2026-06-05 19:48:55Eight seconds.
That was the exact amount of time Jaxen had before the ceiling imploded and a Level 120 Abyssal Boss turned everyone in this room into a crimson smear.
The knight's fingers were inches away from the iron latch of the chest. The rest of the Iron Vanguard stood by, relaxed, their guards completely dropped as they tasted a victory that didn't exist.
"Step back from the chest right now!" Jaxen roared. His voice cutting through the quiet chamber was so sharp, so utterly demanding, that the greedy knight instinctively froze, his hand hovering a mere centimeter above the metal.
"Vance, what the hell is your problem?" the knight snapped, turning around with an annoyed scowl. "I told you to shut your—"
"Lana, look at the ceiling arches!" Jaxen interrupted, completely bypassing the knight to lock eyes with the Vice-Captain. He didn't have time for a polite debate. "The runic resonance isn't coming from the chest. It's a localized gravity anchor. Something massive is dropping from directly above us in exactly four seconds!"
Lana's eyes widened. She didn't trust an E-Rank scout, but she *did* trust magic. Jaxen's words were so hyper-specific that her survival instincts overrode her arrogance. She cast her gaze upward, her mana sensing skills flaring.
"The structural mana... it's collapsing!" she gasped, her face draining of color. "Fall back! Defensive formations now!"
"Two seconds!" Jaxen yelled, already sprinting backward toward the narrow entryway they had just come through. He didn't care if they formed a defense; he knew firsthand that a B-Rank barrier was nothing but tissue paper against an Abyssal Boss.
"One!"
*BOOM!*
The colosseum ceiling shattered into a rain of boulder-sized debris. A monstrous, multi-legged nightmare slammed into the stone floor, exactly where the treasure chest had been. The shockwave was just as violent as Jaxen remembered, kicking up a blinding tempest of dust and sharp rock fragments.
Because of Jaxen's countdown, the Vanguard hadn't been caught completely off guard. The greedy knight had leaped backward, narrowly avoiding being crushed to death, though the wind forced him onto his back.
"What is that thing?!"
"Systems! Check its status!"
As the dust cleared, the blood-red letters illuminated the dark chamber: **[Calamity Beast: The Crypt Weaver - Level 120]**.
"Abyssal Boss..." Lana whispered, her hands shaking as she held her magic staff. "This is a wipe. We can't fight this. Retre—"
The Crypt Weaver snapped its massive, razor-sharp mandibles. Jaxen's eyes locked onto the creature's throat. *It's coming,* he thought, his heart hammering against his ribs. *The sonic wind.*
"Get down!" Jaxen slammed his hand into the back of Lana's robes, forcing the Vice-Captain flat against the stone floor just as he threw himself down beside her.
*SWISH!*
An invisible blade of compressed air sliced horizontally across the room. The three Vanguard knights who had stood their ground to form a shield wall didn't even have time to scream. The sonic wind sheared through their steel armor, their shields, and their torsos, spraying the stone walls with a gruesome arc of blood.
Lana looked up from the floor, staring at the headless bodies of her elite frontline vanguard. If Jaxen hadn't tackled her, her head would be rolling across the stone right next to theirs.
"How..." She looked at Jaxen, her eyes filled with a mixture of profound horror and awe. "How did you know the exact height of the attack?"
Jaxen didn't answer. He was staring at the Crypt Weaver, his mind racing at a million miles per hour. The beast was currently locked in a brief, three-second recovery animation after unleashing its signature skill.
Through his memory of his own death, Jaxen knew something the Vanguard didn't: the monster's initial aggro path always targeted the highest concentration of mana. Right now, that was Lana.
"If you want to live, cancel your active mana channeling and run toward the left pillar!" Jaxen commanded, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Now!"
Lana, completely stripped of her usual B-Rank authority, nodded blindly. She suppressed her magical aura, scrambling behind a massive fallen stone pillar to the left.
Sure enough, the Crypt Weaver blindly lunged toward the spot where Lana had just been standing, its massive bone-plated legs puncturing the stone floor like hot knives through butter.
Jaxen slid behind a crumbling altar, his eyes darting to the invisible golden text hovering in his peripheral vision.
```
[System Notification: Your actions have drastically altered the local timeline.]
[Fate Deviation Rate: 1.45%]
[Data collected. Chaos factor increasing.]
```
*Only 1.45%?* Jaxen grimaced. *I saved the Vice-Captain and altered the deaths of three knights, and it barely moved. To get real power out of this System, I need to do something impossible.*
He looked across the room. Garret, the crippled Captain, was staggering near the exit, his leg still purple from the trap's poison. The remaining four members of the Vanguard were in a full panic, fleeing toward the narrow corridor.
But the Crypt Weaver was fast. It realized its prey had hidden, and its eight crimson eyes began to shift toward the fleeing group at the exit. In two seconds, it would leap and massacre the survivors.
Unless someone changed the timeline again.
Jaxen gripped his cheap, E-Rank iron daggers. A reckless, brilliant, and utterly insane plan formed in his mind.
"Hey, ugly!" Jaxen shouted, stepping out from behind the altar into the open.
He didn't just yell. He pulled a low-grade mana potion from his pouch, smashed it against his own daggers, and let the raw, volatile fluid coat his weapons. To a Level 120 monster that hunted mana signatures, he suddenly lit up like a neon sign in a dark room.
The Crypt Weaver's massive head snapped toward Jaxen.
"Vance, what are you doing?!" Lana screamed from behind her pillar. "You're going to get yourself killed!"
"I'm resetting the clock," Jaxen muttered under his breath.
The Abyssal Boss lunged. It moved like a streak of black lightning, a massive, razor-sharp front leg thrusting straight toward Jaxen's skull with enough force to obliterate a building.
Jaxen didn't even try to dodge. He stood perfectly still, watching the blade of bone approach his eyes.
*One second.* He memorized the exact angle of the creature's lunging posture.
*Half a second.* He noted the exposed, unarmored soft tissue right beneath its secondary left eye.
*SQUELCH.*
The leg impaled Jaxen directly through the throat, pinning him to the stone altar.
```
[ALERT: Fatal damage detected.]
[Status: Dead.]
[ACTIVATING TALENT: 'Hindsight Bias'...]
```
*Whoosh!*
The vacuum of time ripped him backward once more.
Jaxen blinked. He was back behind the altar. Lana was hiding to his left. The Crypt Weaver was just turning its head toward the fleeing vanguard at the exit, its muscles tensing for a leap.
This time, Jaxen didn't scream. He didn't break a mana potion.
Before the beast could even begin its lunging motion toward the exit, Jaxen was already sprinting forward, his daggers reverse-gripped. He knew exactly where the monster's head was going to be in two seconds. He knew exactly where the unarmored blind spot under its secondary left eye was.
To Lana, who was watching from the shadows, it looked like Jaxen Vance had suddenly vanished, moving with a terrifying, prophetic anticipation that defied the laws of the S
ystem.
Jaxen leaped into the air, completely clearing a shattered boulder, aiming his daggers straight at the empty space above.
A millisecond later, the Crypt Weaver lunged forward—placing its soft, unarmored eye socket precisely onto the tips of Jaxen's descending blades.
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Chapter 119 : The last stand.
Robert's sword trembled in his grip. His body was battered, his mana reserves running dangerously low. Across from him, Dante stood motionless, his frozen blood blade gleaming with an eerie light. The puppet's eyes were vacant, but his body radiated the same cold menace he had possessed in life.This is a corpse, Robert reminded himself. Just a corpse. But a corpse that was once an S-rank.Dante moved.He lunged forward, his blade cutting through the air like a serpent striking. Robert barely managed to raise his sword in time, the impact sending shockwaves through his arms.Bang!Robert was thrown backward, his heels digging trenches into the stone floor. Dante was on him again in an instant, his blade swinging in a wide arc. Robert ducked, feeling the wind of the sword passing inches above his head. He rolled to the side and came up swinging, his flame blade carving a path toward Dante's exposed flank.Dante sidestepped effortlessly, his movements fluid and precise. He countered wit
Chapter 118 : The Fall of Giants
Aldric and Robert stood their ground as they faced off against the two foes before them.M1 had summoned Dante and Valdamond Black as her puppets. As to how and when she had gotten a hold of them, no one knew. All that mattered was that Aldric and Robert knew little to nothing about what was about to transpire.Boom!Valdamond Black rushed at Aldric, closing the distance in mere seconds and throwing a left jab aimed at Aldric's ribs. Aldric reacted quickly, slightly shifting his blade lower to match the trajectory of Valdamond's punch, and blocked the strike.The impact sent shockwaves through his arm. He's strong, Aldric thought. Even as a corpse, his raw power is immense.Valdamond's next attack was a punch aimed at Aldric's face. Aldric easily dodged, ducking beneath the strike, before kicking Valdamond away and slicing him clean across the belly.The cut left a bright orange glow—one that Aldric didn't understand. He aimed for Valdamond again, only for the second blow to result in
Chapter 117 : The blind hunters forest.
Bill stood on the northern bridge, his body broken, his mana nearly depleted. Across from him stood Tagashi, his rebar staff dripping with blood—Anthony's blood.Tagashi tilted his head, listening. "You're in no condition to fight me. Your mana is almost gone. Your body is failing."Bill forced a grin, his teeth stained red. "I've still got enough to put you down."Tagashi's expression didn't change. "Brave words. But words won't save you."He lunged.Bill barely managed to dodge, the rebar staff whistling past his ear. He countered with a wild swing, but Tagashi was already gone, his blade slicing toward Bill's ribs.Bill twisted, the blade cutting a shallow line across his side. He stumbled back, his hand pressing against the wound.He's too fast, Bill thought. And he knows how my ability works. He's only using shallow cuts—nothing that gives me enough energy to fight back.Tagashi advanced, his staff held low. "You've been a worthy opponent, Bill. But this ends here."Bill's eyes d
Chapter 116 : The bridge of broken men
The northern bridge stretched across the river like a scar on the landscape. The evening sky was painted in shades of orange and red, but the only thing Bill could see was the blade pointing at his throat.Tagashi stood motionless, his sword extended, his blind eyes fixed on some point beyond Bill's shoulder. The man was a statue—cold, patient, and deadly.Bill's body ached. The burns on his face and arm throbbed with each heartbeat. His ribs were cracked from Stangard's punch. His mana reserves were draining faster than he liked.I need to end this quickly, Bill thought. But this guy isn't like the others. He's something else.Tagashi moved.The blade cut through the air faster than Bill could track. Bill threw himself to the side, the sword grazing his shoulder. He rolled and came up swinging, his fist aimed at Tagashi's chest.Tagashi was already gone. He had sidestepped with inhuman speed, his blade already arcing toward Bill's neck.Bill ducked, feeling the wind of the blade pass
Chapter 115 : The northern bridge.
In the earlier chapters, we saw Bill leave the dungeon area in a rush after receiving a mysterious phone call.The phone call Bill received was from Jack, who called to inform him that there was a situation back at headquarters. A group of awakened terrorists had invaded the building. Jack had avoided capture but was in hiding inside.To make things worse, Bill also received a call from his home that his wife and grandkids were headed to headquarters to prepare a surprise party for after the raid was cleared.This made Bill rush over without hesitation, fearing what was to happen.Bill accelerated his car at max speed, weaving through traffic, speeding past any vehicle in his way.Tang!Boom!Bill's car exploded high in the air, smoke and fire bursting from it.The explosion was caused by an arrow aimed at his car—fired by the same woman who had attacked him with Stangard during the Scorched Citadel arc. It was an assassination attempt. They knew Bill would use the northern bridge as
Chapter 114: The puppet master Gambit.
Aldric stood in his defensive position, his spear held steady despite the exhaustion creeping through his muscles. His fight with the Serpent King had taken more out of him than he wanted to admit. Now two more threats had emerged to end him.The reason for their involvement, he didn't know. But what he did know was that he was going to have to kill them if he hoped to survive this day.M1 stood above a stone pillar, her threads controlling the Serpent King's corpse below. The dead creature twitched and moved like a marionette, its movements jerky but purposeful.M2 stood beside the Serpent King, two blades piercing from each arm, jutting through the knuckles from inside his hands. The metal gleamed with a faint, poisonous sheen."Be careful as you attack," M2 warned, his voice low and cautious. "We don't know what other tricks he has down his sleeves, and whether he can still use that last attack he did against the Serpent King."M2 instinctively watched Aldric, studying his movement
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