CHAPTER 53: EX 53. TOUCH THE SUN

The demon’s infiltration of the selection had not been a coincidence.

It was not driven by hunger or chaos, as most would assume.

No—this was a mission, calculated and clear:

Steal Leon Kael’s soul.

Not for consumption.

But for ascension.

His soul was predicted to be the ideal vessel for their slumbering god.

But a soul that powerful came with fragility.

If removed too suddenly, or from a body that died in trauma, the soul would fracture and become damaged beyond usability.

And so, the demon had been precise.

When it impaled Leon through the chest, it did so deliberately, avoiding vital centers.

A slow and controlled death.

Just enough to allow the body to perish...

but not enough to send the soul into chaos.

But before the demon could complete the process Elizabeth had intervened interrupting the process.

But it was still okay because she had just delayed the inevitable.

The demon had linked itself to Leon with a Soul Cord—a thin, invisible tether of cursed mana connected from the claw to Leon’s fading body.

Once Leon died, the soul would be pulled gently along the cord and sealed into the demon’s waiting grasp.

It should’ve been perfect.

But then—

the cord snapped.

A sudden violent backlash surged through the demon’s essence.

Its body trembled, blood surging up its throat. The tether had been cut unnaturally, as if something had yanked the soul away mid-ritual.

And because the cord had linked directly to the demon’s own soul, the severance caused a catastrophic feedback loop, injuring it from the inside.

The demon staggered, clutching its chest.

"No..." it growled. "He was supposed to be dead..."

Its eyes turned toward the source of the disruption—toward where Leon had fallen.

And then they widened in disbelief.

Leon...

was standing.

His body bloodied. Chest torn open.

But he stood tall.

"Impossible..."

But just as the demon faltered, distracted by the sight—

A bolt of lightning ripped through the sky, crashing into its side with a deafening boom.

Rebecca Sky had not hesitated.

"DIE, DEMON SCUM!!" she bellowed, her voice like thunder as her S-rank aura exploded once more.

The demon screamed, hurtled backward by the force of the surprise blow, crashing into the ground below.

Smoke and sparks erupted in its wake.

The battle had not ended.

But now, everything had changed.

****

The moment the demon’s claw tore through Leon’s chest, time seemed to slow.

His body froze—lifted into the air like a broken puppet. Blood trickled from his lips as his breath hitched. And through his blurred vision, he saw her.

Elizabeth.

Charging toward him with her undead, eyes wide, mouth open in a scream he couldn’t hear. Her raven-black hair whipped behind her like a banner of desperation.

Leon wanted to reach out.

To tell her—Don’t come. Run. Save yourself.

But even if he could speak, deep down, he knew she wouldn’t listen.

She never had when it came to him.

His vision dimmed... then faded to black.

And then, there was nothing.

No pain.

No weight.

No body.

Leon found himself drifting—weightless—in a silent, endless void.

No stars. No sky. Just darkness.

Until a light shone on his face.

Not harsh.

Not divine.

Just Inviting.

Leon turned toward it, eyes squinting.

A colossal blue sun hovered in the abyss, so vast that its ends vanished beyond the horizon of space. Yet its radiance was not scorching—it was soothing, like cool rain in heat.

And as its light touched him, Leon felt something stir.

"What is this...?" he whispered.

"Am I... in heaven?"

The warmth soaked into his skin like sunlight into a leaf. It wasn’t just light—it was energy, flowing through him, mending the damage, filling his soul.

He felt... alive.

As he basked in the radiant aura, he noticed them—

A hundred smaller suns, orbiting the great one like loyal sentinels. Each one pulsed with power, revolving in elegant, silent harmony.

Leon’s breath caught.

"No way... Could this be... my talent?"

At that moment the blue sun called to him, and he felt the pull.

It was like something inside him was meant to touch it—to become one with it.

But just as he began to reach—

CRACK.

A jagged line splintered through the void.

Leon flinched. For the first time, he noticed the faint shimmer around him—a transparent barrier, like glass, separating this serene domain from something far worse.

His eyes widened in horror.

On the other side of the barrier was a serpent—

No, not a serpent—a nightmare given form.

Coiled around the void like a mountain-sized predator, its obsidian scales pulsed with demonic energy, eyes glowing like molten pits of hatred.

It slammed its body into the barrier again—

CRACK.

The fissure widened.

Leon clutched his chest as pain lanced through him—

It was the same place where the demon’s claw had pierced him in reality.

"If that thing breaks through dying will be the least of my problems ."

The serpent roared silently, coiling back for another strike.

Leon’s heart pounded. He turned toward the blue sun again, desperate. He didn’t know why, but every instinct screamed—TOUCH THE SUN

****

Leon wasted no time.

The moment the colossal serpent rammed the barrier again, widening the cracks with a thunderous, silent shudder, Leon surged forward—drawn by instinct, desperation, and something deeper. Something calling to him from the heart of the void.

The great blue sun.

It hovered with an impossible stillness, radiant and silent, its smaller satellite suns orbiting like stars around a forgotten god.

And as Leon reached it, he braced himself to feel heat or experience pressure.

But when his hand touched its surface—

It was none of those things.

Instead it was smooth, cool and solid.

Like glass.

His eyes widened. "What...?"

The serpent struck again.

The barrier screeched as another fracture bloomed. A hole tore open, small at first—but already, the serpent’s obsidian mass was slamming against it, widening it bit by bit.

Leon pressed his hand harder against the sun’s surface.

And then—

FLASH.

A brilliant blue light exploded from the sun, so intense it swallowed the void for a second. Leon flinched, shielding his eyes.

But then... nothing.

The light faded as the surface cooled again.

The sun just hovered—untouched, unchanged.

"What the hell?" Leon muttered, panic rising in his chest.

Another strike.

The cracks spread, web-like and fast.

Leon staggered back, chest throbbing in pain, the phantom agony of the claw wound pulsing harder with each passing second.

He could feel it now—the soul cord trying to pull him back into the demon’s grasp.

He gritted his teeth.

"No," he snarled. "I’m not dying like this!"

He slammed his hand back on the sun, harder this time. Still cool. Still unyielding.

"What am I supposed to do?!" he shouted.

And then—

It clicked.

"Wait... My talent..." he breathed. "It lets me add stat points... It’s all about the system."

His eyes widened.

"Why didn’t I think of that?"

Taking a breath, blood dripping in the real world and will burning in the void, Leon steadied himself.

Then he whispered one word—firm and clear.

"Status."

The moment he spoke, the sun ignited—

Not with fire, but with meaning.

A glowing matrix of symbols, circles, and runic pathways appeared across its surface like veins of starlight, and the radiant energy didn’t fade this time—it began to flow into Leon.

Not just energy.

Knowledge.

It poured into his soul like a waterfall of understanding: the nature of his talent, the truth of the suns orbiting him, and the vast system that governed it all.

He saw how stats could be fed not just by experience, but by force, by intent, and by choice.

He saw the reason he could absorb power with every attack—why he was able to defy the limits of growth.

The sun was his core.

His true system.

And the smaller suns?

The stats themselves.

Eyes closed, Leon drank it all in.

When he opened them again, they no longer shimmered with confusion.

They blazed with clarity.

And he whispered, with quiet certainty—

"I understand it now."

....

A/N: Mass release if the book gets up to 10 review before Thursday.