A respectful, fearful hush had fallen over the Gateway chamber as the Curator appeared, leaning on his wooden staff. His warm, rumbling voice washed over them, instantly commanding attention.
"Be at ease, ascendants," he began. "You are about to take your first true step into the crucible. But first, you must understand the path you walk."
He tapped his staff, and a complex, glowing schematic of the Tower appeared in the air.
"Until you conquer the Tenth Floor, this Sanctuary is your home, your haven, and your forge. You will return here after every victory and every failure. Use this time wisely. Train. Forge alliances. Seek knowledge. For the foes you face will only grow stronger."
His gaze seemed to linger on Jade and Zero for a fraction of a second.
"Upon clearing a floor, you will be granted a reprieve—a single day of rest, twenty-four hours, before the System calls you to the next challenge. This is not a suggestion. It is a necessary cycle of battle and integration."
He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in.
"The Tenth Floor is the first true gateway. Conquer it, and the nature of your ascent changes. The System's protective bindings loosen. You will be free to climb at your own pace, and to face the true horrors that lie beyond. But until then, your path is set."
The schematic vanished, and the moment the Curator faded from view, the silence broke, replaced by a low, anxious murmur that swirled through the gathered ascendants.
It was into this buzz of tension that Jade arrived.
He didn't stride in with bravado; he simply entered, his presence a wave of cold air. His white hair was a stark banner, his crimson eyes scanning the room with detached efficiency. He immediately located Zero, a still point in the chaos, and their gaze locked—a silent acknowledgment that needed no words.
But around them, the murmurs sharpened, twisting into pointed whispers.
"...that's him. The one from the Proving."
"The Self-Conqueror... looked more like the 'Self-Destructor' at the end."
"I heard he lost control. Nearly killed his own partner before the System even bound them."
A nervous chuckle. "Yeah, and now they're bound. You think they'll even make it through the first room? Or will they just finish the job in there?"
"Talk about a death sentence. Being chained to the guy who already tried to kill you once..."
The whispers were like shards of ice, but they melted against the glacial calm Jade had forged in his mindscape. He acknowledged them only as data points: his reputation was a weapon of fear, and his partnership was seen as a fatal flaw. Both could be useful.
He moved through the crowd towards Zero. The other ascendants subtly shifted to create a path, their body language a mix of caution and morbid curiosity. They were all watching, waiting to see the first interaction between the doomed pair.
Jade stopped a few feet from Zero. The air between them was thick with unspoken history and the recent, mutual realization of their "chain" and "whetstone" bond.
Zero's eyes, dark and depthless, held his for a moment longer. Then, without a word, he turned towards the nearest empty archway along the chamber's wall. Within its frame, a swirling vortex of murky, gray-green energy pulsed, waiting. Their private instance.
Jade fell into step beside him, neither leading nor following. As they crossed the threshold together, the whispers of the chamber were instantly severed, replaced by an absolute, crushing silence.
The transition was instantaneous. One step in the gleaming Sanctuary, the next in another world.
Giant, skeletal trees surrounded them, their bark and leaves turned to solid, gray stone. A petrified canopy high above blocked out most of the light, letting through only a sickly, greenish haze. The air was cold, dry, and carried the scent of ancient dust and deep, deep silence. The ground was a carpet of brittle, fossilized leaves and shards of rock that crunched with every cautious step. It was a forest, but one that had been dead for a million years, its silence feeling more like a held breath than an absence of sound.
A translucent blue screen materialized before them, its text stark, urgent, and blood-red.
<< FLOOR 2: THE PETRIFIED FOREST >>
<< THEME: SURVIVAL SPRINT >>
OBJECTIVE:
SURVIVE FOR 30 MINUTES.
<< COUNTDOWN INITIATED: 29:59 >>
<< Instance Locked. Good Luck. >>
The numbers began ticking down immediately.
29:58...
29:57...
They stood side-by-side in the oppressive quiet, the entrance portal gone. They were alone. No audience, no rumors. Just the whetstone, the chain, and a dead forest that had just been given a half-hour to try and kill them.
The silence was the first enemy. Then, a new sound emerged—a dry, skittering rustle, like pebbles being shaken in a bag. It came from all sides.
From behind the petrified roots and brittle fossil-ferns, creatures emerged. They were the size of large dogs, their bodies a chaotic jumble of jagged shale and splintered, fossilized wood. They moved on multiple, stony legs with unnerving speed. Clusters of faintly glowing red dots served as their eyes.
A small, translucent tag appeared above the nearest one.
[Graveling - Lv. 1]
A pack of five. Then ten. They began to circle, their skittering forming a terrifying perimeter. One darted forward, not to bite, but to spit a glob of gray, viscous resin.
Jade and Zero moved simultaneously. They didn't need to speak. Zero sidestepped, the resin splattering against a stone tree trunk where it immediately began to harden into a crust. Jade didn't retreat; he stepped into the approach, his scythe humming in a low, horizontal arc—the foundational sweep he had drilled for hours.
He wasn't aiming for the body. He was aiming for its foundation.
The star-iron blade, imbued with the chilling promise of Obliterate, didn't just hit the Graveling; it shattered its front legs and the rock it stood on. The creature screeched, a sound of grinding stone, and tumbled, immobilized.
Zero was a blur. He didn't draw Gesshilla. Instead, his hand chopped down in a precise, sword-like motion, a technique that wasn't a skill, but pure, refined lethality. It caved in the skull of another Graveling. He moved to the next, his movements economical and fatal.
Jade's scythe became a whirlwind of controlled destruction. A downward chop crushed a creature. A reverse hook caught one leaping from a tree, splintering it mid-air. Within thirty seconds, the pack of ten was reduced to piles of twitching shale and fading red eyes.
A brief, dusty silence returned. The countdown read 29:10.
Jade stood amidst the debris, his chest rising and falling steadily. He looked at the oppressive, silent forest around them.
"In a situation like this," Jade stated, his voice cutting through the quiet, "the logical move for most would be to run. To find a defensible position and hide, conserving energy, letting the clock run down."
He glanced at Zero, whose dark eyes met his, understanding flashing within them.
"But you and I," Jade continued, a cold, sharp edge in his tone, "are not 'most.' Our pride isn't in survival alone. It's in domination."
A faint, almost imperceptible smirk touched Zero's lips. It was all the agreement needed.
In that moment, the thought echoed in both their minds, a perfect, synchronized realization:
The perfect partner.
As if summoned by their defiance, the forest answered. A dozen paces away, the trunk of a massive, petrified oak shivered. With a sound of grinding granite, it split open, revealing a tall, slender humanoid figure made of smooth, grave-like marble. Its face was featureless except for a single, always-open mouth. A tag materialized above it.
[Wail-Stalker - Lv. 1]
It didn't approach. It simply tilted its head back and unleashed its attack. Not a sound, but a visible wave of distorted air shot towards them. It wasn't aimed at their bodies, but their minds.
The effect was instant. A debilitating fog clouded Jade's thoughts. His Observer's Eye flickered, the world losing its sharp, predictable clarity. A wave of nausea and disorientation threatened to buckle his knees.
Zero grunted, his flawless stance wavering for the first time. This was an enemy that their physical prowess couldn't directly touch.
Then his expression settled into Implacable Stillness. He didn't evade the mental assault; he rooted himself and accepted it. A subtle, gravitational pull emanated from him, nullifying its influence around his immediate space. The mental fog pressing on Jade lessened just enough for him to cling to his focus.
The Wail-Stalker's featureless head tilted, confused by the partial nullification.
"Disrupt the caster," Jade said, his voice cold and clear once more.
He didn't charge. He flowed, using the agility he'd honed. He darted between the petrified trees, herding the creature, forcing it to turn its attention away from Zero.
The Wail-Stalker swiveled, its open mouth beginning to gather energy for another, more concentrated wail aimed directly at Jade.
It never got the chance.
The moment its back was turned, Zero was there. He had used the foundational footwork of Tenbatsu Ryūdan to close the distance with impossible, silent speed. Gesshilla was still sheathed. His hand shot forward in a spear-hand strike. He struck the base of its stony throat. A sharp crack echoed. The energy gathering in its mouth sputtered and died.
Stunned and physically damaged, the creature staggered.
Jade was already in motion from the other side. His scythe came around in the "rising hook." The black star-iron blade caught the Wail-Stalker under the jaw and with a brutal wrench, tore its head from its shoulders.
The marble body crumbled into inert dust.
The second wave was annihilated. The countdown read 28:32.
They stood amid the settling dust. No words were exchanged. None were needed.
Then the deep, rhythmic THUMP... THUMP... began, shaking the very ground. From behind a grove of massive, stone oaks, it emerged.
A behemoth, woven from jagged, interlocking plates of dark granite and obsidian. A pulsing, malevolent green core throbbed in its chest. The tag glowed ominously.
[Boulder-Back - Lv. 2]
It raised a fist the size of a boulder and slammed it into the ground. The ground erupted in a wave of shattering force, sending a fan of razor-sharp stone shards shooting toward them.
Zero's body settled into Chinmoku. He became the unmoving peak. Gesshilla became a blur of perfect parries, deflecting the deadliest shards.
Jade saw the opening. The Boulder-Back was committed, its fist embedded in the ground.
"Draw its focus!" Jade barked.
He channeled power into his legs and leaped, arcing high over the tail-end of the shrapnel wave, scythe held high for the "falling cleave."
The Boulder-Back's core pulsed, its head tilting up to track Jade. It began to raise its other arm, ready to swat him from the air.
It never saw Zero move.
The moment its attention locked onto Jade, Zero abandoned Chinmoku. Using Tenbatsu Ryūdan, he flowed across the shattered ground and Gesshilla flashed, a pure application of Ikazuchi. The blade bit deep into the stone joint at the back of the Boulder-Back's knee with a sound of shearing granite.
The behemoth roared, its leg buckling. Its swing at Jade went wide.
And in that moment, Jade fell.
His scythe came down like a meteor onto the creature's shoulder, cracking the granite plates and severing the energetic tendons. The Boulder-Back's arm went limp, hanging uselessly.
It was a perfect, brutal pincer attack. The chain had held fast, and the whetstone had drawn blood.
The Boulder-Back, now crippled and enraged, thrashed wildly, its remaining fist pounding the ground in a blind fury. The countdown in the corner of their vision continued its merciless descent.
26:11...
They had wounded the beast. But it was far from dead. And its rage now filled the entire forest.