'A giant door that had hundreds of screaming figures bound by chains and being burned in flames, and what followed was an ocean of dark flames that erased everything in its path,'

'This is what happened at the end of my battle against the Royal Dryad, and the one to use this skill was the Dragoness Nyla.'

'But now they are telling me that I executed the same skill and even used something similar to Nihility Purge to erase the dragon breath,'

'So did I get possessed by Dragon Monarch Ynnir, or did I have access to some of his memories that I used them by instincts, or was it something else entirely,' Alex thought, trying to piece together the missing picture.

Alex had regained consciousness right after the six-minute period of the Chrono Sanctuary skill ended, and the last memory he had was yelling at himself for thinking of committing suicide.

Andrei and Ravyn emerged victorious from their clash with the priest, but their triumph came at a great cost. Ravyn narrowly escaped death on multiple occasions, while Andrei suffered major injuries at the hands of Aetherius and only survived because of his tank-like beast avatar form.

Venedikt didn't get to end his battle because, in the time it took for him to force Vesper into using her clone ability and gain any relevant data on its working, Alex had forced Killian into using his berserk skill, and right then, Vesper chose to disengage from their skirmish and left the area.

Alex could not see the live stream, nor could he log out until the first stage of the event came to an end, so what happened after he blanked out was narrated to him by Venedikt, who watched everything from the sideline.

Alex was relieved that even after his blunder of snapping, everything went just as he wanted, as he not only received 10 million event points, giving his team a massive lead but his organization was also given access to the event shop for six extra months.

However, an unexpected thing had also happened, as even though the skill cooldown was seven days and he was healed of all the physical injuries, he was suffering from a new debuff.

The Debuff would last for twenty-four hours, weakening all darkness elemental aspect-based attacks of Alex by 30%, and even his control over his elemental manipulation was affected significantly.

The debuff was something that Alex experienced for the first time, making it clear that it was the result of losing control.

Alex realized that using the monarch aura for an extra minute or so gave him such a debuff, so it made him a question, what if he stayed in that uncontrolled state for ten, twenty or full thirty minutes?

The answer that he could think of was that either it would be fine with him receiving a similar time-limited time limit debuff, but in the worst case, it could result in permanent damage to his body.This also raised the question of whether it was the Monarch possessing his body, or him gaining a slither of his techniques was something repeatable, or if there was a chance of him going wild as expected before this incident.

Alex was not worried about the dragon Monarch possessing his body. At least, it was not the biggest worry because his guardians would have warned him, but then again, nothing could be certain at this point.

In any case, the negatives were much more than the positives, and it was unsettling for Alex as he could not also just test things to find out what the other consequences were of using the Monarch Aura and how worse things could get.

Alex didn't have his guardians by his side whom he could ask to clear his confusion, so for the time being, he decided that it was best if he dropped his plan to use the Aura in the third and fourth stages to secure the best of benefits.

As the daylight came, after some time, Alex and the group made their way to the safe zone where Saahira was waiting for them. After reaching there, they spent a few hours resting, as everyone was tired and had all their major skills on cooldown.

The second day began with Alex's team having 11.2 million event points, giving them a vast lead over the second-place team, which had barely six hundred thousand points.

As no team had access to the live stream, and nor were there any announcements of their achievements, the recent Clash between Alex and Killian was not known to the masses, but because of Killian connection with top teams, it didn't take long before the major teams to knew about the details.

So, while frustrated by their massive lead, the major teams decided to focus on killing higher star creatures and even test their luck with the corpse eater and not target Alex and his team to diminish their points.

The news of the Rutharok king's death also spread, and so did the presence of Alex and his team, so the following few days were quite peaceful.  

The truly strong teams stayed away, and so did the lower-lights

ranking teams, with even Killian not coming back to challenge Alex, which was unexpected.

While some groups of Rutharok tried their luck, both of the remaining kings focused on securing the vacant territory and knowing that not messing with the outsiders was the best choice for the time being unless they had no other choice.

As the first position was all but secured, Alex told Andrei to go free roam and collect the best of beast bloodlines to strengthen himself, knowing it would be hard to find the number of rare species on the island in any other place.

Saahira was sent with Andrei, knowing the free-spirited giant wouldn't hold back on battles, so he needed a level-headed individual by his side.

The boys spent their days hunting and, in the following six days, even encountered a rare seven-star creature known as a wanderer, and as its name suggested, it didn't belong to the biome of the open savanna.

The first stage of the event came to an end, with Alex and his team staying at the top, having earned a total of 17.8 million points.

All teams were forcefully logged out after they were informed of the twelve-hour break, and even though Alex knew that in the next stage, every team would split, he decided not to share any hints as they would be of no help.

The boys were missing for a week, which was nothing new for their families, but as they only had a twelve-hour break before they needed to go back, they decided to gather together for a family dinner.

-------------------

(Alex Home)

Both families were seated around the dining table, savouring dinner and cherishing the moments as they exchanged stories about their daily experiences.

"Brother, Congratulations on acquiring the rights to new technology," Aunt Irina said with a joyful smile after hearing how Alex's father's company gained rights to significant technology, which will elevate the level and earnings of his company.

"It's all thanks to the boys," Alex's father said, smiling as he joyfully placed his hand on the shoulders of Andrei and Alex, who were seated on his left and right.

In recent months, Alex had used the Fallenblades guild associated with Shiekh to boost the rank of his father's business partner son in the guild by giving him an A+ Rank legacy and used him and their presence to make the guild an investor in his father's company.

While the relationship between their families had grown closer, as Aunt Irina called his father, Brother and his Mother, Sister, and in turn, she was also addressed with the same respect.

"Uncle, we played a small role, and your business opportunities came because the guild recognized your abilities."

"From what I've heard, you have quickly distinguished yourself with recent progress, becoming the reason for the newer opportunities," Venedikt said, making Alex's father modestly smile, which was nothing short of a blessing for Alex.

The conversation flowed casually, and before long, dinner came to an end. The boys settled onto the sofas in front of the TV, watching highlights from the event.

"Big Brother Ven, can you do my homework, and please make sure you make some small mistakes and copy my handwriting as well, because last time the teacher caught me for not doing it myself," Sophia said, extending her Vmob forward with both hands.

"Sophi, I will do it, but I will additionally teach you at the same time so our little princess doesn't get caught again," Venedikt said as he happily took the Vmob.

"But It's the complicated geometry stuff, and I don't like it," Sophia uttered with a hint of reluctance.

Alex observed the small exchange, a smile spreading on his face as he saw his healthy and happy sister, yet additionally a indication of worry appeared in his pitch-dark eyes as he saw the massive mana flowing through her body that furthermore surpassed in comparison to that which he could see in Venedikt.