A chuckle echoed in the tense, silent grassland. Lev's grip on Stargazer faltered as the primed attack burst out of its blade. Thin and jagged, the painfully shaped slash landed on empty ground, carving a long gouge as it went for dozens of meters.

Just like that.

What had even happened? One moment, his glaive was about to pierce the large eye, and the next, his reality had turned upside down.

He wanted to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it. To be teleported against one's will, especially when all of his willpower was clinging to him like a second skin, was unfathomable to him. The hound hadn't just displayed enough skill to teleport him through his most focused state, but it had also done so effortlessly, crushing his efforts without batting an eye.

Blood pooled in his armor as his body slowly fell apart. Organs were ruptured, one of his eyes only saw a blur, and every bone in his arms and legs had almost turned to dust. Restoration mana struggled to heal any of the damage, as his soul strained at even the smallest mana usage, completely bottomed out, and frayed at the seams.

His fingers twitched still, and Stargazer's haft slowly slid out of his hand. The Superior weapon, one he was so proud of-

No, it isn't even her fault, the thought weakly echoed in his head as the grip closed again, holding her tightly. The events of the past second were slowly setting in as his shoulders dropped, and a single tear flowed down his still-working eye.

So absorbed was Lev in his self-doubts, pain, and disbelief that the hound's movements went unnoticed. It took a few steps, covering the small distance as a brown blur. Before he could even turn to protect himself, a paw the size of a cart slammed into him.

The hound purposely held back, only pushing him away at extreme speed instead of smashing him to paste. Surroundings lost color and turned into a blur as all of his absorption runes were overloaded in a split second, and that was the only reason he didn't pop like a watermelon.

Much of the impact from colliding with Windkeep's wall was negated. A large crater formed into the stone construct as a result, and by some twist of fate, Lev landed with his eyes still facing forward, glaring at the hound that was already retreating back into the Dreadwoods, no longer interested in the quizzical human.

Colors sharpened for a brief instant as he stared at the creature's back, burning every single detail of its visage in his mind. The world bent and warped, twisting light until he could see it all in extreme clarity. From the sharp claws that it hadn't bothered to use, to the tail with three sharp ends that would've been extremely overkill— Lev took it all in and made a single promise to the hound as his consciousness fled.

I will see you again.

****

Watching Lev be rendered so powerless hurt far more than she ever expected to, but Sherron's hands were tied. Even Hakim's knuckles were white from clenching his greatsword tightly, unable to lift a finger to help the Master flailing amidst a natural calamity.

He didn't know. How could he? Lev's worst encounter was with the windstrider warg, except a thousand of those couldn't touch a hair on the hound. It was unbelievably strong, far more than she could have imagined. A single glimpse of its aura was enough to freeze her every time, and Hakim's silently angry eyes let her know how bad an idea it would be for her to intervene.

The losses might outweigh saving Lev. If it ever declared humanity an enemy, she didn't know if they would survive.

In his usual fashion, Lev tried to rely on his lances as finishers. They were strong enough to work in almost every scenario, except against the hound, they were nothing more than fireworks.

Even if one of them landed on the monster, it would, at most, just blacken a few of its hairs without ever damaging the skin. Both she and Hakim knew that from a single glance.

Lev, however, didn't. Every movement screamed his desperation to land a single attack, and she wished she could stop him already. Seeing even his strongest move fail to damage the unprotected creature would break him.

Fortunately, that didn't come to pass. He chose the only potential vulnerability, only for the hound to do even worse. Space mana, the incredibly elusive kind, gathered in enough amounts to decimate all resistance and teleport Lev during his final move.

Sherron almost forgot all about consequences as the boy's aura trembled, letting everyone present clearly see the state of his soul and mind. She couldn't stand to see him suffer so much as the Superior weapon slowly slid out of his hand, except he gathered himself enough to clutch her tightly.

Before she could muster the courage to do anything, the hound moved. A single swipe sent Lev shooting through the air, and her scream was lost to even her own ears as she sped up.

It took an effort of will not to unleash all her might on the hound then and there. Sherron quickly flew but had to pause in horror when the hound turned back again, no longer disinterested and bored.

Instead, it stared at the unconscious Master with wide eyes, shaking with untamed excitement. For several long and tense seconds, she floated between Lev and the creature, praying to whatever might listen that it wouldn't do anything.

Fortunately, her fears were unfounded. The initial excitement dimmed, and when the human didn't as much as twitch again, the hound started moving again, taking a few steps before vanishing completely, leaving both her and Hakim utterly confused about whatever the hell had just transpired.

****

Lev found himself surrounded by complete darkness again, similar to what he had experienced after facing the Chaoswalker. This time, however, he could feel.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The vastness around him was endless, housing countless beings, concepts, and forces. None of it made sense except the closest phenomena, ones that were enveloping him completely.

Where the hell…?

Without any physical or intangible form, he could only use his mind, and it was utterly incapable of understanding even a fraction of the current happenings. Where was he, to begin with, and why were all these great existences here?

Mana was decipherable, at least. It permeated the entire universe the same way it existed in the weird dreamscape, both supportive and distant, giving every being the power to evolve and ascend.

Ascend… ascend to where?

The answer wasn't difficult to realize. Around him were beings akin to gods, and gods themselves. If he had to guess, the weaker ones were fifth-threshold beings, and the exponentially more domineering ones were beyond that, existing in states that he couldn't hope to even glimpse.

Thankfully, he was shielded completely, especially because of the darkness. It wasn't a work of mana or the gods, Lev was slowly coming to notice. Instead, it was something else entirely, and just thinking about it was enough to send deep jolts of fear down his consciousness.

He struggled to move around, and to his surprise, it worked. Now able to swim around a bit, he didn't put much thought into it and glided forward. Seconds passed, and he picked up speed, only to realize just how big a mistake that was.

Things just… didn't move. Speed existed as a concept for only the first seconds when he felt himself moving, then his mind started grasping the scale of his current location.

Horror slowly seeped in. Lev's very existence threatened to unravel as infinity was forced upon his mind. No matter how much he traveled, he never got closer or further from any presences he could feel. The distance was much too large for his human brain to comprehend.

Calling himself a grain of sand would be an overstatement. No matter where he turned or what he tried to focus on, it remained firmly out of any conceivable reach.

I need to wake up.

The thought couldn't take hold of him. His subconscious flailed, unable to understand its own current state of being. Everything was too much, and when impressions started to reach him, Lev knew something was very wrong.

Wake up!

Scales screamed into his mind, gigantic, infallible, and protective. Nobody could reach beyond them, not when the sanctuary stood in front of all harm. Moonlight watched over it all, as did the eternal embrace of death, promising all a peaceful end.

WAKE UP!

He was… beyond negligible. Nothing noticed him, none even felt the ripples from his existential crisis. The emotions borne of desperation and panic created small waves around him, except they petered out within moments, never getting far.

It was only after a strong desire emerged, one to see Orianna again, did he return to the living world, leaving the plane of emotions behind.

****

Apparently, waking up didn't quite mean waking up. Lev found himself in another brand of darkness, except this one was natural.

Regardless, it took him a long time to gather his bearings again. The memories of ancient, endless beings reverberated in his head, refusing to abate in any timely manner. The System or Mana was slowly removing his memory again, though it felt different this time.

It's leaving behind some impressions…

There was more than a single god, that much he was allowed to remember. Moreover, there were plenty of fifth-threshold beings on Monarch too, and imagining the sheer size of the planet scared him to no end. Mana removed that memory too.

Alright, what's up with this state of mind? he wondered and tried to move around. His limbs protested in muted agony, meaning he was still alive and whole. That was a shot of relief that threatened to make him fall unconscious again, lulling him into the comfortable, boundless embrace of peace-

Lev shot upright, all feeling returning to his body in a single instant. Pain overwhelmed his mind immediately as the horrible state of his physical and spiritual being made itself known, and this time, he only passed out instead of simply dying.

****

Several bouts of pain and passing out ensued, though Lev could stay awake for longer each time. Memories slowly returned to him, making him realize just how precarious his situation was.

His body had been ravaged by relentless use of mana, his mind had been taxed beyond belief, and his soul had expended every single drop of mana it held. To top it off, the hound had casually turned him half to paste, almost smearing him across Windkeep's walls.

He was extremely angry, but more than that, he was just happy to be alive. The whole encounter was overshadowed by a margin that wasn't even funny. It took conscious effort to even remember the fight, one that had ended in a miserable and haunting defeat.

Then he went ahead and gazed upon the gods. Not a single one— plural.

How? he wondered for the millionth time, now able to stay awake for several minutes at once. No one was near him in the damp, dark room that smelled of cleansing products and stale medicine.

It wasn't hard to realize he was in a hospital, and in a secluded section. The lights were off, meaning no one had come to see him for a while, and he was getting tired of just dozing off repeatedly.

So, against his better judgment, he rose up in a sitting position with a grunt, both marvelling and worrying about how weak he felt. The list of notifications could wait— he had better things to ponder about.

Let's see, I know my memories were removed, and I was grateful for that. He started taking mental notes, absently gazing at the tiled floor. First, there are more gods than just the Goddess. My mind says three nearby, but what the hell counts as nearby?

There were no answers, and perhaps that was for the best.

Secondly, it was related to emotions. Why emotions? I'm pretty sure my own emotions were effective at… something, to an unknown extent. Really can't say I like the lack of answers even if I wanted my memories to be taken away.

The whole experience was a big fat mystery. Somehow, he had seen something impossibly beyond him, and Lev suspected that his horrible state was made even worse by that.

Then there was the matter of fifth-threshold monsters. He had no exact count, only that there were 'many' of them on Monarch.

Why the hell had they ever come here, again? What if even a single one of them decided that humanity had to go?

With a shaky hand throbbing in pain, he ran it through his hair and took deep breaths. Parsing through one set of memories had left the other, extremely depressing one in his head. The hound had toyed with him to a degree that left him feeling cracked and broken.

To begin with, what it had accomplished against the centipede could've destroyed the entirety of Windkeep. What Lev had to face however, wasn't even a fraction of that. It just used space mana of all things. Space!

A wheeze burst out of his throat, bringing with it a stinging pain. Even trying to chuckle was too much for his body currently, but he refused to let himself cry over it. The hound was a valuable lesson, one he was going to remember till the very end.

Feeling around, his storage ring was still on his left hand. A wooden tray was summoned onto his lap. A large bowl of steaming soup appeared on top of it, along with a cup of hot chocolate.

Men didn't cry, or at least he heard that often in his past life. Whether it was an excuse to bottle up one's emotions or perhaps to look stronger in front of girls, Lev had never believed it.

How stupid.

Now he was doing the same. Granted, he was almost certain that most people wouldn't be nearly as composed as him after going through such an ordeal, even if his hands shook and a bit of soup spilled into the tray.

I'll be fine.

His control failed anyway as a single tear rolled down his cheek. Without thinking, he formed a small barrier plate to catch it mid-air, and the extreme lance of pain that went through his soul and body made his lips part into a wide, trembling smile.

And, in that same instant, Orianna appeared in the doorway of his room. She froze in place, and color drained from her face when Lev looked at her with a broken expression as tears flowed freely into the meal on his lap.

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