THE ETERNAL REAPER’S REGRESSION

The stench of copper and fermented waste hit me before I even opened my eyes. I was lying in a puddle of something cold, viscous, and unmistakably mine.

[System Calibration Initiated...]

[Status: Rank F-Class Livestock]

[Health: 12%]

The blue holographic screen flickered in my retinas like a dying neon sign. I stared at the word "Livestock" until my vision blurred.

"Get up, meat! You’re on the clock!"

A heavy, steel-toed boot slammed into my ribs. I felt a crack—sharp, definitive—and my lungs seized. I was dragged upward by my matted hair, my face inches away from a guard whose breath smelled like cheap grog and rotting teeth.

"You’re supposed to be dead, Kael," the guard sneered, shaking me. "How are you still breathing?"

I coughed, spitting a glob of blood onto his polished greaves. "Bad habit. Hard to break."

His face contorted. He slammed me against the cold stone wall of the cell. "Keep that mouth shut. You’ve got five minutes before the crowd gets bored. Try to last ten seconds this time. The bets are 50-to-1 against you even making it to the center of the pit."

"I’ll take those odds," I rasped.

He laughed, a harsh, grating sound, and shoved me toward the iron grating at the end of the hall. "You don't have any coin to bet, trash. You're the stake."

He turned to walk away, but I stayed pinned to the bars, my head spinning. It wasn't just the concussion. It was the date. The smell. The specific ache in my left knee.

I was back.

This was the day of my first "Death Match." The day I was supposed to be torn apart for the amusement of the High Lords. My body was a ruin—skeletal, bruised, and trembling from malnutrition—but my mind was a fortress of a thousand years of slaughter.

System, I thought, the command silent and sharp. Open the Void Reliquary.

[Error: Soul Tier Insufficient.]

[Warning: Newbie Protection Status Active. Leveling will be locked until the first trial is completed.]

"Screw the protection," I whispered, my fingers gripping the rusted bars. "System, trade it. Burn the Newbie Protection. Give me the Sin Echoes."

[Warning: Relinquishing 'Newbie Protection' will increase difficulty by 500%. Do you proceed?]

"Do it. Now."

[Exchange Complete.]

[100 Sin Echoes Acquired.]

[Void Reliquary Manifesting...]

A swirl of black smoke coalesced in the air in front of me, invisible to the guards. I reached into the vacuum, my hand screaming as the cold of the void bit into my flesh. I needed a blade. Something to bridge the gap between an F-class slave and the monsters in the pit.

My hand closed around something jagged and warm. I pulled.

It wasn't a sword. It was a fragment of yellowed, calcified bone, no longer than my forearm. It looked like a piece of garbage picked up from a gutter.

[Item: Broken Tooth of a Star-Devourer]

[Rank: Trash-Tier (Growth Type)]

[Hidden Passive: Ignores Divine and Physical Armor.]

"You found a toothpick? Pathic."

I hadn't heard the guard return. He was standing there with a bowl of grey slop, staring at the bone in my hand. He reached through the bars, laughing, trying to snatch it. "Give me that. I'll trade you a piece of bread for it, kid. At least then you won't die on an empty stomach."

I didn't move. I let him grab the tip of the tooth.

"It's heavy," he muttered, his smile faltering. He pulled, but I held firm. "Let go, slave!"

He yanked harder, his hand sliding down the jagged edge. He didn't even feel it at first. The "trash" weapon slid through his enchanted steel gauntlet like it was wet paper. Four of his fingers hit the stone floor with a series of soft thuds.

The guard stared at his hand. Then he screamed.

"My hand! You—you filthy rat! What did you do?"

"I told you," I said, my voice dropping an octave, ringing with the weight of a man who had ended worlds. "Bad habits."

"I'll kill you!" He reached for his mace, but the alarm bells began to chime. Clang. Clang. Clang.

"Gates open!" a voice bellowed from above. "Bring out the livestock!"

The mechanical whine of the iron grating drowned out the guard's curses. The massive door began to rise, revealing a wall of blinding sunlight and the roar of ten thousand bloodthirsty voices.

"You’re dead, Kael!" the maimed guard hissed, clutching his bleeding stump. "You hear me? That thing out there is going to eat you alive! There won't be enough left of you to bury!"

I walked past him, my bare feet clicking on the stone. I didn't look back. "Then it’s a good thing I don't plan on dying."

I stepped out into the sand. The heat was oppressive, the air thick with the smell of ozone and fear. Across the arena, a massive portcullis was grinding upward.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The ground vibrated. From the darkness of the opposite tunnel, three pairs of glowing amber eyes ignited. A three-headed Chimera, the size of a carriage, stepped into the light. Its lion head roared, its goat head hissed, and the serpent tail snapped at the air, dripping venom that sizzled on the sand.

The crowd went silent for a heartbeat, then erupted.

"Execution! Execution! Execution!"

The beast locked onto me. It saw a skeletal boy in rags holding a piece of bone. It didn't even crouch into a hunting stance; it simply began to trot toward me, confident in the easy kill.

I felt the System pulsing in my temple.

[Current Objective: Survive the Death Match.]

[Estimated Chance of Success: 0.001%]

I tightened my grip on the Star-Devourer’s tooth. The familiar weight sent a spark of electricity through my deadened nerves. My body was weak, yes. My ribs were broken, yes. But I knew exactly where the Chimera’s heart sat beneath its "impenetrable" hide.

The monster charged, its three heads snapping in unison.

"Look at him!" someone shouted from the stands. "The kid is frozen in fear! He’s pissing himself!"

I wasn't frozen. I was timing the heartbeat.

The Chimera leaped, a mountain of fur, scales, and teeth descending upon me. The shadow of the beast eclipsed the sun.

I didn't dodge. I stepped into the strike.

"Is he crazy?"

"He’s running right into its mouth!"

I felt the hot breath of the lion head on my neck. I felt the goat's horns graze my shoulder. At the last possible microsecond, I dropped to one knee and thrust the broken tooth upward.

The bone sank into the beast's chest without a hint of resistance. It didn't feel like stabbing a monster; it felt like cutting through a cloud. I held on as the momentum of the Chimera carried it over me, the tooth unzipping its belly from throat to tail.

A deluge of hot, black blood drenched me.

The beast didn't even have time to scream. It hit the sand behind me with a heavy, wet thud and skidded for twenty feet, leaving a trail of organs in its wake. It twitched once, the serpent tail falling limp, and then stayed still.

The stadium went bone-dead silent.

The High Lords in the VIP boxes stood up, their wine glasses frozen halfway to their lips. The guards at the gate stopped shouting. Even the wind seemed to die down.

I stood up slowly, the black blood dripping from my hair, staining my tattered pants. I looked down at the "trash" weapon in my hand. It was glowing with a faint, hungry purple light.

[Sin Echoes Consumed: 10/100]

[Soul Bound Level Increasing...]

I turned toward the royal box, where the man who had sold me into slavery sat. He was staring at me, his face pale, his knuckles white as he gripped the railing.

I didn't scream. I didn't celebrate. I just raised the bloody tooth and pointed it directly at his throat.

"Who's next?" I asked. My voice wasn't loud, but in the silence of the arena, it carried like a thunderclap.

The silence lasted only a moment longer before a new sound began. Not cheers. Not boos. A low, rhythmic drumming from beneath the arena floor.

[System Warning: Irregularity Detected.]

[The Arena "Death Match" has been recalibrated due to 'Anomalous Performance'.]

[Hidden Boss Triggered: The Warden of the Pit.]

The sand in the center of the arena began to swirl, forming a massive vortex. A hand—made of obsidian and wreathed in blue flames—reached out from the sand and gripped the edge of the pit. It was three times the size of a human hand.

The crowd began to scramble for the exits, their bloodlust replaced by pure, unadulterated terror.

"What is that?" the guard from the tunnel yelled, his voice cracking. "That’s not supposed to be here! Close the gates! Close the gates!"

The iron grating behind me slammed shut, locking me in.

I looked at the gate, then at the obsidian giant rising from the earth, then back at the VIP box. The man who sold me was smiling now, a cruel, jagged expression. He knew I couldn't survive this.

I looked at the System screen flickering in the corner of my eye.

[New Quest: Kill the Unkillable.]

[Reward: Sovereignty.]

[Penalty for Failure: Eternal Soul Erasure.]

The obsidian Warden roared, a sound that cracked the stone pillars of the stadium. It leveled a flaming sword at me, the heat searing my skin from fifty feet away.

I wiped the blood from my eyes and felt a grin spreading across my face. It was a manic, terrifying expression that didn't belong on a boy's face.

"Perfect," I whispered. "I was worried this would be boring."

I took a step forward, the Star-Devourer's tooth humming in my hand, as the Warden’s flaming blade began to swing down in an arc that promised nothing but ash.

The tooth pulsed. My soul burned.

Let’s see if gods can bleed.