Alysia walked toward the frozen form of Lord Malaphar. Her white armor gleamed in the dim cavern, casting sharp, icy reflections across the dark stone.

Dante didn’t immediately follow. He dismissed [Voidsever] back into the brand on his wrist and checked his system interface.

The spatial lockdown the Demon Noble had applied to the room was gone. Alysia’s presence had completely overridden the hostile mechanics. He could breathe easily again.

He looked toward his party.

Lila, Mei, and Casanova were still standing near the entrance, looking absolutely terrified. They had just watched Dante get one-shot by a dragon, magically survive, vaporize said dragon with a single button press, and then get saved by a literal god.

"Stay here," Dante ordered them, keeping his voice low. "Don’t touch anything. Don’t cast anything. Just wait."

Mei nodded frantically, hugging her pan like a safety blanket. Casanova looked like he was about to faint. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Dante walked over to the massive pile of gray dust where the Celestial Void-Drake had died. Because he had the [Zenith Incarnate] title, the 100% drop rate guaranteed the highest tier of loot, even from an execution.

He vacuumed the pile of gold coins and cosmic crafting materials into his void ring. He found two distinct items resting in the dust.

The first was a massive, intricately carved helmet forged from the same translucent, galaxy-filled crystal as the dragon’s scales.

[Item Acquired: Helm of the Void-Drake]

[Tier: Celestial (Unappraised)]

He couldn’t see the exact stats until Master Sun cracked it, but a Celestial-tier helmet was an incredible find. He tossed it into his inventory.

He picked up the second item. It was a single, massive scale, practically humming with residual void energy.

[Item Appraised: Void-Drake Scale]

[Tier: Legendary Material]

[Passive Effect: If kept in the user’s active inventory, it grants a permanent 20% reduction to all incoming magical damage.]

Dante smiled. A flat 20% magical damage reduction stacked perfectly with the 50% flat reduction from the [Scale of the Goddess] and the halved incoming damage of his [Source of Recovery] cloak.

His passive mitigation was reaching mathematically absurd levels.

He slipped the scale into a secure pouch on his armor and walked over to Alysia.

The Frost Sovereign was standing in front of the massive block of ice containing Lord Malaphar. The Demon Noble was completely paralyzed, his eyes wide with sheer panic, perfectly visible through the translucent frost.

"He is a coward," Alysia stated, her icy blue eyes completely devoid of pity. "He relies on brute force and summoned beasts to fight his battles, but when faced with true authority, he runs."

"You froze him pretty thoroughly," Dante noted, tapping his iron gauntlet against the ice block. It felt harder than steel. "Are you going to interrogate him?"

"Yes," Alysia said. "He knows the location of the Crimson Spire."

Dante raised an eyebrow. "The Crimson Spire?"

"It is an illegal, rogue faction," Alysia explained, her voice tightening with cold fury. "They operate in the shadows, entirely outside the systemic laws of the Zenith Protocol. They are conducting twisted experiments, forcibly mutating human NPCs and low-level Outworlders into Abyssal beasts. They are attempting to engineer an artificial Calamity."

"That sounds like a massive problem," Dante said.

"It is," Alysia agreed. "And Malaphar was supplying them with raw void energy. He is going to tell me exactly where their primary laboratory is hidden."

Alysia raised her hand, placing her palm flat against the block of ice. She didn’t cast a spell. She simply channeled a fraction of her cosmic intent.

The thick ice covering Malaphar’s head instantly shattered, exposing his face while keeping his body completely paralyzed in the frost.

The Demon Noble immediately gasped for air, his breath pluming in the freezing temperature of the cavern. He looked at Alysia, the aristocratic arrogance completely gone.

"Alysia, please," Malaphar begged, his voice trembling. "I was only a supplier. I don’t know the exact coordinates of the primary lab! They constantly shift their spatial anchors to avoid detection!"

"You are lying," Alysia said flatly. She raised her frost greatsword, resting the razor-sharp edge gently against the side of his neck. "Give me the name of the Architect. Give me the location, or I will slowly shatter your digital code until there is nothing left to resurrect."

Malaphar swallowed hard. He looked at the blade, then looked at Dante. He realized he was completely out of options. A Guardian wouldn’t hesitate to execute him.

"If I tell you," Malaphar wheezed, "they will kill me. The Architect has eyes everywhere."

"If you do not tell me," Alysia promised, "I will kill you right now."

Malaphar closed his eyes. He let out a long, defeated sigh.

"Fine," the Demon Noble whispered. "The primary laboratory is hidden beneath the..."

He didn’t finish the sentence.

Malaphar’s eyes suddenly snapped open. They didn’t glow with dark magic. They rolled completely back into his head, exposing pure white sclera.

Thick, black sludge began to aggressively leak from his eyes, nose, and mouth.

Alysia instantly stepped back, raising her greatsword defensively.

"He’s dying," Dante warned, recognizing the rapid deterioration of the NPC’s health bar.

It wasn’t an attack from Alysia. Malaphar had triggered a failsafe.

"A suicide curse," Alysia hissed in frustration. "He bound his own soul matrix to a deletion protocol to avoid interrogation."

The Demon Noble’s physical body began to violently violently shatter. The solid block of ice holding him cracked under the sheer pressure of the dark magic consuming him from the inside out.

His avatar was literally tearing itself apart.

Before the final structural collapse, Malaphar’s head slumped forward. The black sludge dripped onto the ice.

He forced his mouth open, pushing through the agony of a True Death.

"Vane," Malaphar whispered, his voice a horrifying, wet rasp. "The Architect is Vane."

The moment the name left his lips, the Demon Noble violently exploded.

The concussive force of the suicide curse shattered the remaining ice block, sending a shockwave of dark energy and jagged frost flying across the room.

When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left. Malaphar was completely gone. He didn’t even drop any loot. The suicide curse had systematically erased his entire localized code.

Alysia lowered her greatsword, her face a mask of cold fury.

"Vane," she repeated the name, her grip tightening on the hilt.

Dante looked at the empty space. "I take it you know who that is?"

"He is a traitor to the Celestial Court," Alysia stated, her eyes flashing with intense blue light. "He was once a high-ranking scholar, obsessed with the biological limits of the human factions.

He was exiled centuries ago for conducting unauthorized experiments on the recruits."

Alysia turned to Dante.

"The Crimson Spire is his creation," she continued, her voice urgent. "If Vane is the Architect, the threat is exponentially worse than I anticipated.

He possesses the knowledge required to actually stabilize an artificial Calamity. We cannot let him complete his work."

"We?" Dante asked, crossing his arms. "I’m a player. You’re a God-tier NPC. You just froze a Demon Noble in a single frame. Why do you need me?"

"Because Vane knows how I operate," Alysia explained quickly. "He knows the systemic restrictions placed upon Guardians. He has undoubtedly warded his laboratory against celestial detection. If I attempt to breach his domain alone, he will simply trigger a spatial shift and vanish."

She pointed the tip of her frost greatsword at Dante’s chest.

"But you are an anomaly," Alysia declared. "You are an Outworlder. You operate completely outside the expected parameters of this world. You possess a weapon that ignores defensive barriers, and you are accompanied by a reality-warping Half-Soul."

Alysia stepped closer, her icy gaze locking onto him.

"I need a wildcard, Dan," she said. "I need someone who can break his defenses before he realizes he is under attack."

Dante looked at the Frost Sovereign.

He didn’t want to get dragged into a massive, lore-heavy crusade right now. He wanted to return to the surface, check on his auction house, and figure out how to navigate the messy politics of Aethelgardia.

But Alysia was offering a direct path to an incredibly high-tier, unlisted faction. The Crimson Spire sounded like a massive repository of endgame loot and illegal system assets.

Furthermore, having a Celestial Guardian owing him a massive favor was a trump card that even Silas wouldn’t be able to counter.

"Where is he?" Dante asked.

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

"He is hiding where the system cannot easily monitor him," Alysia said, raising her free hand. She channeled a surge of pure, concentrated frost magic.

The air in front of her violently tore open, forming a swirling portal made of solid, glowing blue ice.

"The Glacial Wastes," Alysia announced, gesturing to the portal. "A massive, uncharted frozen desert located far beyond the northern borders of the Alliance. It is incredibly hostile, but it is the perfect place to hide a laboratory."

Dante looked at the portal. The freezing wind whipping out of the vortex was already biting at his exposed skin.

He turned around and looked at his party standing near the entrance of the cavern.

"Lila! Mei!" Dante yelled over the howling wind of the portal.

They jogged over, looking warily at the massive Frost Sovereign. Casanova trailed behind, looking completely miserable.

"We have a new objective," Dante said simply. "We’re going to the Glacial Wastes."

"The Glacial Wastes?" Lila repeated, shivering as the cold wind hit her. "Dante, that’s an endgame survival zone. The environmental damage alone will freeze us solid in minutes!"

"I will provide environmental wards," Alysia interrupted smoothly, her voice carrying a distinct, commanding edge.

"You will not freeze. But you must be prepared for heavy resistance. Vane’s mutated abominations will be guarding the facility."

Mei grinned, hefting her massive pan. "If they have health bars, I can smash them."

"That’s the spirit," Dante nodded. He looked back at Alysia. "Lead the way, Sovereign."

Alysia didn’t hesitate. She stepped directly into the swirling ice portal, her white armor vanishing into the blizzard on the other side.

Dante motioned for his squad to follow.

They were diving headfirst into an uncharted endgame zone alongside a Celestial Guardian to hunt down a rogue scientist building artificial Calamities.

It was definitely a step up from hunting boars in the beginner forest.

Dante stepped through the ice portal, ready to see exactly what the Crimson Spire had been building in the dark.