The sky above the Crucible was a hollow void, dominated by a floating hourglass the size of a mountain. Inside, the first grain of sand fell with the weight of a collapsing star.
The Five-Year Siege had begun.
Before the sound of the grain hitting the glass had even faded, the "Starting Zone" turned into a slaughterhouse. 599 of the multiverse's most dangerous beings—god-killers, monster kings, and desperate legends—unleashed five centuries of hatred in a single second.
Kaelen didn't have a legendary title. He had a simple, black-hilted Katana and a heartbeat that felt like a funeral drum.
"Fresh meat!" a voice bellowed.
A Gorgon-Minotaur, standing eight feet tall and draped in chains of black iron, tore through the crowd. It swung a massive, notched cleaver that whistled with a low, killing frequency. Kaelen drew his blade in a silver flash, but the impact was like a mountain falling on a toothpick.
The cleaver sheared through the katana's steel, Kaelen's collarbone, and his lungs. Blood sprayed the grey dirt. Kaelen felt the cold bite of the steel, the hot rush of his life leaving him, and then... nothing.
[PARTICIPANT 599: DECEASED]
[DEATH TYPE: CLEAVING / MASSIVE PHYSICAL TRAUMA]
The Resurrection
The Minotaur didn't even stop to gloat. In this tournament, death was supposed to send you back to a respawn camp for a three-day "cool down." He stepped over Kaelen's corpse, eyeing a group of fleeing elves.
Then, he heard it.
Schluck. Snap. Hiss.
The Minotaur froze. He turned to see Kaelen's body twitching. The severed torso wasn't vanishing into blue light; it was stitching itself together with angry, crimson threads of energy. The bone didn't just heal—it grew back thicker, laced with a dull, metallic sheen.
[CORE ABILITY: REVENANT'S DEBT ACTIVATED]
[ADAPTATION: REINFORCED SKELETAL STRUCTURE & KINETIC ABSORPTION]
Kaelen lunged off the ground. He grabbed
the broken hilt of his katana. As his fingers touched the steel, the shards lying in the mud flew back to the blade, fusing into a jagged, serrated edge.
The All seeing Eye
The beast roared, swinging its cleaver in a blind, horizontal arc meant to decapitate. Suddenly, Kaelen's left eye flared with a cold, piercing blue light. The world slowed. The cleaver's trajectory appeared as a faint red line in his vision.
[PASSIVE SKILL: CELESTIAL REFLEX ACTIVATED]
[DODGE STREAK: 1]
[EYE EVOLUTION: 0.01%]
Kaelen leaned back, the blade grazing his chest by a hair's breadth. He didn't just dodge; he moved with a fluid, haunting grace. The Minotaur swung again—faster, angrier. Kaelen spun, a blur of motion.
[DODGE STREAK: 5]
[EYE EVOLUTION: 0.05%]
[PERCEPTION SPEED: +15%]
The Minotaur roared in frustration, its hands beginning to glow with a sickly green energy—his special ability, [Rotting Strike]. He slammed his fist toward Kaelen, the air itself decaying as the blow traveled.
Kaelen didn't move away this time. He raised his katana.
The Mirrors Edge
As the green energy touched the blade, the metal didn't rot. It hummed. The dark steel of the katana began to glow with the exact same sickly green hue, drinking in the monster's power.
[KATANA ABILITY: SOUL REFLECTION ACTIVATED]
[COPIED ABILITY: ROTTING STRIKE (100% POTENCY)]
"My turn," Kaelen rasped, his voice sounding like grinding metal.
He swung. The jagged blade carved through the Minotaur's armor. The green decay spread instantly, turning the monster's flesh to ash in seconds. The beast didn't even have time to scream before it was vaporized into blue respawn particles.
The Debt
Kaelen stood in the center of the scorched mud, his katana returning to its deep, scorched black. The blue light in his eye faded, leaving his vision blurry.
He tried to think of his sister's face—the reason he had entered this hell. He remembered her name was Elara. He remembered she was sick. But when he tried to picture her smile, all he saw was a grey, blurry smudge.
[DEBT COLLECTED: 5% OF EMOTIONAL CORE REMOVED]
[CURRENT STATUS: 95% HUMAN]
Kaelen gripped his hilt. His skin felt like iron, but his soul felt like hollow glass. He looked up at the mountain of sand in the sky.
"One down," he whispered. "597 to go."
To be continued ~