The ground shook under him. Dust filled his mouth, tasting of dirt and blood. His heart beat hard against the sharp edges of his broken ribs.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Each beat was a drum in the roar of the fight. He tried to focus, but the edges of his vision grew dark and fuzzy. The giant with six arms became a gray smear against the onslaught.
Only her voice was clear. It cut through the noise, the only thing that made sense.
Amanda!
He screamed her name in his mind, pushing the thought out with all his strength. But nothing came back. The world went completely quiet in his head. The silence was heavy. It stole his breath. A punch from the giant would break bones. But this silence broke something deeper.
Then she kept pleading. Her words were urgent and tore at him.
Help me... please...
The sound of her voice felt real. He gasped, but the air felt thin and empty.
Thought of the World Tower came rushing back at him. The tower's words were cold and final. This world's system made him weak—kept him weak.
And now he had to face this.
He looked at the Shadow Elder. Her form seemingly a conductor of death. The giant's massive body moved left as she raised her arms. One of the giant's stone fists smashed into the ground where Leo had just been. Her movements were slow and graceful, like a dancer on a stage. But each small move she made caused terrible destruction. She was something that did not follow the rules. Her power was too old. Even if he had been ready, it would not have been enough.
Then the voices came back. They were not begging anymore and spoke with a clear purpose.
We can help you...
A tempting offer to his battered body and soul.
Help you save our kin...
The last words hit him like a punch. They knocked the air out of him, and he coughed up a spray of blood onto the cracked earth.
Help you save our Queen.
Queen? The word was a shock. The voices spoke of clan, of a queen. This was bigger than he understood. The roar of the fight around him was just background noise now. This power was not part of a game. It was older than levels or skills. And Amanda was part of it.
A sharp pain hit Leo's face. It was like lightning, making his vision flash white. The pain cleared his mind and everything was sharp and clear again.
Anything... he sent the word out with his thoughts.
Anything to save Amanda.
He had to admit something else. The thought tasted bad in his mouth, worse than blood.
Please... help me!
Her desperate pleas felt like an avalanche of emotions.
His hands curled into tight fists, his broken fingernails digging into his palms. A hot shame washed over him. He had always stood on his own. He had always been the one with the power. Now he was on his back in the dirt, begging for a miracle. He hated feeling helpless. Each time it happened, it felt worse.
His system made him something else. He had been so powerful then. Won every fight and crushed every problem.
But this... this was different. Like those old games he'd played in his previous life, where developers would suddenly throw an overwhelming wall in your path. A forced bottleneck designed to make you grind endlessly or open your purse for that coveted VIP status.
Then voices returned. They echoed in his mind as they repeated their cryptic messages.
Be an elf.
Save our queen.
They felt important, but he did not know why.
Then, he remembered a name.
Ai, he whispered, his lips cracking.
There was silence for a long moment. Then, an answer came.
Understood...
The word was full of promise. A message from the system appeared. It glowed with a strange blue light.
[System Notification] You have successfully set Elf as your main race.
The message faded. Then the fire started. It raced under his skin, along his veins. It felt like every cell in his body was being burned away and remade. He heard a wet cracking sound from his own head as his jaw shifted. He felt his cheekbones push up against the skin of his face. The pain was so great he could not even scream.
He blinked, and the world exploded with color. The dull brown dirt now had specks of red and gold. The black mist of the Shadow Elder had deep purple swirls inside it. He turned his head toward a sound. It was the frantic beat of a tiny mouse's heart, hiding under a rock fifty feet away. The world was loud and bright.
Overwhelming.
His broken ribs stitched themselves together with pops and clicks. The new bones felt lighter, but harder. His skin changed. Painted pale and smooth, and seemed to glow with a soft light, as if there was a light inside of him.
But the biggest change was his eyes.
He saw the world in a new way. Lines of power glowed in the air like rivers of light. He had never seen them before. Inside his emerald eyes, tiny stars seemed to swirl.
The Shadow Elder stopped her attack for a second. Even she could feel that something significant had just happened.
Then, system messages filled Leo's sight, one after another.
[System Notification] 1,0062.023 EXP received.
[System Notification] 1,1062.023 EXP received.
[System Notification] 2,6062.018 EXP received.
[System Notification] 1,7112.024 EXP received.
Paralysis crept through him. A similar sensation when his body was syncing. The memories hit him like a physical wave. Thousands of moments. Millions of lives. They poured into him, not one by one, but all at once. He was Leo, but he was also a hunter, a scholar, a king, a child. He was all of them.
The weight of their lives threatened to crush him.
And in that flood of old memories, a terrible truth unfolded.