Ding!
[Time Remaining: 4:00:00]
[The Calamity has awakened again for five minutes.]
[Participants Remaining: 57]
The number of survivors was dropping fast. There were still four hours left, but already, only 57 people remained.
Alex had been about to attack the trio of [Token Holders] in front of him, but when the system panel appeared, he hesitated.
‘Xyrran shouldn’t come here, right? There are other Token Holders to hunt, and it said the calamity event will be different…’
He really didn’t want to survive another five minutes of being chased by something else.
The last time, he’d barely made it out alive, and there was no guarantee Astariel would show up again to save him.
But this time… something was different.
The sky shifted.
Dark red flames crawled across the sky, stretching in all directions, as if the heavens themselves were burning.
A deep, ominous hum vibrated through the air.
“What the hell…?”
Then, above them all, Xyrran’s massive form materialized in the sky.
His clock eyes burned with amusement as he gazed down at the participants.
“A repeat of the same event would be too boring, don’t you think?”
A grin spread across the Primordial Dragon’s face.
“Chasing you all was fun, but too easy. I need something… different this time.”
Silence fell over the domain.
Every remaining participant, Alex included, held their breath as Xyrran paused, as if deciding what to do next.
Thirty seconds passed.
Thirty whole seconds where the Primordial Space and Time Dragon simply… thought.
Yet, despite wasting a part of his limited five minutes, Xyrran showed no concern.
“Alright, I’ve decided.”
His voice rang through the sky.
[Second Calamity: “Time Beams.”]
Before Alex could even process what that meant, the sky exploded with light.
Fifty-seven beams of violet energy shot down, one for each participant.
[Every thirty seconds, a beam will be aimed at you. Try to survive.]
Alex groaned.
“What kind of bullshit is this?”
Even Alphox, his companion dragon, muttered in disbelief.
“That guy is weird.”
There was no time to think. The violet beams of pure temporal energy were already streaking down at them.
Alex focused on his own, watching as it rushed toward him at incredible speed.
He could sense it: these things, though they looked simple at first glance were extremely powerful, enough to kill anyone who was hit straight on.
Of course, it depends on your defence, durability and magical resistance, but even then, it was a Primordial Dragon’s attack, and even Alex had low chances of surviving.
This event was testing their ability to dodge and endure such attacks repeatedly, as they would come every 30 seconds.
This was bad.
But as he kept looking, a golden panel appeared in front of Alex.
[Do it.]
It was Kaelios, the God of Destiny, communicating with him all the way from his domain.
[You already know what to do.]
Alex grinned.
“Yeah.”
If it was just this, he wouldn’t lose at all.
Destiny Shift could undo anything.
And that meant…
[Undoing Time Beams…]
In an instant, every single beam of light vanished.
All fifty-seven beams simply disintegrated before they could touch anyone.
Silence filled the dragon bloodline trial as everyone suddenly stopped what they were doing.
Then—
“Huh?”
Xyrran blinked.
“What the—?”
For the fourth time since the start of the trial, the mighty Primordial Dragon looked genuinely confused.
He was always stoic and showed no sign of emotions as he was ruthless, but even then, what was happening in this trial was beyond comprehension.
This wasn’t normal.
His beams weren’t blocked. They weren’t dodged. They simply… ceased to exist.
And that wasn’t something he could accept.
Xyrran narrowed his eyes.
There was only one explanation.
A god was interfering.
And his mind immediately went to the only person who had somehow managed to keep escaping him—
‘The human.’
Xyrran didn’t want to admit it, but Alex had proved himself far stronger than expected.
Strong enough that even a Primordial Dragon had to be careful.
But for every beam to be erased at once? That meant something beyond mortal power was at play.
Was Alex being helped by a god? Or was he chosen by one of them to receive their powers?
If so… why was a god’s chosen one even here, trying to obtain a Dragon Bloodline?
Every god’s chosen was already powerful enough to level entire cities.
And as far as Xyrran knew, all gods had already picked their chosen ones.
So was the information wrong?
Or was a god secretly interfering with this trial?
None of it made sense.
But in the end, Xyrran shook his head.
None of that mattered. His goal was simple.
Kill all the participants.
End the trial.
And prevent anyone from gaining the Dragon Bloodline.
That was all.
“Fine. Let’s see you do that again.”
Ding!
[Time Remaining: 4:00 minutes]
Thirty seconds passed.
More beams formed in the sky.
Alex stared at the new attack rushing toward him.
‘Should I undo them all again… or just my own?’ he wondered.
Alphox spoke up.
“I don’t know. Saving the others won’t do anything for you. Even after all of this, only one to three people will be judged worthy of the bloodline. Maybe none.”
Alex frowned.
‘True… but if too many die now, the later trials will be impossible to survive.’
If the remaining participants were wiped out here, the last three Calamity Events would be a guaranteed death sentence.
If only five people survived the [Time Beams], they’d be hunted down one by one.
Meaning that if too many participants died during each Calamity…
Then there would be no survivors.
That was the worst-case scenario.
And Alex wouldn’t let that happen.
Destiny Shift.
[Undoing Time Beams…]
Once again, the beams disintegrated into nothingness.
Xyrran roared.
“THESE FUCKERS!”
But Alex only grinned.
‘Meat shields secured.’ Enjoy exclusive adventures from My Virtual Library Empire
The furious dragon in the sky sent the beams down eight more times.
And eight more times, Alex erased them.
By the end of the five minutes, not a single participant had died.
The sky returned to normal.
Xyrran’s figure flickered before disappearing entirely.
[Calamity has ended.]
No one spoke.
Every remaining participant had braced themselves for a brutal trial, only for… nothing to happen.
They stood there, confused, as if waiting for the real challenge to begin.
Alphox’s voice broke the silence.
“Don’t forget about the trio.”
Alex snapped out of his thoughts.
“Right.”
But when he turned to check their location—
They were gone.
The white-haired woman. The minotaur. The cloaked man.
They had vanished.
‘They ran away while the event was still going on…’
Alex sighed.
‘Damn. Oh well, I’ll find someone else.’
Four hours left.
Plenty of time.
But first…
He needed more [Destiny Points] since he wasted them in this calamity event.
Without them, he was practically defenseless.
His magic, [Bleeding Claws], and [Blood Arts] were strong, but the God of Destiny’s skills were on another level.
He couldn’t afford to run out of points again.
So Alex sprinted across the domain, hunting down monsters to regain his [Destiny Points].
The more time passed, the smaller the battlefield would become.
And the smaller the battlefield…
The harder it would be to hold onto a token without becoming a target.
But waiting too long was also dangerous.
If he didn’t have a token when the final hour approached…
The dragons would judge him weak and execute him anyway.
There was a delicate balance to maintain.
And Alex needed to play his cards perfectly if he wanted to survive.