The Forbidden Zone lay before him.
An endless wasteland of ruins, collapsed towers, and broken memories —
the graveyard of a world that had eaten itself alive chasing power.
They called it the Abyss Zone.
A place where failed experiments, rogue Sigil Users, and monsters roamed.
A place where rules — even reality — twisted and cracked under the weight of corruption.
No one sane ventured inside.
Only fools.
Only the desperate.
Only the damned.
Asura smiled as he stepped across the threshold.
He belonged here.
The moment his foot touched the cracked black soil, the System flared violently.
[New Realm Detected: Abyss Zone.]
[Abyss Core Resonance: 17% and rising.]
[Warning: All enemies encountered may possess corrupted abilities.]
Good.
He wanted a challenge.
He wanted more.
The shadows thickened around him as he moved deeper, the world becoming a broken mirror of itself.
Skyscrapers jutted out of the ground like rotting bones.
The sky rippled in impossible colors.
And from the darkness…
they came.
Creatures twisted beyond recognition.
Former humans, now little more than Sigil-addicted beasts, driven mad by endless hunger.
Their bodies warped.
Their powers unstable.
Their minds lost.
Asura met them without fear.
They charged, screeching, claws flashing.
He unleashed the Blood Tide from his palms —
whips of living blood slicing through them like razors.
He mutated their stolen abilities mid-battle —
turning ice into black frost that devoured flesh,
electricity into silent pulses that paralyzed their hearts.
One by one, they fell.
And with every kill, the System grew louder.
[Abyss Core Level Up: Rank C Achieved.]
[New Mutation Options Available.]
[Next Evolution Path: Abyss Monarch Candidate.]
Monarch.
A king among monsters.
A god among insects.
The thought thrilled him.
Asura stood alone among the wreckage, blood mist swirling around his boots, the broken world bending at the edges of his vision.
He was no longer a scavenger fighting for scraps.
He was no longer a tool to be used and discarded.
He was no longer Kai Arashi.
He was Asura.
The coming storm.
The end of kings.
The harbinger of a new era carved from blood and shadow.
The System chimed softly one last time:
[Welcome, Abyss Monarch Candidate.]
[Let the slaughter begin.]
Asura smiled.
And stepped deeper into the Abyss.