The air was thick with the scent of burning magic. It suffocated the battlefield as Riven stood firm against the relentless assault of the Arbiters.
The Academy, once a sanctuary of learning, had become a war zone. Broken stone, shattered wards, and burning walls made up the landscape. Arbiters swarmed like locusts, their unyielding forms relentless in their pursuit of the Chaosborn.
Riven dodged another strike, the hammer-wielding Arbiter's blow narrowly missing him. His body burned with the effort of maintaining focus, muscles sore, ribs cracked, but his resolve was ironclad.
[System Notification: Player Status – Wounded: Fractured Rib, Minor Internal Bleeding. Combat Efficacy Diminished.]
He gritted his teeth as he took a step back. Pain radiated through him, but there was no time to dwell on it. He could hear Kael's voice cut through the chaos from across the courtyard.
"How many more, Riven?" Kael shouted, dodging a blade of liquified time with a pained grunt.
[System Notification: Arbiter Strike Teams Remaining – 46 Units.]
"Too many!" Riven shouted back, parrying another strike from an Arbiter to his left. His sword rang out with a vicious crack, slicing through the shadow-like form of his opponent.
[System Alert: Arbiter-Class "Shadowhunter" Defeated – 45 Units Remaining.]
He could feel the pulse of magic coursing through him, warping his senses. His sword flickered—shifting into a jagged spike of black flame. With a deep breath, he lunged at the next foe.
"Hold the Codex Vault!" The Headmaster's voice boomed across the courtyard. Ancient sigils bloomed around him as he shielded a group of students with an arcane barrier.
Riven's eyes narrowed as his gaze locked onto the largest figure among the invaders—the Arbiter he had been tracking.
A roar split the sky.
The Arbiter crashed into the courtyard, shaking the earth beneath him with the force of his landing. Riven's breath caught as he assessed the creature's form. It was worse than he imagined. Its body was sewn together from broken timelines. Eyes blinked along its limbs, each eye reflecting a different memory—different deaths, different lives.
It raised its hammer, and reality itself seemed to fracture.
"You," the Arbiter rasped, voice layered with a thousand deaths. "Chaosborn. Terminate."
Riven tightened his grip on his sword.
[System Alert: Temporal Echo Detected – Predictive Combat Mode Engaged.]
"I was hoping you'd make this interesting," Riven muttered under his breath as the Arbiter's hammer came crashing down.
The ground cracked under the force of the blow, but Riven was already in motion, side-stepping with practiced precision. He spun, his sword flashing upward in a deadly arc. The Arbiter raised its hammer to block, but Riven's blade shattered the moment it touched the weapon, forcing it to drop back.
[System Update: Arbiter-Class "Hammer of Ends" – Combat Efficiency Increased.]
The Arbiter shimmered, splitting into three mirror images. Each one lunged toward him from a different angle.
[System Alert: Temporal Distortion – Combat Strategy Required.]
Instinctively, Riven adjusted, sidestepping the first image. He ducked beneath the second, spinning his body as the third shadow leaped toward him. His sword flickered into a spear of frozen time, and he drove it upward through the third image.
[System Alert: Temporal Anchor Severed – Arbiter-Class "Hammer of Ends" Stability Decreased.]
But the true body of the Arbiter wasn't fooled. It slammed its hammer into Riven's side, sending him crashing across the courtyard. His vision blurred as pain exploded through his ribs.
[System Alert: Player Status – Severe Internal Damage. Combat Efficacy Severely Decreased.]
He rolled and staggered to his feet, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. The Arbiter's hammer swung again, this time with more precision, aimed to finish him.
Riven raised his sword, feeling the weight of his body resisting the pull of gravity. But then—something else. A flicker of memory. A distant scream.
[System Broadcast: Global Priority Notification – New Entity Identified. Title: "The First Warden – Breaker of Echoes."]
The ground beneath them quivered.
From above, a massive rift in the sky opened—a perfect circle of obsidian, pulsing with unimaginable power. The Arbiters, even the ones still fighting, knelt before it as if compelled by some invisible force.
Out of the rift stepped a single figure.
A towering presence. Clad in armor that seemed less forged and more grown, the black and silver interwoven in an eerie, organic design. A simple sword hung at his hip—unadorned, but terrifying in its simplicity. His face was hidden beneath a dragon's skull helmet.
Riven felt it immediately.
This wasn't another soldier.
This was something worse.
This was a commander.
No—this was the king of the Arbiters.
[System Notification: Threat Level – Cataclysm-Class. Objective: Terminate Chaosborn Pair at All Costs.]
The Arbiter that Riven had been fighting—his hammer raised high—paused. All the Arbiters paused. They all kneeled before this new arrival.
Riven felt the weight of the First Warden's gaze from across the battlefield. He could almost hear the distant echo of forgotten words in his mind. A chill crawled down his spine as the Warden raised one gloved hand.
The ground trembled.
The very air seemed to die, suffocating all hope, as the First Warden stepped forward, his sword now drawn with a sound like the collapse of stars.
And then it hit him.
The true magnitude of what they were facing.
This was no longer about the Academy, the Codex Vault, or even the Arbiters.
It was about survival.
The First Warden's blade gleamed with a terrifying radiance.
Riven stumbled back, breath ragged in his chest, feeling the raw power radiating from the Warden's form. He could hear Kael's voice, faint and distant, shouting his name, but it was drowned out by the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears.
For the first time since his awakening, Riven felt a cold, paralyzing fear.
"Not yet," he whispered, as the First Warden began his slow descent, sword unsheathing in the air.
[System Broadcast: Critical Threat Approaching – Survival Probability Decreasing.]
Riven took a deep breath, his body screaming at him to retreat. But the academy—his friends, his family—held him here.
They weren't ready.
Not yet.
But he would make them ready.