Whack. Thwack. Stab.

The two remaining Sorcerers never stood a chance. They had relied on distance, believing spell range and quick casting would keep them safe long enough to overwhelm the assassins before danger closed in. From their perspective, everything should have worked.

Instead, all they saw were two fleeting shadows, graceful and beautiful afterimages slipping through space faster than thought itself. A heartbeat later, the battlefield fell silent.

They were already dead.

"Damn... they’re good."

The watching players stared openly now. The masked girls stood calmly amid the aftermath, their posture composed, their presence cold and untouchable. Even without seeing their faces, the combination of elegance and lethal precision made them unforgettable. Few people expected female players to deliver such overwhelming damage, let alone dismantle an entire mercenary squad in seconds.

And honestly, most of the crowd was enjoying the outcome far more than they cared to admit. The Flower Hunters had built a reputation for arrogance and harassment, so watching them get wiped out cleanly, efficiently, and very publicly felt deeply satisfying.

"You should leave," someone in the crowd called out. "Their friends are probably already on the way."

The warning carried genuine concern. Whether from admiration or gratitude, the surrounding players had already sided with the assassins.

On the ground, the defeated Flower Hunters lay frozen in death state, staring helplessly at system notifications identifying their killers.

Raven.

Skye.

"Boss! We got jumped! Get over here, we’re at...!"

One of them hurriedly sent a message while glaring at the sisters’ retreating figures.

"You little... we’re going to destroy you."

Those were empty threats. None of them realized that this minor humiliation was about to drag their entire organization toward disaster. Because the two assassins who had just left were not random players.

Raven and Skye were twin sisters. Famous for their synchronized combat style, infamous for their beauty, and personally dispatched by Blaze Phoenix with a single mission: track down Marcus and report everything they learned.

For days they had searched for the mysterious knight wearing a rabbit mask, turning over every lead they could find. Each failed attempt meant returning to their master without results, and Blaze Phoenix was not known for patience. The longer the search dragged on, the worse their mood became.

So when they finally spotted Marcus earlier that day in Blue Sea Citadel, excitement had surged through them. At last, progress.

They followed him out of the city gates. Then Marcus summoned Blackie and disappeared into the distance like a shooting star.

The twins had invested heavily in Agility. Speed was supposed to be their specialty, their greatest advantage as assassins.

Marcus left them behind in under a minute.

"That guy in the rabbit mask is a Knight?" Raven had asked, disbelief written across her voice.

"What is he, part rabbit?" Skye muttered. "Runs like his tail’s on fire."

Shock quickly turned into irritation, and irritation burned into genuine anger. They were already frustrated, already tense from days of failure, and then the Flower Hunters chose that exact moment to approach them with smug grins and cheap lines.

Normally, Raven and Skye would have ignored players like that. A teleport scroll and a quiet exit would solve the problem. But today they were already annoyed at a certain infuriating male player, so the Flower Hunters simply became convenient targets for stress relief.

And the result was a public execution disguised as a lesson.

"So... now what?" Skye asked.

The twins exchanged a glance. There were no words needed. Years of fighting side by side meant they often shared the same thought at the same moment. They gave the crowd a polite nod of thanks before mounting up again and racing toward the direction Marcus had gone.

"Stupid knight," Raven muttered under her breath. They would catch him eventually, and when they did, he was definitely going to experience their signature techniques firsthand.

---

"Achoo!"

Marcus sneezed violently while riding at full speed.

"...Someone’s definitely talking trash about me."

He rubbed his nose and continued forward without slowing. Liam’s black panther moved like a shadow across the terrain, its pace relentless. Even with Blackie pushing near maximum speed, Marcus had to focus just to keep up.

Three hours later, the landscape shifted into a vast mountain range stretching endlessly toward the horizon. Jagged ridges rose beneath drifting clouds, and the air felt noticeably heavier. Liam finally reduced his speed, guiding them through narrow paths and winding valleys for nearly another hour before stopping near a cluster of low, unremarkable peaks.

"We’re here."

Liam dismounted first. Marcus followed, recalling Blackie with a flick of his hand.

"Stonehaven," Liam said, his voice turning serious, "ahead of us lies the Golden Dragon Divine Sky Formation. One of the ten great secret formations of the Dreamland Continent. Watch my footsteps carefully. One mistake and you’ll trigger the formation."

’One of the ten great secret formations.’ Marcus swallowed quietly.

He stuck close behind Liam as they began moving forward. The path made no visible sense. Liam stepped left, then diagonally forward, paused, stepped backward, then leapt across seemingly empty ground. Marcus followed exactly, forcing himself not to question anything.

After twenty minutes of zigzagging movements, sharp turns, and careful pacing, his head started spinning from concentration.

Then the world changed as a soft rushing sound filled the air.

Whoosh.

The illusion parted like a curtain being pulled aside.

An enormous hidden space unfolded before him, radiant and ancient beyond imagination. Towering thousand-year-old trees stretched skyward, their trunks thick enough to dwarf buildings. Massive stone statues stood silently among them, weathered by time yet radiating authority. Carvings and ancient symbols covered the ground and surrounding cliffs, every surface whispering of forgotten history.

The atmosphere carried immense weight, solemn and majestic, pressing against Marcus’s chest as if he had stepped into a sacred domain untouched by time itself.

At the center lay a vast square.

Rows upon rows of stone soldiers filled the expanse, thousands standing in perfect formation. Warriors, archers, generals, chariots, an entire army frozen mid-march as though awaiting a command that would never come.

Marcus blinked slowly. ’This looks familiar...’’

"Where are we?" he asked.

Liam’s voice lowered, almost reverent.

"The First Emperor’s Tomb."

Marcus stared. ’Seriously?’

The resemblance to the legendary terracotta army, one of the world wonders from ancient China was unmistakable. Dominion clearly drew inspiration from real-world history across multiple nations and cultures, reshaping it into something that fit the mythology of the Dreamland Continent. Marcus did not know the full story yet, but he had to admit, the setting felt incredible.

History carried weight. Even inside a game, you could feel it.

His curiosity sharpened instantly. Liam began to speak, his voice echoing faintly across the silent stone army.

"More than ten thousand years ago, the Dreamland Continent was ruled by countless races and divine beings. Humans were weak then, only one small tribe among many. Ten thousand and one years ago, a great divine war erupted. Gods fell, races vanished, civilizations collapsed. When the war ended, humanity survived... and began to grow."

He paused, gazing across the endless ranks of soldiers.

"The First Emperor rose during that age. The first true king of humanity. He led our ancestors through centuries of struggle, freed humans from slavery and contempt under stronger races, and forged a united human civilization. To ancient people, he was not merely a ruler. He was salvation itself."

Another pause followed, heavier this time.

"But eight thousand years ago, history faded into legend. Memory weakened. Then three thousand years ago, the demon war destroyed countless records and cultures. Today, almost no one remembers who the First Emperor was... or what he gave humanity."

Liam gestured toward the silent army.

"This place is his resting ground. The tomb of the First Emperor."

Marcus nodded slowly, understanding settling in.

Dominion was not simply copying history. It was rebuilding it, reshaping familiar legends into something new while preserving their spirit.

And somehow, that made the moment feel even more meaningful.