The road to Elarion was paved in bones and silence.
For three days, Amit Kumar and the surviving members of the human expedition traveled through wasteland. Once-green plains had turned to ash. The air was dry and heavy, saturated with faint divine radiation — echoes of the gods' last war.
Elarion had once been the heart of the world — the city of creation, the cradle of the system itself. Now it was a graveyard.
Even from miles away, Amit could see its silhouette: towering spires fractured against the horizon, rivers of blue mana coursing through the ruins like veins in a corpse. The closer they came, the more intense the pressure grew — the kind of spiritual weight that could crush mortals simply for existing too close.
The humans struggled. Amit did not.
His undead body thrived on the energy, his soul growing sharper, hungrier.
They stopped at a ridge overlooking the outer gates. The old stone towers were fused with strange crystalline growths — divine remnants that pulsed faintly with life.
Varic's armor was cracked, his breath ragged. "We shouldn't go in there. That's not a city anymore — it's a tomb."
Amit's voice was calm, steady. "A tomb holds history. History holds answers."
The mage swallowed hard. "Answers to what?"
Amit's eyes flickered with blue fire. "To why I exist."
They descended into the ruins.
The streets of Elarion were filled with silence and light. Broken statues of long-forgotten gods lay in the dust, each one carved with different symbols of power. Some wept, others screamed. A faint hum filled the air, rhythmic — like a heart still beating beneath the rubble.
[System Notice: Entering Zone — The Heart of Elarion.]
[Warning: Reality Integrity — 67%. Divine Residue Detected.]
Amit walked slowly, his senses open. He could feel it — the lingering presence of something vast.
Every shadow whispered, every echo carried faint voices.
"He defied them all…"
"The Eighth rises again…"
"Break the system… or become it."
He ignored them and moved deeper, into what had once been the Great Spire. The interior glowed with liquid mana, walls carved from divine crystal that shimmered with fractal runes.
At the center stood a massive black obelisk — cracked, humming, ancient. Chains of light hung around it like restraints. Inside its translucent core, faint symbols of the system flickered, shifting through endless configurations.
The mage stumbled backward. "That… that's the Source Engine! It's the heart of the System itself!"
Amit stepped closer. His entire being resonated with the obelisk — a deep, instinctive connection, as if his soul recognized its creator.
[Resonance Detected.]
[System Core Fragment Identified: Node 0 — Origin.]
[Permission to Interface: Granted.]
The obelisk pulsed. Blue light rippled through the chamber. Runes lit up along Amit's arms, crawling like living circuits. The humans shielded their eyes as his aura surged — no longer merely undead, but something transcendent.
Memories that weren't his flooded into his mind: flashes of the gods before the fall — beings of infinite form, their arguments echoing across reality itself.
"Evolution is freedom."
"Freedom is chaos."
"Then let chaos be divine."
And then — betrayal. A blinding war of light and shadow. The shattering of the system's heart.
When the visions faded, Amit's voice came out low and steady. "I see it now."
Varic looked up, pale. "See what?"
"That this world isn't ruled by gods," Amit said. "It's ruled by the ghosts of their fear."
The obelisk trembled. The chains of light snapped one by one. The entire city shuddered as the system reacted to his awakening.
[Unauthorized Entity Access Detected.]
[Lockdown Protocol: Initiated.]
[Divine Sentinels Incoming.]
From the shattered corridors, shapes began to emerge — crystalline figures wrapped in radiant armor, each wielding weapons of light. Their eyes burned with the pure will of the gods.
Amit turned slowly, summoning his bow.
"Then let's see how divine you really are."
[Skill: Voidstorm Arrows — Activated.]
Dozens of spectral arrows formed, each pulsing with anti-divine energy. The Sentinels lunged — and the air erupted.
Arrows of annihilation tore through them, unraveling divine matter into mist. The clash shook the entire spire.
The humans fled behind collapsed pillars, unable to even breathe in the energy radiating from Amit's battle.
One Sentinel remained — taller, stronger, burning brighter than the rest. It struck, its blade cleaving through the ground in a flash of divine fire. Amit caught the blow mid-swing with his bare hand. His bones cracked — and then healed instantly, glowing with new veins of blue fire.
He met the creature's gaze. "You're bound by rules. I'm bound by evolution."
He drove his fist forward, shattering its core.
[Divine Sentinel Destroyed.]
[Core Energy Absorbed.]
[Talent Reaction: Infinite Evolution → Stage Two Initiated.]
The world around him froze. Everything dimmed — the ruins, the system interface, even sound.
Only a voice remained, deep and ancient.
"You awaken the Path of Infinite Evolution. Do you wish to proceed beyond mortality, divinity, and system?"
Amit's answer came without hesitation.
"Yes."
The obelisk exploded with light, engulfing him completely.
When the radiance faded, Amit stood reborn once more. His body was no longer skeletal — it shimmered with translucent spirit-flesh, like a being half-real, half-divine. His aura bent reality around him, and even the system's runes flickered in confusion trying to classify him.
[Race: Transcendent Revenant.]
[Class: Ascendant Marksman (C Rank).]
[Talent: Infinite Evolution — Stage Two.]
[New Passive: System Breaker.]
(Allows temporary override of divine or system laws.)
Varic fell to one knee, staring at him in awe and terror. "You… you're no undead anymore."
Amit looked down at his hand, the blue light dancing across his new form. "No. I'm becoming what the gods feared."
He turned toward the city's center, where the light of the obelisk continued to pulse faintly — now syncing with his heartbeat.
"Elarion still lives," he murmured. "And it remembers me."
Outside, in the crimson sky, the Higher Entities stirred once again.
Massive eyes opened across the heavens, watching as the balance of creation began to shift.
"The Eighth stirs."
"The cycle breaks."
"He walks again."
And far below, in the ruins of divine failure, Amit Kumar — the Undead Archer reborn — took his first step toward godhood.
"You wanted balance," he whispered to the sky.
"I'll give you evolution."