Tap. Tap. Crunch.
My boots sank into moss-black earth as I entered the Cartivat Wilds — a place that felt less like a forest and more like a graveyard for forgotten legends. The deeper I went, the more wrong the air became. The trees stood like obsidian titans, their bark veined with mana that pulsed crimson and blue beneath the surface — thump, thump — like heartbeats.
The deeper I walked, the quieter the world grew. Not silent. Watching.
Branches curled above me like claws. Roots shifted underfoot. The entire forest was alive — not in the way nature breathes, but in the way hatred festers. This place remembered humanity… and it despised it.
A faint shimmer caught my eye — a crescent mark etched across a distant trunk. My breath hitched.
"The Crescent Mark…" I muttered.
The journals of the dead hero hadn't lied.
"When the sky turns black and the wind dies, seek the crescent mark. At its roots lies the trial path — a place outside time."
I knelt, brushing away glowing fungus until my fingers found a buried stone plate. Circular, ancient, carved with a single indentation shaped like a hand.
No hesitation.
I placed my palm down.
CLUNK.
The ground rumbled. The air thickened. Then the earth opened like a blooming maw — a spiral staircase unfurling downward into endless darkness.
---
As I descended, torches ignited one by one. Fwoosh. Fwoosh. Fwoosh.
The walls were carved with runes I couldn't read, but I understood them instinctively. Not warnings — farewells.
At the bottom stood a colossal obsidian door — ten meters tall, shaped like curved wings sealing something sacred.
The moment I stepped closer, light exploded.
BOOM!
A cyclone of silver and gold mana erupted around me. My body froze. My skin tore under pressure. Every cell felt like it was being disassembled.
"Name yourself."
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere — ancient, female, calm yet carrying infinite weight.
"Yuu Yuhin," I said through the storm. "From another world."
"Do you seek death… or transformation?"
"Both."
The light devoured me whole.
---
When I opened my eyes again, there was no sky. No ground. Just an endless white field that bled into eternity.
In the distance stood a single tree — towering, its glasslike leaves shimmering like frozen starlight. Beneath it, a small red house sat in silence.
Then pressure hit.
BOOM.
The air itself knelt. My knees buckled as cracks formed under my feet. I gasped for breath.
A golden glow appeared — and from it, she stepped out.
A woman barefoot, her hair flowing in threads of starlight. Eyes like twin heavens — one sapphire, one gold. Her robe shimmered with galaxies, her very existence bending space.
"Welcome," she said softly, voice echoing like a thousand whispers layered over silence.
"You have entered my dimension, Yuu Yuhin. I am Nylith — Goddess of Origins."
Light rippled behind her. Space distorted. I couldn't move.
She raised a hand — the weight vanished.
"Why bring me here?" I asked. "This wasn't part of any map."
She smiled faintly. "You followed the path of a dead hero. That path was mine. I placed it there long ago — for someone ready."
"Ready for what?"
"To carry what no mortal has survived."
Her eyes gleamed like collapsing stars. "In one year's time, a Cataclysmic Beast will awaken — born from a fallen god's shattered soul. I cannot stop it. I'm bound by divine law."
Her gaze cut into me. "So I will prepare someone else."
"You need a weapon?" I asked.
"No," she said. "I need a witness — someone who will see death not once, but a hundred times. Someone who learns through pain."
She walked closer, stopping inches away.
"You are not the chosen one, Yuu Yuhin. You're simply the one who refused to stop walking."
"You will train here for twenty years. Outside, only one year will pass. Your body will not age. But you will die. Repeatedly."
I didn't flinch.
"Then let's begin."
---
Her eyes lit with divine fire.
A rift tore open in the air — ZRRMMM.
From it crawled a nightmare. A four-armed, serpent-tailed giant, its skin black and steaming, jaw lined with obsidian fangs.
"Your first opponent," she said. "Abyssal Warden of the First Circle."
The beast roared, shaking the dimension itself.
ROOOAAAAAARRR!!!
Before I could react, a claw slammed into my ribs.
CRACK!
I flew. Collided with a pillar. Blood exploded from my lungs. The second claw followed, slicing through my side.
I gasped, sword trembling in hand.
"So this is… it."
The claws came down.
SKRRAAASH!
---
[YUU DIED]
Darkness. Silence. Floating.
Then — a hand touched my soul. Warm. Steady.
"You're not done yet."
Light surged. My body reformed. Breath returned.
I lay on the cold stone again — whole, trembling, alive.
The Goddess stood above, arms folded.
"You lasted longer than most," she said.
"You saved me."
"I pulled your soul back. You agreed to train — not to die."
---
That night, I sat inside her house under the divine tree. The scent of jasmine filled the quiet air.
She poured tea for both of us, sitting beside me with celestial calm.
"Most mortals scream when they die," she said lightly. "You were quiet."
"I calculated the outcome. Screaming wouldn't change it."
She smiled. "Keep saying clever things like that and I might fall for you."
"You won't," I said. "Gods don't fall for mortals. And I don't fall for someone who toys with death."
She laughed softly. "You're dangerous. I like that."
---
Next morning. Same arena. Same monster.
But I moved differently. Sharper.
When the Abyssal Warden attacked, I slid under its claws, countering with a glowing strike. My blade cut purple blood from its ribs before its tail shattered my leg.
BOOM!
I hit the ground.
CRUNCH!
Pain. Silence. Death.
[YUU DIED – 2]
"You're not finished yet," her voice echoed.
---
Again.
Third fight.
Same pain. Different stance.
Memories of Rei's training flickered — "Your stance collapses when you're under pressure! Then pressure me more!"
This time, I bent lower. Feet angled. Soul steady.
The Warden struck — and I wasn't there.
I slipped through the swing, body moving like water. My sword gleamed blue.
SKRRRRAK!
The blade bit deep.
[New Skill: Phantom Step – Fluid Displacement Stance]
But I was still too slow.
Its claw came down.
CRASH!
[YUU DIED – 3]
---
When I revived again, the Goddess was smiling.
"Now… he begins."
She raised a finger, and my mana obeyed.
Wind gathered along my blade. I whispered—
"Sky Sever."
The air split open.
BOOOOOOOOM!!
The shockwave tore through the monster's chest, flinging it backward in a storm of black blood.
The Goddess's eyes gleamed.
"Finally… he's begun."
---
Days passed. Deaths followed.
Fourth death. Fifth. Each one faster, sharper, crueler.
A new beast appeared — Titan-Fanged Apex Gorebeast.
Massive. Horned. Bloodlust dripping like acid.
Its tusks curved like siege spears. Its roar cracked the world.
I fought.
Failed.
Fell.
Every battle broke something new inside me. Bone, pride, fear — until only focus remained.
---
When I opened my eyes after the fifth death, I found tea waiting on the porch again.
The Goddess sat beside me, humming.
"You smile when you die now," she said.
"I smiled because I figured it out."
She leaned closer, intrigued.
"Oh?"
I drew three invisible lines in the air — a silent pattern. Her expression shifted slightly. A god, curious.
---
Dawn came again. The arena cracked underfoot.
This time, two gates opened.
From one came the Abyssal Warden.
From the other, the Gorebeast.
"Two?" I muttered.
The Goddess smirked. "Field testing."
I exhaled. Rolled my shoulders. "Fine."
The Gorebeast charged.
The Warden followed.
Pressure from both sides.
I activated my new stance.
"Gravity Veil."
The tiles beneath me cracked inward. Weight flooded my aura. My sword no longer shook.
They struck together — and I didn't move. I redirected.
Flame scattered. Claws slid past. I stepped through chaos, cutting flesh and shadow in one motion.
Each move cleaner. Each death closer to purpose.
---
My training inside the Door of Eternity had begun — twenty years locked within a loop of life and death.
Each time I fell, I rose again sharper.
And each time she revived me, her smile grew smaller — more reverent.
Because she knew.
Something in me wasn't breaking anymore.
It was evolving.
—