Death

Kai blinked.

His Skill wanted him to... fight that thing?

Kai swallowed nervously.

The only reason he had killed it in the first place was by knocking the cradle of flames onto it, he hadn't even fought it properly.

And now, he had to fight it head-on, a monster that was much stronger than him.

Then again, it wasn't often that he fought something that wasn't a much higher level than him.

Looking back at the snake, Kai realised that it wasn't moving. It was like it was waiting for him to make the first move.

Which was a good thing, as Kai had noticed something that was kind of odd.

It was still another day or two before he finally returned to full strength, so why did he already feel so strong?

Looking down, Kai-

Saw that his once lustrous silver armour had turned pitch black, like it had been swallowed up and spat back out by the shadows. His boots were the same, and the necklace he had around his neck was too.

Then Kai realised.

Everything he had turned into some sort of strange shadow of their original form in here.

And just like all of his items, his stats had returned to normal. As had his soul and the timer for the cooldown of Ignition.

So in this place I can do anything I want and go all out. That's... actually pretty good.

Maybe if he used all of his boosting skills, equipped all of his items, and then made use of Ezekial's stored soul then maybe he would have some sort of chance at killing the beast.

So, after taking a deep breath, Kai done just that.

His bodysuit, which was on Cecilia's body in reality, manifested under his armour, that item also being pitch black in this strange space.

Esurient manifested in Kai's hand, only just like everything else here, the Ruby blade was now pitch black. Kai couldn't even communicate with it, it was just a pure black blade, something that looked like it had been forged from shadows.

Soul Flame wrapped around his body, boosting all of his stats by 46.

Kai was a little disappointed that the stats were only boosted by that amount, considering he had gotten a skill that boosted his Soul Mana Affinity. However, he couldn't help but notice that the flames almost seemed... brighter?

Ignition activated, doubling all of his stats.

And finally, Kai activated Pitch Perfect, making all of his stats perfectly equal.

Kai sighed.

Due to the fact that there would be no repercussions from fighting in here, he also activated Mana Surge, boosting his body even more.

His muscles throbbed, his mind working overdrive to formulate a way to win against the Winter Serpent.

This would be the third Evolved being that he would fight, and the first one that wasn't an abomination.

So, to be honest, Kai was a little excited to see how it would go.

Taking a deep breath, Kai decided to go all out with his opening attack. Lifting his arm, he pointed the tip of Esurient at the shadow beast in front of him.

Then, he activated Ezekial's stored soul.

Instantly, it was like something had switched in his body. Before, he was definitely right handed. In fact, he was so right handed that he could do barely anything with his left hand.

But now, Kai felt like it didn't matter which hand he wielded his shadow blade with, he would be able to wield it with finesse no matter what.

"So this is Bodily Harmony..."

It felt incredible. His body felt complete, like it had been lacking a piece of it for the last eighteen years of his life.

Of course, this feeling was going to disappear as soon as he exited this shadow realm until he used Ezekial's stored soul again, but Kai was fine with that.

He was just going to live in the moment and enjoy himself.

The false Esurient's shadowy body lit up, engulfed by the light of Equilibrium.

A beam of multi-coloured light shot out of the dark sword, aimed directly as the shadow snake.

But just as Kai thought the beam would hit the shadow and deal any meaningful damage, the beast moved.

It's entire body warped strangly, contorting like it did not possess a single bone in its body.

It dodged the beam of light masterfully by creating a ring for it to shoot through.

Then, without warning, it shot forward at Kai.

It moved with such incredibly speed that Kai had barely any time to react.

Taking a step backwards, Kai-

Cried out in pain as the snake's wide jaw clamped down on the arm his sword was in and cleanly bit it off.

Instead of blood, bits of shadow spilled from the wound, dissipating before it could even hit the ground.

Gritting his teeth, Kai fuelled his one remaining arm with even more Mana and went to punch the snake in its face.

Then, his other arm was bit clean off.

With no arms left, Kai had no way to defend himself as the shadow of the Winter Beast closed in and swallowed him whole.

That was how Kai died for the first time in his life.

The next thing he knew, he was back in the chappel, his hand still on the charred corpse of the Winter Beast.

Panicking, Kai pulled his hand away, his entire body covered in a cold sweat.

Making sure he still had his arms and... body, Kai sighed in relief.

So that was what dying felt like.

...

It was something he would much rather not experience again.

Turning around, Kai saw that...

The rest of the group were practically in the exact same spot as when he first activated the skill.

Kai froze.

Did that mean that time stopped when he activated the skill? Or was it just that the skill happened all inside his mind and didn't follow the regular rules of time?

Either way, it was a good feature, one that could potentially be useful in the future.

Then, some new notifications went off in his head.

You survived 7 seconds

You have failed to obtain any rewards.

Kai cursed to himself.

The system had only counted the time after he initially attacked the shadow beast, not the time that he spent preparing, which did make sense.

Still, what would he have to do to actually obtain any rewards? Survive 30 seconds, or maybe even longer? Did that mean he could just run away from anything he fought for as long as possible to get good rewards? Or did rewards depend on a mixture of time survived and damage dealt?

It would be something that Kai would have to test the next time he killed something.

At least there was one good thing about the skill, that being he could go all out and not suffer from any penalties.

In that shadow realm, Kai had used all of his skills, and luckily there was no knew cracks in his soul and no additional time added until his stats returned to normal.

So, at least some good things came out of that experience, those good things mostly being information gained.

Sighing, Kai performed one last check to make sure he had all of his limbs before going to look around the chappel.

Now that all of the flames had died out, the place was actually pretty creepy. The walls were incredibly dark and coated by layers and layers of dust.

Kai wasn't sure how it had even ended up down here in one piece, below the surface of the earth. It had obviously been part of the monastery that was way above them at the peak of the Royal Peak, but that didn't explain how it ended up all the way down here.

Maybe the massive fireball had knocked a chunk of the mountain off and it somehow ended up down here without falling apart? That idea was slightly possible, but still did not make much sense.

However, just as Kai was about to go explore the chappel properly, he froze and glanced back at the body of the Winter Serpent.

On the ground beside it was a small ember, the remains of the mesmerising flame that had all died out.

Only this ember refused to die out. In fact, it was almost like it couldn't die out.

Then, Kai frowned.

The flame had already been incredibly beautiful to lay eyes on, but why did this ember seem so much prettier?

Kai wanted to touch it.

The colours were just so incredible, like nothing would ever be able to compare to it.

Kai slowly got closer to it.

It was like the flame was calling to him, drawing him closer.

Kai crouched down towards the flame.

It was almost like it was speaking to him.

Slowly, Kai reached out and touched the embers, then he-

Suddenly, his entire body was engulfed in flames.

Panicking, Kai thought he was about to be killed just as the Winter Serpent had been. He cursed his idiocy, why the hell had he touched the damn flame after he had witnessed first hand what it was capable of?

Only after a couple of seconds, the flame disappeared.

Then, a notification went off in his head.

You have received an item

Kai's eyes widened in excitement.

Seriously, what was going on with his luck? Was it the system trying to prepare him for his ascent of the mountain? Was it really going to be that bad?

Probably.

However, Kai was not going to say no to free rewards.

... Even though the reward wasn't really free and was a result of him getting extremely lucky.

Eyes widened, Kai skipped over the item he received for killing the Winter Serpent in favour of looking at the one he received for touching the ember.

However, as soon as he laid eyes on the title of the item, Kai froze.

What... the actual... fuck?

Remnant of Ash (Divine)