The sky, it froze.
The wind and snow, it solidified.
On the entire fifty-fifth floor, all active monsters, all conversing players, at this moment, their movements all fell into an eerie sluggishness.
Time, it seemed to be clutched by an invisible hand.
The source of everything pointed to the man suspended in mid-air.
He held his sword with both hands, raised high above his head.
On that ordinary, standard longsword, there was no dazzling sword skill light, no complex energy patterns.
What was there was only destruction, pure to the extreme.
Light.
All the light in the world was forcibly pulled and swallowed by the sword's blade, finally transforming into a dark singularity that distorted reality.
On the ground, Kirito, Asuna, Argo, and Lisbeth—four people, four faces—all reflected the same inexpressible horror.
It was the instinctive tremor of life gazing up at the firmament.
Argo's nails dug deeply into her palms, blood oozing out, yet she felt nothing.
Her mind was blank.
The man who usually lingered by her side, who would use clumsy excuses to give her rings, now stood above the heavens, slashing at a giant dragon with his sword.
Kirito's hand, holding his elucidator, trembled violently.
He felt that his beloved sword had never been so heavy and cold.
He was excited, awestruck, and even more, terrified.
The man he had set as his goal to pursue, at this moment, declared to him, and to the entire world, the distance between the game's pinnacle and its players.
Finally, Chen Mo moved.
He slowly uttered five words, his voice not loud, yet like divine oracles, they were directly branded into the depths of everyone's souls.
['Soulsevering Draw Slash']
There was no earth-shattering roar.
Only a simple, clean swing of the sword.
A pure golden ray of light burst forth from the sword tip, instantly expanding.
It didn't resemble a slash.
It was a light of creation, a law that judged all things.
Time, it resumed its flow.
Then, the world was torn apart.
Boom—!!!
The deafening sound did not come from their ears, but rather exploded violently directly within everyone's minds!
Immediately following was a destructive storm, powerful enough to overturn mountains, sweeping wildly in all directions with Chen Mo at its center!
The accumulated snow on the ground was instantly vaporized, and the hard rock layers were ripped up and shredded in large sections, turning into visible dust.
Asuna and the others, who were closest, didn't even have time to think before they were violently flung away by that pure torrent of energy, like kites with broken strings, tumbling and crashing into the distant mountain wall.
At the center of the storm, the arrogant King of Iron, Crysta, couldn't even let out a single wail.
Its proud metallic body, its indestructible crystal scales, at the moment of contact with the golden light, melted, disintegrated, and evaporated silently, like ice and snow under the scorching sun.
There was no explosion, no shattering.
Only the data chain representing its existence was cleanly and decisively erased from the world's underlying logic.
That massive body, with a third of its HP remaining, was completely emptied in a mere zero point one second.
The golden pillar of light showed no signs of stopping; it pierced through the location where the dragon once existed, rushing towards the sky, punching a huge and smooth hole through the thick clouds.
The long-awaited sunlight, for the first time, bathed this perpetually gloomy, misty valley.
A long while passed.
The storm subsided.
The world was dead silent.
Chen Mo's figure descended from the air, his feet lightly touching the flattened mountaintop.
There wasn't even a single wrinkle on the corner of his clothes.
That world-destroying strike, to him, seemed like merely flicking away a speck of dust from his shoulder.
A line of system prompts lit up before his eyes.
Chen Mo didn't even look, calmly swiping open the panel to confirm the information.
['Congratulations, you have completed the hidden quest "Trial of the Ancient Swordsman."']
['You have obtained complete ownership of "extinguish."']
['You have obtained complete ownership of "dragon heart stone."']
['Space lockdown has been lifted.']
He casually closed the prompt, then turned to look in the direction of the distant mountain wall.
"Pfft..."
Kirito coughed up a mouthful of blood, struggling to climb out of the rubble.
He had instinctively shielded Lisbeth just now, taking the brunt of the impact, and his HP was like a flickering candle in the wind.
Asuna and Argo were in slightly better condition, but still disheveled, covered in fine scratches.
The four of them shakily stood up, looking at the figure standing in the sunlight on the mountaintop, and for a moment, no one dared to speak.
Lisbeth sat slumped on the ground, her eyes vacant, repeatedly muttering, "...What happened...?"
No one could answer her.
Kirito looked down at his dark longsword, then looked up at the man in the distance.
A sense of powerless despair completely engulfed his heart.
Is this... the strongest?
No.
This isn't a matter of strength or weakness.
They and he weren't even playing the same game.
Chen Mo ignored their shock, took a step, and walked over unhurriedly.
He opened his backpack and took out two items.
One was the dragon heart stone, still faintly pulsating.
The other was a crystal quartz ingot, essential for forging weapons.
Then, he made a move that made everyone's thoughts freeze.
He casually flicked his wrist.
The two items transformed into two streaks of light, flying unceremoniously towards Kirito.
"Clink."
One was a top-tier material they had come to acquire, the other an even more top-tier material, and now, these two materials, one after another, like two insignificant stones, dropped into the dust at Kirito's feet.
Kirito trembled violently, suddenly looking up with an incomprehensible gaze at Chen Mo.
"Your things."
Chen Mo's voice was as calm as ever, devoid of any emotion.
"Fulfilling the agreement."
After he finished speaking, he took Argo's hand, who was also in a dazed state beside him, turned, and walked towards the teleportation array.
On the empty mountaintop, only Kirito, Asuna, and Lisbeth remained, staring blankly at the two items on the ground.
The dragon heart stone, the core for crafting legendary ITEM.
The crystal quartz ingot, a necessity for making "Dark Repulser."
These were the things he had dreamed of.
But now, these two items were just casually tossed over.
Kirito didn't pick them up; in his mind, that world-tearing sword strike replayed repeatedly.
Asuna looked at Kirito's dispirited back, her lips moved, but she found that any words of comfort seemed pale and ridiculous in the face of that miraculous sword strike.
She gripped the "Lambent Light" in her hand, and for the first time, her confidence in her own swordsmanship wavered.
"Let's go."
Chen Mo's voice came from the direction of the teleportation array, interrupting their thoughts.
Argo finally snapped out of it; she tightly grasped Chen Mo's hand, feeling the familiar warmth, and her wildly beating heart finally calmed down slightly.
She looked up at the man's profile, a thousand words stuck in her throat, yet she couldn't ask a single one.
Chen Mo seemed to sense her emotions and paused his steps.
He turned his head, looking at Argo's cat-like eyes, which still held traces of shock, and suddenly extended his other hand, gently ruffling her head.
"Time to go home."
Three simple words, carrying an undeniable tenderness, instantly melted all the fear and unease in her heart.
He was still that Chen Mo, her Chen Mo.
Argo's eyes welled up, and she nodded vigorously.
"Mm!"