Daniel stepped onto the final stair, and suddenly the space collapsed without any warning or gradual change. There was no explosion, no light, no grand transition or anything like that. There was only a moment of standing... and then, in the next moment, standing itself lost its meaning.
He appeared in a space that could not really be called ground.
The surface beneath his feet was constantly changing, sometimes cracked stone, sometimes ash, sometimes something like the compressed bones of a dead world.
There was no sky, yet there was no emptiness above him either. Layers of dark light, broken fragments of time, and shadows that flowed like water moved up and down. Everything was in motion, but nothing had a destination.
"The further I go, the weirder this Pagoda gets," he muttered to himself. This Pagoda was very different from the Pagoda of Death. There, the Pagoda system had been built in a much more orderly way.
Here, there was no clear logic at all. He did not even know exactly what he was supposed to do to clear each floor, and nothing was explained to him.
He found this extremely stupid. Still, he could understand the logic behind all this lack of logic. The Pagoda was testing his patience and his character.
Even so, he could not help but wonder, was all of this really necessary? Did the requirements to be chosen as the new bearer of eternity really need to be this harsh?
Stability had no meaning here. The moment he took a step forward, the ground beneath him pulled away. It did not collapse or break; it simply moved aside, as if space itself refused to allow anyone to remain still. Every pause was answered by an invisible pressure that pushed his body forward.
He frowned slightly and tried to analyze the meaning behind this phenomenon. But at that exact moment, he heard voices.
One, two, dozens, no.
Hundreds, thousands of different voices echoed in his ears. The problem was that although all of them sounded unfamiliar, they also felt extremely familiar, as if he had heard them somewhere before.
The space rippled, and beings emerged from it.
All of them... were Daniel.
But not simple copies or random future versions. Each one carried a burden of "eternity."
A Daniel with empty eyes, whose body had been repaired countless times, layers of death etched into him; a Daniel who had died millions of times, yet was still standing.
A Daniel who was smiling, but whose smile belonged to someone who had lost the meaning of emotion centuries ago.
A Daniel whose body was intact, but whose gaze was heavy, like someone who no longer believed in endings, someone who himself had become the flaw of the end.
And a Daniel who was wounded and weak, yet kept moving forward... without stopping.
The real Daniel looked at them with slight shock. He could feel the Law and power of Eternity within all of them, and it was extremely strong.
They were all versions of him born from eternity, Daniels who had experienced eternity and truly understood its meaning.
This was genuinely astonishing. How had the Pagoda created such versions of him? Were they just illusions, or were they real?
He doubted they were illusions. Yet creating something like this also seemed impossible.
Their voices rose at the same time.
"Eternity means continuing."
"Eternity means moving forward even when you should die."
"Eternity means there is no end, no release."
"Eternity means being endless. It means the flaw of the end."
Daniel’s eyes flashed for a moment. He understood the meaning behind their words, and to his surprise, his understanding of the Law of Eternity increased again.
He closed the notification that appeared in front of him and focused on them. Before he had time to analyze further, they attacked.
Fists, blades, waves of energy, raw and relentless blows. Every version that advanced did not care whether it was defeated or not; the next version would simply pass by it.
Daniel punched, bones shattered, bodies were torn apart, but the ground pulled them back up again.
All of them used the energy and power of Eternity to fight him. Each one had a different level of strength. Daniel used all of his power to defeat and kill them.
But that was the problem.
No matter how many he killed, they revived again and again, continuing without pause. It was as if the concept of an end did not exist for them. As if they were truly eternal.
The space did not allow him to stop, and the enemies did not allow him to breathe. Every time Daniel destroyed one, two more filled the gap. His body was struck, regenerated, then struck again. Death came close, but never fully arrived.
And this... was more dangerous than death.
For the first time since entering the Pagoda, Daniel understood where the real problem was.
This floor was not about victory. It was not about survival either. It was about movement without an end. The Pagoda wanted him to continue, no matter what the result was.
The Pagoda wanted him to experience eternity. It wanted him to carry the weight of eternity.
He took a deep breath. Another attack came, but this time he did not respond. He allowed himself to be hit. He stepped back, the ground beneath him changed, but he did not stop.
His gaze fell on one version of himself that was wounded but not smiling. It was simply moving forward.
And Daniel understood.
These were not enemies. They were "results."
But he... was still "on the path."
He threw the next punch more gently. Not to kill, but to avoid stopping the flow. He reduced his death energy. Instead of destruction, he chose acceptance.
At that moment, one of the versions trembled and vanished, not with a scream, not with an explosion, but simply disappeared.
Daniel glanced indifferently at the version that had vanished. A small but deep understanding took root within him.
[ Your understanding of the Law of Eternity has increased by 11% ]
The versions were still there. The battle was not over yet, but fortunately, he had realized what he needed to do to clear this floor.