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The people tried to run, but a colossal barrier of divine energy blocked their escape, burning them to a crisp the instant they touched it. Panic and screams tore through the streets as twisted versions of the monsters they had hunted thousands of times inside the dungeons now emerged to hunt them all.

Abyssal Goos slithered through the city, consuming entire buildings and dissolving dozens of people within their gelatinous bodies.

Miasmic Spectral Wyverns soared through the skies, spewing abyssal nether flames that burned the souls of their victims until nothing remained but charred corpses.

Death Walkers—skinny humanoid monsters with elongated arms and fingers—impaled people on their long nails and devoured them, crunching through flesh and splattering blood and innards across the ground.

It was despair. Utter agony. Horror.

All those dark emotions gathered into a giant black cloud above her, which she absorbed. Evil Gods, after all, drew power from inflicting fear upon mortals and from sacrifices. Their divinities had twisted into something malevolent, thriving on destruction and despair.

"Hahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Lolth’s laughter echoed through the mountains as darkness and miasma flooded the halls of the gigantic city of Evercraft. Its population began to fall rapidly.

The Divinity of the System that Sylph had created was powerful and offered opportunities, but in the end it granted no direct power to fight back without effort.

Effort that they no longer had time to give.

Those granted systems still died—crushed, trampled, eaten alive, torn to shreds—as blood and guts painted the streets.

Despair, agony, and fear spread everywhere, so intensely that they began to warp space itself. The entire city of Evercraft—no, the whole Blue Mountain—was transforming into a Twisted Hellscape, Lolth’s playground, her dominion.

A little girl ran through a dark alley with her mother, blood and screams echoing all around them while flames devoured entire buildings. The world seemed to be ending.

Giant monstrosities stalked every street, snatching people up and eating them alive. Tears streamed down the girl’s face as she clutched her mother’s hand and ran.

"Mom! Mom! We’re going too fast, my legs..."

"W-We have to hurry—run faster— Agh...!"

"Mom!"

The girl saw her mother collapse to the ground. Half of her body had turned dark purple, a cursed sigil spreading rapidly across her skin.

Her mother spasmed, vomiting blood as miasma poured from her eyes and ears. Then she began to break apart and explode.

"M-Mom? MOM!!!"

"R-Run...! RUN..."

Her mother begged her to escape as her entire body shattered and burst open. Something inside tore its way out from a wound in her chest, ripping her face apart like a discarded husk.

"A-Aeeh... uuuhh... Oooogh..."

It let out guttural sounds. A warped echo of her mother’s voice could still be heard within it, but the being that emerged was a monstrous humanoid—skinny, pitch-black, covered in purple crystals, with a twisted, stretched, and aberrant version of her mother’s face.

"M-Mom...?"

The girl fell to the ground in despair, eyes widening, head shaking, tears pouring down her face as her body froze in terror.

"Mom...? Mooooom?"

The creature let out a monstrous roar and walked toward her, extending its clawed hand.

CRASH!

"Aaaaahh! Momm!!!"

The girl screamed in agony as the creature seized her arm and twisted it, exposing bone and blood. She cried out in excruciating pain.

"Stop, Mom! It hurts! It hurts!!! A-Ah...!"

But she fell silent as she saw her "mother" open its massive jaws, revealing hundreds of razor-sharp teeth and a long, dripping tongue.

"Aaaaahhhhh!!!"

CRUNCH!

...

However, as the girl closed her eyes to die, she realized life still clung to her. Her eyes snapped open. Her "mother" had stopped moving—something else had struck it.

A glowing emerald axe, overflowing with emerald winds and golden thunder, descended. A towering figure stepped forward: a giant of a man, muscular and powerful, with long green hair and a body covered in scars.

An orphan who had carved his own path through a world full of despair. A man who had come here to stop this tragedy from claiming any more lives.

He was no hero.

He was no chosen one.

He was simply a human being, a boy who had lost everything, yet through the bonds he forged, had gained everything.

The axe nudged deeper into the girl’s "mother." His face showed deep contempt, sorrow, and guilt.

"I’m sorry."

SLAAASH!

With one powerful motion, the monster’s head was cleaved clean off. Purple blood splattered everywhere as the headless corpse froze and toppled.

"A-Ah..." The girl began to cry again, tears streaming down her face. "Mom...!"

As she dropped to her knees, the young man looked at her and let out a heavy sigh.

"I’m sorry this happened."

"Uwaaahhhhh!"

Her wail echoed loudly across the city. Several monstrosities immediately turned toward the sound: a massive Abyssal Goo, a Three-Headed Shadow Fenrir, a Miasmic Crystal Golem Titan, and even a Death Walker.

"Hm. Staying here isn’t safe... but where is safe anymore?" he sighed. Winds and thunder gathered around him as he pointed a hand at the girl, erecting a protective barrier around her with ease. "Alright. Come."

"ROOOAAARRR!!!"

The monsters charged him all at once. The young man split the golem in front of him with a single rapid upward swing of his axe, cleaving it apart and shattering it into thousands of pieces.

The Fenrir howled from behind, its three massive jaws snapping at his body. A swirling barrier of wind and thunder formed around him, shattering the monster’s teeth instead.

"This world is one of despair—if you lack the strength to fight back."

He grabbed the wolf’s head, lifted its hundreds of tons of weight, and smashed it into the Death Walker, crushing the skinny, grinning monster into pulp. The three-headed Fenrir coughed blood before a colossal thunderbolt crashed down from the sky, frying the entire beast alive.

CRAAASH!

The young man stood amid the chaos, emerald winds whipping around his axe as thunder crackled along its edge. The remaining monsters closed in with unnatural hunger, their roars shaking the crumbling buildings. He moved like a storm given form.

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