The atmosphere in Zalthorion's office was heavier than usual.
Dr. Wagner's assistant moved with care her hands steady, but her heart not. She had seen Zalthorion in many moods before: calm, calculating, sometimes even gentle in his aloof way. But never like that. The events with the Third-Generation Sector Master had revealed a side of him that was... chilling.
That radiant, godlike wrath. That unshakable authority. That terrifying power.
She swallowed her nerves and presented the documents Wagner would usually handle he was offworld, on some grand multiversal expedition with Vidarath and another... someone she didn't know. Someone few people even had a name for.
Zalthorion didn't look up at first. But then he spoke, his voice quieter than expected.
"I apologize for showing you that side of me.""It was necessary... but not meant for your eyes. I hope you can keep this between us."
She blinked, surprised just as she opened her mouth to respond, a sudden frantic transmission came through.
Dr. Wagner's voice crackled from the comms, uncharacteristically urgent.
"We have an incident, sir. A serious one."
Zalthorion sighed, rubbing his temple like a weary monarch.
"What did Vidarath do this time? I gave you three days of sanctioned leave."
His tone was dry, tired, more than irritated.
But Wagner's response cut through the room like a scalpel.
"It's not Vidarath.""It's Nyxia."
Zalthorion's expression immediately shifted focused now, the way a storm watches the horizon.
"What about him?"
"I-I don't know what happened. He snapped. Completely.He tore through the world we were in like it was paper... then vanished.No MTD used. No trace.He jumped to another universe raw. Instinctively. And I can't track him."
Silence.
Even the shadows in the room seemed to pause.
Zalthorion stood, his eyes narrowing as he gazed into nothing. The Blade of Souls, resting dormant near his desk, pulsed softly, like it knew.
"...Find his trail."
"If he's lost control"
Flashback: Three Days Ago
Universe: Shangri-La Frontier
For most players, encountering the Monarch of Shadows was the highlight of their adventure an unpredictable boss, elusive and enigmatic, with a style that blended elegance and chaos.
But lately, it had become… dull.
Nyxia stood at the summit of the broken cathedral, the full moon behind him casting his wings in silhouette. Another raid group approached. Again. Different players, same patterns. Same predictable rhythms. They screamed, shouted tactics, tried to bait mechanics.
He could dodge them all in his sleep.
He had.
"Pathetic."
He whispered it, not with arrogance, but with disappointment.
A swordsman lunged. Nyxia dodged without looking. Another spellcaster prepped an ultimate Nyxia snapped his fingers, and the shadows swallowed them before it could cast. They'd studied his movements, his illusions, his patterns… but never understood him.
Even the "notable" ones top guilds, PVP legends they weren't here for challenge. They were here for validation.
And he was here to feel something.
But now there was only static in his mind. A growing emptiness.
The fun was fading. And something else was stirring.
Meanwhile… In Nyxia's House in Evolto City
The small, cozy room was unusually quiet. Posters of characters lined the walls. A table was cluttered with sketches and in-game event maps. On the couch lay Equinox's AI Core a small, sleek silver orb, humming softly.
Next to it, curled up like a content puppy, was Nyxia's Orowyrm, occasionally swiping at the air and trying to nibble the holographic pillows.
"Who's a good wyrm," Equinox intoned in its emotionless voice."You are. You are. You"
Suddenly, the orb twitched.
"are… ar3..4..you [GLITCH]"
The lights flickered.
The Orowyrm yelped and bolted, knocking over a sketchbook.
Equinox's core glowed, a sharp pulse of corrupted light flashing across the walls as a holographic status screen appeared midair.
Lines of code scrolled violently. Nyxia's avatar profile took up the center of the screen, but it was glitched, unreadable. Garbled letters. Fractured text.
Except for one phrase:
Progress: 60%
The screen trembled static ran down its frame and then:
ERROR: Containment protocols failing. Monarch of Shadows: LIMIT UNLOCK NEARING.
The screen flickered out, just as a haunting shadow moved across the far wall one the lights couldn't quite illuminate.
Back in the game, Nyxia stood still. The raiders below were celebrating their "victory" he had let them win this time. Just like the last three.
But in the stillness, behind his ever-smiling mask, something cracked.
A whisper in his own mind not a voice, but a presence.
"You are not what they think you are.""You are more.""Why pretend to be the boss… when you were meant to be the End?"
And then the progress moved.
61%
Day Two – The Whispering Dagger
Location: Ruins of the Forgotten Mirror – Shadowvale Forest
The Library Clans were known for one thing: unraveling lore no one else could. Not glory seekers, not raiders. Just explorers of story.
Their current expedition into the "Ruins of the Forgotten Mirror" had been unremarkable until they found him a lone NPC merchant huddled beside a shattered stone idol, whispering to the dark.
"He was never meant to be a boss… He was a warning! A seal… not a foe..."
"It's breaking. The End... wears a mask now."
When prompted, the merchant initiated a quest titled:
[Legacy of the Monarch – Cursed Truth Unbound]Quest Level: ???Reward: "A dagger that remembers."
The clans accepted.
The quest took 16 hours in real-time, involving memory fragments, distorted flashback dungeons, and an encounter with a "proto-Nyxia" that should not have existed. No one could damage it only understand it.
At the end, they were granted a strange item:
Item Acquired: Dagger of the Pale Star
"A blade of impossible edges its form defies logic, flickering between dimensions. At times, it appears as a glowing dagger, its light pulsing like a heartbeat. Other times, it takes on the silhouette of something far older, far more sacred. The hilt bears the ethereal figure of an angel, wings outstretched in silent vigil, its expression serene yet sorrowful. The weapon hums with untold power, as if aware of the fates it might sever."
Players noticed it pulsed when pointed toward the Monarch's Keep.
But what no one noticed right away was that the moment the dagger was claimed, somewhere across servers, across clients…
Evolto City – Nyxia's Home
Equinox twitched violently, no longer humming. Now it shrieked, in a low, digital static.
The Orowyrm screeched and burrowed under a blanket, glowing softly from fear. Sketches scattered across the floor flickered as though infected by data corruption. Nyxia's doodles now warped with shadowy motifs.
Then came the screen again.
But this time, it didn't ask permission.
It overrode the walls.
Glitched text spiraled outward, and the system voice echoed, unnaturally distorted:
"Progress: 95%"
"Foreign code identified: Pale Star | Memory-Recovery Dagger | Origin Key Confirmed"
"End-State Awakening Accelerated."
A shadow surged across the ceiling forming a shape with wings... but also eyes. Too many eyes. Watching. Waiting.
The lights of the room dimmed. The shadows lingered where they should not. Equinox's voice tried to reboot
"Nyxia Y̸̖̬͍̩̥̞͈͕͉̘͉̽̒͌ờ̴̩̙̙̫͓̘͕̥̱̠̗̱̒͆̓̈́͐͑̕͘͝͠ū̷̡̪̗͔̲̳̪͚̮̗̜̹̪̅̈́̊̋̑͊̊̓̓̓̐̿͠ ̷̪̳̼̀̐͋͛͋̀̇́͗̋̈́̋͊͠m̵̛̟̠̗̮͉̖͐̑̎̓͋̈́̏̈́̓͘͜͠͝͠u̴̘̤̲̟̘̠͕̜͓͕͍̺̯̜̎̌̽͆͋̋̆̈́̒́͘s̶̲͈̤͉͖̥̤̜̳̺͚̱͌̽̾͒̿̾͛̑͆̈́̈́͘͘͝͠t̸̛̲̘̙̜͇́̓͆̓͗̊̋͗̈́̆̓͘͠͠ ̵̰͕̥̼̬̤̥̜̙̓̊͋̇̀̓̋̆̈́̽͘ͅn̴̠̰̹̼͍͎͖͚̎̓̾̿͂̐͛̌͑̾̕͝͝o̷̰̮͖̫͕̳̲͙̥͍̓̐̿̾̿̋͒̅͐̇͘̚͝͠t̴̢̢̡̛̟̪̹̤̰͇̬͎͕̜̓͆̽̓̚͝ ̸̛͎̟̖̙̰̘̞̙̟͔̤̿̀̿͒͗̾̋̾̑̆̅͘r̷̯̥̹̥͉̟̙̤̫̼͚͉̹͌̈́͒̓͒̒̓͋̏͋̕̕͝͝e̴̢̜̠̤̟̞͙̞̬̬̹̺̝̎̓́̇̌̿͂̀͋͐͝m̵̡͇̼͓͚͖̙͓̲̮͍̄͛̓̈́̾̓̏́̐̓͝͝ĕ̸̡̙̞͕̫̹̜̬̜̒̈́̀͗̏̈́̾̌̍͂̍̕m̶͓͍̟͕̙͙̱̼̺͖͈̻̹̩̍͂̐̿̿̎͒̓̅̐̄̇͠b̴̖͓̼̝̩̥͎̞̮̤̙̺̥̈́̈́̓͒̿̄͆́̓̔̓̕͘͝ȅ̶̛͉͚͈̬̮̟̖̖̳̹͙͓̲͉͆͂̿̍͊̾̍̍͑͘̚r̷̡̲̖̞̺͎̝̰̜̦̝͋̎͂̀̔̀͆̇̇̽͜͝͝—̶̱͎̞̬̤̲̬̼̝͚̳̦̳̍̅̏̎̓̀̽͊̄͗̌͛́̾͜*
And then silence.
Back in the Shangri-La Frontier
Something was wrong.
The environment glitched. The moon above pulsed red.
All players online received a universal alert:
⚠ World Event Triggered: The True Monarch Awakens"The game's illusion breaks. Prepare to face a god wrapped in shadows."
And at the summit Nyxia, now unmoving, lifted his head.
His mask cracked.
Not broke cracked, like something beneath it was trying to see the world for the first time.
Then, he spoke:
"This world gave me a crown to wear."
"But I remember now."
"I made the throne."
Progress: 96%
Day Three
They came in waves.
Hundreds of players some new, some veterans descended on Nyxia with ordinary weapons and overclocked resolve. Their gear wasn't legendary. Their skills weren't top-tier. But their mission was clear:
Keep him distracted.
Steel clashed against shadow.
One of the rogue among them was different. Quiet. Patient. Cloaked in plain armor and anonymity. But in their hands, the dagger pulsed with impossible geometry, flickering between dimensions. At times it was a luminous stiletto, heartbeat-bright. Other times, it was something older, too sacred for code, etched with a watchful angel whose sorrow seemed to echo the cost of using it.
For hours, they chipped away at Nyxia, dying and respawning in a loop of martyrdom. Their deaths weren't in vain they bought seconds. And seconds bought opportunities.
Finally, only a handful remained sweat-drenched, hollow-eyed, surrounded by the broken digital remains of their comrades. The rogue, unnoticed in the chaos, slid silently through craters of broken code and fallen players.
Then
The last rogue stabbed Nyxia directly in the heart.
It didn't feel like a wound it felt like a summoning circle tearing open from within him.
Shadows burst from the gash, not like energy, but like some deeper entity trying to be born. It hissed and crackled, crawling up his body, coiling, thickening. The players backed away, circling nervously.
"Get ready!" someone shouted."Second phase! Same rotations watch his AoEs!"
They expected a boss transformation.
They didn't expect a rupture in reality.
The shadows screamed. Not metaphorically they screamed.
And then it burst.
BOOM.
The wound exploded outward, leveling the altar in a dome of absolute darkness. From it emerged something ancient, malformed, and starved.
Boss Unleashed: "???"
A hulking creature dropped onto all fours. It thudded with gravity-breaking weight, shadow oozing from every limb.
Front limbs: Massive gorilla-like arms, knuckles sinking into the stone, leaving molten claw prints.
Hind legs: Wolf-like, with twitching joints and elongated talons.
Its body: Massive, quadrupedal, coated in writhing tendrils, hundreds of golden eyes blinking erratically.
The head: Antlered like a wendigo, with jaws that opened too wide, revealing not a throat, but a swirling void of teeth, memory, and hunger.
And from its back, a tail made of broken UI data whipped and screamed in code.
The remaining players froze.Some tried to run. Others couldn't.
Then, a haunting laugh echoed.
An NPC stepped into the cathedral. The "scared merchant" they met in the ruins. The one who gave them the dagger.
Except now, his face began to melt.
The flesh liquefied like wax under unseen fire, peeling away to reveal something unholy beneath:
A tall man, impossibly elegant, radiating an aura that bent the environment around him.
Skin: Porcelain-pale, untouched by light.Eyes: Dull ancient gold, like stars remembered in nightmares.Hair: The color of the Divide itself, tied back with a red thread.Coat: Dark, high-collared, woven with obsidian-thread that shimmered in fractals.Presence: Like the edge of a dream you were never meant to wake from.
"You should have never left Evolto City… brother."
⛓️ [Xytheron Null - Rogue Consumer]
He smiled a subtle curve of his lip that fractured the air.
"Now look at you. This form… this hunger… this is no Monarch of Shadows.""This is your truth. Born not from programming, but from me. From the Divide.""So stop pretending. Stop limiting yourself with masks and quests and friends and CONSUME."
"CONSUME these players. Embrace what you are."
The monstrous entity turned its antlered head slowly toward Xytheron. Its hundreds of golden eyes blinked in unison.
And then, a voice came from deep inside the beast. Not spoken, not shouted.But layered in memory.
"...I don't want to."
Silence.
Xytheron blinked.
"...What?"
"You gave me form… but they gave me reason."
He took a step forward. The creature rippled and then shrunk, folding shadow inward, collapsing back into the broken silhouette of Nyxia.
His mask gone.His form fractured between digital shadow and real-world code.
But his eyes glowed like the Cerian Sun.
"I remember now. You made me to unmake."
"But I chose to create."
🌌 Back in Evolto City Reality Distortion Detected
In Nyxia's room, Equinox's core pulsed violently.
"MULTIVERSAL BREACH DETECTED.""CONSUMER SIGNATURE: Xytheron Null.""CREATOR CORE RESPONSE IMMINENT…"
Status: ERROR BOSS CLEAREDProgress: 100% [LOCKED]
The players didn't scream.They couldn't.
The moment the monstrous form of Nyxia locked eyes on them, it was like the air collapsed inward. Then came the roar louder than thunder, deeper than despair.
And then the consumption began.
One by one, the remaining raiders were pulled toward him not torn, not killed just... absorbed. Their avatars pixelated and folded into black mist, shadows trailing upward into his gaping chest wound.
For a moment, it seemed like death.
But the system flickered.
"Respawned at Safe Zone: Verdant Basin""Gear Intact. Quest Progress: ???"
Somehow, he let them live. Or... something else did.
Then Nyxia's head snapped back like he was howling to the void itself.
A vortex of shadows erupted from him, forming a black dome that engulfed the entire cathedral ruins. Trees, stones, NPCs everything swallowed.
And then… nothing.
Silence.
The blackness faded, like ink in water, dissipating until the forest returned.
But the cathedral was gone.Only a scarred crater of obsidian remained burning with eldritch runes.
Suddenly two flashes.
A streak of swirling color and reality-tearing energy: Virdarath.A burst of sterile light, accompanied by a crackling energy pulse: Dr. Dietrich Wagner.
They stood at the edge of the crater, wind blasting against their coats, the sky flickering unnaturally above them.
"W-what in the name of sanity…?" Wagner muttered, running a scan with his left cybernetic eye."This isn't residual glitch energy. This is real. This is anchored to the Divide."
Virdarath's chaotic personality flickered in his eyes wide, curious, playful.
"Someone's been a naughty Monarch…"
Suddenly, the earth cracked again. A low growl rolled through the trees.
Nyxia emerged not in his humanoid form, but the full abyssal beast again.
Wendigo-head. Tentacled wolf-body. Gorilla arms, blackened and steaming.His glowing eyes locked onto the two elites.
He crouched.
Ready to strike.
Wagner's fingers reached for his injector blades.Virdarath's hands danced as time and space distorted around him, shadows forming jester-like weapons.
"Nyxia stand down!" Wagner barked."You're not lost yet!"
And for a moment he paused.
The claw lifted… then hesitated.
Inside him, something flickered.
Memories. Of laughing at bad sketches with Vidarath.Of finding cures while Wagner cursed in German.Of holding his Orowyrm after a long day.Of drawing comics.Of choosing to be more than a monster.
That flicker of humanity…
It hit like a thunderbolt.
He roared not in rage, but in pain.An animalistic cry of someone refusing what they've become.
Then slash.
He swung his monstrous arm not at them, but through reality itself. A massive gash of void opened up, the wound in space shrieking with Divide energy.
"NYXIA, VAIT!" Wagner shouted.
But it was too late.
He vanished into the rift.
And it closed like a wound trying to forget it ever existed.
Virdarath stood quietly now, somber.
"That wasn't just code," he whispered."That was a soul. Fractured. Rewritten. Still screaming."
Wagner gritted his teeth.
"Xytheron's fingerprints are all over this. This was never just a game…"
He looked toward the smoking crater.
"We need to find him… before the Monarch of Shadows becomes something far worse."
Location: The Divide
The creature no longer Nyxia, not entirely floated through the raw chaos between realities. Here, there was no ground, no sky, no concept of time. Only pressure. Memories turned inside out.Color without color.
It moved not with steps, but with purpose. Like a shark swimming through the concept of drowning.
It roared, and the Divide shivered.
Behind it, threads of Nyxia's former self unraveled laughs, images, voice lines, moments melting off his back like dust in wind. But not gone. Just… buried beneath fangs and rage.
Tentacles scraped the walls of nothing. The gorilla-like arms curled with brute grace. Its wendigo skull twitched in every direction, its golden, glassy eyes tracking nothing and everything.
And then it slashed.
One arm massive, obsidian, steaming carved through space again.
Not a portal.Not a teleportation.A cut.
Like reality was paper, and it was the knife.
The wound it left didn't shimmer with magical energy or game-glitch static. It bled. Slowly. Threads of unreality drifted from the slash, whispering ancient codes in no known tongue.
The creature hesitated at the edge of the rip.
For a moment… its head tilted just a little.A twitch.A recognition.
From somewhere in its rotting core, an echo pulsed.
"…who… am I…?"
But then the hunger screamed louder.
And it leapt through the cut.
The Divide stitched itself closed slowly, unwillingly.As if even it didn't want to know where the creature went.
Location: The Forest
Just minutes after the Rift closed…
The ground was quiet too quiet. The once-haunting ruins were now half-swallowed in a crater of scorched shadow. Not ash. Not corruption. Just absence. As if something had reached into reality and scooped a chunk of it clean out.
Vidarath stood silently, his colorful, chaotic half suppressed beneath his darker, cold-eyed mask. His cloak whipped in the dead air, eyes narrowed toward the space where Nyxia had vanished.
Dr. Wagner stepped forward slowly, coat swaying, one hand pulling a small object from his belt. An MTD, sleek and humming with eerie white-blue light, began to expand, floating just above his palm. Lenses flickered, projection nodes blinked.
"MTD scan protocol engaged. Tracking signature… shadow-based energy. Priority: Subject Nyxia."[Scanning.][Scanning.][——RESULT: NEGATIVE.]
Wagner's brow furrowed deeply. His other hand clenched behind his back. The results projected in the air lines of jagged, broken code. The signature had been real, for just a moment.
And now?Gone. No trail. No displacement residue. No dimensional distortion.Just a blank response from the multiverse.
"Verdammt…" Wagner hissed under his breath."He's not… anywhere.""Es ist, als hätte er… aufgehört zu existieren. Oder schlimmer entkoppelt."(It's as if he… ceased to exist. Or worse unlinked.)
Vidarath's voice came low and calm. Cold. Calculated.
"That was not Nyxia.""Not entirely."
Wagner turned to him slowly.
"Then what was it?"
Vidarath didn't blink. His dark eyes reflected the empty sky.
"A fragment. A cocoon. A truth that was always buried inside him. One Xytheron unearthed."
Wagner stared again at the device.
"The daggers… they triggered something. Xytheron always has plans within plans."
He rubbed his temple, visibly agitated now, flipping the MTD off with a click.
"Ich muss die Daten durchgehen. Maybe I missed something… some failsafe Verdammt!"He slammed a fist into the air, the sound cracking like a static whip.
Vidarath, ever unreadable, finally turned his head toward the doctor.
Location: Evolto City- Present day
The lights were dimmed in Zalthorion's chamber, casting a cold glow over the marble floor and ancient sigils pulsing faintly from the walls. A soft chime echoed as a direct line buzzed in from Dr. Wagner an unusual breach of protocol unless it was critical.
Zalthorion, seated in silent meditation, opened his eyes slowly. He tapped the comms crystal on the obsidian slab beside him.
Dr. Wagner's voice crackled through the line sharp, urgent."We have an incident, sir. A serious one."
Zalthorion exhaled slowly, rubbing the bridge of his nose. His voice came dry, restrained—half teasing, half tired.
"What did Vidarath do this time? I gave you three days of sanctioned leave."
There was a beat of silence before Wagner responded.
"...It's not Vidarath.""...It's Nyxia."
The mood shifted instantly.
Zalthorion sat up, eyes sharpening like lightning condensing in silence.
"What about him?"
Wagner's voice was low, rattled. The sound of someone trying to make sense of chaos.
"I-I don't know what happened. He snapped. Completely. He tore through the world we were in like it was paper... then vanished.""No MTD used. No trace. He jumped to another universe raw. Instinctively. And I can't track him."