chapter 1 Malfunctioning Warp gate

In a dark, cold, enclosed cell-like room with no windows or doors, empty of anything except for the person who can be shown to be restrained by shackles on their four limbs. This causes them to be unable to move in any way.

When lights suddenly lit the enclosed room, waking the sleeping person, they were about 6 feet (182.88 cm) tall. No one could accurately see his height, for he was shackled to the stone bed he was lying on. His charcoal-black hair that went to his waist looked like a mess of what looked like a lack of care, his throat seemingly scared by something, and his skin sickly white because of the lack of sunlight.

Their appearance seemed to be made to be more human-like, to be more appealing to the majority of the ministers. The only way they could tell it was a person of demonic heritage was from its twin horns and volcanic-like pupils. He wore a thin top shirt and thin bottom pants while lying on the cold, hard stone slab bed. The shackles binding him to the cold, hard stone slab bed vanished, looking as if they were never there, but still leaving red markings where they were shackled.

Someone spoke in the cell: "AD33. You're given one last chance to complete this final trial; if you fail, expect to be recycled just like your previous predecessor for the new creation of AD34. If you do not wish to be recycled, then complete it.". As the voice disappeared, a chest was teleported by the bed.

AD33 slowly opened their eyes to adjust to the blinding light that lit his cold cell. He stood up and opened the given chest, seeing nothing more than a set of soul-bound enchanted robes, pants, and shoes capable of mending as long as the wearer bound themselves with them. AD33 wore it over what he was already wearing and sat on the stone bed, preparing for the warp gate to appear to send him to his test location.

AD33 was fidgeting with his finger while waiting to start: "I need to complete this; I need to survive; I need to live," though AD33 was encouraging himself, when suddenly a warp gate appeared around him, taking him to the location of his last trial.

In a ruined city empty of its previous lively inhabitants, no one knows where the inhabitants of this city have gone; either they all died suddenly or left the city altogether. A warp gate appeared in the middle of the city, and AD33 fell from the warp gate.

AD33 immediately cast cloaking spells around him, calmly stood up, and steadily surveyed his surroundings. He saw nothing more than the ruined buildings around him; small numbers of the damaged structures were looking ready to fall apart, while the last ones standing were the mage towers made of sturdier materials than what the commoner's houses were built of.

When he looked up to the sky, there was nothing more than the vastness of the dark, just like every other trial he had completed.

Even though the whole city was covered by darkness, there was some sort of magic light that enabled AD33 to see even the supposed darkness. When AD33 was surveying his surroundings, he saw the most intact and tallest mage tower and decided to use it as a sort of watch tower to learn more about the layout of the city.

As AD33 ran for the entrance of the mage tower, he stopped when he heard the sound of a void beast. It seems that some void beasts have already started spawning. He investigated the sound and saw only copper-ranked beasts that were just spanning. Before they could truly spawn, AD33 cast a fireball and left to run back to his previous mission of going to the mage tower.

As the copper-ranked void beasts spawned, they were instantly killed by the fireball that was cast by AD33, leaving nothing but burned corpses. AD33 was finally at the entrance. He ran through the stairs, knowing that there was nothing useful for his survival if he went and searched for anything in the tower, and focused only on going up to the top. When he was finally at the top, AD33 went to the edge of the top and surveyed for a location that could be used as a way of slowing down the numerous void beasts that would be spawning.

He saw a place that was surrounded by three ruined mage towers that should be strong enough to stop the more advanced-ranked void beast that would spawn in the future from attacking him the instant they spawned.

So with that decision, AD33 went to the other side of the edge of the building to gain momentum. He suddenly ran, jumped from the edge of it, and floated down from the tall mage tower near the three ruined mage towers. When he landed on the ground, he rolled to the ground and ran to the ruined mage towers.

To make sure nothing surprises him when more void beasts spawn, he decides to explore the surroundings of the three mage towers to learn more about the surrounding area. When he encounters spawning void beasts, he will always cast either a fireball or a magic bolt to kill them instantly when they spawn.

AD33 would guard against the spawning void beasts around the area to make sure not to be overwhelmed by them. With time, stronger void beasts that are higher-ranking cooper void beasts would spawn, like the iron, silver, gold, and cobalt-ranked void beasts, and sometimes leader-class void beasts of their rank that were four times stronger than a normal-ranked beast.

Because of the numerous trials AD33 has done in his whole life and the many spells he has learned and fused, these void beasts were nothing more than cannon fodder, but even with his might, AD33 would always make sure to kill them the instant he met them, for he had experienced many failed trials because he was too overconfident in his abilities. He underestimated them when they would suddenly rush him with their numerous numbers because he didn't care about their future threats. After all, he could kill all of them.

As time went on, higher-ranked beasts would spawn like cobalt, and mithril-ranked void beasts would appear that would be capable of touching him.

But with his passive barrier spell, they would always protect him before they would truly harm him.

But because this beast was getting stronger, killing them instantly was no longer an option with just simple spells like magic bolts and fireballs. AD33 decided to use flying swords, a spell created with the fusion of spirit (arcane blade) and electric shock (chain lighting), to kill them instantly. When leader-class beasts would spawn from their ranks, AD33 would cast vortex, a spell created with the fusion of cyclone (void) and satellite (antigravity), solely on this leader-class beast to kill them instantly. While the flying sword spell would focus on the normal-class beasts from the ranks of the void beast.

Sometimes AD33 would be overwhelmed by the number of beasts and would cast the Great Rift. A spell created with the fusion of a froze Nova (an earthquake) and a meteor (a volcanic eruption) is capable of destroying the spatial rifts themselves to kill everything around him. But the spell would always take a minute to recharge before being cast again.

As Adamantine-ranked beasts spawned, AD33 would use the three ruined mage towers to prevent them from jumping or pinning at him because of how large their bodies were. But because of how powerful they were, they would always be capable of destroying the passive barrier around him. Allowing the lesser-ranked void beast to pounce at me with my barrier spell, which was down to injury while running around the three ruined mage towers.

When suddenly a leadership-class Adamantine-ranked beast spawned, destroying the three mage towers without the protection of the towers and preventing the higher-ranked from pouncing on him.

AD33 was forced to run around the whole city while taking potshots behind him. When a leader-class Adamantine-ranked beast spawned in front of him, he attacked him the minute it spawned, and before it could cause devastating damage to him. AD33 cast a phantom spell to allow the attack to pass through. Because of the energy of the void around this beast, AD33 still felt some damage from within him, causing him to cough out blood while still running from the man-void beast at his back.

While AD33 was still running around the city, He felt the ground shaking, and he instantly knew what was happening next because a luminite-ranked beast had spawned.

This luminite rank beast was completely more powerful and larger than the leader-class Adamantine rank beast. AD33 would throw caution to the wind and would always run to these beasts to only target them when they were still being spawned. To make sure, they would either die before they spawned or be too injured to properly have the energy to focus on attacking him.

AD33 threw caution to the wind, he would attack constantly, causing no time for the passive barrier spell to be properly cast, causing him numerous injuries to gather around his body. Sometimes the leader-class Adamantine-ranked beast would be able to attack him, causing him to be thrown around like a toy being played by a child, causing more damage to his body.

Suddenly, the whole city started shaking, and when AD33 felt the shaking, he felt his heart sink to his stomach because it was this beast that almost killed him in the last trial and the reason he failed it.

The only thing he can do is make sure to run and survive the last few minutes of the trial.

A large beast was being spawned in the center of the ruined city. The entire beast was so large that one could mistake it for a mountain with many limbs around it, and when it spawned, it roared.

Numerous copper, iron, silver, gold, and cobalt-ranked void beasts burst and exploded from their roars, while the lesser cobalt and mithril-ranked void beasts were knocked out and fell to the ground. While the only ones that were not affected much were the Adamantine-ranked beasts spawn, even then they turned to it to submit themselves to it, while the leader-class Adamantine-ranked beasts spawn were non-submissive, When it saw they were submitting to it, the leader-class luminite beast took one of them from their hands and devoured it.

The other already-spawned luminite beast already seemed to submit, for they seemed to already know what it was. AD33 saw all of this again and felt immense fear, not for this leader-class luminite beast, but for how the ministers were capable of stopping it and vaporizing it in his last trial. AD33 hid at the very edge of the city. The reason was twofold: to make sure he was able to move far away from the center and to make sure to lessen the impact of the roar of the supreme from the leader-class luminite beast. That was one of the many reasons he failed the last trial.

Because he did not know its roar, it caused him to be trapped by its shout, and when it finally saw me, it slammed its hands on him instantly, making AD33 feel the close kiss of death. The only reason he survived was because of the ministers who stopped it and vaporized it.

Now that he knew of it, he was prepared for its arrival, which is why he was at the edge of the city. AD33 waited at the edge with bated breath, seeing this leader-class luminite beast eat the leader-class Adamantine beast.

AD33 felt the surrounding mana—no, the mana around the whole city—was being siphoned from somewhere. He then looked at the leader-class luminite beast, which was devouring the mana of the entire city. He saw it open its mouth fully, and the feeling of mana around the city was surging towards it.

Being afraid of what comes next if this beast is given enough time to devour the whole city of Mana, AD33 prepared one of his most powerful spells that should be capable of destroying this beast, even if said spell has the trade-off of being hit. He not only used the surrounding mana; he also used his internal mana to prepare the nuke spell, a spell of great devastation.

When he felt it was done, he released it and targeted the opened mouth of the beast. He then jumped to a ruined building to at least shield himself, even if it were nothing to the might of the nuke; at least he felt protected. When the leader classed the luminite beast as arrogant to think a puny little demon born to be capable of hurting, it let the spell hit.

The beast, knowing nothing of the might of the nuke spell that is capable of using the surrounding mana to cause a massive explosion, causing a great explosion in it and the surrounding city, causing all the void beasts to be killed, and AD33, with his barrier, who is also in the blast zone, to be almost dead.

When AD33 came, he was almost dead but still capable of movement. He went and saw the damage to the city and saw that the leader-class luminite beast was almost dead as well.

Seeing this, AD33 was so excited about the chance of passing this trial. Even though he knew that the beast was almost at death, he tried to cast a great rift with all he had.

When he did, he paused, his eyes widening because he couldn't absorb the surrounding mana to cast the spell. After all, there were no manas in the whole city. The almost-dead leader-class luminite beast saw the reason for its current injuries, filled with rage, and slammed its giant arms at AD33.

He just stood there, incapable of doing anything; he was too injured to jump or run, and even if he did, he would not be able to escape from it with how large it was. Afterward, AD33 was crushed once more by a leader-class luminite beast, causing him to once again feel death.

When he was about to truly die, everything stopped, with both the beast and AD33 being affected as well, and the next day the beast vaporized. AD33 just lay there in despair, knowing what would happen next.

A voice was heard all around the city: "AD33, you failed for the last time; you would be given enough time to come to terms with your soon-to-be recycled destiny." The voice suddenly stopped.

AD33 sat in a state of defeat, acknowledging his failure to serve the ministers and accepting his demise. The minuscule amount of mana around the city meant that the required mana was not sufficient for the warp gate to open properly, but it was still capable of teleportation, causing the warp gate to malfunction. AD33 accepted their defeat, without noticing the malfunctioning warp gate that had absorbed them.