Martial Online.

"Fuck..." Ambrose wiped the dirt off his face with the back of his hand.

After getting thrown into the air by Reinhardt, he unfortunately landed on a mud puddle.

His clothes were now soaked and covered in filth.

He cursed under his breath, realizing that his day couldn't get any worse.

Thump—the ground shook as Reinhardt landed with a thunderous crash.

He then climbed from the small crater he created and saw Ambrose standing there, clothes dirtied by mud.

"Couldn't we just walk?" Ambrose asked, irritation clear in his tone.

"Hah." Reinhardt scoffed, but then looked towards the stairs, which were already close enough to cover them in a shadow.

"I would throw you again until we arrive there, but do you feel this?"

"Feel what?" Ambrose asked.

"..." Reinhardt stayed silent and jumped up, but landed instantly afterward.

His jump was very ordinary, even by ordinary people's standards.

"As I suspected." Reinhardt narrowed his eyes. "I can't jump any higher anymore..."

Ambrose raised his eyebrow and also tried jumping.

Because of his agility and strength stat, his jumping prowess was vastly above ordinary humans', but now he jumped only a fraction of what he used to be capable of.

"What in the world..."

"This place is indeed strange." Reinhardt said and turned to the stairs, certain that this was caused by the glowing door on top. "I suppose we have to walk there."

Ambrose turned to the far-away stairs and sighed heavily.

Even though the stairs looked to be close, they were still quite far because the path was winding and steep.

It didn't help that the stairs were enormous, giving a false sense of proximity.

"Move." Reinhardt shoved Ambrose forward and then followed right behind into the twisty forest.

'Ugh, the moment when the combat state disappears, I'll log off.' Ambrose thought, but for now, he had to focus on navigating through the dense trees and underbrush.

Reinhardt walked behind him, trying to match Ambrose's pace while looking at the back of his head, wondering about certain things.

'What a bothersome situation I ended up in, and it was caused by this worm-like existence. This is not how I imagined my day to be.

'However, maybe something good will come out of this strange turn of events.' He looked towards the glowing point of light at the top of the stairs.

It was something he had never experienced before.

He was almost certain that he could hear whispers of angels or perhaps even gods.

'I can definitely hear some kind of whisper, but they are fading quickly and almost ethereal.'

He strained his ears, trying to catch the faint words drifting down from the glowing door, but to no avail.

It felt as if the whispers were just out of reach, teasing him with their elusive presence.

"Hey, what was that Dark Angel?"

Then he heard the so-called worm in front of him talk.

Reinhardt looked away from the glowing door and watched as the black-haired young man dodged the branches.

"Dark Angels are subordinates of the Ancient Grounded Gods." Reinhardt said while walking straight through the branches.

Whenever the branches were about to touch him, they were strangely cut into pieces, as if by an invisible force.

"Ancient Grounded Gods?" Ambrose repeated with a puzzled expression on his face.

"They are Gods that used to live alongside mortals." Reinhardt explained.

"Used?" Ambrose rubbed his chin, curious what happened, but then asked. "Were you living back then?"

"No, haha." Reinhardt laughed with a shake of his head. "I am 2,435 years old. The Ancient Grounded Gods were here many epochs before me."

Ambrose nodded, but then came to a stop as he saw something familiar in the distance.

He sighed. "How can I advance now?"

In front of him, mist had enveloped the forest; it was very thick and made it impossible to see more than a few meters ahead.

"That is not normal mist." Reinhardt said emotionlessly. "It's called Vampire Mist. Whenever a vampire has become strong enough, this mist follows them wherever they go.

"It's the same mist that shrouds the vampire city, Nightdale."

"So, the reason why Hightown was shrouded in mist was because of you?" Ambrose asked in surprise.

He thought it was simply bad weather and unfortunate timing.

"Yes, I'll lead now." Reinhardt walked past Ambrose and approached the mist. "Follow closely, or you will get lost within the mist."

Ambrose nodded and quickly followed behind him.

As they stepped into the mist, the visibility began to rapidly decrease.

Reinhardt grabbed his wide-brimmed hat and pulled it down low over his eyes to shield them from the swirling mist.

The wind slowly picked up, but that helped the mist to slightly clear, and soon they noticed that they had left the forest and arrived at the foot of the enormous stairs.

The stairs of the heavens!

"Just how far these stairs go..." Ambrose's mouth stayed wide open as he looked up, but he couldn't see how far it went.

It reminded him of the wall of shadows that seemed to be connected with the sky.

He wondered if the stairs went all the way to the stratosphere.

Reinhardt was about to enter the stairs, but then his ears perked up at the sound of a distant flap of wings.

Ambrose's eyes widened as he saw a large winged creature descend from the skies.

"Mortal Style, Nachbilder!"

With his dizzying footwork, he managed to evade the sudden attack from the creature.

However, all his afterimages were blown to pieces.

Reinhardt drew his katana, but then felt hair on the back of his head raise.

His eyes widened, and he quickly jumped, but because he couldn't jump higher than one meter, he was unprepared.

The ground below him opened up, and a large hand, made of stone and dirt, grabbed him as if he were nothing but a toy figure and pulled him into the depths of the earth.

After the large hand, with Reinhardt in its grip, disappeared below the ground, large-scale tremors shook the surrounding area, causing everything to rattle and crumble.

"The hell was that!" Ambrose asked in shock, but then his body froze as he heard nothing but the flapping of wings.

With a pale face, he turned to look at the sky, and to his horror, there were several hundred black winged creatures.

They were all Dark Angels, each uglier than the one before them!

With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he realized that he was surrounded.

Schwing—out of nowhere, a crimson-colored slash made of pure energy split the ground in half; it was as if it were coming from inside the earth!

Swoosh—a figure emerged from the shattered ground, his katana gleaming with crimson.

His large-collared cloak was in rags, and his wide-brimmed hat was nowhere to be seen.

"Ugh!" Reinhardt coughed blood as he landed back on the cracked ground, clutching his side in pain.

Ambrose drew his sword from its scabbard, but the situation wasn't looking good.

'He is injured, and I am far too weak to fight against them. One Dark Angel would already be troublesome enough!' Ambrose thought with a pale face.

Reinhardt stood upright and wiped the blood off his lips.

When he saw his blood, his eyes turned cold.

Without any warning, he appeared behind Ambrose and sank his fangs deep in his neck.

"The fuck!" Ambrose's eyes shook as numbing sensation shot throughout his body.

After Reinhardt removed his fangs from his neck, he coldly said. 

"I was getting hungry, and I cannot defeat them with an empty stomach. You have served my purpose well enough, but now you are nothing but a hindrance."

He then stabbed his katana forth, through Ambrose's back and his heart.

"Ngh!" Ambrose fell on his knees, coughing blood and gasping for air. "You... bastard."

The life then slowly drained from his eyes, and darkness filled his vision.

'I couldn't die before, but now I can? Well, whatever...'

With those final thoughts, he disappeared into pixels and dropped a singular item on the ground alongside his pouch filled with his money.

Reinhardt cleaned the blade with a cloth and turned his gaze back to the Dark Angels.

"I have survived worse." With a katana in hand, he screamed. "I will not fall now, not here!"