Chương 1: A Familiar Kind of Dying

The valley was lit up by fire and light. Lio kicked off a stone pillar and flew through the air, the wind tearing at his face. The ground blurred two hundred feet below him, a dizzying drop that would kill him instantly if he messed up his landing. The valley stretched endlessly in every direction, a wasteland filled with hundreds and hundreds of scattered stone columns. Some pillars were thick as houses, while others were thin as sticks, cracked and listing, ready to collapse at the slightest wind.

Behind him, the pillar he'd just abandoned exploded into pieces. A beam of pure white light sliced clean through it, as if it was paper. The pillar shattered down its length with a booming sound like thunder, and rubble the size of trees began their long descent into the darkness below. Lio didn't look back. He was already reaching for a rune on his wrist—shaped like a narrow vertical oval split by three lines—and activated it. [Mach Heart] Power flooded his legs in a rush.

His muscles spasmed and locked up, layers of elastic tissue clinching tight as a strong pressure built in them. Then everything released at once in an explosive burst that launched him forward at an extraordinary speed. Another pillar rushed up to meet him. An average human would've been reduced to paste against the stone, but Lio was far from being normal. His superhuman reflexes kicked in, and he twisted mid-flight, slamming into the rock feet-first.

The devastating force was enough to crack the surface beneath his boots. He quickly absorbed the impact through his knees, and kicked off again without losing even a fraction of his momentum. More beams of light sped past him, some coming close enough to cause his clothes to smoke from the superenergized heat.

There were more than two dozen, each cutting and smashing through the stone pillars in sharp geometric shapes that interlocked and overlapped, creating a net of deadly light that was designed to catch him no matter which direction he tried to dodge. However, Lio had learned this pattern already. The beams always came in waves of twelve, spreading in a crude spiral formation that rotated clockwise. If you knew where the first beam would strike, you could predict the other eleven.

But only if one could process that sort of information while moving at high speeds through a three-dimensional space filled with deadly obstacles. Only if you were fast enough. Well, Lio was fast enough. He landed on a wide pillar and slid to a stop with a spray of stone dust, pressing his boots down onto the rock to create a friction that killed his momentum. His legs burned from the repeated [Mach Heart] bursts—which put a heavy burden on his muscles—but he allowed himself this moment to catch his breath.

Then he finally turned around to face the thing he'd been fighting. It hovered in the air about three hundred feet away. The creature was shaped vaguely like a humanoid, but instead of being made of flesh, blood, or bone, it was composed entirely from shards of glass and broken clock faces stitched together by a strange non-Newtonian slime.

The slime was translucent, glowing with a strange sickly array of bright green and deep purple, and seemed to be eerily pulsating and quivering in a way that suggested that it was alive. As Lio watched, catching his breath, the creature raised one arm. The motion was accompanied by a wet squelching sound as the slime expanded and contracted. Suddenly, all the clock hands visible on its body aligned straight, all pointing up at 12 o'clock.

The air grew colder, a violent plunge in temperature that turned Lio's heavy breaths to a fog and raised goosebumps along his arms. There was also a strange smell that came with it, a scent that had no business existing down where Lio was. The smell of pine. Something you smell when walking through a forest after a shower of rain. Then reality tore open. A massive portal ripped into existence right in front of the creature, the air itself splitting and shimmering apart like fabric.

Electricity arced across its edges in violent branching patterns, crackling and hissing. The tear writhed and pulsated with a hypnotic light that contained strange, never before seen colors that made Lio's eyes water when he looked at them directly. And through the tear, something massive began forcing its way through. A hand emerged first, made of a grey stone covered in thick yellow moss. The hand gripped the edge of the portal, and pulled sideways, somehow stretching the portal.

It forced its shoulders through next, then a torso, each part of the creature dragging itself into the valley. Finally, the legs emerged, and the creature stepped fully into the valley, straightening to its full height of around forty feet tall. It was constructed entirely from stone with no features except for a small glowing amulet embedded in its forehead. A titan. The glass and clock creature raised its other arm, and two more portals tore open, crackling with electricity.

From them, two more giants forced their way through. The second was made of a black volcanic glass that was glowing bright red, and gave off an aura of heat so severe that Lio could feel it all the way from here. The third was covered in thick blue ice that refused to melt despite standing beside the behemoth of molten rock. Frost spread from its feet, freezing the ground, while flames licked at the ground beneath its companion. The titans formed a wall between Lio and the glass creature, blocking his path.

Three forty-foot titans. A normal person would probably have felt their stomach drop and panic grip their hearts when faced with these insurmountable odds. But Lio's face remained flat and unreadable. After all, he simply saw the mythical creatures as an inconvenience. And though it was certainly a significant one, in the end, it was just another obstacle between him and his destination. Nothing more. He quickly pulled out a crudely-made knife from his belt and pressed the blade against his left forearm.

The rune inscribed along his arm began to glow—a triangle with a line cut through the middle of it. Without hesitation, he dragged the edge across his skin, cutting deep enough that the blood welled up immediately. And the moment it touched air, it ignited. [Pyrolysis] Blue-gold flames erupted from the wound. They spread fast, crawling up his arm like living things, wrapping around his bicep, then spilling down across his chest in thick coils.

The fire moved eagerly, coating his entire torso until he was completely wreathed in blue-gold light. The magical fire didn't harm him. The rune recognized its owner, and the flames passed over his skin like ghostly water, leaving him untouched and unharmed. But anything else they came into contact with would burn until nothing remained. The contract with it was simple as well. Every second the fire burned, it consumed an hour of Lio's lifespan. Ahead, the stone titan moved first.

It closed the distance with thundering steps that made the ground shake, huge cracks spiderwebbing the rock beneath it. Lio stood his ground on the pillar's edge, the flames whirling around him growing thicker and thicker. The titan reached the base of his pillar and swung its massive fist upward. Immediately, Lio jumped straight up, and activated [Mach Heart] mid-air. The burst of power launched him even higher, as the titan's powerful fist demolished the pillar where he'd just been standing.

He reached the highest peak of his jump at around thirty feet above the titan's head. In that fraction of a second, he reached down and tapped a rune inscribed just below his left ankle—a narrow pupil bisected by a single line. [Atropos's Lens] The world sharpened instantly, as though he'd been looking through dirty glass his entire life and someone had finally wiped it clean.

With his enhanced vision, he could now see the individual cracks webbing through the titan's stone skin, could count the moss fibers growing in its grooves, and could even track the faint tremors running through its body with each movement. Time seemed to slow as his thoughts accelerated to extraordinary speeds. His time limit for [Atropos's Lens] was three subjective seconds but in that compressed timeframe, it felt like five full minutes stretched out before him.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. He twisted in midair, angled his lower body towards the titan's head, and activated [Mach Heart]. The burst of power changed his trajectory mid-flight, and sent him rocketing downwards like a meteor. Lio slammed both feet into the titan's face, using as much momentum as possible. The powerful impact shattered the smooth stone of the titan's face, creating a deep crater.

Wide cracks raced outward as the force expanded outwards, spreading across the titan's head and down its neck. Lio didn't let up, as he landed in a crouch on the creature's shoulder, pulled out his crude knife, and drove it into the space beside the glowing amulet. [Pyrolysis] flames poured into the wound, spreading and creeping into the titan's internal structure. The titan's head began to glow from within, as rays of light began seeping from the stone.

Lio quickly kicked off, activating [Mach Heart] one more time to launch himself away. And just as he did, the titan's head exploded in a shower of superheated stone pieces. The world and time snapped back into normality as the time limit on [Atropos's Lens] ran out, and Lio landed on another pillar sixty feet away. The headless titan's body swayed for a few seconds, then collapsed onto the ground with a deafening crash that sent quakes through the valley floor. One down.

But Lio didn't feel any sort of relief or satisfaction, just the vague sense of having completed a step in his plan. He turned to face the remaining two titans. The volcanic glass titan and the ice titan were already moving toward him simultaneously, one from the left and one from the right. Where the volcanic glass titan stepped, the ground melted, leaving footprints of molten rock behind it, while layers of frost spread from the ice titan's feet, covering the valley floor.

The two contrasting forces created a zone of warring temperatures between them, layers of steam hissing up, the stone beneath cracking and popping from the thermal stress. Lio cut deeper into his forearm with his knife. More crimson blood welled up, giving additional fuel to [Pyrolysis], and the blue-gold flames roared higher. As he did so, both titans reached the base of Lio's pillar at the same time.

Without wasting time, the volcanic glass titan slammed its fist into the left side while the ice titan struck the right. The pillar completely exploded from the attack of the conflicting forces. Stone was superheated into magma on one side, while it was flash-frozen on the other, causing the structural stress to blow the entire column apart. However, Lio was already jumping, activating [Mach Heart] to launch himself away from the collapsing pillar. But the titans were prepared.

The ice titan's other arm swept at the air where Lio was headed, forcing him to adjust his direction mid-flight, and that adjustment brought him too close to the volcanic glass titan's reach. The volcanic glass titan's hand shot out and grabbed him. Its massive fingers of superheated glass and stone closed around Lio's torso. His [Pyrolysis] flames protected him from the worst of the heat, pushing back against the volcanic fire, but the pressure was too much and immense.

Lio could feel his ribs creaking and the air being squeezed out of his lungs. But his mind remained clear. The ice titan moved in from the other side, and raised both of its fists. Lio didn't have time to hesitate. He reached down, managed to touch another rune—made of seven interlocking circles—on his ribcage, and activated it. [Isopolity] His crude knife shuddered and blurred, its form multiplying until five identical copies—all wreathed in the blue-gold fire—materialized around Lio and shot forward instantly.

Three punched into the volcanic glass titan's wrist. The blades sank deep, driven by telekinetic force, and [Pyrolysis] flames poured into the wounds. The titan's grip spasmed and faltered. Lio was dropped, and as he fell, he recalled back the three knives and quickly activated [Mach Heart] while angling himself away from the titans. He slammed feet-first onto another column thirty feet down. Above him, the volcanic titan's hand glowed harshly from within, until it exploded in a shower of superheated glass.

The ice titan quickly moved forward, closing the distance with unnerving speed. Lio sent his two remaining airborne knives spinning toward it while keeping the other three in reserve, circling his torso defensively. The ice titan swung both massive fists down at his pillar. Lio jumped just in time, triggered [Mach Heart], and the burst launched him sideways.

The pillar shattered behind him from the impact, and he twisted mid-air, sending all three projected knives streaking toward the ice titan's face in a V-formation. The blades struck the ice titan's face in rapid succession and [Pyrolysis] flames erupted across the frozen surface. But the ice titan didn't fall. Instead, it reached up and grabbed two of the embedded knives, ripping them free. Frost spread across the blades, extinguishing the flames. Lio landed on a thin pillar, trying to catch his breath.

On the left, the volcanic glass titan was already regenerating. He was running out of time. Seeing that he had no other option, he cut even deeper into his forearm. Blood welled up in thick rivulets, and the [Pyrolysis] flames roared even higher. The ice titan began charging. Quickly, Lio recalled all five knives at once, spinning them in a tight orbit around himself, then launched them forward in a spiraling pattern. They struck the ice titan's legs, the blades punching through and sticking deep into the ice.

The titan's legs buckled, and it crashed forward onto its hands and knees. Not letting it recover, Lio activated [Mach Heart] and launched himself straight at its exposed back. He landed between its shoulder blades, and recalled three knives into his telekinetic grip. He drove all three into the base of the titan's skull, directly beside the glowing amulet embedded there.

[Pyrolysis] flames flooded the wounds, and the ice began to glow from within, raging from blue to white as the conflicting temperatures tore through its internal structure. Lio kicked off as hard as he could, activating [Mach Heart] to launch himself away. But he was too slow. The ice titan's upper body exploded and massive shards of frozen stone erupted outward like shrapnel. One piece caught Lio across his left shoulder, and he felt it as it sped through, tearing apart muscles and tendons.

His left arm went numb, hanging useless at his side. Realizing the injury, he adjusted his stance mid-air, and landed on a distant pillar with his weight on the other side to compensate. Not letting him rest, the volcanic glass titan was already closing in, its hand now fully regenerated. Lio recalled his five knives, but his control over them was shaky, the loss of blood affecting his concentration. The titan reached his pillar and swung its massive fist. Lio jumped, but his damaged body was too slow.

The fist clipped his left leg, and he heard the bone snap and fracture, sending him spiraling towards the ground. He quickly activated [Mach Heart] to control his trajectory despite the damaged limb. Turning mid-air, he swept out his arms, sending all five knives shooting outwards. They struck deep simultaneously into the amulet in the titan's forehead. Following them, Lio slammed into the titan's face feet-first, driving the blades even deeper.

[Pyrolysis] flames poured into the wound, and the titan's head began glowing white-hot. Lio immediately dropped. His broken leg wouldn't support the landing, so he didn't even try jumping. He activated [Mach Heart] just before he hit the ground, negating the fall damage. However, he wasn't escaping unscathed. A piece of molten rock struck his right shoulder, burning through cloth and flesh. It was definitely a fourth-degree burn, seeing how the joint had gone numb as his nerves were burned away.

The titan's head exploded above him, and its body collapsed with an enormous crash that shook the valley. All three titans were down. Lio stood up on his one good leg, and assessed the damage to himself. His left arm was useless, his right arm was partially functional, his left leg was immobile, and his overall blood loss was significant but not yet critical. He was still fairly operational. Then he looked up at the main enemy.

Three hundred feet away, the glass and clock creature was still hovering, completely motionless. It hadn't moved during the entire fight. Lio recalled his five knives. He cut his forearm again, even deeper, until he could see the white of bone, and fed the blood to [Pyrolysis] until the flames surged back up. Then, he activated [Mach Heart] once more. The burst launched him forward. In reply, the glass and clock creature fired a beam of white light.

Lio adjusted his trajectory just in time, and the beam missed by mere inches. He sent three knives ahead as a feint, and circled around the creature using another burst, and drove his remaining two blades toward the creature's head. The knives struck— Then passed through without any resistance. Lio's mind realized the predicament a millisecond too late. The creature's arm snapped out, and its hand closed around his throat, clenching with an inhuman strength.

It had made itself intangible to avoid his attack, then solidified the instant it needed to grab him. Selective phasing. Lio had never seen a creature on Floor 47 demonstrate that level of precise control over their body. This thing was operating on a completely different level. He grabbed at its wrist with his functional hand, but his fingers sank into the slimy fluid. There was no purchase there. The creature pulled him closer, and as it did, Lio's eyes narrowed at the look of alien intelligence in its eyes.

He had miscalculated. He hadn't assumed that the creature could phase in and out of tangibility at will. So, the titans had never been meant to kill him. Instead, they'd been measuring tools to measure how strong Lio really was. And now that the creature had everything it needed, Lio was obsolete. The creature's other arm rose, and twelve points of white light formed across its body. But even when faced with death, Lio's face remained unchanged and expressionless. He didn't feel fear. He didn't feel anything.

He calmly assessed his situation with the same detachment. What options did he have to get out of this situation? None. The answer came instantly, and Lio quietly accepted it. He stared back at the creature with flat, dead eyes as the twelve points of light grew brighter. The beams fired simultaneously, tearing through him from twelve different angles, severing limbs and exploding vital organs. The creature released its grip.

As Lio's body—or what remained of it—fell toward the darkness below, his last thought was utterly, strangely mundane: I'll be back. The world faded to black.