AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

Nox's scream unwantedly came out as he felt his body falling down, piercing through the air.

The wind was dry and flaky, while the odour could only be described as… weird, similar to a mixture of rotten eggs, fungus, and the stinging scent of rotting carcasses.

Bammm!

He finally crashed into the ground, but weirdly, the surface was much softer than he had anticipated.

Eventually regaining the sensation of his entire body and his sight, he gazed around, finding himself in a world far different from what he thought usual.

The entire sky above him was blood red, with uncountable, dead dark black clouds floating in it.

All the clouds in the sky seemed to be flowing towards the hundreds of large vortexes high up in the sky, some sucking the clouds while the others pushing them away.

Nox could hear nothing, not even the distant sound of the clouds floating above him. It was eerily quiet, making him almost nauseate.

Sitting up straight, he looked around the ground with wide-open blue eyes.

Humongous carcasses.

Stacks of rotting flesh, with a bright green hue emitting from them.

Piles of trash and waste, taller than the highest of skyscrapers.

These were the only things on the red ground, all around him.

He slowly stood up, taking a moment to understand what was happening to him.

The only reason he jumped into the vent was that he thought it would lead him to another part of the city, but he had forgotten the sole thing he shouldn't have.

He was in… The Tower.

His hair stood up straight, along with the heightening of all his senses as he felt himself sink deeper into the ground he was standing on.

Looking down, he realised that what he had been standing upon was dirty grey and enormous, unlike the normal ground.

Slowly turning his head towards the right, he lost his balance, seeing a giant lizard-like head with two massive horns emerging at its edges, attached to the grey ground he was standing on.

He fell backwards, pulling away his legs from the sinking grey ground before toppling down the huge grey hill.

Baaam.

Falling on the hard red round was rather painful, much more than he had expected.

Looking up at the hill he was on, he stepped back before tripping and falling to the ground.

[White Dragon High Guard]

[Level: ????]

Before he could even react to the enormous corpse, he felt thousands of needles pricking him all over his body.

Jumping up on his feet, he looked at his legs.

The red sand on the ground was slowly making its way up his shoes and into his trousers.

"AAAHHH!!!!!" screaming in agony, he jumped high up in the air. It felt as if the skin on his legs was being forcefully torn off.

He fell back on the ground before tearing away all his clothes covering his upper body.

The red sand had almost reached his chest, tearing away everything in their way.

Instinctively, he swung around the moon dagger, even though he knew that it was of no use.

[You have breathed in an SS-grade poison]

[You have been stung by an SSS-grade venom]

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

[Your body has started to *rot*]

[The user's exceptional poison resistance is trying to resist the poison]

[The skill, *Exceptional Blessing*, is trying to resist the poison]

[The skill, *Adaptability*, is trying to adapt to the poison]

Nox had never felt such pain before. He had never even imagined that such pain could even be felt.

He wanted to scream but couldn't even utter a word. He wanted to cry but couldn't open his eyes.

'Being caught by the guards would have been the better choice,' he regretted, falling lifelessly to the ground.

[The poison cannot be resisted]

##########

Neither was there light nor air in the void, yet three people could be heard conversing.

"He'll die at this rate, Master Luke," the eerie voice of Caligo hissed, "I am yet to become a full-fledged independent being. If he perishes now, I'll perish along with him."

After a short period of silence, a husky and rough voice belonging to Yinghuo said, "Neither do you help him nor do you let his guide help him. Just what do you want? At least think about Thomas and Mellis–"

Yinghuo stopped mid-sentence, followed by pin-drop silence, with no one daring to utter a word.

"He will survive…" a calm and serene voice replied, "For he is their son. He will survive… for he has yet to find the answer to his questions."

##########

Nox lay almost lifeless on the ground as the red sand slowly feasted on his pristine body.

[The item *Shadow light armour (C)* has been destroyed]

[The item *Black Minotaur's Gauntlet (S)* has been destroyed]

[The item *Assassins's Cape (B)* has been destroyed]

##########

"Master! Why do we light a fire outside the house every night?" the young boy asked, sitting on the ground cross-legged beside the middle-aged man sitting on the chair.

The young boy wore a Karate gi with a black rope tied around his waist. He had short black hair, complimented by his fair skin and sapphire-like eyes. His hands and feet were wrapped in layers and layers of white, dirty bandages.

The middle-aged Asian man reclining on the chair had a perfect, muscular and tanned body with a bulky physique. Like the boy, his eyes were blue too, but a few shades lighter. His nose was sleek and long, and his jawline was beyond perfect. On his handsome and wise face, a scar was visible, running down his left eye, over his nose, to the side of the right of his lips.

His open, black hair was long, reaching down to his shoulders, and he wore a French beard on his face. He wore loose baggy clothes, including a green Hawaiian shirt and blue shorts.

The floor had a light green coloured carpet over it, with sliding doors looking out at the lush green yard. The house had ancient Japanese architecture crafted to perfection.

No moon shined up in the dark, star-filled sky. The only illumination sources were the lights coming from the house and the standing wood torches spread across the yard at equal distances.

The middle-aged man replied, "Because the flies don't come near when there's fire and smoke around."

Confused, the child asked, "But aren't they attracted towards the light?"

"That is indeed true," the old man said, "But not fire… There's nothing that exists that isn't afraid of fire. Sure, it is possible to become comfortable with it, as we humans have become… But we still fear it and the destruction it possesses the ability to bring."

The boy turned towards the torch's flame, concentrating on it. The flame crackled and sparked, occasionally disturbing its graceful shape.

"Fire…" the boy mumbled, "It sure is interesting."

##########

Abruptly, Nox opened his blue eyes.

The red sand had climbed up to his neck and slowly approached his chin.

His dagger lay beside him, covered in the red stand, which had started to eat the metal.

On his shaky legs, he stood up while the red sand slowly devoured his skin, tissues, and muscles.

Death was bad. But for him, dying, still not knowing who he was and his parents were, was far worse.

He shoved his right hand into the blue inventory screen beside him.

With only one plan in mind, he felt the pressure of limited time and energy. There was no room for extensive thinking or creating an alternative strategy.

Pulling his hand out, he tightly gripped the lighter before flicking it on.

All of a sudden, the red sand around the edges of his hand receded, but the fire was too weak and dwindled away in an instant.

His eyes shined, seeing the ray of hope.

Thrusting his other hand into his inventory, he pulled out a sizeable lid-less metal bottle.

Turning the bottle over his head, he poured its transparent, viscous liquid all over himself before flicking on the lighter and lighting his entire body on fire.

He felt at peace as a wide eerie smile appeared on his face.

He became a burning scarecrow, killing all the red sand crawling on his body and making the red sand on the ground slither away from him.

This feeling of burning his entire body was a million times better than the red sand slowly munching away on it and tearing it apart.

All his clothes burnt away in the raging flame as he stood completely naked in front of the corpse of the white dragon high guard.

With his 'flame meddling' skill, he created a ring of fire all around himself before raising its height and creating a dome.

All of a sudden, all the fire completely disappeared, and a small ball of fire floated in front of Nox's open palm. He gripped it tightly before squeezing it with all his strength.

"Invulnerability," he whispered, letting go of the ball.

Booooooooooooooom!!!

The explosion's shockwave travelled in all directions. Although it was not enough to even scratch the humongous monsters' corpses, every speck of red sand around a fifty-metre radius of Nox evaporated into thin air.

The loud roar of the explosion echoed throughout the entire open field, dead silent a moment before.

Nox fell to the ground, gasping for air, but the fire had used up the little oxygen the wasteland had. The poisonous air around him was the only thing he breathed while inhaling.

He had won only against the red sand; his battle against the poisonous air was yet to be fought.

But he didn't know what to do. He couldn't think straight due to the lack of oxygen.

"What an interesting fellow…" the calm voice of an elderly man mumbled.

He didn't have enough energy to see who it was and fell unconscious, but this time, unburdened by the pain of his skin being torn apart.