[From the dawn of creation till the end of days, from the heavens to the earth, all beings shall tremble under your words, and all life forms shall comply according to your will.]
As the light finally died out, the world around them glitched erratically as Ace took in a deep breath, like a program struggling to adjust to higher settings and briefly lagging.
For a moment, the environment stuttered, textures flickering, space skipping slightly out of sync before quickly stabilizing, leaving an unsettling silence behind.
[You have obtained the Divine Grade Skill: The Heaven’s Authority.]
"Divine Grade?" Ace’s brows jerked a bit as the notification flashed in front of him, knowing the capabilities of the God-Tier Adaptation wasn’t enough to understand it, it only became enough when one comprehended, and he struggled to.
"Status." He whispered to himself.
[————Creator 401’s Status————]
[Name: Ace Voltia]
[Age: 18]
[Level: 6]
[Experience: 4]
[Dexterity: 20]
[Stamina: 22]
[Agility: 24]
[Strength: 26]
[Intelligence: 10]
[Soul-Energy: 250/260]
[Soul-Core Class: Chronos (1% Integrated)]
[Rank: Conceptual Law Breached. Your rank has evolved into the Grade 0 Upper Stage]
[Soul-Shard: Conceptual Law Breached. Your Soul-Shard has evolved into the Fragment of Origin.]
[Class Ability -
• Passive Ability — Timeless (1%)
Ability description: There can’t be an end without a beginning.
[Skills -
•Passive Skill — Physical Enhancement
• Passive Skill — Heaven’s Authority (Lv1)
Skill description: Absolute Telekinetic Sovereignty, this skill grants the user a force beyond standard telekinesis, not just manipulation of objects, but direct command over state, motion, and resistance itself.
[Soul-Energy consumption: 50]
[Assimilation: 1%]
[Evolution Points: 30]
’Soul-Energy consumption 50? I see, I may have gotten a Divine Grade Skill, but my current physical attributes and Soul-Energy is nowhere enough to completely utilize this skill efficiently.’
That alone was proof of how crucial it was for him to grow stronger quickly if he wished to ascend beyond the first trial of the sanctuary.
"Hm?" Ace glanced over his shoulders, and found the elf’s eyes wavering in disbelief as he stared at him.
"W—who are you?"
Ace wasn’t aware, but his skill evolution into a divine grade skill altered the flow of the first sanctuary, to the elf’s eyes, it was like his skill adaptation crashed a server, and everywhere went white for a brief moment.
"I’m a survivor, that’s just all there is to it." Ace turned around and approached her, then crouched to his feet as he said. "Now it’s your turn to answer my questions."
He tilted his head and stared at her wounds as steam slowly escaped the side of her body. "Self-healing, a notable feat by all elves, but with how severe your wounds are you can’t really do anything can you? If I wanted to kill you right now, you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it, so tell me, who are you?"
The elf slowly glanced at her wounds, for a moment she gritted her teeth hard, then sighed as she said. "Fine... I am princess Sylvaria of Elarwyn."
’Princess Sylvaria? So she’s royalty?’
"What do you know about the sanctuary?"
"The sanctuary is just as you expect it to be, a realm where your survival is based on your skills and abilities."
’So it’s not that much different from the New Nexus, only the New Nexus has an ending.’ Ace thought.
"The sanctuary is a realm where all races are summoned for one fundamental goal, survival of one. Just years after I was born, my grandfather told me stories of how several races are put against each other, serving as some sort of entertainment."
"Entertainment?" Ace’s brows jerked. "To who?"
"I don’t know, it’s just a theory my grandfather came up with after he completed the first twenty trials. He said the concepts were just too questionable, the Creator’s status, the constellations and being marked by them."
"Constellations?" Ace didn’t really think much of it earlier, but now that he did, he recalled seeing something like that just as the abyssal demon feasted on him.
A constellation was intrigued by his will to survive.
That notification panel suggested one crucial thing, that somehow, somewhere, they were all being watched by someone.
"He said after that day the mark of the sanctuary bloomed in our village, it was the beginning of something he wished never happened. Months, even years passed and the population of our people decreased by a great margin, and unless we completed the fifty trials of the sanctuary and obtained the Soul Stone, it’d be the end of our people."
"The beginning of something he wished never happened?" Ace’s eyes widened a bit as a thought struck him.
"Now tell me truly, who are you human? How do you possess such strength and ability?"
"My name is Ace, and like I told you, I am a survivor."
Even with his response Princess Sylvaria still glared at him with a hint of doubt and uncertainty in her eyes.
"Even after ultimately saving your life, you still seem to doubt me."
"I can never trust you, I can never trust the words of any human, not after what that bastard did."
"That bastard?" He glanced down at her wounds. "You mean the person that did that to you? A human?"
"Yes, you’re all nothing but deceitful creatures who’d do anything to get what they wan-"
Sylvaria couldn’t even finish speaking when a violent torrent of flame suddenly burst through the trees behind her, uprooting them from the ground.
At the last second, Ace grabbed her and instantly jumped out of the way as the raging flames tore through where they had been standing moments ago, and incinerated everything in its path.
Ace slowly lowered her to the ground, his hand still holding her arm gently.
But he could feel her body trembling.
Sylvaria’s eyes shook faintly, filled with unease, as though the very thing she had tried hardest to escape had finally found her.
"There you are..." A deep voice suddenly echoed from the direction the violent gust had come from.
Ace’s eyes narrowed as he slowly turned toward the forest ahead.
Then, from the shattered trees in the distance, the figure of a muscular man slowly emerged from the shadows, his heavy footsteps crushing the broken branches beneath him.
"Do you think it’d be that easy to escape from me?"
As the man fully stepped out from behind the trees, Ace’s eyes narrowed even further.
The broad figure, the sharp gaze, the overwhelming presence that he once felt.
He recognized him immediately.
The same man who had tried to attack him just before the trial began.
"I knew awakeners would do anything they’d have to just to survive and pass the first trial, but I never guessed recruiters would be part of those people, Alex."
Alex blinked as he locked eyes with his prey. "Oh? You’ve found yourself an ally? The elf and.." Alex’s eyes widened in shock as Ace fell in his sights.
"Y-You!" At first, he was dumbfounded, but slowly, the shock faded, replaced by a soft chuckle that quickly morphed into an uncontained laughter.
"Today must be my lucky day! Not only do I get to add a high tier creature to my kills to pass the first trial, but now... I get to have my revenge for the sake of my brother!"
"Add a high tier creature? So you finally decided to take the first trial."
"Yes, we did. But that doesn’t matter, at least not to someone who’s about to die!"
Alex folded his fingers into a fist, then cloaked it with his Soul-Energy, then almost instantly, that energy shifted, then turned into a strong, rippling wind that began swirling around his fist.
The ground cracked beneath his feet as he stepped forward, then immediately shattered to pieces as he disappeared, and in the next second, he was already in front of Ace.
Ace’s eyes widened in disbelief. He didn’t notice Alex had already reached him, but when he did, it was too late.
Alex punched him hard in the stomach, and the torrent of flames exploded from his fist like a cannon blast, sending Ace flying backward straight into a tree.
"Huma-, Ace!" Princess Sylvaria shouted as she watched his body fly effortlessly through the air. There was a huge margin between an awakener and a Soul-Hunter, and that was in their rankings. To obtain the title of a Soul-Hunter, you had to be above the ranks of a Grade 0 Upper Stage.
There was a big difference in dimension between a Grade 0 Upper Stage Awakener, and a Grade 1 Early Stage Soul-Hunter.
While a Soul-Hunter uses the full power of the Soul-Core at that specific rank.
So by default, even if Ace managed to beat the Lizard king, against a Soul-Hunter, he was utterly powerless.
"Your shouting won’t do you any good, you’re next, elf."
Sylvaria dragged her body slowly away as Alex approached her slowly, forming another attack within his palms. Her eyes wavered in fear, her body trembled slightly. Her injuries hadn’t fully recovered, so there was no way she could take him head on without forfeiting her life.
Just then, a faint tapping sound suddenly came from the direction Ace had crashed into, pulling Alex’s attention away from princess Sylvaria.
Alex glanced toward the broken pile of branches and shattered wood.
Then his eyes narrowed slightly.
Ace slowly walked out from the debris with steam curling up from his body, half his shirt was burnt to ashes, but he was completely unharmed, without even a single sign of pain on his face, as though Alex’s attack had done nothing to him at all.
"What?" He cleared his eyes to make sure they weren’t deceiving him. "How!?"
"How huh? I don’t entirely know myself."
[Ding! Unknown energy has been detected!]
[Analysing...]
"System... Do me a favor and don’t analyze." He muttered under his breath.
[Analysis of unknown energy has been rejected.]
"You know Mr Alex, there’s a thought that has been bothering me since you threw us out of the cave." Ace tapped the side of his shirt before glancing at Alex with an empty expression. "How are humans born?"
Alex’s confusion vanished the instant he heard the question.
"What?" The anger in his chest faded, replaced by a sharp, uneasy stillness as his expression slowly stiffened.
"Humans are born through their mothers, would you say that is the beginning of their life? And that the moment they cease to exist is the end of it?"
Alex was speechless. Ace’s words sounded like pure nonsense, making no sense to him at all.
"You may not know this, but the moment I met you and your accomplices, it became the beginning of my life in the sanctuary, but you..."
Ace stepped forward, and the light from the sky glinted off his hollow eyes. "Became the end of it the moment you condemned me to die in the Devil’s Playground."
Alex stiffened the moment he saw the cold, soul piercing gaze from Ace’s face. His blood ran cold, eyes widening as if he had just seen a ghost rise from the dead.
"You..." He took a step back, a bit of fear gripping him like ice. He was certain he had killed him, he even went the extra mile and blew his body up like he did to princess Sylvaria with his wind cannon.
So how the hell was he standing there, perfectly fine?
For a moment, he looked petrified, frozen in shock.
Then, slowly, his fear melted away, replaced by a faint smile that tugged at the corners of his lips.
"Ace Voltia." He chuckled as he ignored the elf behind him and stepped forward.
Questions raced through his mind, how was he alive and unharmed? Had he somehow escaped certain death because he had already obtained a Soul-Core?
He wanted answers, but right now, those questions couldn’t compare to the joy he felt within.
"I don’t know how you survived..." His hands flared to life, flames dancing along his skin as he poured his spiritual energy into them.
The heat crackled in the air, sparks flying as his power surged to the surface, ready to be unleashed.
"But I’m actually thankful that you did." Just killing him wouldn’t have felt satisfying, he wanted more, he wanted him to suffer in every way possible, only then would he feel at ease at his brother’s death.
Alex took a step forward. "So this time... I’ll make sure that you stay dead!"
He lunged forward, closing the distance in an instant. His fist shot straight toward Ethan’s face, moving at a speed almost too fast to see.
"Soul-Technique: Salamander’s Fist!"
Alex’s fist slammed into Ace’s face, but the moment it connected, the flames vanished. The punch felt weightless, like a breeze brushing past him, leaving Ace completely unshaken.
"What!?" His eyes shot wide open, disbelief etched across his face, as if his mind refused to accept what had just happened.
’I hit him with full force, I’m sure I hit him!’
But that didn’t seem to be the case.
He charged up the Salamanders fist and tried another punch, but the results were the same as last time, and Ace remained unmoved.
"There can’t be an end without a beginning. I never wrap my head around what that meant, but thanks to you I finally understood."
"Shut up!" Alex threw another Salamander’s fist at Ace in desperation. And it vanished the instant it touched him, and the blows did nothing at all.
"Just like humans, everything has a beginning and an end." Ace brushed aside the Salamander’s fist with his left hand, then drove a straight right into Alex, forcing him to stagger back a step.
"But when the beginning is discarded, the end can never occur. Just like if you were never born, you won’t be able to die." Ace threw another right cross. But this time, it hit cleanly and sent Alex crashing down onto his butt.
"If the beginning of your so-called Soul-Technique never existed, then your Soul-Energy, the kinetic energy behind your fists, does not have any effect on me."
"Shut up! You bastard!" Lost to his anger, Alex flooded his right fist with his Soul-Energy.
He shot up to his feet and hurled a devastating punch at Ace, but Ace caught his fist mid-motion, and the violent flames disappeared at once, leaving Alex dumbstruck.
"I—Impossible..."
"That is my ability... Timeless."
[You have activated the skill (Heaven’s Authority).]