[You have extracted ‘Crown of the Abyss God’ (Artifact++).]
Alex stared at the pitch-black crown in his hands.
It was the only thing left after Vyran disappeared.
And it was anything but ordinary.
Dark energy pulsed from its jagged frame.
It wouldn’t stop trembling, almost as if it were alive, barely holding itself together.
“Damn,” he muttered, narrowing his eyes.
[Description: Wear it.]
That was it.
No details.
No warnings.
Nothing.
Just an instruction to put it on.
That was usually a bad sign.
Then, a voice exploded in his head.
“Fucking hell.”
“HOLY SHIT—!”
Alex yelped, nearly dropping the crown as he spun around.
“Alphox?! Where the hell have you been?!”
The primordial darkness dragon groaned inside his soul space.
“I was fighting some figures in my space, and my senses got cut off.”
“It was crazy.”
Figures?
Alex didn’t even want to know.
“Well, yeah, I killed it.”
He assumed Alphox was talking about the Abyss, but it didn’t really matter.
What mattered was that something was very wrong.
The crown started shaking violently.
Alex’s head snapped toward it just as black tendrils burst from its spikes.
Fwish!
The crown shot toward him like a bullet.
Slam!
Before he could react, the crown forcefully latched onto his head.
“Huh?!”
His hands shot up to rip it off, but the tendrils had already locked it in place.
They wove into his scalp, locking onto his skull.
[Corruption has begun.]
[Slowly corrupting the user…]
“THE FUCK?!”
Panic surged through Alex as he instinctively activated Destiny Shift.
[Undoing crown’s actions!]
Beep!
[Item is too powerful…]
“WHAT?!”
His blood turned cold as a new status panel flickered into view.
[Description: The crown fuels the God of the Abyss.]
[It is the source of his power, allowing him to control the Abyss itself.]
[If placed on one’s head, it will never be removed, slowly corrupting the wearer and transforming them into the next vessel…]
“WHAT THE FUCK?!”
Alex’s mind raced.
This never happened in his past life.
He and his teammates had killed Vyran before, but this crown had never dropped.
Why now?
And worse, he hadn’t even put it on.
The crown had chosen him.
His head started throbbing.
A deep, foreign power slithered through his veins.
It crawled into his thoughts like a parasite.
[The power is flowing inside you…]
[Kill them all… Do not spare any of them…]
Alex gritted his teeth and kept trying to rip it off.
Nothing worked.
He used magic.
Brute force.
Hell, he even summoned his Dragon Bleeding Claws and sliced his own head open.
Then he used Destiny Shift to revive himself.
Nothing.
The crown remained fixed, untouched by all logic.
[The corruption is spreading to your mind…]
[Become a vessel worthy of me… and we shall kill them all… and rule over this world…]
“Fuck… off…”
Alex growled, staggering forward.
Even after defeating the Abyss, killing Morgathis, Lorien, and Varyn, the corruption still persisted.
The source of their power hadn’t been fully destroyed.
It was still here, clinging to him like a curse.
[It is… my victory…]
[The Abyss… will… reign… supreme…]
His vision blurred as twisted images invaded his mind.
A scene of him butchering every single player in Universal Descent.
A world where he wiped out humanity’s enemies without mercy.
A throne, where he ruled over everything.
Surrounded by hundreds of women.
With all power and riches at his fingertips.
[It is… our destiny…]
[You wish to kill the gods… With my power and yours, it will be possible.]
[Once we do that, no one will defy us.]
[Money, fame, power, women, we will have it all…]
“FUCK. OFF.”
Alex clenched his fists as an overwhelming rage burned inside him.
He didn’t care about money.
He didn’t care about fame.
And he sure as hell didn’t care about having women flock to him.
All he wanted was power.
Power to kill the gods.
Power to break free from this game’s fate.
That was it.
[If you resist…]
The crown pulsed.
Dark tendrils exploded from it, wrapping around Alex’s body, locking him in place.
[Then I shall take control…]
Alex struggled.
But the tendrils only tightened.
He was losing.
His mind started to fade.
His body refused to move.
And then…
FWOOSH!
A deep crimson light erupted from his chest.
Crimson tendrils burst from within him, colliding with the crown’s tendrils like a tidal wave.
It was the Heart of Calamity.
[The Heart of Calamity would prefer if the host does not get controlled by another item.]
“…!!”
The dark and crimson tendrils clashed.
A violent battle broke out within Alex’s body.
The corruption of the Abyss fought desperately, trying to hold on.
But the Heart of Calamity was stronger.
Two of its tendrils wrapped around the crown.
And ripped it off Alex’s head effortlessly.
[Do… not… do… this…]
The crown trembled violently, resisting.
But then something unexpected happened.
The Heart of Calamity absorbed it.
“…Huh?”
Alex blinked in confusion.
“The fuck?”
The crown tried to fight back.
Dark energy thrashed wildly.
But the Heart of Calamity devoured it whole, dragging it into Alex’s chest.
[The Heart of Calamity and Crown of the Abyss God are fusing…]
“WHAT THE FUCK, WHY?!”
FWISH! FWISH!
Crimson and dark tendrils surged through Alex’s body.
They merged together, flooding his veins with power. Stay tuned with My Virtual Library Empire
He could feel the transformation happening.
The two forces intertwined.
And then…
FWISH!
Something seeped out of him.
It landed on his head.
[Crown of Calamity (Forbidden Item)]
[One of the strongest items in existence.]
[The fusion of the Heart of Calamity and the Crown of the Abyss God.]
Alex’s breath caught as he raised a hand, feeling the new crown.
It had the same shape as the Abyss Crown.
Jagged.
Ominous.
But in its center, a crimson heart slowly rotated, pulsating with life.
It was a true fusion.
He tried to take it off.
Nope.
It was stuck.
Though… at least this one wasn’t trying to corrupt him.
[The Crown of Calamity prefers its current form.]
[It will be watching over you.]
“…Thanks? I guess?”
Alex mumbled.
The whole situation was insane.
But at least he wasn’t turning into the Abyss’s next vessel anymore.
Before he could say anything else, something materialized before him.
It was a small token.
“…!”
Alex’s eyes widened at the sight.
Without hesitation, he grabbed it.
There was only one other thing he had been seeking inside of the Abyss.
And that thing was…
[The Token of the Abyss]
That was it.
The second token he needed for the [Door of Destiny].
He had already acquired the [Token of the Tower].
With this one in his possession, he now had two.
He immediately stored it inside of his [Digital Inventory Watch].
“Three more…”
He mumbled to himself.
Now, he just had to get out of here.
He pulled up his World Map to teleport.
[You cannot leave the Abyss like that.]
“…Of course.”
Instead, he needed another way.
Luckily, he found it immediately.
At the far end of the abyssal arena, a swirling black vortex had appeared.
It stood right in front of a ruined throne.
Alex exhaled.
He rolled his shoulders.
“I guess the Abyss is done for.”
He stepped forward.
It had been brutal.
But he had won.
And now, it was time to continue.
