The end of the world didn't come with a bang. It came with a system error.
Ravi stood atop the Spire of Babel, his black coat tattered, his HP bar blinking red at 1%. At his feet lay the corpse of the Demon God Kaiser, the Final Boss of the 100th Floor. The monster's body was dissolving into golden data particles.
It was over. Fifteen years of hell. Fifteen years of grinding, bleeding, and watching friends get deleted. He had finally beaten the game.
Ravi exhaled, waiting for the blue window. The one that said [LOG OUT].
Instead, the sky turned red.
[CRITICAL ERROR.] [ANOMALY DETECTED: PLAYER RAVI.]
Chapter 1: The Migration
The end of the world didn't come with a bang. It came with a system error.
Ravi stood atop the Spire of Babel, his black coat tattered, his HP bar blinking red at 1%. At his feet lay the corpse of the Demon God Kaiser, the Final Boss of the 100th Floor. The monster's body was dissolving into golden data particles.
It was over. Fifteen years of hell. Fifteen years of grinding, bleeding, and watching friends get deleted. He had finally beaten the game.
Ravi exhaled, waiting for the blue window. The one that said [LOG OUT].
Instead, the sky turned red.
[CRITICAL ERROR.] [ANOMALY DETECTED: PLAYER RAVI.]
Ravi frowned. He looked up at the fractured sky. "Admin? Open the gate. I beat the game."
A face formed in the clouds. It was huge, featureless, made of pure white static. It spoke with a voice that vibrated in Ravi's teeth.
[ENTITY 'RAVI' EXCEEDS SERVER LIMITS.] [POWER LEVEL: ERROR.] [AUTHORITY: ERROR.] [CONCLUSION: YOU CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO RETURN TO EARTH.]
Ravi's eyes widened. He reached for his sword—the Blade of the Void, a weapon that could cut dimensions—but his hand grasped nothing.
[INITIATING ITEM DELETION...] The sword vanished.
[INITIATING STAT RESET...] His strength, agility, and mana dropped to 0.
[INITIATING MIGRATION...] The floor beneath him dissolved.
"Wait," Ravi snarled, clawing at the digital air. "You can't do this! I won! I saved them!"
[YOU ARE A BUG, RAVI. AND BUGS MUST BE QUARANTINED.] [TRANSFERRING TO: SERVER 02 - AETERNA.] [DIFFICULTY: ABYSSAL.] [GOOD LUCK.]
Ravi screamed as gravity took hold. The world of the Tower vanished, replaced by a tunnel of blinding white code. He felt his soul being ripped apart, stripped of every skill, every weapon, and every title he had earned.
He fell into the darkness.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
[MIGRATION COMPLETE.] [WELCOME TO AETERNA.]
Ravi gasped, his lungs filling with cold, damp air.
He slammed into the ground hard. Mud splattered into his mouth. Pain—real, physical pain, not just a red HP flash—shot through his ribs.
He rolled over, coughing. He wasn't on the Spire anymore. He was in a forest. Massive trees, thick as skyscrapers, blocked out the sun. The air smelled of wet pine and rotting leaves. It was freezing.
Ravi looked down at himself. His legendary Void Armor was gone. He was wearing a rough tunic made of scratchy burlap and simple trousers. He was barefoot.
"Status," he rasped.
A small, pathetic blue window flickered open.
Name: Ravi Level: 1 Class: The Soul Architect (Damaged) Mana: 0/10 Inventory: Empty.
Ravi stared at the screen. A dry, humorless laugh escaped his lips. "Level 1. You put me back to Level 1."
He clenched his fist. It was weak. The god-like strength that could crush boulders was gone. He was just a human. A starving, freezing human in the middle of nowhere.
CRACK.
A branch snapped behind him.
Ravi's head whipped around. His instincts were still sharp, even if his body was slow. Emerging from the shadows was a Bear. But this wasn't a normal animal. It was the size of a minivan. Its fur was matted with green moss, and jagged plates of iron grew naturally out of its shoulders and spine.
[ENEMY DETECTED: IRON-HIDE GRIZZLY] [LEVEL: 5]
Level 5. In his old life, Ravi would have killed this thing by sneezing. Now, looking at the saliva dripping from its jaws, he realized the truth. It can kill me. One hit, and I'm dead.
The Bear roared, a sound like grinding metal, and charged.
Ravi moved. He tried to use [Flash Step], his signature teleport move. Nothing happened. No mana. He tried to summon his [Inventory]. Empty.
"Shit!" Ravi threw himself to the side, rolling through the mud. The Bear's massive paw slammed into the spot where he had been standing a second ago, digging a crater into the earth.
Ravi scrambled up, his heart hammering against his ribs. He backed away until his back hit a tree. The Bear turned slowly, its beady eyes locking onto him. It knew it had him cornered.
Ravi looked around frantically. Weapon. I need a weapon. Anything. There were only rocks, sticks, and...
Chapter 1: The Migration
The end of the world didn't come with a bang. It came with a system error.
Ravi stood atop the Spire of Babel, his black coat tattered, his HP bar blinking red at 1%. At his feet lay the corpse of the Demon God Kaiser, the Final Boss of the 100th Floor. The monster's body was dissolving into golden data particles.
It was over. Fifteen years of hell. Fifteen years of grinding, bleeding, and watching friends get deleted. He had finally beaten the game.
Ravi exhaled, waiting for the blue window. The one that said [LOG OUT].
Instead, the sky turned red.
[CRITICAL ERROR.] [ANOMALY DETECTED: PLAYER RAVI.]
Ravi frowned. He looked up at the fractured sky. "Admin? Open the gate. I beat the game."
A face formed in the clouds. It was huge, featureless, made of pure white static. It spoke with a voice that vibrated in Ravi's teeth.
[ENTITY 'RAVI' EXCEEDS SERVER LIMITS.] [POWER LEVEL: ERROR.] [AUTHORITY: ERROR.] [CONCLUSION: YOU CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO RETURN TO EARTH.]
Ravi's eyes widened. He reached for his sword—the Blade of the Void, a weapon that could cut dimensions—but his hand grasped nothing.
[INITIATING ITEM DELETION...] The sword vanished.
[INITIATING STAT RESET...] His strength, agility, and mana dropped to 0.
[INITIATING MIGRATION...] The floor beneath him dissolved.
"Wait," Ravi snarled, clawing at the digital air. "You can't do this! I won! I saved them!"
[YOU ARE A BUG, RAVI. AND BUGS MUST BE QUARANTINED.] [TRANSFERRING TO: SERVER 02 - AETERNA.] [DIFFICULTY: ABYSSAL.] [GOOD LUCK.]
Ravi screamed as gravity took hold. The world of the Tower vanished, replaced by a tunnel of blinding white code. He felt his soul being ripped apart, stripped of every skill, every weapon, and every title he had earned.
He fell into the darkness.
[MIGRATION COMPLETE.] [WELCOME TO AETERNA.]
Ravi gasped, his lungs filling with cold, damp air.
He slammed into the ground hard. Mud splattered into his mouth. Pain—real, physical pain, not just a red HP flash—shot through his ribs.
He rolled over, coughing. He wasn't on the Spire anymore. He was in a forest. Massive trees, thick as skyscrapers, blocked out the sun. The air smelled of wet pine and rotting leaves. It was freezing.
Ravi looked down at himself. His legendary Void Armor was gone. He was wearing a rough tunic made of scratchy burlap and simple trousers. He was barefoot.
"Status," he rasped.
A small, pathetic blue window flickered open.
Name: Ravi Level: 1 Class: The Soul Architect (Damaged) Mana: 0/10 Inventory: Empty.
Ravi stared at the screen. A dry, humorless laugh escaped his lips. "Level 1. You put me back to Level 1."
He clenched his fist. It was weak. The god-like strength that could crush boulders was gone. He was just a human. A starving, freezing human in the middle of nowhere.
CRACK.
A branch snapped behind him.
Ravi's head whipped around. His instincts were still sharp, even if his body was slow. Emerging from the shadows was a Bear. But this wasn't a normal animal. It was the size of a minivan. Its fur was matted with green moss, and jagged plates of iron grew naturally out of its shoulders and spine.
[ENEMY DETECTED: IRON-HIDE GRIZZLY] [LEVEL: 5]
Level 5. In his old life, Ravi would have killed this thing by sneezing. Now, looking at the saliva dripping from its jaws, he realized the truth. It can kill me. One hit, and I'm dead.
The Bear roared, a sound like grinding metal, and charged.
Ravi moved. He tried to use [Flash Step], his signature teleport move. Nothing happened. No mana. He tried to summon his [Inventory]. Empty.
"Shit!" Ravi threw himself to the side, rolling through the mud. The Bear's massive paw slammed into the spot where he had been standing a second ago, digging a crater into the earth.
Ravi scrambled up, his heart hammering against his ribs. He backed away until his back hit a tree. The Bear turned slowly, its beady eyes locking onto him. It knew it had him cornered.
Ravi looked around frantically. Weapon. I need a weapon. Anything. There were only rocks, sticks, and...
His eyes landed on a patch of rusted metal half-buried in the roots of the tree. An old, discarded Bear Trap. It was corroded, fused shut by rust, and completely useless. To anyone else, it was trash. To Ravi, it was a vessel.
He dove for it.
The Bear roared and lunged, closing the distance in a blur of fur and iron.
Ravi slammed his hand onto the cold, rusted metal of the trap. He didn't panic. His eyes went cold. He reached deep into the back of his mind, into the Archive where the Admin had failed to delete his most dangerous data.
He felt them there. The 12 Kings. Dormant. Sleeping. He grabbed the one that required no mana. The one that required only a weapon.
"Wake up, Old Man."
The Bear was mid-air, its claws inches from Ravi's face.
Ravi's eyes flashed electric blue. A digital wireframe grid exploded over the rusted trap. [SYNC RATE: 12%] [MATERIAL: RUSTED IRON.]
Ravi spoke the command that would define his new life.
"INHABIT: SEAT 7."
HUMMM. The sound of a server powering up vibrated through the forest. The rust on the trap didn't vanish, but it suddenly glowed with a spectral blue aura. The metal didn't just open; it unfolded with the grace of a mechanical flower.
A voice, dry as parchment and sharp as a razor, whispered in Ravi's ear. "A rusted jaw for a rusted king... Very well."
[SYSTEM: MUSASHI HAS POSSESSED THE OBJECT.]
The Bear landed. At the exact same moment, the trap leaped. It didn't snap shut like a trap. It moved like a viper. It floated in the air, controlled by the invisible hand of the Sword Saint.
SNAP.
The movement was too fast to see. The trap clamped onto the Bear's neck. But it didn't just bite. It twisted. With the technique of a grandmaster swordsman, the rusted metal sheared through the Iron-Hide Bear's natural armor, through the muscle, and through the bone.
A clean decapitation.
The massive body of the bear crashed into the mud, sliding to a halt at Ravi's bare feet. The head rolled away.
Silence returned to the forest.
The trap floated in the air for a second longer, the blue light fading, before it clattered lifelessly to the ground.
[ENEMY DEFEATED.] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!]
Chapter 1: The Migration
The end of the world didn't come with a bang. It came with a system error.
Ravi stood atop the Spire of Babel, his black coat tattered, his HP bar blinking red at 1%. At his feet lay the corpse of the Demon God Kaiser, the Final Boss of the 100th Floor. The monster's body was dissolving into golden data particles.
It was over. Fifteen years of hell. Fifteen years of grinding, bleeding, and watching friends get deleted. He had finally beaten the game.
Ravi exhaled, waiting for the blue window. The one that said [LOG OUT].
Instead, the sky turned red.
[CRITICAL ERROR.] [ANOMALY DETECTED: PLAYER RAVI.]
Ravi frowned. He looked up at the fractured sky. "Admin? Open the gate. I beat the game."
A face formed in the clouds. It was huge, featureless, made of pure white static. It spoke with a voice that vibrated in Ravi's teeth.
[ENTITY 'RAVI' EXCEEDS SERVER LIMITS.] [POWER LEVEL: ERROR.] [AUTHORITY: ERROR.] [CONCLUSION: YOU CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO RETURN TO EARTH.]
Ravi's eyes widened. He reached for his sword—the Blade of the Void, a weapon that could cut dimensions—but his hand grasped nothing.
[INITIATING ITEM DELETION...] The sword vanished.
[INITIATING STAT RESET...] His strength, agility, and mana dropped to 0.
[INITIATING MIGRATION...] The floor beneath him dissolved.
"Wait," Ravi snarled, clawing at the digital air. "You can't do this! I won! I saved them!"
[YOU ARE A BUG, RAVI. AND BUGS MUST BE QUARANTINED.] [TRANSFERRING TO: SERVER 02 - AETERNA.] [DIFFICULTY: ABYSSAL.] [GOOD LUCK.]
Ravi screamed as gravity took hold. The world of the Tower vanished, replaced by a tunnel of blinding white code. He felt his soul being ripped apart, stripped of every skill, every weapon, and every title he had earned.
He fell into the darkness.
[MIGRATION COMPLETE.] [WELCOME TO AETERNA.]
Ravi gasped, his lungs filling with cold, damp air.
He slammed into the ground hard. Mud splattered into his mouth. Pain—real, physical pain, not just a red HP flash—shot through his ribs.
He rolled over, coughing. He wasn't on the Spire anymore. He was in a forest. Massive trees, thick as skyscrapers, blocked out the sun. The air smelled of wet pine and rotting leaves. It was freezing.
Ravi looked down at himself. His legendary Void Armor was gone. He was wearing a rough tunic made of scratchy burlap and simple trousers. He was barefoot.
"Status," he rasped.
A small, pathetic blue window flickered open.
Name: Ravi Level: 1 Class: The Soul Architect (Damaged) Mana: 0/10 Inventory: Empty.
Ravi stared at the screen. A dry, humorless laugh escaped his lips. "Level 1. You put me back to Level 1."
He clenched his fist. It was weak. The god-like strength that could crush boulders was gone. He was just a human. A starving, freezing human in the middle of nowhere.
CRACK.
A branch snapped behind him.
Ravi's head whipped around. His instincts were still sharp, even if his body was slow. Emerging from the shadows was a Bear. But this wasn't a normal animal. It was the size of a minivan. Its fur was matted with green moss, and jagged plates of iron grew naturally out of its shoulders and spine.
[ENEMY DETECTED: IRON-HIDE GRIZZLY] [LEVEL: 5]
Level 5. In his old life, Ravi would have killed this thing by sneezing. Now, looking at the saliva dripping from its jaws, he realized the truth. It can kill me. One hit, and I'm dead.
The Bear roared, a sound like grinding metal, and charged.
Ravi moved. He tried to use [Flash Step], his signature teleport move. Nothing happened. No mana. He tried to summon his [Inventory]. Empty.
"Shit!" Ravi threw himself to the side, rolling through the mud. The Bear's massive paw slammed into the spot where he had been standing a second ago, digging a crater into the earth.
Ravi scrambled up, his heart hammering against his ribs. He backed away until his back hit a tree. The Bear turned slowly, its beady eyes locking onto him. It knew it had him cornered.
Ravi looked around frantically. Weapon. I need a weapon. Anything. There were only rocks, sticks, and...
His eyes landed on a patch of rusted metal half-buried in the roots of the tree. An old, discarded Bear Trap. It was corroded, fused shut by rust, and completely useless. To anyone else, it was trash. To Ravi, it was a vessel.
He dove for it.
The Bear roared and lunged, closing the distance in a blur of fur and iron.
Ravi slammed his hand onto the cold, rusted metal of the trap. He didn't panic. His eyes went cold. He reached deep into the back of his mind, into the Archive where the Admin had failed to delete his most dangerous data.
He felt them there. The 12 Kings. Dormant. Sleeping. He grabbed the one that required no mana. The one that required only a weapon.
"Wake up, Old Man."
The Bear was mid-air, its claws inches from Ravi's face.
Ravi's eyes flashed electric blue. A digital wireframe grid exploded over the rusted trap. [SYNC RATE: 12%] [MATERIAL: RUSTED IRON.]
Ravi spoke the command that would define his new life.
"INHABIT: SEAT 7."
HUMMM. The sound of a server powering up vibrated through the forest. The rust on the trap didn't vanish, but it suddenly glowed with a spectral blue aura. The metal didn't just open; it unfolded with the grace of a mechanical flower.
A voice, dry as parchment and sharp as a razor, whispered in Ravi's ear. "A rusted jaw for a rusted king... Very well."
[SYSTEM: MUSASHI HAS POSSESSED THE OBJECT.]
The Bear landed. At the exact same moment, the trap leaped. It didn't snap shut like a trap. It moved like a viper. It floated in the air, controlled by the invisible hand of the Sword Saint.
SNAP.
The movement was too fast to see. The trap clamped onto the Bear's neck. But it didn't just bite. It twisted. With the technique of a grandmaster swordsman, the rusted metal sheared through the Iron-Hide Bear's natural armor, through the muscle, and through the bone.
A clean decapitation.
The massive body of the bear crashed into the mud, sliding to a halt at Ravi's bare feet. The head rolled away.
Silence returned to the forest.
The trap floated in the air for a second longer, the blue light fading, before it clattered lifelessly to the ground.
[ENEMY DEFEATED.] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!]
Ravi slumped against the tree, breathing heavily. He looked at his trembling hands. He was weak. He was exiled. He was alone.
He looked at the dead bear. A slow, cold grin spread across his face.
"Okay, Admin," Ravi whispered to the sky. "You want to play a new game? Let's play."
He looked at the carcass. That wasn't just meat. That was bone. That was fur. That was blood. Materials.
"Diablo," Ravi muttered, sensing the excitement of the Demon King waking up in his mind at the smell of fresh blood. "Not yet. But soon."
Ravi stood up and walked into the darkness of Aeterna.