The moment the notifications hit, the jokes died.

  The dome of tension that had cracked under Brimma’s lightning bolts snapped right back into place.

  They were outside. In the open.

  And the midnight air had gone still. Too still.

  Alistair’s medallion pulsed once against his chest, a golden heartbeat.

  Then the world shuddered.

  It began with a tremor.

  Not a polite one. Not the kind that gently rattled teacups or made birds flap indignantly from trees.

  No.

  This was the kind of tremor that promised the end of things.

  He stared at the rock ceiling behind him. Kael and Thessaly were half inside the cave.

  “…Well, shit.”

  Another quake rolled through the earth, this one sharp enough to make his teeth click.

  Small pebbles rained from above. Dust drifted down in lazy swirls.

  “What now?” Kael asked, grabbing his bow.

  “Nothing major,” Alistair said, rising with a wince. “Just the sky falling. Standard Arena nonsense.”

  The walls groaned. The cave floor shifted beneath them like it was trying to shrug them off.

  That was enough to get Brimma stomping over, hair frizzed out like a lightning rod. “Out. Now.”

  Thessaly grabbed her things without a word.

  Another quake, this one meaner. A slab of rock sheared off the cave’s side and crashed to the floor with a thunderclap.

  That settled it.

  They ran.

  The four of them burst out into the forest, mist curling around their ankles like it had no idea the world was about to end.

  [System Notification]

  Medallions Detected – Emergency Activation Imminent

  Protective Protocol: [Sanctum Shell] – Standby

  Alistair didn’t like the word “emergency” showing up in a system message. It had a certain... finality to it.

  “What’s happening?” Thessaly asked, eyes darting skyward.

  Alistair shook his head. “Don’t know. First Cleansing didn’t do this.”

  Brimma was scanning the trees. “Something’s coming.”

  Something was coming.

  The air shifted. It got heavier. Denser. Full of some pressure that didn’t belong to this plane.

  A sound started low, like thunder with no lightning.

  Then it grew.

  A dull, steady drumbeat of thousands of feet slamming the earth at once.

  Not stomping, charging.

  Alistair’s stomach turned cold.

  Kael looked toward the treeline. “That sound...”

  “It’s getting louder,” Thessaly whispered.

  “No,” Alistair said, voice tightening. “It’s getting closer.”

  A roar of motion erupted on the horizon. Trees began toppling in neat, horrific rows like someone was rolling up the forest.

  The noise hit next. A roar of nature gone rabid. No rhythm. No cadence. Just chaos and speed and size.

  A stampede.

  Not of one species.

  All of them.

  Boars with molten tusks. Elk with horns of living bone. Massive, scaled wolves, hide shimmering like obsidian. Horned stags with glowing runes etched into their flanks.

  Hundreds of magical beasts barreling forward with no hesitation, no coordination, just fear.

  “Don’t run,” Brimma barked, planting her staff in the ground.

  “I wasn’t planning to!” Alistair snapped.

  They came in a wave. A wall of fur, fangs, tusks, antlers, feathers, and fire. A mass of magical beasts surging forward like the world had lost its mind.

  Alistair’s medallion pulsed against his chest, growing warm.

  [Medallion Protocol Engaged – Shield Deployment: Now Active]

  Protective Dome Initializing…

  He didn’t have time to question it.

  Just as the first beast lunged from the treeline, a golden dome erupted from the medallions, snapping outward like a bubble of pure sunlight.

  The first monster hit it and splattered.

  A scaled ox the size of a wagon smashed into the dome.

  It hit the dome like a battering ram and splattered in an explosion of bone and ichor.

  Another one slammed into the barrier. Then another. Then dozens more.

  Alistair flinched as bodies crunched against the shield, legs breaking, teeth snapping, skulls cracking. The sheer force made the ground tremble like the dome might collapse inward.

  It was like standing in a storm made of beasts.

  And it didn’t stop.

  They came one after the other.

  And then hundreds more.

  The stampede crashed into the barrier like waves smashing against stone. Snarling. Screeching. Bellowing. Blood flying. Horns cracking. Talons scraping.

  The creatures couldn’t turn. The stampede was too dense. Too many bodies behind, driving them forward like a tide of muscle and madness.

  They just kept coming.

  The dome shook. Magic warped along its surface. Fissures of light spread from each impact.

  Alistair stood inside it, breath caught in his throat.

  They were safe but only just.

  The barrier hummed with force. Magic rippled across its surface like stretched glass. Every second, it took another hit. Another slam. Another shudder.

  The ground buckled. The trees shook. The forest screamed.

  And somewhere behind it all, gods watched.

  Alistair wiped a streak of sweat from his brow.

  “First wave,” Kael muttered grimly. “That was the first wave.”

  Alistair stared at the horizon.

  And felt it.

  A lull.

  A breath.

  Then worse than before, silence.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Until it began again.

  And this time, the ground didn’t just shake.

  It cracked.

  The second wave hit like a war drum.

  The next stampede was deeper. Heavier. Like the earth had grown bones and was grinding them beneath its skin.

  They felt it before they saw it, raw force thrumming up through their boots, through their spines, through their teeth.

  The second wave hit like a divine punishment.

  These beasts were larger. Bulkier. Covered in natural armor, bone plating, stone hide, magma veins. One of them, a towering moose-thing slammed into the barrier so hard it left a crater of glowing gold.

  The dome held. But it screamed.

  Cracks flared across the inside like lightning bolts, flashing every time another creature rammed its weight into the shield.

  [System Notification]

  Barrier Integrity: 74%

  Warning: Continued Force May Breach Containment

  Alistair wiped a streak of blood from his brow. He wasn’t even sure whose blood it was.

  Each of them stood inside their own dome.

  A furred titan with tusks of flame hit Brimma’s dome like a boulder, her barrier rippled, fractured, held.

  A serpentine moose slammed Kael’s. A creature with quartz-riddled limbs pounded against Thessaly’s.

  Alistair’s barrier cracked like glass under the stomp of a plated bear-thing with antlers like spears.

  [Barrier Integrity: 62%]

  Cracks widened.

  Another wave surged.

  This one made him stumble into the curved wall. His palm sparked against it, heat and light crackling through his bones.

  Then the tentacles came.

  Not all the beasts were beasts. Some were wrong.

  Shapeless things with too many limbs, oozing across the herd like tumors with legs. One of them slammed against the dome and stuck.

  It slapped a tentacle forward.

  The golden light rippled, and then, sickeningly, parted. The tentacle slid through like a blade through fabric.

  “Shit...” Alistair drew both blades.

  The tentacle lashed toward Alistair.

  He moved.

  He ducked under the flailing mass and hacked. His blade caught just below the hooked tip, severing it with a burst of black ichor. The tentacle flopped, twitching, and retreated with a screech.

  [Barrier Integrity: 51%]

  Tentacle Breach Detected

  Shield Resilience Compromised

  “This is falling apart,” Alistair muttered to himself.

  He panted and leaned against the curved inner dome, staring into the chaos outside. Every second, new creatures flooded through the forest. A bear made of molten ash. A deer with seven heads. A boar with a spiral of horns twisting from its snout.

  And then...

  Something caught his eye.

  A notification. Not one he expected.

  [Collar of Submission – Inventory Item Detected]

  Would you like to scan nearby creatures for compatibility?

  His eyes widened.

  The collar.

  He'd forgotten about it.

  Of course. The artifact he'd looted two days ago, buried under coins, scrolls, and stress.

  Another wave hit. The dome flared again.

  [Barrier Integrity: 45%]

  Alistair’s mind spun.

  With this many beasts…

  He could capture one.

  He should capture one.

  [Scanning Nearby Beasts – Targeting Enabled]

  Threat Range: High

  Beast Level Range: 18–26

  Collar Use: One-time. Choose wisely.

  His breath caught.

  This was the moment.

  Hundreds of beasts outside.

  One shot.

  He scanned, eyes darting from monster to monster.

  His pupils sharpened as he turned back to the dome and stared at the horizon, his spirit flaring, instinct prickling.

  He didn’t know if it was the [Soul Insight].

  But something inside him whispered:

  There.

  A new sound rose, cutting through the noise.

  Not thunder.

  Howls.

  Dozens of them.

  Low, guttural. Too deep. Too wrong. They echoed like hunger given sound.

  Alistair turned and his blood chilled.

  From the northern ridge, black shapes loped through the smoke. Sleek, long-limbed, eyes like coals. Shadows wrapped in muscle and flame.

  Hellhounds.

  They moved like shadows but struck like fire. Their claws left molten streaks on stone. Their eyes gleamed like pressed coals. Dozens of them poured through the trees, weaving between the other stampeding beasts without fear, without hesitation.

  They didn’t run from something.

  They were the storm.

  And then Alistair saw it.

  Taller than the others. Thicker in the shoulders, a mane of ember-wreathed fur curling off its neck like black fire. Its skin shimmered like scorched obsidian, and its eyes, its eyes were veined with molten gold, burning like a forge.

  It moved like it didn’t care what it trampled. Bit the hound nearest to it for getting too close. Then snapped at another. The others parted around it, recognizing what it was:

  Alpha.

  Alistair didn’t need the system to tell him. He just knew.

  Something inside him stirred. Not the bond. Not quite. Something deeper. Older.

  It wasn’t hunger.

  It was certainty.

  [Target Identified – Hellhound Alpha]

  Race: Infernal Beast

  Type: Dark/Fire

  Origin: Plane of Cinders

  Level: 26

  Status: Unbound

  Collar Compatible: Yes

  His fingers closed around the pouch.

  He didn’t hesitate.

  He couldn’t.

  He pressed a hand to the inner surface of the dome. It vibrated beneath his skin like a coiled spring.

  [Warning: Deactivating Sanctum Shell will remove divine protection for the remainder of the Cleansing. Confirm?]

  Alistair stared at the prompt.

  Then looked at the beast.

  “Yeah,” he muttered. “I’m doing this.”

  He pressed Confirm.

  The dome fizzled, light warping inward like a bubble popped from the inside. The sound vanished. So did the warmth.

  And then all hell broke loose.

  The pressure of the world slammed into him. Roars. Screeches. The thunder of stampeding monsters.

  A scaled ram nearly bowled him over. Alistair ducked, rolled beneath it, then cast...

  [Ethereal Phase – Activated]

  His body flickered into smoke. He surged through the legs of a charging stone gorilla, past a wall of antlered beasts, dodging tusks and jaws and flaming tails.

  His stamina dipped fast, but he didn’t stop.

  A lesser hellhound lunged. He vaulted over it.

  Another snapped from the side. Alistair ducked and flung himself up a shattered tree trunk.

  He ran along the top, boots skidding.

  A flaming hound snapped at his heels. He spun mid-air, drawing breath...

  Then roared.

  [Light Breath – Activated]

  Motes of white-gold light erupted from his mouth, catching the hellhound square in the face. It howled and flipped mid-run, crashing into a thorn-beast behind it.

  The alpha loomed ahead now, black as coal, tall as a horse, veined with fire.

  It hadn’t noticed him yet.

  Another beast lunged from his right, something with too many jaws.

  Alistair hissed between his teeth, flicked blood off his sword, then cast again.

  [Summon Chittering Bats – Activated]

  A shriek of wings burst from behind him, a swarm of tiny, razor-toothed bats descending on the creature. It screamed, veered off course, and collapsed under its own thrashing.

  He vaulted over its dying body, landed hard on a patch of scorched dirt, and stumbled.

  Blood ran down his arm. His ribs were raw. He was one hit away from collapse.

  The alpha was fifty meters away. Then thirty. Then twenty.

  A flaming horned dog nearly sideswiped him. He slashed it with his blade and leapt onto its back, bouncing off its spine like a springboard toward the next.

  Burns flared on his arms. A fang sliced his back. Blood sprayed.

  [HP: 49 / 190]

  [SP: 41 / 172]

  [MP: 15 / 132]

  Alistair bared his fangs. “I want a puppy!”

  He landed on another hound then on the alpha.

  It reared.

  Smoke blasted from its jaws.

  The heat was unreal. Its skin was fire-warmed steel. Alistair clung to its mane, nearly thrown off as it thrashed and roared.

  Its eyes locked onto his.

  Infernal.

  Unforgiving.

  Alistair grinned, blood on his teeth.

  "Hi there."

  Then it opened its mouth, a cone of flame forming in its throat.

  Alistair's hand went to his pouch.

  “Now!”

  [Collar of Submission – Activated]

  A thick, runed collar of black iron and silver shimmered into existence.

  He lunged, clamped it around the beast’s neck.

  It didn’t fit.

  “Shit!”

  The hellhound’s body surged with fire. Its maw widened.

  Then the collar shifted. The metal melted, flexed, and snapped into place, sealing with a hiss and a flash of silver light.

  The hellhound stopped dead.

  Mid-roar.

  Mid-fire.

  [System Notification – Collar Successful]

  Target: Hellhound Alpha – Bound

  Status: Controlled

  Level: 26

  Loyalty: Pending

  Hostility: Suppressed

  [Unknown Effect Triggered – Enchanted Vintage – Laughing Vineyard Reserve]

  Passive Buff: +Luck (Temporary)

  Outcome Altered: [Success]

  Alistair sagged atop the beast, smoke rising off his cloak, body bloodied and shaking.

  In the heavens above, gods had begun to descend, forming into clouds and motes of watching flame and glass and flesh.

  And somewhere, the Herald howled in delight.

  “Did you see that?!” the voice rang across the arena of night. “That, my divine degenerates, is how you tame a monster!”

  Alistair didn’t move.

  He couldn’t.

  He just stared forward, bloodied and wheezing, lying half-dead on a monster that now technically belonged to him.

  He blinked smoke out of his eyes. “Gods, please let this thing be house-trained…”

  [Beast Acquired – Hellhound Alpha (Infernal Class)]

  Origin: Pocket Realm – Plane of Cinders

  Type: Companion Beast

  Traits: Firebody, Emberstep, Alpha's Will

  Status: Cautious / Unbonded

  Get early access to chapters, bonus content, and more. Now’s the perfect time to jump in!

  Patreon