Two figures meet high in the sky above Isla Delos, the isle of monsters. Human and Elf. Female.

“So it worked?”

“It did.”

“We’re still so weak.”

“We did put up a good fight though given the raw power differential.”

“Maybe twice as powerful as expected?”

“Right, we only need about… 10 billion XP plus or minus.”

“… So you spent all those years guarding that rift? Ever figure out how to open one?”

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It’s been a year since the Third War started. The two sides are in a stalemate, sniping at each other, unable to commit fully, but whittling down their power. They draw from the System, but the regular output is a waif compared to what they have stored already. And, for better or worse, all involved seemed committed to staying on Caelum for this war.

The System observes anxiously, as the war spirals out of his ability to influence. He had played and lost his strongest cards in a bid to unbalance it and push for maximum destruction, but instead no gods died. And now, allt hese months laters, the injured have healed and the healthy injured, back and forth. It’s muted any notification from the Ager side of the System as it tried to come up with a solution to push the war in the direction it wants to.

And so he fails to notice the silenced notifications coming from multiple subsystems. One subsystem provides notice of the detection of a Class F Eldritch rift and incursion. And another subsystem warns of a massive drain of the XP flows in the System.

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