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 voice from the loudspeaker returned—this time, darker… colder… crueler.

"Welcome, survivors. You've proven yourselves capable of facing monsters. Now, let's see how well you fare against each other."

"Only fifteen of you will remain by the end. The rest… will fall."

"This is an all-out elimination battle. No teams. No mercy. No rules."

Gasps spread like wildfire among the thirty survivors still licking their wounds from the last round. Some flinched. Some clenched their fists. Others grinned with bloodlust.

Kat's knuckles whitened around his sword hilt. Aryan's heart thudded once—then again, harder.

"Elimination," Aryan muttered. "Now it's us against everyone... even him."

He glanced across the vast arena to that man—the silent figure who had cleaved the B-rank Crawler like paper. He stood at the far end of the arena, still motionless, as if the announcement didn't concern him.

"That guy… if we face him, we're done. We don't stand a chance."

Aryan's fingers curled into fists. His bones still ached from his last encounter with the beast. His blood hadn't dried. And now he had to fight—not monsters, but people. Desperate ones.

Some were already preparing. A woman summoned blades of wind to circle her body like a deadly hurricane. A man with one glowing eye cracked his knuckles as gravity distorted the air around him. Another cloaked figure shimmered in and out of visibility, like mist on the wind—speed magic.

"There are too many strong ones," Aryan said, voice low. "We won't last long out there."

"Then we don't fight," Kat replied quickly. "We hide."

"We survive," Kat said, more calmly this time. "They didn't say you had to kill. Just that only fifteen people can remain. If others fight and fall… we just need to avoid them until the count drops."

Aryan hesitated. He looked up at the timer: 28 minutes to go.

He scanned the arena. Scorch marks. Bloodstains. The cold corpses of those who hadn't made it past Round One.

"How long can we hide in an arena like this?"

"Long enough. Come on. If we can find high ground or blind spots, we might make it through."

Aryan bit down his instinct to charge headfirst into danger. The fire in him wanted to burn. But Kat was right. Bravery was suicide now.

This wasn't a battle to prove anything.

And behind the scenes, bandits filled the stands with wicked grins. Their gold eyes gleamed with sick excitement.

"Let the slaughter begin… in 30 minutes," the voice called again.

Aryan and Kat slipped into the shadows of the broken stone columns near the edge of the arena. They were hunters once. Now, they were prey again.

Chapter 20: The Crimson Countdown