Endless Ascension
Episode 2 – Blood in the Void
The Chainsaw Behemoth's head still twitches in the sand.
Steam curls from the split in his chest where my throwing stars detonated, his metal ribs warped like melted armor. The crowd hasn't moved — frozen in that half-second after shock, when disbelief hasn't yet turned into fear.
Then the gates open.
Not one gate.
All of them.
⸻
The Ambush
I feel them before I see them. The air distorts, the space around me thickening with killing intent.
Three different groups step through:
1. The Hollow Fangs — feral vampires with ash-pale skin and jagged black claws, their eyes glowing crimson.
2. The Bonehounds — towering werewolves with skeletal plating fused into their muscles, their teeth filed to steel points.
3. The Iron Order — cybernetic assassins armed with bladed limbs and rifles that hum with antimatter charges.
The announcer doesn't even try to speak. The crowd knows what this is — not a match. An execution.
⸻
One of the vampires grins, fangs slick with saliva.
"You should've died in your first fight, little experiment. Now you die screaming."
I roll the throwing stars in my hands. Their edges still glow from my last kill, the runes pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat.
"You're welcome to try."
Fight One – The Hollow Fangs
The vampires rush me first — six of them in a blur of shredded black coats. They move like lightning, their claws aimed for my throat and spine.
The first gets a star between the eyes — the rune flares, his head pops like rotten fruit. I'm already moving, low and fast, sliding under a slash and burying the other star into a second vampire's gut.
I twist it. Detonate it.
BOOM — half his torso vaporizes, showering his kin in gore.
Two more leap at me from behind. I spin, both stars in my grip now, slashing in wide arcs. Their heads roll before they hit the sand.
The last tries to run. I hurl a star — it whirs through the air, slices his spine, and curves back to my hand like it was always meant to return.
[Level Up] → LVL 11 → LVL 16] (+5 levels)
*[Weapon Upgrade] → Tier 3 Visual Mod — Returning Flight Unlocked]
The stars hum louder, their edges now etched with burning glyphs that shift and rearrange as if alive.
Fight Two – The Bonehounds
The werewolves howl — a deep, bone-rattling sound that shakes the sand beneath me. Three of them charge, claws dragging sparks off the steel walls.
One swings at my chest. I leap straight up, flipping over him, and drive both stars down into his skull on the way past. The runes blaze white, the detonation sending a spray of bone shards into his packmates' faces.
The second lunges — I sidestep, catch his jaw, and slam a star through the roof of his mouth. The blast takes his head clean off.
The third barrels into me full force, slamming me into the wall hard enough to dent it. My ribs ache — good. Pain sharpens the kill. I jam a star under his chin and ignite. His body drops like a sack of meat.
[Level Up] → LVL 16 → LVL 21] (+5 levels)
*[Skill Unlocked] → Rune Bind: Stars can cling to a target before detonation for increased damage.]
Fight Three – The Iron Order
The cybernetic assassins don't howl or roar — they move.
Fast. Silent. Perfect.
Blades flash in the light as they circle me, their rifles snapping into place.
I dive into them, a blur of bronze light and white flame. One rifle arm comes up — my star slices it clean off, the returning curve catching the second assassin across the throat. Blood and oil spray in twin arcs.
Another leaps over me — I fling both stars upward, embedding them in his torso. The glyphs shift, glowing hotter, and this time when I ignite them the explosion rips him into dust.
The last two close in from opposite sides. I dash toward the first, my demon side flooding my muscles with raw speed. I vault over him, land behind, and kick him into the second. The collision is messy — ribs and wires snapping like twigs.
Both stars leave my hands in the same breath — a spinning cross of death — and when they return, the assassins are in pieces.
[Level Up] → LVL 21 → LVL 26] (+5 levels)
*[Weapon Upgrade] → Tier 4 Visual Mod — Twin Energy Trails]
Now, every throw leaves a searing trail of light in the air, each arc burning like a meteor across the void.
The Silence After
The sand is soaked black and red.
The air reeks of copper, oil, and ozone.
Above me, the crowd doesn't cheer. They stare. Every god, monster, and hunter who felt my awakening in the last fight feels it stronger now. I'm climbing too fast. I shouldn't exist.
From the shadowed stands, a voice carries — deep, old, dripping with authority:
"He cannot be allowed to reach the higher worlds."
I smile without looking up.
"Then send more."
I spin my throwing stars once, the twin trails of light painting the dark above me. This is just the beginning.
I will never stop climbing.
And I will kill every last one of them before they kill me.