The colossal headless corpse of the Dreadwyrm crashed into the temple floor. It shook the entire Sanctum of the Eclipse.

Dante barely kept his footing.

He looked up at the ceiling where the reality-tearing beam had originated. The blinding light was completely gone.

The girl in the tattered white dress was plummeting toward the floor like a stone.

She was completely unconscious.

The blinding silver light in her eyes had faded to a dull milky gray. Digital fragments were already peeling off her skin and floating upward like glowing embers.

The Zenith Protocol was recognizing her as a spent asset.

Dante didn’t hesitate.

[Skill Executed: Blink Step]

He vanished from the edge of the chamber and materialized fifty feet in the air directly in her falling path.

Gravity grabbed them both instantly.

Dante wrapped his left arm around her waist. He twisted his body in mid-air so his heavily armored back would take the impact.

They hit the floor hard.

The [Sun-Forged Cuirass] of Dante absorbed the brunt of the kinetic shock, but his health bar still dropped by a solid ten percent.

He groaned. He rolled over and laid the girl gently on the dark stone.

Up close, she looked completely human, but she felt entirely weightless.

Her digital structure was breaking down fast. The edges of her hands were already transparent.

Her eyes fluttered open. They were dull and unfocused.

She reached up with a trembling and pixelated hand. She grabbed the fabric of the shirt of Dante.

"Guardian," she whispered. Her voice sounded incredibly distant like a radio losing its signal.

[System Alert: NPC ’Erebus Fragment’ has exhausted core life force.]

[Initiating standard entity deletion protocols.]

A massive red countdown timer materialized above her head. It started at ten seconds.

Dante cursed. "No, you do not. You just one-shot a Calamity. You are not dying on me."

He opened his inventory. He frantically searched for the [High-Grade Vitality Elixir] or any sort of healing consumable.

But potions didn’t work on NPCs undergoing structural deletion. The game engine was actively erasing her code.

7 seconds.

"System, use a healing skill! Transfer my HP! Do something!" Dante yelled.

[Error: Target is not a registered player entity. Healing denied.]

The legs of the girl completely dissolved into glowing light.

She didn’t look scared. She just looked incredibly tired.

"Guardian," she repeated. Her grip on his shirt failed.

4 seconds.

[System Notice: Unprecedented cosmic weight detected in user ’Dan’.]

[Anomaly ’Tear of the Forgotten’ interface active.]

[Would you like to initiate an Emergency Soul-Bind?]

[Warning: Binding a dying entity will convert them into a Master-Servant construct. This action is permanent.]

A glowing blue ’YES/NO’ prompt hovered in the air directly over her fading face.

Dante didn’t even read the warning text. He slammed his hand through the ’YES’ button.

1 second.

The red countdown timer froze at 0.1 seconds.

A blinding pillar of blue light erupted from the chest of Dante. It completely enveloped the dying girl.

The heavy and oppressive atmosphere of the temple shattered.

The blue light swirled like a localized hurricane. It lifted her dissolving body into the air.

[Soul-Bind Accepted.]

[Reformatting entity data...]

The girl didn’t scream.

She simply closed her eyes and dissolved entirely into pure and brilliant energy.

The energy condensed. It shrank rapidly from a human-sized form into a sphere of light no bigger than a softball.

The sphere floated gently down. It hovered right at the eye level of Dante.

The intense light faded to reveal her new form.

She was a tiny and floating ethereal wisp. She looked like a miniature and glowing silver fox with three tails. She was made entirely of translucent starlight.

The little wisp blinked its oversized and glowing eyes. It floated forward and affectionately nuzzled against the cheek of Dante.

[Binding Complete.]

[Pet Acquired: Aura]

[Grade: 7]

[Designation: Doom Harbinger]

Dante sat back on the cold floor and was completely out of breath.

He looked at the tiny and glowing fox currently doing a loop-the-loop around his head.

"Doom Harbinger," Dante muttered. "You do not look like much of a harbinger right now."

He opened his system interface and pulled up the Pet tab.

He had never owned a pet in Aethelgard. They were incredibly rare. They usually required massive quest chains and millions of gold to acquire.

Even the top-tier guilds only had basic Grade 2 or 3 combat pets.

He looked at the stat sheet of Aura.

[Pet: Aura]

[Level: 0]

[HP: 500 / 500]

"Okay, so you reset to Level 0," Dante noted. "That makes sense. Your base stats are terrible."

Then he scrolled down to her innate abilities.

[Skill 1: Resurgence Wave (Passive/Active)]

[Description: Emits a burst of highly concentrated Aether. Restores exactly 50% of the Maximum HP of the target. Ignores all healing reductions and anti-heal debuffs. Cooldown: 10 seconds.]

Dante stopped reading. He stared at the screen.

Fifty percent of Maximum HP. It didn’t scale off a flat number. It was percentage-based. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Dante currently had 6,100 HP. If he took a massive hit and dropped to 100 HP, Aura could heal him for 3,050 HP instantly.

And the cooldown was ten seconds. That was functionally infinite healing.

He kept scrolling. His heart beat a little faster.

[Skill 2: Harbinger’s Grace (Passive)]

[Description: The presence of Aura projects a 20-foot aura. Allies within the aura are permanently immune to all negative status effects, including Stun, Silence, Bleed, Poison, and Stat Drain.]

"You are kidding me," Dante whispered.

Crowd control was the only reliable way to kill a high-stat player. If he couldn’t be stunned or silenced, he could never be locked down.

[Skill 3: Resurgence (Active)]

[Description: If the HP of the Master reaches zero, Aura can sacrifice her current energy pool to instantly resurrect the Master at 100% HP and Mana. Master receives 3 seconds of absolute invulnerability upon revival. Cooldown: 24 hours.]

Dante closed the interface.

He looked at the tiny and glowing silver fox happily floating near his shoulder.

She wasn’t a damage dealer. She couldn’t throw fireballs or swing swords.

She was the ultimate support companion.

With Aura at his side, his massive health pool, and his Zenith-tier damage output, Dante realized he had completely broken the standard mechanics of the Zenith Protocol.

"You and me, Aura," Dante said. He offered a finger.

The little wisp landed on it. It let out a soft and digital chime that sounded like a bell. "We are going to cause so many problems."

He stood up. He looked at the bisected corpse of the Dreadwyrm.

He didn’t even want to think about the logistics of how he was going to carry a Calamity-tier dragon out of here.

Thankfully, the [Band of the Void-Walker] flashed on his finger.

Dante walked over to the massive corpse and activated the infinite inventory.

The entire dragon, the blood, and the scattered scales were violently sucked into the spatial ring in a matter of seconds.

The temple floor was perfectly clean.

With the boss dead, the Uncharted Death Zone protocols lifted.

The heavy doors at the back of the chamber slowly groaned open. They revealed a swirling blue portal leading back to Outpost 404.

Dante stepped through the portal. The little Doom Harbinger hovered faithfully by his side.

It was time to see exactly how much chaos he had caused.