Close to four years had sprinted past since Koslo’s village met its demise. In these years, Koslo transformed from a kid with lots of insecurities and traumas into a man with a body forged from otherworldly dedication. His mind, once tender, had solidified into something as unyielding as steel. Slack was a foreign concept to Koslo; he trained relentlessly, day and night, with minimal rest.
Three grueling years of such intense training were devoted to mastering the Shadow’s Sword Dance. When he used the art he felt like peace took over his mind and he’d be able to forget all of the horrors from his past. He had reached the “Sword’s enlightenment” which was the last stage of the art. Koslo had suffered through hell to be able to achieve his goals. He pursued until he’d collapse every day again. Only a few hours remained until Koslo’s sixteenth birthday, granting him the freedom to explore the mountains at will. He used to be limited by his combat power because the beasts around the mountain were very strong. His body was already filled with scars, most of them belonged to monsters but there were some from bandits and rogues.
Early in the morning, Koslo set out towards the remnants of his village. The eight-hour journey would take him through a landscape filled with beasts that had tried to kill him before. Koslo couldn’t help but to think about the complicated things that had happened the last few years. “Why did the angel attack our village, and why did it call me Typhon or something like that?” He hoped to receive answers by going back to the place.
The long run was barely considered a warm-up to him, the cause of this was his self-imposed training regimen that was inhuman. From swordsmanship practice beneath a waterfall and magical studies during a mountain sprint to combat with wooden swords against monsters constituted his daily routine. He slept less than five hours on this routine, and if he had any free time, he’d spend it on learning extra footwork for his swordplay.
He had noticed that the shadow’s sword dance wasn’t that much of a dance, but closer to a full attack focused pattern that was close to being perfect. The problem was that the footwork was a mess. “It must’ve been lost over time,” Koslo had thought.
Time flew by, and the boy reached the erased village earlier than expected. It remained a scorched ruin, plundered by bandits or adventurers. The great hall, hidden beneath the chief’s house, was the last place Koslo wanted to visit, but he had to go there.
Descending the grand stairs, memories of festivals and celebrations flooded back, echoing a longing for times gone by. He couldn’t say that he didn’t miss the big festivals that lasted several days. They always had a huge ball where everyone danced in pairs of two. In the hall, he noticed a peculiar golden square on the wall, untouched by theft. Grooves on its surface revealed multiple failed attempts to extract it.
Koslo read the engraved text aloud, “only my descendant can enter” his interest picked. The angel had called him a descendant before. Was it referring to him? Koslo thought about how to test it out and recalled a storybook about a hero placing his hand in the middle of a seal to open it. Koslo decided to try it. The moment his scar-covered hand touched the square, it vanished, replaced by a grand spiraling staircase leading into an endless darkness. Koslo looked at it with wonder.
Then the boy descended, every ten steps he took, blue torches lit up on both sides. Reaching the bottom, he found two large golden chests with an obsidian wall as high as Koslo in the middle of them. Behind the obsidian wall, a huge light-blue crystal radiated light. When he walked closer he could see that there was a text engraved on the wall
Approaching the thing, a voice read the text that was inscribed on it. It had the voice of a thousand snakes talking at the same time:
“My forsaken child, if you read this I’ll be long faded from existence,” the chilling words echoed in the desolate chamber. “Those pitiful mortals who cradled you, they aren’t your parents, the truth veiled beneath their lies reveals your true lineage. Koslo, you are my tainted spawn, the creation of Gods, and you stand as our final hope. I’m sorry to tell you this but you have been created because of our greed.
First of all, let me tell you about yourself. You are the cross between Gods and monsters. All of Olympian Gods were killed by me when I was younger, but I wouldn’t have done that if I knew there were others out there, many times stronger than Zeus and me. You are the last of the divine kin on this continent, your purpose is to kill the foreign Gods who try to take over the place we claimed. They call themselves angels, and they’re very strong. I created you with the essence of all twelve of the Olympian Gods that I have killed. It might scare you but you’ll be able to feel their presence as you grow.
I pray my followers have sculpted you in the manner befitting my legacy. The hidden continent has unveiled itself to the known world, a realm brimming with colossal powerful opponents. I managed to hold them off until now but it looks like I’ll lose the battle. I truly wished that I hadn’t killed the previous Gods for the sake of revenge.
Koslo, my kin, you’ll have to protect this land from now on. In your veins courses the legacy of the old Gods and my blood, the last first generation guardian, sworn to protect the territory of these pitiable races: the elves, the humans, and the dwarves. Sacrifices, small and big, shall stain your journey. Beside this text, you’ll find my wisdom and my pulsating heart. Eat my heart to unlock your first form. Only then shall your dormant form be aroused. I wished we could’ve met.
May the shadows raise you, my son, as you embark upon this somber quest. Wield the abyss within, and let the echoes of your awakening herald the relentless defense of the realms entrusted to you. Do well, my scion, for within you rests the twilight of our dominion. To kill the angels you’ll find a weapon within the largest volcano on the continent. We trust you with our cores”
Koslo reread the entire thing to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. Emotions were rare for Koslo, even now he was only confused. A thought made its way into his mind: “Was he able to kill Gods, if he couldn’t even move under the power of a single angel.” . And what was the thing about him having to protect other races? They didn’t even lift a single finger when he needed help. Koslo had once met a young friendly adventurer while training. Koslo had asked him if he knew what the angel from years ago was. “It went to every city,” the man had said, “everyone felt fear because of its presence. It asked us for a mountain tribe called Uvor. While the elves were arguing with the other races about it being a sacred place and that they wouldn’t tell the angel where it was. But the humans weren’t bothered by it. They told it the location and that thing left. People expected the Elves to attack the humans, but they didn’t do anything the last four years. One of their princes even said the king had forgiven humans for doing it. He said the place wasn’t a big deal and that he didn’t want to start a war over it.”
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Rage surged within him. He threw the lid of the golden chests against the wall and found thirteen books, twelve of them were numbered book with a name of an Olympic God’s name on it. The last one was called “Shadow’s Step.” He placed them in his ring and moved on. His rage was not over yet, he could feel his blood boiling as he clammed his fist and hit the wall next to him. The other chest held a giant heart that turned out to be an illusion. A small cube box appeared, containing a cold blue pearl. Eating it brought immediate regret as pain exploded through his veins, and darkness claimed his vision. Koslo dreamed about pain. He was trapped in a black void with thousands of splinters piercing his body. The excruciating pain didn’t stop, more and more knifes pierced his body. Days passed by in the void, maybe weeks. While suffering the he could hear the angels’ laughter in the corners of the endless space. Koslo didn’t give in to it, he persisted through the end. At the end of the dream millions of splinter thin metal knives had pierced every part of his body.
Koslo woke up next to the altar. He stood up and was shocked that he had grown close to ten thumbs. He felt awful and the pain was still lingering in the corners of his mind. The crystal in front of him showed his reflection. “What!” Koslo shouted in disbelieve. His body had completely changed. His brown hair had become snow white, his scars had darkened, his eye color changed from brown to light blue and the most absurd part were the two huge black wings sticking out of his shoulder blades. He thought the reflection was fooling him, but when he looked up, he could see the black wings and his new hair. Koslo was able to move the wings like they were arms, it felt natural. It didn’t take long before the boy started to get a headache trying to wrap his mind around all the new information. He sat down and thought about it for an hour. There was a lot to think about but he took his time to process all of it bit by bit. His conclusion went as followed: “I’ll visit every one of the three races to see if they’re worthy of my protection. If they’re not, I’ll just strengthen myself until I can defeat all the angels.” But before Koslo would visit his first race, he’d study the footwork left by Typhon. He read the entire book in ten minutes. His new eyes were twice as fast and sensitive as his previous ones. The practice took four hours to perform the basics. The movement consisted of nine forms, each one getting more complicated and powerful than the other. The first stage was enough for now. Koslo was about to head out when a blue window appeared in front of him. “Congratulations on awakening.” The boy pressed the screen, which made it transform into an overview:
___________________________________________________
Name: Koslo
Level: 1 (0/10 exp)
Race: Gods’ Leviathan (first stage)
Job: Last Guardian
Age: 16
Stats: Str 87 (S) Int 85 (S) Dex 59 (B+) Typhon 1 (X)
Skills: Identify (EX), Typhon’s punishment (S), Typhon’s domain (A+),
Typhon’s sword aura (E-), Typhon’s fear (A), Divine-revenge (S),
Shadow’s sword dance (A), Shadow’s step (E), Sword proficiency (B-),
Night vision (D), Survival (C+)
Status: confused, awakened
___________________________________________________
Koslo had already seen a sketch about this screen before in a book. The book had told him that the skills and stats were ranked from E to S but there was nothing about the X or EX ranks. Koslo’s screen was quite different from the sketch though, it had an additional stat named after Typhon and he had ten skills.
An average human should start with all stats between 10 (E+) and 40 (C) in every stat and with three skills. A genius warrior would have one stat above 60 (A). The skill names were weird as well, he knew what the last five and the first one meant, but the others were unknown to him.
Every level you went up you’d get a skill point which you can spent on str, dex or int. You had to level-up by killing monsters, this would grant you exp that raises it. There was only one way to beat talent and that was raising skill levels by hard work.
Koslo pressed the Typhon’s punishment skill in hope of learning about it. Information flew into his head, which made his headache worse. All of a sudden, Koslo knew what everything did. The Typhon’s punishment increased damage against A level threats and above by 250%. This skill was made so that he would have a big advantage against dangerous monsters.
Typhon’s domain was a nice spell for defending a city, it made a shield bubble around the area that protects it against most threats. The bad part was that he could only place one at a time. Next up, Typhon’s fear. This skill was an escape skill that gives the opponent immense fear if he’s below the skill’s rank. The Typhon’s sword aura was a special type of sword’s aura that could merge with magic. Koslo just awakened it, so his sword’s aura was at the lowest tier.
The last special skill was called Divine-revenge. This was by far Koslo’s most useful skill, it gave him a 300% damage increase against holy beings like angels. The description was quite different from the others. “A skill forged from millennia of never ending hate, the owner wants to kill every single one of this race. When completed, he’ll receive the boost permanently. 100.000/100.000 remaining”. “Is the number the amount of remaining angels, no that couldn’t be true, hundred thousand of those things?” From the bottom of his heart he prayed that that wasn’t true.
Koslo felt like he had known this information for years, but he knew this wasn’t true. The boy had decided that it would be best to train these new arts for some time before going to a city. He opened his ring’s storage and grabbed his two swords out of it. At last, he’d be able to use them.
He swung the swords and felt immediate power from it. It felt like they were extensions of him. He left the building after taking a part of the crystal with him. Koslo spread his wings and started flying around the mountains. The feeling of flying was weird but he got used to it quickly. There was no better way to process information than hunting on monsters.
The first decent opponent Koslo found was a Tempest Wolf. They were agile, which would be great for training his footwork. Koslo landed next to it with his swords ready in both hands. The beast knew it was in danger and charged at him with extreme speed. Koslo always had to use some eye spells to keep up with their speed, but now it looked like it ran slowly. “It must be because of my new eyes,” he thought.
Koslo tilted the sword and started combining his sword dance with the steps. They fitted each other perfectly like the last piece of a puzzle being placed into the frame. Koslo wasn’t that steady on his feet, but it was enough to kill the wolf. He got the timing right and chopped the beast’s head off with a single swing. A blue window opened and he gained 1 exp.
Koslo was amazed by his power. The Tempest wolf was the strongest monster he had ever killed before awakening. He grabbed a notebook out of his ring and changed the page belonging to the tempest wolf. He changed the threat level from D to E. It had become a hobby to write detailed reports about the monster’s attack patterns and weaknesses. Koslo drew the beast in the notebook with its own blood. The wolves normally lived in a pack, so there must’ve been more wolves around. Before he searched for them, Koslo grabbed the wolf’s core, which was its source of power.
The chief had told him that people sell these things for money or use powerful ones to make gear with. He repeated killing the wolves until the sun set down. He had killed thirty wolves, which wasn’t that much. Koslo hadn’t focused on killing them, but on improving his footwork. He even reached the second stage of the footwork and the skill went from E to D. The moment the system told him that the skill ranked up it improved a lot. Koslo climbed into a big tree and started sleeping.