The system notification pulsed softly before their eyes:
> [CONGRATULATIONS – SOVEREIGN'S TRIAL CLEARED] [FIRST CLEAR – WORLD ANNOUNCEMENT] [ACHIEVEMENTS UNLOCKED]
The words hovered in golden light above the broken corpse of the golem. The molten rivers dimmed, cooling into black rock as silence wrapped the arena like a warm blanket.
Jack exhaled, rolling his shoulders with a crack. Sparks of black lightning flickered across his skin, slowly fading as his buff timers ticked down.
"That was clean," he muttered with a lazy grin.
Arianna groaned softly, sitting cross-legged on the cracked stone floor. Her staff lay across her lap, its runes still glowing faintly from overuse. "Clean? I'm pretty sure I died inside… like three times."
