The sky over the Western Continent had long since lost its natural blue hue, replaced by the perpetual violet haze of Adonis’s ether-shield, but recently, the atmosphere had begun to ripple with a new, unsettling frequency.

Buzz!

It started as a faint tremor, like a vibration in the soles of the feet that many dismissed as the aftershocks of the Emperor’s battle with the fallen hero. But within a few days, the vibration evolved into a rhythmic, soul-shaking groan that seemed to originate from the very foundations of the world.

​Adonis stood upon the highest parapet of the Dragon Palace, his hands clasped behind his back. At his feet, the golden-furred dog that was once Theodore McKenzie whimpered, its sensitive ears flattened against its skull. The ground beneath them jolted suddenly, a sharp, violent vertical shift that caused the massive obsidian spires of the city to chime like tuning forks.

​"The frequency is increasing, Master," Vexa said, "Seismic sensors across the integrated territories are reporting a consistent pattern. These are not tectonic shifts caused by natural pressure. They are localized, intentional impacts."

​Adonis narrowed his eyes, staring out toward the jagged coastline of the westernmost reaches.

"The Central Continent spoke of a Global Wipe. They are not subtle. If they intend to delete this sector, they are likely attacking the baseline of the continent. Vexa, scan the ocean floor at the edge of the continental shelf."

​"Scanning now," Vexa replied. Her eyes glowed with a frantic stream of data. "Master, I am detecting a massive bio-signature. It is... it is impossible. Its mass exceeds any creature registered in the world. It is moving beneath the western edge of the landmass."

​"Prepare the Void-Seeker," Adonis commanded decisively. "I will investigate this personally. If the Envoy thinks he can simply erase my progress, he has forgotten who wrote the environmental physics of this world."

​He glanced down at the dog, which was staring at him with wide, intelligent eyes filled with terror.

"Stay here, Junior. Try not to let the guards kick you while I am gone."

​Within the hour, Adonis was soaring across the churning grey waters of the Western Sea.

The air here was thick with the smell of brine and ancient, stagnant ether.

As he reached the coordinates provided by Vexa, he hovered mid-air, his black imperial robes snapping in the gale. The ocean below was not merely wavy; it was being displaced in titanic surges.

Rumble!

​Suddenly, the world seemed to tilt. A massive, crusty expanse of rock and barnacles broke the surface of the water, rising hundreds of meters into the air.

It looked like an island at first, but as the water drained off the sides, the terrifying reality became clear. It was a limb. A leg the size of a mountain range, covered in scales that looked like hardened obsidian.

​Then, the head emerged.

​It was a turtle, but a creature of such colossal proportions that it defied the logic of biology. Its eyes were two swirling nebulae of ancient, tired light, and its beak was a serrated canyon of reinforced keratin. With a slow, agonizing deliberation, the creature leaned forward and bit into the edge of the Western Continent.

GGGGGGGG!

​The sound was like a thousand glass skyscrapers shattering at once.

A massive chunk of the coastline, including several fishing villages and miles of forest, vanished into the creature’s maw. The continent groaned, a deep, sub-sonic vibration that Adonis felt in his marrow.

​"This is the World-Eater Turtle," Vexa’s voice whispered in his ear, sounding genuinely shaken. "It is a forbidden beast belonging to Age of Gods. A physical destruction tool. It does not kill; it simply consumes the earth and converts it back into raw ether for the Gloria to reclaim."

Adonis smirked.

​"So they sent a garbage collector to handle me. How insulting."

Whoosh!

​He descended toward the creature, his presence a mere speck against the backdrop of its colossal shell.

As he grew closer, he saw the glint of golden light atop the turtle’s head.

Standing there was the Envoy of Ascalon, his star-fire armor burning brightly against the grey sky.

​"You are persistent, Outsider!" the Envoy’s voice boomed, carried by the wind. "But even an otherworlder cannot stop the inevitable erasure of a corrupted land. The World-Eater will continue its work until the West is nothing but a memory in the mind of God."

​"You have a made a grave mistake, Watchdog of Ascalon," Adonis said coldly.

​He didn’t wait for a rebuttal. He drew Chaos Sword, the blade weeping streaks of violet nothingness.

He hovered before the creature’s eye, which was larger than the palace he had left behind.

​"Chaotic Sword Art: Chaos Ultima!" Adonis roared.

BUZZZZZ!

​He swung the blade in a wide, circular arc. A massive wave of violet energy, a concentrated crescent of pure entropy, slammed into the turtle’s head.

This was an attack that had leveled mountain ranges and pulverized level 90 dungeon bosses in a single strike. The air screamed as the reality-warping energy made contact.

​BOOOOOOOOM!

​The explosion was blinding, a mushroom cloud of violet and grey smoke that rose miles into the atmosphere. But as the smoke cleared, Adonis’s eyes widened. The turtle hadn’t even flinched. A shimmering, hexagonal grid of golden light had manifested inches from its skin, absorbing the entirety of the Chaos Ultima strike without a single crack.

​"Haha, It is useless!" the Envoy laughed from above. "The World-Eater is protected by the Divine Shield. It is not an entity within Gloria; it is an extension of the Heaven’s will. You cannot damage what is not truly there."

​Adonis gritted his teeth. "Vexa, status report!"

​"Master, the attack was completely neutralized," Vexa reported frantically. "The creature’s shield is tied to the global ether-pool of the Central Continent. As long as their faith remains, the shield is effectively infinite. I am detecting level 80 and 90 powerhouses from the Dragon Empire attempting to engage the creature’s legs from the coast. General Kael and the Shadow Guard are unleashing their ultimate skills, but they are doing zero damage. They are like ants biting a mountain."

​Adonis looked down at the coastline. He could see the tiny flares of light where his strongest generals were desperately attacking the turtle’s limbs. Their efforts were pathetic, a drop of water against a forest fire. The turtle simply ignored them, opening its mouth to take another gargantuan bite out of the land.

​"Master, we must retreat," Vexa urged. "If it continues at this rate, the capital will be within its reach in forty-eight hours. We need to find a way to sever its connection to the divine server."

​"No," Adonis said, his mind racing through lines of code and mechanical logic. "Retreat is for gamers. I am the architect. Every asset has a weakness. Even an administrative tool has a set of operating parameters."

​He flew closer to the creature’s shell, dodging a massive spray of pressurized seawater that erupted from its blowholes. He began to fly in a tight pattern, his eyes glowing as he activated his "Chaos Eyes," a innate skill that allowed him to see the raw ether-flow and underlying structure of any object.

​"Look at the shell, Vexa," Adonis pointed out. "Do you see the patterns in the hexagonal grid? It isn’t a solid wall. It’s a rotating cycle. The shield refreshes itself every 0.0001 seconds to maintain its invulnerability."

​"Yes, Master, But the regeneration rate is too fast for any standard attack to exploit. Even if you struck in that window, the amount of force required would be astronomical."

​"I don’t need force, I need a system error. If I can introduce a recursive loop into the shield’s regeneration ability, the divine shield will hang. It will freeze. And then, I can cut through it like a hot knife through butter."

​With that set, he dived toward the turtle’s neck, where the scales were thickest.

"Huh?"

The Envoy noticed his movement and raised his staff, sending bolts of solar fire raining down on him.

Swoosh. Swossh, swish.

Adonis danced through the air, a blur of shadow, his focus entirely on the shimmering grid of the turtle’s shield.

​"Vexa, I need you to synchronize with my ether-output," Adonis commanded. "We are going to inject a little chaos energy directly into the shield’s regeneration cycle. On my mark, release all stored chaos energy into the specific node at coordinates 44-91-X."

​"But Master, that will leave you completely vulnerable for several seconds!" Vexa cried. "The Envoy will strike you down!"

​"Then make sure the injection works!" Adonis retorted.

Whoosh! He plummeted toward the creature, the solar bolts scorching the edges of his robes. He could feel the heat, the sheer power of the system trying to eject him.

He reached the shell, his hand glowing with a sickly, oscillating violet light.

​"Now!"

​As he slammed his hand against the golden shield, a massive surge of chaotic data flooded the system.

The golden hexagons began to flicker and glitched. Some turned red, others vanished and reappeared in the wrong positions. The turtle let out its first sound of the encounter.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrr!"

A deep, resonant groan of confusion.

​"What have you done?!" the Envoy screamed, his radiant form flickering in sympathy with the creature’s distress. "You dare to corrupt the Divine Creature?"

​"No. I’m just giving it a little more to think about than it can handle!" Adonis replied, his face pale from the strain.

ZZZZZZZ!

​The shield stuttered. For a fraction of a second, a gap appeared in the golden grid. It was no larger than a doorway, but for Adonis, it was an invitation.

"Chaos Ultima!"

​"Chaos Expansion!"

​

"RUUUUUUMBLEEEEEEEEEEEE!"