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Chapter 7 - Chains of Eternity

I should have felt relief. Instead, dread sank its claws into me.

The throne was gone, but the ground beneath it cracked open, revealing a stairwell descending into darkness. The air grew heavy, the storm above dimming as if the dungeon itself was bowing to something below.

My system flickered.

—Warning: Presence detected. Authority exceeds current parameters. Identification… failed.

Failed. Even my broken system couldn't name it.

The descent felt endless. Each step hummed underfoot, vibrating with the pulse of lightning. My wounds screamed with every movement, but something in my chest pulled me downward — the same force that had kept me alive through every fight so far.

And then I saw it.

A vast chamber, its walls carved with runes older than language. At its center… a figure chained to a monolith of storm-crystal.

He wasn't beast, or god, or man. He was all three. His hair was a flowing mane of lightning. His body rippled with shifting forms — one heartbeat a dragon, the next a warrior, the next a shadow. His eyes opened as I stepped closer.

And in them, I saw infinity.

"So… the nameless one's toy finally arrives."

The voice wasn't sound. It was inside me, vibrating through my bones.

"Asterion was but my warden. You, little vessel, will be my key."

Chains of lightning snapped, one by one. The chamber shook.

For the first time since entering this dungeon, true fear crawled up my spine.

The real fight hadn't even started yet.

The chained figure rose, one link at a time snapping apart in showers of sparks. Every shackle that broke made the entire dungeon quake. Stones crumbled. Lightning arcs spread like cracks in reality itself.

The storm above wasn't raging anymore. It was bowing.

I swallowed hard, but my feet didn't move backward. My body trembled, sure, but the thought of running never crossed my mind.

This was it. My real trial.

"Nameless one's vessel…" the chained being's voice rumbled in my skull, "Do you even know what you carry? The purple lightning is no blessing. It is a fragment of my true self. A shard of the storm eternal. Return it, and I may yet let you live."

I clenched my fists, lightning seething in my veins.

"…Too late. It's mine now."

His lips curved into something between a grin and a snarl.

"Then you will die as my thief."

The last chain shattered.

He descended from the crystal throne, towering, shifting. One heartbeat he looked like a war god wrapped in lightning, the next like a beast with talons that could split mountains. His eyes were endless violet storms.

The ground beneath me split just from his first step.

I charged anyway.

My Spear of Lightning shot forward, fast enough to cut the air apart — but he raised one finger and dispersed it like a candle flame. Before I could blink, his hand closed around me, slamming me into the ground.

Ribs shattered. Breath gone.

"Too weak. Too fragile. You think lightning makes you a god? You are nothing but a spark in the rain."

He hurled me across the chamber. I hit the wall so hard my vision blurred into static.

Blood dripped from my mouth. My system screamed warnings: [Vitality critical. Willpower sustaining consciousness.]

But still… I laughed.

A hoarse, broken laugh that echoed through the chamber.

"Maybe I'm weak. Maybe I'm nothing but a spark. But sparks…" I forced myself to my feet, my body glowing violet, "…burn the brightest when they refuse to die out."

The fight spiraled into madness.

His claws ripped the floor apart, storms bursting from every strike. I darted through the chaos with Shroud, body torn open with every near miss. My Domain spread wider than ever before, clashing against his presence. For the first time, he looked… annoyed.

But every exchange left me closer to collapse. He wasn't just powerful — he was inevitability. Every swing was death. Every glance a storm.

And still, I pushed back.

At one point, I dove straight into his chest, forcing lightning into him, letting it devour his energy while he howled. He slammed me into the ground, crushing my body into broken stone, but I clung to him like a parasite, lightning screaming from my veins.

The system flashed red.

—Warning: Life force at limit. Engage overload?

Overload? I didn't think. I accepted.

Purple lightning erupted from me like a sun exploding. My veins burned, skin splitting, every nerve screaming. But in that storm, I became something else.

Not human. Not god. Just… lightning.

"Impossible," the storm-being roared, staggering as my energy tore into his form. "No vessel should contain this much—"

I cut him off with a scream. Not of fear, not of pain — but defiance.

The chamber lit with a blinding flash as my lightning and his collided. For a heartbeat, there was only white.

And then silence.

When the haze cleared, I was on my knees, body smoking, vision half-gone.

The storm-being lay shattered across the floor, his body dissolving into sparks. His voice echoed one last time.

"The nameless god's gamble… perhaps not so foolish. But know this, vessel: you have stolen power that was never meant to be yours. One day… the storm will collect its debt."

And with that, he was gone.

The system roared.

System Update:

—Final Boss [???] defeated.

—Class revealed: [Unknown]. Rank: Undefined.

—Evolution unlocked.

Current Stats:

Strength: 40

Agility: 40

Vitality: 38

Intelligence: 33

Willpower: 50

Perception: 40

Unique Attribute: Purple Lightning (True Awakening)

— Capable of devouring, reshaping, and evolving foreign energies.

— Evolution path remains undefined.

I collapsed onto the ground, staring up at the dungeon ceiling.

For the first time since entering, the lightning stopped. No storm. No rumbling. Just silence.

And in that silence, I realized something.

I wasn't weak anymore. I wasn't the mercenary who cowered behind others.

I had faced death — the kind that gods themselves feared — and I survived.

When I leave this dungeon, I won't bow. I won't kneel.

The world will bow to me

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