A black sky weighed down upon the ruined glory of the first city on the Mythical Continent. This was the Buried City, and with the Grand Tournament drawing close, it was being drowned in a raging sea of blood.

Now, a hush had settled over the city, but even though two days had already passed, the specter of death still haunted the shadows.

The players from both the Angel and Demon Factions had left, as though never to return, and the city streets were crowded with innumerable Undead.

It had been a long time since any player had dared to brave these streets.

Once in a while, someone would soar past overhead on Angelic or Demonic Wings. From that high vantage, they could easily take in great swathes of the city in a glance.

These patrolling ‘rangers’ only came down for a look if they noticed the Undead doing something unusual, such as besieging one of the buildings, in case someone from the enemy Faction was trying to sneak in a few kills. Maybe the winged player might decide to clear them out for some Honor Points.

On other occasions, a clash between winged champions from opposing Factions would mean fire in the skies.

Large-scale battles were no longer taking place, and even skirmishes rarely ended in death. After three days, this was all that was going on.

A couple of days ago, the Buried City had been a maelstrom of fury, in which anyone could have been proven mortal, at any moment.

***

At the moment, a winged Elementalist of the Demon Faction was gliding through the air above the Buried City.

Observing the massed Undead thronging the quiet streets below, with no players availing themselves of all this rich XP, his heart was heavy with lamentation.

In the beginning, the Buried City had been such a lively place. Countless parties lined every street!

Yet now…

The Elementalist huffed. The Demon Faction’s vengeful wrath had rendered this place a no-man’s land, when previously it had been a rich source of leveling opportunities, vast enough for both Factions to share!

***

Starved for Honor Points and provoked into a boiling rage, the Demon Faction had descended in force upon the Buried City, assaulting the Angel Faction’s territory from all sides!

This massive ambush had left the area awash with blood several times over, until the Angel Faction players had been driven all the way back to the Warp Portal itself!

The commanders of the Demon Faction had included champions on the level of Sinistress, Death Jesus, and Berserker Lord, while Savior and Zeus had led their own forces up through the Underworld.

With the disgrace their Leagues had been made to suffer, even gallant gentlemen like Savior had openly demonstrated a vicious ferocity few had ever witnessed before, brutally slaughtering every Angel Faction player that came within sight.

There were few Liches remaining to be found anywhere upon the Mythical Continent, so the most efficient method to acquire Honor Points was by taking the lives of players from the enemy Faction.

Faced with this assembly of the Demon Faction’s elite, millions of Angel Faction players were eliminated in what seemed like moments.

Then they advanced swiftly to within a hundred meters of the Spire of Hades, apparently intent on driving the Angel Faction out of the Buried City entirely.

If not because the Warp Portal was being held by an NPC, not to mention the existence of the ten Eternity Peaks and Eternal Corridors, the Angel Faction would have been hard-pressed to reclaim the Buried City from the Demon Faction.

This airborne Elementalist hadn’t been a part of the battles of the past two days. He looked around with another long sigh, and then made for the Demon Faction’s Warp Portal.

Such was the aftermath of a war between the Factions.

Although the Angel Faction wanted nothing better than to retaliate against the Demon Faction, the first priority was to prevent them from seizing total control over the Buried City, which would grant them a limitless yield of Experience Points and levels.

The Five Great Leagues had no choice but to unite their greatest Clans in order to form ten teams of their own greatest champions, and counter-attack the Demon Faction from eleven separate directions!

It was an all-out contest between the elite players of both sides!

Meeting in battle once again, countless losses had been suffered on both sides, making it one of the bloodiest conflicts ever to take place in the game, second only to the battle of Sin City.

If not for both Factions being worried about the upcoming Grand Tournament, they might have continued to throw their champions at each other in an endless feud that would still be raging to this day.

***

“Eh?”

It was just then that the Demon Faction Elementalist spied a pinpoint of bright light, sparkling in the distance.

This was unexpected: The Grand Tournament was starting today. How could there be anyone over here?

Unless…

Tension gripped his heart, and the Elementalist halted in mid-air.

There were just a few minutes left until the first stage of the competition began. As a winged champion, the Elementalist had absolute faith in his own capabilities, and had therefore opted out of the preliminary scrimmage.

Instead, when everyone’s eyes were on the events of the Grand Tournament, he planned to find an easily defeated Miniboss amongst the Undead hordes of the Buried City, and effortlessly gain himself a few hundred Honor Points.

But it appeared that someone else was going for the same idea.

As he watched those points of light growing ever brighter upon the horizon, the Elementalist came to a decision. Throwing back his wings, he whirled around to fly in the opposite direction.

They were still some distance away. He should be able to lose them easily.

Sure enough, as soon as he ducked away to hide, the approaching points of white light stopped moving right away.

After all, it was no simple feat to pursue a winged champion in flight:

Warriors, Bowmasters, and Bandits were too fast; Priests would hardly ever be on their own; Summoners were superior aerial combatants; Elementalists might be slow-moving, but in exchange they were deadly against the fast-moving classes.

As such, if the target noticed enemies approaching and fled straight away, people normally wouldn’t waste their time trying to chase any further.

The white specks gradually faded from sight, and the Elementalist heaved a sigh of relief. It seemed they’d been looking for some Honor Points, as well.

Changing course, he continued on his own hunt, using his Elemental Perception to comb through the Undead for someone who stood out from the shambling crowds.

However, half a minute later, a dragon’s roar suddenly erupted from overhead!

A gargantuan Skeleton Dragon, fearsome and terrifying, dove towards the Elementalist!

“Eh?” The Elementalist looked up, and froze when he saw it.

A Skeleton Dragon? Why was there one here? This kind of Undead should only appear around the area of the valley. Why had a lone Skeleton Dragon spawned here?

Though surprised, the Elementalist reacted immediately with a spell. The air gathered at his command, and before the Skeleton Dragon could reach him, three Windblades shot forth along glimmering crescent trails.

But even as he made the attack, something felt very wrong.

The Skeleton Dragon slowed for a split second, so that the Aeromancer’s perfectly timed attack missed by the smallest of margins, dissipating harmlessly just past a range of thirty meters, the tattered remnants being swatted aside by the Skeleton Dragon as it continued to rush in.

It left the Aeromancer at a complete loss. His attack had been performed at the highest level of finesse… and some Undead monster had defeated it?

He’d rather believe he was the one who’d been mistaken—that he’d somehow misjudged its distance or flight speed.

Disheartened, the Aeromancer fell back as he began to cast a second spell. ‘At least it’s just a Skeleton Dragon,’ he consoled himself.

If he’d made such a mistake while facing an entire flight of dragons instead, then he’d be in serious trouble.

A single Tier 5 Skeleton Dragon was no threat—it shouldn’t even be able to scratch him—there was plenty of time to cast more spells!

And yet, no sooner had he thought this than three black beams of darkness shot out from the Dragon’s gaping maw, speeding right towards him!

“Hold on…” Seeing this, the Aeromancer was stunned again. He was getting a really bad feeling.

Skeleton Dragons weren’t supposed to be any good at ranged combat.

And this spell… it was startlingly similar to a Lich’s Shadowlance!

There was a moment of confusion, and then the rays of the Shadowlance crashed against the Aeromancer’s Barrier.

‘Wham!’

The Barrier shook as the first ray collided against its target, while a frigid wind rolled over him. The Aeromancer felt his heart being gripped by an unspeakable terror, a sense of imminent peril like never before.

His Max-Level Cyclone Shield was already splitting apart. With a thunderous shudder, fine cracks swiftly spread all across its surface!

“What!” The Aeromancer finally lost his composure, his face a mask of panic as he retreated desperately!

But the remaining two attacks nevertheless caught him, one after another!

The Cyclone Shield couldn’t hold a moment longer, and dissolved completely into the swirling air. The ray pierced through to strike full-force against the Aeromancer and his Barrier.

There had been less than a hundred Guard remaining, which was lost instantly, and then the Aeromancer was informed that his Barrier had been reduced by over forty Guard, while he himself had suffered more than three hundred and seventy damage.

The third ray took off more than sixty Guard, and just over five hundred HP.

And that wasn’t all!

With the Aeromancer’s Barrier worn down halfway, and almost a thousand HP lost so far, there next followed a sharp cracking sound…

… the Shadowlances exploded against his Barrier! Black needles filled the area for ten meters all around!

The Aeromancer emerged from this dark cloud, sadly not thanks to his Demonic Wings, but rather because he’d been thrown clear by the explosion.

His whole body riddled with wounds, his defeat was clear. Hopelessly, he tumbled down into the midst of the Undead massed below.

And the ‘Skeleton Dragon’ flew past underneath its slain foe, snatching up a Dark Golden item in passing, before being enveloped in a ball of white light.

“You don’t really even need us here, boss. I figure you could clear out the whole Buried City by yourself, and we wouldn’t even have a chance to get a taste of the action.”

Several ‘angels’ arrived, and the warrior in the lead took a look at the item in Qin Ruo’s hand, muttering in annoyance and drawing smiles from the others.

“The real show is yet to come. Don’t forget that our real target is Savior, not these small fry,” said Black Rock. At his side were Xiaoxiao and Judge, while the one who’d spoken earlier was the Terra Swordmaster, Wandering Soul.

Because he and Xin Yu had unique abilities, they’d also been brought along with the party.

This team from the Fallen Angels had come to spend the next two days training like mad in the Buried City, in an effort to catch up to Level-57 Savior.

“We’ve already slain five Demon Faction players so far. There’s no way Savior wouldn’t have heard about us by now. This should be enough to scare him off, right?” Wandering Soul seemed annoyed.

“Not him.” Qin Ruo raised his head and calmly declared, “Others might run, but not him.”