LEVEL CLASSIFICATION: THRESHOLD-12
Designation: The Lands of Rejection / The Rejection Lands
Stability: Chaotic
Cognitive Hazard: High (Mental Instability)
Physical Hazard: EXTREME (Total Annihilation)
PRIMARY TESTIMONY
Extracted from: Report No. 882-Δ
Date: [UNREGISTERED]
Status: SURVIVOR (PARTIAL)
The fall was violent. It was not like the other layers, where the transition is smooth or silent. Here, the very air seemed to scream as I materialized on the ground.
I stood up slowly, feeling the wet and sticky soil beneath my boots. There was no blue sky, no white light. Everything was covered by a dense twilight, heavy with black smoke that smelled of rot and burning metal. The landscape was a graveyard of gigantic structures, the bones of things that were once great and now lay broken, scattered across a plain that had no end.
— Where the hell am I? — I murmured, placing my hand on the hilt of my weapon.
The answer came not from the wind, but from the ground.
A low, vibrating sound, like the engine of something that had been shut down for eons and was now powering back up. Cruunsh...
It was the sound of something dragging itself. Heavy. Slow. Irreversible.
I spun around sharply. There, amidst the shadows of a colossal skeleton, something moved. It was not a man. It was not a beast. It was a living mass of natural armor, dark flesh and teeth that seemed to be made of black diamond. It rose, and its shadow alone was enough to cover the entire surrounding area.
Its eyes opened, two points of cold yellow light that pierced my soul. It did not look at me as prey. It looked at me as an impurity. As something that was dirtying the place.
TECHNICAL NOTE 12: THE LAW OF SURVIVAL
In this level, the laws of physics were written in blood. The entity that dwells here does not follow logic; it breaks logic to survive. Observed data:
- Real-Time Adaptation: There is no winning strategy against it. If you use fire, it becomes immune to heat within seconds. If you use magic, its body absorbs the mana and transforms it into raw strength. If you try to cut it, its skin hardens beyond the capacity of your blade. It does not fight to win; it learns to never lose again.
- Definitive Regeneration: Wounds are merely temporary inconveniences. Cutting it in half does not stop it, as both parts rebuild themselves. Blowing it apart does not work, as the dust simply gathers back together. It is the personification of life's stubbornness, clinging to existence at any cost.
- Rejection of Effects: Attempts of paralysis, sleep, mind manipulation or reality control simply ricochet off. It rejects any force that tries to tell it what to do. It is what it is, and nothing can change that.
A legendary warrior who crossed this place wrote in his diary, hand trembling:
"I thought I had power. I thought I dominated the battlefield. But before him, I was just a child trying to stop an earthquake with my bare hands. Every attack I made only made him stronger, faster, more perfect. He has no weaknesses because he erases weaknesses as soon as they appear."
The diary was found abandoned. The warrior never returned.
PRIMARY ENTITY: THE UNBREAKABLE
Description: A colossal form, whose anatomy shifts constantly to become the perfect counterpoint to its opponents. Its skin is dark, cracked with lines of volcanic energy. It has no voice, but its thoughts are so heavy they echo in the minds of everyone around.
Behavior: It does not hunt for sport, nor for hunger. It hunts because everything that is not itself is considered "inferior" and must be eliminated. It walks through this level as if it were the absolute owner of everything it sees. Nothing detains it, nothing holds it, nothing truly hurts it. It is the brute force that defies all and any order.
PRIMARY TESTIMONY (CONTINUATION)
— Get out of my way! — I shouted, unleashing all my power.
The energy around me exploded, forming a storm of wind and light. I drew my sword, whose slash is capable of rending dimensions, and attacked with everything I had. The strike was fast, so fast that the sound was left behind.
The blade struck its chest.
And stopped.
There was no blood. No cut. Just the sound of metal striking divine metal, and a shockwave that pushed me back, making my feet crack the ground.
I looked on, horrified. My sword was dulled. And he... he just looked at the spot where I hit him, and the small mark I had made was already disappearing, skin regenerating in real time.
— How...? — I whispered.
It roared. It wasn't an animal sound. It was a declaration of war against the universe.
It lunged forward. It didn't run, it seemed to teleport, covering impossible distances in an instant. I tried to block, I tried to dodge, I tried to use everything I knew. I created barriers of light, invoked absolute defenses, tried to freeze time around it.
Nothing worked.
It shattered the barriers as if they were glass.
It ignored the stopped time as if it were a breeze.
With every ability I used, I saw its eyes shine brighter, for it was cataloging, learning, becoming immune to me.
— WHY WON'T YOU FALL?! — I screamed in despair as it struck me with a blow that sent me flying against a mountain of steel.
I felt my bones crack. Blood ran from my mouth. When I looked up, it was already there, standing over me, its shadow consuming me completely. A mental voice, raspy and full of contempt, filled my head:
"Falling is for those who have an end. I am the infinite process. I am what cannot be stopped. All your laws, all your forces, all your gods... they are just rules. And I was born to break rules."
Its claws descended, glowing with pure hatred, ready to reduce me to nothing.
ANOMALOUS ARTIFACT: THE MARK ON THE ROCK
In the last second, before everything ended, my eyes fell on a nearby rock, where something was carved deeply, as if done with great anger:
HERE REIGNS WHAT CANNOT BE TAMED.
NO WEAPON HURTS.
NO MAGIC TOUCHES.
NO CONCEPT RESTRAINS HIM.
HE IS THE KING OF THIS PLACE.
BUT EVEN THE KING KNOWS HIS PLACE IN THE CHAIN.
PHILOSOPHICAL FRAGMENT
"There are forces that exist only to test the limits. Beings that have accumulated so much will to live that they became immune to death itself. They walk as if they were the gods of this world, and for all who challenge them, they truly are. But not even the wildest, most indomitable and most destructive force can ignore the hierarchy that exists above them. There are orders that cannot be undone, even for those who break every rule."
PRIMARY TESTIMONY (CONCLUSION)
I closed my eyes, accepting the end.
But the blow never came.
I opened my eyes and saw that it had stopped.
Its body was tense, rigid. It wasn't looking at me anymore. It was looking at the dark sky, at the nothingness, as if it were sensing something I could not see.
There was rage in its eyes. So much rage. But there was something else.
Something it couldn't hide, no matter how strong it was.
Recognition.
It let out a low growl, a sound of pure frustration, and took a step back. Then another. It was moving away. Not because it wanted to, but because something in the very structure of that place forced it to stop.
It threw me one last look, filled with hatred, promising that next time there would be no escape. And then it turned and vanished into the darkness, returning to the depths of that domain where no one could defeat it... except for that which it could not challenge.
I lay there, fallen, coughing up blood, still trembling from the proximity of death.
I understood then.
He was the king of that hell.
He was invincible to all of us.
But even he knew that there were things much greater, much higher, hovering above any conflict.
CATALOGERS' FOOTNOTE
The Entity dominates this level with an iron fist. There are no records of any successful confrontation against it. It adapts, survives and surpasses everything.
However, we observed a pattern: It never crosses certain invisible lines. It destroys everything within its territory, but it does not advance beyond.
As if there were a fence not even it can break down.
ADDENDUM
It continues to grow inside.
Becoming stronger.
More perfect.
But for now, it is contained.
And that is all we need to know.