Light and color rushed past them, and then Yamamoto's feet hit solid ground. He stood on a platform hanging in the middle of an impossible space. Above them floated a fortress—steel and stone defying gravity like it was a suggestion, not a law.
"Welcome to Evankhell's Floor," Yuri said, waving at the structure. "Also called the Floor of Tests. Officially, this is where Regulars prove they're good enough to keep climbing. Unofficially..." Her smile went sharp. "This is where they kill off anyone too dangerous."
Yamamoto scanned the area. Their platform was one of hundreds floating in the air, connected by bridges made of light. In the distance, he could see other people—climbers like him, except they'd been chosen instead of choosing themselves.
"Irregulars," he said.
"Bingo." Yuri leaned on the railing. "After a couple Irregulars went crazy on the upper floors—Phantaminum, Urek Mazino—the Tower decided it needed a way to deal with new ones before they got too strong." She pointed at the fortress. "So, Evankhell's Hell. Brutal tests. Most people die."
"And you still came."
"Because I want to see what happens when they try to stop you." Yuri's grin had teeth. "Call it curiosity."
Evan floated nearby, looking like he wanted to be anywhere else. "Princess, Evankhell is not going to be happy about this—"
A bell rang out, deep and loud, cutting him off.
"Attention, Regulars." The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. "First test begins in sixty seconds. Get to the assembly hall. Show up late, you're out."
The platforms exploded into movement. People ran for the bridges, shoving each other, desperate. Yamamoto watched one Regular push another right off the edge, sending them screaming into empty space.
"Pathetic," he muttered.
"That's the Tower." Yuri pushed off the railing. "Survive or die. Come on, we should—"
Yamamoto was already moving. Not running—just walking at his normal pace toward the nearest bridge. His spiritual pressure leaked out, just a bit, but enough. As he passed other Regulars, they stumbled away from him, some falling over themselves to get out of his path.
"Or we could just do that," Yuri said, sounding amused as she followed.
They made it to the assembly hall with time to spare. The place was huge—carved into the floating fortress, big enough for thousands of people. It was already packed with Regulars: humans, weird alien-looking things, all of them looking somewhere between determined and terrified.
Yamamoto found a spot by the wall. Yuri stood next to him, ignoring the stares—people looking at her because she was a Princess, at him because of the pressure rolling off him that he couldn't quite hide.
A guy appeared at the front of the hall. Tall, thin, slicked-back black hair, glasses catching the light. He wore a suit and moved like someone who knew he was in charge.
"Welcome to floor two," the guy said, his voice reaching every corner easily. "I'm Yu Han Sung, Test Director. Most of you are going to die here. Some will give up. A tiny handful will pass." His smile was friendly and ice-cold at the same time. "Let's start the first test."
The floor moved under their feet.
Walls shot up from the ground, cutting the hall into a giant maze. Yamamoto lost sight of Yuri—they'd separated them on purpose. Made sense. They wouldn't let a High Ranker just walk an Irregular through the tests.
"Rules are simple," Yu Han Sung's voice echoed through the maze. "Get to the center. Thirty minutes. One hundred spots available. Five hundred of you right now. Do the math."
Right away, the Shinsu in the air went crazy. Yamamoto could feel attacks going off in other parts of the maze—people killing each other before the race even really started.
Smart, part of him thought. Brutal, but smart.
He started walking.
The first attack came from behind. A blast of Shinsu—messy but strong enough to break stone. Yamamoto didn't turn around. He raised one hand, and the Shinsu around him responded. The attack hit a wall of heat and just... stopped.
The attacker—some lizard thing with four arms—stumbled back, looking confused. "What—how did—"
Yamamoto turned. Their eyes met. The lizard froze.
"You tried to kill me from behind," Yamamoto said quietly. "Coward." He held out his hand, palm forward. "Ashes."
A beam of superheated Shinsu shot from his palm. Not the massive fire he'd used on the eel—that would trash the whole structure—but focused, controlled, lethal. The beam went straight through the lizard's chest, burning so hot it sealed the wound as it killed.
The body hit the ground. Yamamoto kept walking.
Seven more people tried to kill him over the next ten minutes. Most attacked from hiding, saw an old guy and figured he'd be easy. One used poison. Another hit him with some kind of sound attack. Two worked together, tried to trap him between Shinsu blasts.
Yamamoto killed all of them the same way he'd fought for a thousand years—fast, efficient, no wasted movement. These weren't soldiers. They were kids playing warrior, never been tested, never been disciplined. Their techniques were garbage, their tactics obvious, their will weak.
He reached the center in twelve minutes.
The center was a big circular room. A few dozen people had already made it—the fast ones, the strong ones, the smart ones who'd avoided fighting. They watched each other nervously. Only a hundred could pass.
Yamamoto took a spot by the wall and waited.
More people came in. Fifteen minutes. Twenty. Twenty-five. The count went past sixty, then seventy, then eighty.
At twenty-eight minutes, a familiar face walked through one of the entrances.
Yuri looked perfect—not a hair out of place. She spotted Yamamoto and walked over, ignoring the whispers.
"Good time," she said.
"You were slow," he said back.
"Had to be fair to the others." She looked around at the crowd. "Looks like about ninety. A few won't make it."
She was right. The last two minutes only brought seven more. When the bell rang to end the time, they had ninety-seven.
Yu Han Sung appeared in the center, just popping into existence with some Shinsu trick Yamamoto hadn't learned yet.
"Ninety-seven," the Test Director said. "You're probably thinking we'll let everyone through since you're under a hundred." His smile got wider. "We won't. Second test starts now."
The floor moved again. This time, instead of walls going up, the floor broke apart. Platforms separated, creating a 3D battlefield with floating chunks of stone at different levels.
"Combat test," Yu Han Sung announced. "Random pairs. Winner moves on. Loser's out. You quit or fall off, you're out. You die..." He shrugged. "You're definitely out. Ninety-seven becomes forty-eight. One lucky person gets a free pass."
A hologram popped up, showing the matches. Yamamoto found his name—they must have recorded it during the maze—matched against someone called "Rak Wraithraiser."
He looked for his opponent.
"YOU!" A voice boomed across the arena.
Yamamoto turned. His opponent was dropping onto one of the platforms—a giant alligator thing, easy three meters tall, covered in scales, wearing armor made of bones. It pointed a huge finger at him.
"You are the tiny turtle they give me? Insulting!" The alligator's voice carried everywhere. "I am Rak Wraithraiser, great hunter! You are prey!"
"Prey," Yamamoto said, his voice flat.
"All turtles are prey!" Rak shouted. "Weak, slow, hide in shells! But you—" He squinted. "You have no shell. Easy prey!"
Around them, other fights were starting. Shinsu flashed as people fought for their lives. Yamamoto ignored all of it. His eyes stayed on the creature who'd just called him prey.
"I am Genryusai Yamamoto," he said, his voice cutting through the noise. He took one step forward. "And you just fucked up."
Spiritual pressure exploded out of Yamamoto like a bomb going off.
Rak stumbled back, eyes going wide. The Shinsu around their platform got thick, heavy, burning hot. People on other platforms stopped fighting and turned to stare, feeling the wave of power coming off the old man.
High above in an observation room, Yu Han Sung's pleasant expression cracked.
"What," he said slowly, "is that?"
Next to him, another administrator was checking readings. "Shinsu density around his platform just jumped three hundred percent. Temperature's climbing—forty degrees, fifty, sixty—"
"Shut down the match," Yu Han Sung said.
"Sir?"
"Now! Before he—"
Too late.
"Reduce all creation to ash," Yamamoto said. A wooden staff that hadn't been there a second ago was suddenly in his hand. "Ryujin Jakka."
Fire exploded from the staff in a controlled pillar, aimed not at Rak but at the empty space next to their platform. The flames burned so hot they went white, then blue. The Shinsu itself caught fire, creating a column of flame that shot fifty meters into the air.
Rak was on his knees now, not shouting about prey anymore. His eyes were huge, every hunter instinct he had screaming that he was face to face with something at the top of the food chain.
"Still think I'm prey?" Yamamoto asked.
"N-no." Rak's voice had no confidence left. "No, not prey. Rak... Rak was wrong."
"Good." The flames vanished. The staff disappeared. The temperature dropped back to normal. Yamamoto turned to face where he knew Yu Han Sung was watching. "This test is a joke. I'm not wasting my time fighting kids."
He pushed Shinsu into his voice—a trick he'd figured out in minutes—and it carried to every corner of the arena.
"I opened the Tower's doors myself." He let that hang for a second. "Test me if you want. Try to stop me. But don't insult me with this arena bullshit."
The whole place went dead silent.
Then someone started clapping. Slow, deliberate claps from above.
A new person descended—a woman covered in flames, radiating heat that matched Yamamoto's own. She was tall, dark-skinned, with wild fiery hair. Her eyes looked old, like she'd lived for centuries, and when she smiled, it was the smile of someone who lived for the fight.
"Now this," the woman said, "is interesting. I'm Evankhell, Floor Ruler. And you, Irregular, have got my full attention."
Yamamoto met her eyes straight on. "Then give me a real test. Or let me through. I don't have time for games."
Evankhell's grin got bigger. Fire started swirling around her—not Shinsu manipulation like what Yamamoto was doing, but something deeper. Like her Shinsu itself had become fire.
"Oh, I'll test you," she said. "But not here. Not with these weaklings watching." She waved, and a portal opened behind her. "Come on. Let's see what you've got."
Yuri appeared next to Yamamoto. "You don't have to do this. She's Top 100. Fighting her when you're—"
"I'm just me," Yamamoto cut her off. He started walking toward the portal.
"This is going to be either amazing or a disaster," Yuri muttered, following him.
"Why not both?" Evan said weakly.
Yamamoto walked through the portal, leaving behind a room full of stunned people.
The real fight was about to start.