[: 3rd POV :]
On the Colosseum, the crowd roared, a storm of voices shaking the very foundations of the Grand Colosseum.
The final match was reaching its climax, steel clashing, dust swirling, and nobles cheering from their seats.
But far beneath that thunder of celebration, Daniel moved through darkness.
His footsteps echoed softly against the stone as flickers of void light pulsed along the corridor walls.
"...No signs of their movents here either," he muttered, eyes scanning the dim glow of his interface.
"Then you’re deeper than I thought."
The scent of rust and blood lingered in the air, faint but fresh.
He followed it down a spiral passage until he reached a sealed gate, its surface engraved with corrupted sigils.
A faint hum escaped his palm as he placed it against the tal.
"Zero Organization... you really thought you could hide under a place like this?"
The gate trembled, warping under the pressure of his void energy before collapsing inward with a tallic scream.
From beyond, voices rose, panicked and desperate.
"He found us!"
"Impossible, how did he track this place?!"
Daniel stepped through the haze, eyes glowing faint violet.
"You made too much noise."
One of the cultists aid a rune-carved weapon.
"Stay back, monster!"
He tilted his head slightly.
"You call a monster after what you’ve done here?"
In an instant, the man’s weapon shattered, disintegrated into dust as Daniel’s Elent of Destruction rippled through the chamber.
"Where’s your leader?"
Daniel asked, his tone quiet, but the air around him seed to collapse with his words.
"Tell , and maybe you’ll see the sky again."
No one spoke because of the fear they had towards him.
Even if they tell, they would be dead and if they don’t, they’ll still be dead"
"Then so be it."
The ground quivered as black mist enveloped him, and above, the cheers of the crowd masked the birth of a silent war beneath their feet.
The underground passages beneath the Colosseum twisted like a labyrinth, yet to Daniel, it was nothing more than a shadowed path.
Every turn led him closer.
Each ti he found a mber of the Zero Organization hiding behind broken pillars or cages, he ended them swiftly, without hesitation or a single word.
Void energy whispered through the air, and in seconds, their existence faded into nothingness.
They had no right to speak, no right to beg.
The cris they had committed, the lives they had taken, were already carved into the void itself.
Daniel moved forward, eyes sharp, void energy pulsing faintly around him like a living shadow.
The air grew heavier the deeper he went, the scent of decay mingling with traces of blood and sulfur.
Then, he felt it, a faint surge of corrupted mana, desperate and unstable.
His gaze shifted toward a single iron door glowing faint red at the edges.
"The last one..." he murmured.
He raised his hand, and the door trembled under the force of his power before collapsing inward.
The chamber beyond was vast, dimly lit by crimson runes crawling along the walls.
And at the center of it stood the final mber, the last pillar of the Zero Organization, his body trembling, eyes wild with fear and disbelief, yet he was cald.
"I didn’t expect a guest to co," Lysandros muttered, voice oily in the dim chamber.
He lounged against a broken pillar, fingers drumming the rune-streaked stone.
"But who would have thought the ’Abyssal Butcher’ would co to this kind of place?"
"To what pleasure do I owe your hospitality?"
Daniel laughed.
"Don’t act like you didn’t expect to be here."
"Of course I did," Lyysandros said, stepping further into the crimson light.
The atmosphere around him trembled like a caged storm.
"After all, knowing the other bases had been annihilated, it wouldn’t be absurd to assu you would co here."
Lysandros’s smile sharpened.
"Even though I’m curious how you manage to find each location so accurately, it does not matter."
He flicked a hand, and the chamber’s runes brightened.
"What matters is that this ends tonight."
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
"Is that a threat or a promise?"
"Both," Lysandros said, savoring the word.
He stood, the shadows clinging to his robes like living things.
"You have been a plague upon us. We have lost friends, operatives, networks, entire bases erased as if snuffed by a god"
IHe took a slow step closer, venom sweet on his tongue.
"Today, you will die"
"The Sovereign’s will co with its Apostles and there’s nothing that you can do to stop them"
Daniel’s voice was barely audible, edged with a chill that stopped the air.
"You speak of favors and gods, yet you hide beneath arenas and crowds"
"Well, what can I do?" Lysandros snapped.
"It keeps alive when the world wants to tear apart." He raised his chin.
Earlier on, Daniel noticed the whole colosseum had been wrapped in ancient scripture, lines of inked glyphs crawling across the stone like veins of midnight.
A lattice of runes pulsed beneath the audience, heating the air with a hunger that tasted like old bone.
From where he stood in the final chamber, Daniel could see the script tracing the arena above, a lattice of runes designed to tear a seam in reality.
"Are they about to summon another of the Apocalypse Sovereign’s avatars?’ he thought, asuring the odds.
He felt no tremor of fear.
If an avatar did descend, he would welco the confrontation.
"Let us see what your last-ditch effort can do," he said, voice cool as a blade.
Lysandros laughed, ragged and bright under the rune-light.
"Keep your confidence, butcher," he sneered, fingers finding an iron ring set in the floor.
The runes swelled.
Threads of light stitched through the Colosseum’s foundations and crawled into the stands.
The roar above bent into the pattern, a living chord fed by adoration.
Energy converged; the air tightened into a needle of intent.
"Let’s just hope that your last effort could an sothing at least" Daniel said.
Lysandros’s grin widened.
"It might not save , but it will call forces you cannot bargain with," he spat.
He slamd his palm down; sigils ignited, and the script across the Colosseum flared.
A hum tunneled through the ground, and the vaults answered. Sowhere above, cheering beca a tremor of power.
Daniel inhaled, the motion small but sharpened.
"Then call," he said, voice low and terrible.
"I’ll just kill whatever stands in my way."
He stepped forward with eyes narrowing as the tear in the sky above began to whisper like a hungry wound.
Monts later, the Colosseum erupted in light.
Crimson radiance surged from every crevice of the grand arena, bleeding into the streets of Lunaria.
The sky itself seed to pulse as the red glow climbed higher, forming a pillar of light that split the heavens.
Every tower, every spire reflected the eerie hue, bathing the city in a shade that reeked of blood and on.
At first, the crowd cheered, thinking it was part of the final match.
But as the light intensified, their excitent curdled into dread.
"What...what’s happening?" a rchant cried, clutching his child close.
"Is this part of the show?!" soone shouted from the stands, his voice trembling.
"No! Look at the ground, it’s glowing!" another pointed.
Indeed, crimson script slithered along the marble floors, spreading like wildfire beneath their feet.
Guild mbers stationed near the arena’s walls exchanged frantic glances.
"This isn’t magic we know," muttered an A-Rank mage, his staff trembling in his grip.
"This... this is Scripture!"
A woman scread as a rune burst beside her, searing the air with heat.
The guards rushed to contain the panic, but their orders were drowned beneath the uproar.
Nobles rose from their private balconies, confusion etched across their faces.
"Has the capital’s barrier failed?" one demanded.
"Where are the Archmages?!"
Within monts, the city beyond the Colosseum joined in the chaos.
Crimson light spilled across the plazas, rivers, and rooftops.
The entire capital was now a single, beating heart of apocalyptic energy.
People fled into the streets.
Others fell to their knees, praying to gods who had been silent for centuries.
"Is it the end?!" soone cried.
"No," a warrior gritted his teeth, his eyes fixed on the pillar of light. "This... this feels like a summoning."
Even from miles away, the adventurer guilds and noble districts felt the tremor.
Mana sensors flared red across the continent, warning of a catastrophic spike centered in Lunaria.
Above it all, the crimson beam pulsed once more, rending the clouds apart.
And amid the panic, a shared thought gripped every heart, noble and common alike.
*What is going on...?*
The cheers of monts ago had turned to silence, and the Colosseum that once stood for human pride now trembled under the weight of sothing no one understood...sothing vast, ancient, and coming.
This was sothing that had never happened before and they had never heard of such a thing.
It was as though, the Apocalypse would be arriving.
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