The heavens laughed.
It was not the laughter of joy, nor of kindness — it was the sound of power, echoing through the void like thunder on the bones of eternity. Beyond the veil of stars, colossal beings of impossible scale reclined on thrones forged from pure light and ancient flame. They peered down at a new world, a world still bleeding from its own creation.
> "Let us begin the next Game," one of them said, his voice like molten iron.
"Yes," another chuckled. "Let us see who amuses us longest."
Their fingers brushed against the fabric of reality — and somewhere far below, 300 souls were torn from their worlds and flung into chaos.
---
Kael Ardent awoke choking on ash.
The air burned his lungs. The sky above was red and split with black lightning, and the ground beneath him trembled like a living beast. Around him — screams. Hundreds of them. Men and women from a thousand worlds, clutching their heads, gasping, crying, cursing.
Kael's hand instinctively reached for his weapon — but found nothing. His blade, his armor, his entire world were gone. Only the ragged clothes he died in remained.
> Where... am I?
He pushed himself up, his muscles screaming, his vision swimming. Jagged mountains rose in the distance, their peaks glowing faintly with molten veins. Between them sprawled a vast plain littered with obsidian rocks and half-buried bones.
And in the center of the sky — an eye.
A single, massive golden eye opened, staring down at them all.
Every sound stopped.
Then a voice, calm yet boundless, filled the world.
> "Welcome, mortals... to the Divine Arena."
The voice came from everywhere — the wind, the earth, the air inside their lungs.
> "You have been chosen to entertain us. Survive, and perhaps you shall be rewarded. Die... and your screams will amuse the heavens."
Kael clenched his fists. He didn't know these beings, but every word burned like acid. His instincts screamed — this wasn't mercy. It was mockery.
All around, people began to panic. Some begged for mercy, others shouted at the sky. A few even prayed.
Kael didn't.
He had no gods left to pray to.
---
The ground split open.
From the fissures crawled things that should not exist — beasts made of bone and magma, serpents of shadow, and winged horrors with faces like masks. The first of the 300 tried to run, but the monsters were faster. Blood hit the dirt like rain.
Kael barely dodged a claw that tore through the air where he'd stood a heartbeat ago. He rolled, snatched up a shard of obsidian, and slashed at the creature's leg. The shard shattered, but the motion saved him from being crushed.
> Think, Kael. Survive first.
He scanned the chaos — found others fighting barehanded, throwing stones, using powers that flared unpredictably. A few had sparks of magic — flashes of fire, shards of ice, ripples in the air.
He didn't. Not yet.
Something deep inside him pulsed — a strange energy. He felt it in his veins, like a heartbeat that wasn't his own. When the beast lunged again, he moved on instinct. His hand glowed faintly — and a burst of invisible force sent the creature crashing backward.
He stared at his hand, chest heaving.
> Magic?
The voice from the heavens laughed again.
> "Ah... the soldier of the fallen world shows promise."
Kael froze. The voice knew him. It named him.
> "You fought for kings. You killed for nations. Tell us, Kael Ardent — will you kill for your survival?"
Kael looked up at the sky, eyes burning. "I'll kill for more than that," he hissed. "I'll kill to shut you up."
A hush fell — then laughter erupted like thunder.
---
Hours passed. Maybe days. Kael lost count.
Of the 300 who arrived, only around 180 still breathed. The plain was a field of corpses and smoke. Some had awakened strange powers — fire that burned through armor, winds sharp as blades, shards of metal conjured from thin air.
Kael scavenged from the dead — cloth for bandages, bones for weapons. He learned quickly. Every fight was evolution or extinction.
He met others who fought beside him — a quiet woman with green light around her hands, healing wounds with a touch (Lyria), and a shadow-eyed assassin who moved like smoke (Seris).
They didn't trust him at first. No one trusted anyone here. But survival forged bonds faster than friendship. Together, they killed three beasts that night — and shared their first meal of burnt flesh and silence.
---
On the third night, the sky shimmered again. The gods watched. Their laughter rolled like distant thunder.
Kael stood among the survivors — fewer now, bloodied but alive. He looked at the corpses, the smoke, and the red sky above.
> "They want entertainment," he said quietly. "Let's give them something they'll never forget."
Lyria looked at him, confused. "You mean… fight back?"
Kael nodded. "If they think we're their toys, then let's make them choke on their own game."
For the first time since arriving, he smiled — not in joy, but in defiance.
The wind shifted. The ground trembled again. And in that moment, something deep within Kael's soul awakened fully.
The power of the world — raw, violent, unshaped — flowed into him like breath into flame.
A voice whispered in his mind — not divine, not external, but his own essence answering the gods' mockery.
> You are not their entertainment.
You are their reckoning.
---
The sky above cracked open. Light rained down — dozens of orbs descending toward the survivors. Each orb shimmered with a symbol: Fire. Water. Air. Earth. Ice. Energy. Light. Dark. Aether. Time. Metal. Poison. Nature. Antimatter.
Each survivor was chosen by one.
When the light reached Kael, it didn't choose just one.
Seven orbs merged above him — Aether, Time, Dark, Fire, Energy, Antimatter, and Light — spinning violently before crashing into his chest.
He screamed — not from pain, but from overload. The ground shattered beneath him.
Even the gods went silent.
> "Impossible…" one murmured. "A mortal... chosen by seven?"
Kael collapsed to his knees, breathing hard, eyes glowing like twin suns.
He looked up at the sky again, and his voice was raw but steady.
> "I'm coming for you."
And somewhere in the heavens, for the first time, the gods felt something they hadn't in eons.
Fear.