Re-Awakening: I Ascend with a Legendary class - Chapter 610: Ascension Trial, Realm of Kings & Puppets
Chapter 610: Ascension Trial, Realm of Kings & Puppets
Since everyone met the requirement to ascend, which was being Tier-6 or higher, they initiated the ascension immediately.
Pulse gathered in enormous currents above the summit where Almond and the others stood, spiraling slowly like invisible rivers converging at a single point. The energy kept accumulating until the sky itself looked like a gigantic rotating vortex.
Then the system voice spoke.
[Ascension Trial Initiated]
[Candidates Detected: 9]
[Trial Type: Combat Evaluation]
[Structure: Wave Combat → Final Adjudicator]
[Performance Determines Starting Position In Layer Three]
Nine pillars of light dropped from the vortex.
Each one wrapped around a single person.
In the next second, all of them vanished.
…
Almond floated alone in a battlefield that looked like the broken remains of an ancient sky fortress.
Massive fragments of black stone floated in the air around him, drifting slowly like islands in a dark sea of clouds. Some of the fragments were the size of buildings. Others were small, jagged platforms rotating lazily in midair.
Above him stretched a turbulent gray sky filled with distant lightning.
Below him, there was nothing but endless cloud cover.
The entire arena was suspended thousands of meters above the world that was burning in black flame,s with ongoing destruction visible.
[If you fail to get passing marks, you shall be obliterated. Proceed to start the trial?]
Almond chuckled. “Passing marks? Just make sure your evaluation can measure my marks.”
[Trial initiating.”
The wind howled constantly through the shattered ruins.
For a moment, Almond simply looked around calmly.
Then the first monsters appeared.
They did not arrive with dramatic flashes or explosions.
They simply stepped out from thin air.
Twenty of them.
Each creature stood nearly three meters tall. Their bodies were covered in layered bone armor that looked like overlapping plates of fossilized blades. Their arms ended in curved claws that glinted like sharpened steel.
Tier-9.
Their Pulse signatures were strong.
They did not hesitate.
The moment they appeared, the monsters rushed forward in a coordinated attack.
Three leaped from the left.
Five charged straight down the center.
The rest spread outward, attempting to surround him.
Almond exhaled slowly.
The Exalted Grimblade appeared in his hand.
A long black blade whose edge carried faint violet fractures running through its surface like cracks in space itself.
Exalted Grimblade—Oblivion Tyrant’s Final Testament.
The first monster lunged.
Its claws tore through the air toward Almond’s neck.
The blade moved.
One simple slash.
The movement was almost lazy.
Yet the moment the edge cut through the air, something far more violent followed.
A thin fracture line appeared in space.
Then another.
Then another.
Within a heartbeat, ten fracture lines erupted outward from the original slash, spreading across the battlefield like lightning crawling across glass.
Voidfracture Bloom.
The creature in front of him split apart instantly.
The fracture lines continued forward.
They tore through the monsters charging behind it as well, slicing cleanly through bone armor and flesh without slowing.
Four monsters collapsed at once.
Pulse surged back toward Almond as their vitality drained away.
Pulse Devour Sigil activated quietly, restoring the energy spent on the attack.
The remaining monsters closed in.
One jumped down from above.
Another rushed from behind.
Almond stepped forward into them.
His blade moved again.
The sky itself seemed to crack.
More fracture lines burst outward from the swing, multiplying across the battlefield in jagged angles that cut through the charging creatures.
Within seconds, the entire first wave had collapsed across the broken stone platforms.
Silence returned to the sky ruins.
But only briefly.
The second wave arrived.
This time, the battlefield trembled slightly as the monsters appeared.
Forty creatures.
These ones were larger.
Their bodies were covered in thick crystalline armor that pulsed faintly with dark energy. Their footsteps alone cracked the surface of the floating platforms beneath them.
Tier-9 elites.
The moment they appeared, they attacked together.
Some leaped between floating ruins.
Others smashed their way forward through the stone structures, using brute force to close the distance.
Almond looked at them calmly. ’Let’s go to the new blade.’
His second Exalted Grimbalde!
The one in his hand dissolved into black particles.
A different blade formed in its place.
The blade that had been forged during the climb inside King’s Mountain.
Its edge looked darker.
Unstable.
Thin cracks ran along the metal surface, glowing faintly like veins of molten ruin energy.
Almond opened the weapon interface for a brief moment.
[Exalted Grimblade—Edge of Ruin]
Tier: 10
Attack: 1 + (500% Arihanta + 500% Will)
Effects
Ruin Momentum
—Every strike builds Ruin Force, increasing the destructive radius of the next slash.
Three consecutive hits trigger a collapse shockwave.
Terrain Sundering
—Strikes fracture terrain and surfaces, causing structural collapse that damages nearby enemies.
Catastrophe Imprint
—Targets struck are marked with Ruin Imprint, increasing damage from further hits.
Entropy Detonation
—Three Ruin Imprints trigger a violent detonation.
Last Horizon
—When the user’s Pulse drops below 25%, the blade enters Catastrophic State, allowing all attacks through it to ignore durability and amplifying terrain destruction. It can remain in this state as long as the Pulse is maintained below 25%. Once Pulse is above 25%, the blade shatters. The amount of time it takes to regenerate is equal to the amount of time it was in Catastrophic State.
The panel vanished.
The monsters were already nearly upon him.
The first creature lunged.
Almond swung.
The blade struck the monster’s shoulder.
The impact alone launched the creature backward like it had been hit by a falling boulder.
Ruin Momentum activated.
The next swing came faster.
This time, Almond struck the ground.
The floating platform beneath him cracked instantly.
A spiderweb of fractures exploded outward across the stone surface.
Then the entire platform collapsed.
Terrain Sundering.
Chunks of black stone dropped suddenly beneath the charging monsters. Several of them lost footing and fell through the collapsing structure.
Others jumped forward to avoid the falling debris.
Almond moved through the chaos.
His blade struck one monster across the chest.
A glowing sigil appeared briefly across its armor.
Catastrophe Imprint.
He struck again.
A second imprint appeared.
The monster roared and swung its claws wildly.
The third strike landed.
Three sigils ignited simultaneously.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Then the creature exploded.
Entropy Detonation.
The stored ruin energy burst outward from the imprints in a violent shockwave that tore through several nearby monsters.
More imprints spread.
More detonations followed.
The battlefield turned chaotic.
Floating ruins shattered.
Stone fragments collapsed into the cloud abyss below.
The monsters continued attacking, but the environment itself had become hostile to them.
Every strike from the Edge of Ruin fractured another section of the arena.
Platforms split apart.
Chunks of terrain collapsed.
Shockwaves of destruction rippled outward through the monster formation.
Within less than a minute, the second wave had been reduced to scattered corpses drifting through the storm clouds.
The wind howled again.
Then the sky darkened slightly.
The final adjudicator appeared.
A single enemy.
A massive armored knight.
The creature stood nearly eight meters tall, its body covered in thick black plates of armor that looked like fortress walls layered together. In its hands, it carried a gigantic sword whose blade was as long as Almond himself.
Tier-10.
The knight moved instantly.
Its sword came down like a falling tower.
The air split apart under the weight of the attack.
Almond stepped sideways.
The blade smashed through the floating platform and sent enormous chunks of stone tumbling into the clouds below.
Before the knight could recover, Almond moved.
The Edge of Ruin struck the ground again.
The entire battlefield trembled.
A massive fracture ripped through the floating ruins beneath the knight’s feet.
The structure collapsed.
The knight lost balance for a split second.
That was enough.
Almond stepped forward.
First strike.
A Ruin Imprint appeared across the knight’s armor.
Second strike.
Another imprint burned across its chest.
The knight roared and swung its massive sword horizontally.
Almond ducked under the swing and stepped inside its guard.
Third strike.
The final imprint formed.
The knight raised its sword again.
Almond’s fourth strike landed.
The three sigils ignited simultaneously.
The explosion that followed shattered the knight’s armor like brittle glass.
The massive body collapsed backward into the clouds.
The battlefield fell silent.
The floating ruins dissolved.
The storm clouds faded.
The system voice returned calmly.
[Ascension Trial Complete]
[Performance Evaluation: Perfect Score]
Almond found himself in space of utter whiteness.
In front of him was a large black 3D hologram with a title above.
[Map of the Realm of Kings and Puppets]
“You’re already here?”
Lily appeared next.
And a moment later, Ainen also found himself next to the duo.
“Hi.” Ainen grinned. “Guessing everyone got perfect score.”
Behind him, Natalia had just appeared and heard him, invoking a cheeky snort. “Heh, what else do you think we got?”
Within a minute, all nine of them were present.
[ All nine of you have attained perfect scores. Hence, you will be given the choice of position and place as Puppets. Pick your starting Kingdom and your role.]
[The Realm of Kings & Puppets can only have 10,000 Kings or Queens at a time. If you wish to attain that position, you must join an existing kingdom and do whatever you deem necessary to attain the position.]
