Everything changed on the fourth day. The sky was covered with cracks that dropped meteors down onto the planet below. The ground seemed to hum beneath Devon's feet as he stood to get ready for the incoming waves. A tension filled the air, like something even greater was about to happen, but Devon wasn't sure what.
[Additional objective added: Kill 5 Curse Hunters]
Footsteps echoed on the cobblestones as his first opponent entered the plaza. Then after a few moments, Devon had to look around to make sure there weren't any sneaking up on him. But no, there was only the one combattant.
They were dressed in something similar to a cowboy outfit, and Devon could tell they were of a different race than all the people of the prior waves had been. This person, a male Devon assumed, was like a humanoid insect with four arms and carapace-like natural armor It walked into the plaza and fixed Devon with six eyes that covered the length of its face.
But even with its slightly intimidating visage, Devon didn't feel true apprehension until it pulled its weapon out of its tile. Two unreasonably long slivers of metal were adjoined just above the hilt of the weapon. It opened them slightly and tugged them so that they came apart as two separate blades, each wielded by two hands on either side.
[Curse Hunter - Level 25]
So an insectoid curse hunter that uses giant scissors for a weapon. And they're 4 levels above me too. Great.
Devon had been able to beat the trap spider because though it had been 10 levels above him its primary strength was in the traps it set. Devon did not hold any illusions that this hunter would have the same stipulations. They were the whole package, a fully leveled sentient creature that had gone through the leveling process just as he was doing, even if they were a mere imitation.
Devon summoned his axe, and below the falling stars they fought.
As their weapons clashed over and over again Devon realized just how lucky he was to have his axe. He had lost the stone quarterstaff on day three, so he only had the one weapon remaining.
The blades of their weapons clashed near endlessly as they danced. On the second day the dance of wholesale slaughter had disgusted him, but he had still danced to its tune. On the third day he had danced as well, and though it had been to a better rhythm than day two, it was still discordant and unharmonious having to fend off several opponents at once.
But here, on day four the symphony reached a kind of equilibrium. The hunter's eyes did not contain the fear of death, the righteous anger of the wronged, or the unrefined savagery that the enemies on the previous days had displayed. There was only the thrill that came from dancing upon the thin line of life and death.
After an hour of fierce battle Devon finally put an end to the struggle.
The insectoid tried to combine their blades and bring them together with Devon in the middle, but he had been expecting the move for a while and already had a countermeasure ready.
As the blades combined into one Devon swung his axe with all the strength he could muster. The axehead caught the scissor blades near the hilts in the middle of their closing, causing the hunter to flinch back in surprise. Devon didn't miss that opportunity, and leaped forward over the scissor blades before landing a solid punch to the face of the insectoid.
Devon shifted himself in the air even as the hunter fell backwards, stunned by the blow, and he was ready when their back hit the cobblestones. With a savage roar Devon brought the heel of his boot down upon the hunter's skull, shattering it.
The hunter had been a skilled warrior, but they were ultimately reliant on their dexterity to cut their opponents to ribbons. It had been the sole area it had excelled over Devon, and it had made the duel last longer than Devon would have liked. He still had at least four more hunters to go through, after all. He couldn't be wasting all his time on the first.
Kill - [Cursed Hunter - Level 25]
[Level up. Level 22 obtained.]
[Level up. Axe Proficiency Level 7 obtained.]
Part of Devon was a little surprised an hour of fighting solely with the axe had only netted him a single level of proficiency, but he supposed his technique hadn't improved much at all since the first day.
He had become more of an instinctual fighter, one that focused on reacting rather than following any kind of real technique. And he was reaching the limit of how far that could take him. Devon just hoped it was enough to use Refine on the skills he'd obtained.
He popped a healing pill as the next hunter entered the plaza. The first fight had been utterly exhausting, and he needed to restore himself, even if he didn't explicitly need the healing. He knew if he proceeded at anything less than his best he would get cut down before the healing pill could heal any injuries he might sustain.
The next hunter was even less human-like than the first. A disgusting mass sat at the center of a mechanical shell controlled by rods of metal stuck into the disgusting creature. The exoskeleton's limbs were themselves weapons, and the overall design seemed to draw inspiration from arachnids and humanoids combined, with eight bladed legs supporting a torso with two bladed arms.
Devon picked up the fallen scissor blades and once again danced on the line between life and death.
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Devon had assumed the waves would stop when night came, like all the other days. He was wrong.
He fought a mage in a city lit by moon and firelight as the buildings and streets burned around them. The tension in the air that Devon had felt since the morning had only grown, and he felt it was reaching its zenith as the world seemed to be ending around them.
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Devon was eminently thankful that the third day had removed the level 20 limit, as the continued fights with level 25 opponents had only made him grow stronger through the day. Though he had only gained two levels since the scissor warrior, which seemed strange to him considering how high above his weight he was fighting.
Even so, the plentiful stats provided by each of his levels were enough to make each fight seem that much less arduous.
Devon dodged a beam of light as he advanced toward his enemy. The mage had been playing games with him for the past hour, but Devon could finally sense that it was running low on mana.
The creature was some sort of enlightened beastman, as they stood on two feet and wore flowing robes that reminded Devon of a priest. Each of the hunters he'd fought had all been a different species, some exotic and strange while others looked vaguely familiar. The beastman was definitely one of the most recognizable ones, as it looked just like Devon imagined a werewolf would.
The mage turned to flee once again as it saw Devon closing in on him, but Devon was done playing that game. He ripped one of the stones out from the street and hurled it at the werewolf. The stone impacted the back of its head hard enough that the stone shattered against the beastkin's skull.
The mage crumpled, and it only took an instant for Devon to plant his axe in the hunter's back. Some of the aliens he had fought hadn't truly died when the head was destroyed, so Devon had just been going for the torso.
Kill - [Curse Hunter - Level 24]
He stepped back, taking deep breaths. He was about to retrieve his axe and prepare for the next opponent, but he felt more than heard a crack that rent the sky.
He looked up, captivated. The rifts in the sky had been there since the early morning of the day before, but this was different. Instead of there being a crack suspended in the sky, it was as though the sky itself had cracked.
Then something came through that crack. It seemed to be the fist of a god, or a being so large that Devon could not possibly fathom its true size. It was so large that it blocked out the breaking of the dawn as it rushed towards the earth, and Devon knew that the moment it struck the planet he and every other creature on this fabricated world would die.
At the instant it struck, time froze. Devon looked around, seeing the world's destruction captured in a single frozen moment.
Devon suddenly realized he was no longer alone in the plaza. He whipped around, ready to dodge any prospective attack, but the figure that sat on the edge of the demolished fountain made no move to attack. It simply stared at the horizon, at the gargantuan fist that was intent on eradicating this world from the cosmos.
The figure was male, and it wore a set of plate mail so cracked and frayed Devon doubted it would hold under the lightest of blows. His helmet had been discarded, allowing his hair like fire to blow on a breeze that ignored the broken causality of the world. Unlike the townspeople and the guards and all the others, Devon distinctly felt that this person was real. His physical form was no doubt fabricated, but his soul and mind were genuine.
"I'm still not entirely sure what triggered this event, what caused the system to turn everything we had ever known against us. I suppose only the king would know. He was the one that waged that constant war with the system."
"Who…"
"I am a shadow, young initiate. Nothing more than a lingering memory of one whose time ended long ago."
"What happened here?"
"This was my home. It was a kingdom I built alongside my king, and it was beautiful. It had its issues, but so does every other realm. We had even found a way to lock out the rest of infinity, so that we may live without the constant strife that the system enforces upon the Infinite Realms. Then one day the system decided our king could no longer be allowed to maintain such a paradise, and everything became as you see.
"I was locked here, in this plaza, unable to do a single thing as the people I protected received that ruinous quest. 'Kill your protector or die,' it said to them. I received the same quest you did as well. To survive until the fifth day. I think the system knew that this planet would not live to truly see the fifth dawn," He said, looking at the fist of death that blocked out the morning light.
"The system can do that?" Devon asked, aghast. He had honestly assumed the system to be incapable of affecting the physical world beyond allowing users to allocate stat points. The idea that it could straight up kill any of them at any time was insane.
"It cannot enforce such commands upon those who have bound themselves tightly to Karma, but it has no such reservations playing with the lives of those who are free of Karma or have not yet awakened their spirituality."
"What is the spirit supposed to be?"
"You are not aware? Ah, that's right, you are but an initiate. How you came to awaken your spirit must have been a truly remarkable encounter. Most remain unable to rouse it until the time comes to evolve past their limitations. Your spirit-"
A shudder rocked the ground as the fist collided with the earth as time unfroze for a single instant.
"Ah, it seems the system does not allow that information to be handed to initiates so readily. Or perhaps it is because of the curse you bear. Either way, I will leave you with this; find the king. I doubt he will have remained as I have, yet he will have surely left something useful for one like yourself. One like him. I am sure he rests near the zenith of our once beautiful city. Ah… He would have been loathe to see our beautiful dawns blocked out by that monstrosity."
"Wait! I still have more-"
"The system is terminating this spatial instance, there is nothing more I can do. I will shift the entrance coordinates so you are not put in the same situation you were in when you entered." The knight said as the world started to warp around Devon.
He found his voice stolen from him as he could only watch as the world resumed its destruction. The knight smiled, a sad look in his eyes as he stood to meet the desolation. A wave of destruction rose from the direction of the dawn, and the knight threw his fist up with a roar of defiance to meet it.
A shimmering shield in the shape of a massive dome was erected around him and the plaza as the broken pieces of his world rained down upon the city, burying it under an unending cascade of destruction. The city and shield were buried as one, leaving the image of a knight who was defiant to the last as the final image Devon saw before reality collapsed around him, and he was plunged into darkness.
When Devon opened his eyes he was back at the entrance to the mountain den, the corpse of the first ape he had slain still lay nearby in a state of decomposition.
He stood atop one of the buried buildings of this city whose name had been lost to time. As light touched the slope of the mountain before him he turned and made himself bear witness to the first of the three suns coming up over the horizon.
[Memory Dungeon Objective complete: Survive until the fifth day.]
[Additional Objective complete: 16/5 Curse Hunters slain.]
This was not the fifth dawn. He had no idea how many dawns had passed since the breaking of this world. It could have been hundreds of thousands or maybe even millions. The system had called this world abandoned, but that wasn't the truth. It had been killed.
There may not even be any living beings in all the Infinite Realms that remembered it had once lived. The memory of that place now existed only within Devon's mind.
And he would not soon forget the terrible anger that such an atrocity filled him with.