Zane fell.
The wind roared past his ears as he plummeted into the abyss, his body twisting in the air. He reached out instinctively, but there was nothing to grab onto—just endless darkness stretching below.
His mind raced.
How deep was this place? Would he ever hit the bottom?
Then, suddenly—light.
A blinding, golden flare erupted beneath him. The moment his body passed through it, the force of gravity shifted violently, sending him crashing sideways instead of down.
The impact was brutal.
Zane slammed into something solid, rolling across a rough surface before coming to a stop. His body ached, his lungs burned, and for a moment, all he could do was lay there, struggling to catch his breath.
I should be dead.
Slowly, he pushed himself up, blinking against the haze in his vision. The room around him was… different.
Unlike the vast chamber above, this place was smaller, enclosed, and eerily quiet. The walls were smooth black stone, covered in faint golden markings that pulsed like a slow heartbeat.
Zane stood carefully, testing his balance. The air here was different—thick with something ancient, something unnatural.
His sharp gray eyes flicked toward the center of the room.
Something was there.
Resting atop an elevated stone pedestal was a floating object, suspended in golden light.
A shattered sphere.
It wasn't a relic or a weapon—it looked like a piece of something far greater, broken and incomplete. Its jagged edges pulsed with faint energy, and thin cracks ran through its core, leaking wisps of black and gold mist.
Zane took a slow step forward.
His gut told him this wasn't part of a normal dungeon. This wasn't supposed to be here.
…Then why did it feel like it was waiting for him?
A Choice That Shouldn't Exist
As Zane got closer, the markings on the walls flared brighter, reacting to his presence. The air vibrated, the golden mist curling around him like unseen hands.
And then—
A voice.
It wasn't spoken. It wasn't heard.
It was felt.
"You should not be here."
Zane froze. His breath hitched.
The voice wasn't human. It wasn't even alive.
It was something deeper, something woven into the dungeon itself.
"You were not meant to awaken."
Zane's pulse quickened.
Awaken?
He took another step, his body moving on instinct.
The moment his fingers brushed against the shattered sphere, reality itself shuddered.
The moment Zane's fingers brushed against the shattered sphere, a violent shockwave erupted outward. Golden and black energy spiraled through the chamber, crashing into the walls and shattering the floating debris. The markings that had once pulsed calmly now flickered chaotically, as if something had broken their ancient rhythm.
Then, the pressure hit.
It wasn't physical. It wasn't even magical. It was something deeper—something that pressed against the very fabric of reality itself.
Zane staggered back, his breath caught in his throat. His body felt like it was being compressed and stretched at the same time, every cell screaming in protest. He clenched his fists, forcing himself to stay upright, but his vision blurred as the room shifted around him.
It was as if the dungeon itself was rejecting his presence.
Then the visions came.
Not memories. Not dreams.
Something else.
A crumbling throne stood in an endless void, its edges dissolving into nothingness.
A battlefield stretched across a sky filled with shattered constellations.
A vast domain where space itself twisted and folded under the will of a single figure—faceless, formless, but radiating terrifying authority.
The images burned into his mind, forcing themselves into his consciousness like an invading force. It wasn't just something he was seeing.
It was something he was inheriting.
"You were not meant to awaken."
The voice wasn't spoken. It wasn't even truly heard.
It was felt—woven into the very air around him.
The pressure around Zane intensified, and a searing pain exploded in his skull. It was as if something was tearing through his very existence, trying to rewrite him, to mold him into something else.
His knees buckled. His breath came in ragged gasps.
But he didn't break.
He refused to break.
Zane gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stay conscious, to fight against the force trying to consume him. His blood burned, his bones ached, but deep within him, something clawed its way to the surface.
Something that had been waiting.
The shattered sphere pulsed, its jagged edges trembling, as if sensing his resistance. The golden mist around him thickened, curling around his limbs like unseen hands.
And then—
Everything stopped.
The golden light vanished. The markings on the walls dimmed. The overwhelming pressure lifted, leaving behind a suffocating silence.
Zane collapsed onto his hands and knees, his lungs heaving for air. Every muscle in his body trembled, his nerves screaming in protest.
But as the pain faded, something else took its place.
A pulse.
Deep in his chest.
Foreign. Yet familiar.
Like something long forgotten had just been reawakened.
A system notification appeared in front of his eyes, glowing faintly against the darkness.
[ Cataclysm System Override Detected. ]
[ Error. Incompatible Entity Found. ]
[ Rewriting Awakening Process... ]
Zane barely had time to process the words before another wave of energy coursed through him. His vision flickered, and suddenly, he could feel everything around him.
The cracks in the walls.
The weight of the air.
The distortions in space itself.
Like his body wasn't just existing in this space—but commanding it.
His hands trembled as another notification burned into his vision.
[ SSS-Class Identified. ]
[ Initializing... ]
His heartbeat slowed.
SSS-Class.
Zane had spent his whole life watching others awaken, hearing stories of how the strongest warriors in history had reached Mythic-Class, but none had ever gone beyond.
SSS-Class wasn't supposed to exist.
And yet—
[ Awakening Complete. ]
[ Welcome, Sovereign of the Infinite Realm. ]
The moment the final words appeared, everything snapped.
A surge of uncontrolled energy exploded from within him, cracking the very air around him. The golden mist was instantly shredded, the walls trembled, and the remnants of the floating debris were crushed under an invisible force.
For the first time in his life, Zane felt weightless—not because he was falling, but because he was no longer bound by the same laws as before.
Then—
The world tilted violently.
Darkness rushed in, swallowing his vision whole.
And Zane lost consciousness.