The strange world, with floating islands and a wall of shadow that reached the sky, looked quite calm and quiet.
The forest below was destroyed, barely any trees left and it looked like there had been a massive war happening that destroyed the landscape.
In the center of this strange world, there were stairs that seemed to lead straight to the heavens. On top of the stairs, there were platform with a glowing door with whispers of angels echoing out of it.
The door seemed to be calling out to everyone, beckoning everyone to step through it and discover the secrets that lay beyond.
At that moment, a strange island appeared in the sky, and unlike other floating islands, it started falling like a meteor!
Inside the island, Ambrose cried out from the bottom of his lungs as he tried to cling onto the ground with his swords while gritting his teeth as hard as he could.
He felt like he was dropping all the way to the abyss.
Mars tried to hang onto the ground with all his might, but it seemed like he was slowly losing his grip, and after a short while, he lost his grip and flew out of the island and, with a loud cry, fell straight to the ground below at incredible speed.
Rocinante, on the other hand, stayed standing on the falling island effortlessly, as if nothing could faze it.
“Hmm, what is this place, then?” Rocinante looked around at the wall of shadows and the floating islands. “I haven’t seen this place before. Truly strange indeed.”
At that moment, the island crashed into the ground below and broke by impact. The ground shook beneath their feet as the island shattered into pieces.
The mountain with the black castle and auction house crumbled into pieces. They were buildings with lots of history, but now they were nothing but piles of rubble.
“Ugh…” Ambrose crawled out of the rubble. He looked at his health and saw that it was at zero. Yet again, he wasn’t dying!
‘How hard is it to actually die here? For fuck sake.’ He groaned and stood up.
The last time, he couldn’t really die, but when Reinhardt sucked him off his blood, he managed to die somehow.
He felt like it was a very mysterious thing.
Then Rocinante hopped off the destroyed island and summoned the rusty sword back into its grip, pointing it towards Ambrose.
“The Last One, are you aware of the legacy you are carrying?”
“Who the fuck is The Last One?” Ambrose angrily asked, as he hadn’t forgotten about the deaths of Jake and Ors.
In his eyes, Rocinante was as big of an enemy as Mars.
“You are.” Rocinante said with a dreamy, echoing voice. “I thought I was The Last One as it was me who banished ‘Them’ away, but for some reason, there is yet another one.”
“What the fuck are you saying?” Ambrose grabbed his red-bladed swords tight. He wasn’t very interested in talking with this skeleton, as he seemed to be saying nothing but nonsense.
“Mythic Satanwalker, does that name ring a bell?” Rocinante asked with a smirk.
Ambrose’s eyes widened in shock. “How do you know that name?”
“He was the start of everything.” Rocinante laughed. “Mythic Satanwalker was the leader of humanity and one of the people responsible for starting the war with the Ancient Grounded Gods.”
Ambrose raised his eyebrow, listening with greater curiosity, as this could be the answer to that strange book he received.
“Did you know that Mythic Satanwalker was Suicide Swordsman?” Rocinante asked.
Ambrose’s eyes shook a little. “I had a hunch.”
“Haha.” Rocinante laughed slightly and then said. “You are now Blade Master, isn’t that correct?”
Ambrose sweated little as he couldn’t understand how this skeleton could know so much about him and the book.
“That answered my question, I suppose.” Rocinante scoffed. “The next leader after Mythic was a guy called Beowulf Madigan. He was Blade Master, and the pupil of Mystic.
“Mystic transferred his power to Beowulf before his death, allowing his pupil to reach an even higher level of strength so he could continue the fight against the Grounded Gods!”
‘Beowulf…’ Ambrose thought inside his mind. ‘The next page of the book would have been about him.’
“They were the ones who started the long fight against the Grounded Gods, but they were very weak compared to their future legacy carriers.” Rocinante chuckled.
“Well, I am feeling a little bit emotional, so I shared some of the history, but now I’ll tell you what I need from you.”
Ambrose narrowed his eyes as he felt Rocinante’s temperament change.
“I am going to need your body to be my vessel.” Rocinante laughed and looked down at its skeleton. “This body is weak and a mess. I cannot acquire immortality with this.”
“You want to possess me?” Ambrose mockingly laughed. “Not going to happen.”
“I ain’t asking; I am taking your body.” Rocinante said coldly. “There must be a reason why you appeared, The Last One. A new war might be on the horizon, and you are way too weak.
“I can stop the war from happening after reaching immortality. I’ll make this world peaceful with everyone living in harmony, so that Grounded Gods cannot hurt this place any more.”
“Y’know, I have heard that before.” Ambrose said. “Mars also wanted to bring peace to the world, not caring how many innocents he had to kill.
“From what I have understood about Grounded Gods, they ruled the world, didn’t they? Perhaps they also thought that with them here, there would be eternal peace without war.
“Yet, see how it went. Mortals became their slaves, and I am certain that you cannot control your greed for power and control. Who shall become your slaves? Which innocent will you kill first?
“Most of evil things are done by people who think they are doing the correct thing. You are not an exception, Rocinante; that was your name, right?”
“Ahah…” Rocinante shook its head. “A naive kid. I have seen horrors you can’t even imagine. I am much less evil than those lurking beneath the world.”
Ambrose opened his interface and saw that he was currently level 66 with 50 stat points to be used. He leveled up five times against the Ghost of the Wild Hunt.
He looked at his strength stat and added it all to it.
[STR: 150 -> 200]
Beep, beep!
[Strength had reached 200!]
[Streng¤%”¤% adde¤!#¤ to real”¤#”¤!]
Another glitched message appeared.
Ambrose took a deep breath. ‘I hope I don’t look like a bodybuilder from now on.’
“Whoo…” His muscles swelled as he prepared for the inevitable clash.
At that moment, a loud boom sounded from the distance, and a golden man jumped across the air like a shooting star.
“Where’ve you sent me, Ambrose?!” Mars screamed and threw an enormous punch. “Mercury Death!”
At that moment, Rocinante appeared in the way of the fist and blocked it with the rusty sword.
“I cannot let you kill my vessel. His body will be mine, after all, and I would appreciate it without any scars.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Mars’ eyes shrank as he didn’t expect anyone to be able to block his attack.
Rocinante smiled and sent Mars flying to the ground.
As the ground shook and exploded, near the stairs to the heavens, a figure wearing tattered clothes and a wide-brimmed hat sat on the steps.
He held a katana in one hand and a piece of wing in the other. He stabbed his teeth into the wing and sucked all the blood out of it.
At that moment, he heard the loud, booming sounds and perked up his ears.
“Grounded Angels?” The figure sniffed the air, and his eyes immediately shot open. “That smell. Ambrose!”
He stood up, and the wide-brimmed hat slipped off his head, landing on the ground.
His beautiful, pale-skinned face appeared.
He was none other than Reinhardt, the World’s Strongest Swordsman!