IND Warzone, New Delhi battlefield.
Yellow sand swept across the sky, mingling with drifting blood mist.
Everywhere the eye could see was a blood-soaked wasteland. Eight hundred thousand adventurers from the IND Warzone lay dead. The ground was pitted with more than a dozen craters, each several kilometers wide.
Wreckage from magical battleships lay scattered across the field, their hulls occasionally erupting in weak, sputtering explosions.
Tens of thousands of Dragon’s Kiss Guild adventurers, too busy to wipe the blood from their faces, scrambled to haul magical materials from every direction, rushing to repair the palace’s shattered walls.
"Hahahaha... killing me won’t change a damn thing! I’ve seen the truth about the Heaven Demons! Blue Star is a prison—every last one of us is going to die!"
"You’ll all be buried with me! You’ll be joining me in hell soon enough!"
The shrill, maniacal laughter echoed through the wasteland.
Sinternan, the de facto ruler of the IND Warzone, hair in wild disarray, had his throat clamped in the grip of a cold, imposing man.
"I came from hell," Usher said flatly.
Demonfire blazed in his pupils. His boots ground into the carcass of a Poison Dragon King as he swung his hunter’s short blade. Blood fountained into the air.
The head of Poison King Sinternan, who had dealt a crushing blow to the Dragon’s Kiss Guild army, rolled to the ground. The IND Warzone had a new ruler.
"The Dragon’s Kiss Guild is unstoppable! We are unmatched!"
Skyslasher, battered and barely standing, roared in defiance. The blood in every soldier’s veins surged; eyes were rimmed red, but their fighting spirit burned unbroken.
This battle had cost the Dragon’s Kiss Guild dearly—a brutal lesson paid for in blood for their arrogance.
Sinternan had led the IND army into feigning defeat, luring these warriors—hungry to prove themselves to the Godslayer Guild and that damned Orgod—straight into an enemy kill box.
What awaited them wasn’t just eight hundred thousand enemy adventurers and legions of Infinite Dimensions troops, but a salvo of over a dozen nuclear warheads.
But Usher was a stubborn man of steel.
He’d sacrificed four priceless single-use divine artifacts, the lives of three high-tier dragons, and even a newly-forged artifact-grade suit of armor...
And still, against humanity’s most destructive weapons, the Dragon’s Kiss Guild army had come within a hair’s breadth of annihilation.
Of the 400,000 Dragon’s Kiss adventurers and the Dark Dragon Empire’s 700,000 troops, fewer than 100,000 survived.
If not for their earlier alliance with the Godslayer Guild, and the 20,000+ bottles of Rootless Water they’d obtained from Sienna, the losses would have been even worse. That Rootless Water had been her way of compensating for the collapse of Usher’s "Rule the Dark Dragon Empire" plan.
Usher tossed Sinternan’s severed head aside and ripped the tattered artifact armor from his own body. He looked up at the strange, shifting vision in the sky and muttered, "Is it him?"
"Not sure," Ivy sighed. "But I’m certain—no one else could ascend to godhood this quickly."
When it came to that man, she felt nothing now but admiration—and a hollow helplessness.
On this earth, there was likely no second man qualified to be his opponent.
Even the man Usher once considered his god... he could no longer make out his figure in the distance.
"Any news on Snow Dream?"
Usher’s voice betrayed no joy. His gaze lingered on the burial ground of his fallen brothers, and in the silence of his heart, he asked himself whether his ambitions had truly been worth this cost.
This was war... not a game.
Those men and women who once laughed and fought alongside him—those bold, brash friends—they could die. And many had.
"After she appeared in Forever City, no one’s been able to contact her. Not even TitanBreaker," Ivy replied softly.
She knew well: if not for Orgod, this man before her would have been the true king of the US.
And yet, she still believed Usher would lead them out of the darkness.
"I understand. Keep eyes on her. Report the moment you have news."
Usher sat atop the ruins, the violent sandstorm lashing his face.
Ivy hesitated, then finally spoke up. "You should be prepared... if she could betray Wedge, she could—"
Usher’s hand closed over her forearm. He forced a pale smile. "I understand. Thank you."
Their eyes met, and Ivy’s vision blurred. For the first time, she saw this expression on his face—a mix of guilt and gratitude.
Global Warzone Announcement: "Congratulations to... unknown error, unknown error..."
Countless adventurers blinked in confusion. Who could possibly be recognized by the system as a "god"?
The announcement popped again—only for the text to turn to garbled symbols, then dissolve completely, wiping out the previous message along with it.
People stared, baffled. Probably just a bug. And with survival on the line, no one had time to puzzle over it.
Meanwhile, in the Maple Nation Warzone—
Orson stared up at the "lid" that had suddenly appeared above his head—the fractured Tiamat Chaos Cauldron.
He was startled. He hadn’t summoned it—so why was it here?
Five-colored radiance spilled from the cauldron, wrapping around his body.
That oppressive, soul-trembling sensation of being watched vanished, replaced by an indescribable comfort.
It was like being embraced by a gentle woman, warm and impossible to let go.
He turned to find Sienna hugging him tightly, the Prismatic Gem on her forehead glowing softly, putting some color back into his pale cheeks.
A new buff appeared on his interface:
[Child of No Name – Goddess of Chaos]
Limited Effect: Conceals all information related to "Orgod." You cannot be spied upon by the gods, nor receive blessings from false gods or deities.
They stared at each other for a long while.
Finally, Orson frowned. "Sienna... you feel different to me. Is my intuition off?"
She was still the same playful, adorable sister, but ever since she’d inherited the Prismatic Gem, there’d been subtle changes in her. And now... that feeling was even stronger.
"Different? I just got prettier, that’s all. Ever heard of the ’girl’s eighteen changes’ thing? I’m just... maturing!" She pouted and proudly arched her chest.
Orson rolled his eyes. Fine. No change whatsoever.
"Did you summon this busted cauldron? Because I wasn’t using it."
It annoyed him—it was like having his half-eaten sandwich snatched away so someone else could take a big bite.
Not that he minded sharing... he just hated the feeling.
"Mm-hmm." She nodded without hesitation.
"Show me your stats. I think you’re possessed."
With her [Chaos Immunity] buff, not even the Ancient Sage’s Eye could pierce her status screen.
She stomped his foot hard, lips pouting. "You’re the one who’s possessed! You don’t understand a thing—idiot!"
"Let me see them. I’ll check your skill build."
He wasn’t taking chances—didn’t matter if it was a friendly ghost or an enemy god, if that snake-bodied woman tried anything with his sister, he’d fight her to the death.
"Ugh... are you really going to strip your own sister bare?" She put on a pitiful look that could topple kingdoms.
Orson’s face burned red, and he silenced her the quickest way he knew.
Then he told her firmly—if anything strange happened, she had to tell him immediately, or she’d get her butt tanned.
System Prompt: "Adventurer’s personal specialty, combat style, and class path matched successfully."
"You have acquired the Exclusive Divine Domain: [Supreme Firepower]."
Orson froze, then grinned. "Supreme Firepower... damn, I love that name."
Strength: Pseudo-God.
Description: Divine Domain strength scales with your own rank.
Effect: When [Supreme Firepower] is active, all magic skill cooldowns except SS-rank Forbidden Curses are reset; casting times are removed.
Note 1: Your mana and HP are not increased while the domain is active.
Note 2: Domain cooldown equals its duration. Example: 24 hours active = 24 hours cooldown.
This was god-tier power—
An unending barrage of mini-Forbidden Curses.
As long as his mana held, he could spam S-rank skills like they were basic attacks.
Then a thought hit him—what if he activated [Manifest Heaven and Earth] alongside his Divine Domain: [Supreme Firepower]...
Would he even still count as human?