Martial Online.

The wall of shadows stood intimidately, casting a dark and ominous aura across the strange world.

At that moment, a loud explosion sounded from the ground below. It sounded like a massive earthquake had struck, causing the ground to shake violently.

In the location of the sound, a golden figure and a black-haired young man stood separated.

One had his arm extended with his hand clenched into a fist. It looked like he had just thrown a powerful punch.

The other one was in a slashing stance, as if he had just finished slashing and was now waiting for the result of his attack.

At that moment, a gentle crack sounded, and the red-bladed swords in Ambrose's hands cracked and eventually shattered like fragile glass.

"Ugh…" He slowly fell to his knees, as he was too tired to move anymore. 'D-did I lose?'

He slowly lifted his gaze to Mars, who stood silently, and then he reeled back in his extended arm and stood still like a statue.

"What a day…" Mars whispered as he looked toward the sky. "It's over, it seems."

At that moment, a faint smile appeared on his face, and then his head rolled swiftly off his shoulders and fell to the ground.

The golden skin disappeared, and beneath that, his body was bruised and blackened as if he were burned from head to toe. However, his body didn't fall to the ground but instead stayed standing.

Mars Ares Godfriend, captain of Black Heart Pirates and pirate with bounty of 11,777,999 silvers had died!

Ambrose looked at the scene without much emotion.

He thought he would be happy if he died, even thrilled, but he felt like he was too tired to show any emotion.

Therefore, he simply sat down and looked at his destroyed swords in silence. Now, he only had his wooden sword, which was the basic weapon of a swordsman.

Then, he felt a burning sensation disappear from his forehead as the black heart finally disappeared.

***

[You have killed Mars Ares Godfriend!]

[You are not bound by the slave contract anymore!]

[250,000 XP Acquired!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[Level 66 → 67]

[LEVEL UP!]

[Level 67 → 68]

[LEVEL UP!]

[Level 68 → 69]

[LEVEL UP!]

[Level 69 → 70]

[LEVEL UP!]

[Level 70 → 71]

[LEVEL UP!]

[Level 71 → 72]

*** 

Ambrose looked at all the notifications and wryly smiled.

'Before, 250,000 would've been a crazy amount of XP, but now I need a lot to level up. Next level, I need 55,000 XP, which is insane. It takes a long time to grind for those.'

He then stood up and heard the sound of an explosion coming from a distance. It felt like the earth and heaven were turning inside out as the two otherworldly beings dualed with each other.

Ambrose had no intention of getting caught in the crossfire.

'I have already been logged in for a long time, and I should log off soon. It's dangerous to stay in for this long, but last time I couldn't log off either, so what should I do?'

Just in case, he again tested logging out, and just as he expected, he couldn't.

'I suppose there is only one thing I can do.' Ambrose looked towards the distance, where the glowing door at the top of the platform stood.

'I have no other place to go, even though it is most likely guarded by those angels. Maybe they can kill me, at least. I would rather go there than try my luck with Reinhardt and Rocinante.'

Ambrose was about to start flying with Formlessness, but then a round object fell from Mars' eyesocket and rolled down in the mud.

'What?!' He screamed inside his mind and landed beside the round object. He picked it up and saw that it was the star-pupiled eyeball.

It was the Eye of Shimon!

'Hello, young man, do you desire power?' Suddenly, an echoing voice appeared inside his mind.

'I see.' Ambrose thought inside his mind as he spoke to the eye. 'This is how you tricked Mars too? Y'know, I can crush you right here.'

'W-w-wait!' The eye screamed panickedly. 'You saw how strong Mars was, right? Before me, he was a weakling and would've stayed one, but because of me, he became inhumanly strong!'

'You can also become that strong with my help?'

'Let me guess, I need to steal the fates of others to be able to achieve that.' Ambrose asked with a slight mocking tone.

'That is, unfortunately, how it works.' The eye responded. 'You steal fate opportunities and harvest them for yourself.'

'I am not really interested.' Ambrose said and squeezed the eyeball. 'Goodbye.'

'Wait!' The eye shrieked. 'If you want, you can exterminate the soul of this eyeball, which is me!'

'Huh?' Ambrose frowned and stopped squeezing. 'Don't you die if you get exterminated?'

'Kind of,' the eye said. 'I'll be in a state of limbo—in the state between life and death—and I can't communicate with either side.'

'That sounds horrible. I don't see any reason why you would be willing to do that, except if you want to harm me some way.' Ambrose said with a deep frown.

'W-well, if you happen to die and the eye changes owners, I'll be able to return.'

'Ah, I see now.' Ambrose scoffed.

'H-however, t-there is a very small chance of there being another owner beside you. I-I have managed to change owners for a very long time because I talk to them.

'I can't talk anymore till the owner changes, s-so… I-I don't think anyone is willing to simply remove their existing eye and stuff me inside the eyesocket.'

'Can you see anything happening while you are in limbo?' Ambrose asked.

He didn't want there to be some entity inside his mind seeing the same things as he was.

'No. I won't even be able to think or do anything. I am just there in the limbo, perhaps stuck forever, but it is better than dying and ending up in the Banished Realm!'

'Oho, Banished Realm.' Ambrose rubbed his chin. 'Sounds bad.'

'I-It really is. The most horrendous place in existence. That's why, please!'

'Fine…' Ambrose sighed and felt like the eye had some use for him. 'How can I do it?'

'Thank you, master!' The eye shouted excitedly. 'Use your inner power, cover the eye with it, and the soul will be exterminated.'

Ambrose did just as he instructed and covered the eyeball with his golden-colored Inner Power.

'Aaaaaaaaarfgh…' The agony-filled shout slowly quieted down until the soul was completely gone.

'You there?' Ambrose frowned. 'Hmm, my soul, can you check whether he is there?'

He had been managing to communicate with his soul several times and wanted him to check it out.

After a while, he received a response.

'The soul has been successfully exterminated.' His soul replied.

Ambrose nodded and put the eye in his inventory for the time being. He then looked towards the glowing door and used his Formlessness as he launched into the air.

It was time to try to escape this place.

A distance away, Rocinante and Reinhardt shared blows as sparks flew. They hacked, cut, and stabbed, but neither got actually hit in their bodies.

In the last possible moment, one of them deflected the attack and counterattacked with their own.

"He is escaping." Rocinante said with a smile. "Are you planning to let him escape?"

"He cannot escape." Reinhardt said while casually deflecting Rocinante's blows. "Even I couldn't reach the door. What chance does he have?"

"Haha, what if he dies?" Rocinante asked while weaving past Reinhardt's counter blows.

"He already died once, and yet he is here." Reinhardt said and smashed his katana down at the rusty sword, creating a loud explosion. "However, if he is about to die, I won't let him."

"Hah." Rocinante suddenly disappeared and appeared about thirty meters away from him, floating in the air. "Fighting you has been fun, but I am busy making him my vessel, y'see."

Reinhardt frowned and saw Rocinante start flying towards the glowing door as well.

'Who is he?' Reinhardt frowned, but he didn't plan on letting either of them leave this easily.

He immediately flew after Rocinante.