MrEmperor9167

In a world where cities float above the earth and ancient beasts roam the land, truth has long since been buried beneath the clouds…

Seventeen-year-old Aryan has lived his entire life in a cursed land city — a crumbling outpost surrounded by monsters with fangs like swords and demons with human faces. His mother, a low-tier Light wielder, died from a mysterious illness when he was seven. His father? Vanished in a classified government mission years earlier, investigating the very secrets the world refuses to speak of — the beasts, the demons… and the floating cities themselves.

No one knows Aryan exists — not the ruling government, not the elite nobles who live high above in shining cities suspended 1000 feet in the sky, not even the assassin guilds and rebel warlords fighting for scraps of power on the surface.

But Aryan is about to shatter their silence.

Hidden within this fractured world lies a shattered ancient artifact — a mysterious cube once powerful enough to hold the balance between land, sky, and beyond. Split into four fragments, each held in secret corners of the world — from the heavenly Sky Government cities to the beast-infested wilds — its true purpose is unknown… but it calls to Aryan.

As he journeys across deadly lands aboard flying warships, hunted by assassins, tracked by beasts, and haunted by fragments of his parents’ forgotten legacies, Aryan begins to uncover a terrifying truth:

The cities were never meant to float...
The beasts were never meant to exist...
And he was never meant to survive.

But fate doesn’t care what the world intended. Aryan is coming — and he’s not just looking for answers.
He’s looking to break the sky open.

The Shadow in  Void

The arena was a storm of desperation and noise.

Dust, sand, and adrenaline thickened the air as the first round of the deadly blood game began. All around Aryan, people were readying themselves—men and women who had either lived hard or had nothing left to lose. Of the fifty kidnapped, at least forty had some form of magic power. Some glowed with elemental energy, others chanted softly, invoking spells like whispered prayers.

The rest? They held whatever scrap of steel or bone they could grip.

And in front of them, towering and breathing frost into the hot desert wind—the Crawler.

Its breath was a veil of winter in this cursed heat, and when it inhaled, the air itself trembled.

With a thunderous roar, the Crawler unleashed a wide arc of ice breath, a wave of freezing death that washed over the first row of unfortunate fighters. Men screamed. Limbs turned blue. Bones shattered. Several were frozen solid in grotesque mid-motion poses—like statues waiting to be broken.

His voice cut through the chaos like lightning.

He darted forward in a blur of black steel, spinning his sword with impossible precision. His blade sang a deadly rhythm, carving a path through the ice, shattering it into harmless shards before it could consume more fighters.

Freed from the ice's grip, a group of mages surged forward. A burly man roared, slamming his palms to the ground.

Chunks of solid ground erupted from beneath the Crawler, hurling into its massive frame with force. Dust and debris swallowed the monster's figure, cloaking the battlefield in a thick gray haze.

People exhaled, hope flickering in their eyes.

"Did we… kill it?" someone asked.

Aryan didn't move. His eyes narrowed. The hair on his neck stood up, a sense he had learned to trust in every dark alley and battlefield.

"EVERYONE—MOVE! GET AWAY FROM IT—NOW!" Aryan roared.

The dust parted like curtains… revealing the red-hot glow of death inside.

Two beams of crimson light erupted from the Crawler's mouth like the breath of a dying god. A massive beam of raw energy tore across the arena with a sound like the sky being ripped apart.

In an instant, the area where the mages had stood became a crater. The earth boiled. Bodies vaporized. No bones. No screams. Just… nothing.

The survivors stood frozen in horror.

Kat's voice was a whisper: "...That was an B-rank beam. Not just ice…"

Aryan's eyes burned with fury. He couldn't let this thing run wild. Not here. Not while people were still alive.

He summoned his strength, blood rushing through his limbs like fire.

"Enhance. Strength. Level Three."

He launched himself like a bullet, the sand cracking under his feet, and slammed his fist into the creature's face with everything he had.

Instead, with its upper arm, it caught Aryan mid-air and hurled him like a ragdoll.

Aryan's body smashed into the arena wall. Stone shattered. Blood sprayed. Bones cracked like twigs.

Kat screamed, "ARYAN!"

His vision flickered. Pain drowned him. Ribs—shattered. Left arm—maybe broken. Lungs—burning.

Kat turned his gaze toward the monster, fury eclipsing the fear.

He charged and unleashed a sweeping arc of sword energy—

"Sword Slice: Severing Moon!"

His blade cut clean across the Crawler's arm, leaving a glowing red mark.

Kat's breath caught.We're not strong enough...

The Crawler's head turned slowly, as if annoyed.

They weren't just fighting to win.

They were fighting to survive a goddamn massacre.

Chapter 17: Beams of Death