EndGame: The Successor's Legacy-Chapter 32: Getting a cheat? -7

After a moment, Calix forced himself up from the ground.

His legs trembled, protesting every movement, but he ignored them. The battlefield around him was a mess—cracked stone, scattered rubble, and the massive corpse of the Sliteren lying motionless at its center.

The fight had been loud.

Too loud and violent.

Who knew what else might be drawn here if he lingered any longer?

Even though he was deep inside the Sandstorm zone, Calix didn’t want to take that risk.

With a tired breath, he straightened his back and reached inwards, tapping into his core. The familiar presence of his affinity answering eagerly.

Life affinity.

A soft green glow bloomed within him, flowing through his veins like warm water. The energy spread throughout his body, knitting torn flesh, easing fractures, dulling the worst of the pain.

Cuts closed slowly, bruises faded slightly, and the bleeding eased.

It wasn’t a full recovery, far from it actually but for now...it was enough.

Calix clenched his palm lightly, feeling the lingering ache in his arm, then turned away from the fallen monster.

Step by step, he moved forward.

Towards the heart of the storm.

The sand grew thicker, the wind harsher, grains of sand pelting against his body like countless tiny blades. The visibility dropped rapidly as the swirling wall of sand swallowed the world around him.

Yet Calix didn’t slow down.

His figure gradually disappeared into the raging storm...bloodied, exhausted, but unbroken.

And somewhere ahead, deeper within the chaos...a red glow flickered.

****

After traveling for more than two hours through the raging Sandstorm, Calix finally reached the storm’s eye.

Strangely and fortunately enough, he hadn’t encountered a single monster along the way. The storm itself had been the only enemy...endless wind, blinding sand, and crushing exhaustion.

Even so, he hadn’t slowed.

Soon enough, an unexpected and subtle chime echoed in his head.

Ding.

Calix froze for a brief moment.

...The system, eh.

Whatever reboot or restart process it had been undergoing, seems it was finally complete. Almost at the same time, his foot crossed an invisible boundary of the storm. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Step.

The world changed.

The lifeless black of the dark abyss vanished, replaced by a dazzling light in a plethora of colors. It took Calix a short moment to comprehend the shift after wandering through the pitch-black desert for so long.

The light had finally returned.

The desert stretched out once more in its original sandy hue, dunes rolling endlessly under an open sky.

Above him, stars shimmered with ethereal brilliance, lighting up the vast heavens like some scattered jewels.

And in the center of it all.

A rib cage.

The rib cage of a gigantic skeleton.

Its bones rose from the sand like the remains of a dead titan, bleached and ancient beyond reason. Suspended within the hollow of those ribs, a black orb hovered silently.

It swirled darkly.

Chaotic light twisted within it, bending space unnaturally, as if reality itself was being stirred.

He didn’t know why but Calix suddenly felt his skin crawl like never.

Then the system spoke urgency and chaos taking roots in it’s monotouns voice.

[Host...RUN]

"Huh, w-what?" Calix blurted out, confusion flashing across his face.

[Just run. This is the only chance you will ever get... use all your strength and break that orb.]

Calix didn’t need to hear anything else. The urgency in the system’s voice was unlike anything he had ever heard before...raw and strained it seemed almost desperate.

At the same time, his instincts also screamed louder and louder, clawing at his heart as if trying to rip it out of his chest.

He moved. His knees dipped into the sand as he ducked low, then..

BOOM.

A searing blast of purple lightning erupted beneath him, as Calix shot forward like a living bolt of lightning, tearing through the air moving straight towards the black orb.

Yet it seems his luck had finally ran out.

A sudden cold feeling washed over his body. Nor like wind neither like mana. It felt something else.

His heart nearly burst from his chest as his instincts went completely berserk.

Danger.

Absolute utter danger, he didn’t slow down.

If anything, he pushed harder, forcing more mana through his battered body. Lightning howled around him as his arm stretched forward, fingers reaching for the swirling black orb.

His fingers finally touched the orb. It was cold.

Then...it seems as if the world had stopped in a single lapse of moment. Not a single sound went into his ears. He felt no sensation.

Everything froze.

For a brief and terrifying moment, Calix felt nothing at all.

"That’s enough."

A voice so wrong that it felt like a sin, entered his ears. It was cold, almost as if amused by the whole situation.

Calix’s body jerked, as he finally looked downwards. His breath hitched and his eyes widened, while crimson blood spilled from his mouth.

A hand was pierced straight through the center of his chest.

Long sharp clawed hand searing red in colour, dripping with his own blood emerged from his back towards his front.

The unimaginable pain registered a heartbeat later, exploding through his entire being like his soul was being burnt just from the presence of whatever stood before him.

"Gaaaah!"

The sound never fully escaped, his lips as his body trembled violently, the wiry hand slowly twisting around in his chest.

’Huh? W-what just... h-happened...?’ His thoughts slowed down, as the world around him dimmed.

His consciousness flickering like a dying flame as his strength was drained away, the warmth leaving his limbs, replaced by an endless, creeping cold.

It was, as if they both were a statue, bound by a single frame of time. Then the voice resounded once again.

"Huh, a human possessing #@€$÷§ at this stage and on this level. Hahahaha..oh by the Arylters, the world right now should be an amusing place."

The being laughed as, as it didn’t care about his hand shaking in the human’s chest.

Calix hand touching the black orb, slowly seemed to become lifeless as it slipped down from the cold surface.