Chapter 213: The Spoils of War, A Level 5 Guild
The rout was absolute.
Dante stood in the center of the muddy blood-soaked crater and watched the last terrified remnants of the fifty-thousand-man army scramble over the ridges of the gorge.
They didn’t look back. They abandoned their dropped weapons, their heavy siege equipment, and their dignity.
Silas was permanently deleted. Ryujin and Gawain had fled in sheer panic.
The three major syndicates that controlled the early economy of the server were completely broken.
The massive oppressive white dome of the [Holy Forbidden Suppression Array] flickered weakly.
Without the mages concentrating to maintain its anchor points, the Divine-tier artifact destabilized.
The impenetrable barrier shattered like cheap glass and dissolved into harmless mist that rained down on the battlefield.
Dante felt the restrictive weight lift instantly.
The [Source of Recovery] passive on his starry cloak hummed back to life and actively scanned for damage. The localized healing suppression was gone.
"Boss!"
Dante turned around.
Lila, Mei, Casanova, Sera, Nyx, and Garrick were running down the narrow path from the high plateau.
They were completely unharmed having safely weathered the brief chaotic flank attempt by the Sakura Nation assassins.
Aura flew down like a tiny shooting star. Her brilliant silver light was fully restored now that the suppression array had vanished.
She zipped around the head of Dante, chimed happily, and nuzzled affectionately against his dark purple gauntlet.
"I am fine, Aura," Dante smiled and gently patted the tiny Mystic Sovereign. "The auto-revive worked perfectly."
The squad stopped at the edge of the crater.
The scene was breathtaking.
The gorge was completely and utterly littered with loot.
Tens of thousands of players had died or dropped their gear in their panic to flee.
The ground was literally paved with glowing weapons, heavy armor pieces, thousands of skillbooks, and mountains of silver and gold coins.
It looked like a dragon hoard had exploded across a mile of dirt.
Casanova took his pink feathered hat off and pressed it to his chest in genuine awe.
"Boss," Casanova whispered, his voice trembling slightly. "We are never going to be poor again. Ever."
"Pip is going to need therapy after this," Mei laughed.
The tiny red dragon flew out of her tunic and immediately dove headfirst into a massive pile of gold coins.
He shrieked with absolute delight as he began aggressively vacuuming the currency into his localized inventory.
Sera didn’t look at the generic loot.
The studio head marched purposefully toward the small pile of gray ash where Silas had been executed.
Because Dante possessed the [Zenith Incarnate] title, the 100% drop rate applied even to a True Death execution. Silas had dropped his entire active inventory.
Sera knelt down and began sifting through the incredibly high-tier gear.
She picked up the [Wings of the Void] that Silas had purchased for two hundred million credits just hours ago.
She found a massive Silver-grade broadsword and several high-tier defensive scrolls.
But it was a small unassuming item that caught her attention.
She picked up a jagged dark red token.
It didn’t look like a standard system asset. It pulsed with a sickening corrupt energy that felt remarkably similar to the Void-Blight.
"Dante," Sera called out, her voice tight with concern. "Look at this."
Dante walked over, his heavy iron boots crunching on the dropped loot.
He took the red token from the hand of Sera.
[Item Appraised: Token of the Crimson Spire]
[Tier: Unknown]
[Description: A localized access key granted to trusted associates of the Architect. Emits a faint un-cleansable tracking signal.]
Dante stared at the prompt.
The Crimson Spire.
It was the exact same illegal rogue faction Alysia had been hunting in the Glacial Wastes.
The faction was led by Vane, the mad scientist who was experimenting on NPCs to create artificial Calamities.
"Silas was not just working with Vane as a temporary mercenary," Dante deduced, and his red eyes narrowed. "He was actively allied with the Crimson Spire. He had an access key."
"If he had access to their laboratories," Nyx said and walked over to adjust her dark glasses.
"It means Vanguard’s Legacy was probably funding the experiments of Vane. Silas was trying to buy a Calamity."
"Well, he bought a permanent delete button instead," Casanova noted and kicked a stray helmet.
Dante pocketed the red token.
It was a crucial piece of lore. It was a direct link between the corrupt player guilds and the system-breaking anomalies Alysia was trying to purge.
He would deal with the Crimson Spire later. Right now, he had more immediate concerns.
"Lila, Casanova, Mei," Dante ordered and turned to his squad.
"Start gathering the high-tier gear. Prioritize Gold and Dark Demon tier items. Ignore the generic iron and silver. Sera and Nyx, manage the inventory overflow."
"What are you going to do, Boss?" Mei asked and casually tossed a handful of glowing swords into her backpack.
Dante opened his system interface.
He had leveled up significantly from the massive slaughter. He was currently sitting at Level 78.
He had massive amounts of raw gold, thousands of high-tier materials, and an absolute monopoly on the economy of the server.
He navigated to the Guild Management tab.
[Guild: Aegis Vanguard (Rank 1)]
[Current Level: 3]
[Available Funds: Sufficient.]
"I am upgrading the guild," Dante announced.
He didn’t hesitate.
He dumped a massive chunk of his personal offshore corporate funds directly into the guild treasury to completely bypass the slow methodical grinding required to level up a standard faction.
He hit the upgrade button repeatedly.
[Guild Upgraded to Level 4.]
[Guild Upgraded to Level 5.]
The system interface flared with brilliant blinding gold light.
[Maximum Guild Roster expanded to 100,000 members.]
[New Guild Passives Unlocked: +20% EXP Gained, +10% Movement Speed in hostile territories.]
[New Administrative Action Unlocked: Citadel Construction.]
Dante dismissed the interface.
"Aegis Vanguard is officially a Level 5 Guild," Dante told the squad.
"We have the highest base stats on the server, and we have the capacity to build a massive heavily fortified city anywhere on the map."
The squad cheered and realized their victory was absolute.
They spent the next three hours methodically looting the battlefield.
It was a grueling tedious task even with Pip and the infinite void ring.
The sheer volume of dropped items was staggering.
They acquired enough high-tier armor and weapons to fully outfit every single member of their newly expanded fifty-thousand-man roster.
The sun began to set over the Sky Demon Forest to cast long eerie shadows across the cratered gorge.
"My inventory is literally flashing a warning," Sera sighed and closed her datapad.
"I think we tapped out the high-value assets. We should head back to the Emporium and start processing."
"Agreed," Dante said and rolled his shoulders. "I am ready for a break."
He opened his interface and prepared to activate the localized fast-travel portal.
But the celebration was brutally and violently interrupted.
Before Dante could hit the confirm button, the ground beneath their feet began to violently shake.
It wasn’t the rhythmic thud of a marching army returning. It wasn’t the localized tremor of a surviving siege weapon.
It felt like the entire continent was actively trying to tear itself apart.
The massive ancient trees lining the edges of the gorge groaned and snapped. They were uprooted by the sheer force of the localized earthquake.
Deep jagged fissures tore across the muddy blood-soaked ground and spewed thick toxic green mist into the air.
"What is happening?!" Lila screamed. She grabbed her staff and struggled to stay on her feet as the ground heaved.
"Is it another army?!" Garrick panicked and raised his rusty shield.
"No," Dante said, and his Intuition stat pinged with an intensity that made his skull ache.
It was heavier than the Void-Dragon. It was denser than the Apex of Winter.
Dante looked up at the sky.
The bruised purple clouds of the Sky Demon Forest were aggressively swirling. They were pulled into a massive localized vortex directly above the center of the woods.
"The blood," Nyx whispered. Her face went completely pale as she stared at her datapad.
"Dante, the system did not wipe the localized combat data from the siege. The ambient death energy... the thousands of players who died here... it did not dissipate."
"It pooled," Sera realized in horror.
The massive unprecedented volume of death and destruction Dante had caused hadn’t just broken the armies.
It had acted as a massive localized blood sacrifice. It saturated the environment with raw unfiltered necrotic energy.
And something deep in the forest was drinking it.
A deafening and incredibly deep roar echoed from the absolute center of the woods.
The sound physically pushed the squad backward and blew the dropped loot across the gorge.
A colossal figure rose slowly above the tree line.
It wasn’t a dragon or a simple beast.
It was a massive multi-armed humanoid monstrosity forged entirely from dark matter and glowing green demonic fire.
It possessed six arms, and each held a massive jagged weapon that pulsed with cosmic weight.
[Zone Alert: The Demon’s Nexus]
[True Master Awakened.]
[Entity Identified: Sky Demon Sovereign]
[Tier: Celestial]
[Level: 45]
[HP: 10,000,000 / 10,000,000]
Dante stared at the massive ten-million health bar hovering in the sky.
The Sovereign hadn’t just spawned randomly. The system explicitly stated it was the True Master of the forest.
The colossal demon looked down at the tiny players standing in the gorge.
"You have fed the soil," the Sky Demon Sovereign spoke. Its voice was a terrifying booming echo that shook the air.
"The slaughter of the mortals has provided the catalyst. The seal is broken. The Demon Continent marches."
Dante realized the horrifying truth.
The Sovereign had intentionally let the players fight.
It had allowed Dante to massacre the armies because the sheer volume of localized death energy was exactly what it needed to break the systemic seal holding back its true power.
"Well," Dante muttered and drew the [Dawn-Breaker Blade]. "I guess we are not done yet."