The crimson light shattered like stained glass. Gravity hit Ren Hanshin with the force of a falling mountain. He was no longer standing in the courtyard of the ruined shrine. He was thirty thousand feet above in the air, plummeting at velocity toward a sprawling, prehistoric continent.
The wind roared in his ears, tearing at his clothes. He looked around. The sky was a burning gold. Falling alongside him, scattered across miles of airspace, were ten thousand streaks of blue, silver, and green light. The Avatars of the Sovereign Gods were dropping into the warzone.
Beneath them lay the Savage Lands. It was an untamed island continent. Ren saw tall, active volcanoes bleeding rivers of magma, jungles with trees the size of 10 floor buildings, and jagged obsidian canyons.
[System Notice: You have entered the Savage Lands Domain.]
[Participant Count: 10,000.]
[Global Broadcast is now live to the Sovereign Pantheon.]
Most of the Avatars falling from the sky were frantically casting levitation magic or deploying S-Rank parachutes to survive the drop.
Ren didn't cast a single spell. He simply crossed his arms, the Embrace of the Weaver coat whipping around him, and let himself fall.
BOOM!!
Ren crashed into the center of the overgrown jungle. The impact was like a meteor strike. A shockwave flattened the trees in a fifty yard radius, sending dirt, shattered timber, and boulders flying into the air. A massive crater, twenty feet deep, was carved into the earth.
At the bottom of the crater, Ren slowly stood up. He casually brushed some dirt off his shoulder. His Divine Vitality was a cheat. A fall that would have turned a mortal S-Rank hunter into a red paste hadn't even bruised him. He cracked his neck, stepping out of the crater.
POP!
The blue system screen instantly popped up, detailing the rules of the Draft. But before Ren could even read the first line, the screen was hijacked. The blue text melted into a dark crimson.
[WARNING: The Global Broadcast for 'Ren Hanshin' has been restricted!]
[The God of Fate has forcefully locked your channel.]
[Other Gods may watch, but the chat is Exclusive to your Sponsor.]
[God of Fate]: That was a beautiful landing, my King.
[God of Fate]: Let the other Gods watch. Let them see the perfect weapon I forged for them. But remember, Ren... you are performing for me.
[The God of Fate has donated 10,000,000 Karma Points!]
Ren sighed, swiping the chat box to the top corner of his vision so it wouldn't blind him during combat. Even in a global battle royale, she refused to let him out of her sight for a single second. He expanded his newly evolved mana senses, his Divine Perception pushed forward like a tidal wave. It felt the heartbeat of every living thing within a five mile radius. He felt thousands of Avatars landing, hiding, and forming parties.
HISS!!
He also felt the native inhabitants of the Savage Lands. A low, guttural hiss echoed from the foliage ahead of him. The giant, fern leaves parted. Stepping out of the shadows was a pack of Obsidian Raptors. These weren't the dinosaurs from history books. They stood fifteen feet tall, their scales made of jagged, black glass. Their claws dug trenches into the earth with every step.
[System Warning: SS-Rank Savage Beast 'Obsidian Raptor' detected.]
There were six of them. For a standard squad of S-Rank Avatars, this was a life or death boss encounter requiring coordination, shields, and healing magic.
SHRIEKKK!!
The alpha raptor shrieked, a sound like grinding metal, and launched itself at Ren. It closed the distance in a blur, its jaws opening to snap Ren in half. Ren didn't summon the Severance of Destiny. He wanted to test his new baseline. Ren raised his bare right hand and simply caught the upper jaw of the massive raptor.
CRUNCH!!
The speed of the fifteen-foot beast came to dead halt against Ren's palm. The force shattered the ground beneath Ren's boots, but his arm didn't buckle an inch. His Divine Strength of 10 was equivalent to over a thousand points of mortal strength.
The raptor let out a confused, panicked gurgle. It tried to clamp its jaw shut, but Ren's fingers dug into the glass scales, crushing the bone beneath.
"Too slow," Ren whispered.
Ren squeezed his hand. The raptor's upper skull exploded like a crushed grape. The beast's massive, headless body collapsed to the jungle floor, twitching violently. The remaining five raptors froze. Their primal instincts, honed over centuries of surviving the Savage Lands, suddenly screamed at them. The tiny human standing in the crater wasn't prey. He was an apex predator. They turned to flee.
"No," Ren said coldly. "I need the 'EXP.'"
BOOM!!
Ren activated his Divine Agility for running. But to the physical world, he disappeared. He broke the sound barrier instantly, the sonic boom ripping the leaves from the surrounding trees. He appeared beside the second fleeing raptor and delivered a casual round kick to its ribs. The beast's ribcage shattered, and it was sent flying through the air, crashing through three massive tree trunks before dying.
He pivoted, thrusting his fist through the chest of the third raptor, pulling out its mana core with his bare hand. In less than three seconds, without using a single weapon or magic spell, the pack of SS-Rank monsters had been reduced to a bloody mess on the jungle floor.
[Target Eliminated: SS-Rank Obsidian Raptor (x6)]
[EXP gained.]
Ren flicked the dark blood away from his knuckles. The power gap between a mortal and a Demigod was absurd. It was just pest control.
High above, in the starry halls of the Sovereign Pantheon, the Gods of War, Magic, and Death were undoubtedly watching the broadcast in stunned silence. They had sent their Avatars to hunt a boy. They didn't realize the God of Fate had slipped a fully ascended monster into their mortal arena.
The crimson screen flashed, filling his vision with bright red text.
[The God of Fate is laughing psychotically!]
[God of Fate]: YES! TEAR THEM APART! SHOW THEM YOUR HANDS COVERED IN BLOOD!
[God of Fate]: They look like insects next to you! You are perfect! Perfect! Perfect!
[The God of Fate has donated 50,000,000 Karma Points!]
Ren closed his eyes, waiting for her text to fade so he could see the jungle again. "Calm down," he muttered. "They were just lizards."
[God of Fate]: I do not care. I love watching you move. I love watching you breathe.
[God of Fate]: But Ren... wipe your hands. You are getting dirty, and... someone is watching you.
Ren's eyes snapped open, his Divine Perception had been slightly distracted by the rush of the kill. He immediately focused, projecting his senses outward. About two hundred yards away, hiding behind a massive boulder, there was a group of humans. Avatars. They had likely been tracking the raptor pack and had just witnessed Ren slaughter the SS-Rank beasts barehanded in three seconds.
Ren turned his head slowly, his crimson eyes piercing through the jungle foliage, locking onto their hiding spot.
"Come out," Ren said, his voice combining with a tiny fraction of his mana, making the words vibrate in their chests.
For a long moment, there was silence. Then, three figures slowly stepped out from behind the boulder. Their hands were raised in the air, showing they had sheathed their weapons. They wore matching silver and blue armor, signifying they belonged to a coordinated alliance. The two men in the back were built A-Rank Tanks, sweating profusely and shaking with terror.
The leader, standing in the front, was a woman. She was an S-Rank Mage, undeniably beautiful, with long blonde hair tied in a braid and piercing blue eyes. She wore a sleek combat suit. Above her head hovered the shimmering silver halo of a minor Constellation, the God of Rivers.
"P-Please don't attack," the woman called out, her voice trembling despite her best efforts to sound confident. "We aren't looking for a fight. We saw your drop... and we saw what you just did to those raptors."
Ren kept his hands in his pockets. "Who are you?"
The woman took a slow, cautious step forward, lowering her hands. "My name is Elara. We represent the Silver Coalition. There are over five hundred of us in this sector. We formed an alliance to survive the major guilds, the Avatars of War and Death."
Elara looked at the brutalized corpses of the raptors, swallowing hard. She looked back at Ren, a mixture of fear and desperate hope in her eyes.
"We know who you are, Ren Hanshin. You're the solo anomaly," Elara said, taking another step closer. She offered a small, pleading smile. "You are strong, but this is a war zone with ten thousand Chosen. You can't survive alone. If you join our Coalition, we can protect your blind spots. We can share resources. We can—"
The temperature in the jungle plummeted to zero. The air grew so dense, so heavy, that Elara and her two Tanks were forced to their knees, gasping for breath. The leaves on the trees around them frosted over and shattered like glass. Ren hadn't done anything.
The crimson screen formed in front of Ren. The red interface was bleeding, dripping dark crimson digital code across his vision.
[WARNING: CONSTELLATION 'GOD OF FATE' IS IN A STATE OF MURDEROUS RAGE.]
[God of Fate]: How dare she.
[God of Fate]: HOW DARE SHE LOOK AT YOU WITH THOSE FILTHY EYES?!
[God of Fate]: HOW DARE SHE SMILE AT WHAT BELONGS TO ME?!
Ren gritted his teeth, the sheer, psychotic pressure of the Goddess's jealousy radiating through his divine link. "Stop," he whispered to the screen. "She's just talking."
[God of Fate]: NO! SHE IS TRYING TO SEDUCE YOU! SHE WANTS TO STEAL YOU!
[God of Fate]: I WILL NOT ALLOW IT. I WILL UNMAKE HER ENTIRE BLOODLINE.]
[System Notice: The God of Fate has issued a Mandatory Quest!]
[Quest Title: The Weaver's Jealousy]
[Objective: Annihilate the female Avatar 'Elara' and the entire 500-man Silver Coalition in this sector.]
[Failure Penalty: The God of Fate will drop a Divine Meteor on your coordinates, destroying the Savage Lands and everyone on it.]
Ren stared at the red text. The penalty isn't a bluff. He could feel the celestial mana gathering in the atmosphere millions of miles above him. She was fully prepared to wipe out the continent just to erase one woman who smiled at him. Ren looked down at Elara. The beautiful S-Rank Mage was clutching her throat, suffocating under the divine pressure, unaware of the psychotic cosmic jealousy she had just triggered.
"I told you," Ren whispered to the camera, a dark resignation in his voice. "I work alone."
Ren raised his right hand. The air shattered, and the crystallized blood blade of the Severance of Destiny materialized in his grip. The weapon hummed, echoing the rage of its creator. He had come to the Savage Lands to kill the Avatars of War and Death, but it seemed the God of Fate demanded an appetizer first.