Chapter 107: Void Wings
He turned to face Alex fully, and his ancient eyes burned with sothing that might have been warning or might have been hope. The expression lingered there for a mont, as though he were asuring whether the man standing before him was worth the effort of speaking plainly.
"You ca here with nothing. You have no points, no allies, and no understanding of how this place works. But you also ca here with sothing that most of them lack. You ca here with the mind of a survivor. I saw it when you faced Sofia. I saw it when you manipulated Ares. You do not fight what you cannot defeat. You find another way."
"Keep the praise going," Alex said, nodding with quiet satisfaction.
Jaros’s mouth twitched, and the faintest hint of amusent crossed his otherwise stern face. That bastard remained as shaless as ever, even in a place where arrogance often led directly to death.
"The next three days will be more than survival for you. It will be the test of your luck, patience, skill, and power," he said.
"I understand," Alex replied, nodding again.
"Do you?" Jaros leaned closer, his massive face filling Alex’s vision. His voice lowered, but the weight behind it increased. "Then understand this as well. The geniuses on that board, the ones with millions of points, did not reach that position by being honorable. They did not get there by being fair. They got there by being hungry. They were hungrier than anyone else. They were more willing to sacrifice, to betray, and to do whatever was necessary to climb higher."
He straightened slowly, and when he continued, his voice dropped to sothing almost gentle.
"You asked
how many points I have. I have fifty-two thousand. But there was a ti when I had more. There was a ti when I was in the top twenty, when I believed that my strength would carry
to the summit, and when I thought that the path ahead was simply a matter of defeating whoever stood in my way."
He turned away, his gaze drifting across the distant battlefield that stretched toward the horizon.
"I was wrong. I challenged soone I should not have challenged. I lost everything. I lost my points, my rank, and my reputation. The only reason I am still alive is because the one who defeated
saw more value in letting
live than in taking my points."
He remained silent for a long mont, as though reliving the mory.
"You are different from the others. I can see that. But different is not always better. Different is often worse. The strong survive here. The clever survive here. But the ones who are both, the ones who are strong and clever, do not rely survive. They thrive."
He turned back to Alex, and for the first ti, there was sothing almost like respect in his expression.
"Be clever, Alex. Be very, very clever. Because when the hunting period begins tomorrow, the strong will co for you. And if all you have is strength, you will die like all the others."
Alex did not sleep that night.
He sat in the shadow of the cliff, his eyes closed and his breathing steady, while his mind worked through possibilities and contingencies. The battlefield stretched out before him like a silent ocean of danger and opportunity, and sowhere within that vast expanse, a hundred geniuses were preparing for the hunt.
He had two of the most powerful beings in this realm actively hunting him.
And when the hunting period began, every single person on that ranking board would be looking for him, drawn by the promise of a bounty that Valerias had placed on his head before he had even arrived.
He opened his eyes and looked at the sky. The stars were beginning to fade, and the first hints of light were appearing along the horizon. Dawn was approaching, and with it, the hunt.
He stood, stretched slowly, and began to walk toward the eastern ridge.
Mira was waiting for him there, her small figure barely visible against the gray light of early morning. She did not smile when she saw him, and she did not speak. She simply nodded once, acknowledging his decision, and then turned to lead the way into the battlefield.
Alex followed her without hesitation. His footsteps remained silent on the cold ground, while his mind continued to calculate.
The hunting period would last for three days, seventy-two hours in total. Within that ti, he would need to survive. He would need to kill. He would need to climb the rankings, not because he cared about the numbers themselves, but because the numbers represented the only currency that mattered in this place. Without points, he was nothing. With points, he would beco a target.
However, there was a third option, one that Jaros had hinted at and that Mira had quietly confird. The rankings did not asure strength alone. They asured everything. Every kill, every victory, and every mont of survival contributed to the total.
More importantly, the rankings attracted attention.
If he could climb high enough, he might draw the eyes of beings beyond this battlefield. Sage rlin had already demonstrated that such entities existed, and if rlin stood at that level, then there were certainly others who stood even higher. Discipleship under such a figure would change everything. The trial would beco trivial, and the path forward would widen.
Still, rlin was more than enough for now.
"Where are we going?" he asked as they moved through the crystal forest. Their footsteps crunched softly against glowing fragnts that littered the ground like shattered stars.
"To the ruins," Mira replied without looking back. "There is sothing there that you need to see. Sothing that might help you survive the next three days."
"And if it does not help?"
She stopped and turned to face him. In the growing light, he could see her more clearly. Dark circles shadowed her eyes. Thin scars crisscrossed her forearms. Her hands never stopped moving, as though she were constantly preparing for a threat that might appear at any mont.
"Then we will both die," she said simply. "And soone else will take our points and climb a little higher on the board."
They continued moving, and after nearly twenty minutes of careful navigation, Mira pushed aside a cluster of jagged crystals and revealed a narrow opening hidden beneath them. The entrance descended sharply, almost invisible unless soone knew exactly where to look.
They entered the underground tunnel, which extended far deeper than Alex had expected. The air grew colder as they descended, and the faint glow from the crystals above gradually faded into darkness. Without Mira’s guidance, it would have been nearly impossible to find this place, let alone navigate its twisting passages.
"Follow
very closely," she said quietly. "There are traps too."
Alex did not ask questions. He simply followed her, carefully matching her steps.
Several tis she halted abruptly, stepping over nearly invisible pressure plates or guiding him around thin wires that blended into the shadows. At one point, she paused beside a wall and pressed a sequence of stone fragnts in a specific order. Sowhere deeper in the tunnel, a faint clicking sound echoed, as though a chanism had disengaged.
Finally, they erged from the tunnel into a vast underground chamber.
The ruin resembled an abandoned factory. Broken platforms hung overhead. Rusted tallic structures lined the walls. Strange conduits ran across the ceiling, so of them still faintly glowing as though energy flowed through them even after centuries of neglect.
"What is a ruin doing here in a trial ground? Is this a place where another civilization lived before?" Alex asked, curiosity evident in his voice.
"No," Mira replied. "There are many such hidden opportunities around the battlefield. You need luck and strength to acquire them."
She led him deeper into the structure, navigating corridors that twisted unpredictably. Eventually, she stopped before a sealed chamber. After triggering another hidden chanism, the door slid open with a low chanical hum.
Inside, a glass cylinder stood at the center of the room.
Within it floated a pair of red wings.
They were not physical in the ordinary sense. They appeared semi-transparent, composed of crimson light that shifted like flowing energy. Faint pulses radiated from them, filling the chamber with a quiet pressure.
"Look at it," Mira said softly. "That is the gift in this ruin. I found this place last month. I have co here every day to claim this reward, but it simply will not choose . I have gained so other benefits from this ruin though. However, I have an inkling that it might choose you."
Alex activated Eye of Revelation.
Information appeared instantly.
[Na: Void Wings
Rank: Galactic Grade
Function: Grants speed comparable to Galactic Realm beings for five minutes per day.
Requirent: Genetic potential of 15x.]
The description was simple, yet Alex’s eyes widened.
Five minutes of galactic-level speed in this battlefield would be decisive. It would allow him to escape almost any ambush, assassinate targets before they could react, and reposition faster than anyone else. In a place where survival depended on montum, such an ability was priceless.
More importantly, he t the requirent perfectly.
No wonder Mira could not activate it. Finding a ruin was only the first step. Possessing the capability to claim the reward was the real challenge.
Alex stepped closer to the cylinder. As he approached, the wings began to glow more brightly, reacting to his presence. The crimson light intensified, and faint ripples spread across the glass.
Mira watched silently, her expression calm but tense.
The cylinder opened with a soft hiss.
The wings drifted forward, hovering before Alex. The energy surrounding them pulsed once, then surged inward.
They rged into his back.
A wave of power spread through his body, sharp and cold. For a mont, he felt as though space itself had beco lighter around him, as though distance had lost aning. The sensation faded quickly, leaving behind a dormant energy waiting to be activated.
Alex exhaled slowly.
"Thanks, Mira. I will never forget this," he said, and this ti the smile on his face was genuine.
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