The Seed wasn't fading. It was pulsing faster, drinking the blood of the fallen Boss, absorbing the lingering mana of the battle.

"Get back," Alvian said, his voice dropping to a whisper that carried more terror than a scream. "Get back now!"

Because he knew. The quest wasn't marked 'Complete'.

The silence that followed Malagor's death lasted exactly three seconds.

Then, the world screamed.

It wasn't a sound heard with the ears, but felt in the marrow of the bone. A psychic tear in the fabric of reality. The Master Seed, hovering above the dais, cracked open. It didn't release a plant or a wave of magic. It released a Void.

A pillar of absolute, negative light shot upward from the seed, punching a hole through the violet clouds and into the atmosphere. The temperature in the sanctum, which had been bearable thanks to their gear, plummeted instantly to levels that defied physics.

[WARNING! Environmental Anomaly Detected!]

[Absolute Zero Field manifesting.]

[Your equipment durability is degrading rapidly.]

[All healing received reduced by 100%.]

"My staff!" Elara cried out. The wood of her healer's staff turned grey and disintegrated into dust in her hands.

"What is happening?!" Arin backed away, his eyes bulging. "We killed him! We killed the Lord!"

Alvian stood his ground, the frost accumulating on his eyebrows and lashes. He watched the pillar of light. He knew this scene. He had seen it in the history books of his past life. This was the moment Silverwood was erased from the map.

"Malagor was a battery," Alvian said, his voice flat. "His death was the final sacrifice. The trigger."

From the hole in the sky, something began to descend. It wasn't a physical body. It was a face. A colossal, translucent visage made of starlight and glaciers, pushing through the veil between dimensions. It was the size of the mountain itself.

[Calamity Manifestation: Avatar of Engels, the Frost Monarch]

[Level: ???]

[Status: Descending]

Two eyes, vast as lakes and cold as the void, opened and looked down into the sanctum.

The pressure was instantaneous.

"UGH!"

Valeria dropped to one knee, her shield clattering to the floor. Arin collapsed, foaming at the mouth, his mind unable to comprehend the density of the mana crushing him. Elara curled into a ball, whimpering.

Only Alvian remained standing. His legs trembled, his bones creaked, but his [Heart of Frost] attunement resonated with the entity. It recognized him not as prey, but as a speck of similar matter.

"WHO…"

The voice boomed in their minds, bypassing their ears.

"WHO… BROKE… MY… CRADLE?"

The Avatar raised a hand—a limb the size of a skyscraper—and brought a finger down toward the dais. It moved slowly, agonizingly so, but the atmospheric pressure pushed the squad flat against the floor.

"We're going to die," Valeria gasped, blood leaking from her nose. She looked at Alvian. "Alvian… do something."

Alvian looked at her. For the first time, his face showed a crack in the armor of his indifference. He calculated. He had his ring. He had his skills. But against a Calamity Avatar? Even a Level 100 player would be an ant. This was a scripted loss. A cutscene of death.

'No,' Alvian thought. 'I refused the script in the tutorial. I refuse it now.'

He reached into his inventory. He grabbed the [Corrupted Sap Crystal] he had found earlier. He grabbed every mana potion he had.

"If I overload the Seed…" he muttered, his mind racing through impossible equations.

But before he could move, the space beside him tore open.

It wasn't the cold tear of the monster. It was a precise, burning tear of teleportation magic.

"Fascinating! Truly fascinating! The atmospheric density is off the charts!"

A manic voice cut through the despair. A figure in a stained lab coat, riding a floating, rune-encrusted chair, shot out of the portal. He was followed by an elderly man leaning on a cane, his face grim.

Professors Rogge and Solaka.

"Professor!" Valeria choked out.

Rogge adjusted his goggles, looking up at the descending finger of the god. "Ah, Engels. Nasty fellow. Terrible conversationalist. Solaka, shield the children. I want to scan it before it squashes us."

Solaka slammed his cane down.

"[Sanctuary of the High Scholar]."

A dome of golden script erupted around the squad. The crushing pressure vanished instantly. Arin took a huge, gasping breath.

"You're late," Alvian said, looking at Rogge.

"A wizard is never late, boy," Rogge cackled, tapping furiously on a data slate. "We arrive precisely when the data becomes interesting. And this? This is delicious."

The Avatar of Engels paused, its colossal finger hovering meters above Solaka's barrier. It sensed the new power.

"ANTS…"

"Ants?" Rogge sneered, floating up to face the god. "I prefer the term 'Variables'. Listen to me, you overgrown ice cube! This is Academy territory! Your visa has been revoked!"

Rogge pulled a lever on his chair. A battery of cannons strapped to the sides deployed, humming with unstable red energy.

"Alvian," Rogge called down, not looking back. "You wanted to know what happens when you break the rules? Watch closely. This is what a Level 80 Anomaly looks like."

The Avatar roared, breathing a cone of absolute cold that could freeze time itself.

Rogge didn't dodge. He laughed.

"Fire in the hole!"

He unleashed a barrage of chaotic, red lightning that tore into the God's face. The battle for survival had ended. The battle of the monsters had begun.

The Inner Sanctum had ceased to be a physical room and had become a chaotic singularity of conflicting magic. Above, the Avatar of Engels pressed down with the weight of an entire dimension of ice. Below, Solaka's golden dome held the line, groaning under the strain. And in the middle, Professor Rogge was a gnat fighting a hurricane.

Rogge zipped through the air on his floating chair, dodging shards of ice the size of houses. His red lightning spells were powerful—each hit dealing damage that would have vaporized Alvian ten times over—but against the Avatar's health bar, they were barely scratches.

[-15,000!]

[-18,000!]

[Target Health: 99.8%]

"Regeneration!" Rogge shouted over the roar of the wind. "He's connected to the Ley Lines! Infinite mana! He's healing faster than I can damage him!"

Solaka, sweating profusely as he maintained the shield, looked up. "Rogge! The barrier is at 40%! We need to evacuate the students!"

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