He didn't know where he was. Hell, he didn't even know who he was at that moment.

His mind had been completely shattered, and in that process his very sense of existence, his very self was swallowed by whatever things he had seen.

At that moment, he saw emptiness. He felt emptiness. And he almost loved that emptiness. Except that before the situation could reach that point, the Will restored his mind.

Gasps.

Kaden gasped, his eyes wide in shock and horror as he recalled what he had just lived. No, he didn't even dare to recall it by instinctive fear of succumbing to that feeling of emptiness.

His breathing came out hard, as if a rock was blocking his lungs from doing their job properly.

His eyes were hazy for a moment, he blinked, and it became clear.

He looked beneath him and saw he was kneeling on a body. A dead body, to be exact.

He immediately remembered what had happened before his mind collapsed.

'Evolution quest… I am in my evolution quest…' Kaden realized as he shifted his head to look more closely at the place he was.

He looked above him. But he saw nothing. There was no sky to speak of, just empty black space with white lines all over.

The same lines he had seen before.

It looked like someone had tried to escape by slashing the sky.

All around him, there was nothing.

He was kneeling on a cluster of rock flattened to look like a plate…outside of it, there was only void. The rocky surface was littered with corpses.

They were corpses of humans, of elves, of dwarves, of beasts too monstrous to even describe.

Kaden even thought he saw the corpse of a dragon, its chest ripped open and where the heart was supposed to be, empty.

He shuddered.

The ground was littered with those same corpses, added to that with their blood, their organs, their entrails…

All of that was spilled on the ground, looking like a painting made to capture the very futility of life. To show how life was meaningless and how death was absolute.

From the weakest and most pathetic human to the legendary, prideful dragon — all of them faced the same fate… the same bloody deaths.

What difference between them then?

What made some the pinnacle of existence and others crable that will die with a simple snort?

Kaden started to wonder but he stopped his thoughts abruptly.

Because in this domain of death, in this place where death showed how fair and impartial it was… there was one being who stood tall amidst the corpses.

It was no god. It was no Reaper. It was no Harvester.

It was a simple man.

But at that moment, he might as well be a god and Kaden would have believed.

Kaden took a step back at the sight of him. His foot slipped because of the eyeball of one monster and he almost fell. He managed to catch himself thanks to the flexibility of his body.

He looked again at the being who was looking at him.

Kaden had never seen a being with so little body fat. No, it looked like he had none at all. He looked shriveled. That was why his whole body was covered with deep veins that slithered like serpent.

A sword hung at his waist.

His head was framed by white hair and his eyes were black like voids. He wore ragged clothes that seemed fit for a slave, and his ankles…

Kaden paused as he couldn't believe his eyes.

Because there were chains as big and thick as mountains wrapped around both his shriveled ankles. Chains that went and disappeared into the ground as if the whole world was doing all it could to keep him on earth.

To keep him from going anywhere higher.

To keep him from the heavens.

He was chained to remain here, like a…

"Slave…?" Kaden unconsciously muttered. He immediately clapped his mouth in shock.

The man smiled. His smile was weird. Kaden couldn't help but feel some unknown feeling rise inside his heart.

"I am indeed a slave," he said. His voice was weirdly soft, like a grandfather speaking to his grandson.

But Kaden was not fooled.

"I never thought I would one day get a visit," he continued, looking at Kaden with pity.

"You must be talented and lucky enough. But you also must be someone with big potential… enough potential for someone to guide you to your death." he finished, and immediately a sudden presence seemed to swell around them.

Kaden's heartbeat started to get erratic, but this time he neither stepped back. He locked his crimson gaze on the void-like eyes of the Undefeated Slave.

He shuddered, then lowered his gaze.

Instinctively.

He raised it back, but he couldn't stop shaking.

Something inside the man's eyes was too alien for him to stare at. But Kaden was not one to accept defeat.

He parted his lips, "My death?" he started.

"I did not come here to die. I came here to succeed my evolution trial and be a Master," he finished, his voice lacking the intensity and confidence he usually had.

"What's your evolution quest?" the man asked.

"Defeat the Undefeated."

Silence fell for a moment before a humorless chuckle echoed across the space.

"You were indeed sent here to be killed," he said softly, his eyes still looking at him with pity.

He didn't waste any more time as he unsheathed his sword. It was a simple longsword. The blade was pristine white without any blemish like his hair, with the handle black like his eyes — the shape of the handle was a strange one.

It was shaped like an eagle, then a horse, then a wolf, and to finish, a butterfly.

The combination of these four gave birth to something utterly stunning, but Kaden only felt desperation and sadness as he looked at it.

He unleashed Reditha as well, holding it tightly with both hands. He observed the rank of the man and noticed that he was only at Intermediate rank.

Just like him.

But why did he feel like he was facing someone… undefeatable?

"Sloppy stance." A voice startled him as the man was just an inch from him. He slashed his sword downward.

Kaden acted with unimaginable speed, he shifted his stance and blocked.

He was wounded.

"What?" Kaden muttered in surprise as he saw his chest bleeding.

Did he not block the sword?

There was no time to wonder as the man continued to attack.

The ground was littered with corpses, so Kaden had to make sure where to put his feet first.

With his perception it was an easy thing to do. It was not even difficult to follow the movement of the Slave.

But since the start of the duel, Kaden had never managed to block a strike from him.

He was blocking, dodging, parrying. He was even slashing back with the lethality of Reditha, his mind focused on killing him as fast as possible.

But nothing.

His sword seemed to lack something. Something that could make him touch this being.

The Slave's sword seemed to bypass his defenses in one way or another. It was like the blade was inevitable.

It couldn't be dodged.

And it was like his body was off limit.

It could not be hurt.

If you cannot dodge his sword nor hurt his body…

How can you not lose?

"Argh!!!" Kaden let out a grunt of pain as the slave's sword pierced his chest deep inside.

He staggered and fell on his back onto the dried blood of the numerous victims of this man.

His body was filled with wounds, his blood flowing down endlessly. There was something inside his wounds that stopped Reditha from healing him.

He coughed as blood poured out of his mouth.

He was feeling so pathetic. In fact, he had never felt this pathetic.

Never had wounds felt so bad, so painful.

And never had his Will been so bloody weak.

Kaden in front of this slave seemed to have lost everything that made him who he was.

He clenched his fist tightly as he felt life sucked out of him. His vision was bleeding, everything was red.

He was seing crimson.

He glanced at the slave who was looking at him with pity.

There was no arrogance, nor pride inside him.

Just pity.

Kaden hated that.

"D-Don't fucking pity me…!" he spat, feeling anger boiling inside his chest.

"I will beat you! I will kill you!" he continued, glaring at the slave with deep, seething anger.

The slave shook his head. It was not the first time his victims had said things like this. And he told all of them the same thing.

"I cannot be defeated, little man. I cannot be killed. My sword cannot be dodged, and my body cannot be hurt by anything lower than my Will," he chuckled lifelessly.

He crouched down over Kaden and stared at him even more.

"And nothing can attain my Will. Nothing can beat my Will. Even the gods couldn't." he added.

"I am Kaden…" Kaden rasped.

"Do you think you can beat Death?" he asked.

"You have never lost, huh?" Kaden chuckled coldly.

"Perfect. I have been killed many times. But I have never lost, Slave. So let's see what will prevail."

"The fact you cannot be killed. Or the fact I cannot stay dead."

A mad smile appeared on his lips. The man frowned lightly.

"This is the first round."

"Let's start the second, Slave."

[You are dead]

—End of Chapter 234—

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