Chapter 2 All Gone

Chapter 2: All Gone

Amazed by the incredible physical capabilities he had just gained, Rael was utterly thrilled. “Hehehe... this body is absolutely amazing,” he muttered.

He paused for a moment, realizing there were still countless elements he hadn't gotten to test yet—specifically his massive library of magic and active skills. “Vhal’Zar, I want to try out some magic and a few other skills, if you don't mind. I still need your minions to act as practice dummies, but command them to stay completely still and do nothing.”

Vhal’Zar caught the command with absolute clarity. With a wave of his staff, he summoned the heavy Death Knights once more. True to the order, the monstrous skeletons didn't attack or move; they stood rigidly at their posts like stone statues.

Rael decided to start by testing his passive Draconic trait: the legendary dragon breath. 'Okay, here we go.' Even though his mind had never performed this action before, his new body instinctively knew exactly what to do.

First, he took a deep, localized inhale, contracting his diaphragm to expand his lungs to their maximum capacity. Then, right before exhaling, he felt a strange internal axis activate deep within his throat. The moment that hidden magical valve opened, he exhaled with all his might.

A colossal torrent of fire erupted from his mouth.

The flames were unlike anything ordinary. Because his Draconic race had reached its peak evolution—the ancestral Zephyr MAX—the fire he emitted burned with a terrifying, hellish heat, swirling in an ominous hue of pitch-black and smoky grayish ash.

“Well, that went exceptionally well,” Rael mused, wiping his lips.

Next, he moved on to testing active magic. Manipulating magic felt somewhat similar to casting a summon, but the fundamental application of mana was entirely different.

Rael’s mind was flooded with thousands of unlockable spells and high-tier incantations. It felt exactly like a massive archive filled with countless locked boxes, and he intuitively knew exactly which key opened which locker. Every magic type required a different method of applying mana to activate it. With his current body, Rael’s mind already knew what he wanted to use and how to apply it.

'I swear, even I’m amazed by my own intelligence right now,'Rael thought. Back on Earth, he used to suffer from those relatable, awkward moments of minor amnesia—like walking all the way into the kitchen to grab a drink, only to stand there completely blanking out on why he went there in the first place, before finally remembering a second later. But now, his mental clarity was flawless.

For the next few hours, Rael adapted his mind to his avatar's combat arts, unleashing a variety of test spells upon the unmoving Death Knights. The results were devastatingly successful. “Fantastic! I never thought real battle could be this exciting!”

The sky arena was left completely messy, riddled with deep craters and jagged structural cracks from his onslaught, but within a few hours, the ancient stone floor automatically repaired itself back to pristine condition.

Standing amidst the dissipating smoke, Rael looked back at Vhal'Zar. Realizing he had the power to call upon his entire legendary roster, a wide, excited grin spread across his face. “Hey, Vhal’Zar. Let’s meet your brothers and sisters, shall we?”

Vhal’Zar felt a strange, sudden pang of hesitation hit his core. However, seeing his master’s rare, joyous expression, he refused to ruin the moment. Bowing his head, he answered softly, “As you wish, Master.”

Steeling his focus, Rael began to chant, targeting one of his other primordial-grade companions. This time, he funneled his massive mana pool into an incantation focused entirely on cosmic and stellar properties. A massive geometric rune circle materialized in the air, emitting a blinding, divine golden light. Pristine white feathers began to manifest out of thin air, signaling that the invocation was nearing completion.

The divine light flared in a final, blinding flash. Rael distinctly felt the contract connection snap into place, confirming the entity had been called. But when the light faded, the space in front of him was completely empty.

Rael blinked. “What...?”

A sudden wave of intense panic and shock seized his chest. Fingers trembling, he forcefully barked out the system interface command.

“[Summons].”

Instantly, a long, cascading row of blue status notifications materialized rapidly in his vision, flashing repeatedly:

[DECEASED]

[DECEASED]

[CONTRACT BROKEN – INDEPENDENT]

[DECEASED]

[DECEASED]

[CONTRACT BROKEN – INDEPENDENT]

[DECEASED]

..........

Seeing the horrific status logs completely paralyzed him. It felt as if all of his years of agonizing effort, endless grinding, and hard work to raise each of his beloved companions had been utterly wasted, wiped away in an instant.

A sharp, burning heat flared deep within Rael’s chest. Slowly, he turned his head toward Vhal’Zar, his golden eyes narrowing as he spoke through tightly gritted teeth. "What... the hell... happened?"

Sensing the terrifying drop in his master's mood, Vhal’Zar lowered his posture, carefully choosing his words. "Master... we live deep within your soul space. Throughout all those years, you nurtured us, raised us, and gave us purpose. But after I achieved my final evolution into a primordial being, my perception expanded. I began to see a tragic truth... your current vessel right now is not your original body. It is an empty container filled with your soul from another world."

Rael’s mounting anger vanished instantly, replaced by absolute shock and pure panic. "What?! You... you knew?!"

Vhal’Zar’s hollow eye sockets began to emit a soft, comforting blue flame. "Yes, Master. We could always see past the avatar. We saw your genuine smiles, your fierce anger directed through our enemies, and we felt the profound warmth and love you poured into forming our very beings. That unwavering love... is the sole reason I chose to stay until the very end."

Rael froze, a wave of immense guilt washing over him. Looking at the giant skeleton, he realized Vhal'Zar wasn't just a collection of code or a simple summon anymore. This entity knew his true, ordinary human identity, yet his loyalty remained completely unshakeable. Hearing such devotion, Rael found it impossible to remain angry.

But a glaring question still bothered him. How exactly did the others manage to break free? "But... how did the other summons manage to escape from my body?"

Vhal’Zar’s blue eye flames dimmed slightly, returning to a somber, hollow state. "After everything you gave us, we never once doubted you. We knew you would never abandon us. And so, we waited... and we waited. We remained locked in the dark silence of your soul space for twenty-five thousand years, by my last count."

Rael gasped, stumbling back in absolute disbelief. "Wait... what?! Twenty-five thousand years?! Are you serious?!"

Hearing his master's confusion, Vhal’Zar’s hollow voice actually rose with a touch of profound happiness. "I knew it... I knew you didn't willingly abandon us! There was a different reason for your absence!"

Rael offered a bittersweet, pained smile. "Of course I never abandoned any of you..." His face contorted with deep confusion. "But twenty-five thousand years? I literally just woke up in this body moments ago. In my old world, only a single day had passed since I logged off. Why? What happened to the timeline? And more importantly... how did you guys even manage to leave my internal space?"

Vhal’Zar sighed, the sound like wind rushing through a tomb. "Inside your slumbering vessel, the summons were trapped together for twenty-five thousand years. After they all departed, I was left entirely alone, waiting for another five thousand years."

Rael’s breath hitched. 'So it’s a grand total of thirty thousand years...'

"For those first twenty-five thousand years," Vhal’Zar continued softly, "the crushing despair and sorrow of the summons began to physically erode the spiritual walls of your internal soul space. Eventually, the barrier tore apart. Many of the summons began to walk out of your body. We primordials had no right to restrict their freedom, so we let them walk away... but it came at a devastating cost to their lifespan. All this time, their immortality depended entirely on your internal soul space. In that sacred realm, all summons remain eternally youthful, immune to aging, and capable of healing any wound. But once they step out into the real world, they can never come back."

Rael’s heart sank. "How do you know they can never come back?"

Vhal’Zar hesitated for a fraction of a second before lowering his head. "Because after they walked out of the internal gate... they vanished permanently. None ever returned."

Taking a slow breath, Vhal'Zar finished the tragic history. "Master, the summons walked out one by one, until only seven of us primordials remained. We argued fiercely among ourselves whether to stay or leave. Some argued that they wanted to venture out to find a way to summon you back to this world. Others argued bitterly that you had abandoned us to a dead reality. Slowly, one by one, the other six primordials chose to walk through the rift... until I was the only one left."

Deep, unadulterated sorrow pierced Rael's heart. He looked at Vhal’Zar with eyes full of profound sympathy and regret.

Vhal’Zar’s eye sockets flared with that warm, loyal blue light once more. "But after that long, agonizing wait... I was finally summoned by your hand today. Master... that was truly the happiest moment of my entire thirty-thousand-year existence."

Feeling a crushing weight of guilt and pity, Rael turned his gaze toward the endless sky. He couldn't help but wonder what had become of his lost companions. "I... I don't even know how to properly respond to this, Vhal. The time dilation between my old world and this one makes no sense. But regardless of the cause... I am the one responsible for all of you."

He recalled the blue notification bar: [CONTRACT BROKEN – INDEPENDENT].

Assuming those specific independent summons were still alive out there somewhere, completely disconnected from his system radar, Rael steeled his resolve. "They are out there. Whether they hate me or are desperately searching for me, I have a duty to find them. But I can't track them from all the way up here... hmm."

Vhal’Zar stepped forward, making a tactical suggestion. "What if we descend from this sky arena and gather information from the surface, Master?"

Rael rested his knuckles against his chin. "Well... that's a good idea to start."

They walked over to the edge of the floating platform, peering downward. Rael's draconic vision couldn't pierce the surface; the ground below was entirely obscured by a dense, unyielding sea of thick clouds.

"Hmm... if I remember the game topography correctly, directly beneath this arena lies The Cataclysmic Badlands. It’s a dangerous frontier crawling with monster calamities, ranging from level 500 to 1500 just to reach this zone."

Vhal’Zar looked at Rael. "Then, Master, it would be wise if we cast a sequence of defensive buffs upon ourselves before we dive down."

Rael thought about it for a second, a better tactical idea coming to mind. "Wait a minute. Instead of walking through a warzone, how about we just use long-range spatial magic to teleport directly into the regional starting zone, the Mistveil Gate?"

Vhal’Zar instantly praised him. "A truly magnificent idea, Master."

Drawing from his memory, Rael visualized the exact layout and spatial coordinates of the Mistveil Gate he had seen thousands of times through his computer screen. Unlocking the precise archive locker in his mental library, he channeled his energy.

Spatial Magic: [Mass Spatial Transition]

Rael’s mana exploded outward in a dense, suffocating wave. Beneath their feet, a massive, multi-layered geometric magic circle materialized, its ancient runes spinning violently and glowing with a sharp, blue-white light. He extended the spell's perimeter to encompass Vhal'Zar before projecting the exact coordinates.

Suddenly, the spinning runes froze dead in their tracks.

WHIISHHH——!

A harsh, high-pitched screech echoed violently inside Rael's mind. The smoothly flowing mana instantly turned chaotic, flickering and vibrating uncontrollably. The space around them didn't fold; instead, his spell slammed directly into a solid, invisible cosmic wall. A sharp sting of severe mana backlash ripped through his chest.

“GRaaah!!! Haah... haah... haah... damn it, that hurt way more than I thought it would!” Rael wheezed, clutching his chest.

A bright red system warning flashed before his eyes:

[WARNING: TARGET COORDINATES DO NOT MATCH WORLD TOPOGRAPHY]

[SPELL INTERRUPTED – SPACE NOT FOUND]

Rael’s eyes squinted in sheer disbelief as he stared at the warning log. 'Space not found? But the coordinates are perfectly accurate... unless...'

Seeing his master injured, Vhal’Zar panicked, immediately rushing to his side to check his condition. "Are you alright, Master?! Are you hurt?!"

Rael slowly stood back up, brushing off his dark cloak. "Bad news, Vhal," he said, his expression turning grave. "I guess this world isn't the same sandbox we used to know. It has completely evolved into a brand-new reality."

He cast his gaze back down toward the edge of the platform. "And I highly doubt that the territory beneath this arena is still the same badlands we remember."

Deciding to prepare for the absolute worst-case scenario, Rael rapidly cast a massive chain of high-tier defensive buffs around his body:

[Zephyr’s Velocity Matrix]

[Aegis of the Void Archmage]

[Ashen Shroud: Obsidian Skin]

[Mana-Weaved Armament: Ashen Edge]

[Arcane Overclock: Multi-Threading]

[Chrono-Mana Resonance]

“And lastly, to ensure we avoid any unnecessary, troublesome problems on the surface...” Rael chanted smoothly.

[Arcane Obfuscation: False Horizon]

“Done.” Rael let out a breath, turning to look at his servant. "So, Vhal... do you want to return to my soul space for the journey, or...?"

Rael caught the brief, anxious shift in Vhal'Zar's posture. Smiling faintly, he corrected himself. "Actually, it's fine if you want to stay outside by my side."

Vhal’Zar’s hollow skull sockets flared with a brilliant, joyful blue light. "Really, Master?!" For a split second, the fearsome Primordial King completely lost his terrifying composure, looking like an excited child. "Then with your gracious permission, Master, let me stand by your side forever!"

Rael offered a troubled, amused look. "But first, we need to completely conceal your appearance and stack some stealth buffs. We have no idea what kind of civilization or threats we'll encounter down there."

Vhal’Zar’s eye flames dimmed slightly. "I possess many ancient buffs to drastically strengthen my stats, Master... but when it comes to stealth or disguise magic, I have none."

Rael let out a soft sigh. "Okay, hang in there." He uttered the spatial command aloud. "[Inventory]."

A glowing blue grid displaying his endless collection of items materialized. It contained thousands of rare, legendary, and mythical artifacts accumulated over eight years of solo raiding. Rael scrolled through the infinite list and pulled out a specific item. "Here."

[Ring of the Mortal Mirage]

"And I should probably wear one too," Rael muttered, sliding an identical ring onto his own finger.

The moment the band settled on Rael's finger, a cold, numbing sensation washed over his entire body. His sharp, black obsidian horns slowly retracted back into his skull, and his long draconic tail vanished entirely into thin air. His overwhelming, suffocating presence collapsed inward, completely sealed. His sharp claws shortened into regular human nails, and the vertical slits and orange rings of his draconic pupils rounded out, shifting into ordinary, calm golden human eyes. In the eyes of the world, he was no longer a peak-evolved Zephyr dragon-kin; he looked like an ordinary human youth.

"Catch, Vhal'Zar," Rael tossed the second ring across the space. "Wear it. It will force a high-tier human illusion over your frame and completely seal your undead presence from the world's detection."

Vhal’Zar caught the small ring with his massive gauntlet. He inspected it curiously before slowly sliding it onto one of his skeletal fingers.

Instantly, a brilliant cascade of ethereal blue light erupted from the band, wrapping around his towering seven-foot frame like a thick, magical cocoon.

The monstrous, skeletal silhouette began to compress. But instead of a chaotic, painful mutation, the transformation flowed with mesmerizing, fluid grace. The terrifying, hollow voids of his skull face were woven over by pure, dense mana, materializing into a set of chiseled, incredibly handsome human features. His pale skin looked like perfectly carved marble, defined by a sharp jawline and long, midnight-black hair that fell gracefully over his shoulders. His eyes, once burning pits of undead malice, transformed into sharp, piercing human eyes with a faint, glowing blue ring around his pupils.

His legendary armor responded to the shift flawlessly. The ancient, primordial plates didn't vanish or transform into cheap iron; instead, the dark metal groaned and compressed, shrinking in size to mold itself perfectly around his new, muscular human physique. Every intricate rune, jagged edge, and menacing detail of his Primordial King armor remained completely intact—now scaled down to human proportions.

Vhal’Zar balled his new human hands into fists, marveling at the unfamiliar sensation of warm flesh and a simulated, rhythmic heartbeat in his chest. He looked down at his perfectly fitted, downsized armor in absolute amazement.

"Incredible..." Vhal’Zar muttered. His voice was no longer a hollow, echoing rasp from the grave, but a deep, commanding baritone. "The armor... it feels like a second skin. My primordial power is completely suppressed within this form, yet I feel absolutely no discomfort."

Standing opposite him, Rael was putting on a calm, indifferent expression on the outside, but internally, his mind was absolutely reeling in shock. Back in the game, sharing equipment or vanity items with a summoned entity was mathematically impossible according to the system coding. He had honestly tossed the ring to Vhal'Zar as a half-serious joke, never expecting the magic to actually interface with a summon. Not only had he stumbled upon an extraordinary new rule of this world, but Vhal'Zar's human appearance was way beyond his expectations.

'The hell, he's way too handsome! Why is my transformation so normal compared to his? Damn it! ...But to be fair, this avatar character is way more handsome than I am in the real world, so no complaints.'

Clearing his throat to maintain his cool exterior, Rael nodded. "Ahem... yeah. It suits you well. At least now you won't cause a continent-wide panic the moment we land."

Turning his gaze back toward the endless sea of clouds at the edge of the sky arena, Rael took a deep, final breath. "Alright. Let's head down raw. Brace yourself, Vhal."

Activating [Flight]—a common, baseline spell for anyone versed in the arcane arts—the duo stepped off the floating monolith and dived headfirst into the unknown world below.

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