Chương 155: Chapter 154: Chain Reaction

For a moment, Meno just stood in front of the darkened portal. Then he brought back chat, viewer count, notifications, and the rest of the stream clutter he had hidden during Muted Mode. Everything hit his vision at once. Chat moved too fast to read properly, but Meno caught enough to regret bringing it back: portal-count arguments, Jagged Sea flood theories, jokes about his brain being AFK, and a wall of people celebrating the end of Muted Mode. Karmabeast looked much worse than he had 40 hours earlier.

His voice had lost most of its bounce, and he stood with both hands hanging uselessly at his sides while staring at the portal.

"Oyy. Finally done." He dragged both palms down his face.

"I was going crazy, man. I need to sleep very, very hard. You better give me that upgraded Tyrant. I have never done this much PvE nonstop without some PK action. This is super toxic."

"Same." Meno rubbed at one eye even though the simulated body did not need it.

"We're almost done here. I seriously can't do another boss fight right now." The system apparently heard that and decided to become extremely complicated. [Quest Complete! | Break It] Excrino has infused Tyrant with as much power as he is willing to grant. [Class Evolution Limit Reached] Tyrant has evolved into Tyrant EX. Tyrant has reached the limit of its current Evolution and can no longer be upgraded, as it is incapable of containing the full power of the Divine tier. Seek a more powerful Evolution.

Meno's sleep-deprived brain caught on one phrase.

"Divine tier." That sounded important enough to keep reading. You may now modify each Tyrant active ability and passive once by strengthening chosen aspects at the cost of weakening others. The power gained toward your chosen purpose will be determined after you set the target and confirm the sacrifice. The benefits will always outweigh the cost, but this process cannot be undone. Choose carefully. This process has no effect on Class Augmentations.

Divine Writ of Bestowal transfers Tyrant EX with all modifications reproduced from their underlying principles. The recipient does not gain a modification opportunity. Tyrant EX cannot be transferred until all modifications have been confirmed. TYRANT EX???? Why is Excrino not full divine??? bro got scammed hanged god doesn't have enough juice EX as in EXcrino or is that a standard thing EXalted? EXtended? EXtreme?

DO NOT LET HIM COOK ON 40 HOURS NO SLEEP divine tier above tyrant confirmed PBG gonna sac all defense for damage make Airwalks less kicks more speed DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING Meno opened the class panel and found Swing Master Tyrant EX where Tyrant had been before. The abilities looked unchanged until he selected Annihilator, which opened a basic modification window beside the tooltip: one box for strengthening, one for weakening. Below them sat a large confirmation button that looked far too easy to press.

"You seeing this on my stream?" he asked. Karmabeast had already opened Meno's feed in an overlay.

"Yeah. That sucks."

"How does that suck?"

"Because you're about to prune every utility effect off your class and ramp the whole thing into Speed and Damage." Karmabeast pointed accusingly.

"Don't rush it. I don't want you messing up the whole evolution before you give it to me."

"I have no clue what I'm doing yet. I need to think about it." Meno reopened Annihilator just long enough to inspect the modification window again.

"Best I can tell, I write what I want stronger, then write what I'm willing to ruin for it, and the AI decides how bad the trade gets." Karmabeast yawned.

"Holding the Level 80 augment turned out pointless, though."

"No. Still the right call." The Hanged God stood before the darkened Rift portal with his head tilted slightly downward. Hundreds of weapons remained driven through his body, swords and spears jutting from his chest, shoulders, back, and stomach beneath stitched sheets of leather that looked disturbingly like skin. His beard hung nearly to his waist, completely still despite the water running through the nearby passage. Excrino reached for the portal.

The god planted both enormous hands against opposite sides and pulled. The portal stretched as Excrino folded the oval inward, blue-black energy crawling across his forearms until the opening lengthened between his palms, narrowed, and hardened into something Meno recognized only after the god had finished shaping it. A greatsword. The blade looked like someone had taken a hole in reality, flattened it into sharpened metal, and left the original portal burning inside.

"Okay," Meno said.

"That's new." Excrino reversed the weapon and drove it into the cavern floor, sending dark-blue fire exploding up the blade as a pulse expanded from the point of impact before either player could react. [Null Domain: All effects Nullified] The dark-blue pulse drilled downward, and the stone beneath them simply ceased to exist. They dropped.

"Great." Meno tried Airwalk on reflex, but nothing happened. He activated Crownmind. The skill triggered, went on cooldown, and accomplished absolutely nothing. Also great. Karmabeast fell beside him, flailing once before trying his Umbral movement. The shadows appeared around his legs for less than a fraction of a second and vanished.

"Oh, come on!" The circular shaft Excrino had cut continued farther than Meno could see. The familiar orange glowstone of Layer 4 disappeared, replaced by complete darkness except for a faint red light far beneath them. After forty hours surrounded by orange veins, their sudden absence felt stranger than the fall itself. They continued accelerating.

"If we die to fall damage after all that, I am going to crash out."

"Same." The red light expanded as the bottom rushed up much faster than Meno wanted. Excrino was already waiting there, one hand raised. He snapped his fingers. Every part of Meno's build slammed back online at once. He kicked against empty air, overcorrected immediately as Arrival nearly launched him sideways into the wall, then burned another Airwalk charge to fix the angle, catch Karmabeast, and land. [Fractera Depths — Layer 5 | Level: 101–104]"I'm too potato for this."

The cavern around them was enormous and almost perfectly circular. Glowstone covered the walls in thick veins like the layers above, but the color had changed. Deep red light washed across the chamber, turning the stone and every moving shadow the same bloody color. Something stood in the center. Or rather, something was being forced to stand. Six enormous black chains stretched from the surrounding wall into a ritual circle carved into the floor.

They bound the prisoner's arms, legs, torso, and neck, each chain thicker than Karmabeast's entire body. None of them hung naturally. The links flexed and shifted as if the chains were alive, tightening by themselves before slowly relaxing again, while red energy flowed from the glowstone into them in slow pulses that ended somewhere inside the prisoner. Meno had expected another Balveth. He had not expected a giant.

The creature stood around Excrino's size, bipedal enough to look disturbingly human despite everything else. Gray skin covered a heavily built frame, with veins of red crystal pushing through his chest, shoulders, and face. Long black hair fell around a pair of curved horns, and pale yellow eyes glowed through narrow slits beneath them. His hands looked almost human until the fingers ended in dark claws, while a thick tail curled behind him and ended in a sharp spade-shaped point. Meno inspected him.

[Furnon | Calamity | Ruin of Seventeen Worlds | Level???] RUIN OF SEVENTEEN WORLDS???? THAT IS THE GUY THE SAINT WARNED ABOUT question marks make no sense DO NOT FREE HIM final boss time WHY IS LAYER FIVE ONLY 101-104 THEN"Yeah," Meno said.

"Way too potato." Excrino slowly turned his bald head until one black eye with a tiny red pupil settled on Meno. The weapons embedded through the god's body began vibrating faintly, and his beard swayed near his stomach as though the room had developed a breeze only around him. He pointed toward Furnon.

"Break chains." Meno looked at the living restraints.

"How about no?" Excrino gave him nothing, then faded out of existence.

"Great guidance." Karmabeast had already moved closer to Furnon.

"Just break the stupid chains. I ordered food like twenty minutes ago. I am logging out in ten no matter what happens, then I've gotta prep for that Streamline party. I got invited."

"That's top 50 only." Karmabeast looked at him long enough for Meno to remember the leaderboard.

"Oh. Right. Never mind. I wonder if the person you knocked out can still come."

"Who cares? I already ordered a rank-two shirt while we were farming portals." Karmabeast became more awake just discussing it.

"Big number two on the front, troll face on the back. I'm hugging everyone while wearing that. It's going to slay." Meno looked back toward Furnon.

"This guy looks pretty angry. I don't think he got invited." Furnon's glowing eyes tracked him.

"If we free him, it definitely triggers some world-state thing," Meno said.

"The part where he's called Ruin of Seventeen Worlds is maybe a red flag." Karmabeast scoffed.

"It says seventeen worlds, but there is only one world. Clearly fake. Can we not get bogged down in roleplay crap?"

"So you're a world expert now? How do you know there's only one?"

"I see one." Stolen story; please report. Karmabeast had already lost interest in arguing. He pulled out the Prismatic Infuser, walked to the closest chain, and started attacking it. The Ancient dagger was tiny against the restraint. Each black link was roughly six times thicker than the blade, but Karmabeast attacked with enthusiasm. Nothing happened, so Karmabeast eventually gave up and walked directly in front of Furnon, looking up at the chained giant.

"How does this crap work? Any guidance, Mr. Calamity? Can you speak? Hello?" Furnon lowered his gaze. He looked at Karmabeast the way Meno looked at an NPC wagon blocking the road.

"PBG. You're the chain expert. How about you start moving?"

"I'm not even sure this is related to the raid unlock." Meno inspected Furnon again, hoping the question marks had developed more useful information.

"Layer Five says 101 to 104. He says Level question marks. If we free this thing, it might become a Zone Calamity, which is bad. Level 100 was a wall. Question marks is not just a couple levels higher." DO NOT BREAK IT just got to Fracetra don't ruin it pls noway he is not breaking it QUEST PROGRESSION > SAFETY break it coward Karmabeast jabbed one dagger toward the nearest chain.

"Can you shut up and break it? Since when do you care about ruining everybody else's time? I was serious about the pizza. I cannot let it go cold." Meno shrugged because that was fair enough, then equipped Vervenzal's Verdict and struck the chain. Nothing happened. He attacked again with more force, but the chain still did not react.

"This is some puzzle." The ritual circle beneath Furnon seemed like the obvious second target. Meno formed Quadrillionator, stepped around the prisoner, and drove the Massive weapon into one of the red symbols carved across the floor. The point stopped dead. Meno could feel the strike pass back through the shaft into both arms, while the red stone underneath showed absolutely no mark.

"Too high tier." Karmabeast groaned.

"This is so annoying. Can't you science it? We are going to get stuck here. Bricked."

"Maybe if I break my Chain beside the real chain, it does something." Karmabeast stared at him.

"That makes no sense."

"Exactly. Which means it's probably roleplay." Meno activated Quadrillionator again and attacked Furnon directly. The Massive weapon hit his chest. Zero damage. Furnon did not flinch, but Tyrant still registered the weapon attack. [Chain: 1100 | Damage: +11, 000% | Total: 111x] Meno stepped beside the nearest restraint and stopped attacking. Three seconds passed. [Chain Broken | Chain reset to 1000] The black chain beside him snapped.

Every link in the middle section simply burst apart at the same moment, recoiling toward the wall and Furnon's arm as if the restraint had been cut by something invisible. Then Karmabeast slowly nodded.

"AI got creative with this one. I feel very immersed."

"Yeah. We're being forced to cultivate our questing brain without consent." The solution was stupid enough to work consistently. Meno waited for the cooldown, landed another harmless Quadrillionator hit on Furnon to gain Chain, moved beside the second restraint, and deliberately let his attack timer expire. The second chain broke. By the third, Karmabeast had become bored with watching.

"Before you finish, let me climb on his shoulders for a screenshot."

"Are you serious?" Karmabeast did not wait for approval. He jumped, caught Furnon's shoulder with one hand, and hauled himself onto the chained Calamity like someone mounting an oversized statue. Furnon turned his head slowly as Karmabeast settled across his shoulders with the giant's horned head between his legs. Then Karmabeast started taking selfies.

TOTAL DISRESPECT DUMBEST MOMENT IN VEYRATH HISTORY BRO IS RIDING FURNON RUIN OF SEVENTEEN WORLDS MERCH DROP THIS SCREENSHOT IS GONNA AGE HORRIBLY Karmabeast looked down.

"You don't want one?"

"This is the dumbest thing ever." Furnon looked at Meno.

"Sure. Why not." Karmabeast hopped down, and Meno took his place beside Furnon, which was only difficult because the Calamity's shoulder sat far above him. One Airwalk kick solved the height problem. Meno stabilized himself beside Furnon's upper body, put an arm around the giant's shoulder like they were old friends, and took a picture. Furnon's expression did not change. Meno transferred the screenshot through the phone-link and sent it to Rina first, then reconsidered and sent it to Vivi too.

Meno: merch maybe She wanted ideas, so there. Then Meno resumed the puzzle. The remaining chains followed the same absurd rule: hit Furnon with a Massive weapon, gain Chain, stand beside a restraint, deliberately stop attacking, wait for the Chain-break timer, and watch one of the enormous black restraints snap for reasons only JaxxonVale could have guessed. By the sixth chain, Meno had stopped questioning it. The final restraint broke, and every symbol in the ritual circle ignited red.

The chains pulled away from Furnon and vanished into the surrounding glowstone while the carvings underneath his feet burned bright enough to wash the whole chamber in crimson light. The glow held for several seconds, then sank back into the floor until the ritual circle looked dead. Furnon stood free and rolled one shoulder, the movement alone making the red crystals in his gray skin shift beneath the surface. His voice did not sound loud, but it still seemed to arrive from every direction at once.

"Noise. Shape. Movement. Insolence." Furnon's pale eyes narrowed.

"You have mistaken being noticed for being alive." Meno opened his mouth, and the entire cavern began to vibrate. Furnon's body blurred at the edges while the same frequency moved outward through the floor, walls, and ceiling. Cracks tore through the red stone beneath them. Chunks of Layer 5 broke loose overhead, and somewhere far above, Fractera groaned with a sound so enormous Meno could feel it through his feet. That seemed bad.

The most recent Massive weapon hit had been on Furnon, which meant Mush was available.

"If Excrino is ever going to be useful, now seems like a fantastic time." Meno triggered Mush and black smoke burst across the cavern. Normally, Excrino's incarnation appeared long enough to execute the marked target, resurrect them, and leave. This time, the Hanged God fully manifested between Furnon and Meno, cutting the vibration off instantly. Then Excrino punched Furnon in the face. The impact folded the cavern wall inward, burying Furnon beneath hundreds of tons of shattered stone.

A moment later, the shockwave hit Meno hard enough to send broken pieces of floor skittering in every direction, and he retreated with Karmabeast before the rubble exploded outward again. Furnon came back holding one of his own horns. He had torn it from his skull while rising. Black blood ran down the side of his face for barely a second before another horn pushed up beneath it, and the severed one stretched in his hand, sharpening into a long black spike.

Then Furnon crossed the cavern faster than Meno could track. The spike drove through Excrino's chest, and space collapsed around the impact. Loose stone, broken chain fragments, and an entire section of floor lifted toward the weapon before vanishing into a black distortion centered inside Excrino's torso. The Hanged God only looked down, pulled one sword from his own body, and swung. Meno barely saw it.

Furnon came apart at the waist, both halves hitting the ground separately while the cut continued far beyond him and carved a straight trench through the cavern wall.

"What the hell," Karmabeast whispered. Furnon pulled himself back together without healing. The two halves moved toward one another, and reality seemed to accept that they had always been attached. Then the cavern disappeared. For less than a second, Meno saw only Furnon's pale-yellow eyes repeated across impossible distances, thousands of them opening in blackness far beyond the room. When reality snapped back, eleven Furnons stood behind Excrino with grey orbs forming above their raised palms.

Excrino moved first. A broken spear, two swords, a knife, and a jagged strip of metal tore free from his body in a blur. Each weapon met one grey orb before it could release, and every collision erased both objects without an explosion. The copies vanished. Furnon and Excrino flickered across the cavern. Gravity reversed, throwing broken stone into the ceiling before snapping back. One wall aged into dust while another cracked open into red crystal.

A missed strike left a black fissure hanging in empty space after both had already moved. Excrino answered everything like he was swatting away bad inputs. A sword intercepted grey lightning that looked ready to tear the room in half. One hand closed around Furnon's throat and drove him through the floor. Another weapon cut away Furnon's arm before the Calamity's newest horn-spike could finish forming. Furnon kept regenerating anyway.

He tore horns from his skull faster than they could grow back, turned broken pieces of himself into black blades and spears, and warped space around every attack. It still did not matter. Every exchange ended with more of Furnon missing than Excrino. Then the fight stopped. Furnon stood near the far wall with half his face gone and one arm ending at the elbow, both already rebuilding.

Excrino remained almost exactly where the fight had begun, with one sword through his side snapped and a deep cut crossing one shoulder. That was it. For several seconds, Furnon was silent while the fury drained from what remained of his face, leaving recognition behind. He dragged one claw through empty air, and reality split into a portal behind him. Furnon stepped backward into it without taking his eyes from Excrino.

"I remember you now." The portal began closing around him.

"When your chains return, I will be there to pull them tight." Then Furnon was gone, and silence returned to Layer 5. Meno slowly lowered the weapon he had never gotten a chance to use.

"Cool cutscene." Excrino appeared beside the ritual circle, its carvings still completely intact despite everything that had happened around them, and raised one foot. The stomp shattered the circle. Instead of breaking apart like ordinary stone, the glowing lines lifted from the floor in ribbons of red light, twisting through one another as they stretched upward and separated into two new openings.

The two openings stabilized side by side, one burning gold and the other shining white, before Excrino turned toward Meno.

"Good." Then he faded away, and the notifications arrived immediately. [WORLD STATE PROGRESSION] Excrino has forced Furnon to flee Veyrath, establishing himself as its dominant god. He has commanded all inhabitants of Veyrath to free Morvarenax in Rimvolen. [Road to Rimvolen Raid Unlocked] Accessible through Excrino's golden portal on Layer 5 beneath Fracturehold. Raid Size: 20 | Bosses: 5 | Recommended Level: 90–104 Defeat Velnir, First Cryarch of the Outer Circle, to unlock Rimvolen, Level 105–134.

Meno's eyes stopped on the level range.

"Okay. So Level 100 wall was real. Rimvolen starts at 105." Another block appeared beneath it. [Excrino's Dominance] The Excrinant Subclass may now be claimed by anyone with at least 666 Negative Karma at the Devout Shrine of Excrino in Northspire. [Excrinant] Become a true worshipper of Excrino. This Subclass can only be changed through Divine Intervention from an opposing god. The price of such intervention will be significant. Killing blows fully restore all resources, including HP.

Gain 1% bonus experience from kills for each Level below the highest-Level Tyrant. Excrino may choose to manifest through you. EXCREMENT CATCHUP META bait for sure 100% 59% XP AT LEVEL 30 YES PLS Fractera came out like 2 days ago can you chill city still hasn't been repaired LMAO NORTHSPIRE IS IN RUINS after Rimvolen its Daxolon for sure Karmabeast looked genuinely awake for the first time in hours.

"That fight was sick. Love VR cutscenes." He reread the subclass.

"That thing is a bit cooked too."

"Yeah. XP bonus based on my level." Meno sounded offended on principle.

"Very cool. Thanks, AI. Blatant punishment for getting ahead." He looked over the rest of Excrinant.

"Also cursed bait. Same kind of Divine Intervention language as Fael. Once you take it, you can't just change your mind. Killing blows refill everything, which is sustain. No direct damage. Titan still better." Karmabeast pointed at the catch-up line.

"Yeah, except if you're fifty right now, you get thirty nine percent bonus XP. That is a lot. Low-level players are going to get farmed hard for the sweet negative Karma, because farming NPCs is a pain."

"It only needs the first threshold. Six-sixty-six is nothing." Meno shook his head.

"Anyone taking it purely for catch-up is going to get screwed later. Don't take it. You've been warned." GATEKEEPING CATCHUP MECHANIC red bastion repair Northspire pls 100 mill gold repair city cowards ALL TAKE EXCREMENT blocks you from other gods for sure BEST SOLO PVE SUBCLASS EVER"True," Meno said.

"The XP bonus is absolutely a targeted attack against me personally. You guys get rewarded for being bad and behind. Very unhealthy lame design." Karmabeast laughed while Meno looked between the two portals. Gold obviously meant the newly unlocked raid. White had not been explained, which made it the better option by default.

"We're not doing the raid," Meno said.

"Obviously."

"That white portal probably takes us to Layer 4 or the city. Let's get out before Excrino remembers another quest." They stepped through, and the red cavern vanished into the orange glowstone Meno had spent an unhealthy portion of his life staring at. Layer 4. A matching white portal stood behind them in a random cavern, and a notification appeared a moment later. [Fractera Depths Zone Map Revealed]"Oh. Nice." Meno opened it, and Layer 4 exploded across his interface. The map was enormous.

40 hours of exploration had only revealed a tangled section of a much larger network, with entire tunnel systems stretching east and south beyond anything he and Karmabeast had reached. Vertical shafts connected hidden pockets above and below them, and their seabed shortcut appeared as a tiny irregular path near one edge. The white Layer 5 portal was marked, with the golden raid entrance beneath it. Chat immediately went insane.

SCREENSHOT SCREENSHOT SCREENSHOT thanks for raid loc -Kestrel actually opened it facepalm PBG GO TO SLEEP CLIPPED AND MAILED TO CROWNFALL Meno closed it.

"Ah." Karmabeast looked over.

"You just leaked it?"

"Yep."

"You are cooked."

"I'm tired." That was the entire explanation. Karmabeast stretched both arms overhead.

"Okay, I'm off. Bye. Make your Tyrant nonsense when you wake up, then give me the evol."

"Maybe."

"Not maybe."

"You haven't earned anything." Karmabeast looked at him until Meno remembered the quest tracker that was no longer there.

"Fine. You earned something."

"Exactly." Karmabeast logged out, and his character vanished from the cavern. Meno stood alone while 40 hours of momentum finally dropped out from under him. His body outside the capsule forced its way back into the conversation. Hungry, exhausted, done.

"Yeah. I'm off too." Chat protested out of habit, but even the spam looked tired. Meno logged out. The capsule opened around him, and standing upright became a harder mechanic than anything in Layer 4. He sat on the edge for a few seconds until the room stopped moving underneath him. Then he remembered Scuzzy.

"Right." Meno had promised to restream the guy once he bounced, so he opened ScuzzyIamDisease's stream, confirmed the criminal maniac was active, and set the restream through his channel with 14 million viewers still attached before leaving the suite. The Pearl's bar was thankfully open. Meno ordered a steak burger because the rotation had survived Rina's breakfast assault and deserved respect. He ate it without checking a leaderboard, a notification, a clip, or anything related to Veyrath.

For roughly ten minutes, his only progression system was burger remaining versus burger consumed. Then he returned to his quiet suite. Vivi had gone home, nobody waited outside his door, no billionaire had sent security, and no cursed pet appeared. Meno made it into the bedroom, dropped his phone somewhere near the bed, and collapsed face-first without setting an alarm. Once he slept, he could figure out Tyrant EX. After that, there was the party.

Those were future Meno's problems, and current Meno was unconscious before he finished the thought.