The impact was absolutely catastrophic.

Sebastian landed feet-first on the polished obsidian floor. The sheer hyper-dense kinetic force of his synchronized biology hit the stone like a dropped meteor.

The indestructible magically reinforced obsidian floor instantly shattered.

A massive crater spiderwebbed outward from his boots, sending chunks of black stone and jagged marble flying into the air.

The entire grand ballroom violently shuddered, the shockwave knocking several of the huddled elites flat onto their backs.

The heavy dust settled.

Sebastian slowly stood up from the center of the crater. He rolled his neck, the joints popping with a deep heavy sound that sounded like two boulders grinding against each other.

He was not hurt. He had not lost a single point of health. His physical body was a perfectly optimized biological server, and it absolutely thrived in the absence of the game’s restrictive laws.

He looked up at the towering Aegis Suit.

Regis’s mechanical laughter abruptly died.

The Guild Master stared at the crater, his advanced AI targeting systems desperately trying to calculate how an unarmored human had just survived a thirty-foot drop without shattering every bone in his legs.

"You talk too much, Regis," Sebastian said.

His voice was no longer muffled by the suit’s digital filter. It was his real voice.

Cold, flat, and carrying the heavy promise of absolute violence.

Sebastian cracked his knuckles. He took a heavy thudding step out of the crater.

"You turned off the magic," Sebastian stated, his featureless black visor staring dead at the massive mech. "Thanks. I always preferred a hands-on approach anyway."

Panic finally pierced through the thick arrogant haze of Guild Master Regis’s mind.

The unarmored man in the black tactical suit had not just survived the fall. He had cratered a floor made of reinforced obsidian without taking a single point of damage.

The Reality Anchor was fully active. There was no magic in the room. There were no defensive buffs or damage-mitigating auras.

It was pure impossible physical density.

"Open fire!" Regis shrieked, his voice losing its synthesized booming authority and cracking with genuine human terror. "Kill him! Tear him apart!"

The Aegis Suit reacted instantly. The massive ten-foot-tall mech planted its heavy hydraulic legs into the floor to brace against the recoil.

The twin rotary cannons mounted on its broad shoulders spun up to maximum velocity, the barrels blurring into a solid circle of dark metal.

BRRRRRRRRRT!

The sound was absolutely deafening in the enclosed space of the ballroom.

The cannons unleashed a torrential blinding hail of depleted-uranium armor-piercing rounds.

Thousands of heavy thumb-sized slugs tore through the air, completely shredding the space between the mech and the Anomaly.

The sheer kinetic force of the gunfire was catastrophic.

Stray bullets that missed their target chewed through the heavy marble pillars, turning the expensive architecture into violently exploding clouds of white dust.

The huddled mass of corporate elites and nobles screamed, desperately diving behind the shattered remains of the wine fountains as the collateral damage turned their luxurious gala into a literal warzone.

Sebastian did not dive for cover. He did not zig-zag or attempt to outrun the bullets.

He just put his head down, raised his arms to protect his visor, and walked forward.

PING! PING! THWACK! PING!

The heavy depleted-uranium rounds slammed directly into Sebastian’s black tactical suit. But they did not pierce the fabric.

They did not tear through his flesh.

The moment the bullets made contact with his thirty-percent synchronized biological steel muscles, they simply flattened.

The hyper-dense kinetic energy of the rounds was completely negated by the sheer unyielding mass of his physical body.

Dozens of crushed useless metal discs bounced harmlessly off his chest and arms, clattering onto the ruined obsidian floor like dropped coins.

He was walking through a localized hurricane of heavy artillery, and he looked entirely bored.

"What are you?!" Regis screamed hysterically from inside the heavily armored cockpit.

"Die! Just fucking die!"

Sebastian closed the distance. He walked right through the muzzle flashes, the smell of burnt gunpowder thick in the air.

He reached the towering Aegis Suit.

Sebastian dropped his arms. He looked up at the massive glowing purple optical lens of the mech’s faceplate.

"My turn," Sebastian whispered.

He did not try to punch through the heavy durasteel breastplate. He did not try to sweep the mech’s massive legs.

He reached out with both hands and grabbed the thick hydraulic-powered titanium forearms of the suit.

Regis immediately tried to pull his arms back.

The massive servos in the mech’s shoulders whined in protest, the engines flaring as they tried to output hundreds of tons of pulling force to break the human’s grip.

The mech did not budge an inch.

Sebastian’s boots were firmly planted in the shattered floor, anchoring him with absolute immovable physical authority.

"Armor is just metal, Regis," Sebastian said, his voice entirely deadpan.

Sebastian pulled.

He did not use a sudden jerking motion.

He simply leaned back, utilizing his entire core, applying the raw unadulterated torque of a perfectly optimized Demigod directly against the suit’s shoulder joints.

CREEEEEEAAAK!

The sound of the Aegis Suit failing was horrific. It was the loud agonizing screech of thick titanium actively tearing. The heavy locking bolts in the mech’s shoulders began to violently pop off, shooting across the room like shrapnel.

"No! Warning! Structural integrity failing!" the suit’s automated voice blared, desperately trying to compensate.

"Get off me!" Regis sobbed, frantically trying to trigger the suit’s close-range plasma incinerators.

It was too late.

With a sickening metallic SNAP, the heavy titanium joints completely sheared.

Sebastian violently ripped both of the massive cannon-mounted arms completely off the torso of the mech.

Thick black motor oil and pressurized hydraulic fluid erupted from the severed sockets, spraying wildly across the room like synthetic blood.

Sebastian casually tossed the multi-ton metal arms over his shoulder. They crashed into the far wall, taking down a massive velvet banner.

The Aegis Suit stumbled backward, completely disarmed, leaking fluid and sparking violently.

Sebastian did not give the Guild Master a second to breathe. He stepped inside the mech’s guard, pulled his right fist back, and drove it directly into the thick blast-proof glass canopy protecting the cockpit.

CRASH!

The impenetrable glass shattered into a million jagged pieces. Sebastian’s arm plunged deep into the dark interior of the pilot’s seat.

"Wait! Please! I will give you everything!"

Regis begged, shrinking back into the leather chair, his hands raised in terror.

"I do not need your money," Sebastian stated coldly.

His black-gloved hand bypassed the man’s flailing arms. He reached directly behind Regis’s neck, his fingers digging into the heavy cybernetic neural port bolted directly into the Guild Master’s spine.

He gripped the heavy metal implant.

"Connection terminated," Sebastian whispered.

He forcefully yanked his arm back.

SHLUCK!

It was a wet heavy profoundly sickening sound.

Sebastian did not just rip out the neural port.

He pulled the entire cybernetic spine completely out of the man’s back.

A massive horrifying trail of pink flesh, shattered digital vertebrae, and thick leaking spinal fluid followed the heavy metal implant.

"AGGGHHHHHH!"

Regis’s scream was entirely human. It was a shrill bubbling shriek of absolute mind-breaking agony.

His body violently seized, completely paralyzed from the neck down as his central nervous system was violently evicted from his torso.

The Guild Master tumbled out of the shattered cockpit, falling heavily onto the ruined obsidian floor.

He lay in a rapidly expanding pool of his own blood and the mech’s leaking oil, his eyes wide and locked in a permanent state of pure horror. His health bar, previously hidden by the suit’s UI, instantly appeared and plummeted to zero.

The Aegis Suit, completely dead without its pilot, swayed for a moment before collapsing backward with a deafening THUD.

Sebastian stood amidst the wreckage. He was holding a dripping three-foot-long cybernetic spine in his right hand. He looked down at the gruesome trophy, entirely unbothered by the gore coating his black suit.

He casually tossed the bloody spine onto the chest of the dead Guild Master.

The grand ballroom was perfectly utterly silent.