Endless Ascension
Episode 5 – The Final Champion
The portal is too big.
Too unstable.
Its black edges crackle with raw void energy, shards of light breaking off and dissolving before they hit the ground.
Even the crowd leans back, the stench of fear spreading through the stands.
When the figure steps through, the air screams.
⸻
The God-Killer
The System's voice doesn't whisper this time — it roars inside my skull.
[Opponent: LVL 500 – Kharvos, God-Killer of the Watchers]
[Title Effect: Immune to fear, immune to instant-kill effects, enhanced resistance to physical and energy damage.]
Kharvos stands almost my height but twice my mass. His skin is pale silver, his muscles traced with scars that glow faint gold. A crown of broken halo shards floats above his head. His weapon — a double-bladed glaive forged from the spine of a dead celestial — hums with the vibration of a collapsing star.
He isn't here to fight.
He's here to erase me.
The First Clash
The horn hasn't even finished sounding when he's in front of me.
One swing. That's all it takes. I block with both stars, but the impact sends me skidding back across the sand, arms vibrating from the force.
He's faster than he looks.
I fling a star toward his chest — he spins the glaive and knocks it aside like a toy. The returning arc barely reaches my hand before he's on me again, the blade slicing so close it shears a strand of my hair.
Testing the Titan
I dart left, then forward, feinting low before springing up toward his head. Both stars slice at his neck — they spark but don't bite deep. His skin is like tempered god-steel.
His counterattack is brutal. A sweep of the glaive catches my ribs and launches me into the wall. My vision flashes white with pain.
[System Alert: Bone Integrity at 74%]
I grin through blood. Finally… a fight worth killing for.
⸻
The First Blood
I adjust. Don't fight him head-on.
I dance around him — demon speed, celestial precision. One star cuts low at his knee while the other arcs toward his side. He blocks the knee strike, but the second hits home, the rune flaring just enough to leave a burn.
It's small.
But it's blood.
He snarls. The broken halo shards above his head glow brighter.
The Sky Falls
Kharvos leaps — impossibly high for his mass — and comes down with the glaive in a vertical strike. The blade's impact cracks the arena floor in half, shockwaves rippling outward.
I vault sideways, fling both stars toward his exposed back. They embed — runes flaring — and I chain ignite them.
The explosion shoves him forward a step. Just one.
That's when I realize — every hit, every blast, is wearing him down.
⸻
The Push Back
He comes at me harder now, glaive a blur of silver and gold. Each strike is enough to kill if I mistime even a breath. I parry with the stars, sparks flying, every block sending vibrations through my bones.
A thrust grazes my shoulder — my arm goes numb. He follows up with a spin that forces me to drop to my knees to avoid losing my head.
But that puts me in range. I drive both stars into his thigh and ignite, the detonation sending molten silver blood spraying across my face.
He roars — the first real sound of pain I've heard from him.
The Risk
I can't drag this out. He's adapting, reading my movements. If this fight lasts too long, I'll die.
I take the gamble.
I let him hit me.
The glaive's blade slices deep across my side — white-hot agony tearing through muscle and bone. But as he commits to the strike, I twist in close, jam both stars into his chest where the broken halo's light is brightest, and scream the ignition command.
The runes flare so violently they turn gold. The blast is a miniature sun erupting between us.
We're both thrown apart, the arena walls cracking under the force.
⸻
The God-Tier Awakening
Smoke fills the air. My ears ring. My body feels like shattered glass.
The System cuts through the haze.
[Level Up] → 61 → 66] (+5 levels)
*[Weapon Evolution: Tier 9 Breakthrough — GOD-TIER FORM UNLOCKED]
*[Dual Star Form: Celestial-Demon Fang]
*[Passive Effect: All thrown stars now split into spectral copies upon release, dealing 50% base damage per copy.]
I look at my hands.
The throwing stars are no longer black steel. They are alive — forged from shifting celestial metal and demonbone, glowing runes etched so deep they pulse like veins. Energy flares from their edges in a continuous, burning halo.
⸻
The Final Exchange
Kharvos staggers from the smoke, silver blood dripping from half a dozen new wounds. His broken halo is cracked further, light sputtering.
I fling one star — it splits into five copies mid-flight, all curving in unnatural arcs. He blocks two, but three slice into him from impossible angles, detonating on contact.
I'm already in motion, second star splitting as I close the gap. The impacts chain across his armor, breaking it open like rotting shell.
I appear in front of him. For the first time, he looks unsure.
"You… should not exist."
I press both stars into his chest.
"That's why I win."
The explosion is the loudest sound the arena has ever heard.
When the light fades, there is nothing left of Kharvos but molten scraps and the dying flicker of a halo.
⸻
The Aftermath
The crowd is silent.
The Watchers are silent.
The portal closes without another word.
The System speaks.
[Level: 66]
[God-Tier Weaponry Engaged]
[Warning: Higher worlds have taken notice.]
I spin the evolved stars once. Their spectral copies shimmer in the air before fading.
I look up at the Watchers, smile through the blood on my teeth.
"Send me more."
Because now…
I'm ready for them.