Chapter 99: [99] : The 80% Threshold, Eclipsing Darkness

Declan floated high above the Iron Bastion, holding the Divine Spark in his hand.

The item was incredibly unstable. It didn’t look like a solid object. It looked like raw, condensed sunlight trying desperately to explode out of its spherical shape. It was so bright it physically hurt to look at, casting long, stark shadows across Declan’s face.

A heavy, glaring system warning popped up in his vision, flashing a dangerous red.

[Item Information]

↳ Name: Divine Spark of the Embers

↳ Tier: Sovereign (Godhood Catalyst)

↳ Description: The core essence of a Level 90 Outer Sector Entity. Consuming this item will force a catastrophic physical overwrite, pushing the host’s real-world synchronization past established mortal limits.

↳ WARNING: Immediate consumption is highly discouraged. 100% chance of extreme neural overload and physical vessel detonation. Requires extensive alchemical refinement to ingest safely.

Declan read the warning label and let out a short, dismissive laugh.

"Requires refinement," Declan muttered. "I don’t have time to find a blender."

He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t care about the safety limits. His entire build was based around completely ignoring the game’s core logic. He had already survived the Spire Master’s core, which bumped him to sixty percent.

He raised the blinding, golden orb to his mouth and took a massive bite directly out of the light.

It didn’t shatter. It didn’t crunch. The moment the Divine Spark touched his tongue, it instantly turned into a rushing torrent of boiling, liquid heat. It tasted like swallowing a live volcano.

Declan gasped loudly. He dropped the remaining half of the orb, but it didn’t fall. It simply dissolved into pure energy and slammed directly into his chest, absorbing into his avatar instantly.

"ARGH!" Declan roared.

He curled inward, grabbing his head as the pain hit him.

It was infinitely worse than the last time. The system alarms didn’t just chime; they shrieked in absolute panic. Massive, glaring red error codes flooded his entire field of vision, blinding him completely.

[CRITICAL ERROR!]

[Massive Divine Data Injection Detected!]

[Physical Vessel Integrity Failing!]

[Forcing Synchronization Override...] 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Declan’s body violently convulsed in mid-air. He felt his bones cracking and reforming at a terrifying speed. The dark, mythical alloy that made up his skeleton grew even denser, compressing under the sheer weight of the new data.

His veins bulged outward, glowing with a chaotic mix of deep purple mana and blinding golden light. The two energies fought each other violently under his pale skin, actively rewriting his DNA in real-time.

He couldn’t breathe. He felt like his heart was going to literally explode out of his ribs.

Then, his SSS-Rank talent, Boundless Enhancement, surged forward to stabilize the mess. The talent acted like a digital sledgehammer, crushing the conflicting data and forcing the game engine to accept the new reality.

The blinding pain peaked for one agonizing second, and then it vanished entirely.

The red error codes in his vision shattered like glass. They were instantly replaced by a calm, glowing gold text.

[Synchronization Overwrite Complete.]

[Real-World Synchronization Rate Jumped to 80%.]

[Godhood Candidate Acknowledged.]

Declan slowly uncurled his body. He let out a long, heavy breath that actually formed a visible cloud of freezing white mist in the air.

He opened his eyes.

The pitch-black voids that replaced his irises were no longer just dark. They now held tiny, swirling specks of golden light, looking like literal galaxies trapped inside his skull.

He didn’t just feel strong anymore. He felt absolute.

[Passive Trait Unlocked: Aura of the Abyssal Sovereign]

↳ Functionality: The user’s physical presence permanently alters the surrounding environment. Generates a massive zone of eclipsing darkness. All hostile entities below Level 50 within this zone are subjected to extreme atmospheric pressure and continuous degradation.

Declan blinked. He looked down at his hands.

Dark, thick shadows were literally pouring off his black Predator’s Coat. It looked like heavy black smoke rolling off a fire. The darkness didn’t dissipate into the air; it sank downward, rushing toward the city below him like a waterfall of ink.

The moment the dark aura hit the transparent energy dome of the Iron Bastion, it didn’t break the shield. It passed right through it.

The shadows flooded the ten-kilometer megacity. It washed over the stone courtyards, the towering gothic spires, and the busy, screaming players. It didn’t hurt them. It didn’t crush them. To the players, it just felt like a heavy, comforting blanket of cool air had settled over the entire zone.

But it didn’t stop at the walls.

The aura expanded outward, pushing past the spiked iron barricades and rolling out into the ruined, toxic slums of Sector 7.

The effect was instantaneous and absolutely devastating to the monsters.

A pack of Level 20 Flesh-Stalkers roaming a few blocks away from the wall were hit by the expanding shadow. The moment the darkness touched them, they shrieked in absolute terror. The sheer atmospheric pressure of the aura slammed them flat against the concrete.

They couldn’t stand up. Their pale skin instantly began to rot and dissolve into blue pixels. The continuous degradation melted them into nothingness in less than five seconds!

Declan watched from the sky as his passive aura essentially became a permanent, ten-kilometer bug zapper. Anything low-level that tried to enter his territory was going to get crushed by gravity and deleted.

He didn’t need automated turrets anymore. He was the automated turret.

Declan smirked. He tapped into his Void Blink and vanished from the sky.

He materialized instantly on the high stone balcony of the central keep. He landed without a sound, his +10 Spiked Striders resting firmly on the polished floor.

He walked over to the heavy iron railing and looked down at the massive courtyard.

The three thousand players standing below were completely silent. They were staring up at him. They had watched him slaughter a god, eat a glowing orb, and then blanket the entire city in a wave of terrifying shadows.

They didn’t cheer. They didn’t clap.

A warrior in the front row slowly dropped his rusted sword. It clattered loudly against the stone. The player dropped to one knee, bowing his head completely.

A second later, the player next to him did the same. Then a dozen more. Then a hundred.

Like a wave sweeping across the courtyard, every single player inside the Iron Bastion dropped to their knees in absolute, terrifying submission. They weren’t just following a Warlord anymore. They were bowing to a monster that owned reality.

Sloane and Kendra walked out onto the balcony behind him. They stopped a few feet away, looking at Declan’s back with wide, nervous eyes.

"Declan?" Sloane whispered softly, gripping her clipboard tightly. "Are you... okay?"

Declan turned around. He looked at his Quartermaster and his Enforcer. His dark, galaxy-filled eyes glowed faintly in the dim light.

He slowly walked over to a massive, heavy chair that Bram had hastily forged out of salvaged Black Vanguard armor. It looked like a brutal, jagged iron throne.

Declan sat down heavily on the metal seat. He rested his chin on his fist and looked past the girls, staring out at the chaotic sky beyond his safe zone.

The massive dimensional rifts were still open across the rest of the planet. Dragons were still flying. The megacorps were still desperately trying to hold onto their crumbling skyscrapers. The world was still ending everywhere else.

Declan smiled. It was a cold, incredibly dangerous expression.

"Prepare the Legion," Declan ordered smoothly, his voice carrying the terrifying weight of his new stats. "We’re going hunting."