MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

'What is that Entity? Why did she give me an emergency quest to kidnap it without involving the elders?' Alex questioned as he sprinted through the empty expanse, heading straight for the capital city, Nova.

After the meeting with the First Guardian, Alex was made aware of Lady Enigma, the entity behind the Ruler system, and the creation of the guardians.

As much as this entity was painted as a wellwisher of the domain and peace, Alex knew she had her own agenda, but that aside, he could also not deny she was helping the world irrespective of what her end goal was with nurturing domain Rulers and guardians.

So even though he was being told to dive head first into trouble with the fishy restriction of not letting the guardians know, Alex was willing to do it because he felt that Lady Enigma would not harm him, and the potion he was given as a resource for the quest was proof of it.

The potion named World's Embrace was of unknown quality, and after drinking it, Alex gained complete invisibility from all senses and immunity to both physical and spiritual harm for ten minutes.

The potion gave broken benefits, as a protective layer covered his skin, making him immune to any damage, with not even the impact of a sword being felt by him, and with Lady Margaret unable to sense him when he stood a few meters away from her, proved his ghost-like presence.

However, Alex also realized that if he was given such a miracle potion, there should be great risk in this seemingly simple-looking mission, and the fact that he was instructed not to involve the Elders suggested that if they knew of the mission, they might have stopped him from doing it.

But Alex was still doing this mission because he knew his value to the Domain, and if Lady Enigma was willing to risk putting him in harm's way, then the task must be of immense importance.

Alex still had a thousand questions, but he got their answers once he was done with this mission, so for the time being, he was keeping his head clear and rushing to the capital city, knowing time was running out.

'Well, this was quick,' Alex thought as he received a video call from Venedikt. Knowing it was Varon's doing, he declined the call but sent a quick message to reassure them that he was okay.

After more than five minutes of sprinting, the familiar sight of the ruined capital city and the imposing dark dome looming on it came into his sight, but there was an addition.

A massive pillar of light stood amidst the dark dome, reaching high into the cloudy sky, with its appearance resembling a cascade of a million rays of light descending from above.

Alex did not need to guess to know that this pillar of energy was most definitely a sign of passage that Demons planned to build, connecting the two continents.

Alex had not forgotten that their mission was to stop the demon general from opening a portal, but after finding traitors in their own ranks and with Ahrimon sacrificing an important pawn to personally descend, he had little hope of them stopping the descend of the demon general.

However, the human continent was not doomed just yet, as Elders had informed Alex that even if the portal opened, it would not stay open for long because to keep it open, a massive amount of energy would be required, and once they dealt with the growing chaos in cities and wilderness, the source of energy would be cut off.

As for how they plan to deal with the invading demons, it was by using the Omen Cube that Alex had acquired after killing Caden, an artifact that could create a nearly impenetrable barrier that even early-stage Elemental Ruler would fail to break through.

They also had other countermeasures prepared, so while many innocents would die, it was fate much better than the annihilation of 80% of the continent's population.

Alex still felt gutted by the loss of life, but he was performing all he could, and as burdening himself with something out of his control was illogical, so he was not really mentally affected by what was to come.

'Let's expect everything goes well,' Alex thought as he zoomed into the dome of darkness.

'I am not seeing things, Right?' Alex queried as he saw the unbelievable sense before his eyes.

Alex had his eyes of the ancient active, so he saw clear as day in the cloudy darkness, and what he saw created him question reality, as the Six beastly creatures whom he knew as the Six Chaos Spawn generals were frolicking around the dark-

winged entity like overly happy dogs.

The entity was caressing the white serpentine dragon with one hand and giving the three-headed Cerberus dog belly rubs, with the golden monkey with four arms circling it, seemingly jumping in pure joy.

The three remaining creatures, a long-necked blue feathered bird, a giant pitch-dark spider with a scorpion-looking tail, and the gray wolf, were standing around it with their puppy eyes fixed on it.

Alex did not understand why the creatures he knew were once at the helm of an army that plunged the world into death and chaos, were playing around with the dark entity.

But the most surprising thing to Alex was the appearance of Lady Margaret floating in the sky, with a complex look on her face, silently watching the entity caressing the dreadful creatures.

'What is going on?' Alex thought, confused by the whole scenario.

Alex was expecting the elders to be going mad with worry and trying to look for him, but while one elder was busy dealing with the traitor, the other was watching the dark entity whom he believed was working for Ahrimon playing with chaos generals.

'I am not in an illusion, right? Surely it cannot be, as I should be immune to all spiritual attacks for ten minutes, so what the hell is going on?' Alex thought, not having a clue.

Alex was not provided much time to linger on these thoughts, as a loud voice, like glass being shattered mask with iron scratching against iron, tore through the silence.

Alex shifted his eyes toward the source of it, and in a glance, he saw the change in the vortex of light that was also the end point of the energy pillar, hungrily devouring the continuous source of energy and now at its center where moments ago was nothing a dark hole in the fabric of the space had appeared, which was gradually growing in size.

'Time is running out, so let's wrap this up,' Alex thought as he moved toward the winged entity whom he was ordered to kidnap.

But like waiting for him to move, Lady Margaret smiled, and instantly, a cloak of crimson liquid began to manifest in the surroundings, cloaking her, the entity, and the six chaos spawns in a blood-red dome.

'NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO,' Alex screamed in horror, knowing this wasLady Margaret's Elemental Domain in action.

Alex rushed forward using the void step, pushing his body to the limit, crossing the distance of close to a kilometer in under three seconds, and zooming head first into the red dome, not caring if he would crash into the creatures inside.

Alex crashed into the tarantula scorpion, feeling a bit relieved, but raising his head, he was welcomed with the horrifying sight of not the thousand shining yet confused eyes but the missing presence of both Lady Margaret and the dark-winged entity.