Chapter 26: A World in Flames
[Urgent Hero Quest Issued]
[Difficulty: SS-Grade]
[Details: Slay the ancient dragon, Tenebris.]
[Reward: Inherit the dragon's essence.]
[Penalty: Fall of Eryndor.]
[Time limit: 2:29:20…]
The glowing screen flickered to life before me, its cold light slicing through the chaos that surrounded me. My mind struggled to process what was happening. A dragon? What was all this? Stats, skills, quests, none of it made any sense. It felt so foreign, yet strangely familiar, as though I had known it all along without ever truly understanding. But none of that mattered now. Not with the destruction unfolding before me.
That’s when it hit me: I wasn’t supposed to be here. The Trial. This wasn’t real. This was just another test, another step in whatever twisted game they were forcing me to play.
[Third to ? Trial]
[Description: Achieve fame and feats. Each feat will be counted as one trial. Field of Swords is temporarily disabled. Death is activated.]
[Progression: Kill the Demon King: 0/1. Kingslayer: 1/1. Become a Hero: 10%. ???. ???. ???. ???. ???. ???. ???.]
[Time limit: 362 days 10:23:43…]
Another achievement. Another meaningless goal. What did it even mean to become a hero? Was that what this Trial wanted from me? My head buzzed with unanswered questions, but they quickly faded as the roar of the dragon split the air.
The dragon, Tenebris, a beast of nightmare proportions, darkened the sky above the city. Its monstrous form loomed, casting a shadow that seemed to swallow the very air. A wave of purple flames burst from its maw, a torrent of destruction that set the city ablaze. The heat was unbearable, as though the very fabric of reality was burning away. The soldiers, the citizens, none of them stood a chance. But it didn’t matter to me. None of them mattered.
This was just part of the Trial. The fall of Eryndor was inevitable. The dragon was a force of nature, and I was merely a pawn in this chaotic game.
I felt a strange numbness, an emotional distance from the destruction around me. I should have felt something, guilt, horror, disgust, but instead, I felt nothing. The world burned, people died, and I just kept running. Was that what this Trial wanted? To strip me of everything that made me human? To turn me into nothing more than a machine, programmed to survive?
The city around me screamed in its final moments, but I had no interest in saving it. My focus remained on the screen in front of me, the unyielding system demanding that I play along.
[Become a Hero]
[Details: Become a True Hero.]
[Progress: 10%]
Another quest, another meaningless task. What did it even take to become a "hero" in this hellscape? My thoughts were interrupted by another roar from Tenebris. The dragon unleashed another massive wave of purple fire, its scorching intensity turning the very air to ash. The city burned beneath its assault, and I could do nothing to stop it.
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I didn’t need to stop it. This wasn’t my fight. I wasn’t here to save anyone.
But then, something shifted.
I remembered the unallocated stat points. A flicker of instinct, a primal urge to survive.
[Ding!]
[All unallocated stat points allocated to Agility.]
[Agi-109]
Suddenly, my body surged with power. My limbs moved faster than I had ever known. There was no time to think, only to act. I ran, darting through the ruined streets, past the crumpled buildings and charred corpses, the echoes of the dying filling my ears. Every step was automatic, calculated, like my body knew exactly what to do even if my mind couldn’t keep up.
Despite the horrors unfolding around me, I kept my head clear. This was a game, and I had a role to play. My survival was the only thing that mattered now.
The front gate of Eryndor, once a symbol of the city’s might, lay in ruins. The massive walls had been reduced to rubble, twisted metal and stone scattered across the streets. For a fleeting moment, confusion gripped me. Why was I running? Why couldn’t I stop?
But there was no time for answers. Something inside me, some primal instinct, urged me forward. I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop.
I ran for hours, the world around me a blur of smoke and flame. The once-proud city, now nothing but a charred memory, stretched behind me. I didn’t look back. What was there to see? The city was already gone, reduced to nothing.
In the distance, Tenebris stood atop the rubble of what had once been the royal castle. The dragon roared again, a terrifying sound that shook the earth beneath my feet. It released a massive beam of purple fire, the intensity of which lit up the sky even from miles away. The blast was so powerful that it numbed my mind, rendering me unable to comprehend what I was seeing. The very air crackled with its fury, the heat so intense it felt like it could melt the horizon.
And then, the screen flickered once more.
[Urgent Hero Quest Failed]
[Details: With none to protect it, the capital, Eryndor, falls under the might of the ancient disaster. The entire world is thrust into chaos.]
[Penalty: Fall of Eryndor.]
I stood frozen, the weight of the notification settling over me. Eryndor was gone. It had all burned to the ground in the span of mere moments. But it didn’t matter. It was just a part of the Trial. The city, the people, none of them were real.
And then another screen appeared, confirming the dread I had been suppressing.
[Achievement Complete!]
[Dark Fate]
[Details: You have somehow managed to put the world into a spiral towards damnation. All ancient disasters awaken. Demons, beasts, and monsters will become more active. Reproduction rate and fertility rate amongst beasts and monsters increase by 1000%. Removes alternate achievement, Bright Fate.]
Oh shit.
[Time limit: 362 days 07:34:52…]
The time was ticking, but it didn’t matter. The weight of the words felt like a distant echo. Dark Fate? The world spiraling towards damnation? It was all just another challenge, another trial I had to endure. A part of me wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all, but the deeper, more instinctual part of me could feel the dread creeping in. This wasn’t the end. It was only the beginning.
I should have been used to it by now. The chaos, the madness, the sense that everything was falling apart, one trial after another. But this… this felt different. The weight of it all, of everything I had failed to stop, crushed me. I wasn’t sure I could survive what came next. And for the first time, a question whispered at the back of my mind: Did I even want to survive?