Her level has been adjusted based on the groups composition. Commencing random adjustment.

The Keeper will be at level ten. Good luck.

Side quest received.

Objective: Defeat the Keeper of Eternity.

Rewards: Quest points, Credits, F-ranked soul bound growth armour.

Room objective: Escape the with your life.

Hidden objective: Help as many members of your team as you can survive. The more that survive the more prizes you are likely to attain.

"...shit," Rafe cursed.

"W-What is it?" Devila asked. "What was that terrible song?" and Rafe realised all this information had been on his quest screen and hence private.

"A Calamitous Monster, The Keeper of Eternity, Lupa-stione of Starry Nights Approaches. Try to outrun death, try to fight death, or die trying." the voice over returned to its monotonous nature.

"Shit!" Devila cried as she started to scramble to her feet.

Rafe wholeheartedly agreed with her succinct summary of their predicament. Still, the beast had been set to level ten, according to his quest screen. He didn't know what a Calamitous monster was but he was sure at least Devila at her best would do for the damn thing. But Devila looked panicked, looking around the sparse peak with beady eyes as her skin turned paler and paler.

"Devila," he said slowly, and she turned to him with a yelp. "Okay! What the hell is this—"

And then he saw it for the first time. Like a night sky flickering in and out of existence as it appeared right behind Devila and slashed.

Devila fell forward crying amid a spray of blood. Rafe charged the position where the shining starry outline of a bear had been.

His precognition kicked in.

He saw a shimmering clawed hand appear out of nowhere and head for Devila's throat. The woman was on the ground crying still, shocked out of any fighting spirit.

Rafe was there before the paw could fully manifest. He slashed at it, knowing somehow that even if it was just a level ten, this beast was nothing like anything he had ever fought before. This beast was special. He could not afford to not use his best weapon at a time like this.

His sword collided with the claws, and he was pushed back.

Rafe's eyes widened. He had still managed to divert the beast's attack. It was just level ten but the difference in stats was shocking. Somehow, he felt it when all the beast's attention turned to him. The hairs on the back of his neck rose, and he shivered involuntarily.

He threw back one of his health potions and threw one to Devila, though he did it carefully to ensure the girl didn't just drop the glass vial and waste the concoction.

He focused all his attention on his racial ability. He let it off its leash. He needed a way to track the beast, and he didn't have time to pay attention to anything else at the moment.

A vibrant mana he had never seen before rushed in from his left. It was more complex than anything he had ever seen. It had light as a component. It had a dash of spatial affinity too, hence its unholy speed. Rafe was fast enough to deflect it though.

And then he was on his feet and he could feel the invisible stalker there with him. He slashed, the beast slashed. He was pushed back amid a rain of sparks, recognising a veil he had to cut through. He added that to his calculations as he dived into melee range again.

This time he attacked from the sky, applying a heavy blow to ensure as much of his weight and strength were behind the attack. He saw the beast's claws light up as it slashed towards him. He was sent flying.

The beast was already charging him. He landed on his feet somehow, his Puppeteer's Rubber Body ensuring none of his bones snapped even as he jumped backwards and attempted a flip to get even a second more of time. He set both hands on the hilt of his sword and let out a breath as he got into his favourite stance.

And then he swung, he swung a hundred times. He had increased his stats at least on the first floor, so he could swing a lot faster. After images clashed with the just arriving beast. The barrage was too fast for its veil to activate.

Rafe danced around the claws as the beast attempted to fight its way out of the sword barrage. He stopped near one of its flanks and unleashed another sword barrage. The beast turned to wrestle the illusory after images again and Rafe was already moving on to another of its flanks.

By the time he was changing positions for the fourth time, he felt one of the beast's eyes track him as it realised he was playing around with it. His stamina had bottomed out. What with climbing the cliff and fighting off a horde of beasts all the while. The only reason he was still on his feet was his Puppeteer's Rubber Body. He had used his last stamina to power the Heavy blow which the beast had stopped with a mere swipe of its paw.

It was able to track him now, but Rafe knew it couldn't keep up with his speed at the moment. It might have a higher agility stat, but Rafe had trained to bring out almost a hundred percent of the efficiency of his agility stat. Unless the beast was well past a hundred agility stat points, it could not completely outclass him in speed. And Rafe had a hard time believing a bear would have focused on its agility.

Rafe smirked as he released a wind blade towards the beast and ran off again. The beast swiped at the attack, but this one was a little stronger than the powerless sword barrages. Both Rafe and the monster paused for a moment as the monster's strike merely divided the wind blade into two separate attacks.

The bottom one whizzed past the beast's still invisible body and impacted a rock, causing a small crack in it. The attack would have been much stronger if only Rafe had a bit of fuel. The top half of the wind blade though, impacted the beast's raised limb. A bit of invisible fur was sheared off and Rafe saw essence escape from the fur. It shined, the fur did, as it turned visible. And then it turned gray and dull and completely mundane. There was a hint of crimson at the ends of the hairs.

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That wasn't what shocked Rafe though. The amount of Essence in the beast's fir did. Its physique wasn't simple. It might be a level ten beast, but Rafe gulped in sudden fear. Its stats were restricted to level ten, sure. The beast's vessel though, holding such an immense amount of Essence? Its soul? It was well past a level Rafe could fight.

Its vessel had reached perfection, well past a C rank racial level according to his rough estimates. Its soul was strong enough to support such a vessel.

This probably meant its vessel was strong enough to support a level of truth higher even than a concept. Rafe was fighting a level ten B grade beast or higher.

"...shit," he whispered to himself. "Devila! Get Quin and try to get out of here!" he screamed to the frozen mage who was just kneeling and observing his fight with a gobsmacked expression.

She startled when he addressed her, finally closing her mouth. She looked from him towards where his last attack had gone. She probably couldn't see the beast, but Rafe saw it looking towards its wound. He couldn't read expressions to save his life, and this was a beast on top of that, but he thought he could understand its thoughts by now.

"You…don't understand, Rafael," Devila said, her voice shaky. Rafe saw her studying the slowly floating grey hairs as they made to reach the ground. "It is a calamity beast. Like the Demon God. They guard the secrets of the multiverse. We can't fight them. No one can. They are designed after the calamity the guardians—"

"The enchantress fought the Demon God," Rafe said.

While knowing the origins of his opponent was important, they did not have time. Once the beast finished its survey of his little scratch, it was going to come for them. Devila's head snapped up.

"The enchantress won against one of these calamity beasts," Rafe continued. "How are you going to be her heir if you freeze upon meeting one of them? Get up, Enchantress. Grab Quinsia and go. I'll fight this beast. I'll buy you time. Complete this damn floor from hell and show them all what the heiress to the enchantress can do."

Devila was up by the end of his speech, looking at him with wide eyed wonder.

"Y-yes…" she stuttered. "Yes. I am the enchantress' heir. I have to save the multiverse like she did."

Then her thoughts turned to a whisper that had Rafe's hackles rising.

"I have to destroy the system."

And then she was grabbing Quin, taping another gravity talisman on her and carrying her. She had enough mana to at least activate the spell.

Rafe threw back a stamina potion. He had paused long enough for the stamina reserved by his Puppeteer's Rubber Body to have dissipated.

The beast looked up from its scratch. Their eyes met. Then little by little, the beast started to shimmer into reality. It stood there, its night black fur interspersed with bright starry sparkles. It was like a starry night sky had been torn down and fashioned into a coat for the beast.

Then it opened its mouth and roared. And the starry night descended on that dark summit.

It was a plateau, almost fifty kilometers in every direction. Except the direction in which Devila ran. The light didn't manage to clear the dark from that area. Perhaps it was the right direction to the next safe zone, perhaps it wasn't.

Rafe had no time to consider it. He had to dodge the blasts of mana from the stars all over the sky. And then one of the stars came towards him and started to expand as it got ready to explode. Rafe dashed to the dark side, using both his skill and his movement technique.

The explosion sent him tumbling. He had failed to get far enough.

"How the hell does a level ten have all this mana?" Rafe complained.

He was already getting to his feet, and the ursine creature was already there. He used his Parry skill to deflect its claws but he was only mildly successful. It tore a little into the side of his belly and sent him flying with his blood flowing.

He crashed into the ground and skidded, creating a ditch in the process. He pushed the pain to the back of his mind as he jumped up and out immediately. He didn't need his flaky precognition to tell him the beast would be in that ditch in a heartbeat.

The beast came after him, and in the background the stars continued to release their payload. He saw Devila trying to dodge as she continued her run.

The system made people stronger. Stats made people stronger. That strength seemed to be abandoning the girl as she continued her struggle.

Rafe waited for the beast to approach, only to immediately use his Dash skill and his movement technique to get away from it. He did it three times before the beast wised up.

"Yeah, you're wasting your mana and stamina, fat sack!" Rafe screamed in its direction.

The beast stopped and let out a low growl as it fixed its sight on him. The stars stopped shooting beams of death. Everything seemed to stop. The sound of Devila's heavy footfalls and her panting was the only thing to be heard on the peak.

The beast turned its head and stared in her direction.

"No," Rafe whispered to himself. "No, no, no. No!"

The beast looked back at him with a wide grin. Shit! Rafe thought. He could only watch as the beast lopped off towards the escaping mage. Devila was very slow compared to him and the beast. Rafe went to give chase but then the stars started to rain down death. Only this time they were rotating, moving around in the sky in random patterns.

They were becoming unpredictable, harder to evade.

He had to swerve to the left, swerve to the right, slow down even as the beast went further and further forward.

"Shit! That is so unfair!" he shouted, but there were no gods coming to rectify this error in fairness.

Rafe gritted his teeth as he studied the stars' movement pattern. He kept an eye on the running cosmic bear, and with his racial ability studied Devila's mana pool. It had not recovered enough to be meaningful. Her stamina pool was also getting to the point he believed would be her ten percent, but he wasn't entirely sure.

Still, it would be better for Devila to try and buy him time.

"Devila! The bear approaches! Try and buy me some time…please," he let her hear the plea in his voice.

He needed her to have faith in him. To not give up. Maybe their relationship was not that deep yet, but Rafe cared about her, and he let her see that. He let her see her feelings were reciprocated. He let her see how desperate he was to save her.

She turned around using a wind cantrip - as graceful as a figure skater - and grabbed onto the hilt of her whips. Quinsia floated down ahead of her, carried on a gentle breeze.

Rafe decided to turn more of his attention onto the stars and their beams of death. With his considerable coordination focused on them, the beams slowed down, at least according to his perception. They were like static lazors he could swivel past without much trouble.

He flipped above and lowered his upper body like he was playing a party game to get under some of the beams. He jumped when he didn't have time to flip fancily.

His Acrobat and Puppeteer's Rubber Body combined to make his movements smooth.

Devila poured mana into her whip and let fly a few dozen talismans. She had a shimmering shield placed over her head like an umbrella to protect her from the stars.

Rafe thought she was going to be fine and was just starting to shift his attention back to his task of reaching her when the beast passed through the storm of talismans like they did not even exist.

The explosions burst off its fur with not even a stain, and a bunch of earthen spikes pierced through the beast's veil only to impact its fur and disintegrate.

The beast didn't even bother blocking Devila's whip, instead continuing it's charge and ramming her with its head like a sheep.

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