I Level Up by Killing Gods-Chapter 40: On The Sixtieth Day

Sixty days since Kael had entered the Mad Monk’s lair.

Sixty long, brutal days of solitude, training and mental torture. The walls had become a prison and a forge, forcing him to confront his weaknesses and shape his potential into steel.

But today the trial within these walls was done.

Kael stood at the door of the lair, his dark-blade in his hand.

Out there, beyond the ruin, were the remaining pieces of the idol—the key to completing this trial and getting out of this hellhole.

But first, there was one more thing.

They hadn’t left.

For weeks they had hung around the outside of the lair, their voices dripping with lies and poison.

They had spoken to him with human faces and voices, trying to get him to come out.

Today he was going to answer their call.

As he stepped through the doors the air seemed to change. The energy outside the lair pressed in on him like a storm front, heavy with malice and death. The six figures stood in a loose circle, their human masks all too familiar.

"Well, well," Jarek said. "You finally decided to join us, Kael. It’s been too long friends."

Kael stopped a few feet from them, his eyes cold and hard.

"Tell me then, friends" he said, his voice cutting through the tension, "which one of you wants to die first?"

The illusion broke.

Their human forms dissolved like smoke on the wind, revealing the monsters beneath.

Black flesh twisted with bones, claws dripping with hate, and empty eyes glowing with a sickly yellow and crimson light. The air was filled with guttural growls and unnatural clicks as they prepared to attack.

Kael tightened his grip on Ather’valis and smiled grimly.

The first one charged with terrifying speed, its bony arms slashing through the air. Kael stepped aside with ease, his body moving with the precision of weeks of brutal training.

The creature overextended and Kael struck.

"#498: Severing Cascade."

Ather’valis sliced through the monster in one smooth motion, the dark blade igniting with Blight energy as it cut through muscle and bone.

The force of the blow sent a shockwave outwards, splitting the creature in two and digging a deep furrow in the ground.

The others didn’t even hesitate before striking as one.

Kael’s body was a blur, dodging their attacks with an unnatural fluidity. Claws raked the air where he’d been just a moment before, their anger evident in their growls.

Another one jumped at him from behind, its mouth open wide with rows of teeth. Without turning Kael spun Ather’valis around, the blade slicing upwards in a brutal arc.

"#496: Rending Fang."

The energy-infused slash tore through the creature’s jaw and skull and it collapsed in a heap.

Two more came at him, their attacks synchronized with a speed and ferocity that would have overwhelmed most warriors. Kael met them head on, his body like a gust as he struck out.

"#493: Storm Barrage."

Ather’valis seemed to be an extension of him, the blade moving faster than the eye could see. Each strike was precise and deadly, cutting into the creatures with merciless efficiency.

The Blight energy in the blade burned their corrupted flesh and they writhed in pain.

But these weren’t normal monsters—they were Trial Entities, created by the same dark energy that ruled this realm.

As Kael cut them down, their bodies began to reassemble, the black flesh knitting itself back together with unnatural speed.

Kael backed off, his eyes cold.

"You’re persistent. It’s in your nature to be such a pest, I suppose?"

The largest of the six, a hulking brute with spiky arms and glowing eyes, roared as it charged him. Kael stood his ground, raised Ather’valis and channeled Blight into the blade.

The air around him thickened, igniting with Blight mixed with something darker.

"#491: Oblivion Cleave."

Kael swung Ather’valis with both hands and released a massive arc of energy that cut through the brute and the ground beneath it. The force of the attack shattered its body and sent its pieces flying across the battlefield.

The other three hesitated for the first time. Kael didn’t give them a chance to recover. He charged.

"#490: Phantom Rend."

The skill allowed him to move faster than the eye could see, his body a blur as he struck all three at once. Ather’valis cut through them with ease, each strike infused with raw Blight.

When the dust settled Kael stood in the middle of the carnage, his blade dripping with the ichor of the dead.

Their bodies spasmed and writhed on the ground, trying to regenerate but Kael wasn’t done.

"Stay down," he said, raising Ather’valis for the kill.

"Resonance: Null’s Judgment."

A wave of dark energy burst from the blade and consumed the remains of the creatures. They dissolved into blackness that fed the blade and their regeneration was the aggresive darkness that erupted and consumed them with ravenous hunger.

---

The temple was quiet except for the monk’s mumbling in the background. Kael stood among what little remained of the entities, his chest rising and falling with slow breaths.

The trial’s illusions were broken, their lies punished by his brutality.

Kael cleaned the blade on one of the creatures and let it fade. He looked out at the battlefield.

The idol pieces he sought were out there, scattered across the desolate landscape.

The trial wasn’t over yet.

"Just a little more," he muttered to himself.

Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)