The blast faded to a ringing hush. Dust drifted like ash. The Hall of Echoes was no longer a hall; it was a wound.
Ash pulled himself out of a mound of broken stone, coughing grit, vision strobing between System prompts and darkness. Across the ruin, the Abyssal King rose from one knee, sword scraping the floor as it stood. The fissures in its armor glowed brighter now—blue fire pulsing like a second heartbeat.
[Health: 12%]
[Mana: 9%]
[Warning: Core synchronization unstable]
The King tilted its helm. "You are still standing. Unlikely."
Ash grinned through blood. "It's kind of my thing."
The King lifted its sword. Space around the blade bent as if it were too heavy for reality. The air throbbed.
Gravity rippled outward in rings. Pillars slumped; shattered floor panels flexed like water. Ash staggered, boots skidding across fracturing mirror.
[Skill Detected: Abyssal Cataclysm (S)
[Effect: Large-scale gravitational and mana convergence — catastrophic zone collapse predicted.]
[Omni-Seer Activation Successful. Skill Pattern Recorded.]
[Skill Copied: Abyssal Cataclysm (S). Status: Locked — Abyssal Authority Required.]
Ash grimaced. "Yeah… not using that anytime soon."
He steadied his grip and pulled up the System menu.
[Upgrade Tokens Available: 3]
[Skills Eligible for Upgrade]
— Vector Rift (A)
— Abyssal Resonance (A)
— Abyssal Fortify (A)
— Abyssal Drive (A)
— Abyssal Guard (A)
— Abyssal Cleave (S)
— Abyssal Dominion (S)
— Eclipse Rend (A)
He looked up at the King's blade and felt the weight of it in his bones. "You gave me these tricks," he rasped. "Let's see what happens when I break them."
He spent the first token.
[Skill Upgraded: Vector Rift (A → S)]
[Skill Name Updated: Vector Break]
[Effect: Distorts physical coordinates for instant repositioning within 50 m. Ignores gravity and terrain. Cooldown: 10 s. Energy Cost: 6% mana.]
He spent the second token.
[Skill Upgraded: Eclipse Rend (A → S)]
[Skill Name Updated: Void Rend]
[Effect: Condenses abyssal + radiant mana into a focused arc. Output ×4. Defense Penetration: 100%. Effective Range: 10–40 m. Cooldown: 30 s.]
And the third.
[Skill Upgraded: Void Rend (S → SS)]
[Skill Name Updated: Final Eclipse]
[Effect: Point‑blank annihilation. Abyssal + radiant equilibrium collapses into a singular burst. Damage scales with Origin energy. Cooldown: One use per synchronization cycle.]
The interface flickered with a red line that meant "don't." Ash ignored it.
The King leveled its blade. "You have learned to steal."
"Call it learning to survive."
The sword came down. The dungeon groaned. Ash triggered his own.
[Skill Activated: Vector Break]
Reality folded. He vanished from the collapsing stone and reappeared inside the shockwave's calm, a finger's breadth from the King's chestplate. The eye-fires widened—surprise for the first time.
Ash's voice was a whisper. "End of the vector."
He drove his sword upward and pulled the world into it.
[Skill Activated: Final Eclipse]
Abyssal + Radiant equilibrium engaged. Singularity forming…
Red and white spiraled, twisting into a coal-black core the size of a coin at the tip of his blade. The point touched the King's armor. The world detonated inward.
Light devoured sound. Pressure crushed the room flat and then released it in a tidal scream. When vision returned, Ash was on his knees, gauntlets sunk into glass that had been air a second ago. Heat radiated up through his palms. He hadn't felt pain like this since dying.
Across from him, the Abyssal King stood motionless. A hole the size of a fist burned through its chest. Blue fire guttered through the gap like a storm seen down a tunnel.
The King looked down at the wound, then at Ash. Its voice had lost its thunder; what remained was old and tired.
"I have forgotten what it felt like to lose."
Ash dragged himself upright. "So learn it again."
The King stepped, sword point carving a line through what was left of the floor. Its aura no longer bent the hall—only wavered like heat. It lifted the weapon for another strike.
Ash's body didn't have much left to give. He triggered everything that could still move.
[Skill Activated: Abyssal Fortify]
Armor density +25% for 15 s. Damage reduction 25%. Cooldown: 3 min.
[Skill Activated: Abyssal Drive]
Speed, reflexes, perception amplified. Duration 20 s. Continuous mana drain: 1%/s.
[Skill Activated: Abyssal Resonance]
Convert 10% HP to mana for 10 s. Weapon power +15%, defense penetration +30%.
His vision sharpened to points—the line of the King's guard, the slow recoil of its sword arm, the micro-stutter where the knee joint had cracked earlier. The world organized itself into solutions.
They met in a ring of sparks.
His sword slid, bit, sparked again. The King's blade pounded down. The mana shield from Fortify groaned and flaked away in ribbons of light. Ash ducked under the backhand and cut across the wound. The armor screamed. The King hammered him with a shoulder that felt like a wall. He rolled, came up low, and used Vector Break again—reappearing behind the King's guard to drive his blade into the gap between gorget and chest.
The weapon sank. The Abyssal King staggered to a knee.
Silence spun out, a ribbon stretched to snapping.
The King's voice was softer than falling dust. "You remind me of myself when I still believed the world could change."
Ash's breath sawed out of him in broken pieces. "Maybe I can't change it," he said. "But I can corrupt the code long enough to make it choke."
The helm shifted, a nod or the memory of one. "Then choke it you shall."
The King rose again on will alone. Blue fire poured through the hole in its chest. It raised its blade overhead for a strike that would have split the sea. Ash raised his. The clash that followed blew both of them backward through the edges of the room.
Ash skidded, armor grinding. He stopped on the lip of a broken dais. The King fell to one knee and stayed there, sword point biting stone.
Light drained from its visor in slow circles.
The System pulsed again — slower this time, like it was breathing with him.
[Boss Entity Defeated: Abyssal King (Lv 500)]
[Origin +1 → Total: 2]
[Synchronization: 10% → 12%]
[Talent Update: Exponential Pulse — Manual Activation Mode Confirmed.]
[Stored Origin Doublings Available: 1]
[Rewards Granted → Abyssal Heart (EX), Complete Abyssal Set (S+), Skill Core ×3, 20 000 000 Gold, 2 000 Mana Stones]
Ash's armor pulsed once, faint blue veins of light chasing across its plates. The System whispered again, almost softly.
[User may now trigger Exponential Pulse manually. Stored Origin charge: 1.]
He smiled. "So the System's letting me decide when I break it now."
He didn't activate it — not yet. He could feel the power resting in his chest like a loaded weapon.
"Not until I need it."
[Complete Abyssal Set (S+) — Bound to User]
— Abyssal King's Sword (S+)
Type: Adaptive Greatsword | Abyssal Relic
Stats: STR +250 | AGI +100 | INT +60
Skill: Abyssal Sovereignty (Active) — Command lesser dungeon entities for 20s. CD: 5 min.
Trait: Shadow Memory — Stores one finishing strike; replay at 70% power.
— Abyssal Armor (S+)
Type: Full Plate | Adaptive Alloy
Stats: VIT +220 | AGI +60 | STR +40
Skill: Abyssal Overguard (Active) — Mana barrier equal to 30% VIT for 15s. CD: 5 min.
Trait: Echo Shield (Enhanced) — Each block adds +10% damange to next counter.
— Abyssal Cloak (S+)
Type: Relic Cloak | Mana-Conductive
Stats: AGI +80 | INT +50 | WIS +20
Skill: Void Step (Active) — 2s semi-phase, ignore physical damage. CD: 30s.
Trait: Abyssal Mirage — Random afterimages under heavy damage.
— Abyssal Ring (S+)
Type: Artifact | Soul-Bound
Stats: All base stats +5%
Skill: King's Pulse (Active) — Restore 5% HP/MP per sec for 10s. CD: 3 min.
Trait: Paradox Amplifier — If user is anomaly-class, ORI assimilation improves.
— Abyssal Crown (S+)
Type: Headgear | Mana Interface
Stats: INT +150 | WIS +50 | CHA +10
Skill: Abyssal Dominion (EX Variant) — Gravity suppression for 10s (50m). CD: 3 min.
Trait: King's Echo — 10% chance to free-cast last used active skill.
— Set Bonus: Abyssal King
(3 pcs) Mana efficiency +20%, Damage +15%.
(5 pcs) All damage +40%, Damage taken -20%.
(Full Set) Passive "Abyssal Presence" — lesser entities kneel or flee. Hidden: "The System hesitates."
System panels phased in around Ash like ghosts returning from exile. He swayed under the new weight of the world—but the numbers stayed obedient this time.
The King's gauntlet loosened. Its blade fell to the floor with a sound like a door closing on an empty house.
"You said you begged once," Ash managed, voice rough. "For mercy. For meaning."
"I did," the King said. The fire in its visor dimmed to coals. "You will too."
"Probably," Ash said. "But I won't wait for an answer."
What passed for a smile crossed the King's voice. "Then go, anomaly. Take your defiance with you."
Its armor collapsed inward, not into dust this time but into cinders that glowed as they faded. On the cracked floor where it knelt, a heart-shaped crystal pulsed with muted blue: compact, dense, quiet.
[Abyssal Heart (EX) — Dungeon Core Residue]
— Stores abyssal mana at perfect equilibrium.
— Can anchor synchronization or empower a chosen skill.
— Binding: Unassigned.
Ash crouched, breath steadying, and lifted the heart. It was heavier than it looked, like something that remembered an entire world. He stowed it away and stood on legs that had become strangers.
The Hall of Echoes finally exhaled. Runes guttered and died. Light bled upward in pale sheets from cracks that glowed like sunrise.
[Abyssal Dungeon Structural Integrity: 2% and falling]
[Immediate Evacuation Recommended]
"Right on cue," Ash muttered.
He turned toward the far corridor, the one the soldiers had guarded before the fight. Blue lamps along the archway flickered to life one by one like a path apologizing for being late.
He took a step—and stopped. The class prompt was still floating just off to the side, patient as a debt.
[Level Cap Reached for Unassigned Class]
[Excess EXP Stored. To progress beyond Level 50, select Class Path.]
[Class Selection Available]
1. Abyssal Vanguard — Frontline hybrid specializing in adaptive combat and shielded counterattacks. Inherits limited abyssal resistance.
2. Arcane Devourer — Absorbs ambient or enemy mana to empower attacks and spells. Risk: overload and physical backlash. Specialization: burst combat and anti‑magic resistance.
3. Paradox Reaver — Unique anomaly class. Born from instability within Origin synchronization. Specialization: entropy manipulation, skill transference, stat inversion, energy corruption. Unknown evolutionary path. Requires Origin synchronization ≥ 2.
Ash looked at the third line until his eyes stung. The letters seemed to breathe.
"Not yet," he said. "I choose when I'm not running."
The dungeon cracked louder, a reminder that choices had clocks.
He limped into a jog. Vector Break flashed twice to cross fallen columns and a torn-up causeway that had forgotten which direction gravity pointed. The stairwell beyond the throne yawned open, black and blue and bright at its edges.
Behind him, the Hall of Echoes folded inward like paper in fire.
The System counted down as he ran.
[Collapse in 10… 9… 8…]
Wind tore at his cloak, hot and cold in alternating bursts. He hit the first flight, vaulted the second, blinked across the third in a flash of skewed geometry that left a smear of afterimage behind.
[7… 6… 5…]
The stairs shuddered. Pieces peeled away and floated like ash. The blue lamps blew out one by one with soft pops that sounded tired more than afraid.
[4… 3… 2…]
He jumped the last three steps in one arc and slid across a platform of stone that immediately began collapsing into light. The exit was a circle of pale horizon, too bright to be underground. He threw himself into it.
[1]
The world flipped from black to white so fast that the moment in between had no color at all.
For one suspended heartbeat there was nothing—no ground, no weight, no pain. Only the System, quiet and complete.
[Abyssal Dungeon Cleared]
[Title Unlocked — "The One Who Defied the Abyss"]
[Sync Log: New World Event — The Paradox Emergence]
Gravity remembered his name again. He hit new stone with a grunt, rolled, and lay on his back laughing at the sky that wasn't a sky yet—a ceiling of morning-colored cloud panels that belonged to the Academy's deepest vaults.
He closed his eyes. The laugh turned into breath. The breath into silence.
He had been the punchline once. Not anymore.
When he finally stood, the staircase behind him was simply a wall. The heart in his inventory pulsed once, like a distant drum. He checked his display, watched the new numbers hold steady without threatening to drown him, and smiled at the absurdity of still being alive.
"Surface," he said to the empty corridor. "Let's see if you've learned anything since last time."
The lamps along the passage lit as he walked, one by one, an apology he chose to accept only because it was funny.
He did not look back.