The cave mouth was a jagged throat, exhaling a frost so absolute it turned the surrounding pine needles into brittle glass.
Kenjiro adjusted the silver band holding his hair. The weight of his red hood felt heavy, a deliberate contrast against the grey mist of the mountain. He gripped the hilt of the sword he'd claimed from the fire caves—the metal was warm, humming with a faint, internal heat that countered the biting air.
"What's that sound?" Kenjiro muttered. It wasn't a roar. It was a rhythmic, metallic scrape, like a wet whetstone against a blade the size of a pine tree.
The Warden materialized to his left. The mask caught the dying mountain light.
"Relax," the Warden said. "You've done this before."
"The first extraction nearly tore my arm off," Kenjiro replied, his thumb tracing the pommel. "This glacier beast won't be looking for a conversation."
He pulled the hood over his red hair. He didn't look back. Every step into the dark was a deliberate choice to leave the boy behind. The cold bit into his shins, the damp stone under his boots slick with black ice.
[ System Alert: High-Rank Biological Signature Detected ]
[ Zone: Glacial Sepulcher of the First Kings ]
[ Threat Level: Unknown ]
"Whatever it is," Kenjiro said, the air blooming into white plumes before his face.
"I want it."
He walked straight. The darkness was a wall. He raised his right hand, the palm facing the ceiling. Mana began to pool there, not as smoke, but as a dense, vibrating sphere of cerulean light.
"Void Pulse: Solar Flare."
The light didn't just shine; it detonated. A wave of brilliant, piercing blue light washed over the stone, eating the shadows. The cave didn't look like a cave anymore. It was a cathedral of carved obsidian, supported by massive, fluted pillars that had been etched with the histories of a forgotten age. This was a temple of the ancestors, buried in the gut of the mountain.
The light dimmed, settling into a low, predatory hum.
Ahead, the hall branched. Five arched tunnels, each like a yawning mouth, waited in the silence.
[ System Quest Triggered: The Five Veins of the Abyss ]
[ Objective: Eliminate all five Guardian Entities ]
[ Constraint: Internal Lock Initialized. Exit denied until total subjugation. ]
[ Reward: Level 10 Milestone / Soul Memory Fragment ]
Kenjiro didn't flinch. He drew the mythic blade, the steel reflecting the blue tracers on his skin. "I need my memory. I'm tired of being a ghost in my own head."
He took the first path on the far left.
The air changed instantly. It wasn't cold anymore; it was thick, tasting of copper and sulfur. A dense, grey smoke hung in the air, swirling around his ankles like live snakes. He flicked his index finger, a small candle-like flame of blue mana sparking at the tip. It didn't pierce the smoke; it only revealed how deep it went.
Hsssss-shhh. Hsssss-shhh.
The sound was a wet, heavy snore. It made the soot on the walls vibrate.
[ Warning: Sentinel of the First Path Identified ]
[ Name: Kusanagi-no-Orochi (Lesser Aspect) ]
[ Type: Fulgur-Electric Serpent ]
[ Status: Hibernating (Sensing Intruder) ]
Kenjiro's boots stopped. The smoke parted for a fraction of a second, revealing a pavement made of polished white marble. Coiled atop it was a nightmare of scales. The serpent was black as oil, its skin covered in jagged, obsidian spikes that looked like they had been forged, not grown. Blue static danced between the scales, the sound of tiny, snapping lightning bolts filling the silence.
In the center of the serpent's massive coils sat a golden skeleton. It was cross-legged, perfectly preserved, its empty sockets staring at the ceiling. In its open palms rested a spirit arrow—a shard of white light that didn't flicker.
Kenjiro's heart hammered a single, heavy beat. The mark on his wrist burned. He recognized the shape of the bones. He knew the weight of that arrow.
"General Hidetada," Kenjiro whispered. The name felt like a piece of glass in his throat.
The serpent's snout twitched. A long, forked tongue flickered out, tasting the air for the scent of sweat and hot blood.
"I see," Kenjiro said.
He shifted his weight. He planted his back foot, the stone beneath his heel cracking under the sudden application of mana.
The serpent's eyes snapped open. They were pits of burning, iridescent red. It didn't uncoil; it exploded upward. The black scales rattled like a thousand knives being drawn at once. Blue electricity surged across its hide, illuminating the smoke-filled hall in strobes of violent light. It rose twenty feet into the air, its hood spreading wide, the design spikes on its neck humming with lethal voltage.
The killing intent hit Kenjiro like a physical blow. Most six-year-olds would have been paralyzed, their hearts stopping from the sheer atmospheric pressure of the beast's mana.
Kenjiro didn't blink. He felt the heat in the back of his neck. He felt the cold authority of the Mortal King beginning to bleed through the cracks of his young mind. He gripped the hilt of his sword, his knuckles white, and allowed a slow, jagged smile to spread across his face.
"Electric," Kenjiro murmured, the emerald fire in his eyes igniting. "This should be fun."
The serpent lunged, a bolt of black lightning aimed at his throat.
The serpent didn't strike with its mouth. It struck with the air itself.
As the beast lunged, the blue static coating its scales discharged. A jagged arc of electricity tore through the smoke, ionizing the oxygen. Kenjiro's hair stood on end. He didn't retreat. He stepped into the path of the bolt, his body low, his center of gravity shifting to his back heel.
"Void Step: Frictionless."
He didn't move fast; he simply ceased to occupy the space where the lightning landed. The bolt hit the white marble, liquefying the stone into a glass crater.
Kenjiro reappeared three inches from the serpent's midsection. He swung the red mythic blade in a compact, horizontal arc.
The steel met the obsidian scales. The sound was a screeching, metallic groan. Sparks showered Kenjiro's hood, but the blade bit deep, carving a jagged red line across the serpent's flank. Blue ichor, thick and smelling of scorched metal, sprayed across the floor.
The serpent shrieked—a high-frequency vibration that rattled Kenjiro's teeth. It whipped its tail around, a massive coil of muscle and spikes intended to crush his ribs.
Kenjiro jumped. He didn't use mana to fly; he used the momentum of the serpent's own move, planting a boot on the moving tail and launching himself toward the ceiling. In mid-air, he inverted his grip on the sword.
"Severing Thread."
He descended like a stone. The blade caught the serpent's hood, tearing a vertical rent through the designed spikes. The beast thrashed, its massive head slamming against the fluted pillars of the hall. Dust and black stone rained down.
The serpent was frantic now. It coiled its body, the electricity on its hide turning from blue to a violent, blinding white. It opened its jaws, and a sphere of concentrated plasma began to form in its throat. The heat was immense, charring the smoke into ash.
Kenjiro landed softly on the marble. He didn't raise his sword. He let it hang by his side, his fingers loose around the hilt. He watched the plasma sphere grow, the light reflecting in his emerald eyes.
"Is that all?" Kenjiro asked. The words were quiet, lost in the roar of the building energy.
The serpent fired.
The plasma beam was a solid pillar of destruction. It erased the air in its path.
Kenjiro didn't dodge. He raised his left hand, the thumb and middle finger touching.
"Nirvana."
The word was a soft exhale.
The world didn't explode. It vanished.
The serpent felt the floor beneath its coils disappear. The smell of copper and smoke was gone, replaced by a vacuum of absolute, silent white. The beast found itself in a dimension with no pillars, no gold skeletons, and no exit.
The serpent froze. Its red eyes darted around, searching for a shadow to hide in, but there were no shadows here. There was only Kenjiro, standing twenty paces away. He looked smaller here, yet the pressure coming off him was heavy enough to crack the serpent's scales.
The beast tried to lunge, but its muscles refused to obey. It began to slither backward, a primal terror overriding its hunger. It wanted to escape, but the white space had no corners.
Kenjiro walked forward. His boots made no sound on the non-existent floor. He stopped and looked at the serpent's massive, trembling head.
"Atom," Kenjiro whispered.
The white space began to contract.
It didn't happen slowly. The horizon rushed inward at a terminal velocity. The serpent felt the very molecules of its body being squeezed. The obsidian scales began to pop and shatter. The blue electricity was forced back into its own skin. The beast tried to roar, but its throat was already collapsing.
Then came the flash.
A silent, blinding white explosion of pure pressure.
Kenjiro stood back in the first path of the temple.
The smoke was gone. The white marble floor was stained a dark, bruised blue. From the ceiling, chunks of black meat and shattered scales began to rain down, hitting the ground with wet, heavy thuds. The serpent didn't exist anymore; it was merely debris falling through the cold air.
Kenjiro wiped a drop of blue ichor from his cheek. He didn't look at the mess. He walked toward the center of the hall, where the golden skeleton remained untouched.
He reached down and picked up the Spirit Arrow. It was light, vibrating with a frequency that made his soul-mark pulse in a steady, green rhythm.
[ System Alert: First Guardian Subjugated ]
[ Level Up! ]
[ Level Up! ]
[ Current Level: 11 ]
[ Reward: Soul Memory Fragment - 'The General's Vow' ]
Kenjiro closed his eyes as a flash of memory hit him—a man in armor kneeling before a throne, a promise of eternal protection. The fragment settled into the back of his mind like a cold stone.
[ Warning: Four Veins Remaining ]
[ The Glacial Sepulcher Boss: 'The Frost-Bound Monarch' has sensed the death of the Sentinel. ]
[ Difficulty Level has been Adjusted to: Calamity ]
The temple groaned. Far deeper in the mountain, something massive shifted, the sound of ice cracking like a gunshot echoing through the halls.
Kenjiro tucked the Spirit Arrow into his belt and turned toward the second archway. The air coming from the next path smelled of old bone and stagnant water.
"Let him wake up," Kenjiro said, his voice echoing in the empty hall. "I'm in a hurry."
He stepped into the second path, the darkness swallowing his red hood as the ground beneath his feet began to freeze over once more.