ONLINE: Blades of Eternity

The darkness breathed with silent menace, thick like ink and ever shifting. Wandering souls continued to swarm in from the void—twisted, screeching remnants of the dead who never found peace, each driven by primal hunger and resentment. Yet amid the black, two young figures danced with steel.

Kaelen and Kelvin.

They had long stopped relying on vision.

Their senses had deepened into something instinctual, something that bordered on primal awareness. Their blades were no longer tools—they were extensions of their very soul, slicing through the dark as if guided by fate.

Kaelen, wielding the Blade of Eternity, shifted between postures as smoothly as flowing water. His feet barely made a sound on the stone beneath. His strikes came like whispers—sharp, silent, and decisive. He didn't waste movement. Every dodge was a transition into a strike, every breath aligned with the beat of his heart and the dance of death.

Kelvin, with his Scythe of the Abyss, matched him perfectly. Where Kaelen was a river, Kelvin was a storm—his motions sweeping and explosive, covering wide arcs as he flowed with ghostlike grace between assaults. He twisted with deadly rhythm, his scythe arcing with a dancer's finesse and a reaper's finality.

The air around them began to shimmer subtly, sparks of light escaping their bodies like faint embers. Neither of them noticed. Their minds were too deep, too immersed, too absorbed in the flow of the battle.

And then—

A stillness.

Not from them.

But from the void itself.

Something shifted in the Crucible.

Something big.

A howl, deeper and more guttural than the rest, rumbled through the darkness like a mountain cracking apart. The very floor trembled beneath their feet.

Then it appeared.

From the void emerged a colossal Wandering Soul—nearly three times the size of a man. Its form was distorted, bulbous, with limbs sprouting at unnatural angles. Clawed arms—six of them—reached out, dragging its pulsating body across the ground as its white eyes glowed with hatred and pain.

The air thickened with its arrival.

It shrieked.

And charged.

Kaelen and Kelvin didn't flinch.

Their movements became mirrored, their blades lifted as if moved by the same rhythm. No words were exchanged. No strategies planned.

They just knew.

The moment the massive soul lunged, Kaelen dashed beneath its shadow—low, precise. His blade flashed upward, cutting across three of its limbs in a clean arc. It screamed—but before it could retaliate, Kelvin was already in motion, spinning mid-air and bringing the Scythe of the Abyss down like divine punishment onto its back.

The beast crashed to the ground, howling. But it wasn't dead.

It tried to rise—

Kaelen leapt, twirling in the air and planting his blade into its shrieking maw.

Kelvin followed up instantly, landing beside him, scythe held low, glowing subtly with the friction of raw movement. He whipped his weapon upward with a roar of momentum, cleaving clean through the soul's body.

SPLATTER.

A shockwave of spiritual discharge burst through the air, scattering the lesser souls around them into wisps.

And then—

DING!

Both of their eyes snapped wide as an ethereal sound echoed inside their heads, accompanied by familiar glowing system windows.

[SYSTEM ALERT!]

[Hidden Mission Completed: "Survive the Crucible of the Nullcarvers"]

[Objective: Survive and eliminate all hostile entities within the Crucible using only martial instincts and weapon mastery.]

[Completion Time: 4 hours, 47 minutes.]

[Bonus Condition Achieved: First awakening of Qi Spark.]

[Rewards:]

[+3 Physical Constitution]

[+2 Reflex]

[Nullcarver Basic Technique Unlocked]

[Qi Sensitivity:] [Awakened – Initial Stage]

[Title Gained:] [Nullcarver Initiate]

Their chests heaved, blades dripping with glowing black ichor that quickly disintegrated into the dark air. The fight had ended, but the surge of something foreign and powerful still coursed through their veins.

They stood still, panting, glancing around the now-quiet abyss.

Kaelen looked down at his hands. "That… didn't feel like just swordsmanship…"

Kelvin nodded slowly, a grin creeping across his face despite the blood at the corner of his mouth. "Whatever it was… I want more."

Then they both looked upward as the darkness around them began to recede, slowly unveiling a narrow stairway that hadn't been there before—leading upward toward flickering torchlight.

Their trial was over.

But the real war was just beginning.

As Kaelen and Kelvin stood at the base of the ancient stairs, the remnants of the soulstorm behind them began fading into the black. Their weapons were still in hand, sheened with dissipating spiritual essence, their bodies slick with sweat, muscles taut but refined from the brutal trial.

A faint sound of footsteps echoed above them.

Soft. Measured.

Eirana appeared.

And right now, she has never been shocked about anything else in her life compared to actually witnessing two mana imbued humans who were completely clueless about the secret technique of the Nullcarvers have already gotten the preliminary level technique of the tribe in less than five hours.

But despite all that, Her expression didn't change.

But her voice betrayed the slightest note of strain beneath her usual emotional distance.

"You both did well," she said plainly. "Impressive for first-time wielders of Qi. I didn't think humans of your kind had this kind of adaptive resilience anymore."

Kelvin, brushing his thumb across the edge of his scythe, gave her a half-smirk. "You're not good at hiding your awe, y'know."

Kaelen gave her a faint glance, then nodded without comment. He could sense it—the churning emotion inside her, like an unseen current beneath frozen waters. She was reeling, stunned, but too bound to elven pride to show it outwardly.

She stepped aside as they began ascending the steps.

Just as they reached the halfway point up the spiral stairway, the entire foundation quaked beneath them.

BOOM—

A low, harrowing tremor rumbled through the earth like a beast stirring in its sleep. This one was different from before—more violent, more chaotic, and filled with a primal wrongness that made the air feel suddenly tainted.

Dust drifted from the ceiling as deep cracks ran along the stone walls. Loose rocks fell, clattering against the ancient floor.

Both Kaelen and Kelvin froze mid-step.

Another tremor followed, stronger than the last. Something massive was moving—awakening.

Kaelen's gaze sharpened. "That's not just some underground quake…"

Kelvin frowned. "What the hell was that?"

They both turned quickly to Eirana, who had gone still.

Her shoulders were tense.

Her usual serenity—fractured.

She hesitated a second too long.

Kaelen's voice cut in sharply. "What's going on?"

Eirana looked away briefly, then answered, her voice quieter than before. "It's the leech. It has become more active than normal"

Kaelen narrowed his eyes. "You mean the same leech your elder mentioned earlier? What exactly is this creature? How can it have two entities but you believe it's bind by confining one of these entities?"

Eirana looked between them and exhaled slowly.

"It's not just a parasitic entity that is sealed deep within our cave's core, it's also an ancient aberration of corrupted mana. It feeds off leyline veins—grows by devouring life, magic, and spirit. Based on the teachings of my tribes ancestor, My tribe believed by imprisoning the host entity, we have successfully kept it suppressed along with generations of sacrifice and containment rituals. But now…"

Her voice trailed off as the third tremor—the strongest yet—roared through the mountain. This time, they heard screams. Distant. Above. Frantic.

"No more waiting," Kelvin said quickly. "We're not staying down here."

Kaelen's hand was already tightening on the hilt of his blade. "If it breaks free while Endless is still rampaging through the Human territory…"

Eirana turned her head sharply. "You know of Endless?"

"Is it something we shouldn't know about?" Kelvin asked with a confused look on his face. "Not really, but apparently Endless is the being that formed the leech eons ago before the other Eternals and the Celestials banished him into the abyss. Right after that, the Eternals entrusted us to suppress the leech since it was impossible to eradicate it without the help of the magic Pandora which got lost at that time" Eirana explained with a serious look on her face.

After hearing this, both Kaelen and Kelvin looked at each other in shock and surprise since what they heard was completely so.

"He's already at war with our people," Kaelen said grimly. "Right now he is after all the mana veins in this world and I can't even fathom how many he has taken already in the human world. The Human Territory is falling apart. If that thing wakes up now—there really won't be a Aetheris left to save."

Eirana's hands clenched slightly. Her emotions, once suppressed, flared in her eyes—conflict, fear, duty.

Kelvin stepped in front of her. "Come with us. If you want to protect your people, your land, whatever honor your bloodline holds—you'll guide us to the surface. We fight this together."

Eirana looked at them both—Kaelen, firm and unwavering, and Kelvin, seething with wild courage. And for the first time since they met, her voice cracked.

"…Alright. I'll take you."

The mountain roared again.

And together, the three of them sprinted up the stairway, toward the light above—toward the sound of relentless booms, screaming wind, and a threat unlike anything they had ever seen.

The Leech had stirred.

And it was hungry.