The battlefield stood still.
Millions of ancient swords pointed toward the crimson eclipse.
Not one blade moved.
Not one breeze blew.
It was as though the entire world was waiting.
Waiting...
For Noah’s answer.
Kael rested the tip of his chained greatsword against the ground.
"You have three choices."
His voice rolled across the battlefield like distant thunder.
"Kneel."
"Fight."
"Leave."
Noah met the commander’s gaze.
"And if I leave?"
Kael answered immediately.
"You’ll wake outside the Tower."
"You’ll keep your life."
"You’ll lose every right to inherit Ragnarok."
Silence.
Ragnar folded his arms.
"I won’t stop you."
"The choice is yours."
For a moment...
Noah looked down at Shadowfang.
Then he laughed quietly.
"...You know..."
"My life before this was painfully ordinary."
"I was an extra."
"No destiny."
"No prophecy."
"No one expected anything from me."
He slowly raised his sword.
"But now..."
"I finally have something worth protecting."
His crimson eyes locked onto Kael’s.
"So I’m not leaving."
Kael smiled.
It was the first emotion he’d shown.
"Good."
"I despise cowards."
The commander disappeared.
No explosion.
No flash of light.
One heartbeat...
He stood fifty metres away.
The next...
His greatsword was already descending.
Noah’s instincts screamed.
He barely managed to lift Shadowfang.
BOOOOOOM!!
The collision created a shockwave that ripped hundreds of swords from the earth.
Noah was launched backwards.
His arms shook violently.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
"...What the hell..."
Kael hadn’t even used mana.
That had been pure physical strength.
"You blocked."
Kael nodded in approval.
"Most don’t."
He slowly lifted the greatsword again.
"Again."
The second strike came faster.
Noah rolled beneath it.
The blade carved a canyon through the battlefield.
He dashed forward.
Shadowfang flashed toward Kael’s shoulder.
CLANG!
The blade stopped.
Kael had caught it with two fingers.
Noah’s eyes widened.
"...Impossible."
"No."
Kael replied calmly.
"Experience."
He flicked his fingers.
Shadowfang flew from Noah’s hands.
It spun through the air before burying itself dozens of metres away.
Kael didn’t attack.
He simply waited.
"Retrieve your sword."
Noah frowned.
"You’re letting me?"
"I am."
"If your weapon can be taken so easily..."
"You never deserved it."
Noah sprinted.
The moment he reached Shadowfang...
Kael was already there.
His fist drove into Noah’s stomach.
THUD!
The air exploded from Noah’s lungs.
He crashed across the battlefield, tumbling through broken swords.
Pain surged through every bone in his body.
Still...
He stood.
Kael nodded once.
"Better."
Ragnar watched in silence.
He didn’t interfere.
He didn’t speak.
This wasn’t his lesson to teach.
Minutes became hours.
Hours became something longer.
Noah lost count.
Again...
He was knocked down.
Again...
He stood.
His uniform tore.
His knuckles split.
Blood stained the battlefield.
Yet each exchange taught him something.
Kael never repeated the same attack.
Every strike had a purpose.
Every defeat carried a lesson.
Eventually...
Kael lowered his sword.
"You’ve noticed."
Noah wiped blood from his mouth.
"...Your eyes."
Kael nodded.
"You finally stopped watching my weapon."
"You began watching me."
Noah realised it.
Kael’s shoulders.
His breathing.
The slight shift of his feet.
The attack always began there.
Not with the sword.
With the body.
Kael smiled.
"A sword never kills."
"The swordsman does."
For the first time...
He assumed a proper duelling stance.
"No more lessons."
"No more mercy."
"Show me..."
"...the warrior Ragnarok chose."
The battlefield exploded.
Noah stepped forward.
Not back.
Kael’s greatsword descended.
Noah slipped inside its arc.
Shadowfang cut upward.
SLASH!
A shallow line appeared across Kael’s left cheek.
Silence.
A single drop of blood rolled down the First Commander’s face.
Kael touched the cut with his fingers.
Then...
He laughed.
A deep, genuine laugh.
"For a thousand years..."
"No Successor has drawn my blood."
Ragnar smiled faintly.
"I told you."
The crimson eclipse suddenly darkened.
The battlefield shook with unprecedented violence.
Every sword buried in the earth began humming.
The skeletal hand beneath the battlefield slammed against its chains.
BOOOOOOOM!!
A roar echoed through the world.
Not human.
Not beast.
Something far older.
Kael’s smile vanished instantly.
He turned toward the source of the roar.
"...It knows."
Ragnar’s expression hardened.
"No..."
"It has sensed him."
The ground split open beneath Noah’s feet.
A vast crimson eye appeared within the abyss.
It stared directly at him.
Then...
A voice echoed from the darkness below.
Ancient.
Hungry.
Patient.
"Seventh..."
"...I have waited for you."
The eye blinked.
The chains trembled.
And for the very first time...
Fear crossed Ragnar’s face.
The crimson eye stared at Noah.
It didn’t blink.
It didn’t move.
It simply watched.
The pressure alone was enough to bend thousands of ancient swords toward the abyss.
Noah couldn’t breathe.
His legs refused to move.
It wasn’t fear.
It was instinct.
Every living creature possessed the same feeling when standing before something infinitely higher on the food chain.
The voice returned.
Deep.
Ancient.
Patient.
"At last..."
"...the Seventh stands before me."
The battlefield trembled.
The chains binding the colossal creature rattled violently.
One after another...
Ancient runes along their surface ignited.
Not to strengthen the chains.
To repair them.
Kael immediately stepped in front of Noah.
The First Commander raised his chained greatsword.
"Silence."
His voice thundered across the battlefield.
"You have no right to speak to him."
The eye slowly shifted toward Kael.
For the first time...
It showed emotion.
Amusement.
"Still loyal..."
"...Commander."
Ragnar stepped forward.
The air around him became heavy.
"No more."
He spoke calmly.
"You remain beneath your prison."
The creature laughed.
The sound alone cracked mountains in the distance.
"Prison?"
"You still call it that?"
Noah finally forced himself to speak.
"...Who are you?"
Silence.
Then...
The crimson eye smiled.
Not with lips.
With its gaze.
"An excellent question."
"Unfortunately..."
"...you are not ready to hear my name."
The System suddenly reappeared.
Its blue interface flickered violently.
Red warning symbols covered the screen.
FATAL WARNING
Forbidden Entity Detected
Authority Level: Beyond System Access
Information Restricted
The screen shattered before Noah could read anything else.
The creature laughed again.
"Your little System..."
"...still fears me."
Noah frowned.
"Even the System can’t identify it?"
Kael gripped his sword tighter.
"My King."
"We should end this conversation."
Ragnar nodded.
"I know."
He turned toward Noah.
"Listen carefully."
His tone had completely changed.
There was no mystery.
No riddles.
Only urgency.
"Everything you’ve learned until now..."
"...has only prepared you to survive."
"But from this point onward..."
"...people will die because of your decisions."
Noah remained silent.
Ragnar continued.
"When you leave this floor..."
"Do not search for the creature beneath these chains."
"Not now."
"Not tomorrow."
"Not until you can stand before me..."
"...without shaking."
Noah opened his mouth to argue.
Then stopped.
Because Ragnar was right.
His hands...
Were trembling.
Suddenly...
The battlefield split apart.
A massive crack raced toward Noah.
From within the abyss...
Something emerged.
Not the creature itself.
Just...
One finger.
It was larger than an entire castle.
Black scales covered its surface.
Ancient crimson symbols glowed between them.
The chains wrapped tightly around it.
Yet...
The finger continued rising.
Slowly.
Relentlessly.
Kael moved.
For the first time...
The First Commander unleashed his full aura.
A pillar of silver light erupted into the heavens.
The buried swords around the battlefield answered.
Millions of blades lifted from the earth.
Every one of them pointed toward the giant finger.
Kael raised his greatsword.
"All swords..."
"...answer your commander."
With one swing...
Millions of blades shot forward like a storm.
The sky disappeared beneath steel.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
The chained finger was struck by an endless rain of swords.
The battlefield shook violently.
Dust filled the world.
When it settled...
The finger had stopped moving.
Not because it had been injured.
Because...
It had allowed itself to stop.
The creature chuckled.
"Very well..."
"...Commander."
"Our reunion can wait."
The finger slowly descended back into the abyss.
The crimson eye lingered on Noah for one final moment.
"Grow stronger..."
"...Little King."
"I’ll be waiting."
The eye closed.
Silence returned.
Kael remained standing.
But Noah noticed something alarming.
The First Commander was breathing heavily.
A tiny trail of blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
One attack.
Just one exchange.
And it had wounded a warrior who had survived for a thousand years.
Ragnar looked toward the sealed abyss.
"He grows stronger every century."
Kael nodded grimly.
"And our chains grow weaker."
The battlefield began dissolving into countless particles of crimson light.
The Fifth Floor was ending.
Ragnar looked at Noah one last time.
"When you leave this place..."
"...forget my face."
"But never forget today’s lesson."
He pointed toward the abyss.
"The greatest evil..."
"...doesn’t always break its chains."
"Sometimes..."
"...it waits for someone else to unlock them."
The world faded.
Noah felt himself being pulled upward.
But as consciousness slipped away...
One final notification appeared before him.
Hidden Main Quest Updated
The Buried Truth
Objective 1: Reach the Seventh Floor.
Objective 2: Discover the origin of Ragnarok.
Objective 3: Keep the Chains Unbroken.
Progress: 1%
Reward: ???
When Noah opened his eyes...
He was no longer inside the battlefield.
He stood at the entrance to the Sixth Floor.
Behind him...
The doors to the Fifth Floor had vanished.
Ahead...
A vast forest stretched beneath a silver moon.
Somewhere within those trees...
Someone began to clap.
Slow.
Steady.
Mocking.
"Impressive."
A young woman’s voice echoed through the forest.
"You survived the King..."
"...and the thing beneath him."
A figure stepped out from the shadows.
Long silver hair shimmered beneath the moonlight.
Piercing golden eyes met Noah’s without fear.
She wore a pristine white combat coat embroidered with ancient silver sigils, while a black sword rested casually at her waist.
She carried herself with effortless confidence, as though the Tower itself belonged to her.
She smiled.
A calm, unreadable smile.
"At last..."
"I’ve finally found you."
Noah narrowed his eyes.
"And you are?"
The woman placed one hand over her chest and bowed with flawless elegance.
"My name..."
"...is Laura Esteria."
She looked directly into Noah’s crimson eyes.
"And I’ve been searching for the Seventh Successor for a very long time."
The forest fell silent.
For reasons Noah couldn’t explain...
The name Laura Esteria felt strangely familiar.
As though destiny itself had been waiting for this meeting.