Evan Valor was a man of modest stature, yet standing atop the Rampart, he cast a shadow that seemed to bridge heaven and earth.
This was the final bastion, the last jagged tooth in the maw of human civilization. Now, that fortress was trembling on the brink of collapse. The air reeked of iron and ozone, heavy with the stench of the fallen. A carpet of human remains—destined to dissolve into digital dust within minutes—littered the masonry.
Beneath a sky bruised by the colors of a dying dusk, flags snapped violently in the wind. Evan stood on a crumbling section of the wall, his gaze fixed on the horizon. The monsters weren't just a crowd; they were a geological event, a carpet of scales and malice stretching to the edge of the world.
In the vanguard of his defense, thousands of Tide Wraiths stood like ethereal sentinels. Each elemental construct towered a hundred meters high, Level 300 behemoths with health pools exceeding three million. A single Wraith possessed the raw combat power of an elite of its rank, yet even they were being eroded, slowly swallowed by the sheer, suffocating weight of the horde.
"How the hell are we supposed to hold this?" Evan muttered under his breath, a string of curses trailing off.
Then, he straightened his back and projected his voice, his words amplified to reach every corner of Azure Prime.
"Comrades! As long as I, Evan Valor, draw breath, this city stands!" his voice boomed, cutting through the din of battle. "I will not take a single step back from this wall. The monsters are endless, but so is our potential. If they want to throw themselves at us, we’ll turn this slaughter into a feast. All Peerless City squads, switch your experience settings to parity! Today, the elites are carrying the load. Today, we level the world!"
Internally, Evan felt the hollow pit of uncertainty, but he knew the power of a legend’s voice. In times like these, a lie told with enough conviction becomes a lifeline.
"All Level 200 plus veterans, leave your current parties immediately!" Evan commanded. "Distribute yourselves among the lower-tier squads. The siege pressure is peaking—dump every AoE you have. Now!"
In an instant, Evan’s own elite unit thinned out as Azure Prime’s finest scattered to bolster the rank-and-file. Their spots were filled by a flood of low-level players, some barely scraping Level 100. They were terrified, looking to him for a miracle.
"I am a scion of humanity," Evan declared, his staff beginning to hum with a blinding, divine radiance. "Today, I’ll remind you all that I am more than just a summoner. Prepare yourselves for the surge!"
Evan’s face went grim, his staff erupting with celestial light.
"Frostfall Dominion!"
He lunged forward, thrusting his hands toward the horizon. A shockwave of crystalline blue erupted from his fingertips, hurtling into the mass of monsters like a pod of roaring ice dragons. It was a Tidal Surge of absolute zero.
Where the blue wave passed, the temperature plummeted into the lethally negative. The air itself crystallized. Monsters, boulders, and ancient trees were snap-frozen into statues of jagged ice before shattering into fine white powder.
A single skill had carved a vacuum through the horde—a corridor ten miles long and two miles wide, wiped clean of life.
"Holy sht! I just jumped ten levels!" someone screamed from the battlements.
"One skill... he just wiped out an army with one skill!"
"With the Archmage here, we might actually live through this!"
Even the veterans who had followed Evan for years couldn't help but scoff in disbelief. "He’s been hiding that in his back pocket? That sneaky bastard!"
The trash mobs were gone, leaving only a few mangled, half-dead Bosses standing dazed in the middle of a wasteland. They didn't stand a chance; the Assassins were already dropping from the walls like shadows to finish the job.
The kill count for that single strike was in the tens of millions. Across a team of over a hundred thousand people, experience bars were skyrocketing. For many, a single level-up was the bare minimum. Evan checked his own status, a small smile playing on his lips—even at his level, the bar had nudged forward. He had vaporized a significant number of Level 300 threats in that blast.
But he knew he couldn't spam such power. "Thank god for Soulbound Weapon resets," he whispered. "Let’s hope this scares the hell out of them."
He raised his voice again, his tone dripping with mock bravado. "I am Evan Valor! My thanks to the Abyssal Realm for the free experience! Now, let me send you back to the void where you belong! Frostfall Dominion!"
As the second wave of absolute zero roared forth, even the distant Boss commanders felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature. A mage who could fire world-ending spells without a cooldown was a nightmare scenario.
While the frost settled, Evan’s summoning never faltered. Thousands of new Tide Wraiths shimmered into existence. With over a hundred million kills recorded in minutes, the morale in Peerless City shifted from desperate terror to frantic greed. This wasn't a siege anymore—it was the greatest power-leveling event in history.
"I am Ivory Sovereign of the Tigren!" a new voice roared from a different sector of the wall. "Watch the King of Beasts work! Scum of the Undying Realm, crawl back to your graves! Predator's Roar!"
A spectral White Tiger, hundreds of meters long, materialized in the clouds. Its roar was a physical shockwave, turning legions of Undying Skeletons into bone meal.
"Wolfcrag, let them hear you!" another voice bellowed. "Azure Prime isn't just human! The Lupine are the apex here! I am Wolfking Galehorn! You Crimson Vow bottom-feeders, feel the teeth of my pack!"
A chorus of "Awooo!" shook the foundations of the city.
"Kyrin Vale of Highwind here," a sharp, aristocratic voice rang out. "Behold the Heaven's Cleave. From this day forth, address me as Swordmaster. You insects... witness Blade Convergence!"
"And from the Skystrider Guild, I, Sera Ashford, present: Ember Barrage!" A rain of fire saturated the eastern flank. Mid-cast, she added, "By the way, Skystrider is hiring! All races, all classes. Orion, what was the rest of the script?"
"Goddammit, Sera, we’re in a war, not a recruitment drive!" Orion yelled back, even as he lopped the head off a skeleton. "But fine—Skystrider welcomes all who seek the peak!"
With the legends holding the line, the tension broke. The low-level players began to treat the battlefield like a high-stakes dungeon, their fear replaced by the rhythmic efficiency of the grind. Azure Prime was finally hardening, growing teeth in the face of annihilation.
As the veterans returned from their dungeon dives and joined the fray, the tide turned. Thousands of Level 200 skills saturated the field. Almost every defender in Peerless City hit a new milestone.
Evan Valor looked out over his people and felt a spark of genuine hope. They were growing faster than he had ever anticipated.
"We might actually pull this off," he whispered. "Repair the Ramparts! Throw up every Defense Tower we have! If you need resources, speak up—I’m dumping all my War Merit into the treasury!"
Evan was practically bankrupt; the recent Soulbound Weapon upgrade had drained him dry. But if there was a chance, he would gamble everything.
"Listen up! If you have War Merit, spend it! If you have Gold, lend it to the Stellar Pact! Those bastards have been charging us entry fees for years—it's time they paid it back with interest!"
Confidence was the ultimate currency. Within minutes, the Stellar Pact was flooded with resources. The Rampart’s level ticked upward, and specialized Defense Towers sprouted like iron mushrooms along the battlements.
The enemy commanders noticed the shift. High above, an Undead Wyvern—a Level 330 monstrosity and one of the highest-level entities in Azure Prime—circled the city like a vulture.
"Evan Valor!" the Wyvern hissed, its voice a telepathic weight that pressed down on the souls of the weak. "Human, do you dare face me in single combat?"
"Are you an idiot?" Evan shot back. "I’m a Summoner. Why the hell would I duel you when I can bring an entire army to a fistfight? If you’ve got the stones, stop hiding in the clouds and come down here."
"A Summoner? Then what was that Frostfall Dominion?"
"A Summoner can't learn a few tricks?" Evan scoffed.
"That skill drained you," the Wyvern countered, its eyes glowing with sickly green light. "Even without a cooldown, your mana and soul cannot sustain it. You kill our pawns, but your people are finite. For eons, Azure Prime has bled. You are merely twitching in your death throes."
Evan didn't bother responding. The creature was trying to sap their morale. Instead, he doubled the speed of his summoning, Tide Wraiths boiling out of the ether.
Suddenly, a golden notification scorched across the sky.
[Planar Broadcast: Caden Marlowe’s team has successfully cleared Void Rift #346. World First Kill: The Deathless Sovereign. All Azure Prime players: All Stats +30.]
Evan burst into a raucous, mocking laugh. He looked up at the Wyvern. "Hey, lizard! Your house just got robbed while you were out here talking sht!"
Deep in the Southreach Range, Caden Marlowe was literally jumping for joy. He knew he’d make the broadcast, but the timing couldn't have been better.
Orion, watching the broadcast from the city walls, paused mid-slaughter. "That crazy bastard actually did it?" Then, his recruiter instincts kicked in. He kicked an Undying Skeleton into a pit and turned to his squad.
"The Skystrider Guild! Strength through struggle!" Orion shouted, improvising wildly. "A Level 100 team just stormed a Void Rift! Even in the Abyss, our flame never dies! Who says we only defend? We strike back! This is the Skystrider way! Someone write that down, polish it, and spam it on every channel!"
He made a mental note to pay Caden to do some sponsored shoutouts on the Planar channel later.
"Orion, you’re a genius," one of the female members laughed, dodging a stray arrow. "Hitting them from behind while they’re focused on the city?"
"It’s called tactical intuition, babe," Orion winked. "Precise foresight, matchless courage. It’s complicated. I’ll explain it over drinks when we get back."
Meanwhile, Caden was cackling as his level ticked up again. "Did you see that? Level 2 jump, just like that!"
"I got Level 3," Grant Fang grunted, checking his shield. "But seriously, calm down. You look like a kid who just found a cheat code."
"Calm down? Evan Valor just messaged me!" Caden beamed. "The legend himself!"
The name 'Evan Valor' acted like a magnet, drawing the attention of the entire Galeforce Squad. To them, the man was more than a hero; he was the reason humanity still existed.
"No way," Grant said, eyes wide. "Tell him... tell him I said hi? Tell him Grant Fang offers his eternal respect."
"There are a million Grant Fangs," Vera Laine deadpanned. "He doesn't know you from a hole in the ground."
Caden ignored the banter, his expression turning serious. "The noise we made was too loud. The enemy is reacting. Evan suggests we bug out immediately. It’s about to get very hot out here."
Ash Valor scanned the tree line. Eye of Clarity pulsed, revealing a flickering shadow a kilometer away. A Nightstalker. Level 200 True Boss.
"We’ve got a tail," Ash said, his voice dropping. "He’s fast. Faster than us."
"Want me to take him out?" Caden asked, his hand drifting toward his daggers.
"Not yet. It'll just slow us down. We kill him when we’re closer to the Guild Grounds. For now, let’s move. Greed is a quick way to get buried."
"Fine," Caden sighed, then his eyes lit up with a familiar, manic glint. "But Ash, there are plenty of Rifts left. Why settle for #346? Why not hit one of the Top 10?"
Ash stared at him. "Are you serious? That’s not a plan, Caden. That’s a suicide note."
"I never joke about loot," Caden replied. "But we’d have to go light. Just the two of us. An Assassin and an Archer. Low profile, high lethality. Grant, you and the others take the Shadowtalon and circle the Guild Grounds. Make a lot of noise. Be the bait."
"Wait, I’m just an Archer!" Ash protested. "Why me?"
"Because in the Top 10 Rifts, range is life. And with me watching your back, you’re the most dangerous man in Azure Prime."
Ash felt a cold shiver of excitement fight with his common sense. "Let's just get home first. I need to think. And we need to let that tail think we’re heading back to safety."
The rest of the squad started chiming in, eager to join the madness, but Caden shut it down. "Too many people is a death sentence. But Nina, you and the other Assassins can help with the diversion."
"Look," Ash interrupted, pointing. "Another one. A Crimson Bat. We’re being boxed in."
Caden grinned, looking at the two Bosses shadowing them. "Let’s see how they like a little psychological warfare. Everyone, stealth. Now."
As the high-level Assassins vanished into the void, the two tracking monsters froze. The Nightstalker shot upward, increasing its altitude by hundreds of meters, while the Crimson Bat shrieked and triggered a defensive ward.
Caden watched their panicked reaction with a satisfied smirk. He couldn't kill them yet, but he could certainly make them sweat.