In the previous chapter, the fire lizard had entered an attack stance inside the simulation room, its body tense and ready to strike.
The lizard froze for a second, then lunged - no warning. It bite Levan's shoulder. The bite wasn't deep, but sharp enough to throw his balance. It backed off quickly, eyes locked, as if readying another attack.
Levan felt a rush of pressure. The pain wasn't overwhelming, but enough to cloud his thoughts. He caught himself thinking: ¿How do I dodge that? Why didn't I see it coming?¿
then!!
A sudden memory surfaced: Romo's training - how to move his feet, when to shift his weight. And right as the lizard lunged again, everything slowed. Not really - but in his perception, it did.
The lunge came from the right. Levan twisted, stepped back. The strike missed.
"It always comes from the side... from the right... then pulls away."
In the observation room, Dr. Elvan wiped sweat from his forehead. ¿Still no Inclination reading. Then how is he moving like that?¿
Beside him, Deputy Commander Kyle Torn remained silent, eyes locked on the feed.
Back inside the simulation, the lizard circled once more. It lunged at Levan, but he dodged again. This time, he countered with a swing of his arm, trying to strike back — but missed. Just before the lizard could launch another attack, it suddenly vanished.
A moment later, a calm voice : "Time: Five minutes ."
The lizard vanished. So did the wound. It wasn't real. The pain simulation doesn't leave actual damage. As soon as the test ends, everything resets.
The room spoke again:
"Simulation: Complete.
Status: Survived.
The door in front of Levan slid open with a soft hiss.
He stepped out.
One of the assistants standing by the hallway turned his head, expecting to see what they always saw - someone broken, shaking, barely holding themselves together.
But Levan?
No limping.
No tears.
Not even the blank stare most trainees had.
The assistant blinked, confused. His brows pulled together as he took a step closer.
"Are you... alright?" he asked cautiously, not sure what to expect.
Levan didn't stop walking. But he looked at him and replied, calmly:
"I think I'm okay."
The assistant moved beside him, watching closely. "How do you feel? Any pain? Nausea? Shock?"
Levan stopped walking..
His voice was steady, but there was something distant in it - like his mind was still inside that simulation.
"I'm not hurt," he said. "But… did I pass? I mean… was that success?"
The assistant gave a hesitant smile, clearly still trying to understand what he was seeing. "You'll be notified,". "The results come from the observation room."
Levan nodded slightly, and walked on - quiet, but not confused. It was as if he had seen something no one else did.
Then, exactly one minute later…
The next trainee burst through a nearby door - sobbing uncontrollably.
Another followed, stumbling, barely able to stand, grabbing the wall for support.
A third fell to his knees the moment he crossed the threshold, gasping for breath like he'd survived a war.
One girl screamed when the assistant tried to touch her. "Don't let it near me!" she cried, even though the simulation had ended.
This… this was normal.
The virtual Abyss wasn't just training. It was real to the brain. Every sound. Every hit. Every scream of the creatures - felt like life or death. The body didn't bleed, but the fear? That was real.
...
In the observation room, things were different. Dr. Elvan reviewed the data again. Kyle Torn hadn't said a word, his eyes fixed on the screen that had shown Levan. Three assistants worked behind them: scanning brain signals, checking vitals, replaying the footage.
Suddenly someone entered the observation room.
He was wearing silver armor, with the knight rank insignia on his left shoulder. In his left hand, as always, he held a small leather-bound book — a signature item he was known for. the name of this persom is Kino
It was the same delegate who had attended the Inclination test at Clock Plaza two days ago.His odd smile hadn't changed.
He walked straight in. "Commander, I know what I saw."He opened his book, swiped a palm over the page. Data transferred.
"That boy has no Inclination. But he survived."
Kyle glanced at him. "It's not about whether he has Inclination. That move - that dodge — it's a speed skill. Only possible with level two or higher."
The Keno's smile widened. Unnatural. Sharp. "our Commander will want to hear this. Should I send it now?"
Kyle reply not now!.
Dr. Elvan whispered: "The first case like this... since the second catastrophe."
...
After that… Levan was called into the analysis room.
The place didn't look like anything he'd seen before in the Sixth Order. It was clean, quiet, and filled with old-looking machines that blinked and moved with strange precision. It felt more like something from the world before the catastrophe.
He sat down on a metal chair in the middle of the room, watching the machines as they hummed softly around him.
Then Keno walked in - the same man who had been the Sixth Order's representative during the Inclination tests.
He held his leather-bound book in his left hand. Keno wasn't like most officials. Even though he was still young, people called him a genius in biology and anatomy. Some admired his mind. Others said he was obsessed - especially when he started talking too much about experiments.
Keno sat down across from Levan, gave him a strange smile, and said:
"Do you know why you're here?"
Levan answered calmly, "No. They just told me I was needed for testing."
Keno laughed, then said with a creepy grin, "Maybe we'll dissect you. Ha... I'm joking, of course."
He leaned back a little and added,
"If we hadn't brought you in, you might've ended up in the hands of an Order with less patience. Some of them don't like... unusual cases. That's why we place our people in the Inclination tests — to spot ones like you."
Levan didn't respond right away. He looked uncertain, but he didn't look away.
Keno continued:
"You don't feel your Inclination, do you?"
Levan slowly shook his head.
"I don't think I have it at all."
Keno smiled again.
"Don't rush. Some things... don't show themselves so easily."
He then gestured toward the nearby machines.
"You're wondering about all this? Some of this tech came from old cities — beyond the outer wall. Sometimes we go out, not into the Abyss, but into abandoned zones where monsters roam. We collect what's left from before the first catastrophe. We restore it, and use it here."
Levan asked, "So… there's still land outside the wall?"
Keno nodded. "The oceans did flood most of the world, that's true. But some land remains - small patches, scattered and dangerous. They're unfit for living. Strange creatures show up there from time to time."
He continued, "Inside the wall, we live in what's left of the old world. About a million square kilometers. That's the last state — ten Orders, the capital, the villages… In the center, there's the merchant city. Big enough, and it connects to the Orders through a network of roads."
He leaned forward slightly. "Now beyond the wall? There's more land. A lot more - maybe twice as much. But we can't live there. The air's heavy. You can't breathe it for long. No one builds homes there. But we do send teams. Exploration squads. We go to find what's left of the past - pieces of human history. That's where a lot of these machines come from. Some of them are so old, we don't even know what time they came from."
Levan paused. His eyes moved to the glowing devices around them. "These machines… are they really that old?"
Keno replied, "Very. But they're more precise than most of what we have now. Before the catastrophe... people knew things we've forgotten." Just then, they heard footsteps outside.
Doctor Elvan entered the room quietly, holding a digital pad.
In a calm voice, he said, "Let's start the final check."!!
At that very moment—while Levan sat quietly on the metal chair and Doctor Elvan reviewed his data on the digital panel—something else was stirring, far away.
(Tenth Order — top floor of the Command Tower)
A wide room with no windows. The walls were made of smooth gray stone, lit dimly by four flame pillars placed in the corners. At the center of the back wall stood a raised platform, and on it, a chair.
A man sat there, his right arm resting on the armrest, his palm covering half his face, as if trapped in heavy thought.
That man… was Darioval, Supreme Commander of the Tenth Order.
His black hair was medium-length and unkempt, and his eyes - half white, with no visible pupils. Massive in build, he wore no armor or visible weapons. Just a long black cloak that covered his entire frame. But his presence alone was enough to silence the room, radiating a terrifying aura.
He was known as the wielder of the Fourth Inclination!! -"Extension of Will" - and the only living person confirmed to have reached the seventieth floor of the Abyss… and returned alive.
Many rumors circled around him. Some said his body was no longer human. Others claimed he was the strongest man alive. But no one dared to confirm it aloud.
At the front of the chamber, a wooden door opened quietly. The delegate entered — the same knight who had attended the Inclination test in the Third Order two days ago. He did not introduce himself.
"Commander… the report arrived just minutes ago. That boy in the Sixth Order. The one whose Inclination never showed up in the test… he completed the first trial inside the virtual Abyss. Fully survived."
Darioval didn't lift his head.
He spoke in a low voice: "No Inclination… and survived the virtual Abyss?"
The delegate nodded yes sir.
Silence filled the room for a few seconds. Then Darioval said, in that same tone:
"Nothing like this has been recorded in two hundred years."
He stood from his chair. "That catastrophe… it wasn't the end. It was only the beginning."
He walked slowly toward the edge of the room, where his ancient weapon — the Warhammer of Dario — rested on a stone pedestal.
And said calmly: "If this boy is real… every lie will fall."
He turned back to the delegate. "Follow him. From a distance. Do not interfere… not yet."
Then, with a colder tone, he added: "When the king falls… the truth will begin."