Fwish! Ding!
Alex’s body materialized just outside the towering gates of [Angel City] for the third time, light fading from his form as his feet touched the ground.
Though it had been over two weeks since he last visited, to him, the passage of time felt shallow, just a few days at most.
The flow of events had been so constant, so heavy, that he barely noticed the time slipping by.
But he wasn’t here for nostalgia.
His wings flared out with practiced sharpness, and in the blink of an eye, he shot forward like a bolt of force, landing right at the entrance without wasting a single breath.
Standing guard as always, dressed in armor that gleamed faintly under the sun, the [Angel Commander] stood watch.
“Hey,” Alex’s voice cut sharp and direct, “How’s everything going? Skip the small talk, I want answers, fast.”
He didn’t have the luxury of patience anymore, not with the countdown in motion.
[Time before the Chosen Games: 29 Minutes 38 Seconds…]
The [Angel Commander] blinked in momentary surprise, taken aback by Alex’s sudden arrival.
But after a brief second of recollection, he straightened up, recognizing the weight of urgency in Alex’s voice.
“We’ve handled the ogres, goblins, elves, giants, and beastmen,” the commander reported swiftly.
“They’ve all agreed to a ceasefire under our terms, but we’re still locked in combat with the final three, the demons, the dark elves, and the minotaurs.”
Alex frowned slightly at the news.
That wasn’t ideal.
He’d hoped they’d made more progress in his absence.
The final three races were by far the hardest to deal with, both in terms of brute strength and strategy.
Demons and minotaurs lived under survival-of-the-strongest ideologies, that meant diplomacy was meaningless.
Only overwhelming power could shift their course.
The dark elves, on the other hand, were cunning, too smart to be threatened so easily.
“What about Volks?” Alex asked, eyes narrowing slightly.
“Is he still…?”
“He’s on the frontlines,” the commander confirmed, his expression tightening with a mixture of pride and concern.
“He’s leading the angels against the minotaurs as we speak.”
“We’ve managed to keep casualties to a minimum, but this war won’t be ending anytime soon.”
“Could take weeks, maybe even months.”
The commander’s tone betrayed excitement beneath his words.
War seemed to give the angel that strange glimmer in his eye, the kind only a battle-hardened fanatic could have.
But Alex didn’t have weeks.
He didn’t even have a day.
And so…
“Hey,” Alex said again, slower this time.
His voice was calm, but behind his eyes, something was shifting.
There was a burn in them, a steady rhythm of shifting color, gold, crimson, black, flashing like a signal of what was to come.
“You said you’re going to the battlefield.”
“That means you have a fast way of getting there, right? Portals?”
A sudden chill swept through the air.
The [Angel Commander] stiffened, his instincts awakening as he sensed something dense and dangerous behind Alex’s eyes.
“Y-Yes,” the commander replied with a nod, “We’ve placed fixed golden portals to each of the enemy strongholds.”
“High-ranking members of the angel race can summon them at will.”
“Good,” Alex smiled faintly, a flicker of something darker forming in the corner of his lips, “Then we’re speeding things up. Where are they?”
Without hesitation, the [Angel Commander] snapped his fingers.
Three golden portals appeared, glowing in front of them.
“The one on the left leads to the main minotaur stronghold,” the commander said, “The center goes to the demons, and the right portal leads to the dark elves.”
“Stay right here,” Alex muttered, already walking toward the first portal.
He stepped through the glowing arch, vanished for only a moment, then reappeared.
Without pause, he entered the second portal and did the same.
Finally, he stepped through the third.
It all took less than ten seconds.
Now, each location had been saved to his [World Map].
That had been his goal.
Once added, he could teleport to any of them without needing a portal or an angel to assist.
That step alone cut down hours of travel into mere seconds.
He glanced again at the invisible timer in his vision.
[Time before the Chosen Games: 27 Minutes 54 Seconds…]
‘Alright,’ he thought, tapping into his willpower, ‘Time to speedrun a war.’
Opening his [World Map], Alex selected the [Main Minotaur Village], the name now imprinted thanks to the portal’s link.
A brief shimmer surrounded his form.
Fwish! Ding!
[You have teleported to the “Main Minotaur Village.”]
In an instant, he appeared in the center of the massive settlement, and was immediately surrounded by chaos.
Smoke drifted upward from burning buildings, minotaur war drums echoed in the distance, and the ground trembled with the force of battle.
Bodies were scattered across the village, both angelic and beastly.
Fires raged. Screams echoed. Magic and blood colored the skies.
Despite being called a “village,” it was enormous, hundreds of towering structures carved from stone and wood, large enough to house the colossal minotaurs.
The population had to number in the hundreds of thousands, maybe more.
Alex’s eyes scanned the area, but a voice quickly broke through the noise.
“DIE, PATHETIC INTRUDER!”
A minotaur, nearly three meters tall, charged from behind and swung a massive, fur-covered fist toward Alex.
He didn’t even blink.
With a calm movement, he sidestepped the blow and in the same motion, summoned the [Bleeding Dragon Claws] on his left hand.
A clean arc sliced through the air, then through flesh and bone.
The minotaur’s head dropped from its shoulders before it even realized what had happened.
“I don’t have time to waste,” Alex muttered as the body collapsed.
His goal was simple, eliminate the [Chief of Minotaurs].
Do that, and the power structure of their race would crumble.
The angels would win this front instantly.
He launched upward with his wings, soaring into the air above the village.
From this vantage, he could see everything.
Explosions littered the battlefield, both magical and physical.
Minotaurs clashed against armored angels, neither side giving an inch.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The sound of war raged on, but none of it mattered to Alex.
His eyes burned with something deeper than flame, calculated focus.
And then it happened.
His world went silent.
Colors drained from his surroundings as everything darkened.
The world didn’t vanish, it simply shifted.
Everything turned black, save for the glowing white outlines of every moving entity.
Tens of thousands of glowing outlines, flickering in his vision.
It wasn’t his usual detection pulse.
No, this was different.
A new layer of focus, unlocked through his [Eyes of Cursed Void] and their affinity with the “Void.”
His pupils narrowed, and within a fraction of a second, he locked onto one presence. There.
Toward the eastern edge of the village.
A thunderous boom echoed as the [Chief of Minotaurs] roared, standing in the center of the chaos.
It towered over all others, nearly six meters tall, covered in iron-tough hide and spiked armor.
Every movement it made crushed angels beneath it.
It had already slain hundreds on its own.
Then its blood-red eyes turned, straight toward Alex.
“GRAAAAAAWHHHHHHHHH!”
Its roar echoed across the battlefield, the sheer pressure shaking buildings and causing even some angels to stagger.
But Alex didn’t even flinch.
The pressure rolled over him, but he didn’t budge, not even a hair.
He took a breath. Slow. Controlled.
And without another word, he readied himself.
This would be over in seconds. He wasn’t here to fight a war for long. He was here to end it fast.