As I flew, my mind kept drifting to the others. I couldn’t stop wondering what was happening to them, whether they were trapped on their own chains, forced into the same brutal game.
I had already used my Insight on the structure of this place, searching for a loophole, anything that could bypass the rules. But there wasn’t one. The laws binding the chains were absolute. Even teleportation was impossible; space itself here was distorted, unstable, and refused to obey normal laws.
So I did the only thing I could, keep moving.
I pushed my speed higher, crossing chain after chain. Each time I found a grandmaster, I didn’t hesitate. One strike, one death. I didn’t even give them a chance to speak. Most didn’t fight back, they ran. The moment they saw me, panic set in, and they bolted down the chains like frightened beasts.
But as more time passed, the pattern began to change. I started finding them grouped closer together, on consecutive chains and this time, they weren’t fighting. They were just standing there, staring at each other, waiting.
I stopped and hovered midair, shaking my head. "Idiots," I muttered under my breath.
They must’ve thought if they refused to attack, the chains wouldn’t react, that the rules would let them survive together. But whoever built this place had already predicted that.
If you refused to attack, the unseen force would drag you onto a chain and force you to fight. If you simply remained floating between the chains then the unseen force would drag you onto a chain and force you to fight.
There was no peace here, no neutrality, this realm existed for one purpose alone: elimination.
I dove forward again, picking up speed. The next chain I landed on had three of them waiting on consecutive chains. The moment I attacked one, the force locked us all in place, and the chain began trembling violently. They panicked and tried to fight together, but it made no difference. I was the only one left standing.
Things finally changed when I killed my twenty-fifth grandmaster. And the change was not something I was expecting.
Right on the chain ahead of me, a Feran grandmaster stood motionless. But there was something strange, a smaller chain had grown out from beneath him, linking straight into his back like a parasite.
The Feran raised his head slowly and looked at me. His eyes were no longer normal. They were solid red, no pupils, no iris, just two glowing marbles embedded in his skull.
He let out a roar that echoed through the void and threw a punch. The chain connected to his back pulsed, and a crimson beam shot from his fist.
I tilted my body, letting the beam flash past me, and readied myself. But before I could counter, that same unseen force hit me again, dragging me down toward the chain.
I landed hard, knees cracking against the metal, and turned to face him. The tiger’s aura exploded outward, stronger, wilder and to my surprise, he began to float upward. His entire body was wrapped in crimson mist as he rushed at me, throwing punches in a blur.
I dodged each strike, watching carefully. Something was off. Despite attacking first, he still had access to his laws. The chain wasn’t trembling. No cracks, no resistance.
I looked again at the chain embedded in his back. It pulsed rhythmically, like a heart pumping energy straight into him. I sidestepped another kick and vanished behind him. My hand shot forward, grabbing the small link connecting him to the chain.
The moment I touched it, a violent shockwave erupted. The blast tore through my arm, blowing off three fingers as I was flung backward through the air.
The tiger screamed from pain. The flesh around his back was charred black, bones showing through due to the blast, but he still turned and attacked again. His movements were jerky, desperate, a puppet forced to move even as he bled.
The more I watched, the angrier I became. So this was the answer, the way to "survive" here wasn’t by fighting free, but by surrendering.
To wear the chain was to become controlled.
"So that’s what you meant," I muttered, my voice rising to a shout. "Break the chains or wear them!"
Essence surged through me, flooding into my fist. I dashed forward, ducking under one last swing and drove my fist straight into his chest.
BOOM!!
A violet flare burst out, swallowing the crimson glow.
When the light faded, the tiger was gone, his body turned to vapor, scattered into the void. I exhaled slowly, lowering my hand.
The small link that had connected him to the chain slowly melted away, sinking back into the metal as if it had never existed.
I stared at the spot, my mind spinning. How did that happen? Did the Feran surrender? Or was the link forced onto him somehow? The questions kept piling up, each one heavier than the last.
I kept moving forward across the endless chains. A few minutes later, I came across another normal Feran. But right after him, I saw another one... chained, motionless, the same crimson link pulsing faintly behind its back.
This time, I didn’t hesitate. I dashed forward and sliced off its leg in a clean strike. The beast crashed down, blood splattering across the chain as he let out a deep, guttural roar.
"Hey, can you hear me?" I asked, watching him writhe and crawl toward me. There was no response, only pain and blind rage.
Then the link on its back pulsed. Once. Twice. And before my eyes, the wound began to close.
I froze, watching as bones knitted together, veins and tendons wove back in place, and the muscle regenerated like flowing liquid metal. Within seconds, the leg was whole again. Even my regeneration had never been that fast.
"What in the hell..." I muttered, instinctively stepping back.
But it didn’t stop there. His body kept expanding, bones stretching, muscles swelling beneath his fur until the sound of tearing flesh echoed across the chain.
His frame grew broader, his presence heavier. I could feel it in the air, his Essence flaring wildly, twisting into something unnatural.
His claws lengthened into curved blades, his fur darkened and hardened like armor, and his teeth pushed past his lips, jagged and too large for his mouth.
Every second, his strength climbed higher.
The moment his transformation stopped, his eyes locked onto me and he attacked again, this time using its law freely, completely unbound by the rules that limited us.
I clenched my fist, gathered Essence, and struck. The explosion tore through its chest, leaving nothing but vapor and fragments of energy dispersing into the chain.
Silence returned. The link vanished once more, dissolving like mist into the chain.
But my mind didn’t settle. The same question echoed again and again, how were they turning into puppets? And more importantly... who was pulling the strings?
The urgency burning in my chest only grew stronger.
I pushed myself to fly faster, the chains blurring beneath me as I searched desperately, hoping, praying, to see North or Steve. Maybe even old man Dante. Though I wasn’t too worried about him; that man always had more tricks hidden up his sleeve than he ever let on.
But when my prayer was finally answered, the sight that met me stopped my breath cold.
Shock hit first. Then, like a surge of molten metal, rage exploded through my body—pure, blinding, uncontrollable rage that made the air around me crackle.