Arkadius Ururu looked up the sky and was amazed to discover that the sun was still in the same position it was when he had first been transported to this cursed land. The sun was just a spot of bright light beyond the clouds which covered the whole sky. He could not believe that no time had passed after all the fighting he had gone through. he was sure a lot of time had passed, but the sun was useless when it came to telling the passage of time.

He was tired and suffering from numerous wounds. When he had been teleported here,he had been wearing very expensive clothes now there were nothing more than charred rags.

Everywhere he looked he could see dead bodies. Each dead body was unique, the majority were humanoid and some were creatures he had only heard of in myths.The only thing all the bodies had in common was that they were huge, most were more than 10 meters tall.

In front of him was a shallow crater in which his final opponents body was laid. it was a huge humanoid body about 16 meters tall and its whole body was covered in small grey scales. It did not have any wounds except for the crystalline sword which was embedded in its chest. The sword was gorgeous, it was a Aura forged sword covered in tiny runes.

Arkadius left the blade in the body for he was not sure his opponent would not come back to life once the sword was removed. His opponents body was the famous "bloodless" body,this type of Primordial body was known for its healing powers.

Arkadius looked away from his final opponents body to the Tower Of Ascension. The Tower was a huge pyramid with a nonagon base. The distance from one base conner to the other was more than 10 kilometers, from where he was standing only 3 corners were visible. Each conner had stairs which led to the top.The pyramid was so tall that it's top was covered in clouds.The top was where the Pool of Ascension was.The place where he would become immortal.

arkadius was glad to have finally reached the base of the pyramid. This pyramid was just one of the nine found in this cursed place. and he shuddered as he remembered all the fights he had been through just to reach this pyramid's base conner.

They had all arrived in groups, each group consisted of 81 members and there were 81 groups making a total of 6561 Aspirants.These were the most powerful beings in all the 3 known worlds. Each person had first sought out his own relatives and those they had formed alliances with in the outside world.Afterwards they had searched for the Keys Of Ascension. All 81 keys had been found in the central location arranged one on top of the other to form a nanagon pyramid. The central location was the area which was an equal distance from each of the Towers that surround them.

The sight of the Keys led to the start of the battle. At first they had fought in groups, then after finishing all the nearby opponents, they had turned on each other, alliances which had taken years to forge had be broken shortly after all the external opponents had been dealt with.Afterwards those of same clan had turned on each other.He could still remember the disbelief on his cousins face as he was dying, arkadius had killed him by stabbing him in the back while he was finishing off his opponent. familial bonds meant nothing when it came to attaining immortality.After killing his cousin he had gotten one key and fought his way through the few remaining stragglers to the pyramid.

Arkadius looked at the prize in his hands which had caused him so much suffering and led him to betray his clan, it was a small grey pyramid with a nanogon base and its top was cut off so that the top also formed was a nonagon.The pyramid was a small replica the huge Tower in front of of him. The center of the bottom of the small pyramid was the written the number 5 and the center of the top nanogon had the number 3 both were written in language of the First Ones. These numbers showed which huge pyramid and it's stairway conner the small pyramid was keyed to. No one can ascend the stairs of the Tower Of Ascension without holding the smaller pyramid.

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Arkedius rounded the crater and when he reached the the start of the stairs,he took a deep breath and started climbing.

He managed to climb the first step and discovered that his journey had come to an end for the stairs in front had disappeared and he was that top. He knew it was the top because when he looked back he saw stairs leading down and disappearing in the clouds which obscured the field in which the fighting had taken place. In the far distance above the clouds,he could see the other 8 pyramid tops. He was sure if all the 9 tops were connected it would form a nonagon.

The clouds must have been put in place so that those who reached the top could not see the plan of the land where the wells of ascension where located thought Arkedius. He clearly remembered there being nothing in this land apart from pyramidal towers. Even plants had been absent. The only thing he had seen beyond the towers where the flat sandy land which seemed to gone on forever.

Arkardius was not surprised when he discovered that the pyramidal key had disappeared.It must have been a one time teleportation artifact.

The top was also a nonagon and at the center was a pool of clear blue water.it was the thing he had been looking for, the pool was known as The Well of Ascension. Immortality can be attained by entering the pool.The pool was also made of regular nine sides. On each side of pool was a statue about 20 meters tall. The statues were of humanoid beings covered in cloaks so he couldn't see their faces.

Arkadius did not rush to enter the pool, he first put up a shield to cover his whole body in case someone was hiding behind any of the statues who could attack him. He was not being paranoid for each pyramid had 9 stairways which led to the top. He cautiously checked each statue. when he discovered that he was truly alone,he dismissed the shield so that he could relax his mind which was already tired from the fighting. He didn't have to worry that someone from other pyramid tops would fly to where he was for no one was capable of flight in this land.

Arkedius felt a surge of pride,of all the Aspirants who had come here he was one of the 81 who would leave this place stronger than when he had arrived. He would leave this place an immortal and join the ranks of the strongest and become one of the Rulers in the 9 worlds.

Feeling secure in the knoledge that he was truly alone. He finally removed his tattered clothes and finally climbed into the deep pool.

Two of the statues came alive after a few moments later.

"Finally he is unconcious, he was a tough one.of of the 9 who managed to reach this top, he took the longest time to become unconcious." one of the former statues said to the other.

"Hurry up, let's start the extraction process before the aspirants wake up" the other one said and both began pressing the foreheads of the remaing statues. A rune started glowing on each of the statues foreheads which were touched.

"I am glad the next cycle of ascension will be the last one,the energy required to resurrect our people is almost full".

"The extraction has started, let's check on the other worlds" was all the first one said pretending as if he had not heard his partners comment.

Both former statues went back to their former positions and became statues with glowing runes on their foreheads like the rest