Home / Fantasy / The Apex Awakening / Chapter 28: The Threshold of S-Rank
Chapter 28: The Threshold of S-Rank
Author: Shugaboi
last update2026-08-19 18:57:35

​The passage descending to Floor 6 was not stone, iron, or bone. It was a vertical drop through a churning vein of thick, iridescent Abyss mercury that clung to the skin like heavy liquid lead.

​Leo fell through the dense, silver fluid without resisting the drag. Beside him, Chen was forced to thread her obsidian needles into a protective cocoon around her limbs, while Bram’s blue sealing runes burned white-hot, hissing against the volatile liquid density.

​BOOM!

​They broke through the membrane of the ceiling, crashing onto a platform of dark polished quartz that floated amidst a sea of pure, liquid void.

​[WARNING: Entered Breach Zone — Floor 6: 'The Mirror of Shattered Stars'.]

[Environmental Hazard: Concept Weight 'Abyssal Pressure' Active.]

[Environmental Hazard: Gravitational Pull 15x Baseline.]

[Impact Force: 850 (EXCEEDS ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD!)]

​ZZZZZZT-CRACK!

​The moment Leo’s feet touched the quartz deck, the 15x gravity combined with the atmospheric pressure smashed down on his shoulders like the collapse of an entire mountain range. The quartz deck beneath him cracked, radiating fine spiderweb fissures in a ten-foot radius.

​[CRITICAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED: Absolute Spatial Gravity & Abyssal Density Compression.]

[Pain Converted!]

[Pain Converted!]

[Strength +5]

[Endurance +8]

[Abyssal Compression Resistance +15%]

​Leo didn't bend his knees. He didn't even shift his footing. He simply stood tall in the crushing atmosphere, taking a slow, deep breath as his 330 Endurance effortlessly absorbed the weight, converting the continuous environmental assault into a steady stream of physical power.

​Behind him, Bram dropped to one knee, coughing up a small spray of crimson. "The... the pressure here... my lungs feel like they're filled with lead," the giant monk wheezed, his rune-covered arms trembling as he pushed against the deck.

​Chen landed crouched low, her linen wrappings straining against her skin. "This is the upper border of the Deep Breaches," she rasped, her dark eyes scanning the vast, starry expanse surrounding the floating platform. "Floor 6 has no standard spawns. It only has one entity."

​A low, melodic chime echoed through the silent void—a sound like a crystal goblet breaking against frozen glass.

​From the center of the quartz floor, the shadows stretched upward, coalescing into a single figure. It was a tall, slender knight clad in armor forged from polished, mirror-like obsidian. In its right hand, it held a thin, silver rapier that hummed with a high-pitched, terrifying vibration.

​[Target Identified: The Mirror Knight — Reflection of Self (Floor 6 Boss)]

[Threat Level: Low S-Rank Conceptual Entity]

[Attribute: Perfect Kinetic Reversal / Mirroring Core]

​The Mirror Knight raised its rapier, its blank, reflective visor pointing directly at Leo.

​SWOOSH!

​Without a sound, the Mirror Knight vanished.

​It didn't use speed; it simply swapped positions with the light itself. In less than a microsecond, the entity appeared directly in front of Leo, driving its silver rapier toward Leo’s heart in a strike designed to bypass physical armor and reverse the target's own internal density against them.

​Leo didn't try to dodge. He raised his right hand, intending to catch the rapier blade with his void-armored palm.

​CLANG-BOOM!

​The rapier struck Leo’s palm, but instead of deflecting, the blade released a blinding burst of silver light. The entity's skill triggered instantly: Perfect Kinetic Reversal.

​The full weight of Leo’s own massive 255 Strength and kinetic momentum was doubled and reflected straight back into his own arm.

​CRACK!

​The shockwave tore through Leo’s right forearm, shattering the obsidian plates of his Void Armor and sending a localized kinetic feedback ripple tearing through his shoulder muscles. Leo was forced back three full steps, his boots leaving deep, scarred grooves in the polished quartz floor.

​[CRITICAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED: Absolute Self-Reflected Kinetic Force.]

[Impact Force: 3,200!]

[Pain Converted!]

[Pain Converted!]

[Pain Converted!]

​[Strength +18]

[Endurance +25]

[Kinetic Charge: 100% (OVERLOAD STATUS ACTIVE)]

​Chen’s eyes widened in horror. "Leo! Don't hit it with physical force! Its armor reflects a hundred percent of physical kinetic impact back to the attacker!"

​Leo stood in the deep grooves he had carved into the quartz deck. He looked down at his right arm—the void armor was cracked, and a thin trickling stream of dark crimson blood leaked from his knuckles, dripping onto the white floor.

​He looked at his own blood.

​Slowly, Leo began to laugh. It wasn't a laugh of desperation or pain; it was a deep, quiet, terrifying rumble that echoed across the starry void.

​"Finally," Leo whispered, his crimson eyes burning with an unholy, blinding light. "A hit that actually broke the skin."

​He flexed his right hand. The System’s icy counter-current surged through his core like a tidal wave, seizing the massive 3,200 impact force and converting it instantly into raw, unadulterated stat growth. The crack in his forearm closed in a fraction of a second as his muscles tightened, turning denser, heavier, and harder than the obsidian floor beneath his feet.

​The Mirror Knight raised its rapier again, stepping forward to deliver the final strike.

​"You like reflecting damage?" Leo said, stepping forward to meet the boss head-on. "Let's see if your mirror can hold the weight of an entire Abyssal floor."

​Leo didn't punch. He didn't use a void burst.

​He simply reached out with both hands, grabbed the Mirror Knight’s arms with his bare fingers, and activated Pain Domain at maximum output, channeling every drop of the 3,200 reflected kinetic damage he had just absorbed straight back into the entity's core.

​BOOOOOOOOOOM!

​A column of absolute dark pressure erupted from Leo's body, swallowing both him and the Mirror Knight in a black vortex of pure physical gravity.

​The Mirror Knight's reflective armor began to vibrate violently. Small cracks appeared along its mirror-like visor, then spread down its chest, arms, and legs. The entity attempted to trigger its kinetic reversal, but the incoming force wasn't a single strike—it was a continuous, compounding ocean of absolute weight that bypassed physical impact entirely.

​CRACK-SHATTER!

​The Mirror Knight shattered like a glass doll under a hydraulic press.

​Its obsidian armor exploded into a million shimmering shards that dissolved into dark light, leaving an glowing, pitch-black S-Rank Void Core hovering in the air where the entity had stood.

​[Low S-Rank Boss Defeated: The Mirror Knight!]

[Floor 6 Cleared!]

[Level Increased: Level 35 ➔ Level 40]

[Strength: 255 ➔ 288]

[Endurance: 330 ➔ 375] (Absolute Abyssal Dominance Reached)

​Silence returned to the quartz platform.

​Leo reached out, grabbed the S-Rank Void Core, and crushed it in his fist, allowing the black energy to flow up his arm and absorb directly into his core.

​He turned back to look at Chen and Bram. Both of them were staring at him as if he were no longer a human candidate, but a calamity disguised in a dark coat.

​"Floor 6 cleared," Leo said, his voice quiet, calm, and heavier than the void around them. "Let's keep moving. I'm just getting warmed up."

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