A/N: Please make sure to give power stones if you liked the story thus far. I am planning to keep the story 100% free. Support will encourage me to continue the story. I mean, what's the point of writing a story if people don't like it? So, if you can, then make sure to give me some support.
INFO -
1. Thoughts are within '__' and in Italic characters.
And conversations are within "__"
2. Please inform me if you find any mistakes. I will quickly solve it,
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The world twisted the moment The Law Maker (Jin) stepped through the portal.
The sensation wasn't falling, but shifting—as if space bent sideways and slid him into another layer of reality. Darkness unfurled like wings, endless and oppressive. But amidst the void, floating stone tiles hovered in scattered formations. Some were cracked, others whole; a few drifted lazily, while others spun like slow gears.
The Law Maker (Jin) landed lightly on one of the tiles—knees bent, eyes already scanning. No gravity beneath, no sky above. Just silence and black infinity.
Then, a voice. Smooth. Distant. Teasing.
"Welcome to the first gate."
The Warden's figure shimmered ahead—across the void, standing smugly on a thin platform of obsidian. His coat flared in a nonexistent breeze, arms folded, chin tilted like a performer basking in his stage.
The Law Maker (Jin) didn't speak.
He moved.
His foot slammed into the tile beneath, sending a shockwave of Ki to propel him forward—onto the next tile, and the next. He darted across the floating platforms like a crimson blur, each step precise, his body angled like a predator lunging through chaos.
The Warden began to run.
Laughing.
Tiles crumbled in their wake, chain reactions igniting as The Law Maker's (Jin) Ki-charged momentum fractured everything he touched. Cracks spiderwebbed across the platforms. Some exploded violently behind him, forcing mid-air shifts and last-second landings.
One tile twisted and spun as he leapt—he landed on its edge, crouched low, re-balanced, and launched again. Another tile shifted away before he could reach it. He dove, flipping mid-air, and landed hard with a palm slap to keep himself from slipping into the black.
"Almost!" the Warden taunted from ahead. "You're getting warmer."
The Law Maker (Jin) gritted his teeth. He's toying with me.
He surged forward. Twenty meters. Ten. The Warden's silhouette was right there—just out of arm's reach. He pushed harder, breaking into a full Ki sprint, eyes narrowed, cloak trailing behind like fire—
And then he reached him.
But his hand passed through the Warden's body like mist.
"No—!"
The Warden's form dispersed into smoke, vanishing as the tile beneath The Law Maker's (Jin) feet lit up with a blood-red sigil—an ancient circle of binding, burning with threads of forgotten Law.
He had one second to react.
Too late.
The tile vanished beneath him.
He plummeted—but there was no air, no velocity, no end.
Then—
Impact.
He landed flat-footed, knees absorbing the force like a shockwave, cloak settling around him.
Beneath his feet stretched a massive chessboard, tiled in alternating slabs of black and white marble. The sheer scale was disorienting—each square nearly ten meters across, stretching out into a space with no walls, no ceiling. Just white mist above and shadows below.
Then, a shift in the sky.
And the Warden returned.
Not as a man this time—but as a giant. Towering over the board like a god, seated on a throne cobbled together from shattered Laws, Ki chains, and twisted metal. His smile curled unnaturally wide as he gestured with both hands, theatrically.
"Let's see if the white side... or the black side gets you first."
He slammed his palms down.
The board shuddered. Pieces moved.
Massive, humanoid chess pieces came to life.
Knights—towering figures mounted on screaming, armor-plated beasts—lurched forward with cracked spears and flickering eyes. Bishops floated like wraiths, humming strange prayers. Rooks rolled forward like shifting fortresses. Pawns, dozens of them, marched in synchronized silence, their blank faces warped and twitching.
The Law Maker (Jin) tensed.
He dashed to the side, leaping to another square as a rook slammed down onto the one he stood on, the ground fracturing from impact. Rubble flew. A pawn turned its head toward him, twitching, and ran with mindless fury. The Law Maker (Jin) sidestepped, pivoted midair, and slammed his palm into its chest—Ki burst—the pawn shattered into chunks.
He landed and looked up.
The other side was moving too.
The white pieces surged. A bishop floated near him, chanting. Light coalesced into a spear—The Law Maker (Jin) ducked low and rolled, barely avoiding the projectile. A white knight screeched as it rode toward him from the opposite side, blade raised.
"Celestial?" The Warden sneered. "Ha ha ha ha ha. No. Just another pawn. For me to play with." His smile widened unnaturally. "Let's see how long you shine before the checkmate dims you out."
The Law Maker (Jin) gritted his teeth and launched skyward with a Ki-propelled jump, avoiding a bishop's cleave by inches. He twisted in midair, kicked off a rook's shoulder, and dove toward a knight—aiming to break the board itself.
But the knight turned fast. Its lance nearly pierced him. The Law Maker (Jin) rotated in the air, channeled power into his heel—
Spinning Heel Kick —direct hit to the knight's head.
The armor dented, cracked—but it didn't fall.
It screamed.
And then—
Every piece turned to face him at once.
All sides. All directions.
The Warden laughed, his voice rising above the madness.
The Law Maker (Jin) stood alone in the center of the board, eyes glowing faintly. The Law within him stirred—barely contained. But beneath the surface, a single thought pulsed like a heartbeat: He was outnumbered. And out of time.
"Checkmate is coming, little Law Maker."
The Law Maker (Jin) stood alone in the center of the board, surrounded by living pieces from both black and white—none his ally.
His eyes glowed faintly.
"So be it."
After what felt like eternity, The Law Maker (Jin) was no longer standing tall. He knelt in the center of the board, chained and restrained—his limbs bound by ethereal shackles forged from fractured Laws, glowing with cursed symbols. The mist that once danced across the battlefield had thickened into fog.
High above, the giant Warden lounged theatrically on his throne of twisted metals and burning sigils, flicking his fingers lazily as he "moved" his final piece.
Then, the world pulsed.
The giant Warden shimmered—and in the blink of an eye, he was before The Law Maker (Jin) in his more human form, crouching just slightly, a grin stretched too wide across his face.
"Wonderful," he said, almost breathless with amusement. "Just wonderful. You know, I haven't had this much fun in... well, a long time."
He paced slowly around The Law Maker (Jin), inspecting him like a craftsman admiring his broken prize.
"Don't you agree, Law Maker?" A pause. Then a faux gasp. "Oh! That's right—your mouth is sealed." He chuckled. "Of course you can't speak."
He let out a snide chuckle. "It's a shame. I was quite looking forward to hearing your final words before I made you mine."
Chains rattled as The Law Maker (Jin) tried to move—but they held fast.
The smile faded. His voice dropped.
"You should be honored. Truly. You truly gave me entertainment that I couldn't get in centuries. Do you know how many so-called Celestials have passed through my gates? Stars of their realm, each one thinking they were different. Untouchable."
Then he continued, "And here you thought you could walk into my domain and rewrite the rules? That you were different? Special?"
He stood upright again, lifting his hand dramatically. "But don't worry, unlike them, you will be turned into my favourite puppet. Which they all failed to achieve."
His fingers curled inward—twisting reality.
Chains flared. The Law writhed.
The Law Maker's (Jin) form shimmered—reduced, in a flash, into a lifeless, jointed puppet. Limbs limp, eyes hollow.
The Warden snapped his fingers once, and the puppet moved in a twitchy mockery of life, jerking in spasms like a marionette without rhythm.
He laughed.
Then he picked up the puppet and said, "Look at you—stripped, silenced, small. A fine addition to my collection."
Then he prepares to leave.
But as he stepped off the board, his foot struck something invisible—an unseen wall. Energy shimmered, and a dull thrum echoed through the void.
The Warden froze.
He reached out again—his fingers struck something unseen. Resistance. Solid.
His expression faltered. "What?"
Then he heard a voice—calm, steady, and strangely familiar.
"Oh yes, Warden. That was quite fun."