The first monster charged at me with everything it had, drooling and releasing a deep, rotten roar.
I dodged to the side and attacked instantly, aiming straight for the neck. The moment my blade tore through flesh, I used every ounce of strength I had built over the last year to cut all the way through.
The grotesque head rolled across the ground.
That was the first living being I had ever killed.
The blood that sprayed out wasn't red like a human's. It wasn't green or blue like some of the wild creatures I had hunted on that planet either.
It was black.
Dark as the night itself.
The thick, burning liquid splashed across my face and clothes. For some reason… it terrified me far less than it should have.
But there was no time to think.
Another monster came sprinting toward me, gripping a rusted broadsword with both hands. There was no room to dodge, so I raised my weapon to block.
The impact was brutal.
My knees sank into the wet earth. Even while defending, I realized immediately that the creature was physically stronger than me.
But it had no technique.
I twisted my body sideways, breaking the monster's balance, and its blade buried itself into the ground. Before it could react, I drove my sword straight through its skull.
Two dead.
And dozens remained.
I controlled my breathing, forcing the hot air from my lungs. I couldn't waste energy. If I fought recklessly, driven only by adrenaline, I would die before sunrise.
So I kept advancing.
A third monster leapt from the shadows, a bone spear aimed directly at my chest. I twisted my body on pure instinct, but I wasn't fast enough. The sharpened tip scraped across my ribs, tearing my shirt and opening a hot cut across my skin.
The pain burned, but I didn't stop.
With a swift motion, I spun my sword and severed the creature's legs. As it fell screaming, I slammed my boot into its skull with all my strength, crushing the bone.
Two more came from the left. A rusted sword came crashing down toward my head. I blocked, but the impact sent a violent shock through my arms, making my teeth grind together. I kicked the monster's knee, hearing the joint snap, and used the opening to drive my blade into the chest of the other one trying to flank me.
The tribe never stopped.
They didn't retreat.
They weren't afraid of seeing their own kind die.
They were only hungry.
Dirty claws ripped across my left shoulder as one of them threw itself on top of me. Its weight slammed me into the ground. I rolled through the mud, kicking the creature in the stomach to throw it off, then sprang back to my feet.
A dull blade struck my back, opening a shallow cut.
The ground beneath my feet had already turned into a slippery swamp of mud, leaves, and black blood.
With every monster that fell, another growled and took its place. The longsword in my hands, which at first had felt perfectly balanced, now seemed twice as heavy.
My right arm throbbed and tingled with every clash against the hard bones of those abominations.
Strike after strike.
Dodge.
Thrust.
Deep cut.
Blood.
Silver's hellish training was the only thing keeping me alive.
My mind was already clouded by exhaustion, but muscle memory had taken control.
Whenever I stumbled, I rolled and attacked upward, splitting a monster in half as black entrails splattered across me.
Whenever I was surrounded, I used one of their own bodies as a shield.
Body after body.
Time completely lost meaning inside that hell.
How many had I killed already?
I had no idea.
I lost count after the thirty-fourth.
Black blood covered my sword, my hands, my face, and dried into my hair.
My breathing was ragged and heavy, tearing at my throat with every gasp. My muscles burned as though they were on fire, and my vision had already begun to blur from sweat.
That was when I noticed something strange.
The monsters started retreating slowly.
They stopped attacking and split apart, forming two dark lines. One on each side.
As if they were opening a path.
For someone.
Or something.
The forest fell silent.
Even the wind seemed to die.
Then I felt it.
A monstrous pressure crushed down onto my body. A primitive, absolute fear crawled down my spine. Every instinct inside me screamed for me to run.
From the absolute darkness of the forest, a silhouette emerged.
The tribe leader.
Its appearance was grotesque. Fused, deformed eyes. Thick muscles pulsing unnaturally beneath dark scarred skin. Massive teeth sharpened like serrated blades.
It stood around three and a half meters tall.
But to me, in that moment…
It looked colossal.
The creature's aura was utterly suffocating.
A deep, bubbling voice echoed through the silent forest.
"What is a human doing here?"
The monsters around us began to laugh, a disgusting guttural sound that scraped against my ears.
"It's been a very long time since I've seen one of your species on this planet!" the leader grinned monstrously, saliva dripping from its teeth.
"Human flesh… is my race's favorite flavor."
My entire body tensed.
"The moment I caught your scent, I crossed this entire world to find you," its eyes gleamed through the darkness.
"And now… we finally stand face to face. So tell me…"
The monster spread its arms wide.
"What are you going to do now, little human?"
We stood about a hundred and twenty meters apart.
I took one step forward.
Then another.
And another.
Then I exploded toward him.
My sword was gripped tightly in both hands. Smaller monsters tried to block my path, breaking formation.
I dodged every strike.
Cut one down.
Then another.
And another.
I kept advancing without stopping.
Without slowing down.
Until finally, I stood before him.
My heart felt like it was about to tear through my chest. My breathing burned.
But I couldn't hesitate.
There he was.
Three and a half meters of pure terror.
The monster attacked first.
A heavy strike.
Violent.
Perfect.
I slid beneath the attack, feeling the wind of his blade scrape across my hair, and passed between the creature's legs. I leapt onto its back. The instant my sword aligned with the exposed neck of the monster, I attacked with every ounce of strength and killing intent I possessed.
My goal was simple.
Rip its head off.
But then something impossible happened.
The monster's neck cracked and rotated completely.
Three hundred and sixty degrees.
The creature looked directly into my eyes in the middle of my attack—
And started laughing.
"You're far too naive! HAHAHAHA!"
My eyes widened in shock. My blade, which should have sliced through its neck, was now heading directly into the creature's open mouth.
And then—
CRACK.
It bit down on the sword.
The steel shattered into dozens of fragments. One shard sliced across my face.
Everything slowed down.
The pieces of metal flying through the air.
My complete shock.
The monster's horrifying victorious grin.
Then it retaliated.
Still midair, the creature swung a massive arm and drove a brutal punch directly into my stomach.
I spat blood instantly.
The impact launched me like a meteor through the forest. I smashed through thick branches. Shattered rocks. Until I finally crashed violently into the trunk of a gigantic tree.
The sound of my ribs breaking echoed sickeningly inside my own ears.
I tried moving my legs to stand.
But they didn't move.
No response.
I blinked blood away from my eyes and forced myself to look down.
My stomach twisted immediately.
The bone in my right leg had ripped through skin and muscle, piercing through my calf and pointing into the cold night air.
My left leg was twisted into a brutal, grotesque angle.
I tried to breathe, gasping desperately through the agony.
But the pain was so absolute that my lungs could no longer fill.
Oxygen stopped coming.
The monster's laughter became muffled.
My breathing slowed.
Slower.
Shallower.
Until, with one final broken breath, my mind gave out—
And everything became perfectly dark.
I felt myself falling into a black ocean, sinking endlessly.
Where… am I?
My body felt as though it were drowning inside a silent void.
Everything was cold.
Heavy.
Distant.
I couldn't move.
My eyes slowly began to close, as though my very existence were fading away.
Then I heard a voice.
Very far away.
"Suki…"
Again.
"Suki…"
I slowly opened my eyes.
I was standing in the courtyard of my village. Children ran from side to side. My friends shouted and laughed as we played together.
It was a normal day.
A happy day.
Then I heard her voice clearly.
"Suki! Suki!"
I turned immediately.
My mother stood near the entrance of the courtyard.
She was a tall woman with striking beauty, her warm brown skin contrasting softly against her long chestnut hair that fell in rustic, well-kept waves down her back.
At that moment, she wore simple practical clothing made of raw cotton in moss-green tones, along with a long dark skirt that allowed easy movement.
A reddish cloth belt was tied around her waist, and she carried a wicker basket filled with eggs and household tools, as though she had just been tending to chores.
Her face, though gentle and warm with a soft smile, carried the same depth and seriousness I saw in my own reflection.
I smiled without realizing it and ran toward her, hugging her tightly.
But now, looking at that memory again…
I noticed something I had never realized as a child.
My mother was absurdly different from everyone else in Safe Haven.
Even dressed in simple peasant clothes she had sewn herself…
She looked imposing.
Majestic.
Far too young to be someone's mother.
Almost like an older sister.
"Didn't I tell you to come home by lunchtime?" she asked, her tone serious despite the smile on her lips.
"Sorry! I lost track of time!" I laughed.
And then I noticed something else.
The people around us stared at her from afar.
With fear.
With disgust.
As though she were a monster wearing human skin.
Back then, I didn't understand the twisted looks from the neighbors.
Now…
Maybe I was beginning to.
"Mom, what's for lunch today?"
She smiled warmly.
"Something you love."
The scene shifted.
Now we were home. My father sat at the table.
He was a broad-shouldered man with strong arms shaped by years of hard work at the lumberyard. His dark spiked hair looked almost identical to mine, though streaked with early gray near the sides.
A short trimmed beard framed his firm jaw. Despite the imposing build of a laborer, his brown eyes were incredibly warm, lined with wrinkles born from years spent smiling at us.
At that moment, he wore a simple linen shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, revealing the large calloused hands that, in my memory, always smelled like iron and wood.
He was clearly much older than my mother.
We laughed.
Talked.
Looked like a perfectly normal family.
And then I looked at myself.
At the Suki from one year ago.
So much had changed in such little time.
The boy sitting at that polished wooden kitchen table was only a rough draft of the man I had become.
The face was the same face I now saw in the mirror, but softer. Less defined. Untouched by the shadow of pain and fierce determination time had carved into me.
His brown eyes were large and expressive, but clean. Free of battle instinct.
Maybe even a little dreamy as he listened to his parents.
The messy black hair was identical, but softer somehow. Less wild.
The biggest difference, however, was his body.
He looked visibly smaller.
Slimmer.
The arms that were now forged through merciless training had once been thin and smooth, lacking any real muscle.
The same large hands rested lazily on the table, their joints soft and unscarred, untouched by calluses and violence.
He wore the same white shirt and dark shorts I always used to wear, though they hung loosely over his undeveloped body.
The dark red belt sat slack around his waist.
He leaned slightly forward while listening, a shy innocent smile playing across his lips.
It was the portrait of innocence stolen by disaster.
A version of me I would never get back.
And for a few seconds…
I felt peace again.
But then—
That peace shattered.
"Wake up."
The voice whispered directly beside my right ear.
My heart jolted violently.
I turned sharply in shock.
There she was.
My mother.
Standing right beside me.
Even after all the physical growth from my brutal year of training, she still felt colossal compared to me.
A majestic presence that consumed the entire room.
"Mom…?" I stammered, my legs trembling.
She looked me up and down.
Emotion tore through my throat like broken glass.
"MOM?!"
Before my desperate scream could echo through the house, a large warm hand covered my mouth abruptly.
"Don't shout at your mother, boy," she scolded softly.
My trembling hands grabbed her wrist.
My heart skipped a beat.
She was solid.
Warm.
Real flesh and bone.
I glanced toward the table.
The image of my father and younger self flickered silently like smoke, ignoring our existence.
But she…
She was truly there.
The tears burst out uncontrollably.
I couldn't stop myself.
I threw my arms around her with all the strength I had left, burying my face against her clothes.
I cried like the terrified child I had been the day I lost her.
She hugged me back, wrapping me in a warmth I thought had turned to ashes forever.
We stayed like that for what felt like eternity.
Until she gently let go and pointed toward a wooden chair beside the table.
Hesitantly, I touched the backrest.
It was real.
I sat down, my chest still shaking from sobs.
There we were.
Me and my real mother.
Talking inside my own subconscious.
"Suki," she began, her voice calm but filled with urgency.
"I don't have much time here. You're going to wake up soon, but we need to have this conversation."
She looked around the false village with melancholy in her eyes.
"For a very long time, I hid myself. And that choice affected you. Affected all of us."
She gestured toward the illusion of my father laughing at the table.
"I wasn't always a good person, Suki. And I need you to understand that."
"Mom… what are you talking about?" I asked, wiping my face.
She sighed.
A heavy ancient sound.
"Suki… I am a goddess."
The world stopped.
Every loose piece inside my head finally crashed together.
Her impossibly young appearance.
Her unnatural beauty.
The hatred of the Supreme Queen.
The "cursed blood."
The divine lineage Silver refused to speak about.
"I know. I should have told you before," she continued quietly. "But I didn't want to expose you to that reality. You need to understand, Suki… the world of the gods can be full of wonders."
Her hands tightened together.
"But it can also be unbelievably cruel."
"When they found me that day, I couldn't stay and fight. If I had, everything would have been destroyed. So I ran."
Her voice trembled.
"But by doing that… I left the most important thing in my life behind."
"You."
The air vanished from my lungs.
She ran?
She left me?
"That's why I wanted this conversation as soon as possible," she whispered, tears gathering in her eyes.
The pain of that revelation mixed with the desperate need to be loved by her again.
I broke down crying even harder.
"WHERE ARE YOU?!" I shouted, standing abruptly.
"I WANT TO STAY WITH YOU EVEN LIKE THIS! PLEASE TELL ME!"
She looked at me—
And suddenly the world trembled.
The edges of the house and village began fading away. Darkness started devouring the kitchen.
I was waking up.
She stood quickly and grabbed my shoulders with immense strength.
"Suki, listen carefully! No matter what happens… always stay on Lavinsk's side! They are good people, and they will take care of you!"
Lavinsk?
But the Queen tried to kill me!
"No, no, no!" I struggled against her grip. "I want to stay with you! Tell me where you are!"
A single tear rolled down my mother's majestic face.
"You will find me soon, Suki," she whispered, her form beginning to dissolve into darkness.
"Until then…"
Her hand touched my face one last time.
"Become stronger."
Then her expression softened.
"And until then… be kind."
Everything disappeared.
The ground vanished beneath my feet.
I was swallowed by a freezing black abyss.
But I wasn't sinking anymore.
I was rising.
And from the depths of that darkness, her voice echoed through my mind.
Powerful.
Absolute.
"Rise, Suki."
"You have finally awakened."
My eyes snapped open.
I was back inside my body.
The dark, foul-smelling forest returned around me.
But something was fundamentally different.
The pain was completely gone.
My body felt light as air.
My breathing flowed perfectly.
A volcanic energy surged through every vein in my body.
So this is what she meant…
I slowly raised my blood-covered hands.
This is awakening?
I stood up without the slightest effort.
My broken ribs no longer hurt.
They were healed.
The tribe leader was already walking away laughing with the others while ordering some of them to retrieve my body.
Then I shouted:
"HEY, YOU BASTARD! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!"
The creature turned around, laughing again.
"Well, look who woke up! Even as useless human trash, you survived my attack!"
But this time…
I didn't feel even a trace of fear.
In fact—
I felt the exact opposite.
I walked slowly toward him.
I no longer needed to run.
I could see every tiny detail in the creature's movements.
Every breath.
Every muscle contraction.
Every drop of killing intent.
The monster roared and charged at me with all its strength. Its left fist pulsed with a bizarre energy. The wind pressure from the punch was so powerful it began tearing the ground apart before the attack even reached me.
But everything felt slow.
Ridiculously slow.
So I simply stepped to the right.
The world returned to normal speed.
BOOOOOOM.
The creature's fist struck the ground, opening a gigantic crater. Entire trees were ripped from the earth by the shockwave.
The monster's eyes widened in pure shock when it realized it had hit nothing but air.
I stared down at him calmly from the edge of the crater.
"Sorry," I said coldly, almost emotionless.
"But I'm not the same anymore."
Even my thoughts had changed.
The battle that once felt like a desperate struggle for survival…
Now felt laughably simple.
At that exact moment—
I stopped being human.
The monster roared, confusion turning into blind rage. It ripped its fist from the ground and spun its entire body, sweeping the air with its other hand to crush me like an insect.
I didn't retreat.
I didn't dodge.
I simply raised my left arm.
The creature's massive hand slammed into my forearm.
BOOM.
The shockwave shattered stones behind me and launched a wall of dust into the air, but my feet didn't move an inch.
The ground beneath me cracked—
But I did not retreat.
"W-What…?" the creature stammered.
"You're too slow," I murmured.
Before it could pull its hand back, I grabbed its index finger, which was thicker than my entire arm.
With one cold violent motion, I twisted.
The sound of tendons snapping and bones shattering echoed through the forest. The monster released a scream of pure agony as its entire hand bent into an impossible angle.
Desperate, it tried retaliating with the rusted sword lying nearby.
But I was already gone.
I vanished from its sight and reappeared in the air beside its grotesque face.
I spun my body and drove a kick directly into the monster's jaw.
The sound of giant teeth breaking sliced through the night. The leader's head snapped backward as black blood and fragments of bone sprayed into the mud.
Only then did true panic distort the creature's face.
Impossible… what is this aura…?!
Its yellow eyes trembled with pure terror.
It had finally understood.
I wasn't the prey anymore.
Without hesitation, I sprinted up the creature's outstretched arm. The limb was as thick as a tree trunk.
I launched myself into the air—
And concentrated every ounce of hatred and trauma I had accumulated over the last year into a single strike.
My fist crashed down onto its head.
The impact was monstrous.
The creature's skull collapsed inward beneath my hand, crushing down into its own chest and obliterating its neck.
The shockwave from the blow destroyed the surrounding trees and split the ground into dozens of deep fractures.
Silence.
The giant body fell backward.
And never moved again.
That was my first true victory.
The victory of a real demigod.
The remaining monsters roared in fury.
They charged all at once, blinded by rage.
And I destroyed every single one of them.
One by one.
With my bare hands.
Black blood flooded the battlefield, covering my entire body. The smell of iron and decay consumed the cold dawn air.
Then—
After a while—
A brilliant light appeared in the sky.
Silver.
He slowly descended, floating down before the massacre I had created.
And began clapping slowly.
"Incredible," he said, a smile of pure satisfaction spreading across his face. "You've finally stopped being an ordinary human."
I looked down at my own hands, still breathing heavily.
"What happened to me?"
Silver crossed his arms.
"Your power was asleep this entire time. Any god would've seen it."
His smile widened.
"You simply forced it to awaken."
Silver stepped closer.
"Never forget whose child you are."
I lowered my eyes silently.
It was true.
I was no longer the same Suki from that village.
Silver continued:
"There's still one full year left before the tournament. I assumed your awakening would happen inside Lavinsk's arena."
He glanced sideways at the giant corpse lying in the crater.
"But this creature accelerated the process."
Then his green eyes darkened again, returning to that lethal seriousness.
"From this moment onward, the training will become worse."
A chill ran down my spine instantly.
Silver smiled.
A lethal smile.
"I'm going to start treating you the same way I treat Laura, Arthur, and Alice."
His divine pressure exploded around us, crushing the air itself.
"Like a god."