Aarav, "I see! So what about the world of Arjun?"Rani's eyes curved into a teasing smile, the floating silk of her pink kimono swaying as if some unseen breeze played with it. "That's up to you to decide."Aarav, "Ok! Let's leave it for later."
Time began to flow again. The sensation was strange—like the air suddenly remembered it had weight, like the colors around him thickened, deepened. The chaotic roar of the battlefield returned in a violent wave: steel clashing against chitin, cries of pain, the thunderous drumming of spider soldiers' many legs slamming against the ground.
Aarav's hand shot forward before Sina could even blink. His fingers closed around hers, rough and warm despite the dust coating them both. She froze mid-motion, the white marble in her palm trembling as if it sensed its own impending destruction. Her eyes, wide with shock, searched his face.
Sina twisted her wrist, trying to wrench free. She struggled, her movements desperate—not to escape him, but to finish what she had intended: to shatter the marble and sacrifice herself to save him. Her grip tightened on the smooth, glowing sphere, but Aarav's grip on her arm was stronger.
Aarav's voice was urgent, low but cutting through the battlefield's noise. "Sina, Sina! Listen to me. We can be saved."Her eyes narrowed. "Ha? What? Why? No—I mean how?" Her voice cracked with a mixture of hope and disbelief, as if she didn't dare let herself trust his words.
"Listen," Aarav said, leaning closer, his tone sharp. "I have an artifact that can save us. But for it to work, you and your people must say 'I agree' when I ask 'Are you ready?'. Do you understand? Ok?"She stared for a heartbeat longer, then nodded, though doubt still shadowed her gaze. "Ok."Aarav's grip loosened slightly. "Can you do something to let them know?"Sina's eyes flickered with resolve. "Let me try."
From somewhere across the torn expanse of the battlefield, Diran's mocking voice bellowed above the clash of arms and the shrieks of dying soldiers. "Where are you cowards? Where are you hiding? Are you so afraid you ran away from the war? From protecting your own people? Is this how you will rule them—by sacrificing them?" His words echoed cruelly, carrying the confidence of someone who believed the battle already won.
While Diran's taunts filled the air, Sina reached into the folds of her armor and pulled out a black marble, its surface dull and matte, swallowing the light around it. She closed her eyes. Her breathing slowed. Around her, the noise of war seemed to dim slightly, as though the marble had created a small sphere of quiet. A faint tremor passed through her body, and for a brief second, a thin crack of violet light glimmered across the marble's surface before fading.
After what felt like an eternity compressed into seconds, she opened her eyes. They glinted with something fierce. "It's done."
Aarav's gaze swept across the battlefield. Smoke from burning siege engines drifted low over the ground, curling around fallen bodies. Spider soldiers, their glossy black armor gleaming with blood and dust, were being crushed under Diran's relentless assault. The enemy commander moved with terrifying speed, each swing of his weapon sending armored warriors tumbling like ragdolls.
Without hesitation, Aarav's legs coiled and launched him forward. His boots pounded against the cracked earth as he wove through the chaos, ducking and sidestepping spears, arrows, and stray blasts of soul energy that hissed through the air. Every step brought him closer to Diran, the air thickening with the smell of scorched chitin and the metallic tang of blood.
"Rani," Aarav hissed under his breath, "activate the card."[ACTIVATING THE CARD OF GATE…]
Diran raised his weapon for another killing blow against a spider soldier, but before it could fall, a flash of silver arced through the air toward him. The sword rang against Diran's own blade with a sharp clang, sparks bursting outward. He barely had time to sneer before a second strike came—this one invisible. A dagger of unseen force slipped past his defenses and buried itself in his left eye.
Diran roared in pain, staggering. Aarav landed briefly atop his head, boots pressing against the enemy commander's crown. He didn't waste the moment. Drawing in all the breath his lungs could hold, Aarav bellowed, "Are you guys ready?"
From every direction, the spider soldiers' voices rose in a unified cry, raw with desperation and hope: "Yeah! We agree!"
And then—silence. A ripple passed through the air like the skin of reality itself shivering. One by one, every soldier of the spider kingdom dissolved into motes of light and vanished from the battlefield, their forms whisked away into nothingness.
Except for Aarav.
Diran's hand clawed upward, trying to seize him, but Aarav had already leapt away, the tips of the enemy's fingers swiping through empty air.
"Let's go to the second floor," Aarav muttered, and his body blurred out of existence.
Diran's scream of rage was the last thing he heard. "AHHHHHHHH!"
[WELCOME TO FLOOR 2][Merge with 10 souls in 24 hours.][Failure: Vanish]
"Oh, hell! It's getting harder! Hah!" Aarav muttered, his breath frosting slightly in the strange thin air.
He stood on a floating island, its edges crumbling into clouds that drifted lazily in the vast open sky. The ground beneath his feet was a mixture of moss and strange, glassy stone that hummed faintly under his boots. Far in the distance, he saw other islands drifting like massive ships in a sea of clouds, some connected by thin, root-like bridges, others isolated entirely.
"I wonder… do those bloodline cultivation sects or kingdoms also live here in secret like on the first floor?" His eyes scanned the skies. "To know the answer, I can only wait."
Two days passed in restless exploration. The island seemed to grow, or perhaps merge with smaller ones, until it stretched far enough that the horizon was no longer empty.
It was on that morning that Aarav first saw them—massive shapes gliding through the clouds with the grace of predatory kings.
"Oh my god… flying lizards? Dragons? No…" He narrowed his eyes. "More like wyverns. And they're not just flying—they're cultivating. But… are they the only beasts here?"
Before he could finish the thought, one of the creatures broke from the distant formation. Its green-scaled wings stretched wide, catching the sunlight and casting a vast shadow over the island. The sound of its wingbeats was like the pounding of war drums.
It closed the distance in seconds. Aarav barely had time to draw a breath before the beast's massive jaws engulfed his head.
[DEATH][REVIVAL CHANCE: 01 THOUSAND]
The sensation of dying—sharp, blinding, and final—was replaced by an almost casual notification.
[-1 REVIVAL][PAIN RESISTANCE ACQUIRED]
Time paused. Then it rewound.
The wyvern struck again.
[DEATH][-1 REVIVAL][HARDENING STRENGTHENED]
Again.
[-1 REVIVAL][PAIN RESISTANCE STRENGTHENED]
Again and again, in an endless cycle of brutal learning.
After hundreds of repetitions, his body changed. His senses sharpened, his muscles hardened, and his patience frayed.
[AFTER 900 TIMES][SHARP SENSES ACQUIRED]
Time froze once more—but this time, Aarav's body moved. His hand shot out, seizing the wyvern's throat in an iron grip. With the other, he tore through its scaled neck.
A shimmering soul appeared before him.
[A SOUL TO MERGE APPEAR][CHOOSE A SUITABLE WEAPON]
His dagger, as if alive, leapt into his grasp. It glowed, lengthening, its weight increasing. Power hummed through the blade.
With his enhanced agility, Aarav stepped onto the very air, each movement precise. A thump echoed in his chest, and a sword erupted from his heart—a weapon of crimson steel and raw will.
"Finally… for the first time, I'm feeling like a powerhouse."
Wyverns swarmed him. He met them head-on, dagger in one hand, sword in the other, each strike clean and brutal. Ten souls later, his dagger's blade burned pure red, runes spiraling across it.
The surviving wyverns fled, but Aarav let them go.
[Do you want to go to next floor?][Yes/No]"No."
"Rani, use appraisal on me."[APPRAISAL ACTIVATE…]
[ AARAV TANAKA;RACE: HALF WYVERN;STR: 110; SPE: 120;AGI: 105; DEF: 150;TRAIT:
COLD HEARTED;
FEMISTA;SKILL:
SCALE SKIN
PAIN NEUTRALIZATION
AIR STEP
GRIP
ROAR
SHARP SENSE
SHARP TEETH
JUMP ]
"So… even after dying nearly a thousand times, I only gained this much?"Rani's voice was sweet, but firm. "Yes, dear. Most of it went into your race change. Your old skills evolved too."
Aarav didn't answer. Instead, he leapt into the sky. His sharp eyes caught sight of something incredible—a gryphon, golden-feathered and fierce.
It attacked first. Aarav's sword sliced its wing, then its head. The soul merged with his sword, making it heavier.
The notification returned—floor or exit. He ignored it.