LEVEL EVERYTHING UP in my Eldritch Tribe

The Asura girl stood before the cameras, her usual confidence replaced with a growing sense of confusion.

Her voice, which had been commanding moments earlier, now faltered as she tried to make sense of what was unfolding.

"Lyerin has... wiped out all the remaining participants," she announced, her words tentative. "The Stonehooves Tribe is victorious."

Around the world, cheers erupted. In cities across Earth, people celebrated, their once-skeptical minds now filled with admiration for the participant who had not only survived but dominated.

Some saw Lyerin as a symbol of hope in a world that had been thrust into chaos by the trial, while others, still wary, remained glued to their screens, waiting for the next announcement.

But the celebration began to turn to murmurs of confusion.

The people watching from their homes, from public squares, and from hidden underground bunkers started to notice something.

Lyerin's victory had been clear. He had destroyed the Tidalblade Clan, the Moltenfist Tribe, and the Mindspire Circle.

His tribe had leveled up.

His Spirit Protector had ascended. But something was off.

The screen, which should have transitioned to the next phase or announcement, lingered on the battlefield where Lyerin and his Pig Orcs stood amidst the carnage.

The Stonehooves Tribe was stronger than ever, but the usual closing fanfare of the trial—when the victorious tribe was acknowledged, when the fate of the planet was announced—had not occurred.

The cameras remained focused on Lyerin, but the tension in the air was palpable.

"Lyerin... why isn't this ending?" the Asura girl mumbled to herself, her voice barely audible to the Earthlings.

She glanced around the control room, where the other Asura operatives were now staring at their own monitors with puzzled expressions. The systems should have acknowledged Lyerin's success. The trial should have closed.

But nothing was happening.

She looked back at the screen, her brow furrowed in concern. "Something's wrong," she whispered, though her voice was transmitted to the millions of viewers on Earth.

The celebration in the streets began to quiet down.

The cheering crowds turned back to their screens, realizing that the victory they were celebrating felt... incomplete. Unease spread like wildfire.

People whispered among themselves, confused by the delay, their excitement giving way to a strange, collective dread.

"Why... isn't it over?" someone in the crowd muttered, their voice echoed by countless others around the world.

The Asura girl turned her attention to the transmission feeds, her sharp eyes narrowing as she scanned the data coming in.

She tapped a few buttons, but the usual stream of updates—notifications of Lyerin's victory, the fate of the Earth, the closing sequence of the trial—wasn't appearing.

Instead, there was... nothing.

Her heart began to race. She glanced at the others in the control room, but they were just as bewildered as she was. This wasn't supposed to happen.

The trial system was automated, run by forces far beyond her control. And yet, it wasn't responding. It was as if the entire process had stalled.

The screen flickered.

The crowd watching the broadcast gasped as the image of Lyerin and the battlefield suddenly wavered. It wasn't a glitch—it felt intentional. The broadcast, which had been steady for the entirety of the trial, was now unstable, the image of the victorious Stonehooves Tribe distorting as if reality itself was bending.

"What... what is this?" the Asura girl muttered. She moved closer to her screen, her eyes widening in disbelief.

The broadcast flickered again, and this time the image began to fade, replaced by a creeping darkness that spread across the sky in the background of the battlefield.

It wasn't a technical issue—it was something more sinister, something that seemed to reach beyond the scope of the trial itself.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the Asura girl tried to regain her composure, addressing the confused masses of Earth. "We seem to be experiencing... a delay in the conclusion of the trial. Please, remain calm."

But her own fear was starting to seep into her voice. She tried pressing more controls, but nothing responded.

The view of Lyerin had almost entirely vanished now, replaced by an eerie blackness that covered the battlefield like a thick, impenetrable fog.

The people of Earth, once filled with jubilation, now watched in uneasy silence.

The monitors in public squares, homes, and the headquarters where the global elites had gathered were all showing the same thing: an empty, dark void where the victorious tribe had once stood.

"What's happening?" The murmur grew louder among the crowds.

On the screen, the last image of Lyerin flickered one more time before being swallowed by the encroaching darkness. And then, in an instant, the broadcast cut out completely.

The cameras, which had been relaying the events of the trial to every corner of Earth, went dead.

The sky on the monitors turned black, and all that remained was an oppressive, terrifying nothingness.

The Asura girl's eyes widened in horror as she stared at her blank screen. "What... what is this?" she whispered. Her voice trembled, barely audible now.

She had no explanation, no control.

The trial's systems had been designed to be absolute, inviolable. But now, everything was unraveling before her eyes.

Around the world, confusion turned to panic. People screamed in fear, unsure of what they had just witnessed, unsure of what would come next.

The skies, once clear, now seemed to reflect the same blackness that had overtaken the broadcast, as if reality itself was shifting.

In the control room, the Asura girl's view began to darken as well.

The shadows in the corners of the room seemed to grow, creeping in on her from all sides.

Her heart pounded in her chest, her breaths shallow as the darkness closed in.

She felt an inexplicable sense of dread, as if something ancient and malevolent had been unleashed.

"This isn't part of the trial," she whispered, her voice barely audible as the world around her dissolved into blackness.

And then, the screens across Earth, the control panels, and the cameras—all of it—went dark.

The people of Earth were left with nothing. No explanation, no closure. Just an endless, suffocating void.

The world watched in silence as the darkness consumed everything.

And then, there was nothing.