Souls Online: Mythic Ascension-Chapter 270: Final Warning

[Assessing Players Status and Attributes]

[...]

[Assessment Complete]

[Player Rose shall be given Skill: Emergency Treatment]

[Player Nyx shall be given Skill: Shadow Blade]

[Player Crystal shall be given Skill: Draconic Authority- Ice (Beginner)]

[Player Aria shall be given Skill : Remix]

[Player Lily shall be given Skill: Nurture Acceleration]

[Player Titan shall be given Skill : Fortress Defence]

[Player Ouroboros shall be given...Error]

[Player Ouroboros has been gifted an Authority from the Confined Goddess: Arachne]

[Player Ouroboros has received: Spider Legs Manifestation]

[Player Luna has received.....ERROR]

[Player Luna has Demonic Traces. Recalculating.]

[Player Luna Race shall be changed from Warbunny to Demonic Rabbit.]

[Player Luna shall receive the Racial Skill: Serenity]

[Player Leo shall receive....Unknown....Interference Detected.]

[Tracking Anomaly....Task Failed. Attempting Again....Failed]

The light from the final system message faded slowly, casting the group in silence. No one moved at first, still digesting what they had just witnessed.

Adam shifted his weight, rolling his shoulders with a deep exhale. But as he did, he felt a strange pull in his back. A tug. A pressure that hadn’t been there before. His brow furrowed as he glanced over his shoulder.

Something twitched behind him.

He turned slightly and saw them.

Four bone-white limbs had grown from his back. They arched high before curving down like skeletal scythes, smooth and segmented like spider legs. Each one ended in a narrow, blade-like point. The limbs moved as if they had a mind of their own, flexing gently, then going still.

Adam blinked and whispered, "What the fuck..."

Lily stepped closer with an awkward expression on her face. "Those were already there. You just didn’t notice until now."

Adam whipped his head around. "Excuse me?"

Lily shrugged. "They were sticking out of your back before you even stood up. I didn’t want to stress you out more than you already were."

He looked at her, then back at the limbs. His eye twitched slightly.

"So everyone just decided not to mention the giant spider limbs growing out of my body?"

Lily gave him a flat look. "Compared to your voice changing, your eyes glowing, and the whole ’God of Rage’ vibe you’re giving off lately? These honestly felt minor."

Adam ran a hand down his face and let out a long sigh. "I look like a goddamn horror movie."

The limbs twitched again, responding to his frustration. He paused, realizing he could actually feel them. It was like having new arms. They obeyed him easily.

He stared at the system message that hovered faintly in front of him.

[Player Ouroboros has received: Spider Legs Manifestation]

[Authority Source: Confined Goddess – Arachne]

He stared at it for a long moment before letting out a breath through his teeth.

"Fine. I guess I am what I am. A gift from a spider goddess is still a gift."

Crystal didn’t look convinced. "Are those going to be staying?"

Adam shrugged. "Looks like it."

Luna remained kneeling beside Leo, silent and still. Her body hadn’t changed much from what it was before, at least not outwardly. But her once snow-white hair now had faint streaks of red and black threading through it. They pulsed softly, like the glow of embers hidden beneath snow. It wasn’t alarming, but it was definitely different.

Leo glanced down at her, eyes lingering on the subtle shift in color. "You okay?"

She nodded once, her voice calm. "It doesn’t hurt. It just feels... quiet. Like I’ve been hollowed out and something else took the space. But it’s not trying to control me."

He watched her for a moment longer, then looked toward where the system message had ended for him.

[Player Leo shall receive....Unknown....Interference Detected.]

[Tracking Anomaly....Task Failed. Attempting Again....Failed]

It bothered him. Or at least, it should have. There was an instinctive itch in the back of his mind that told him to dig deeper, to question what had gone wrong. But right beside that feeling, there was another. Something older. Quieter.

A deep, wordless reassurance.

Like being told by something inside himself to stop. To leave it be. That whatever had happened wasn’t meant to be understood right now.

His jaw tightened as he exhaled slowly, trying to shake the unease. He looked to Luna again. Her gaze met his without flinching, her calm strangely grounding. The red in her hair shimmered faintly, catching the dungeon’s dim light.

"...I’m fine," Leo said at last. "Whatever it is... I don’t think it’s dangerous. Not to me."

Crystal gave him a curious glance. "You sure? System errors don’t usually scream good news."

"I know." He paused, then gave a small shrug. "But it doesn’t feel like a threat. I’ll deal with it later if I have to."

Rachel walked a circle around him and Luna with narrowed eyes, clearly tempted to poke and prod. "You’re not glowing, growing limbs, or snarling at people, so I’ll call that a win."

"Appreciate it," Leo muttered.

Greg rolled his shoulders, shifting the weight of his frame. "Can we all agree the system’s basically throwing darts at the wall and hoping they land in the right bodies?"

"No," Rachel said, flashing a quick grin. "I think it’s trying to help. It’s just also completely out of its depth."

As if to prove her point, another faint message flickered into view above them.

[Warning: Dungeon Structure Unstable]

[Warning: Unable to Reactivate Respawn Function]

[Please be aware that Respawn is currenly unable to function.]

[Death in this state shall be final and result in Character Deletion]

The message hung in the air like a guillotine, its final words echoing through the cold silence.

[Death in this state shall be final and result in Character Deletion]

No one spoke.

They all already knew the stakes. It had been clear from the moment the system first warned them. Failure meant deletion. But now the rules had shifted again.

Now they had to succeed without losing a single person.

Lily pressed a hand to her mouth, eyes wide. "So if even one of us dies..."

"It’s over," Crystal finished for her. Her voice was tight. "No revives. No backups."

Greg swore under his breath. "This whole place is trying to break us."

Leo’s head lowered slightly, eyes narrowing. There was no surprise on his face. Only grim confirmation.

"We have no choice. We need to push on."

Lily looked toward the flickering remnants of the system text, her voice barely above a whisper. "So what now? We move forward, but we can’t afford even one death."

Greg cracked his knuckles and gave a short nod. "Then no one dies."

Rachel snorted. "Great plan, meathead. You volunteering to catch every hit?"

"If I have to," he shot back without hesitation.

Leo stepped forward. "We move smart. No hero plays, no distractions. Watch each other’s backs and keep formation."

Crystal raised an eyebrow. "Since when are you the tactician?"

"Since the cost of failure turned into extinction," he replied. "We don’t know how many bosses are left, but if the System gave us new skills, it means it thinks we still have a shot."

Rachel gave a slow grin, dark and feral. "Then let’s prove it right." fгeewёbnoѵel_cσm

Another faint pulse ran through the stone under their feet. The hallway ahead seemed darker than before, but it also beckoned—like a throat waiting to swallow them whole.

Luna stood, her hand finding Leo’s arm again as her calm voice broke the silence one last time.

"We finish this."

And together, they stepped forward.

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m