Dante’s single, globally broadcasted question mark hung in the sky for a full ten seconds.

The entire Veridian Alliance, already buzzing from the Sakura Nation lockdown, completely lost whatever fragile collective sanity it had left.

The forums crashed again. The regional chat moved so fast it looked like a solid block of white light.

Dante had just publicly humiliated the two most powerful Guild Masters on the server.

"I’m going to need a bigger sword," Dante muttered, swiping the chat window away.

He pulled up his digital map of Ironhold and locked onto the largest, most heavily fortified structure in the center of the city: The Lord’s Keep.

He navigated the wide cobblestone avenues, completely ignoring the merchant stalls and player-owned taverns.

He needed high-yield objectives, and the only NPC with the authority to hand those out was the City Lord.

He reached the Keep.

It was a massive fortress built entirely from polished black iron and steel. Dozens of heavily armored guards stood perfectly still at the entrance, their halberds resting against their shoulders.

Dante didn’t slow down. He walked right up the central stairs.

Normally, an un-guilded player without an appointment would be violently pushed back by the NPC guards. But the guards didn’t move. Their dynamic system recognized the pitch-black [Mantle of the Void-Dragon].

More importantly, the system recognized his [Zenith Incarnate] title.

Dante pushed the heavy double doors open and entered the grand hall.

The interior was predictably lavish. Massive red banners hung from the high ceilings, and a long red carpet led directly to an elevated throne made of actual, functioning gears and steam pipes.

Sitting on the throne was the City Lord of Ironhold. He was a massive, scarred man with a thick gray beard, wearing heavy plate armor that looked entirely too impractical for sitting indoors.

"Outworlder," the City Lord boomed, his voice carrying the standard, artificially deep echo of a high-tier quest NPC.

"You have arrived. The rumors of your dominance precede you. You have cleared the Spire and unsealed the path for your brethren. Ironhold welcomes you."

"Save the speech," Dante said, walking straight up to the base of the throne. "I need work. High-tier. No rat-killing quests."

The City Lord’s scripted, majestic expression faltered slightly. The system wasn’t used to players interrupting the grand, ceremonial dialogue trees.

"Direct and unyielding," the City Lord recovered smoothly, nodding his heavy, armored head.

"A true vanguard. Very well. If you seek glory, I have a task that the localized guard forces cannot handle."

The City Lord reached beside his throne and picked up a heavy, glowing red parchment.

"To the north of Ironhold lie the Frostfire Steppes," the NPC explained, his tone shifting into the standard quest-briefing cadence.

"A treacherous wasteland where blizzards and volcanic vents clash continuously. Recently, a apex predator has claimed the region.

It is a Beast King. "I need it eradicated."

Dante listened intently.

[Hidden Quest Triggered: The Beast King of Frostfire]

[Classification: SSS-Rank (Regional Threat)]

[Objective: Travel to the Frostfire Steppes and slay the Apex Entity.]

[Recommended Level: 60+]

An SSS-Rank regional quest. A Level 60 boss.

This wasn’t a standard grinding quest; it was a major event designed for an entire guild to clear.

"I’ll take it," Dante said, reaching his gauntlet out.

The City Lord didn’t hand the parchment over immediately. The NPC’s glowing eyes narrowed slightly, analyzing Dante’s loadout.

"You possess raw power, Outworlder," the City Lord noted. "But the Steppes are unforgiving. The elemental clash of fire and ice will drain your vitality faster than a blade.

To ensure you survive long enough to reach the Beast King, I grant you this ward."

The City Lord reached into his armor and pulled out a small, intricately carved wooden talisman. He tossed it down the steps.

Dante caught it smoothly.

[Item Acquired: Lord’s Elemental Talisman]

[Tier: Quest Item]

[Description: A temporary ward. Reduces all incoming environmental damage (Fire/Ice) by 50% while in the Frostfire Steppes. Item disappears upon quest completion.]

It was a standard system crutch designed to keep players alive during environmental hazards. Dante already possessed absolute immunity to negative status effects thanks to the [Aetherial Nectar] but he wasn’t going to turn down an extra 50% reduction.

"Thanks," Dante said, pocketing the talisman.

"Do not fail me, Champion," the City Lord said, returning to his rigid, scripted posture on the gear-throne.

Dante turned around and walked out of the grand hall.

He didn’t bother using the city gates. The Frostfire Steppes were hundreds of miles to the north. A standard player would have to buy a horse or a griffon and spend hours traveling across the map.

Dante didn’t have hours. Valerius and the Legion of Blades were actively hunting him.

He walked out of the Keep, stepped off the stone stairs, and stopped in the middle of the empty plaza.

He opened his inventory and checked the primary passive on his new, pitch-black cloak.

[Passive 1 (Limitless Flight): The user can freely manipulate localized gravity to achieve sustained, high-speed flight. No mana cost. Flight speed scales with user’s base Agility.]

"Let’s see how fast this thing really is," Dante muttered.

He didn’t need a running start. He didn’t even need to jump.

Dante simply willed the localized gravity around his avatar to invert.

The heavy, starry fabric of the [Mantle of the Void-Dragon] flared violently outward. The pitch-black material didn’t act like cloth; it functioned like a pair of massive thrusters.

Dante shot straight up into the air.

There was no build-up. There was no slow ascent. He launched into the sky like a ballistic missile. The sudden, violent acceleration caused a sonic boom, shattering the cobblestones directly beneath where he had just been standing.

He rapidly broke through the lower atmosphere of Ironhold, soaring high above the towering steampunk architecture and the massive steel walls of the city.

The wind roared in his ears. The feeling of absolute, unhindered flight was incredible. He wasn’t relying on a mount or a temporary spell.

He was physically dictating his own position in three-dimensional space.

He leveled out roughly a thousand feet above the ground, looking down at the sprawling, infinite map of the Overture server.

He spotted his objective on the digital mini-map: a massive, red-shaded zone far to the north, where white snow clashed violently against glowing orange lava flows. The Frostfire Steppes.

Dante leaned forward, pointing his body north.

Because the flight speed scaled entirely off his base Agility stat, and he currently possessed over 1,100 Agility points, his speed was genuinely terrifying.

He broke the sound barrier again.

He tore through the sky, a literal blur of gold armor and black fabric, leaving a visible distortion in the clouds behind him.

Down below, on the ground miles outside the gates of Ironhold, a group of twenty heavily armored players were marching up the main road toward the city.

They all wore the crimson and black tabards of the Sakura Nation’s Black Dragon Syndicate.

They were the secondary hit squad. Like Yamato’s group, they had cleared the Spire and taken the exit portal just minutes before Dante had crushed the [Zone Lockdown Token].

They were stranded in Veridian territory, operating under strict orders from Ryujin to find ’Dan’ and secure the bounty.

The squad leader, a massive tank with a heavy iron shield, stopped marching. He squinted up at the clear blue sky.

"Did you guys hear that?" the squad leader asked, pointing upward.

A loud, continuous roar echoed across the open plains, sounding like a massive, continuous thunderclap.

The twenty Sakura players looked up just in time to see a golden blur shoot across the sky, thousands of feet above them, moving so fast it was completely un-targetable.

"What the hell was that?" a mage asked, shielding her eyes from the sun. "A high-tier bird mount?"

"Bird mounts don’t move like that," the squad leader frowned, his Intuition stat pinging slightly. He pulled a heavy, metallic tracking compass from his belt.

The needle, which had been pointing steadily toward Ironhold, suddenly spun wildly before locking onto the golden blur currently disappearing into the northern horizon.

The squad leader stared at the compass. The color completely drained from his face.

"Sir?" the mage asked nervously.

"It’s him," the squad leader whispered. "The compass is locked onto his unique ID signature. That’s Dan."

The twenty players fell entirely silent.

They were a hit squad. They were designed to set up ambushes, control chokepoints, and burst targets down with coordinated ground tactics.

"He’s flying," one of the rogues finally said, his voice laced with absolute, terrifying realization. "He’s flying faster than a griffon mount. How are we supposed to gank a guy who can just leave the atmosphere?"

The squad leader slowly lowered the compass. He looked back toward the towering walls of Ironhold, then looked at the empty sky where their target had just vanished.

"We don’t," the squad leader said flatly.

He opened his system interface, pulled up the guild chat which was currently a completely panicked, locked-down mess back in Outpost 808 and typed a quick, final message to his Guild Master.

[DragonScout_Lead: Ryujin. The target possesses un-tethered, high-speed flight mechanics. We cannot engage. We cannot track. The hit is canceled.]

The squad leader didn’t wait for a response. He closed the interface, turned to his nineteen heavily geared, highly trained assassins, and shrugged.

"Alright boys," the squad leader said. "The bounty is a bust. Let’s go find a tavern in Ironhold and spend the guild’s money before Ryujin realizes he’s bankrupt."

The twenty Sakura Nation players completely abandoned their mission, turned around, and walked toward the city, leaving their Guild Master completely undefended and entirely ignored.

High above the clouds, Dante was completely unaware of the ambush party he had just effortlessly bypassed.

He was entirely focused on the rapidly approaching horizon. The green plains and dense forests below him were quickly giving way to a massive, chaotic clash of biomes.

The Frostfire Steppes.

Dante began his descent, aiming his body toward the snow-covered mountains that constantly vented superheated magma into the freezing air.

He had an SSS-rank regional quest to clear, and he wanted to test his new, limitless combat loop on an apex predator.