Time: One month before "Black Day."
Location: "Abyssal Sovereign" Dungeon, the Ruined Throne Room.
The dust and smoke had not yet settled, but the black silhouette emerging from within—Drauveth (Admin Form)—dominated the entire hall with his terrifying aura. He was no longer a monster, but an executioner in human form, clad in pitch-black, gleaming armor. Above his head, there was no HP bar, only an infinity symbol [∞].
Kael (Iron Fist) stood up from the ground and spat. His "Titan Slayer" armor was shattered, the lights on his legendary gauntlets dimmed.
"Admin status," Kael said, grinding his teeth. "So, they don't just want to kill us in the game. They want to scrub our accounts entirely."
Zeyrad gripped his sword tightly. His Rune Eyes were analyzing the enemy, but the result was the same: [ANALYSIS IMPOSSIBLE. DATA ENCRYPTED].
"They fear our power," he said. "We've gone beyond the boundaries of the game; we could crash the server. That's why the 'Purge Program' has been initiated."
Drauveth said nothing, simply raising his left hand. Black digital codes began to rotate at his fingertips.
[CODE: DELETE]
He pointed his finger toward Orryn (The Shield).
Orryn immediately activated his strongest defense—"Absolute Fortress." A twelve-layered barrier, shimmering like a diamond, appeared around him.
"You can't pierce this!" he shouted.
But Drauveth didn't attack; he simply made a "cutting" motion in the air. There was no explosion or sound. Only Orryn's twelve-layered defense vanished instantly, as if the file had been dragged to the "Recycle Bin."
Orryn froze in shock.
"What...? My defense... my skills... they've turned 'gray'! They aren't working!"
Drauveth walked slowly forward.
"TARGET: ORRYN_01. ARMOR LEVEL: 0. ELIMINATE."
He raised his sword, its blade composed of black void.
"Orryn, run!" Syren shouted.
Syren (Shadow Assassin) appeared behind Drauveth. She unleashed her fastest technique—"Thousand Shadow Blades." In a single second, a thousand strikes landed on Drauveth's neck, but each one vanished with an "Error" sound.
[DAMAGE: 0]
[DAMAGE: 0]
Drauveth struck backward with his elbow without turning. It wasn't a physical blow. Syren flew back and slammed into the wall. She tried to stand but cried out.
"My... level!"
The [LVL 999] text above her head dropped to [LVL 850] before her eyes.
Every strike from Drauveth erased not just health, but experience and levels. This wasn't a battle; it was a massacre.
"Everyone back!" Zeyrad commanded. "He's eating our data!"
Kael roared in fury.
"I won't run! If I die, I die fighting!"
He gathered all his mana into his right fist; his gauntlet heated so intensely the air melted.
"SUPERNOVA!"
Kael launched himself at Drauveth.
Drauveth paused.
"ANALYSIS: HIGH ENERGY. BLOCKING FUTILE. SOLUTION: REDIRECT."
Just a centimeter before Kael's fist touched Drauveth's face, a black portal opened in front of him. The fist entered the portal, exited from another behind him, and struck Kael's own lower back.
BOOM!
Kael vomited blood and collapsed. His spine was broken, HP dropped to 5%. The four legends were defeated. They lay exhausted, broken, powerless.
Drauveth stood calmly in the center of the hall, like an angel of death. He was in no hurry—he knew there was nowhere for them to run on this server.
Zeyrad barely lifted his head.
"We can't defeat him," he rasped. "He's not playing by the rules of the game. He's rewriting the code."
"But we have one chance."
Orryn crawled over to him.
"What chance? Do we blow ourselves up?"
"No," Zeyrad said. He pulled a small, old "Memory Crystal" from his pocket. "We need to get out of here. Our power is a virus to the system. If we want to save our power, we can't carry it ourselves. We have to hide it somewhere the system won't notice."
Syren understood.
"An NPC... the system doesn't check NPCs. They are just background. If we upload everything we have into a single NPC..."
"Exactly," Zeyrad said. "But first, we have to get out alive. Kael, get up! We need the last charge of the 'Titan Shield.' Orryn, give me the 'Teleportation Mirror'!"
Drauveth approached them.
"FINAL PURGE."
"Now!" Zeyrad shouted.
Kael gathered himself and leaped in front of Drauveth. He didn't attack; he just hugged him.
"Forgive me, ugly!"
Kael detonated his armor. It wasn't suicide; it was a "Blind" bomb. The dungeon filled with blinding white light. Drauveth's sensors were temporarily disabled. At that moment, Zeyrad shattered Orryn's teleport mirror. But it didn't open a path to the "City," but to a "Random Location."
"Let's go!"
The four players, drenched in blood and sweat, passed through the portal. Drauveth slashed through the light, but he was too late. The portal closed.
The dungeon was empty. Drauveth stared into the void.
[TARGET LOST]
[SEARCH MODE: GLOBAL]
VIDEO FILE: LOG_003_LEGACY
Time: 1 hour later.
Location: Outskirts of the Starter Village, rainy forest.
The four heroes collapsed onto the grass. They were alive, but their condition was pathetic. Armor broken, HP near zero, levels dropped. But the most important thing—their inventories and skills were still with them.
Orryn lay looking at the sky. Rain washed his face.
"We survived," he said with a laugh, but it was hysterical. "What do we do now? The admins will hunt us across the entire server. We are fugitives now."
Zeyrad stood up. He looked into the distance, at the light of a small weapon shop.
"We have little time," he said. "We must hand over the legacy before they find us. We're going to that shop. Kairos is waiting for us."
Kael stood up with difficulty.
"Kairos... that simple guy? Can he handle our burden?"
Syren emerged from the shadows. There was determination in her eyes.
"He can. Because there is something inside him that we haven't seen. He isn't just code. I've felt it every time I looked into his eyes."
Limpping, leaning on each other, they made their way toward the village in the rain. This was their final journey in the game.