Chapter 2: The Price of a Miracle
The world hung in suspended animation.
A single drop of Kael's blood, black in the dim light of the cavern, hovered inches from his face. The Rank 3 Void Crawler was frozen mid-lunge, its obsidian scythe gleaming with corrosive acid, a grotesque monument of impending death.
Amidst the absolute stillness, the golden screen in front of Kael pulsed with a soft, ethereal light.
[Time Dilation: Active. Estimated time remaining: 14 seconds.]
Kael's mind felt detached, floating above the agonizing pain of his crushed leg and ruptured organs. He stared at the glowing words. Eighteen years of being spat on, of eating dirt and scraping by on the fringes of society, culminated in this single, impossible hallucination. Or was it?
He couldn't speak, his lungs filled with blood, but his thoughts were crystal clear. What are you?
[I am the Zero to Ultimate God System,] the mechanical voice echoed in his consciousness. [Created at the apex of the primordial era, designed to bind with a mortal entirely devoid of mana—a true Rank 0. You are the first perfect vessel in ten millennia.]
Can you save me? Kael thought, his vision darkening at the edges.
[The System does not grant free salvation. The System provides the path; the Host must walk it. Your current Quest is: Survive. You are facing a Mid-Rank 3 Void Crawler. Survival probability: 0.0001%.]
[Time Dilation remaining: 8 seconds.]
[To assist the Host in this initiation, a one-time 'Beginner's Grace' is available. Would you like to open the Novice Survival Pack? Warning: Opening this pack requires a sacrifice of fifty percent of your remaining life force.]
Fifty percent of what? I'm already dying! Kael's mental voice roared. Open it! Give me whatever it takes to kill this thing!
[Ding! Novice Survival Pack opened. Host's life force deducted.]
A sudden, terrifying cold swept through Kael's veins. It felt as if an invisible hand had reached into his chest and squeezed his beating heart, wringing the very essence of his life from his bones. His skin paled to an ashen gray, and his hair, jet black a moment ago, began to streak with a dead, hollow white.
[Reward 1: Minor Pain Nullification (Temporary).]
[Reward 2: Weapon Summon - 'Fang of the Ruined King' (Grade: Broken).]
[Time Dilation ending in 3... 2... 1...]
Reality snapped back into motion.
The deafening shriek of the Void Crawler filled the cavern. The drop of blood hit the stone floor. The beast's scythe descended toward Kael's neck.
But Kael was no longer paralyzed by pain. The 'Minor Pain Nullification' didn't heal his shattered body, but it severed the signals screaming in his brain. He could move.
In a fraction of a second, his right hand grasped at the empty air. A surge of dark, coalescing shadows gathered in his palm, solidifying into a jagged, rusted dagger. It looked like a piece of scrap metal, but it pulsed with a faint, crimson aura. Fang of the Ruined King.
Kael didn't try to block. A mortal, even with a magic dagger, could not block the strike of a Mid-Rank 3 beast. Instead, with a violent twist of his torso, he threw his upper body violently to the right, ignoring the sickening grind of his crushed left leg pinned under the boulder.
SHNK!
The beast's scythe slammed into the stone where Kael's head had been a millisecond prior, sinking deep into the rock and sending shards of stone flying like shrapnel. One shard sliced Kael's cheek open to the bone, but he didn't even blink.
This was it. His only window.
The beast was momentarily anchored to the ground. Kael gritted his teeth, his eyes locking onto the multi-faceted eye of the monster—the exact same eye he had cracked with his pickaxe moments before.
Using his free left arm, he grabbed the beast's thick, chitinous foreleg, pulling himself upward with a desperate, animalistic roar. He drove the shadow-forged dagger forward with every ounce of his remaining strength.
Squish.
The 'Broken' grade dagger sank into the cracked eye. The blade was dull, but the dark aura surrounding it violently reacted with the beast's vital fluids.
The Void Crawler let out an ear-piercing, gargling scream. It thrashed wildly. Its free arm swung, the blunt side of its scythe slamming into Kael's ribs.
CRACK!
Four ribs shattered instantly. Kael was launched off the beast, violently ripping his trapped leg out from under the boulder in the process. His femur snapped completely. He hit the muddy floor of the cavern and tumbled like a broken ragdoll, coming to a halt near the edge of the purple spatial rift.
He vomited a massive pool of black blood. The pain nullification was fading. The agony was returning, a tsunami of fire consuming his nerve endings.
Through his blood-soaked vision, he saw the Void Crawler thrashing. The dagger was still lodged deep in its brain, the crimson aura corroding it from the inside out. The beast stumbled, its massive body convulsing once, twice, before it collapsed onto the stone floor with a heavy, final thud.
Silence returned to the cavern, save for Kael's ragged, bubbling breaths.
He was dying. The life force sacrifice, the shattered ribs, the crushed leg, the internal bleeding—his mortal body couldn't sustain this damage. His eyes fluttered, the darkness finally closing in.
Then, the golden light returned, brighter than before, illuminating the dark, bloody cavern.
[Ding!]
[Target Eliminated: Mid-Rank 3 Void Crawler.]
[Experience calculated. Host is Rank 0. Cross-rank kill multiplier applied (x300).]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Quest Complete: Survive.]
[System Reward: 'Rebirth' Initiating...]
A warm, golden liquid light began to pour from the system screen, raining down on Kael's broken body. It seeped into his skin, his muscles, his shattered bones. The agonizing pain vanished, replaced by an unbearable, itchy heat.
[Warning: The Rebirth process will reconstruct the Host's mortal flesh to forge the 'Foundation of the Void'. The pain will be severe. Do not lose consciousness, or the process will fail.]
Kael's eyes shot wide open as his very cells began to tear themselves apart and stitch back together. He opened his mouth to scream, but only a golden light poured out.
The real torment had just begun.