Where the Fire of the End Sleeps
The Yucatán Peninsula seemed frozen in time.
Rob descended without a sound, enveloped by an overwhelming silence. The birds did not sing. The wind did not move the branches. The vegetation, usually dense and alive, leaned toward the ground as if afraid to look at the visitor.
—It's still the same... —he murmured, hand on the hilt of his sword—. Just as I remembered... but heavier. More alive. More dangerous.
The terrain before him had no paths. Only scattered ruins, Mayan temples half-devoured by the jungle, and a constant feeling of being watched from all directions.
But what Rob sought was not history.
It was the crater.
The Barrier
After walking for hours guided by his memory and energy perception, Rob stopped. Just a hundred meters ahead, a massive circular fissure tore the earth, surrounded by a ring of melted stone and floating rock. Above it hovered a dome of purple energy with black veins that vibrated as if breathing.
As he approached, the pressure changed. It was like walking against the ocean itself.
—This is it —he said, activating his sword.
A bright symbol emerged from his chest: a rune of his own S-level resonating with the field before him. The meteorite recognized him.
But then, something descended from the sky.
The Guardian
From the air materialized a figure. It did not walk. It did not float. It simply existed above the ground.
Its body was formed by plates of liquid obsidian. It had multiple eyes in constant motion on a mouthless face. Its limbs deformed and reformed as if part of a superior system adapting shape according to the threat.
—Intruder detected. Compatibility: partial. Objective: unauthorized access. Neutralization protocols initiated.
Its voice was not heard through the ears. It was imposed directly into Rob's mind.
—So... you're the first obstacle —said Rob, unsheathing his sword—. Fine. Then let's begin.
The terrain around fractured. The barrier tensed like a living membrane. And without warning, the Dimensional Guardian of the crater charged with absurd speed, like a massless projectile with no defined shape.
The First Clash
Rob dodged with surgical precision, but the creature's impact upon crashing into the ground generated a gravitational explosion. The air bent. Plants were uprooted. A kilometer of jungle was completely scorched.
—Its strength distorts space... —murmured Rob, panting—. It's beyond the physical. It's as if... it's fighting with laws different from ours.
He activated Unstoppable Blade.
And for the first time in a long while, Rob felt he was at a disadvantage.
Sword Against the Impossible
The world bent.
Every movement of the Dimensional Guardian was not just an action—it was a physical contradiction. A punch didn't travel through space… it skipped it. A leap didn't occur… it had already happened before the body even left the ground.
—I'm not fighting a beast… —Rob panted, retreating—. I'm fighting… an embodied mathematical function.
He gritted his teeth and used Jump, reappearing 80 meters away on a rocky outcrop. But the creature was already there. Its body stretched like a quantum shadow, striking with tentacles that turned into blades of dense energy.
Rob parried the first with his sword. The impact numbed his arm.
—It's not using force. It's using conceptual mass —he said, then smirked—. But I can play that game too.
Shift in Strategy
Rob closed his eyes. Amid the chaos, he forced himself to focus. His sword pulsed. Unstoppable Blade was still active. But it wouldn't be enough.
—I can't win with strength. I have to understand it.
He activated his extended spatial perception. He began to see beyond the creature—to perceive the seams that held its form together.
And then he saw it: a small zone on its torso, fluctuating slightly, where physical laws briefly returned. A point of anchoring.
—That… is your cage.
Without hesitation, Rob leapt straight for the core. The Guardian morphed and enveloped him in a gravitational distortion field.
Rob's bones cracked. His skin bled under the pressure.
But his will… blazed.
"I didn't come all this way… to die at the gates of my destiny."
He shouted with all his strength:
—Unstoppable Blade, Second Layer: Dimensional Piercing!
His sword vibrated at a higher frequency. For a brief instant, the blade ceased to be an object. It became pure intent, slicing through what could not be sliced.
The Impact
The strike was perfect.
Silent.
Lethal.
The creature froze. The world stabilized. A white energy fissure split the Guardian's body in two.
It spoke… for the first and only time, in a human voice:
—The bearer of the choice… has been recognized.
And then it vanished.
The energy field protecting the crater began to collapse, falling in fragments of light like stars dying in slow motion.
Rob fell to his knees. Panting. Trembling. His body bled from at least twelve different places. His energy was nearly drained. But his eyes… still burned.
Before him, at the center of the crater, a black stone with pulsing red veins slowly emerged: the meteorite.
End of Part
Rob stood up.
—Now then…
He took a step.
—…it's time to remember who I am.
And as the sun set over the wounded jungle, the Guardian of Humanity descended toward the heart of his future…
Toward the power that could decide the fate of all.
The Silent Judgment
The crater emanated an impossible temperature. Not from heat… but from existential pressure. Every step Rob took toward the meteorite made the air denser, his thoughts heavier.
The meteorite wasn't just a rock.
It was a fragment of something greater—a core of origin, a seed of a force that existed beyond time, beyond the Survival System.
The stone hovered over a bed of molten obsidian. It pulsed with living energy, like it was breathing.
When Rob extended his hand… everything stopped.
The world vanished.
There was no sky.
No ground.
Only a vast white darkness.
The Trial
Rob opened his eyes in a place where "up" and "down" had no meaning. He was alone—but not in a void.
—Where…?
—Where truth is stripped bare.
—Where the bearer of hunger must show his soul.
A voice.
A presence.
—Are you… the meteorite?
—I am what the universe left behind when it decided it had to defend itself.
The stone spoke without form, but its presence enveloped everything.
—Do you come to devour worlds, human?
—No —Rob replied firmly—. I've come to save mine.
—And if to save it… you had to consume others?
Rob didn't answer right away.
The darkness shifted. A vision unfolded before him:
Victoria… crying over an empty grave.
Matthew… screaming his father's name in a ruined city.
Amélie… vanishing in the arms of a creature.
And Rob himself… kneeling before a faceless enemy, powerless.
—That already happened —Rob whispered—. In my past life. I won't let it happen again.
The Awakening
The presence wrapped around him.
—Then the price is clear. If you take this power… there will be no going back. Your essence will become part of what I am. You will never be fully human again.
—That doesn't matter —Rob said—. I didn't come here for me. I came for all of them.
Silence.
And then…
"Then take it."
The meteorite shone with a light that didn't burn—but consumed.
The energy surged into Rob like an unstoppable tide. His body shattered and rebuilt itself from the molecules upward. His sword absorbed part of the stone's essence, turning black with red veins.
His aura exploded like a supernova.
The sky over Yucatán darkened for a moment.
Alliance sensors worldwide collapsed from energy overload.
End of Part
A new voice activated within the Survival System:
[SSS Skill Acquired: WORLD DEVOURER][This user has surpassed the boundary of humanity. Threat level: unclassified.][Adapting universe…]
Rob dropped to his knees.
Not from weakness.
But from the weight of what he now carried inside.
He was no longer just a Guardian.
He was something more.
And now… the enemy would know it too.
The Awakening of the Colossus
The sky above La Paz trembled.
The radars at the South American base issued mass alerts. Every sensor registered an unprecedented energy anomaly, so powerful it even disabled satellites in orbit. For seven seconds, the sky seemed to turn black. Then… the light returned.
And with it, Rob.
The Return
The landing point was the exact center of the bastion. Without warning, a burst of black energy with red edges collapsed inward—and left Rob standing in the middle of the dust.
His clothes were shredded. His sword, completely transformed: black, alive, pulsing. His gaze… was something else.
Not arrogant. Not aggressive.
Absolute.
Alex was the first to arrive. He froze, as if his legs were begging to surrender.
—Dear God…
Lee Ming dropped to one knee from the pressure. Thea covered her mouth. Even Nikolav, with his superior endurance, was sweating.
Victoria appeared from the crowd. She wanted to run to him… but her instincts held her back.
—Rob… —she whispered—. Is it really you?
He nodded.
—More than ever.
The Rewritten Power
Hours later, Alan and María's analysis was conclusive:
Rob could no longer be measured using the traditional system.
His energy didn't flow… it absorbed.
His sword didn't cut… it devoured.
His presence altered the perception of space-time in a 10-kilometer radius.
—This isn't just a skill —said María—. It's an ecosystem. A living anomaly.
—World Devourer is more than a title —Alan added—. It's an evolutionary state.
The Enemy's Reflection
Somewhere untraceable, a figure rose amid a sea of stellar debris. It had a humanoid shape, but its eyes were voids—windows to the end of the universe.
It watched an image suspended in the air: Rob, wrapped in his new power.
—So you've finally awakened it —it whispered with a voice that echoed across cosmic layers—. The boy with two lives… is finally starting to shine.
It smiled, without lips.
Without a soul.
—Then it'll be more fun to destroy you.
Its fingers touched space, and the distortion it caused sent a ripple across realities.
—Let the second act begin.
End of Chapter
In La Paz, Rob watched the horizon from a tower. Victoria approached from behind and took his hand.
—Are you afraid?
—Yes —he replied calmly—. But now, finally… I'm ready.
And as night fell, the new power sleeping inside him pulsed like a heart devouring stars.
[End of Chapter 35 – The Threshold of Origin]