International Hunter Network / World ForumFile Upload: Sunfire Guild Executive Ledger Sector 7 Exploitation & Unsanctioned Rift OperationsCurrent Views: 14,200,000+ (Trending #1 Region-Wide)Association Response: Emergency inquest convened by the High Council of Sector 1; Sunfire Guild executive accounts frozen

The freezing edge of the Abyssal Sovereign Greatsword bit a fraction of a millimeter into the soft flesh beneath Lucius Thorne’s jaw. A thin bead of bright crimson blood welled along the black steel, immediately hissing and vaporizing as the blade’s calcified dragon eye rolled toward the wound, drinking the essence in."W-Wait..." Lucius stammered, his aristocratic vanity entirely replaced by the shrill, frantic squeal of a cornered rodent. "Whatever you want credits, artifacts, S-Rank rift access... my father controls the regional treasury! I can give you hundreds of millions of credits! You can be a commander in the Sunfire Core!"Ethan’s expression didn't shift by a millimeter. His vertical pupils remained fixed on the trembling youth, cold as deep space."In the old timeline, when the Abyssal swarm broke through the Sector 7 perimeter, my squad had six wounded commoners," Ethan said, his voice quiet, devoid of hatred, carrying only the absolute weight of a final verdict. "We begge

Wind shrieked past Christian Thorne’s ears as the eighty-story Central Spire blurred upward into the night.Dark, corrosive void-blood sprayed from his severed collarbone, trailing behind him like black smoke in the torrential slipstream. Decades of unassailable prestige as an S-Rank Council Seat had not prepared Christian for the cold, hollow sensation of his own blood freezing in the upper atmosphere.Four hundred feet. Three hundred feet.Christian gritted his teeth, forcing a surge of solar mana through his remaining intact meridians. "Solar Retribution Sunburst Flare!"BOOM!A concussive shockwave of golden fire erupted beneath his boots, acting as an atmospheric brake. His descent slowed violently, allowing him to crash land onto the polished marble tiles of the Central Spire Plaza.CRASH!The marble courtyard fractured into a twenty meter crater of crushed stone and glowing heat. Christian knelt on one knee, his chest heaving, his left hand desperately clamped over his ruined s

The Sector 1 transit terminal was a ghost yard.With the Sunfire Guild's upper hierarchy liquidated and the Central Spire sheared in half, the high-speed regional mag-lines had automatically defaulted to emergency civilian evacuation protocols. Alarms strobed yellow along the ceiling, bathing the empty platforms in a dull, pulsing warning light.Ethan bypassed the automated turnstiles, his boots echoing sharply across the polished tile.He didn't bother using stealth. Behind him, the four hundred gathered vanguards and Association peacekeepers remained anchored in the plaza, too paralyzed by the sight of Christian Thorne's severed corpse to mount a pursuit. Marcus Kane’s voice over the emergency bands had already ordered a regional stand down; no commander with an ounce of survival instinct was eager to throw their strike squads into the teeth of an S-Rank devourer.Ethan boarded an automated freight engine designated for heavy scrap transit to the outer rim.He walked into the manual

The earth shook as Mor'Gath urged his skeletal steed down the shale ridge.Every stride of the armored beast pulverized boulders to powder, leaving tracks of frost and pale green lightning. Behind the Necropolis Sovereign, the remaining thousands of skeletal reavers surged forward, emboldened by the presence of their lord. The air turned brittle and cold, dropping tens of degrees in a heartbeat as death-mana flooded the quarry.Mor'Gath raised his executioner’s claymore, pointing the dripping blade directly at Ethan."Mortal worm," a voice like grinding stones rattled inside Ethan's skull. "Your marrow shall pave the threshold of my sepulcher."BOOM!The death knight launched forward. The skeletal steed closed a hundred meters in a fraction of a second, tearing through its own infantry to reach the lone intruder. The massive claymore came down in a sweeping overhead cleave, surrounded by a shrieking crescent of pale green grave-lightning designed to sever flesh and soul simultaneously