Arden looked up to the top of the white void. He held a hand over his eyes and squinted, trying to figure out what he was seeing. It looked like something grey stained red.
“What am I looking at?”
He ascended higher and higher in the void with a single thought. This was his domain, after all. In only a few seconds, Arden stood in front of what looked like a shimmering glass window without a frame.
He looked out of the window and realized that the red stained gray thing was in fact a rock stained with blood. His blood.
He watched as the blood and skull fragments that littered the rock came together and lifted up off the rock, leaving it spotless. Arden realized it was the final moments of his body healing and rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
The white void shook and a spiderweb of black cracks ran through the space. Shards fell down to the bottom of the infinite void all around Arden, and he smiled. Through the cracks, he could see the outside world. Stones, patches of grass, and the broken body of Nux Valtorin looking at him with horror.
“Showtime.”
The void shattered, and Arden found himself back in physical body. He was back in reality.
Arden gasped for air and pushed himself off the rock to his hands and knees with shock in his eyes.
He could feel his lungs inflating, and his heart beating again, both of which had gone quiet shortly after being stabbed alongside Vera. He could feel blood pumping through his veins. The electric energy coursing through his soul. Both of his arms, as well as his hands were fully functional again.
Arden slowly looked around. It looked like barely any time had passed at all, as the sky was still dark, but the darkness was no longer the impediment it once was.
Arden was a Starborn now, after all.
Below him, Arden saw the knife that one of the assassins had used to ruin his insides. It looked even worse than it felt. Jagged edges of metal spread out from the blade like serrated wires. It looked mean. And perfect for the job. Lying next to the knife was the sword that had impaled him.
Arden picked the knife up and stood up while taking a deep breath. The air had never tasted so good.
He looked towards the wide-eyed Nux Valtorin.
“Nux Valtorin. Finally.”
Nux coughed up blood and his look of fear mixed with hate.
“What the hell are you?”
Arden stomped on his leg. He felt a shift or a crack in the bone and felt delight. He had been wanting this for a long time.
“Someone who only tried to survive. Why did you do what you did?”
Nux ignored the question. He spat blood at Arden’s face, but only hit his chest instead.
“Well I hope you're happy, demon. Because of your quest for survival, you’ve just doomed the entire world. Not even you will survive what's coming for us.”
Arden stepped on his other leg, and only got a grunt in response, causing Arden to lose some of his eagerness for torment. It wasn’t as fun as he thought it would be.
“When the world ends, I’ll be fine. I told you as well as the assassins up top. I’m not from this world. And I’m not from hell, Prince. I’m a slum rat from a world called Earth. This world means nothing to me. Not anymore.”
Nux’s fear disappeared. Only fury remained. Blood leaked from his mouth as he spoke to Arden.
“And you don’t care about any of the people here!? There’s billions across the world that you’ll doom to satisfy your own grudge! Human or not, that makes you a demon! A crazy one at that!”
Arden took the knife in both hands and plunged it into Nux’s chest, causing him to scream out in pain as the knife got to work doing what it did best. It didn’t move on its own because Arden didn’t know magic, but he was able to twist it a little bit to get the reaction he wanted.
“I’m not a crazy man, Nux, but I am a vengeful one. I had one person in this world that I cared about. You ran a sword through her chest. That’s what led us here. If you hadn’t killed her, then I probably would’ve left after only hurting you. The world would still survive, and I wouldn’t have claimed the Godstone. The world will likely still survive without the Godstone. Mine survived just fine. There will be a rather large change, but the world will continue.”
Arden drove his foot down on the handle of the knife.
“Not you, though!”
A memory ran through Arden’s mind, and he stomped on the prince’s crotch.
“That was for my balls, you bastard!”
Nux howled in pain from the torture. That was the sound Arden wanted to hear. He wasn’t a sadist, but he believed that Nux deserved every moment of agony. It was only fair.
Right before Arden continued, an incredibly loud roar resounded from somewhere in the woods. Arden furrowed his brow at the unmistakably recognizable sound of the Stonelord’s approach.
“Looks like I’m almost out of time,” he muttered to himself.
He dragged the prince’s body to the base of one of the many trees that dotted the crater, and ignored the pained groans and dying moans coming from the soon-to-be dead man’s mouth.
Arden returned to where he fell and picked up the sword that the prince had impaled him with twice that was now laying on the ground, having been pushed out of his body alongside the knife.
He slung the sword over his shoulder and causally approached the prince looking up at him with glazed over eyes. Arden crouched down next to him and spoke softly.
“I’m gonna need you to do me one last favor, then we’ll be square. I need you to stay here and attract the Stonelord while I escape, you copy?”
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Arden drove the sword into the prince’s shoulder and into the tree behind him with the full force of his weight and newfound Stellar Essence.
The prince gave another groan as Arden stood up.
“You monster…” Nux muttered weakly.
“I am what you made me. May we never meet again, prince.” Arden bowed, like a servant. “I’ll be taking my leave, my lord.”
Arden whirled around and dashed into the woods away from the cliff.
A few minutes later, the prince saw a hulking monstrosity made of stone emerge from the woods next to the cliffside. He closed his eyes one last time as the Stonelord approached.
***
Arden’s breakneck sprint was interrupted by a Status message that filled him with an exorbitant amount of glee.
You have slain red-tier awakened human, Nux Valtorin.
Arden laughed as he ran, despite the pain incoming to his lungs from the lack of oxygen, but he couldn't help it. He was just too happy.
‘Would you look at that! I guess the prince failed to save the world! It's ironic isn't it Nux!? You thought I wanted to end the world, but I didn't! Only when you pushed me to the limit did I decide that the world didn't matter! And here's the best part! I don't even hate the world! It means nothing to me! You and Bellum were the only ones I hated!’
Arden continued through the mountain pass, glad to see that he was surrounded once again by trees. They would help block him from the Stonelord’s sight.
The fierce wind continued to attempt to push through Arden’s defenses, but now he had no worry of succumbing to the cold. Arden remembered the circulation technique Vera taught him. The warm Stellar Essence inside of him circulated through his being, keeping the cold at bay.
The density of the trees grew, making it harder for Arden to get through, but he did nonetheless. He refused to get stopped by trees when he had survived against monsters, men, and his own mind.
A roar behind him let him know that the Stonelord was gaining.
Arden pushed his new body to the limit. Every step was fueled by determination to finish this challenge and return home. He was so close.
Arden ducked under a tree limb and found himself in a clearing.
It was wide open and about the size of a football field. Despite the harsh weather on the mountain, there was no snow here, either on the trees or the ground.
He glanced up at the sky and saw the stars lighting the clearing. It was bright enough that Arden would have been able to see even if he was still mundane.
At the far side of the clearing was a feature that clued Arden into where he was.
Rocks surrounded a small pond about a meter deep. It didn't stand out, except for the fact that the water didn't just reflect the starlight, but seemed to contain their energy. Arden could feel the energy radiating from the pond and was drawn to it.
“The Pool of Starlight…” he muttered. “This is Starlight Grove!”
He ran into the middle of the clearing and looked around. No light was shining like it had when Arden held the Godstone.
“I thought it was at the peak. Did I see the light wrong?”
Arden thought about it. It was possible. The last time he saw the beacon was when he was running uphill towards the cliff. He remembered that when he was holding the Godstone before he swallowed it that light was shining behind him.
“Damn, if I knew the Starlight Grove was right here below the cliff, I would have jumped as soon as I got there.”
Arden walked around the area to take in the sights. Signs of life could be seen everywhere in the Grove. He could tell that this place was sacred in some way. A strange presence filled the air, like something powerful was there, releasing its aura.
Watching.
The roar of the Stonelord resounded extremely closely, and Arden snapped out of his stupor.
Just as Arden turned around towards the roar, he saw the Stonelord barrel out of the woods towards him. Arden knew that his mundane weapon wouldn't work against it when they barely worked for the Spawn.
“But I've got better weapons now!”
Arden thought of the Bone Talons and they were brought into existence with a cloud of red particles as he dodged the Stonelord’s charge.
The Bone Talons weren't particularly strong, but he figured they were better at breaking stone than a bladed weapon.
Arden ran towards the Stonelord as it turned around and flared its stone scales.
The Stonelord launched forward to meet Arden’s approach, catching him by surprise.
‘It's that fast!?’
Arden saw the hook-like hand snap in front of him. He barely managed to block the attack with his bone claws. Living up to its namesake and appearance, the monster was truly hard as stone. The impact left Arden's hands wracked in pain with flakes of bone falling from his Satellite.
‘It almost destroyed my Satellite right there!’
If it weren't for the Aspect, empowered by the death of the Maverick, Arden didn't think his Satellite would have survived the attack.
‘I can't win!’
Arden jumped back to try and put distance between himself and the behemoth, but the Stonelord only reached forward with its hooks to keep up.
Arden felt a pain in the back of his shoulder and he realized he was impaled on one of the Stonelord’s hook-like arms. He tried to push himself off to no avail.
The monster raised Arden into the air, and brought it down the other direction, giving Arden enough momentum to get flung off the hook.
With a large splash, Arden landed in the Pool of Starlight. Arden rushed to stand out of the water, and his eyes widened when he saw the Stonelord already mid-pounce.
Arden dismissed his Bone Talons and summoned Rogier’s Tree in its stead, while braving for impact.
But the impact never came.
Arden watched in awe as the stars that shone above moved together to create a thin thread of golden energy. They moved as one, entangling the Stonelord in its web.
The string wrapped around the Stonelord's extremities, and wound tightly around each of the flared scales and horns. The Stonelord struggled against the almighty power of the string, but it was futile.
After all, what was a mere monster compared to the weight of the entire cosmos?
The web shined fiercely once and disappeared, and like it had been fed through a paper shredder, the Stonelord fell into thinly sliced pieces with a wave of blood and viscera onto the pristine holy ground.
Arden could do nothing but stare at its remains in awe. It was dead, just like that.
You have slain red-tier Supernova, Stonelord.
The message changed.
You have obtained a red-tier Supernova Satellite, Stoneflesh Shroud.
“Yes!” Arden cheered, while he sent his weapon back to the Soul Cluster.
A Satellite of the Supernova rank, while not much stronger than a lower ranked Satellite, had four Aspect slots, one for each Star Core the monster possessed. Judging from the name of the Satellite and the monster it came from, Arden was willing to bet that it would be an armor type Satellite, something that Arden couldn’t say no to. It had been too long since he’d changed clothes.
Arden climbed out of the pool to collect the Stonelord’s Star Cores when he saw the golden string that had cut the Stonelord to ribbons rise from the ground.
“I thought you left,” Arden said. “What are you?”
The thread slowly ascended higher into the sky. When it matched the height of the mountain’s peak, it changed shape once again. It returned to being numerous stars like it had before, but it wasn't done. The stars moved together to create a pattern in the sky.
Arden’s eyes went wide with terror as the shape finalized. It was a sigil that Arden recognized.
A golden five-pointed star surrounded by two golden rings. In the middle of the star was what looked like a spiral galaxy slowly rotating, and in the middle of the galaxy was a pure black pupil, gazing down on Arden.
