Vikram sighed, and moved forward with speed, his steps thundering as he tired to reach that pillar of light first. But the cross came furiously, He dodged to the side.
He lunged at the closer zombie, his axe slicing downward with unflinching resolve. The blade crunched through bone, and Vikram twisted until the red bar disappeared completely.
Then, as he turned to the second zombie, the world suddenly spun.
Pain exploded behind his eyes. His legs gave out beneath him as he crashed face-first into the stone. He screamed—but the sound caught in his throat. Vines. Thorn-covered, writhing, pulsing vines had erupted from the ground and coiled around his legs, tearing flesh and mangling muscle.
Through the haze of agony, Vikram looked up.
A hunched, grotesque figure—part man, part corpse—danced madly in the shadows. It wore a ragged cloak, and its skin was a patchwork of decay. In one hand, it held a crooked wand carved from bone. The voodoo-like magician cackled, pointing its wand down at him gleefully.
Then came the final blow.
The zombie's wooden cross slammed into Vikram's skull with a sickening crack, and everything went black.
[You have been slain.]
[Restart]
[Exit Game]
Vikram's breath steadied as he floated in the void. He saw the [Exit Game] option hovering before him, tempting him. But not yet. There was still something he needed to figure out. With a thought, he selected [Restart].
A rush of cold air swept through him as he opened his eyes again—back in the familiar pit of corpses inside the cave. His muscles tensed. He stood, silent.
With a thought, the status panel appeared before him.
[Souls: 0]
A sigh escaped his lips. "So that's how it's gonna be," he muttered. Every death reset his fragments. Rage threatened to boil inside him—but he pushed it down.
He checked his body. His black pelt was intact. The axes remained strapped to his back. Good. At least he didn't lose everything.
Vikram left the cave, made his way through the dissection of roads, and this time, chose the right path. The road ended abruptly at a massive, rusted metal gate. Curious, he reached out and laid his palm against it.
A prompt appeared before his eyes.
[You are missing the key.]
Figures.
Without wasting time, Vikram turned back and retraced his steps. He headed back into the barrel chamber and repeated the first part of the assault. He cleaved through the nearer zombie again with calculated speed, keeping his eyes locked on the shadows beyond.
Then—crash.
The barrels exploded.
The magician emerged.
Vikram rushed forward to close the distance—but he wasn't alone. The second zombie had already reached him, forcing him into another drawn-out brawl. It cost him ten seconds.
And that was all the magician needed.
The vines erupted again—this time even more ferocious, slithering around his ankles like predators tasting blood. Vikram screamed in fury as his legs were crushed and torn, muscles shredded like paper.
The world spun.
And the cross came down one last time.
[You have been slain.][Restart][Exit Game]
Vikram respawned inside the cave, his breath ragged, his teeth clenched. He willed the panel open.
[Souls: 0]
His fists tightened.
This game...
This cursed realm...
Vikram sighed and shook the fatigue out of his limbs, the previous death still ringing in his bones. Once more, he began the same cursed loop. The run had become muscle memory now—down the fork, past the rot, into the barrel place. He moved like a phantom retracing its final steps.
Again, he struck the closer zombie, his axes a blur of savage precision. With a practiced motion, he pulled back, creating distance. His breath came steady this time, calm even, as though dying over and over had beaten fear out of him. He kept his eyes on the decaying shadows ahead.
The barrels splintered with a familiar crash, and the hunched-back figure of the magician emerged—grinning through rotting teeth, eyes glowing with unholy mirth. Vikram narrowed his gaze.
[You have been slain.]
Just before the vines erupted, just before his legs were crushed, the mage would raise his bony finger and point.
Again.
[You have been slain.]
This time, he noted the cast time. Quick. Brutally short. There wasn't enough room for error. But there was something else. A pattern.
Again.
[You have been slain.]
Vikram slowly exhaled in the void, his expression blank. But his mind… it burned with realization. The mage's spell had a limit, it couldn't spam the spell. It took a while for the mage to create another spell.
Currently, it had two spells. One was the vine spell, another was a invisible spell that would make his whole vision go dark after he moved away from the mage. It would draw him closer to the mage unconsciously. And the zombie? It wandered only so far before losing interest. There were thresholds, conditions. Triggers.
It wasn't random.
It was a dance.
And he was starting to hear the music.
By the time he respawned for the sixth… or seventh time, he'd lost count, his hands felt different. The axes that once dragged like stone now glided in his grip like feathers. His body felt lighter, sharper. The pain of each death no longer clouded him. It refined him.
Each failure was etched into his muscles.
Each loss carved lessons into his nerves.
He was learning at a terrifying rate.
"Is my comprehension that outstanding?" he muttered to himself, his tone half-serious, half-deranged.
Then he grinned. "Heh, guess I'm that outstanding!"
Pride welled up inside his heart, and slowly he tilted his head back, gazing at the sky above the cave's exit—the only glimpse of the world outside this cursed trial. It was dyed crimson, like blood spread across an endless canvas. But more than that, he saw something strange—a second layer. A Curtain. Not a sky, but a sheet.
A veil.
As if the heavens themselves were hiding behind a stage prop.
It was eerie. Beautiful. Mesmerizing.
He focused in on his current problem.
The mage. For killing that mage, because he had no supernatural element to him, he leveraged his almost supernatural muscles and channeled it into is axe. For that, he needed techniques.
Vikram tried to cultivate those fancy weapon moves. Vikram didn't have a direction, but he tried different things. He exited the game and even saw multiple axe wielding techniques and arts in YouTube. Even though most video's show how to spilt wood and how to throw axes, he still did all that and more.
"Heaven Splitting Axe!" Vikram almost died of cringe as he shouted it loudly and cleaved apart the zombie, but the cross that smashed into the back of his head cared none for his embarrassment
[You have been slain.]
Vikram was frustrated, and he was so angry that he threw the axe in his hand at the mage... and the mage died.
Vikram dumbly looked at the corpse of the mage turn into dust and the blue mote of light disappear into his chest.
[+110 Soul Fragment]
Vikram felt the impact of the wood cross on the back of his head, and only then did he realize that there was a zombie left.
[You have been slain.]
Vikram felt a familiar excitement course through his body. He could move forward!
[Arts:]
Axe Throwing Technique(Entry Level)
Vikram felt an almost ethereal connection with the axes. The moment one left his hand, it was as if he could guide its flight, bending its path by sheer will. Each throw felt divine
Vikram moved hurriedly...
[You have been slain.]
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