Part 1: The Dismantling
The battle didn't devolve into chaos; it instantly escalated into a massacre.
Glacius, The Winter King, stopped swinging wildly. He looked at the shattered floating islands, his blue eyes gleaming with a cruel, ancient intelligence. He realized the players were separated, isolated, and helpless.
He didn't roar. He moved.
He blurred across the gap to the first island.
Titan screamed, raising the Gorgon Shield, his muscles bulging as he activated every defensive skill he had. "IRON WILL!"
Glacius didn't even use a skill. He simply brought his fist down like a meteor.
CRUNCH.
The sound was sickening—like a gunshot in a library. Titan's shield arm snapped at a harsh angle. The massive tank was flattened into the ice, a crater forming beneath him. His health bar plummeted to 5% in a single frame.
Jax lunged from the shadows, daggers aiming for the eyes.
Glacius caught the rogue mid-air by the throat. With a casual flick of his wrist, he slammed Jax into the floor so hard the ice platform cracked down the middle. Jax went limp, his body rag-dolling into the snow.
He leaped to the second island.
Kael stepped forward, slamming his hammer down in desperation. "Iron Barricade!"
A wall of conjured steel rose up to protect the backline.
Glacius smashed through it as if it were made of glass. He backhanded the dwarf. Kael flew across the cavern, smashing into a crystal pillar with a metallic clang, sliding down unconscious, his helmet dented inward.
Glacius was a natural disaster given form.
Valen stepped forward, holy light blazing. Glacius swung the flat of his blade, launching the Paladin into the tunnel wall.
Roger fired a high-caliber round. Glacius ignored it, stomping the ground. The shockwave knocked Roger and Lyra unconscious instantly, their bodies sliding perilously close to the dark abyss.
He leaped again. To the third island.
Luna threw a potion. Glacius swatted it away mid-air, the glass shattering in her face. He kicked Isara as she tried to dodge, sending her sliding into a snowbank, her health critical, her daggers lost in the void.
In less than twenty seconds, the Eclipse Guild—the team that had defied the Dynasty, the team that was supposed to be invincible—was reduced to broken bodies scattered across the ice.
Part 2: The Instinct of the King
Only three figures remained conscious on the central platform: Elian (who was barely standing on broken legs), Seraphina (who was trembling, out of mana), and Caelum.
Glacius landed in front of them. The entire mountain shook with his weight.
The King looked directly at Caelum.
The High Elf stood still, his eyes burning with white mana, his hands twitching with the urge to release destruction.
Glacius paused. The beast inside him screamed.
That one is dangerous. That one is a rival.
The King sneered, a sound like grinding glaciers. He would save the best kill for last. He turned his massive back on Caelum, dismissing the AI as a treat to be savored, and focused his killing intent on the "weaklings."
Part 3: The Despair
Elian charged.
It was a suicide run. His sword felt like it weighed a ton. His ribs were grinding together with every breath.
"Get away from her!" Elian screamed, his voice raw and broken.
Glacius didn't even use his sword. He simply kicked.
The massive boot caught Elian squarely in the chest.
CRACK.
Elian flew backward, tumbling across the jagged ice until he hit the edge of the platform. He coughed, a spray of bright red blood staining the pristine white frost.
[System: Critical Damage. HP: 4%]
[Status: Multi-Organ Failure. Paralysis.]
He tried to stand. He couldn't. His legs were dead weight. The connection to his avatar was failing.
He watched, helpless, as Glacius walked toward Seraphina.
The Priestess raised her staff. She had no mana. She had no shields. She stood between the monster and Elian, her eyes filled with tears but her chin held high.
Glacius raised the Greatsword of Black Ice. The blade cast a shadow over her, promising a swift execution.
"No..." Elian wheezed, clawing at the ice with his fingernails, dragging his paralyzed body forward by inches. "Don't... please..."
Part 4: The Violation
In the corner, Caelum broke.
Seeing Elian broken and Seraphina seconds from death shattered his logic circuits. The "Player Protection" protocols dissolved under the white-hot heat of raw fury.
I will erase him.
Caelum's eyes turned blinding white. The air around him screamed as he pulled mana not from the atmosphere, but from the void between codes.
[Warning: Plausibility Violation Imminent.]
[Constructing Spell: Star-Fire Disintegration.]
He raised a trembling hand, aiming at the King's back. He was ready to delete the entire dungeon, the mountain, and himself to save them.
But then, Caelum froze.
The mana in his hand dissipated instantly.
His sensors picked up a shift in reality. A anomaly in the time-stream.
He looked at Elian.
Part 5: The Awakening
Elian was staring at the falling sword.
Time didn't just slow down; it stopped.
The world turned grey. The sound of the wind vanished. The falling blade froze in mid-air, suspended in a silent void.
Inside Elian's mind, the barrier broke. The trauma of the timeline reset, the memories of the Conqueror, the muscle memory of a Level 100 legend—it all flooded his nervous system like liquid lightning.
[Condition Met: Absolute Despair.]
[Hidden Trait Unlocked.]
[Awakening Legacy Skill: The Monarch of Seconds.]
Elian didn't stand up. He didn't scream.
He simply ceased to be there.
CLANG.
The sound rang out like a church bell, clear and deafening.
Seraphina flinched, closing her eyes, waiting for death. It never came.
She opened her eyes slowly.
Standing between her and the blade was Elian.
He was holding The Reaper's Edge up with one hand.
He was blocking a sword that weighed two tons.
He wasn't straining. He wasn't shaking. His feet were planted firmly on the ice, but the ground didn't even crack beneath the pressure.
Glacius's eyes widened. The King pushed down, veins bulging in his neck, applying enough force to crush a tank.
Elian didn't budge.
Elian slowly looked up.
His hazel eyes were gone. In their place were swirling pools of liquid silver. His face was devoid of emotion—cold, mechanical, absolute.
"You are too slow," Elian said. His voice echoed, sounding like two people speaking at once—the boy and the legend.
Part 6: The Afterimage
Elian flicked his wrist.
A shockwave of pure kinetic force blasted Glacius backward. The twenty-foot giant stumbled, his guard broken, his sword thrown wide.
"Caelum," Elian spoke without looking back. His voice was devoid of warmth. "Retrieve them."
Caelum nodded, fear and awe warring in his eyes. "Understood."
Using raw telekinesis to bypass the casting time, Caelum yanked Seraphina, Titan, Kael, and the others backward, pulling the injured team to the safety of the far wall.
Then, Elian moved.
He didn't run. He flashed.
ZOOOM.
A streak of silver light cut through the air, leaving a visual echo behind it.
Glacius roared, swinging his sword in a panic. He hit nothing but mist.
Elian appeared on the King's shoulder.
SLASH.
The mana conduit shattered in a shower of blue sparks.
Elian appeared behind the King's knee.
SLASH.
The hamstring was severed. The giant leg buckled.
Elian appeared in front of the King's chest.
SLASH.
The armor disintegrated like wet paper.
[System: Invulnerability Shattered.]
Glacius shrieked—a sound of true, primal fear. He realized he was no longer the predator.
He tried to cast [World Freeze], raising his sword high.
Elian appeared directly in front of his face, floating in defiance of gravity, eye-to-eye with the giant.
"Denied."
A vertical flash of silver.
Glacius's arm—the one holding the sword—was severed cleanly at the elbow. The massive limb, still clutching the black blade, fell into the abyss.
Part 7: The Execution
The team watched from the edge, huddled together, terrified and mesmerized.
Kael, groaning as he woke up, rubbed his head and stared. "By the forge... what is he doing?"
"That's not him," Roger whispered, clutching his bleeding side, his face pale. "That's... that's a monster."
Elian landed softly on the ice. He didn't even look winded.
Glacius, armless and kneeling, bleeding blue mana, looked up at the small human. The King opened his mouth to speak, to beg, or perhaps to curse.
Elian sheathed his sword.
Click.
The sound was soft, precise, final.
The moment the guard hit the sheath, reality caught up.
Hundreds of delayed slashes opened up on the King's body simultaneously.
Glacius didn't fall. He disintegrated. He burst into a massive cloud of blue polygons and white mist, erased from existence before his knees could even hit the ground.
[Dungeon Cleared.]
The silver light in Elian's eyes faded instantly. The god-like posture vanished.
He swayed once. His eyes rolled back into his head.
He collapsed face-first into the snow, looking once again like a broken, mortal boy.