Now the enemies began using layered laws.
On 1476, he faced a beast that wielded Law of Severing Wind—a hybrid jaguar with blades instead of fur. Its wind slices could shear through mountains. One claw even nicked Asher's coat.
But Asher was done playing safe.
He used Blood Reversal Field mid-dodge and followed it with a high-speed scythe throw. The weapon pierced the air in a straight arc, turning red as it consumed the beast's own severing winds—then returned to his hand already soaked in its blood.
He just walked forward.
On Floor 1480, he fought a cursed priest known as the Voice of Silence, who turned spoken words into chains. Asher didn't say a thing. Instead, he wrote his will into motion—cutting through space, shattering the man's divine chains, and tearing down his altar with one spinning strike.
Reward after reward came, and they changed too.
Essence Sparks that boosted his body's resistance to pressure.
Refined Law Dust, allowing him to sharpen the edge of his attacks.
A Temporal Surge Pill, which he saved—knowing it could give him a burst of time-manipulation for a critical moment.
By now, Asher didn't just fight.
Enemies came with dual laws—flame and light, gravity and sound, time and poison—but Asher had begun to adapt in real time. His scythe movements became cleaner, tighter. His reactions—instant.
He no longer needed to think during battle.
On Floor 1490, he faced a sentient fortress—a walking structure of steel and magic called The Living Bastion. Hundreds of cannons and moving runes, along with self-repairing armor.
It took Asher nearly ten minutes.
But in the end, he used a combination of rapid movement, Law manipulation, and a single scythe technique that split through the entire tower's inner core—breaking the power source hidden beneath seven layers of steel.
The reward was worthy: a World Core Fragment—a rare item that could be used to strengthen his core further, even letting him break through natural law limits when he was ready.
He stored it without hesitation.
Now, even the air was hostile.
Every floor felt heavier.
Every opponent had command over Laws strong enough to hold territory.
On Floor 1496, Asher fought a Chrono-Knight, whose blade could delay time around each strike. But Asher learned his rhythm, entered his window, and landed a rising cut that cleaved through the time-delayed zone, destroying the knight's heart.
On 1498, he fought The Weeping Godling, a failed ascension of a divine entity who wielded Law of Grief and Law of Devotion. Its presence tried to pull emotions out of Asher—fear, regret, sorrow.
Asher simply advanced and cut through it.
Emotionless. Focused.
As Asher stepped in, the pressure around him thickened. The entire floor resembled a frozen battlefield. Black snow drifted from a cracked sky. The land was littered with burnt bones and twisted weapons, long since reduced to rust and ash.
Above him floated fragments of shattered crystals—each one flickering with an old, extinguished glow.
And at the center stood the boss.
Clad in broken armor, one wing torn, the other still smoldering. His sword dragged behind him, its edge pulsing faintly with dark light.
[ Floor 1500 Boss: Wraithforged Knight – High Star-Forger Rank ]
The knight didn't speak. No dramatic roar. No aura burst.
He simply moved—fast.
The sword swung down, coated in condensed Law of Ruin. The very ground split beneath its arc, turning to dust.
Asher blocked it cleanly.
Shockwaves tore across the battlefield, ripping up frozen soil.
The Wraithforged Knight's style was brutal and efficient. Each swing changed Law: corrosion, silence, weight, delay. The air shimmered with unstable energy as the Laws overlapped with terrifying pressure.
But Asher was faster.
He dodged precisely, countered smoothly. Each motion of his Blood Rose Scythe was honed from hundreds of battles, each strike tailored to break momentum and open weaknesses.
A feint. A cut. A low spin.
The knight's arm was severed.
Another step—his leg buckled.
Asher didn't speak. He didn't need to.
He moved like the end of a sentence. Clean. Final.
The scythe spun upward once, then reversed into a downward cleave.
A direct hit to the core.
The knight didn't scream.
He fell—armor splitting, Law unraveling.
Ash swallowed him whole.
[ Floor 1500 Cleared. ]
[ Reward: Limitless Rebirth Core – A breakthrough catalyst that permanently removes one natural limiter. ]
Asher caught the glowing black-gold core as it hovered into his palm.
He examined it briefly, gave a quiet nod, and stored it without a word.
The gate hissed open.
A wave of dry, metallic heat swept over Asher. This floor resembled the inner shell of a dying sun—molten cracks running through a scorched obsidian plain, and iron fumes twisting through the air like serpents.
The enemy emerged from the glow.
A humanoid figure plated in sun-metal, with six arms and a single, glowing forge-eye at the center of its chest. Every movement sparked sparks and smoke.
[ Floor 1551 Boss: Solar Forgemaster – High Star-Forger Rank ]
[ Law Signature: Thermal Pressure & Kinetic Transfer ]
It moved the moment Asher did.
Sparks flared into hammer blows, and the floor rumbled beneath their footwork. The Forgemaster's strikes turned air to plasma. Asher ducked, twisted, countered with a clean diagonal slash.
The scythe struck metal.
Then burned through it.
Each time Asher was hit, the Law tried to push energy into his body—to rupture him from the inside with kinetic bursts. But he held firm. Redirected. Let it pass through.
In less than a minute, the Forgemaster began to collapse.
Asher ended it with a reverse sweep to the knees and a final decapitating arc.
[ Reward: Solar Ember Core – Enhances resistance and usage of high-temperature Laws. ]
Here, the sky wept rust.
The terrain was a grid of floating steel platforms shifting in an ever-moving puzzle. Asher had to stay in motion constantly—if he paused, the ground beneath him vanished.
The enemy didn't care about footing.
It floated—a snake-bodied caster wrapped in tattered banners, each banner an expression of old-world war curses.
[ Floor 1560 Boss: The Bannered Seer – High Star-Forger Rank ]
[ Law Signature: Compulsion, Fear, and Battlefield Fate ]
It didn't throw projectiles.
Each word carried Law-weight. Each forced reality to obey.
But Asher had no interest in following anyone's Law but his own.
He pushed through the pressure, ignored the hallucinations of dead comrades and bleeding skies, and hurled himself into the eye of the storm. His blade slashed through banners. Through words. Through fate.
New novel chapters are published on Novel~Fire. (n)et
[ Reward: Warworn Thread – Can be used to tether or resist battlefield-type Law constructs. ]
While waiting for new chaps, do check out my new book : Final Life Online