What was good and what was evil?
What was conscience?
The moment Cielo stepped into the dungeon created by Rito, all of these lingering questions inside her vanished—as if they were never inside him at all. As soon as he felt the soft ground beneath his shoes, the space warped around him in a blink of an eye.
Gone was the misty, dark forest around him, replaced by a huge maze-like garden. No matter how he tilted his head, the sky seemed far away from his reach. Surrounded by walls of grass and dozens of passageway choices, Cielo grinned.
“Rito, this is useless for someone with God’s Eyes.” A pair of electric blue eyes gleamed as he raced like a madman in the right direction. “But would it not be a waste if I will not chew this course well before I swallow it whole?”
Having been blessed by the omnipotent God’s Eyes, Cielo needed not to dwell so much time inside the first floor of a level-b dungeon. But the purpose of the training was to strip him of his conscience and the only thing that could answer such purpose was to kill all the living things inside the dungeon.
Ping!
[DUNGEON LEVEL: B]
Ping!
[DUNGEON NAME: MONSTER MAZE]
Information notification bars appeared before Cielo one at a time. They vanished as soon as he absorbed the details. With his hands in his pockets, he trudged deeper into the maze.
Aside from the sound of his breathing, nothing else could be heard—it was as if all sounds seized to exist but him.
“Got you,” whispered Cielo. Without turning around, he raised his right hand on instinct to his right direction. Palm facing to the right direction, a shrieking three headed red snake appeared on the spot after passing through the wall of greenery. He needed not to utter the words of death for the middle-class beast on his way to him.
The moment the God’s Eyes met with the first head’s eyes, blood spluttered on Cielo’s shirt.
“Tsk.” Wiping the blood off from his cheek, he dropped the handkerchief as he moved forward. Not bothering to look back at the lump of flesh and blood he left without remorse.
From the three-headed snake to the six-limbed polar bear, Cielo did not show any mercy. Almost every turn he made, a monster from a variety of sizes and levels would appear to attack him.
By the sixth monster, a scaled gorilla, Cielo staggered. His line of vision started to narrow as his head throbbed.
Darkness started to creep from the corners of his line of vision, making him cover his left eye.
Hissing from the pain, Cielo took a step back—the first dodge he had ever made ever since he entered the Monster Maze.
“Kekekeke!”
A monster with a silhouette of an old woman looked at Cielo, revealing her frog face.
Croak!
The monster grinned—showing a set of crooked fangs—before it leaped toward Cielo with his claws extended.
“Sly frog,” murmured Cielo. He immediately covered the lower half of his face with his arm when he noticed a mist of green that surrounded the frog hag monster.
Dodging to the left, Cielo coughed upon the suffocating feeling brought by the poisoned fume in his chest cavity.
‘This cannot last. I must end it now… but my eyes… it is still throbbing,’ Cielo though with his one eye closed while the other could hardly maintain focus.
Dodging had become harder over the course of time for Cielo. Realizing that the limit of his body aligned to the God’s Eyes were reaching its limit, he knew deep down that he must surpass his boundaries.
“Kekekeke!”
Closing his eyes as soon as the frog hag monster jumped toward his blind side, Cielo rolled to the other side of the maze hallway.
‘Focus!’ Cielo chanted at the back of his mind. But to dodge and expand his limitations at the same time was something harder than he initially thought.
“I will kill your most important one,” said a raspy voice from his left side. Because of this, Cielo, who was about to leap to his left side went still, giving the enemy the opportunity to slash his back with its poisonous claws.
Ping!
[WARNING! LEVEL B POISON ENTERED THE CONTRACTORS’S BODY!]
Ping!
[SIDE EFFECTS: NAUSEA AND FAINTING]
A pair of notification bars appeared in front of Cielo even with his eyes closed. The information entered his mind. It was as if his thought was conquered by the God’s Eyes.
Bloodlust.
Cielo felt a compound sense of bloodlust above him.
Bang!
Rolling to his right, he immediately stood up and dashed to the other side—eyes completely closed.
“You said you will take an important person from me,” said Cielo, “You should have not opened your mouth. Maybe, just maybe, you could have lived.”
A pair of bright blue eyes snapped open. A wisp of azure aura surrounded the sweating Cielo as if all the colors of the skies scattered around him in a turbulent embrace.
Meeting the crazed gaze of the frog-faced old hag a meter away from him, Cielo grinned. “Die.”
Splash!
A flood of crimson ink erupted in place of the once cackling frog-faced monster.
A splitting headache ensued right after the command left Cielo’s chapped lips. Despite the hazy vision, he turned around to head at the center of the maze where the door to the next floor would lead—this was also the place where the boss of the first floor was waiting for him. Simply put, Cielo could not go to the higher level without defeating the floor monster boss first.
As he drew closer to the center of the maze, the number of the monsters dwindled. And on the next turn, a meadow welcomed him where a big stone pride was situated. On it was a sleeping white tiger that almost occupied the entire stone surface.
The tiger got three tails, wiggling them as it slept.
The sound of the twig breaking as he walked alerted the big cat, waking the enemy. A pair of predatory golden eyes opened, meeting a pair of dimmed blue eyes.
“Hello, big guy,” Cielo greeted with a smile. “You would not let me pass even if I ask you to, right?”
A low growl answered him instead.
It backed away, as if it was reluctant to engage in a fight. But the moment Cielo took a step forward into the meadow, it released a threatening growl for the intruder.
Cielo sighed. His line of vision started to get worse. Every time he focused on the enemy, a stabbing pain would wriggle in his eye sockets. The throbbing of his head did not leave, it only got worse. Though his body was still in good shape, his mental state was pulling him down….
….because of the voices that started to infuse in his train of thought.
Voices of the departed, no, voice of the grieving people he held dear rang inside his mind, making him wince and flinch from time to time.
-Cielo, take your sister with you. And remember, survive!
-I said let go!
-Brother Cielo is always the best in the whole wide world for me.
-Run! Run away, Son! Run and never look back!
Cielo shook his head, as if by doing so would make the grieving voices go away. He opened his arms wide to the growling and pacing three-tailed colossal white tiger. “Why won’t you attack me?”
The boss roared at Cielo yet it moved to the side, revealing a portal to the second floor of the dungeon. This earned the tiger a frown from Cielo.
As if an answer to Cielo, soft cries of infant tigers resonated in the meadow.
“You want to preserve their lives by letting me pass.”
Growl!
A dry burst of laughter escaped from Cielo’s lips. Looking up at the artificial skies of the maze, he covered his eyes and laughed some more. “So this is what Rito wanted me to learn. What is conscience? What is the boundary of good and evil? What it takes to take the Black Serpent’s malice?” A soulless grin stretched on his lips. “You are indeed merciless, Rito, you bastard.”
Hands in his pockets, Cielo sauntered to the door. Without looking at the direction of the vigilant three-tailed tiger, he walked past it in calm stride.
Growling at him the more he grew near to the neast, the three-tailed white tiger was ready to launch an attack should Cielo decide to turn around and trick it. The instinct of a mother was a driving force for the colossal monster, displaying a tumultuous deadly around it—ready to attack Cielo and ready to protect its young ones.
‘The meaning of conscience. The thread of being a hero and a villain. The boundary of righteousness and greediness. This is it,’ Cielo thought.
Taking the last step into the door, he whispered. “Die.”
Then there was silence.
Gone was the growling affection of a parent. Gone were the cries of the newborn monsters. Only silence remained.
Unbeknownst to Cielo, his shadow that showed the silhouette of a young man was replaced by a gigantic shadow of snake.
SECOND FLOOR – GENBUWater. This was the first thought that came up into Cielo’s mind right after stepping out from the portal.Now standing a meter away from the portal, the second exit from the second floor of the dungeon vanished right away. What was left was the door in between the waterfalls which he reckoned to be the door that would lead him to the third floor.Having been surrounded by clear water, Cielo looked beneath his feet and saw a handful of koi fish. Like on the first floor, the sky was bright. The only thing that changed was the environment.Gone was the maze, replaced by a vast water surface with no hint of land around.Gone was the three-tailed white tiger and her cubs, replaced by an eerie silence—it was as if a pair of predatory eyes were fixated on him from all directions.Standing on the water's surface without sinking, Cielo took a step forward. Both hands in his pockets, his gaze was now fixated on the gleaming portal in between two waterfalls.“It has been fo
THIRD FLOOR – SUZAKOHeat. This was the first thought that came into Cielo’s mind as soon as he stepped out from the portal. The blood that drenched him immediately dried up the moment he entered the third floor of the dungeon.Beneath his feet was a surface made of granite. Every meter away from him, there was a wide stream of magma. One wrong move and he would surely be torched to his death.Like what happened to the second floor, the portal vanished which connected him to the second floor. In order to come out from this hellhole, he had to ‘find’ the portal which was obviously missing. Compared to the other two floors, there were no evident signs of the gleaming portal.Red and black. Red magma and black stony surface. These surrounded Cielo. Sweat trickled down his chin and nape as he leaped from one stony surface to another.“Where are you? Are you too afraid after witnessing what happened to your neighbors?” Cielo provoked the third floor’s boss which was still yet to be known.
FOURTH FLOOR – SEIRYOStaggering into the fourth portal, blood dripped from Cielo’s eyes. His vision was reduced to a mere shadow of things as his sclera refused to return to normal—still in a bloodshot state.Though he could only see things around him in a black-and-white perspective, he could still pretty much recognize a bolt of lightning piercing through the empty sky when he saw one. And this time, the first thing he noticed right after entering the fourth floor, was the rain of lightning bolts that littered the blackened skies.Contradicting the lively skies, the vast land below it was deprived of anything.No signs of life.There were only a handful of rocks and pebbles beneath his feet. The land was so dry that cracks–big and small—littered around him.‘I cannot use the God’s Eyes just to look for the fourth beast. Like the third one, I cannot feel the presence of monsters. With the way my eyes are about to reach the final limit, I can push through two last death commands at m
“To lose is to gain,” mumbled Cielo.He lost the definition of life and became a living burden to his sister in his prime years, but Cielo had taken back time. In a sense, he had lost his life only to regain the precious time equipped with knowledge of the present and the original future. But the process of losing had changed him immensely.Looking back, Cielo could feel that it was not a lifetime away and that it was only yesterday. Every night he would walk into his mother’s and sister’s rooms just to convince himself that they were alive and healthy—that it was not a dream.This level of security and reality was the reason why Cielo wanted to master the God’s Eyes immediately. Nothing had changed except the fact that he had gained more time before his enemies would move against their family of three. Unless he mastered the art of the God’s Eyes, Cielo did not know when he would be able to sleep straight at night.“Why are you so willing to die by my hands? Death is a context that i
“Shiela, don’t disturb your brother.”“Why is bwother’s eyes covered? Why? Is it hurt?” A sweet childlike voice cracked upon the mention of ‘hurt’. Her small hands held the cheeks of the sleeping teen on the bed.“Hush now, my child. Your big brother is tired.”“Why is bwother tired?”The gentle voice patiently answered the eager little voice. “Because… brother is hurt.”The sound of a little girl’s hiccups resonated inside the warmly lit room. The bed moved slightly when the young miss climbed carefully before she hovered over the unresponsive ‘big brother’. Slowly, a pair of chubby little hands caressed the ‘big brother’ by his cheeks.“Baddie, Mistew Huwt… Baddie. Go away! Don’t huwt my big bwother…” A chubby little face hovered over the blindfolded sleeping young boy on the bed.Ever so sweetly, a pair of cute little hands would pat his arm and cheeks as if she was treating her big brother as someone younger than her.A burst of laughter pierced through the solemn atmosphere. In a
Elder Ruso fainted on the spot upon being subjected to the fearsome guardian beast. With bubbles around his mouth, his eyes rolled up. One mere hiss from the gigantic black serpent that almost covered half of the assembly area, Elder Ruso’s last thoughts before he lost consciousness was his life flashing before him. On the other hand, Elder Minron became pale but he did not lose consciousness in front of the jaws of death. Closing his eyes, he felt the hot breath and smelled the stench of blood and gore from the Black Serpent’s mouth. Clenching his fists, Elder Minron opened his eyes—though he dared not look into the Black Serpent’s eyes. “Lo-Lord Black S-Serpent, I am your loyal subject, Minron. Please listen to our humble request.” The gigantic snake slithered its way toward Elder Minron. The closer it got to the elder, the paler the old man had become. He had to hide his trembling fists under his garbs. Elder Minron immediately knelt, his head touching the wooden floor. “The Tri
Wearing their traditional warrior garbs of woven materials and silk, the proud nomads of the Olrock Tribe of the west stopped in their tracks at the sight of Cielo—in a suit—and Velicia—in a dress while seated in a wheelchair. Their darker tone stood out, creating a fiercer look compared to Cielo and Velicia.“I thought no kids can watch the battles?” asked the woman beside the bulky man at the center. She leaned forward, showing off her cleavage. “Little girl, tell your big brother to take you to the mall instead of coming here, alright? Your presence here sullies the image of the Trials of Eights.”Without the presence of the guards, they indeed looked like some lost boy and fragile girl.A lanky man chimed in. “You both looked familiar though. Are you perhaps the children of the competitors from the Free Cities?”With raised brows, the woman linked her arm around the unmoving and silent man at the center. “Makes sense.” She observed Cielo and Velicia. “I did not know that the Free
The lanky Olrock man staggered from the turbulent energy that slammed his body. Even after the fact that they were the farthest from such a monster and that they were not the receiving end of the command, his body almost followed suit with the folks from the Free Cities.Aside from Alamin of the Olrock Tribe, Senya of the Roxas Tribe and the blonde man from the Hiperia Tribe beside Senya, all the other warriors of the three tribes were either moaning or fighting off their nausea.Senya wiped the sweat from her chin. “That young lad is the real deal.” She shifted her attention to the smiling blonde man beside her. “Right, Xerxes?”“Wait for that little lady to make a move. According to my sources, she is the strongest one among us. Next to her is that young boy.” Xerxes shook his head. “Really. The powers of the guardian beasts are incomparable to us mere mortals.”“Guardian beasts?” Alamin piped in. Though he did not care about information and intel sources, the raw strength he felt f
After returning to his dormitory, Cielo immediately let Rito out as he calmed the chaotic energy within him. In the middle of the night, a strange dark figure silently swept across Trinity College.Cielo had only started his cultivation when there was suddenly a commotion heard from outside. He opened his eyes as there was a sudden knock on his room door.He stood up to open the door to see Jason standing outside the door with an extremely unpleasant look.“What’s wrong?” Cielo asked—an evident frown on his face.Jason looked at him with a grim look. “Something happened.”Something had happened at the department which is especially built for alchemists. In the continent, many could become a warrior and a beast tamers through sheer luck or perseverance, but to be an alchemist needed more than just that—it needed innate talent. Even though there were only a few alchemists in the school, the Trinity College was the next best equipped compared to the other schools in the Government League
Cielo placed the Night-Luminescent Pearl, given by Velicia, on the candlestick on the wall and used the dim light to examine the secret chamber. The secret chamber was very narrow, less than two meters in length and width, and less than three meters in height.There was only a round futon in the secret room. Cielo walked over to the mat and sat down. As soon as he sat down, he saw a faint blue light floating in the secret chamber.“What’s this?”‘Touch it.’ Rito answered in his mind in a sleepy tone; he liked the dense energy here.Cielo extended his finger and a strand of blue light coiled around his fingertip. When he sensed the energy’s fluctuation from the light, Cielo realized that it was the energy of someone with strength at least a Divine Tier and at most a God Tier.Cielo hurriedly stood up, clasped his hands, and bowed in gratitude toward the light. Only then did he sit cross-legged on the praying mat again to consume the energy as his own before he started the refining of t
In the blink of an eye, it was the end of the year.On the last day of the year, it snowed heavily at Trinity College. The weather was very cold, but in order to earn points, the students still had to brave the snowstorm to go to the back mountain to do misCielo stood on the balcony and looked up at the snow. Only then did he realize that it was the end of the year.Cielo suddenly thought of the time when he was young and spent the New Year with his little sister and mother while his father and his new son were happily dining at the clan’s main house. His mind wandered to his past life, making him shake his head immediately.Velicia had left the Trinity College a few days ago. She went out to do some work for the Aberon Clan and returned today. When she came back, she saw Cielo standing on the balcony of the dormitory while admiring the snow.Seeing that Cielo was only wearing a warm gray sweater and not a coat, Velicia frowned and said, “Cielo, come in quickly. It’s cold outside.”C
Three days after the Ranking Tournament, an incident wracked Trinity College. Apparently, Lexa suffered a lightning tribulation after forcibly absorbing a beast’s core in hopes to level up her tier. The result led to the current situation—her grandfather, the Patriarch of the Liam Clan, came knocking on Trinity College with a deep frown he could master.“How can you call yourself teachers and principal when you cannot even stop the tribulation from hurting my daughter? Expelling her is not enough! Now, you want to cripple her as well? Is this really the Trinity College?”Upon hearing this, Professor He Xiaosi laughed out of anger. “As warriors, who don’t rely on their own abilities to withstand Tribulation lightning?”Thinking of Gregor Liam’s dirty past, Professor He Xiaosi’s face revealed a hint of mockery. He said meaningfully, “Patriarch Gregor Liam, have you forgotten that the reason you were able to sit on the seat of the patriarch of the Liam Clan was due to the tribulation lig
Qiao Ye looked at Cielo in a daze. He lowered his head and cast his line of sight down to his own two hands that were still trembling slightly.He lost!He was defeated so thoroughly without a chance of turning the tides!“What is this? Cielo won?”The audience erupted. Words of disbelief and cheers for the victor collided. Those who were still dazed were the people who had mocked Cielo Regalia a few minutes ago. And those who were applauding were the silent spectators who were waiting and hoping for Cielo Regalia to rise amid adversity.Another student answered with a sneer. “Of course! Are you blind? Wasn’t it obvious enough?”“No, it’s just that I find it too hard to believe! Our Trinity College’s peerless genius has actually been defeated just like that.”“Cielo is the true peerless genius! That was too amazing! I have decided that he will be my idol from now on.”In the audience area facing the stage, there were currently a lot of discussions going around and voices were being ra
At present, Velicia’s pupils contracted and her fists clenched slightly. She was feeling very nervous as she watched Cielo battle onstage. As long as Cielo refused to use the full potential of God’s Eyes, everything was dangerous.‘What is your plan, Cielo?’ Velicia could only ask herself.James began to wail. “Oh no, Cielo! It’s too dangerous! It’s too dangerous!”Niel Klyn steadily kept his eyes on the duel without uttering a word.With a few quick pierce and slash of his sword, Cielo finally managed to make the Battle Wolf retreat.Although his exchange of blows with the Battle Wolf was brief, Cielo alone was the most aware of the danger they contained. If he had wielded his sword just a little slower or if his energy was just a tad weaker, he would have already lost at this moment.Cielo narrowed his eyes at the mark the whip left on the ground. If his steps had been just a second slower, would that whip have slashed her face instead of the ground? It seems as though Qiao Ye had d
The people in the audience had changed the direction of their thoughts a thousand times since the duel started, but the two individuals onstage dueling didn’t have such complicated thoughts. They were busy exchanging blows.The golden whip and the Vanquisher met mid-air and collided over and over. Now, the golden whip entangled itself around the Vanquisher. The ray of white light emitted from this prolonged contact was very dazzling.James, who was sitting next to Velicia, looked at the latter with sparkling eyes. “I know Cielo is strong, but I never knew that he has made this progress already!”Velicia puffed her chest and raised her chin. “This much is not yet Cielo’s true form. After all, he is yet to use any technique or skill. He is just merely gauging Qiao Ye’s pattern of attacks.”Amazed by the answer he got from Velicia, the three boys gaped in disbelief! Just how strong Cielo was?On the stage, Qiao Ye snorted and used his strength to pull back the golden whip in an attempt t
Despite this, many people were anticipating the duel between Qiao Ye and Cielo. Qiao Ye was a prominent figure in Lovo Region after all. He was known as a peerless genius and had always been put on a pedestal. He was the individual the students of Trinity College always looked up to—the number one in the rankings.Cielo himself was no lightweight. The moment he entered Trinity College, he was taken in by He Xiaosi as his disciple. Naturally, he also possessed her own extraordinariness. Thinking about it, his cultivation would definitely not be weak with him being one of the two rare Class S potential warriors.During a duel between two strong people, spectators always hoped to catch a glance of their exceptional elegance.Cielo did not tell James or Jason why he did this unexpected challenge. He did not plan to tell them that it was a moment of craziness that made him steal Velicia’s supposed challenge toward Qiao Ye. Maybe, just maybe, the anger in him exploded ever since he witnesse
Cielo stood in the air while the black-feathered wings on his back completely unfurled. For a moment, the entire sky above the arena was covered by those wings.Staring at the pair of wings on Cielo’s back, Hector praised Cielo. “What a lucky fellow, he actually obtained a pair of wings!”Shera’s gaze flickered. Although she didn’t say anything, her eyes were filled with envy.Cielo circulated all the spirit energy in his body. The feathers on his wings also started to tremble without any wind. The feathers fell one by one and floated beside Cielo.When the last feather fell, Cielo suddenly raised his arms and yelled the skill’s name. “Heart Piercing Arrows!”Under the effect of energy force, the thousands of feathers turned into sharp blades. The blades were like arrows that had been released from the bow while flying toward Niel Klyn’s scissor beast form.The scissors and the wind blade began to fight in the air, and it was hard to tell who was winning or losing.Niel Klyn had not s