The Battle Royal... Eldoria had long since reached its final level—the hundredth level. And it happened long before it all began.
After all, Eldoria was the sole powerful planet in their Universe that survived the so-called Divine War—a war where many Gods, Immortals, and Higher Beings fell.
After the Divine War, the Supreme Seat suddenly disappeared, having deemed all those who survived the war unworthy.
The surviving Gods and Higher Beings, although angry, simply occupied the 3,000 divine thrones and vanished into the Higher Realms to recuperate from their injuries.
In the end, they left behind only the Battle Royal, which had lost most of its purpose after the war ended. It had originally been created to find the winners of the Supreme Seat and the 3,000 thrones. Ultimately, the only value left for the Battle Royal—which had suddenly appeared on their planet like all others after the beginning of the Divine War—was to help climbers grow stronger. After all, it was a place filled with trials.
Even the main system within the Battle Royal disappeared. Without its presence, climbing the once-impossible Battle Royal became far easier. That was how Eldoria eventually reached its final, 100th level.
Skyler remembered that Eldoria had only one vast continent, where countless races lived together harmoniously under the rule of a human Queen—Elizabeth. A Queen who had married a fallen angel and had only one daughter, Riya, and two grandchildren—one of whom was discarded, while the other became the crown princess, loved by all.
Reaching the 100th level... The entire Eldoria was celebrating joyfully.
Yet, the trial of that level was somewhat strange. It required 100 youngsters at the age of 20 or below to begin. On that day, Skyler, who had just turned 18, was simply dragged into the massive Royal Castle to provide his heart blood to his grandfather.
He had seen those 100 youngsters—the strongest and most renowned individuals of their generation from different races—standing together in the Royal Garden, laughing and chatting among themselves.
Their leader was a tall young man with golden eyes. It was Max Hales. Skyler had seen him in the news a few times while searching for ways to survive. His sister, the crown princess, was there as well.
His mother... the same woman who had looked at him with nothing but coldness and disgust the only time he had ever met her, was smiling as she watched his sister.
While they laughed so cheerfully, he was being dragged by soldiers. The bitterness Skyler felt that day was something he had never experienced before. For the first time, he felt a dark emotion rising deep within.
And he subconsciously wondered.
Just how wonderful would it be if these hundred youths never returned from the challenge they were about to enter?
Perhaps his wish was granted.
Perhaps it was something else entirely.
Because at that moment, the space around the Royal Castle suddenly began to tremble.
The hundred youngsters gathered within the Royal Garden were startled. Before they could even enter the Battle Royal and begin the trial of the hundredth level, where Argon Steel—the strongest Light of their planet—awaited them, a broken mechanical voice echoed from a distant place, announcing the beginning of the 100th-level challenge.
Everyone was shocked.
Yet, no one had the time to react.
Because the voice announced that the selection of the hundred participants had started. A hundred brilliant beams of light descended from the sky, each one heading toward the crowd of 100 youths. However, due to the towering pillars surrounding the garden, the trajectories of many beams of light shifted slightly. And Skyler, who was watching from afar, had no time to react as one of the lights accidentally fell on him.
But he was just an ordinary human.
With no Evol.
Not even a trace of it.
Skyler had never been born with a body capable of wielding such power. In the reality he hated, a person’s potential was decided from the instant they were born.
So...
How could his body endure the force of a forced teleportation? That was his first life—which began with him being cast out of the Royal Castle at birth for being born useless. And it ended in an instant when that beam of light accidentally fell on him.
Ultimately, what was left was only his soul, which was dragged into the trial that had already begun. Although his arrival was an accident, a mechanical voice promised him that if he survived until the end, if the others cleared the trial, it would give him a body.
If not, he would disappear completely.
In Skyler’s first life—the real one—he was nothing, with average intelligence and no remarkable talent. He had even spent a large part of his childhood surviving in the slums after the orphanage that had taken him in was burned down by some villains. He possessed no power, no influence, and no future worth speaking of. The only thing he had was the blood of royalty—a truth hidden from the public. To the people of Eldoria, Riya Thorne had only one child.
Only one.
Jenny Thorne.
If not for his mother accidentally spotting him and recognizing him while dining at a restaurant with her husband when he was fifteen, he would never have known he was royalty. She had stood before him, looking as beautiful as ever. In comparison, he was unrecognizable—thin, frail, and disheveled, with overgrown hair hanging over his eyes.
Skyler could not believe that the first time he saw his mother, he had trembled in fear.
And she had slapped him with a look of disgust, saying that seeing him had ruined her day. Her cold words were sharp.
And they struck like a thunderclap.
"I regret giving birth to you."
She left without looking back.
Yet, he remained standing there for hours, wiping the blood from his lips that simply wouldn’t stop flowing. The burning sting on his cheek made him wonder if the woman who had slapped him had made a mistake.
Although his eyes were blue, he looked nothing like her... or perhaps only slightly.
Then how had she recognized him?
In the end, perhaps it would have been better if they had never met in that life.
After that day, Skyler silently left the city and never saw her again. On his own, he managed to enroll in a small school.
Although his grades were quite average, and he was older than his classmates, he believed that if he studied hard enough, he could at least find a decent job instead of spending the rest of his life doing odd jobs.
After struggling for a while, he even rented a room and decorated it the way he wanted.
Just like that, three years passed in the blink of an eye. Although he occasionally saw the members of the Royal Family on TV, they felt like complete strangers to him.
Everything would have ended that way if the Human Queen had not suddenly found him.
After testing his blood, she discovered that he had inherited a trace of his grandfather’s bloodline. His heart’s blood could save her husband. For an ordinary human, giving up even a drop of heart’s blood was no simple matter. It could easily cost them their life.
Yet, despite knowing that, they still dragged him to the Royal Castle under her orders.
But how laughable it was that he died before she could even save her husband.
And then, the trial of the 100th level, into which his soul had been dragged, began.
At first, everything in the trial was eerily identical to the reality they were familiar with. Their surroundings, the people they knew, and their planet were all the same.
There were only two differences.
First, everyone knew they were inside a trial.
Second, the Divine War had not yet ended.
To clear the trial, the hundred participants simply had to grow stronger, take part in the Divine War, and finally emerge victorious.
If they lost, they would all die.