Debris rained down. The Core Crystal cracked but held.

Then, silence.

Dust settled. The heat began to dissipate.

Alvian opened his eyes. The ice cocoon shattered.

They were alive.

He looked around. The chamber was ruined. Sunlight streamed in through massive cracks in the walls. Real sunlight.

"We landed," Seraphina whispered, checking her limbs. "We're... on the ground."

Alvian stood up. He staggered. His [Genesis Mode] ended, and the backlash hit him. His stats plummeted. His mana bar greyed out.

[Debuff: Soul Exhaustion.]

[All stats reduced by 90% for 24 hours.]

"Ugh," Alvian groaned. "I feel like I got hit by a planet."

"You did," Seraphina pointed out, helping him up.

They climbed out of the wreckage of the Core room, emerging onto what used to be the Admin District.

The Academy was a ruin. Towers had toppled. The streets were buckled. But the main structures were intact.

Skiffs were landing all around. Students were pouring out, coughing, crying, but alive.

Valeria came running through the dust. She had lost her helmet. Her face was covered in soot.

"Alvian!" She tackled him in a hug. "You crazy... magnificent... bastard!"

"Easy," Alvian winced. "My ribs are dust."

Professor George limped over, looking at the devastation.

"It's gone," George said sadly. "Overlords Academy... the sky island... it's gone."

"The island is gone," Alvian corrected, looking at the horizon. They were in a valley now, surrounded by mountains. "The Academy is just on the ground floor now."

But the peace didn't last.

"SKREEEE!"

A screech echoed from the crater beneath the island.

From the cracks in the earth, black smoke rose.

The Shadow Vestige wasn't dead. The crash hadn't killed it. It had merged with the ley lines of the surface.

A massive, shadowy form rose from the dust. It looked like a hydra made of oil.

[Boss: Void Amalgamation]

[Level: 48]

[Status: Berserk]

"It followed us down!" Valeria shouted, drawing her sword. "Defensive positions!"

The Vanguard formed a line, but they were exhausted. Their mana was gone.

The Amalgamation roared, preparing to sweep them away.

Alvian tried to summon his Lance. It flickered and vanished. No mana.

"I'm tapped out," Alvian said.

"So are we," Seraphina said, clutching her daggers. "But we can't let it finish us off."

The monster lunged.

Suddenly, a beam of light hit it from the side.

Then a fireball. Then an arrow.

Alvian looked back.

The students.

Not just the Vanguard. The Arcanists. The Phantoms. The Sentinels. Even the freshmen.

Thousands of students stood on the ruins of the Academy. They were battered, bruised, and scared. But they were angry.

"GET OFF OUR SCHOOL!" a freshman shouted, throwing a rock.

It wasn't much. But it was a start.

"Attack!" Valeria roared.

It wasn't a coordinated raid. It was a mob. Five thousand students unleashed whatever mana they had left.

"FIREBALL!"

"LIGHTNING BOLT!"

"ROCK THROW!"

A rain of low-level spells hit the Amalgamation.

[-10] [-5] [-20]

Individually, they were weak. Collectively, it was a storm.

The monster flinched. It was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of attacks.

"They're chipping it down," Seraphina laughed. "Death by a thousand cuts."

Alvian watched. He saw the unity. The Factions were gone. There was only the Academy.

"Efficiency," Alvian smiled.

He looked at his inventory. He had one item left.

The [Shard of the Avatar's Mask].

It still had a charge of Divine Authority.

"Hey, ugly!" Alvian shouted, stepping forward.

The Amalgamation turned to him.

Alvian held up the mask shard.

"Kneel."

He channeled his will—not his mana, his will—into the shard.

The shard flashed. A pulse of Authority hit the monster.

[Status Effect: Command.]

The Amalgamation froze. It faltered.

"NOW!" Alvian screamed.

Valeria jumped. She didn't use a skill. She used gravity. She jumped off a ruined tower and drove her sword into the monster's head.

"DIE!"

The sword pierced the core.

The Amalgamation shrieked and dissolved into sludge.

[Threat Neutralized.]

The students cheered. It was a roar that shook the mountains.

Alvian sat down on a piece of rubble. He was done.

"We survived," Alvian whispered.

He looked at his hand. The [Shard] crumbled to dust.

The battle was over.

------

The dust took three days to settle.

Overlords Academy was no longer a jewel in the sky. It was a fortress in a crater. The landing had reshaped the geography of the Silverwood region, creating a new mountain range of debris and mana crystals.

Alvian sat on the edge of what used to be the Astronomy Tower, now little more than a stump of stone. His stats were slowly returning, the [Soul Exhaustion] fading.

He looked out at the world.

The landscape had changed. The mana from the crash had mutated the local flora. Trees were glowing blue. Animals were larger, more aggressive.

"The Convergence," Alvian noted. "It's leaking."

The barrier between worlds hadn't broken fully, but it was thin. The game world mechanics were bleeding into reality faster than before.

Steps approached behind him.

"You're hard to find," Valeria said. She wasn't wearing armor. She wore a simple tunic, her arm bandaged. "The Headmaster wants to give you a medal."

"He can keep it," Alvian said. "I prefer loot."

Seraphina popped up from the shadows. "We found the Syndicate's stash in the wreckage. Lots of gold. And this."

She tossed him a data crystal.

"It's a list," Seraphina said grimly. "Syndicate cells. Worldwide. They aren't just here, Alvian. They're in the Capital. The Empire. everywhere."

Alvian caught the crystal.

"Target list," Alvian corrected.

"What now?" Valeria asked, sitting next to him. "The school is ruined. We're grounded."

"We rebuild," Alvian said. "We turn this crater into a fortress. Because they'll come back."

He looked at his two companions. The Knight and the Rogue.

"And we need to be ready."

Alvian stood up. He looked at his interface.

[Level 50 (Capped)]

[Quest: The Convergence]

[Time Remaining: 6 Months.]

The timeline had halved again.

"Six months," Alvian whispered.

"Until what?" Valeria asked.

"Until the real game starts," Alvian said.

He turned to them, his eyes glowing with the violet light of the Void.

"Class is dismissed," Alvian said. "Now, the grinding begins."

He walked toward the ruins of the Genesis Forge. He had a dagger to upgrade. And a world to save.

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