"Quickly, use rescue!" ordered Andre to golden robbed mage next to him.

The man nodded, and a stream of blue light shot out of the mage hand, reaching out for Apollo, who was standing on a falling rock. Before it reached more than a few feet into the chasm, a blue barrier blocked the spell.

The high officer clicked his tongue, "Continue, try to break through!"

"Let's just jump through! We can deal with the lava!" shouted one of a few people left from the red team.

Astre, who till now watched the surrounding area, finally spoke, "I made sure it wouldn't be easy to get out, even if you could fly or teleport. If you try to jump in, you may get paralyzed, frozen, or bound."

"Convenient for you to inform us, so the system doesn't blame you," judged Andre, "I should have guessed it would be possible to trick system like that. The system only counts direct cause and effect, doesn't it?"

Astre shrugged, "Accidents' happen, I forgot that if you make some parts of walls heavier by reinforcing them, they may fall apart if you take away their support from one side."

Looking into the abyss, Astre tried to peer onto the battle taking place bellow, even with his Eye for Details, he was able to only see shapes moving behind all the dust and smoke. Apollo already landed in the lava bellow, but with his early mythic grade armor, he wouldn't die quickly. The gaudy man also seemed to be holding a large club-like object, but Astre couldn't tell what it was.

"Officer Andre! Kick this guy, and let's kill him!" shouted one of his aides.

"I can't, I can only demote him, Young Master would need to do it, and he..." the elf interrupted himself with a sigh. "Also, is this some kind of betrayal?" He asked, looking at the circle of people around Astre.

"We promised," said Sanguine, she and her sister looked restless with weapons in their hands.

"Can we fight?" asked Eclipse.

"Not yet, only when we get the notification we are out of the alliance," Flash informed them.

"I'm a bit disappointed though, that there are only four of us," stated Judgment, looking at the blue-haired fairy mage who sneaked away to the other side. "For all your talk, you still serve your brother."

"This is crazy," Hermes mumbled under his breath.

"That's a nice show you prepared here," Frank spoke overlooking the chasm, standing by Andre. The high officer gave him a glare. "Hey, I'm loyal! Don't worry! Gotta pay my bills somehow!"

"Flash!? How dare you!? After I got you into this guild!?" one guy in black leather coat and two swords shouted from the group.

"Calm down bro, I will let you copy my homework later," Flash said back. "Just after being treated like leftover fodder for so long, made me want to follow someone who was actually serious about the game."

Astre looked at the four next to him and made a complicated face. He didn't expect this. He thought that the sisters may do something weird once they learn of his betrayal, but what did the rest of them hoped to gain was beyond him.

"What's with that look? Be a little thankful, or look at least a bit moved" huffed Judgment. Then asked with a smile, "So, what's the plan?"

Astre looked at her for a moment, sighing he spoke, "I don't know what you expect from me, try and survive?"

"So, what do we do? Do we just run away?" asked Flash.

"Let's do that then," as Astre said that a familiar barrier of lightning appeared around the group.

"You are not going anywhere," a yellow robbed man shouted.

"How is the progress going?" Andre asked, taking his eyes off the traitors for a while. He wanted to slap himself for giving the man any doubt. He couldn't comprehend why someone would do all of this for some stupid tournament.

"Normal spells get through, it's only when we try something to bring them back it gets blocked. Also, that idiot, Jones' brother, jumped in, dashed and short-range warped few times but got struck by a white light, his limbs froze, and he fell down into the lava, I think he burned to death, but it's hard to tell with all the chaos bellow."

"Warned you, not my fault," Astre shrugged.

The adventurer pulled a black metal rod out of his inventory and threw it at the barrier. When the rod connected with the ground near the boundary. The energy of the spell flowed into it, dispersing all of it into the ground. The object was quite expensive, but considering his inventory was filled with things that weren't his, it didn't hurt him.

"Someone, double suicide with him," Andre ordered. "If anyone has any idea how to get past this, do it."

The silver elf pulled out an arrow and readied his bow. He released the projectile, and immediately a figure below fell down. Astre was a bit surprised, he didn't expect teleporting arrow to carry such power. The man also didn't have any problem picking out a target in the chaos below, killing one of the Harbinger's people.

"I guess it's our cue to get away," Astre said, dashing away from his spot as a gust of mighty wind went past him, trying to push him into the hole.

Then the adventurer noticed something, a ray of fire flew in his direction, a loud shout echoed through the mountains, "Astre! I found you!"

He barely dropped under it, "Change of plans, you do your best, I'm getting away. I guess Blaze will be enough of a distraction."

"Wait, what do you mean!?" yelped Judgment.

The blond girl turned around to look at her leader. Instead of her leader, she found a familiar-looking human-sized doll. Realizing what is going to happen, he instantly shouted to the people next to her, "Doll, plan number 12, the black one."

She closed her eyes and covered her mouth, the sisters and Flash reacting a bit slower as a giant cloud of black gas enveloped the area. An angry shout and flames surged upwards, chaos enveloped the area above the chasm.

Astre looked around through the smoke and dust. He already felt as if he was melting, yet he was more than a hundred yards away from where the lava was. The stones burned him through his shoe's soles.

He heard the sounds of the battle taking place at the end of the corridor. The chasm ended up being a bit closer to his position than he anticipated, but at least his doll didn't end up in lava.

He told himself that he would scold the earth mage for half-assing her job if he meets her again. His betrayal not being a point in the discussion. He, after all, did an excellent job for the alliance before he committed his act.

Pulling out his bow, he looked out into the exit of the tunnel. The smoke and hot gasses continued to obscure the view, but being this much closer, it was much easier to see. The combatants also seemed too preoccupied with fighting to notice him.

He saw Harbinger standing on a giant blackened undead amalgamation, it had four skeletal arms that seemed impervious to lava, the rest of its body was a fleshy red and carbonated, and a ribcage that protected its summoner in a shield of black energy.

She was controlling her undead and summoning new ones on every occasion she got. Swearing every time she could between casts. Fighting against the lava to keep her body count. The dying Sunnies helped but only to a point. As her undead made from players had no way to protect themselves from melting.

Few giant undead centipedes served as platforms for the other undead and the rest of Harbinger's team. Astre couldn't find the Zosimos, but he was sure that the mage was hanging around somewhere.

Sunnies' situation was quite bad at first glance. Most of the warriors from red squads died, few hanging onto the rocks or found a place safe from lava. Only Robert seemed to be fine, standing in the middle of the pool of molten rocks.

The Orc used two giant obsidian swords in each hand as he tried to catch up and fight one of the centipedes that swam around. Once he managed to skewer one, he twisted the monster, throwing it into the air. The undead falling off its back as he crushed the insect's head.

Few mages were gathered in the corner of the chasm, Lily using her fifth level spells to turn the lava under them into hot stone. The squad fending off the undead and spells while trying to rescue as many red squad members as they could.

Apollo, on the other hand, was standing on a giant dragon figurine. Reminding him more of 3D models he saw in computer-generated cartoons. The best description he had for it was a cartoonish drawing that came to life.

The dragon fended off enemies with swipes of its claws, sometimes breathing cartoonish fire on the undead, burning them to crisp. Apollo, whose club proved to be a giant wooden brush, pulled out a large piece of paper from his inventory.

On it was a painting of an angel with a sword made of light and fire, this time, it was more realistic in style. Apollo brought up the piece and threw it into the air. With a swipe of his giant brush, he brought it over the paper.

With a flash of light, the figure from the canvas appeared in the air. The sword of swirling fire and light above its head. The white hand went down aimed at the Harbinger.

The gray-haired necromancer cursed as the two hands supporting the undead she used as a platform moved to protect her. The blade connected with arms, lava pulsed as the shockwave pushed it away. The undead couldn't support itself and fell into the lava, bringing its two remaining arms to block the attack.

The attack fizzled out, and the angle retreated backward to Apollo. Harbinger raised herself and stopped bringing back the undead around her, casting a spell the remains of undead in the lava convulsed. The bones and flesh separated. The remains of bodies that were not melted by lava moved and levitated through the air.

Bones formed an undead monstrosity reminiscent of a titan, hovering figure looked over the battlefield, its master standing on its back. The flesh gathered and twisted, dropping repugnant fluids into the lava below. A fleshy eye formed, blasting a bloody-red ray at the leader of Order of Sun.

The angel put itself in the way of the harm and blocked the attack, as the dragon rammed itself into the skeletal giant. The battle between the two leaders ragged on.

On the other side of the room, the red and blue squads slowly regrouped. From the fifty people that fell into the chasm, only twenty were left. It was still a few times more than the Harbinger's alliance if one didn't count the undead.

Suddenly, just as they were going to start their counterattack, the lava around them convulsed and twisted, turning into pillars of thermal fluid that struck at their forces. Lily blocked it at the last second with a giant wall of ice, but she couldn't prevent the pillar of black flames erupting under her feet.

With the leader of the blue squad gone, the rest of the group fell apart, as a flash of light cut them into pieces, killing most of the mages and shaving of LP off the warriors.

Zesimos showed himself levitating above, looking down casually as he took in the sight. Astre could see the master sorcerer moving his lips, muttering something to himself.

Astre readied his bow, charging Snipe silently as his Cover hid him under dust and stone. Observing every movement, waiting for his chance. He would only get one chance.

Robert jumped into the air, his two swords glowing red, aimed at Zesimos. Both arms struck down, the mage didn't even react as the sword never met their target. They stopped mid-air, just in front of its target head.

Zesimos looked over at the warrior, his eyes shone blue as his hands vanished, leaving afterimages as they moved in a practiced motion. Now that Astre could look carefully, he was confident the mage had a similar skill to his Focus.

A powerful force pushed the red warrior away, crashing into the wall. The kinetic energy didn't stop there, threatening to squash the warrior in his own armor. The warrior disappeared only to reappear a few feet away, falling to the ground he caught himself with his arms and knees on the floor.

Picking himself up, he was going to continue his assault, but a red barrier formed around him. Spikes of red energy from the boundary pierced through the warrior and his armor as if it didn't exist. The two swords shone in blue and red light as the warrior slashed at the barrier. Instead of satisfying the sound of it breaking, the energy stretched, avoiding the attack entirely.

The warrior's struggles were reduced to trying and block the attacks, hoping the energy of the barrier would run out sooner than his LP. In the end, Robert lost and fell down to the ground as he took the final attack to his head.

On the other side of the lava pool, a proud shout resounded, "You are quite a worthy foe! You shall fall to the masterpiece I prepared throughout the night!"

"Shut up and just die already!" a ragged female voice echoed in response as the angel that pushed her to her limits fell apart into the lava.

Apollo swiped at his painting. Differently to others, it dissipated into golden dust. The shiny particles gathered in the air, multiplying into a giant mass. The ability molding itself into an imitation of a golden moon, an eye in its center winked, a shining crown of gold above it.

Locking on its target, the whole object shined with golden light, gathering its power and transforming into a blinding ball of energy. It moved, speeding up, flying straight at the Queen of the Dead. Apollo smiled proudly at his masterpiece.

The fleshy eye moved, shooting a red beam of energy at the golden sphere in its final struggle. It did nothing to stop the attack. Consuming the eye and turning it into ashes, heading for Harbinger.

Zesimos teleported in front of the ball, a vacuum of air cut a spiraling hole in the giant projectile. Dissipating it into nothing. Leaving both of the leaders staring agape.

"Abilities are fascinating, the more complex, the more weak points they have, though," The man sighed. Turning to the gray-haired woman behind him, he added, "Be more care..."

He didn't finish as he raised his arm to stop a speeding projectile, barely, just before it broke through the air barrier around his body. He was forced to manually stop three more that flew straight at him, "What a pointless tricks. Do you really think that..."

The mage was once again interrupted as an arrow penetrated his back. Astre released a Trick Shot just after his Snipe. The projectile flying through the air, ricocheting from wall to wall at angles that were outside of the mage's vision.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead before turning around and running away. Even he wasn't sure if that attack would hit. The trajectory of an arrow that bounced five times wasn't something he could reliably predict.

"Ah, I see..." the mage spoke, his relaxed demeanor breaking at the surprise. "It seems I'm dead."

"What the hell do you mean!?" yelped Harbinger.

"Mythic poison, can't cure it without mythical remedy," Zeismos announced, "I will go play with the trickster for a bit. I wish you luck, honey."

With that, the mage was gone, leaving the two leaders to their devices. They stared at each other for a second, waiting for the other to make a move. Finally, the silence was broken by conversation.

"Who in the the seven hells did you bring onto your team?" Harbinger asked, her voice resounding with the irritation.

"Someone unique, someone I would have..." Apollo stopped and shook his head, then added with a cocky smile, "I just need to win here, and he will have no choice but to follow me."

"Hmph, whoever he is, he is already dead. Zesimos in that state won't leave even speck of dust of him, he doesn't show it, but he is boiling inside right now," Harbinger sighed, "Whatever, I will just kill you and survive till the end, it should secure a top-five spot."

"I doubt it," Apollo spoke proudly and swiped with his brush.

Astre retreated deeper into the tunnels, he didn't want to face Zesimos, the man was soon to be dead anyway, there was no need risking dying to his broken spells. The poison should have already lowered the mage's LP once, and as a magical build, he shouldn't have too much of that resource.

When Astre heard a shimmer behind him, he immediately turned around. Zesimos stood there, his face covered in unhealthy purple and black veins. His body, hidden behind the cloth, was already half-rotted.

"That's nasty poison you got there, really makes it hard to focus," the mage commented. Seeing Astre's silence, he continued, "You are also quite hard to find, had to use quite a complicated detection spell to discover your position. Having your arrow helped."

"Ah, an owner detection spell, I guess?" Astre guessed facing the mage.

"So you know your magic," the mage commented. "I think I recognize that voice from somewhere."

A push of wind threw Astre's hood off. His short blond hair flattering a bit before calming down. He didn't even see the casting of the spell, this situation gave Astre creeps on his back.

"Oh, you are that fifth place in the last tournament, Astre, right?" the mage asked.

"Yes, I'm guessing you are not here just for pleasantries?" asked the adventurer.

"No, but I can end you within seconds, I still have a bit over a minute, so why not talk a bit?" Zesimos shrugged, fully confident of himself.

"Sure," answered Astre. If he could talk the mage to death, it was all good for him. He was ready, though.

"Not biting back? Don't delude yourself that you are in control of the situation. You may have taken me by surprise, I commend you for that. Just remember that you are far from outsmarting me, the tournament is already over for you," the mage admonished, clearly irritated.

"So it is for you," Astre shot back.

The mage eyes turned stone cold. Astre twitched and made sure no attack was coming from anywhere. Zesimos scoffed and shook his head.

"So you got some backbone, at least," the spellcaster resounded. "What I'm wondering about is, why someone like you would be with Sunnies? Are they paying that well?"

"They do, but I think you are mistaken about something," Astre answered back. "I threw them into lava with you, I doubt I'm part of the team anymore."

"Ah, so that's why. I just thought Sunnies wanted to do something stupid again after they tried to play smart," Zesimos said with realization. "Honestly, I was a bit surprised they climbed so high in the ratings. I thought they got lucky."

"I just got unlucky," stated Astre.

"Hmm," the mage considered the vines on his face enlarged once more. The rot spread to his neck, yet he still spoke, "I guess you are hoping that Sunnies' leader will defeat my wife. I would say the fight can go both ways."

"Yes, I don't think I ever saw Apollo fighting, he always mostly stands and watched his army. It's a bit surprising. I wanted you to kill him, but since the chance presented itself," Astre explained.

"It seems you were the most significant threat all along," Zasimos stated before gasping from pain. "It's time to start this."

Astre immediately noticed four ethereal limbs drilling from rocks below him, trying to grab his legs and arms. He Dodge Shot backward at the mage, the projectile missing the mage head.

The mage smiled at him, only for an explosion of freezing ice to consume him. A surge of ice enveloped the rear half of his body in an instant. Astre turned around as a cloud of black gas filled the tunnel from a grenade he threw behind him.

The world turned gray, Astre felt pain when something pierced his body from behind, growing and tearing his body apart as projectile enlarged itself. When the world came back to normal, he ignored the residual pain and threw himself to the side.

Astre thought he heard a murmur behind him when his vision turned monochrome once more. The ground under him opened and consumed him completely, fusing him and rock into one. He immediately pushed himself away as he gasped for air.

Once again, the world turned into shades of grey. Astre's eyesight grew hazy, yet the pain didn't relent when a hand of mana pierced his chest, crushing his heart.

He pulled out a vial of blue dust and threw it at the incoming hand, dispersing the attack as the purple mana melted and fell to the ground. Astre heaved slowly for air. The pain in his temples was the worst he has ever felt. Something was clearly wrong, as the game should never get to this level.

Yet he had no time to contemplate it as another vision emerged. This time the mage himself teleported next to him. Out of his hand, a wave of energy disintegrated everything in front of him. A line of dark red on his left part of the stomach.

Astre couldn't ignore the agony, yet he forced his body to act, dropping down he kicked the arm of teleporting mage up. The spell released a stream of blue energy that destroyed everything in its way. With a tremble, Astre pulled out his sword, loaded with a vial of blue liquid.

"What the..." Zesimos didn't finish his surprised outcry.

The adventurer with his left hand supporting his body weight as blood streamed down his eyes, pierced the mage's stomach. The blue liquid spraying inside the mage, clouds of blue steam emerged from the mage as he stepped backward.

The mage clearly took damage from whatever spell he was preparing running wild. The potion of berserk magic did it work, tearing apart the formation he was preparing.

Yet even as the mage fell to the ground, Astre vision turned grey once more. The mage turned into raging energy as all matter around him exploded and melted into pure wild power.

When the world returned to normal, Astre barely managed to pull out his bow and dash backward. Using Instant Trap to create a field of anti-magic in front of him and using two runes of earth wall spell.

His eyesight was filled with red, he couldn't hear anything, the world was dim and hazy. His body was too heavy to move. Everything went black.

Astre woke up with a groan, his body felt heavy and everything swam and fizzled in front of his eyes. He tried to stand up, but the dizziness and pain hit him. He vomited on the floor, trying to think what the hell was wrong.

First, he thought that maybe he was under the confusion status effect, but when he opened his status, nothing was wrong there. Outside of only having two LP left.

He could feel his heartbeat going wild as he raised himself barely with the help of his arms. Something was clearly wrong, the game should have never been able to push the player's mind that far.

Focusing his vision, he examined the location and finally noticed that the lower half of his body was hanging over a crater. It explained why his LP was so low, he must have gotten caught up in the explosion.

His armor was already regenerating, which must have meant he must have been out for more than a few minutes. He quickly got up, he balanced his body as dizziness hit him again.

He examined if he had any new notifications. He had one, praying, he opened it. He read it three times, focusing his eyesight on making sure he read it correctly as the letters faded out and relocated in his vision, yet, despite it, there it was. He smiled.

Your alliance has been disbanded due to the death of the leader.

Astre prepared to move, was out for too long, he needed to find Harbinger now. He tried to run, but his legs wouldn't let him. His knees gave up, falling to the ground, he noticed something shining and trembling on the ground.

Picking it up, he realized that it was the key he got before. The inscription on it shined with a soft glow, he turned it around a bit and it shined more brightly when he faced it in the direction of the crater, now that he paid attention, Astre saw there was a small hole in the ground, leading into a pit of darkness.

He shook his head, he would remember this and investigate this later. Now he had to find the Queen of the Dead and hope his plan would come to fruition. Supporting himself against the wall, he walked as fast as he could.

Harbinger cursed under her breath. This whole battle was a waste of time. She should have turned around the second her first officer died in the third surprise attack. The last ability of that gaudy man nearly killed her too.

Her left arm was pulverized completely, and she didn't have LP to heal it. She kept her pain setting low, so it didn't hurt her, but it still messed with her sense of balance as she hanged on a back of an undead.

She brought the idiotic leader down with her final spell that summoned the Gate of Afterlife, a giant purple hand that grabbed her enemy and crushed them. Inflicting multiple negative status effects.

Yet despite having all limbs crushed, Apollo still pulled a piece of paper out his mouth with line art of a fist on it. Summoning a giant arm that smashed her into a ground and wasted her last LP.

She tried to look for any of her remaining officers, but she only heard a few of the Sunnies running around. After their alliance dissolved, they didn't know what to do and tried to get back to the surface. She barely managed to hid in a tunnel before they found her.

She had over five hundred fifty points on her right now. The points that resulted from her officers and Zesimos' death ended up going back to her. She now had to take care of them and try to survive until the end.

With this many points, she was more than likely to place in the top three. With that, she would get the bonus to her paycheck. Though she would probably use it to pay off that stupid loan that Zesimos took. Sometimes her husband bought the weirdest things, who needed a machine that spun around and was used for training astronauts.

Walking, she saw a tunnel that led further into the cave system. She sighed once more, maybe she would stay underground for the next fifty or so hours. She didn't bother to check the clock.

She closed her eyes and massaged her temples, then the constant dull pain that assaulted them was gone. She opened her eyes to the familiar sight of commentary that was her player lobby. Staring at it in confusion.

Astre sighed as he put his bow back into the inventory. He only managed to charge the Snipe halfway before the pain in his head got unbearable. Still, he smiled when he saw his points.

Gathered Points: 638

The leaderboard update was a bit less than an hour away. Still, unless something crazy happened, Astre would be in the first place with a crushing advantage.

It also meant that now every player would be looking for him, he wasn't part of an alliance, but if no one killed him, one of the top three spots was his. There was still a chance that someone would take the first place too. If one got a chance to kill the remaining Star of Genesis and their officers, they would have more than enough points to overtake him.

He wondered how many Star of Genesis were left in the game. Not counting Draq, only the unkillable Dozer and the mysterious Ghost were on the leaderboard. All in the top ten. Considering they could team up left their actual number a puzzle. He didn't even know which have been killed outside of Myst that disappeared off the leaderboard and the two he finished himself.

Walking through the corridors, he had secured beforehand, was a slow process. He made sure to not step on his own traps. He was still dizzy, and the pain threatened to crush his skull, which made avoiding and picking up his delicate traps a drag.

It took him over half an hour to finally haul himself to the exit. It was overlooking the destroyed camp of the Sunnies, with a path leading deep into the mountains.

He got ready to make sure he left unnoticed, disappearing deep into mountains and find somewhere he could rest. He stopped and shook his head, considering himself an idiot, he walked over to the edge and with a pained breath used Cover.

There he saw many bodies on the ground, most burned and turned into a crisp. Yet strangely enough, there was a pile of bodies to the side that had the tell marks of being devastated by lightning. He could see on their broken armors and burned clothes leftover insignia of either Order of the Sun or Blaze's guild Blazing Symphony.

Looking around, he found the remaining leader, fighting against five people. His eyes widened, seeing who it was. A giant ax and sword of light tried to decapitate her as Blaze skillfully prevented both attacks, deflecting them with her staff.

Judgment summoned a single thunder from the sky to struck the fiery leader, lowering her LP. Hermes casting a shield to stop firebolts in front of her. The protection broke, and the explosion threw them away, yet both of them quickly got to their feet.

The two sisters continued their onslaught when Flash teleported behind Blaze's back. The assassin looked quite ragged from the fight, with multiple burns all over his body. Yet his two daggers aiming for her neck were lightning fast.

"This won't work again!" Blaze screamed as a tornado of flames threw the three attackers backward.

Then from the fire, a staff covered in flames appeared above the assassin's rolling body. It struck down, piercing the man's chest as blood sprayed into the air before the wound cauterized. Flash's arms fell flatly to the ground, his body sprawling lifelessly as the weapon was pulled out.