Martial Online.

Ambrose perked up his ears, and as he turned his head around, a skeleton hand grabbed him by the face and pushed him down to the ground.

They crashed right in front of the stairs of heaven before Ambrose could use his Formlessness to fly to the top.

"Open your gate to your world of souls for me." Rocinante said as he stood over Ambrose.

"By sacrificing your body to me, you'll ensure the safety of the world's citizens for centuries to come."

"Urgh!" Ambrose quickly elbowed Rocinante and pushed him away.

He then used his Formlessness and started flying upwards towards the glowing door.

At that moment, a shadowy figure slammed into the steps of the stairs and used his dark-hilted katana to cut Ambrose down from the sky.

A deep cut appeared across Ambrose's body, which ran from the waist to the shoulder.

"Argh!" Ambrose let out a groan and fell to the ground like a bird that had its wings cut off.

"Neither of you will be escaping." Reinhardt sneered, his eyes gleaming with malevolent glee.

At that moment, a sound of flapping came as black-winged creatures appeared on the platform's top floor. They were staring down at the three figures with a crazed gaze.

They were ready to protect the glowing door even if it meant sacrificing their lives.

"As you can see." Reinhardt glanced at the Grounded Angels and said, "I couldn't go past them, nor can you."

"Whoo, whoo…" Ambrose panted heavily and touched his bleeding wound with a hazy vision. 'I'll have to die somehow…'

At that moment, he heard some dinging sound in his ears, as if there were some kind of bell right beside him.

[Your VR Headset has activated a safety alarm!]

[For your own safety, you'll be forcibly logged out in one minute]

[0:59…]

[0:58…]

"Hah…" Ambrose shook his head and laughed. "Ah, thank you."

Reinhardt frowned, but then his eyes widened as he saw Ambrose glowing with a faint blue light. It was as if he were transcending out of his mortal shell.

"No!" Reinhardt rushed at Ambrose, but when he slashed through him, it went straight through.

"What is this?" Rocinante was shocked and confused.

He had seen a lot of things in its long time of walking down the earth, but nothing like this.

Ambrose sat down on the ground and relaxed his tensed-up body. He had never felt this tired before.

"I can finally rest…" A faint smile appeared on his lips as he closed his eyes.

But then Rocinante crouched in front of him and said, "You are not dying, so what is this?"

"I am leaving." Ambrose opened his dull blue eyes. "And you'll never see me again, as you'll be trapped here."

"Hah…" Rocinante felt amused. "This place cannot contain me. I have escaped from a far worse place."

"Well, if we meet in the future, you'll regret it." Ambrose said and took a deep breath. "Next time, I will not be as weak."

"Yeah, I know how strong you can become. That is the legacy of Suicide Swordsman, after all." Rocinante smirked. "However, how strong can you get before I escape this place, I wonder?"

"You seem to know so much about Suicide Swordsman, don't you?" Ambrose frowned. "Mind telling me how?"

"Hah, sure." Rocinante shrugged his shoulders. "First was Suicide Swordsman, Mystic Satanwalker.

"Then, second was Blade Master, Beowulf Madigan.

"Then there are third, fourth, and fifth.

"And the sixth one was the final one who banished the Grounded Gods away and finished the goal of his predecessors.

"The sixth one is Sword of the Pale God, Rocinante Deveraux. That is me."

Ambrose's eyes widened in shock, but so did Reinhardt's.

"Sword of the Pale God?" Reinhardt's voice was filled with disbelief. "The legendary swordsman who reached the title 'God' because of his strength?"

"I thought I was at the peak of the Suicide Swordsman legacy." Rocinante said thoughtfully. "Legacy was often inherited by the disciple of the previous master.

"Meaning, you are the first 'masterless' owner of this legacy. I don't think, even for a second, that there is a level of strength even above mine in this legacy. That cannot be."

Ambrose wanted to ask more about the so-called legacy, but he then saw his hands turn transparent and his vision start to turn dark, as if he were about to leave the world behind.

"The goal of this legacy was to kill or banish the Grounded Gods." Rocinante's skeleton face morphed into anger. "I already succeeded in that, so why is the legacy still being passed down?"

"And why you? Why not millions of other swordsmen? You are no one special, so why…"

At that moment, Ambrose finally disappeared from the world of martial online, leaving behind faint memories in the form of floating pixels.

Rocinante slowly stood up with a cold, expressionless look on its skeleton face.

"So, you are the Sword of the Pale God…" Reinhardt grabbed his dark-hilted katana tight and grinned. "You are actually my hero. I have read thousands of stories about you."

"…" Rocinante looked towards the sky and scoffed. "Everything I did was for naught? Yeah, sure, I banished the Grounded Gods away, but I had to suffer alongside them.

"Will the Grounded Gods escape the Banished Realm as well? Well, I managed to do that. Perhaps the prison of that realm is getting weaker, allowing some of us to escape.

"Have any of the Grounded Gods escaped yet, like me?" 

"So, what was the point of everything I did?

"Stories, being hailed as hero, everything is worthless. I can't stay stuck in this weak body. I have to get his body… I have to…"

At that moment, Reinhardt pressed his katana against the back of its head. "Enough of self-monologue? I'll be challenging you to duel, the Sword of the Pale God."

"What are you trying to prove?" Rocinante asked with a laugh. "I'll never be at my peak strength in this body. If you defeat me, it's not defeating the Sword of the Pale God.

"It's defeating the shadow of the Sword of the Pale God."

"…" Reinhardt looked at him silently and then sheathed his katana. "Very well. Shall we work together to leave this place?"

Rocinante looked towards the glowing door and said. "We can't reach that door together either. We'll have to find another exit."

"Through the wall of shadows?" Reinhardt asked.

"It's our only way." Rocinante said casually. "It's unknown how thick the wall of shadows is. We should start digging through right away."

Reinhardt nodded and then mentioned. "When you take his body, the first thing you'll do is fight me. I want to see the strength of the Greatest Swordsman Who Had Ever Lived."

"Very well," Rocinante said casually.

…

Back in the real world.

"Argh!" Jesse groaned loudly and removed his VR headset immediately.

He was feeling horrible and disoriented. There was also a threat of his bladder exploding due to the intense physical exertion he had just experienced in the virtual world.

He quickly rushed into the bathroom and, after a while, returned to the bed with a pale face, as if he were terribly sick.

After plopping down on the bed, he put a pillow below his head and turned his body limp, as if he didn't have any energy left.

'Right, my body hasn't changed yet. Well, last time it changed when I slept, so maybe that triggers it?' Jesse shrugged his shoulders and then felt a sudden pain in his cheek.

"Ouch." He then touched his cheek and groaned painfully. "Why am I still feeling the pain of having my soul injured?

"There is no way that pain gets transferred to real life, right?"

He pinched his forehead and planned to try to get it cured as soon as possible. It was a very annoying feeling, as if he was having migraines all the time.

'There is more stuff to do before I can completely relax…' Jesse groaned, put his VR headset back up, and entered Martial Online again.