The descent into the first terrace of the abyss was silent until the air itself began to scream.
Thirty-three rankers and nine porters reached the base of the first spiral. The darkness here didn’t just obscure vision; it felt like wet wool pressing against the skin. Then, the light arrived—not as a sun, but as a jagged rupture in the atmosphere.
『[SYSTEM]: YOU HAVE ENTERED THE FIRST LAYER OF THE CATASTROPHE DEPTH.』
『[ZONE]: THE CLOISTER OF MUTE PRAYERS.』
In the center of the terrace stood a figure draped in a worn, ash-colored cloak that billowed despite the lack of wind. Beneath the hood, a thick cloth bound its face, leaving only the suggestion of a chin. Four wings, pristine and blindingly white, sprouted from its back, spanning nearly ten ters. Hovering in a halo above its head were six golden outlines of eyes, arranged in a perfect ring, blinking in unison.
It held a staff made of pale wood. The head of the staff was a circle ford by dozens of small, marble-white hands interlocking their fingers. In the center of that ring of hands, a single golden crystal pulsed with a rhythmic, sickening heat.
『[BOSS]: THE SILENT ARBITER, AZRAEL (RANK: CALAMITY)』
"Formation!" Jung Hyeonwoo’s voice cracked across the stone.
He didn’t wait. He slamd his tower-shield into the ground. Beside him, the Siberian Fist warriors roared, drawing massive, mana-coated axes. But the Arbiter didn’t move. It simply tapped its staff once against the floor.
『[BOSS]: THE SILENT ARBITER IS CASTING 「JUDGNT」.』
A ripple of yellow-white light expanded from the staff. It wasn’t a shockwave; it was a boundary. The light raced across the ground, rising into a shimring, translucent do.
"Back! Get out of the periter!" a White Stars strategist yelled.
It was too late. The barrier solidified with the sound of grinding glass. Twenty rankers, including Hyeonwoo and Leonhardt, were trapped inside. Twelve others and the porters, including Woonhee and Yechan, were cut off on the outside, their hands slamming against an impenetrable wall of light.
Then the sky inside the do turned into a forge.
Thousands of weapons—spears, broadswords, and jagged spikes made of solidified radiance—manifested in the air. They didn’t drift. They fell.
Fwoosh—THUD.
A rain of light-matter hamred the terrace. One ranker, a B-rank agility specialist from the EU coalition, wasn’t fast enough. A spear of radiance pierced his shoulder, pinning him to the black stone. He didn’t even have ti to scream before a second blade followed, through his thigh.
"Shields up! Overlap them!" Hyeonwoo roared.
His arm muscles bulged, the veins turning purple under the strain. The weapons of light struck his shield with the force of falling teors. Each impact sent sparks of mana flying into his eyes.
From the shadows of the pillars, the Generals erged. They were smaller, twisted versions of the Arbiter—beings with a single, massive wing that looked like a blood-stained sail. They flew with a frantic, lopsided grace, diving toward the trapped players while the sky continued to drop executioner’s tools.
"One-wings!" Leonhardt shouted, his hand glowing as he traced a rune in the air. "Don’t let them break the frontline!"
The first General slamd into a Siberian warrior, its single wing sharp as a guillotine. The warrior swung his axe, but the creature swerved mid-air, its speed defying physics. It dragged a claw across the warrior’s chest, shredding reinforced leather and skin.
The Arbiter stood in the center of the chaos, motionless, the six golden eyes above its head spinning. It was a factory of death, untroubled by the blood beginning to slick the stone.
"We can’t hold this," a White Stars mber gasped, his mana shield flickering as three spears of light shattered against it. "Hyeonwoo, the barrier is draining our internal mana!"
Hyeonwoo looked at his palm. His skin was graying. The 「Judgnt」 field wasn’t just a cage; it was a siphon.
"I’ll do it," a voice said.
Park Jin-ho, a high-ranker from the Blue Dragon guild who had remained silent during the climb, stepped forward. He reached into his inventory and pulled out a small, rusted coin stamped with the image of a bull.
He crushed it.
『[NOTICE]: PLAYER ’PARK JIN-HO’ IS ATTEMPTING TO CHANNEL A NARRATIVE.』
『[CONSTELLATION]: THE ’ETERNAL GUARDIAN OF THE WESTERN GATES’ IS LOOKING DOWN AT THE ABYSS.』
The air around Jin-ho thickened. A deep, resonant hum vibrated in the bones of everyone present. Above him, the phantom image of a massive, golden Bull with horns made of obsidian materialized.
"Blessing of the Iron Zodiac," Jin-ho whispered.
『[SKILL ACTIVATION]: 「THE AEGIS OF ALDEBARAN」.』
Jin-ho slamd his fists together. A shockwave of bronze light erupted, expanding into a secondary do within the Arbiter’s barrier. The falling weapons of light struck the bronze shield and shattered into harmless dust.
The Bull—The Star of Taskmaster—roared in the minds of the players.
"Push forward!" Jin-ho’s voice was no longer his own; it was layered with the tallic rasp of a god. "I can only hold the Gate for three minutes!"
The rankers surged. Leonhardt led the charge, his feet barely touching the ground as he vaulted over a fallen spear. He reached the first General, his palm thrusting forward. A burst of pressurized mana blew the creature’s wing off, sending it spiraling into the barrier wall where it dissolved into black ash.
Hyeonwoo moved like a battering ram, using the Aegis’s protection to close the distance to the Arbiter.
The Arbiter tilted its hooded head. The interlocking hands on its staff began to move, the fingers drumming against the golden crystal.
『[BOSS]: THE SILENT ARBITER IS ACTIVATING 「THE SECOND COMMANDNT: SILENCE」.』
Suddenly, the sounds of battle vanished. The clashing of steel, the roars of the Siberian warriors, even the sound of breathing was deleted from the world.
In that absolute silence, the Arbiter raised its staff. The golden crystal shattered.
The pieces of the crystal didn’t fall. They stayed suspended in the air, transforming into six identical replicas of the Arbiter’s staff.
Outside the barrier, Woonhee watched in horror. From her perspective, the rankers were moving in a pantomi of violence, their mouths open in silent screams as the six floating staffs began to glow with a violet, necrotic light.
Inside, Hyeonwoo felt his heart stutter. The bronze glow of the Zodiac shield began to crack. The ’Eternal Guardian of the Western Gates’ was being suppressed by the sheer weight of the Arbiter’s narrative.
"Jin-ho! Maintain the output!" Hyeonwoo tried to shout, but no sound ca out.
Jin-ho was on his knees, blood pouring from his nose. Channelling a Constellation’s power in a Catastrophe Depth was like trying to hold a sun in a glass jar.
The Arbiter pointed a finger at Hyeonwoo.
One of the floating staffs shot forward. It didn’t hit the shield; it passed through the bronze light as if it didn’t exist. It struck Hyeonwoo’s chest, the marble hands on the staff-head reaching out to grab his collarbones.
Hyeonwoo was lifted off his feet. He felt his mana being ripped out through his lungs.
At the sa ti, the Generals—the one-winged angels—stopped their haphazard flight. They converged into a single line, their wings interlocking to form a giant, feathered blade. They dove toward the center of the terrace, aid directly at the weakened Jin-ho.
CRACK.
The Zodiac shield shattered.
The weight of the sky fell once more. Thousands of light-weapons rained down, no longer blocked by the bronze Aegis.
Hyeonwoo was pinned in mid-air by the marble hands.
Jin-ho was collapsing under the backlash of his own skill.
Leonhardt was surrounded by four Generals, his runes flickering out.
The Silent Arbiter raised its hand again, the six golden eyes above its head turning blood-red.
『[WARNING]: THE ARBITER IS PREPARING 「ULTIMATE RITE: ASCENSION OF THE VOID」.』
The ground beneath the terrace began to liquefy into a black tar.
Outside the barrier, Woonhee gripped her porter’s knife, her eyes searching the shadows of the upper terraces.
"Where is he?" she hissed. "Min... if you don’t show up now, there won’t be an expedition left to lead."
A shadow moved at the very edge of the light. A figure in a black mask, leaning against a pillar, watching the slaughter with cold, calculating eyes. He didn’t move. He wasn’t looking at the boss.
He was looking at the bottom of the sinkhole, where sothing much larger than the Arbiter had just opened its eyes.
The Arbiter’s wings unfurled to their full extent, the white feathers turning into jagged blades of bone. It began to rise into the air, pulling the trapped rankers up with it by invisible threads of mana.
『[SYSTEM]: THE RITE HAS BEGUN.』
『[TI REMAINING UNTIL TOTAL ELIMINATION: 60 SECONDS.]』
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