The blinding convergence of light, magma, and digitized data illuminated the entire dimension, but the expected cataclysmic explosion never came. Instead, an eerie, unnatural silence gripped the fractured Third Floor.
[The Administrative Erasure]
The Void Drachoon did not flinch as the vanguard's ultimate attacks closed in. Moving with fluid, terrifying grace, it lifted its second weapon—the pristine, translucent neon-turquoise blade.
As the sword sliced through the air, the physical space directly in front of the cosmic leviathan began to stutter and pixelate violently. A gaping tear in the fabric of reality opened up, revealing a swirling vortex of absolute deletion. The Meteor Beam, Hydro Cannon, Fusion Flare, and every other maximum-output technique didn't collide with the beast; they were systematically drawn into the glitching rift, their data loops completely neutralized and erased into nothingness.
Cynthia dropped her spear by a fraction, her eyes widening in absolute disbelief. "What...? It didn't work?!"
Before the vanguard could process the erasure, the Void Drachoon moved like a digital glitch, displacing its serpentine body across the coordinates of the platform instantaneously. It materialized directly before Cynthia, raising the dreaded, concept-burning Sword of Supernova. The orange starlight blade descended with absolute, fatal velocity.
"The strongest have to live to save other peoples!" a booming voice roared.
Out of the smoke, Ruta threw himself directly into the line of fire. With a violent shove, he forcefully pushed Cynthia backward out of the strike zone. He turned his head back to the squad one last time, his igneous armor flaring with his life-force as the orange blade met his chest.
Flash.
There was no explosion, no blood, and no debris. With a single strike of the concept-burning weapon, the entire physical, spiritual, and systemic existence of Ruta—the proud Arcon of Flames—was cleanly deleted from the universe's framework.
"Ruta, Nooo!" Gaia screamed, reaching a hand out toward the completely empty space where her comrade had stood just a millisecond prior.
Saina stared at her drone monitors in complete shock, her glasses reflecting nothing but error codes. "I... I can't sense Ruta's energy signature anymore... He didn't just die... he is just erased!"
[The Galactic Broadcast Despair]
Up on the orbital mothership, the main holographic display completely shattered into static. SK dropped his microphone, his hands trembling violently as he fell back into his command chair, all of his showman energy instantly evaporating.
"H-He's gone..." SK whispered, his voice cracking into the galactic transmission channel. "Ruta... one of the core shields of the Northern Galaxy Vanguard... was deleted in a single frame. The Sword of Supernova didn't just defeat him... it erased his very concept from the dungeon's database! Viewers... this is no longer a raid... this is a slaughterhouse!"
The live forum box next to the transmission stream completely melted down into a state of unmitigated grief and terror:
User_SolarFlare99: "NO! NOT RUTA! Broken bone physics is one thing, but literal existence erasure?! This is too twisted!"
ManhwaFan_01: "He smiled when he pushed Cynthia away... 'The strongest have to live...' Bro, I am literally crying right now! "
Z_Rank_Watcher: "Saina's scanners are completely blank. If a Z+ Archon can get deleted in one hit, the rest of the squad stands absolutely zero chance."
Galaxy_Brain_99: "Look at their mana bars, everyone is completely exhausted after that all-out attack! They need to get out of there RIGHT NOW! "
[The Desperate Retreat]
"Everyone, attack on it!" Neweland roared, tears of pure rage streaming down his face as he raised his trident. "We can't let his sacrifice get wasted!"
"Stop!" Yoru intercepted, her eyes darting across the squad. Every single member was heavily panting, their core vents steaming and their mana pools completely depleted from the failed vanguard array. "We can't fight this thing here! Look at everyone—we are completely exhausted! We have to retreat!"
"If we retreat now, then this thing can go to the normal world easily!" Captain Carod argued, his mechanical joints groaning as he struggled to maintain his base form. "We can't let a conceptual eraser loose on the galaxy!"
"We will have one week," Yoru counter-argued frantically, her shadow aura spinning a protective perimeter around the group. "Because this gate will settle from the first floor before it can breach the dimensional anchor! We have time to regroup!"
Nefa, clutching her freshly knit torso as Fraxy supported her, nodded weakly. "Yoru... Yoru is right. If we stay, we die in the next ten seconds."
Techyon rushed to Cynthia's side, slinging her arm over his shoulder to help his trembling sister stand up. He looked at her fading solar crown and then back to the group. "Cynthia's protection will not save us anymore. She is not fine."
"We have to retreat!" Fraxy cried out, her emerald healing light flickering out from total exhaustion. "We can't save our world if we die here today!"
The Void Drachoon slowly rotated its massive serpentine frame, its mechanical wing-blades humming as both the orange and turquoise swords began to glow with execution-level energy. The remaining twelve minutes on the dungeon clock flashed a cruel, crimson warning above them.
"Everyone, come near me!" Yoru bellowed, her hands slamming together as her maximum-output spatial matrix expanded to encircle every surviving member of the vanguard. "I am going to teleport everyone out!"
Techyon turned his head back, his white-blue eyes locking dead onto the glowing violet eyes of the cosmic dragon leviathan. His knuckles turned white as he gripped his twin hilts.
"You will pay for that, monster," Techyon growled, his voice vibrating with a dangerous, awakening intent.
Before the Void Drachoon could swing its concept-burning blade to sever their spatial coordinates, Yoru's teleportation circle detonated into a blinding flash of dark mist.
In a fraction of a microsecond, the entire vanguard vanished from the Third Floor, leaving the empty, broken obsidian stage behind as the gate slammed shut.
The blinding flash of dark mist dissolved with a heavy, concussive pop, replacing the suffocating void pressure of the Third Floor with the crisp, clean scent of pristine nature and ancient flora.
[The Sanctuary of the World Tree]
Thud! Thud!
The exhausted vanguard collapsed heavily onto a soft, glowing emerald grass floor. Yoru dropped to her knees, coughing violently as her mana veins throbbed from the immense strain of extracting an entire Z-Elite roster across dimensional barriers.
"We... we made it," Yoru gasped, her shadow aura completely receding. "Everyone is teleported safely inside the Tree of Life."
The environment was a breathtaking contrast to the nightmare they had just escaped. Massive, luminous roots of pure golden mana snaked across the cavernous wooden sanctuary, pulsing like a collective heartbeat that instantly began to soothe the fractured nervous systems of the vanguard.
Techyon gently laid Cynthia down on the soft moss, his white-blue eyes scanning the surroundings as his own armor systems registered the sudden influx of high-density life energy. Cynthia's solar crown was completely dim, her breathing shallow, but the immediate lethal threat was over. Beside them, Fraxy and Nefa lay side-by-side, too weak to even lift their heads.
Suddenly, the massive wooden architecture of the central trunk split open with a soft, melodious chime. A staggering entity composed of pure, translucent jade starlight and woven white roots manifested before them, radiating an aura of absolute tranquility.
The Archon of Life had arrived.
Seeing the catastrophic state of the galaxy's finest warriors, the Archon of Life didn't waste a single frame. The celestial entity raised its hands, and a massive, cascading waterfall of revitalizing emerald droplets rained down upon the entire group.
Instantly, the healing process began. Saina's internal diagnostics cleared their red alert status, Captain Carod's overheated Inferno Volt chassis began to rapidly cool down, and the agonizing fracture lines across Nefa's internal bone structure began to knit back together at a visible pace.
They were alive. But as the soothing emerald light washed away their physical pain, the heavy, hollow silence reminded them of the tragic reality—Ruta was gone, and they only had seven days before the Void Drachoon broke through the dimensional anchor.