Most of the journey, I slept. That place had to be absurdly far away, even for Silver; we didn't arrive there in seconds like the other times.
When I woke up, I was clinging to his back, protected by some kind of dense oxygen bubble. Without it, the vacuum of space would have killed me instantly.
The stars streaked past like blurred lines of light, moving so fast my eyes could barely follow them. Silver's speed was simply unbelievable.
I had never imagined seeing the universe this closely.
It was perfect.
"So, you're awake," Silver commented, his voice slightly rough.
"Sorry… I don't even know if I should say 'good morning' or 'good night,'" I replied, still disoriented as I rubbed my eyes.
He let out a short snort of amusement.
"We're almost there. I suggest you hold on tight. This planet has an extremely annoying atmospheric barrier."
Silver slowed down until we stopped floating before the planet.
And that thing… was gigantic.
So colossal it made me dizzy. I couldn't even see the curve of the horizon; the planet devoured my entire field of vision, a titanic sphere of dark and green tones.
Silver landed smoothly on a floating meteor to gain momentum. He bent his knees for a fraction of a second.
Then he vanished.
By the time my mind processed the movement, we were already tearing through space and falling.
Before I even realized we had reached the ground, that traumatic sound came again.
A deafening roar, as though the sky itself were being ripped apart.
My body froze instantly.
I looked up violently trembling, my eyes already burning with tears.
"No…" I whispered.
My breathing spiraled out of control. The sound echoed inside my head exactly like it had that day.
The dragon.
I grabbed Silver desperately, clutching his clothes with shaking hands.
"He came back…" I stammered. "He's here… please… get me out of here…"
Silver raised his gaze to the sky. There was nothing there except thick clouds spreading from the violence of our descent. Only the heavens trembling from the trail left behind by Silver's absurd speed.
His eyes slowly returned to me. For a second, he stayed silent.
Then he grabbed me by the collar and threw me to the ground like a rag doll, still from a certain height because of the flight.
I crashed hard against the cold earth.
My body trembled uncontrollably as I stared at the sky, gripping the grass of that hostile planet so tightly my fingers hurt.
Silver watched me for a few seconds, noticing the fear stamped across my face, and finally spoke.
"There's no dragon here, kid."
My breathing still failed me. My chest hurt. Every shadow in the clouds looked like a pair of giant wings.
Silver clicked his tongue irritably before crouching slightly in front of me.
"That thing inside your head," he said dryly, "is called trauma."
I slowly looked at him. His voice was still cold, but now… calmer.
"Your body remembers the moment it thought it was going to die. The smell. The sound. The fire." He pointed at my chest. "So now your instincts panic before your mind even has time to think."
I stayed silent, still trembling.
Silver narrowed his eyes.
"And listen carefully, Suki. Trauma doesn't disappear because someone comforts you." His tone hardened. "It disappears when you face it enough times until your soul stops kneeling before fear."
The wind swept through the dark grasslands around us.
"You're afraid of dragons now," he continued. "Good. Fear keeps idiots alive."
Then his expression grew heavier.
"But if that fear controls your legs… your thoughts… your life…"
An overwhelming pressure leaked from his body.
"Then the dragon killed more than just your family that day."
My throat tightened shut.
Silver slowly stood up.
"You don't overcome fear by running from it." He crossed his arms. "You overcome it by surviving it. Again. And again. Until your mind understands that you're no longer that helpless child inside the burning village."
For the first time since we arrived on that planet, my trembling began to ease.
Silver stared at me one last time.
"Now get up, Suki."
His voice came out firm. Absolute.
"Because the world isn't going to stop spinning just because you're afraid."
The moment my feet finally touched solid ground after standing up, the gravity felt strange and heavy.
"O-okay," I stuttered.
Then I finally paid attention to my surroundings. At first glance, the scenery stole the air from my lungs.
It was beautiful.
So unbelievably beautiful that I had never imagined a place like this could exist. We were standing at an incredibly high point, the peak of a colossal mountain.
From there, I could see everything.
Forests stretching endlessly into the horizon. Mountains piercing the heavens. Immense rivers shining like liquid silver beneath the light of an alien sun.
Everything there breathed life.
The wind blew hard, carrying the pure scent of wet earth and leaves. For the first time since arriving in the world of the gods, I felt something close to peace.
But that feeling didn't last even a minute.
"Pay attention," Silver cut through the silence. "This place will be our return point. Memorize it well."
"Memorize it for wh—"
Before I could finish, he grabbed my arm and jumped.
Ridiculously high. Ridiculously fast.
The wind slammed into my face so violently it felt like a wall of bricks. I could barely keep my eyes open as we crossed a colossal portion of the planet in mere seconds.
The only thing running through my mind was:
How the hell does he expect me to come back here alone?!
Silver finally landed.
We were now in a flat area swallowed by a dense, suffocating forest, standing in a large clearing. The pure mountain air was gone. Here, it smelled of wet moss and rot. Strange, guttural sounds echoed from every direction.
Something about that place made my skin crawl. A violent chill ran down my spine.
The trees were monstrous, hundreds of times larger than any oak I had ever seen, thick enough to hide entire houses behind them. Some had twisted trunks completely black, as though they were rotting while still alive.
Even the silence there was disturbing.
It felt… wrong.
"From today onward, kid, you're going to listen to me and do everything I say."
He looked at me, and I felt my legs weaken slightly.
Hell had begun.
Five months later.
I would rather die than spend another minute on that planet.
Silver was destroying my body from the inside out.
During those five months, he focused exclusively on preparing my bone and muscle structure to withstand divine combat styles — something completely different from the way humans fought.
It was another plane of existence.
My body had changed absurdly. My hands were covered in calluses hard as stone, and cuts and bruises healed faster than normal.
I could already carry impossible weights, weights I wouldn't have dreamed of lifting back in my village. I could run at the same speed as the wild beasts of that place and had gained frightening control over my own movements while hunting them for food later.
But in exchange… a chronic, excruciating pain consumed every fiber of my being.
My muscles felt like they were being torn apart with every strike; my bones cracked in protest whenever I tried to stand.
Even breathing hurt.
On a silent night, while we sat beside a small campfire whose flames crackled dryly, Silver suddenly broke the silence.
"The night feels strange."
I watched the darkness of the forest around us with a massive feline thigh in my mouth.
The giant leaves swayed slowly with the wind. In the distance, I heard the snapping of thick branches breaking apart.
"Maybe it's some large wild animal…" I muttered before taking another huge bite.
My senses had sharpened. I had started to feel and predict certain things, like the strong presence of felines and small rodents — and, of course, Silver's presence.
Silver smiled.
But there was something deeply disturbing about that smile.
"No. It's far beyond that. This planet is finally starting to show its fangs, kid."
Those words made my stomach sink.
Silver had already warned me that this world was lethal, but until now, our enemies had only been wild beasts: distorted tigers, bears with arms the size of trees, monstrous lions.
But when he said that… the feeling changed.
It became completely different.
The atmosphere grew heavy, almost tangible. As though dozens of invisible eyes were staring at us from inside the darkness.
"Get up," Silver ordered, kicking dirt over the fire to extinguish it. "I don't want your blood cooling down. We're continuing the exercises."
And then, with cruel casualness, he added:
"I want five times more intensity than yesterday."
The training sounded simple in theory.
In practice, it was a slaughterhouse.
On the first day here, he focused only on the basics to strengthen my bones.
On the second day… he tripled everything.
And he kept increasing it nonstop.
No rest. No full nights of sleep. My body felt like it was slowly collapsing. I could barely even remember what it felt like to sleep in a soft bed and wake up without pain.
Even those nightmares… were being replaced by pain and physical and mental exhaustion.
"My whole body hurts…" I asked weakly, supporting myself on my knees. "Can I rest for just a little while?"
Silver stared at me with the same cold gaze of a predator.
"Pain keeps you alive and alert."
He slowly walked toward me. Those blue eyes seemed capable of piercing my soul and reading every ounce of weakness inside me.
"If your arm breaks, keep training. If you lose a leg, keep fighting."
The pressure leaking from his body was suffocating. It crushed my lungs.
"Even if you lose all your limbs, your objective remains the same: victory."
Those words were insane.
But… in the world I lived in now, they made perfect sense. In a real battle against gods or dragons, nobody would wait for me to catch my breath.
I slowly stood up, biting my lip to ignore the sharp pain in my spine, and continued limping beside him.
That night, the entire forest felt chaotic. Even the wild animals were fleeing from something in the opposite direction.
And we were walking directly toward the center of it.
Strangely… darkness no longer frightened me. After spending so many months crawling through that hell, I had lost my childish fear of the dark.
Now, my only fear was whatever might come out of Silver's mind.
"Are you sensing something unusual?" Silver asked in a low voice.
I closed my eyes for a few seconds, concentrating.
The air felt dense, almost impossible to pull into my lungs. My heart started pounding on its own, driven by a primitive instinct to flee.
Then I shivered as I felt something cold and damp.
"I don't know how to explain it…" I whispered, opening my eyes. "But I'm feeling a horrible cold. My whole body is breaking out in cold sweat."
Silver stopped walking. I stopped right behind him.
A heavy wind swept through the forest, carrying the damp stench of copper and rotten flesh.
Something was there.
Very close.
"You can feel it, can't you?" Silver asked, satisfaction creeping into his voice. "That's called killing intent."
The air itself felt like it was crushing my chest.
"Whatever that thing is…" I gasped, "it wants to kill us no matter what."
Silver smiled.
"Interesting."
A little farther ahead, between the fog and the black tree trunks, I began to make out several silhouettes.
An entire tribe.
Bizarre creatures. They were tall, terrifyingly thin, with long deformed arms dragging along the ground. Some carried spears made of bones; others held completely rusted iron swords.
Their eyes glowed with a sickly yellow light in the darkness.
"Why aren't they afraid of you?" I asked tensely, clenching my hands so hard I felt a blister burst. "You're absurdly stronger."
Silver raised an eyebrow.
"And why would they be?"
"Because your strength crushes anyone."
He gave a faint smile.
"Gods who reach a certain level learn how to seal their own aura. We can hide our presence, our divine power, and most importantly, our killing intent. We become the void."
He tilted his chin toward the drooling creatures hidden in the shadows.
"These pieces of trash still can't do that. It's written in the very air that they want to rip our heads off."
He stepped forward.
"But once you learn aura control, you become invisible to beings like these."
Silver then walked toward the monsters, standing face-to-face with one of them.
And there was no reaction.
Out of childish instinct, I even tried to grab his shirt to stop him, but for a second I forgot who Silver was.
I kept staring at those monstrous figures.
Silver simply resumed walking, passing by me with his hands in his pockets.
"Come on. They'll smell you sooner or later anyway." He glanced at me. "And you're going to learn to control your aura better, of course, unless you want them following you."
He shot me a sideways glance, cold and sharp.
"And I won't be the one killing them."
Even after we left that area and set up a new camp… I could still feel the yellow eyes of those creatures watching us from afar.
One year later.
From the very first day on this planet, Silver had focused on a single thing:
Endurance.
And all of it revolved around speed.
Making me run before I even saw the sunrise, he pushed my lungs to the limit and constantly ordered me to keep up with him. While he vanished through the forest in explosive bursts of speed, I was forced to dodge trees and rocks along the way — and I fell many times.
And every single time I fell, he was already standing beside me, ready to say:
"Is that your limit?"
Completely ignoring my fatigue and injuries.
As for physical strength…
To be honest, I actually liked that part. It reminded me of the times my father used to leave huge wooden planks for me to carry without helping me. He always said:
"Suki, if you can't carry these planks, you'll never become like your father."
And that only motivated me even more to keep going.
But Silver wasn't nearly as kind as my father.
One afternoon, I questioned something that had been bothering me for a long time.
"Silver…" I said, completely drenched in sweat, scratching my sore arms while pushing another massive log down the mountain.
The cold wind at that altitude burned my lungs. Every muscle in my body felt like it was tearing apart from the inside after climbing that absurd mountain carrying trunks on my back.
The logs began tumbling down the slope at high speed, crashing into gigantic rocks and ripping entire chunks of terrain apart along the way.
Silver sat atop a massive stone, silently watching everything as if it were the most normal thing in the universe. He slowly turned his eyes toward me when I called him.
"You said something about my lineage…"
"…that day… and also back at the castle," I continued, breathing heavily.
Silver remained silent for a few seconds. The wind moved his silver hair.
"Yes," he finally answered.
I swallowed hard.
"Then just tell me already." I clenched my fists. "What am I?"
Silver stared at me with those cold, unfathomable eyes.
"If I answer that now, you'll start depending on other people's answers instead of finding your own."
I frowned.
"That makes absolutely no sense."
"It does." His voice remained calm. "The truth about your lineage isn't something that should simply be handed to you while you sit comfortably." Silver crossed his arms. "You'll discover it yourself."
I scoffed irritably.
"Great. Very helpful."
Silver ignored my sarcasm.
"But there is one thing I can say." His gaze became more serious. "When your divine side fully awakens… your potential will be monstrous."
The wind itself seemed to grow heavier around him.
"Far greater than you can imagine right now."
My body shivered.
For some reason… that didn't sound like a good thing.
Before I could ask anything else, a distant sound echoed from below.
BOOOOM.
The logs had finally reached the foot of the mountain after destroying half the path on the way down.
Silver silently observed the destruction. Then he slowly turned his face toward me.
"…Did I tell you to throw them down there?"
I blinked.
"…No."
Silver calmly pointed toward the gigantic abyss of the mountain.
"Then go get them."
My eye twitched.
I looked at the absurd descent. Then at him. Then back at the descent again.
"…Shit."
And so I climbed down.
And in endurance training:
"AAAAAAAAARRGH!!!"
A scream of pain echoed through the forest one afternoon.
I collapsed to the ground and vomited from the agony. I clutched my chest and stomach, convinced I had been split in half like fragile paper.
I looked around, but I couldn't see anything. I was completely blind; Silver had taken my sight using some serrated powder.
I shouted:
"WHAT ARE YOU HITTING ME WITH NOW?! DAMN IT! THIS HURTS SO MUCH!"
I heard him from my left side.
"And does that matter?"
I immediately threw a punch — a failed punch that struck nothing but air.
And then—
KRRRRAK!!
Again, I felt something crack in my back.
"This is a very simple training exercise, Suki. Know why?"
I heard his voice behind me, flipped backward, and launched a kick — once again, a useless attack.
While my leg was still in the air, Silver kicked the other one, sending me crashing onto my back against the dirt floor, groaning in pain as my spine arched.
"Why?" I finally asked.
"Because you're training your endurance and your senses."
The moment he said senses, a violent chill rushed toward my face. Every instinct in my body screamed:
MOVE NOW!
So I rolled to the side and heard something slam deep into the earth.
"Oh," Silver said. "You're starting to understand."
That was when I realized it.
If I didn't dodge, I would die.
And that was how every single one of my days went.
He had made me a promise back in the living room of his house in Lavinsk:
Within one year, your body will be ready for battle.
And he truly fulfilled it.
My body was no longer the same as that crying boy's.
Completely athletic and strong, I had become much faster and far stronger. Absurdly more resistant to impacts that once would have broken me in half.
In an open clearing within the black forest, Silver finally began teaching me real combat techniques.
Swords.
Spears.
Heavy axes.
Fast daggers.
Every weapon imaginable appeared around him as though the air itself were forging them from nothing. Blades stabbed into the ground, enormous spears slowly spun in the air, metallic chains dragged across the dark earth with an unsettling sound.
According to Silver, I had to choose one.
But at that moment…
I could only stare silently at the weapons.
Silver noticed after a few minutes of watching me.
"You're hesitating," he said.
I looked away.
"This is way more complicated than I thought it would be."
Silver slowly walked among the weapons scattered across the clearing.
"The mistake weak warriors make," he began, picking up a spear, "is choosing a weapon based on appearance, fame, or destructive power."
He spun the spear once.
FWOOSH.
The wind pressure from the rotation sliced through trees in the distance. Then he released it; the weapon dissolved into silver particles before reappearing stuck in the ground.
"Weapons are not ordinary tools." Silver looked directly at me. "A weapon is an extension of the soul."
The silence of the forest seemed to deepen.
"Axes demand brutality." A colossal blade appeared behind him.
"Spears demand precision and patience." Another appeared.
"Daggers favor instinct." Yet another emerged.
Then finally…
A longsword slowly materialized before me. The metal reflected the golden light of that strange sky.
Silver crossed his arms.
"Stop thinking with your head, Suki." His voice came out firm. "And listen to what your soul chooses."
My heartbeat slowed.
The wind swept through the black trees and then I slowly closed my eyes.
I remembered them.
Susen.
Henrique.
Carina.
Fernando.
Running through the village, wooden swords in our hands, and our favorite game:
Stop the God.
I smiled with my eyes closed. The childish promises that one day we would protect each other.
My throat tightened.
When I opened my eyes again…
My hand was already gripping the sword's handle.
The moment I touched it, the weight hit me.
Heavy. Extremely heavy. Much heavier than it looked.
My arms trembled.
But then…
Something strange happened.
I felt small hands holding the sword together with me, like fragile silhouettes appearing behind my body. A light presence. Warm and familiar.
They were my friends.
It felt as though they were still there beside me.
Helping me lift that blade.
My eyes burned.
Silver watched me silently.
Then, for the first time since the training began…
A small smile appeared on his face.
"I see…" he murmured.
The sword vibrated lightly in my hand.
And in that instant…
I knew.
That would be my weapon.
"Good choice, kid."
Over the following days, we trained repetitive movements day and night. Until my fingers bled. Simulated battles testing reflexes, speed, surgical precision, and emotional control.
Silver attacked without the slightest mercy.
And every time I made even the smallest mistake, hesitated, or lowered my guard…
I was beaten into the ground.
had already been exhausted for weeks. Sleeping absurdly little. Never resting enough for my bones to stop hurting.
And it was in that state that Silver made his most insane request after several months of sword training.
"I don't think I can do this… I'm still not ready," I admitted, my voice slightly trembling as I stared at the real steel blade.
Silver looked at me, his face completely expressionless.
"The fact that you're saying that is exactly why the time has come."
The dark wind of the forest slowly moved his silver hair.
"Even after everything you went through this past year, after all the blood and sweat you spilled, you still don't trust yourself. Are you still that afraid of dying?"
I remained silent, gripping the sword handle tightly.
Silver pointed his pale hand toward the depths of the forest.
"What I'm demanding is very simple."
His gaze became an ocean of unbreakable ice unbreakable.
"Exterminate that tribe."
My heart stopped for a second.
"But… they're monsters," I tried to argue, my throat dry. "They use weapons, coordinate attacks in groups. They slaughter anything that breathes!"
He crossed his arms.
"I trained you in organized and fair battles against me. But merely knowing how to cross swords is not enough in this universe, Suki."
His voice sank, dark and absolute.
"Now… you need to learn how to kill."
The next day, Silver simply leapt into the sky and left me completely alone.
I had exactly three days to wipe that entire tribe off the map.
Deep down, I wasn't exactly afraid of them. My physical strength was superior now.
But my mental confidence was still fragile.
And Silver was absolutely right.
If I couldn't fight with the raw, distilled intent to kill… I would never defeat the monsters waiting for me in that Lavinsk tournament.
And I would never avenge my family.
At sunset, after a well-deserved rest, I jolted awake.
I had dreamed about my friends.
They were constantly fixed in my mind, and just like the last time they had motivated me to defeat Susen, now they were motivating me to rise again.
I extinguished the campfire, sheathed my sword, and walked toward the swamp region where we had first seen the tribe.
With every step I took over the dry leaves, I mentally repeated every spin, every thrust, every defensive stance Silver had beaten into my body.
When night swallowed the light, bizarre guttural sounds began echoing through the twisted tree trunks.
Then I crossed the border of their territory.
In the distance, I spotted the yellow glow of a massive bonfire.
They're all there...
Their killing intent leaked through the forest, heavy and nauseating. A monstrous bloodlust — chaotic and uncontrolled.
Since my own presence was still subtle and I had learned how to control my aura, they couldn't track me precisely.
I could have sneaked in.
I could have assassinated them from the shadows, one by one.
But…
I wouldn't do that.
If I wanted to forge the confidence of a god, if I wanted to destroy my fear, then I would walk into that hell through the front door.
Before I could reason against my own decision, my legs moved.
I stepped out from the shadows of the trees and walked directly into the circle of light from their bonfire.
The growls ceased.
Dozens of deformed heads turned toward me at the exact same time.
All of them stared at me.
Yellow eyes glowing with hunger.
Every single one of them wanted to rip me apart.
Their heavy, wet, ragged breathing echoed through the silent clearing. Bone spears were raised. Rusted swords scraped against one another.
I stopped walking.
Closed my eyes.
And took one long, deep breath of the camp's foul air.
Then I opened them.
At that exact moment… I stopped counting how many enemies stood before me.
It no longer mattered whether there were ten, twenty, or fifty.
And for the first time since the dragon reduced my world to ashes…
I felt no fear.
Is this the vision the great gods possess? I thought, tightening my grip around the sword handle until my knuckles turned white.
A slow, cold, inevitable smile spread across my face.
It doesn't matter.
Let them all come.