Chapter 67: [67]: Convergence, The True Descent
Levi sat on the black glass throne of the Harvester’s Exchange, resting the heavy haft of the Sovereign’s Deathknell against his shoulder. He stared at his status menu, letting the sheer absurdity of his numbers sink in.
His health pool was 5,160. His Attack was 964. He had a permanent 50% damage reduction from his new Diamond-tier necklace, the Heart of the Chained.
"This is completely illegal," Levi chuckled to himself, closing the translucent screen with a swipe of his hand.
Outside in the courtyard, he could hear the muffled shouts of players arguing over trade prices. His domain tax was quietly funneling gold into his vault by the second. For the first time since he woke up three years in the past, Levi felt like he could actually breathe. He had beaten the early game. He had beaten the system.
Then, the ambient lighting in the throne room violently shifted.
The bright, glowing magma channels running through the floor grates suddenly flickered, turning a sickly, washed-out gray. The temperature in the room plummeted. The shadows stretching across the obsidian walls didn’t just darken—they physically moved, twisting and combining into a thick pool of darkness right in front of the throne.
Levi immediately gripped his scythe and leaned forward. He didn’t stand up, but his virtual muscles tensed.
A figure stepped out of the ink-black shadows.
It was a woman wearing a completely plain, untextured gray cloak. She held a basic wooden beginner’s staff in her right hand. Her eyes were completely blank, completely devoid of any human emotion. They looked like camera lenses processing data.
It was Isolde. The Anomaly.
Levi relaxed his grip slightly, but he kept the scythe close. He noticed immediately that the burn marks and digital tears on her gray cloak from their last meeting in the Undercrypt were completely gone. More importantly, the green health bar floating above her head was sitting at a perfect 100%.
"You got a heal," Levi noted casually, leaning back into his throne. "Good for you. Did you come here to pay the domain tax, or are you just trespassing?"
Isolde didn’t react to the joke. She just stared at him. Her character model glitched for a microsecond, a wave of static rippling across her cloak.
"You killed the Chained God," Isolde stated. Her voice didn’t come from her mouth. It bypassed the game’s spatial audio entirely and broadcast directly into Levi’s ears, sounding exactly like a flat, automated server announcement.
"I did," Levi nodded. "You told me if he lived, the real-world merge would happen early. So I handled it. You’re welcome."
"Do not mock the system," Isolde replied, her voice lacking any kind of tone. "The action delayed the True Descent, but the system code is actively retaliating against your anomaly."
Levi frowned. "My anomaly? You’re the one walking around deleting trees with True Damage. I’m just playing the game."
"Your statistical progression is an error," Isolde said. "The game’s backend logic is attempting to correct it. Because you forced a Level 40 World Boss to die ahead of schedule, the servers are merging with reality faster than projected."
Levi stood up from the throne. The casual attitude completely vanished. "Wait. You said killing him would stop the merge."
"I said it would delay the God’s anchor," Isolde corrected mechanically. "But the resulting code fracture has triggered a different response. The Abyssal Incursion event has been forcibly launched. Right now."
"The Abyssal Incursion?" Levi repeated, his brain quickly searching through his past-life memories.
He remembered the event. It was supposed to be a massive, server-wide war that happened months from now. It was the event that transitioned players from the mid-game to the endgame.
"Level 40 to 50 invading forces are currently marching on every single major zone on the server," Isolde explained. "Their primary target is Valerius Citadel. The Citadel Core regulates the safe zones for the entire region."
Isolde’s blank eyes locked directly onto Levi’s face.
"If Valerius Citadel falls, the safe zones will collapse. Permanent death will be activated server-wide. If a player’s avatar dies, their real-world consciousness will be deleted."
Levi felt a very real, very cold chill run down his spine. The VR engine wasn’t doing that. That was pure panic.
"Permanent death," Levi whispered. "On week one? The server average level is barely fifteen. If a Level 50 invasion force hits Valerius, they are going to slaughter everyone. The guilds can’t hold that."
"Correct," Isolde said.
Before Levi could ask another question, a deafening, blaring alarm suddenly echoed through the Ruined Keep of Ash. The sound was so loud it actually made the stone floor vibrate. The blue menu UI in Levi’s peripheral vision violently flashed an aggressive, warning red.
[CRITICAL WARNING: Domain Under Siege!]
[The Harvester’s Exchange has been targeted by the Abyssal Incursion!]
Levi looked at the red text, then looked back at Isolde. "They’re attacking my keep?"
"You generated an extreme threat level by killing Valdor," Isolde stated. "The invasion vanguard has bypassed standard pathing to target your domain directly."
Isolde raised her wooden staff. She didn’t tap the ground this time. She just looked at Levi.
"You bought this world time. Do not waste it."
One frame she was standing in front of the throne, and the next frame she was completely gone. The ambient lighting in the throne room instantly snapped back to normal. The magma channels glowed bright orange again.
Levi didn’t waste time staring at the empty space. He grabbed his Gold-tier scythe and bolted out of the throne room.
His 336 Speed made him an absolute blur. He shot down the stone corridor and burst out into the courtyard. The place was in total chaos. The players who had been peacefully trading at the Grand Mercantile Hub just minutes ago were now screaming and desperately activating teleport scrolls.
"What is happening?!" a merchant yelled, dropping a stack of iron ore on the ground.
"Get out of here!" Levi barked, running past him.
Levi sprinted up the stone stairs leading to the front battlements. He reached the top of the fifty-foot wall and looked down at the volcanic slopes outside his massive iron gates.
The sky over the Ashen Peaks was completely blotted out by thick, swirling black clouds. Dropping out of the sky and landing on the scorched dirt were massive, terrifying monsters.
They looked like gargoyles, but they were the size of small tanks. They had thick, charcoal-gray stone skin, massive bat-like wings, and long, jagged claws that dug into the dirt.
Levi instantly pulled out an Inspect scroll and crushed it.
[Abyssal Gargoyle]
[Level: 35]
[HP: 25,000 | ATK: 900 | DEF: 400]
"Level thirty-five," Levi said, leaning over the stone parapet.
Down at the gates, his two Level 31 NPC Domain Guards were already engaged. The guards swung their heavy polearms, trying to hold the choke point. They were doing decent damage, but the Gargoyles were just swarming them. Four Gargoyles dog-piled the left guard, tearing into his black armor with their claws. The NPC’s health bar was dropping incredibly fast.
Levi looked at the sheer number of Gargoyles landing on the slope. There were hundreds of them. A literal army of Level 35 mobs dropping directly onto his front porch.
For a normal player, this was a nightmare. This was the destruction of everything they had built.
Levi just checked his progression bar. He was Level 28. He needed 12,000,000 XP to hit Level 29.
A ruthless, highly aggressive smile spread across his face. He gripped the Sovereign’s Deathknell with both hands. The pitch-black dark aura of his Herald class violently flared around the silver blade, mixing with his own anticipation.
"I really needed the XP anyway," Levi said.
He didn’t bother using the stairs. Levi placed a boot on the stone parapet and threw himself directly over the edge of the wall.