NOVEL NEXT Chapter 15: Stage 19 – A Battle Beyond Reality
The Awakening Dungeon was crumbling.
The very foundation of the world twisted, space itself splitting apart, unable to withstand the clash of two existences beyond its limits. Reality trembled, time slowed, and the battlefield descended into pure chaos.
Ankush barely had time to breathe.
For the first time since entering this dungeon—he was fighting for his life.
Not as an overwhelming, unstoppable force.
Not as a man who could destroy anything with a flick of his wrist.
No—this time, he was on the verge of death.
And he had nothing to rely on.
No skills. No abilities. No combat techniques. Only raw, unfiltered stats.
The thing before him, the monstrous S- level entity, was beyond logic, beyond form, beyond reality. It had no true body—only an ever-shifting storm of pure destruction, a colossal presence that tore through the void like a force of nature.
It was not alive in the way a monster should be. It did not fight like a beast. It did not move like a warrior.
It existed to erase.
And Ankush—was right in the center of its path.
The moment the battle resumed, he was already at a disadvantage.
The thing did not lunge. It did not need to.
It simply was everywhere.
From every angle, from every direction, tendrils of searing black energy emerged, twisting and lashing toward him with speeds that defied physics.
No wind-up. No delay. No mercy.
Ankush moved.
He ducked, twisted his body, using his insane agility to weave through the storm of void-laced strikes. But even at full speed, his reaction time barely kept up.
The first impact landed.
A tendril grazed his ribs, and his entire side exploded in pain.
Not from an external force.
But from his body rejecting its own existence.
This wasn't a normal attack.
It was erasure.
The moment it touched him, the cells in that part of his body ceased to exist, erased on a molecular level.
He gritted his teeth. Regenerated instantly.
Then counterattacked.
His fist shot forward, aiming for where the entity's core should be. His muscles coiled, unleashing a punch that could shatter entire continents.
Boom!
The force of the strike rippled outward, the very void collapsing under the sheer shockwave.
It did nothing.
His fist went straight through the entity.
There was no impact. No resistance.
It wasn't a physical being.
Ankush's eyes widened.
Before he could adjust—it retaliated.
A limb of pure void wrapped around his ankle—and pulled.
Boom!
Ankush was dragged into the abyss, his body slamming through the fractured reality, tumbling into the infinite dark. A barrage followed.
Strike. Strike. Strike.
Each impact sent shockwaves through his body, tearing chunks of flesh away, regenerating the moment they disappeared—only to be destroyed again in the next attack.
He was being overwhelmed.
His stats were high.
But it didn't matter.
Because he had no way to fight back.
---
A Desperate Struggle
His mind spun, searching for a solution.
He had fought monsters of strength.
He had fought monsters of speed.
But this—this was neither.
This was something that was not meant to be fought at all.
The moment his attacks landed, they phased through nothing.
The moment it struck him, his body was erased.
It was a fight where only one side could deal damage.
Ankush's heartbeat pounded in his ears.
If he couldn't land a hit—
Then he had to change how he fought.
He stopped dodging.
The next attack came.
He took it.
The pain was unbearable.
His shoulder vanished, the limb torn from existence, but his body regenerated instantly.
Before the tendril could recoil back, he grabbed it.
And this time, he didn't let go.
The entity shuddered, reacting to the unexpected.
Ankush roared, his grip tightening, his raw Strength of 1,000,000 forcing the unstable limb to hold form for a fraction of a second.
That was all he needed.
Boom!
His knee smashed into its mass, sending a massive ripple through the void.
It wasn't damage.
But it forced a reaction.
The entity flickered—its body distorting unnaturally, its structure becoming momentarily unstable.
It couldn't maintain its existence when something stronger forced it into form.
Ankush grinned through the pain.
He had found a weakness.
If he couldn't attack directly, he just needed to make it vulnerable first.
The entity recoiled, but he refused to give it space.
He lunged again, using his sheer brute force to bend reality around it.
This time, his fist didn't pass through.
This time—
It connected.
Boom!
The shockwave obliterated the void, the surrounding space collapsing into fragments, entire chunks of unreality disintegrating into nothing.
The entity screamed, its mass flickering violently, its form collapsing under the impact.
For the first time—it felt pain.
Ankush's breathing was ragged, his body still healing from the countless wounds of existence erasure.
But he had no time to stop.
His hand clenched into a claw, grabbing at the unstable core as he felt the shifting mass of energy pulsing wildly inside.
He had only one shot.
He forced his Physique of 4,485,750 to the limit, preventing his own body from being erased long enough to break it apart from the inside.
Reality itself cracked.
The system struggled to process the event.
---
[SYSTEM WARNING: ERROR]
[Entity has been breached.]
[Space-time distortion detected.]
[Calculating...]
---
Ankush ignored the system alerts.
He could feel it breaking.
He squeezed.
The entity convulsed, its form collapsing violently, its presence trembling as it lost cohesion.
It tried to pull away.
He did not let it.
Then, with one final surge of power—
He ripped it apart.
---
The Aftermath
The moment the entity shattered, the battlefield collapsed.
The void ceased to exist.
Ankush was falling.
Or maybe rising.
He didn't know anymore.
His body was exhausted, his very existence hanging by a thread, barely holding together.
But—
He had won.
---
[SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: UNCLASSIFIED ENTITY DEFEATED]
[Stage 19 Cleared – System Does Not Recognize the Challenger's Feat]
[Warning: System Instability Detected]
[Error: No Precedent for Challenger's Victory]
[Anomaly Confirmed.]
---
Ankush's vision darkened.
The last thing he saw—
Was the dungeon itself collapsing into dust.
Then—
Everything went silent.