Cracked Pillars of Fate

Chapter 1: Cosmic Echoes at Twilight

"One more, Sam! Don't be a coward! Give me the heaviest sack in your warehouse!"

Archen Huge laughed uproariously, his voice booming to rival the roar of the cranes at the Sector 7 Port. The muscles in his tanned arms tightened, his veins bulging like a web of steel cables as he hoisted a hundred-kilogram sack of rice onto his shoulder as if it were filled with nothing but cotton.

"You're crazy, Huge," Sam, the port foreman, grumbled while taking a deep drag of his cigar. "That's the fifth sack in ten minutes. What are you trying to prove? That you're stronger than a hydraulic machine?"

"I'm just proving that the beer I drank last night has turned into power!" Archen shot back. He slammed the sack onto the truck with a heavy thud that made the vehicle's suspension groan. "Come on, what else? I feel like I could lift this entire cargo ship if you wanted me to!"

"Save that monster strength of yours for having fun with the Ladies tonight," Sam chuckled, but his laughter suddenly cut short. His eyes, bloodshot from lack of sleep, widened as he stared toward the horizon. "Huge... look. What is that?"

Archen wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned around. The sunset, which should have been a golden orange, was suddenly torn apart. The sky above the port cracked like glass struck by a sledgehammer. Neon purple lines spread rapidly, splitting the clouds and creating a massive, pulsating black hole.

"Is that... a natural phenomenon?" Archen asked, his voice dropping. He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. My gut tells me this isn't a normal storm.

"Sam? Sam!" Archen shouted as he saw his colleagues begin to lift into the air.

Suddenly, a cold, mechanical voice echoing directly inside his head made Archen flinch.

[Initiating Arcana Dimension Integration...]

[Subject Detected: Archen Huge. Category: Physical Potential Class A.]

[Adjusting Location... Transfer to Hyper-Gravity Capsule Combat Training Zone Commencing.]

"What? What the hell is this?" Archen screamed, trying to grab onto a port piling. "I don't want to go anywhere! Sam! Grab my hand!"

However, gravity seemed to vanish from beneath his feet. Archen’s massive body was sucked into a vortex of black light that appeared under him. He felt a sensation as if his body were being pulled in two opposite directions—a piercing pain that reached his bone marrow—before everything went pitch black.

When Archen opened his eyes, the first thing he felt was weight.

"Ugh... damn it..." Archen groaned. He tried to stand up, but his body felt as if it were made of lead. Every inch of his skin felt pressed down by a load of thousands of tons. The floor beneath him was metallic gray, and the sky—if it could be called that—was a red dome pulsating with strange energy.

"Where am I?" he asked the void. His voice sounded heavy and hoarse. "Sam? Is anyone here?"

[Welcome to the Hyper-Gravity Capsule.]

[Status: 5G Gravity. Oxygen: Limited.]

[Objective: Survive for 10 Minutes.]

"Five times Earth's gravity?" Archen hissed, trying to regulate his short, shallow breaths. His lungs felt like they were squeezed between two steel plates. "You've got to be kidding me! Whoever is doing this, come out! I'm not a lab rat!"

Suddenly, from the shadows in the corner of the vast room, something began to take shape. It resembled a wolf, but it was the size of a bear, and its body consisted of thick black smoke with eyes that glowed blood-red.

"A shadow wolf? Great," Archen grumbled. He tried to clench his fist, but his movements were slow. Incredibly slow. Damn it, in this world, my usual muscle strength is useless.

The creature lunged. Archen tried to dodge, but gravity pulled him down to the floor even faster. The creature's claws tore through Archen's shoulder, leaving a throbbing burn wound.

"Argh! You bastard!" Archen screamed. He rolled on the floor, every movement a struggle against the bone-crushing pressure. "You think I'm just going to give up?"

The shadow creature growled, preparing for a second attack. Archen stared at his trembling hands. He remembered the moments at the port, when he had to lift loads that others deemed impossible. He had never used just his muscles. He used his willpower.

"I am Archen Huge!" he roared, his voice booming in the cramped space. "I've been lifting the weight of my life since I was ten years old! This gravity... is nothing!"

As the creature lunged again, Archen didn't dodge. He waited until the last second. He felt something hot explode inside his chest—a primal instinct he had never felt before. It was no longer human strength. It was something wilder.

"Die!" Archen unleashed an uppercut from below.

His hand moved faster than it should have been able to under 5G pressure. Archen's fist slammed into the shadow creature's jaw with such incredible force that it created a small shockwave in the air. The creature shrieked, its smoky body scattering and vanishing before it could even hit the floor.

[First Threat Eliminated.]

[Combat Instinct Increase: Detected.]

[Time Remaining: 8 Minutes.]

"Only eight minutes?" Archen spat blood onto the metallic floor. His body was shaking violently. His ribs felt cracked, and his vision began to blur from the blood pressure surging to his head. "Bring it on! No matter how many of you there are, I'll crush you all!"

From the darkness, three more pairs of red eyes appeared. Archen smirked despite his face being covered in wounds. He could feel his heart beating in a strange rhythm, as if he were beginning to merge with the heavy pressure in this room. He was no longer a port laborer lifting rice. He was a predator learning to hunt at the bottom of a dense ocean.

The next fight was a brutal dance between flesh and shadow. Archen was struck, clawed, and slammed into the floor repeatedly. However, every time he fell, he rose with a louder roar. He learned to utilize the gravity, using his own body weight to increase the destructive power of every attack.

As the last creature crumbled under his foot, silence once again dominated the room.

[Stage One Trial: Completed.]

[Arcana System Synchronization: 5%.]

[Initiating Rest Phase.]

The crushing gravity suddenly vanished, sending Archen floating slightly into the air before he landed with a thud on the floor, which now felt as light as a feather. He tried to inhale, but his chest was too sore to expand fully.

"Sam... this isn't the port anymore..." Archen whispered.

He stared at his hands, which were stained with black fluid from the creature. His hands looked different. There was a thin aura enveloping his skin, a vibration of energy that made his hair stand on end. He felt strong, far stronger than before, but at the same time, an overwhelming fear began to creep into his heart.

"What kind of world is this?" he asked the haunting silence.

Archen's vision began to darken. His consciousness slowly faded as he saw a new message window appear in front of him, a bright blue that hurt his eyes.

[Warning: This is Only the Beginning of the Integration.]

[Good Luck, First Pillar.]

Archen collapsed completely. He didn't know if he would wake up again, or if the Earth he knew still existed out there. All he knew was one thing: this deadly game had just begun, and he had just lost his humanity to survive.