The atmosphere grew heavier with each step closer, carrying a metallic taste that clung to the back of my throat.
From this distance, just meters away from the portal, I could feel the unnatural heat radiating from the swirling vortex. It was not a comforting warmth, but something that felt like it could scorch the soul.
Like the maw of a dragon, I thought.
Lilian's grip on my sleeve tightened, her wolf instincts clearly on high alert. "I don't like this," she whispered, red eyes fixed on the portal. It said something when even she was scared. "That cultist... he just... dissolved. Like he never existed."
Her usually confident demeanor had faltered, replaced by genuine apprehension.
Solara's wings fluttered nervously behind her, crimson feathers catching the portal's light in ways that made them seem to bleed. "Portals should have rules," she said, her scientific mind clearly struggling to make sense of the anomaly. "Consistent entry and exit points, formulaic construction. This... seems wrong.”
"You’re right. This doesn't follow any magical principle I've ever studied." Nebula replied, her voice calmer than the others but a tension in her shoulders betrayed her concern. "Whatever lies beyond that thing isn't from our reality. The rules don't apply."
They formed a loose semicircle behind me, none willing to step any closer to the pulsating tear in reality. I couldn't blame them.
Every rational part of my mind screamed danger.
And yet...
I took another step forward, drawn by something I couldn't explain.
The chaotic energy seemed to whisper directly into my mind, bypassing my ears entirely. As I focused, the whispers became clearer, more seductive.
...power beyond mortal comprehension...
...secrets of creation at your fingertips...
...ascend beyond the limitations of flesh...
The girls didn’t seem to hear any of this. Was this attraction something unique to me, thanks to my Chaos Affinity?
Or did having a soul from another world—one transplanted into this body—make me more susceptible to otherworldly influences? Or was it the Heavenly Demon's legacy within me, recognizing something kindred in this alien power?
It didn’t stop there. The whispers intensified, promising answers to questions I hadn't even thought to ask. Knowledge that could elevate me beyond the petty concerns of this world, maybe beyond even the Demon King himself.
If I were anyone else, I was quite certain my hand would have reached out involuntarily. But I didn’t let it affect me. I saw what happened.
"Iskandaar." Nebula's cool fingers wrapped around my wrist. Her blue eyes met mine, filled with understanding rather than judgment. "What’s going on? You look weird."
"I’m fine. It’s just calling me," I said, my voice sounding strange even to my own ears.
"What?" she asked simply. "I… no, be careful. Don’t let it sway you, it can’t be anything good."
I laughed, shaking my head to clear it. “Of course not.”
Lilian walked over to check on me next, while Solara and Nebula exchanged glances. A silent communication passed through them.
"It called to you specifically?" Solara asked, her analytical mind cutting straight to the heart of the matter. "Something about you responded to it."
I nodded, not entirely comfortable with the implications. “I’m not sure how much it knows about me,” I said.
"That's how they work, I guess," Nebula explained, her voice dropping to a near-whisper. "Entities like this—Gods—they see the fracture lines in your soul. The places where you're vulnerable. They offer to fill those cracks with power or knowledge, but the price..." She shuddered slightly. "Mother warned me about these stuff."
"Was she speaking from experience?" Lilian asked, but there was no malice in her tone—only curiosity.
Nebula's lips curved in a humorless smile. "Family history. Grandfather made a deal with one of the Twelve Gods. I’m not sure of the details, though."
"Not getting anywhere near that thing," Lilian declared, ears practically flattening against her head like an actual wolf. "Let's just blow it up or something."
I found myself torn between anger and frustration.
This portal, this breach in reality, represented a threat beyond anything we'd prepared for. I hadn't come to Nevaramis with the intention of fighting a God.
This was driving me crazy. We lacked the knowledge to seal it safely, yet leaving it unchecked wasn't an option either.
"As much as I want to blow it up, I’m pretty sure it won’t go down that easily. We need information," I said finally, turning away from the portal with deliberate effort. "This is the android's domain. If anyone knows how to deal with this properly, it would be her."
"And if she doesn't?" Solara challenged, pragmatic as always.
"Then we find the anchors you mentioned," I replied, determination hardening my voice. "Be it the cultists or items, we’ll break them ourselves. But rushing in blind against something like this—" I gestured toward the portal, "—would be suicide."
The whispers intensified once more, as if sensing my resolve to leave.
Coward. Walking away from true power. Hegh.
I ignored it, refusing to acknowledge them. "Let's get moving. The longer we stay here, the stronger its influence becomes."
"How do we even find the android?" Lilian asked. "It's not like she left us a communication device."
“That’s an easy answer, we just have to find the exit to this maze," I replied.
"I can scout ahead," Solara offered, wings flexing slightly. "The corridors are wide enough in this section for short flights."
I considered this, appreciating the initiative. "Good idea, but no need. The distance you can scout, I can cover it with my senses.”
“Senses? Young master, my senses are better than yours,” Lilian argued.
“Ah, no. I meant this martial technique, [True Demon God Art: Absolute Perception]. I call it the Demonic Sphere for short,” I said.
“Oh,” the girls blinked.
As we prepared to leave, I cast one final glance at the portal. The whispers had subsided to a dull murmur, but I could still feel its pull—like a phantom limb, aching for something just beyond reach.
“....” I paused for a moment and then raised a finger.
Active: [Mythrend]:
- Unleash a powerful strike that targets the essence of a mythical or legendary being. This attack ignores a portion of the target’s defenses and deals additional damage based on the target's strength. The stronger the foe, the more effective the attack.
- Category: Mythical Slayer
Active: [Soul Sever]:
- Channel the power of the Myth Slayer to deliver a precise attack that targets the soul of a mythical being. This attack has a small chance of inflicting significant damage or disrupting their connection to their source of power, weakening them temporarily.
- Category: Soulmancy
Active: [Astral Rend]:
- Summon an ethereal blade that can pierce through both physical and magical defenses, striking at the astral form of mythical beings or normal. Although excessively more effective against the former. This attack inflicts spiritual damage and has a chance to disrupt their connection to the physical plane, weakening their magical abilities temporarily and potentially making them lose consciousness.
- Category: Astral Manipulation
I shot a tiny, needle-sized blade of Astral Rend toward the portal, immediately applying Mythrend and Soul Sever on it.
The instant the blade of Astral Rend pierced the portal, it violently convulsed, emitting a ghastly, distorted shriek like tearing metal echoing from another dimension. For a split second, shadowy tendrils surged out, writhing furiously as if desperate to seize hold of our reality.
An overwhelming psychic pressure slammed into my mind—a glimpse of countless alien eyes glaring back with burning, hateful intelligence—before abruptly fading, leaving behind only a chilling echo of malice.
The portal sizzled just for a moment. But it didn’t vanish. Soon, I felt the presence on the return with a wave of incredible anger behind it. He wasn’t that easy to cut off, it seemed.
Well, it was worth a try.
At least it seemed to have hurt him a little.
I don’t know what you want, I promised silently. But you ain’t getting any of it.
****
As we moved away from the portal, it felt like a massive weight finally lifted off my shoulders—not just the heavy vibe from that freaky gateway, but also the fact that my group had finally reunited.
Having all three of them back just felt right.
While we maneuvered through the winding passages, Lilian and Solara told me about their time alone. The maze had tested each of us in different ways, making us adapt and grow on our own before finally bringing us back together.
Lilian had always been clever, but going solo had taken her instincts to the next level. According to her excited story, she’d been spying on other participants instead of fighting them head-on.
With her werewolf senses, she could eavesdrop on whispers from way too far away, piecing together rumors and half-truths about what the cult was really up to.
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She’d found out about hidden challenge chambers scattered around the maze—optional boss fights with rewards way better than the usual guardian cores. Some people stumbled on them by accident, others went looking on purpose. Not many made it out alive to brag about it.
More crucially, she overheard cultists talking about their “anchors”—seven people who were linked to their god. Apparently, one of them was dead. I theorized one of them to be Lyra, who died while giving us information.
Seven points make a heptagram, I thought.
A heptagram, I recognized from my Heavenly Demon memories, was a pretty powerful setup for calling in beings from beyond the veil.
But they can’t be the strongest in the cult; they’re not even Level 100. Why are these seven used as the anchors? It confused me. Could it be that the Outer God Cult knew anyone below Level 100 would be kicked out, and therefore made these seven anchors knowing so?
Regardless, if Lyra truly had been an anchor and she died, shouldn’t the connection be broken now? The portal was still there, though. Or was the portal’s anchor different from the Outer God’s anchor? Or is it that all anchors had to be eliminated for the connection to be cut?
Solara, on the other hand, reported that she did her usual warrior routine. She chased after tougher opponents to push her newly mastered phoenix powers. The proof of her victories hung from her belt—a pouch loaded with guardian cores.
Something like this would’ve been out of her reach before our trip to the Highlands.
She told us about fighting a guardian made entirely of liquid mercury. It was basically impossible to hurt until she figured out her phoenix flames could superheat it until it turned to vapor. Another guardian was a swarm of crystalline butterflies that shattered into razor-sharp shards when hit—she beat it by whipping up a vortex of flames that melted them mid-flight.
Lilian and Solara reunited by pure luck. Lilian had been running from a nasty trap – some corridor that started filling with water super fast – when she literally crashed into Solara, who was busy taking on a guardian that looked like an obsidian praying mantis.
Together, they were even more dangerous. Lilian’s boosted strength and quick reflexes meshed perfectly with Solara’s aerial moves and fire attacks. They’d learned to fight in sync, no words needed, each predicting the other’s moves.
Funny how a maze designed to break people had actually brought us closer, making the survivors stronger bonds.
I felt a burst of pride watching them now. Solara had hidden her wings again, walking with more confidence than ever; Lilian’s senses constantly scanned for trouble even as she conversed with me, ready to react anytime.
Both of them were changing, growing stronger than the first time we met.
Even Nebula, walking beside me with that quiet grace she was known for, was different. There was a certainty in her eyes in the way she moved that said she’d faced things and come out stronger.
She was Level 48 now, just one step away from getting an Ascension Quest.
I, on the other hand, had reached Level 73. It was a great jump for a mere few days, also just one step away from getting an Ascension Quest.
“Oh!” Lilian blurted suddenly, yanking me out of my thoughts. She lit up and reached into a hidden pouch in her armor. “I almost forgot! I found something that might help.”
She took out a small, polished obsidian gem that gave off a faint arcane glow. It was about the size of a quail’s egg, and runes on its surface shifted as I stared at them.
“What is that?” Solara asked, stepping closer. “Looks... ominous.”
“It’s a Cooldown Reset Stone,” Lilian said proudly, holding it up so the corridor’s dim light caught on it. “I found it in one of those secret treasure rooms I mentioned. Had to fight this weird guardian that could copy itself—total nightmare.”
Nebula hummed at the thing. “So, what does a ‘Cooldown Reset Stone’ do exactly?”
“It wipes the cooldown off one skill completely! You only get one use at a time, though. Then the stone goes on a cooldown as long as that skill’s original cooldown. So if you reset a skill that takes a day to recharge, the stone’s out of action for a day.”
I frowned, skeptical. “That sounds too good to be true. You sure that’s how it works?”
“Yep! The guardian was guarding just this, so I’m guessing it’s super valuable.”
I held out my hand, and Lilian placed the stone in my palm. It felt warm, almost alive. I focused on it, using my [Insight] skill to scan it. A translucent blue window popped up.
===
[Cooldown Reset Stone]
Rarity: Unique
Description: A crystallized fragment of temporal energy. When activated, this stone can completely reset the cooldown of a single skill or ability, allowing for immediate reuse. After activation, the stone enters a dormant state for a period equal to the original cooldown of the reset skill.
Usage: Place the stone against the body while focusing on the skill to be reset. The stone will absorb the temporal lock, preventing the skill’s reuse.
Warning: Attempting to reset skills with permanent cooldowns or one-time-use abilities may result in unpredictable effects.
===
My eyes widened.
Lilian was telling the truth—this thing could reset any skill’s cooldown. My mind jumped right to [Temporal Overdraft], my strongest skill, and also the riskiest.
After using it at the Winter Festival, I got stuck with a six-month cooldown. About three months had passed, so I still had three left before I could use it again.
But with this stone...
“This is incredible,” I breathed. “Where’d you find it exactly?”
Lilian grinned, looking pleased with herself. “Like I said, secret treasure room. Had to do this weird puzzle with floating orbs and pressure plates. Took ages.”
“Wait,” Nebula cut in, frowning. “What skill would you even use it on? Most of your moves don’t have big cooldowns… I think?”
I glanced at Lilian, who knew about [Temporal Overdraft] from my explanation back in Romer. “There’s one,” I admitted. “A move I used in Lockdarn City… against your Grandfather. [True Demon God Art: The Temporal Overdraft].”
Silence fell for a moment as the girls realized the value of this stone. They didn’t know that it was a purely luck-based skill, and it's already failed once, pretty much, and I’d only survived because it landed on the Crippled Heaven and nobody else.
I wouldn’t trust it to save the world.
But it was indeed my last-resort ability, for better or worse. This Cooldown Stone made me feel much more confident all of a sudden.
Nebula’s expression went grim. “...Let’s hope you won’t be forced to use it. Isn’t it the same one you used against Ashvarak? So you’ll be out for days or worse.”
“Yeah,” I said, closing my hand around the stone. “But knowing it’s an option if things get desperate is a relief. This stone changes the game for us. It’s like a safety net. Thank you, Lilian. This might be a lifesaver.”
I deposited it in my Soul Storage.
“Don’t sweat it,” she said casually, though I could tell she liked the praise. “Can we please get out of this maze now? I’ve had my fill of ancient ruins and creepy voices.”
“Seconded,” Solara said. “I’ve collected enough guardian cores to last a lifetime. Let’s share it among us equally so that we don’t accidentally get eliminated.”
We kept moving, following the path my Demonic Sphere picked out.
It should lead us deeper into the maze—hopefully toward the center and the exit. The corridor got narrower as minutes turned into hours, the walls carved with scenes of cosmic disaster—falling stars, collapsing mountains, rising oceans.
Then the floor started trembling. The corridor walls looked like they were rippling, almost like heat haze.
“What’s going on?” Nebula asked, hand going for her weapon.
I knew the signs immediately. “Room of Shifting Gravity,” I warned. “Stick together and watch your footing.”
The corridor opened up into a massive chamber unlike anything we’d seen so far. The ceiling soared maybe thirty meters overhead, and the floor was a mess of platforms hanging over a bottomless drop. But the craziest part was how objects—chunks of rock, random furniture, even water—floated around in patterns that made no sense under normal physics.
A boulder the size of a horse floated upward in slow motion, then suddenly dropped when it hit a certain height. Water streamed along the walls in all directions. The floor beneath us kept tilting, then shifting back, then tilting again in some other direction.
“This is insane,” Solara muttered, wings half unfurled to keep her balance.
“It’s kind of amazing,” Nebula said, watching a chair float by her head. “The magical engineering to pull off precise gravity shifts like this...”
“Nerd,” Lilian said, though she sounded a little fond.
I stretched my Demonic Sphere, trying to map out the gravity changes in the chamber. “There’s a pattern,” I said. “It’s not random. If we time our moves right, we can make these shifts work for us.”
“And if we mess up?” Solara asked.
Right on cue, a piece of debris that had been floating calmly suddenly shot downward into the abyss. Point made. One wrong step and we’re gone. Flight might not help either since gravity would pull us down.
“I’ll go first,” I said, tracking the gravity waves with my eyes. “I’ll tell you when it’s safe to move.”
We started crossing, hopping from one platform to the next as carefully as we could. I used my Demonic Sphere to sense the subtle changes in gravity, guiding them with quick hand signals and the occasional shout.
“Now!” I yelled, and we all jumped a gap just as gravity shifted, giving us an extra push.
“Hold on—” I threw up a hand when a giant stone block tumbled through the space where Nebula would’ve been if she’d kept going.
“Three seconds,” I counted, watching a ripple of distortion pass through the room. “Two... one... go!”
We dashed over an unsteady platform right before it tilted so hard it would’ve dumped us into oblivion.
Nebula moved like a dancer, using her better-than-human reflexes to pivot whenever the floor shifted under her. Solara used her wings to stabilize herself as much as she could in the messy gravity.
Lilian used her brute strength and agility, sometimes clinging to mere air to brace herself if the gravity tried to toss her around. She looked the least bothered, actually, since unlike us peasants, she didn’t “fly,” she walked on the air.
When a sudden shift sent me skidding toward the edge of a platform, prompting me to blaze the Photon Ring halfway through, Lilian swooped down and grabbed my hand, hauling me back to safety.
“Thanks,” I said.
“No worries,” Lilian grinned. “I like you like this.”
I ignored her statement and continued. We were about halfway across when the gravity shifts went into overdrive. The floor under us started rippling like water, making balance almost impossible.
“Link up!” I shouted, grabbing Nebula’s hand. “Form a chain!”
We all held on—me to Nebula, Nebula to Solara, with Lilian walking on the air overhead, ready to catch anyone if they slipped. We moved like one big creature, compensating for each other’s missteps and leaning on each other’s weight when gravity threatened to fling us away.
“This is actually kind of fun,” Nebula admitted, smiling a little as we tackled a particularly nasty set of platforms.
“Easy for you to say,” Solara grumbled, finding her wings useless for once, though her eyes sparkled with excitement.
“You guys are so bad at this,” Lilian said from above. “I am pretty awesome.”
Our banter kept up as we made our way forward, somehow finding fun in this bizarre, shifting world. What started out as a lethal obstacle had somehow become an amusement park that we enjoyed together.
****
We staggered out of the gravity chamber, beat to hell but riding that high of having survived, and walked through an archway.
Hours turned into days as we encountered a dozen more challenges, many more people, and even more guardians. We also found a new Rest Dungeon. We spent a few peaceful hours there, lounging on plush cushions while swapping stories and sharing laughs over snacks from the absurdly luxurious menu.
Solara even managed to coax Nebula into recounting an embarrassing childhood story, earning a rare blush and shy laughter from the usually reserved half-vampire.
Nothing sweaty happened here.
At last, as we continued our journey, we encountered a massive door which had the text “Sanctum Antechamber” written above it. The door was open, and as we walked in, we saw a space so massive it took my breath away.
“Holy fuck, this is crazy,” Lilian muttered at my side, and yeah, I couldn’t blame her language one bit.
It was a huge circular field with a dome soaring at least fifty meters overhead. The inside of the dome was decked out in super-detailed frescos, showing celestial bodies, ancient battles, and what I guessed was the creation of Nevaramis.
The walls were carved with shapes that seemed to shift when you weren’t looking straight at them. Seven huge archways, including the one we’d just come through, led into the chamber from different angles. Each had a different rune glowing softly above it.
“We’re not alone,” Nebula murmured, nodding toward the chamber’s center.
Somehow, we weren’t the first ones to arrive here. It made sense. While my game knowledge allowed me to look forward to plot events, it wasn’t as if I’d memorized a stupid maze down to its last layout. Plus we were distracted by Outer Cult bastards.
There had to be about thirty other participants scattered around. Some were in small groups, patching up wounds or sharing rations. A few paced around, still gripping their weapons. Others were quietly celebrating, clinking bottles together like they’d just won a big prize.
I spotted Prince Alaric in the crowd, chatting with Ha-Yun and Selene. They looked worn out but not hurt—good news after all that time apart.
“It seems we did it,” Solara said, her wings hidden again. “This must be where everyone meets before the final challenge.”
I nodded, letting my Demonic Sphere sweep the room. The energy here felt different. It was stronger but more controlled. Like we were on the edge of something huge.
“The Central Sanctum,” I said, remembering what the administrator told us. “Only the top hundred participants make it here.”
We all exchanged glances—tired, filthy, but breathing, and still together. Whatever came next, we were in it side by side.
Before that, however, I had to warn everyone about some stupid cultist bastards.
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