I Level Up by Killing Gods-Chapter 48: Foundation of Fury

The dagger quivered in the wall beside Kael’s head, its serrated edge catching the thin morning light.

Lira’s grin was all teeth, her mismatched eyes reflecting the blade’s dull gleam. For a moment, the room felt like the Null—weightless, charged, teetering on the brink of violence.

"I didn’t come here to be a thief," Kael said, his voice low. The words tasted like ash. Kain Valtherion hadn’t crawled out of the Null to skulk in shadows and pick pockets. He’d come to climb. To burn the Nexus down from its peak.

Lira plucked another apple from her coat—where did she keep those?—and bit into it with a crisp crunch.

"No? Then why are you here, corpse? Sightseeing? Prayer?"

"To climb the Nexus."

She laughed, juice dribbling down her chin. "Of course you are. You and every starry-eyed idiot who survives the First Reach. You think you’re special? That the Nexus will kneel because you’ve got a shiny blade and a death wish?" She leaned forward, her white eye narrowing.

"Dreams don’t die here. People do. And you? You’re sprinting toward a grave."

Aeth strred in his mind, its presence a coiled serpent. Kael flexed his fingers, the Blight in his veins hissing in response.

"You think I can’t clear the Second Reach Trial."

"I know you can’t." She tossed the apple core out the window. "Not alone. The First Trial weeds out the weak. The Second? It butchers the arrogant. Whatever hellscape it threw at you before, multiply it by ten. Add betrayal. Add rules."

"Then what?" Kael snapped. "I rot here? Become a bandit?"

"No. You get smart." She stood, her boots scuffing the floorboards as she paced. "Right now, you’re a stray dog. No shards, no gear, no allies. The guilds? They’ll chew you up. The Earth Faction? They’ll collar you. But if you hit a score—a real one—you buy freedom. Enough shards to arm yourself. To bribe. To choose."

"And then?"

"Then you hunt power. The kind that makes guilds hesitate. The kind that lets you walk into the Second Trial on your terms." She stopped, her gaze sharp. "Or keep sulking. See how far pride gets you when the Blight eats your lungs."

Kael stared at her. The girl was a paradox—all rough edges and reckless grins, yet her words cut with the precision of a knife. fгeewebnovёl.com

She was right, and he hated it. The Nexus didn’t care about vengeance. It cared about survival.

"Your plan," he said finally. "For the vault."

Her grin returned, wild and wolfish. "Sit down, corpse. This’ll sting."

According to the map, it lay half a day’s trek west of Sanctus Nexus, buried in the corpse of a dead god.

"Not a metaphor," Lira said, unrolling the stolen parchment on the cot. The ink was faded, but Kael could see the jagged lines of the Shardspire Ruins.

A red X marked a chamber deep within the structure. "Old Celestial texts call it Vak’thur—the ’Stillborn Titan.’ Guilds avoid it. Too much residual Blight, too many... echoes."

"Echoes?"

"Not trial reward trinkets." She tapped the map. "Whispers. Screams. Things that stick to your bones. But the vault’s intact. The Pact’s notes say it’s stuffed with pre-Fracture relics. Celestial weapons. Maybe even a Core."

"An A-Rank Core?"

"If we’re lucky."

Kael studied the map. The route wound through Blightstorms and Ravager nests.

"Guards?"

"Automata. Celestial constructs. No pulse, no pain. Just etherite gears and god-magic." She smirked. "And the Pact, probably. They’ll be scouting the perimeter after losing the map. But they don’t know about the backdoor."

"Backdoor?"

She flipped the map, revealing a string of glyphs. "Old sewage tunnels. Collapsed during the Titan’s death throes. Barely wide enough to crawl through. And before you ask—yes, I’ve done this before."

Phase One: Infiltration.

They’d leave at dusk, blending with scavenger caravans heading west. At the Shardspire’s edge, they’d split—Lira would trigger a Blightstorm charge to divert any Pact patrols, while Kael carved a path through Ravager nests.

"You’ll like this part," she said. "Lots of stabbing."

Phase Two: Descent.

The sewage tunnels were a labyrinth of calcified waste and unstable Etherion deposits. Lira claimed she’d memorized the route, but Kael noted the way her fingers tightened around the map.

Phase Three: The Vault.

The constructs would be dormant until tripped. Etherite tech responded to Etherion signatures, so Lira would cloak them using Ravager blood—a trick she’d learned from a dead smuggler.

"If it fails, we die. But hey—optimism!"

The payload: anything portable. Weapons, cores, scrolls. Leave the bulkier relics. Speed was survival.

Phase Four: Escape.

The hardest part. The Pact would lock down the area once the vault was breached. Their exit route? A timed Etherion charge to collapse the tunnel behind them, burying pursuers.

"And if the charge detonates early?" Kael asked.

Lira shrugged. "Then we become very ambitious fossils."

The cost?

"We’ll need gear," she said, ticking off items on her fingers. "Blight-resistant cloaks. Lockpicks. A few smoke canisters. Oh, and poison."

"Poison?"

"For the automata. The oil runs on purified Etherion. Corrupt it, and they’ll seize up. Nasty business, but cheaper than swords."

"And where do we get poison here?"

Her grin was answer enough.

The stakes?

Failure meant death.

Success meant power.

But as Lira rolled up the map, her levity faded. "One thing. The vault’s not just relics. The Titan’s heart is there. Still beating."

Kael froze. "What?"

"Celestial myth. They say Vak’thur’s heart was a battery—infinite Etherion, untainted by Blight. If it’s real..." She met his gaze. "It could fuel a gateway to any world. Could power terrifying weapons or sell for a price to high to utter."

The air thickened.

"You left this out," Kael said.

"I prioritized. You wanted a path to the Trial? This is it. But touch that heart, and every guild in the Reach will hunt us. The Higher Reach gods too. Maybe even your Earth friends."

Kael stared at the map. The Titan’s sketched ribs. The vault’s crimson X. The Blight in his veins writhed, eager.

"We take the heart," he said.

Lira’s laugh was sharp, bright, almost relieved. "Knew I liked you."

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