Chapter 128: Shattered Heavens
Levi blinked, letting his visor adjust back to normal.
Floating above the anvil was a weapon that didn’t even look like it belonged in a fantasy game. It looked like a piece of cosmic horror. The snath of the scythe was forged from pure, polished draconic bone, wrapping around a core of trapped, swirling starlight. The blade itself wasn’t metal. It was a jagged arc of condensed void energy and crackling blue lightning.
It hummed with an aggressive, terrifying frequency.
Levi reached out and grabbed the haft. The weapon was incredibly heavy, feeling completely solid in his armored hands.
The system chimed with a blinding, diamond-white notification.
[Item Forged.]
Levi immediately tapped the blade to pull up the stat block. He needed to see what a hundred grand bought him.
[Scythe of the Shattered Heavens]
[Rarity: Diamond]
[ATK: 2,000]
[Passive 1: 50% Armor Penetration.]
[Passive 2: 40% Lifesteal.]
[Passive 3: Attacks deal True Damage equal to 5% of target’s Max HP.]
Levi stopped breathing for a second.
He read the text box three times just to make sure the VR engine wasn’t glitching.
"Isolde," Levi said, his voice completely flat. "Read this."
Isolde stepped up beside him. Her gray eyes scanned the holographic text box. Her pupils rapidly dilated as her internal code processed the math.
"The base attack value is exceptionally high," Isolde stated, her voice taking on a slightly faster cadence. "However, the third passive ability breaks standard combat scaling parameters entirely. Dealing True Damage based on a target’s maximum health pool renders enemy defense stats mathematically obsolete."
"Exactly," Levi grinned, a ruthless look crossing his face. "Bosses in this game are basically just giant sponges with millions of health points. This scythe turns their biggest advantage into a massive liability."
He dismissed the item box and pulled up his main character sheet. He needed to lock in his new numbers.
His permanent Strength was currently sitting at 2,930.
2,930 multiplied by two gave him an unarmed base attack of 5,860.
Now, he added the massive 2,000 Attack from the Diamond scythe. That pushed his base to 7,860.
Finally, the game applied his 20% Herald class passive.
"Nine thousand, four hundred and thirty-two Total Attack," Levi said, swinging the scythe in a tight, experimental arc. The blade literally left a trail of distorted, starry space in the air behind it.
His Lifesteal had jumped from 25% up to a massive 40%. His armor penetration went from 30% to 50%. Half of any enemy’s defense was just instantly ignored the second the blade touched them.
"If an enemy entity possesses one hundred million health points, your passive will deal five million True Damage per basic strike," Isolde calculated out loud. "Factoring in your attack speed, the theoretical time-to-kill against World Bosses has decreased by over eight hundred percent."
"That’s exactly what I was thinking," Levi said, resting the heavy bone haft against his Obsidian Carapace armor. "I don’t need to slowly chip away at them anymore. Every twenty hits I land guarantees a kill, no matter how much health they have."
He swiped his menus closed. The dark, cramped vault suddenly felt way too small for the weapon he was holding.
"The Aether Descent event is going to drop floating islands onto the surface in a few days," Levi said, turning toward the stone stairs leading back up to the courtyard. "I want to know exactly what this thing can do before we have to fight a World Boss."
Isolde followed him up the stairs. "There is a Level 80 hostile zone three flight-sectors away. It contains high-density elemental targets. That should provide an adequate testing environment."
"Level eighty," Levi smirked. "Perfect. Let’s go chop some rocks."
—
Levi and Isolde didn’t bother using the standard sky-bridges. Levi pulled his mount token and materialized the Behemoth of the Hollow right in the courtyard of his domain.
They mounted up, and Isolde immediately flared her green Anomaly code into the beast’s gravity core.
The Behemoth launched itself off the edge of the Apex Harvester island, its massive hooves striking the invisible, solidified moisture in the air. They galloped across the open Aether Skies, leaving the safety of the central hub behind.
Thirty minutes later, the blue, clear skies shifted.
The clouds turned into a thick, swirling dust storm. Floating in the middle of the dust was a massive, barren island completely stripped of grass or trees. It was just a giant chunk of jagged gray rock jutting out of the sky, littered with massive, glowing blue Aether crystals.
Levi steered the Behemoth down, landing smoothly on the rocky surface.
"This is the place," Isolde said, hopping down from the saddle. She held her wooden staff at the ready. "Scans indicate multiple high-threat entities patrolling the craters ahead."
Levi dismissed the mount and drew the Scythe of the Shattered Heavens. The blade of condensed void and starlight crackled eagerly in the dusty air.
They walked up a steep, rocky incline and looked down into a massive crater.
Lumbering around the bottom of the pit was an absolute monster. It wasn’t made of flesh or bone. It was a giant, thirty-foot-tall golem made entirely of massive gray boulders held together by thick bands of pulsing blue Aether energy. Every time it took a step, the entire floating island shuddered.
The system threw up a glowing red nameplate.
[Aether-Golem]
[Level: 80 | Elite]
[HP: 5,000,000 | ATK: 25,000 | DEF: 15,000]
Levi whistled low. "Five million health for a standard Elite mob. And fifteen thousand defense. The scaling in the eighties is completely broken."
He stood on the edge of the crater and ran the combat math. It was a habit he couldn’t break, even with a god-tier weapon in his hands.
He was Level 62. The Aether-Golem was Level 80. That was a massive eighteen-level gap. In Starfall’s brutal engine, an eighteen-level difference imposed a crushing 90% Level Suppression penalty.
’Alright, let’s break the armor down,’ Levi calculated. ’Golem Defense is 15,000. My Diamond scythe ignores exactly 50% of that. So its effective Defense drops to 7,500.’
His permanent Total Attack was sitting at 9,432.
9,432 Attack minus 7,500 effective Defense left him with 1,932 raw physical damage per swing.
Now, the system applied the 90% suppression penalty for the massive level gap.
1,932 multiplied by 0.1 equaled exactly 193.2.
"One hundred and ninety-three physical damage," Levi laughed out loud. He looked at Isolde. "If I only had physical damage, it would take me over twenty-five thousand hits to kill this thing. The suppression penalty completely walls me."
"Your physical output is mathematically irrelevant," Isolde reminded him flatly. "Engage the target and observe the secondary passive parameters."
"Watch this," Levi grinned.
He didn’t cast a shield. He didn’t use a movement skill. He just leaped right off the edge of the crater and dropped thirty feet straight down.
He landed heavily on the rocky floor, the impact kicking up a massive cloud of gray dust.
The Aether-Golem slowly turned its massive, featureless boulder-head toward him. The blue Aether energy binding its joints flared brightly. It raised a fist the size of a minivan and let out a deep, grinding roar that sounded like two mountains grinding together.
Levi didn’t even bother dodging. He just swung the Diamond scythe horizontally, smashing the starlight blade directly into the golem’s thick rocky ankle.
The physical damage calculated at exactly 193. It was basically a mosquito bite.
But then the Scythe of the Shattered Heavens triggered its passive.
*Attacks deal True Damage equal to 5% of target’s Max HP.*
The Aether-Golem had a maximum health pool of 5,000,000 HP. Five percent of five million was exactly 250,000.
[-250,000 True Damage]
The massive, corrupted red text exploded across Levi’s UI.
The Aether-Golem actually shrieked, a horrible grinding noise. A massive chunk of rock was instantly deleted from its ankle. The boss’s health bar noticeably chunked down by exactly five percent in a single, casual basic attack.
"Oh, that is beautiful," Levi laughed.
But the swing triggered the second passive as well. His Lifesteal was sitting at 40%. The Lifesteal calculated based on the total damage dealt.
Forty percent of 250,193 was exactly 100,077.
[+100,077 HP]
The green healing numbers popped up, but Levi’s Shared HP pool was already completely full at 115,180. The massive heal just over-capped into nothing.
The Aether-Golem didn’t stagger for long. It brought its minivan-sized fist crashing down directly onto Levi’s head.
Levi took the hit squarely on his Obsidian Carapace armor. He needed to test his sustain.
The VR pain engine hit him with a heavy, jarring shockwave that rattled his digital teeth.
The defensive math processed instantly. The Golem had 25,000 Attack. Levi’s current Defense was 2,054.
25,000 minus 2,054 meant a clean hit dealt exactly 22,946 incoming damage.
[-22,946]
Levi’s massive Shared HP pool dropped from 115,180 down to 92,234. It was a heavy hit, but with a health bar over a hundred thousand, he could tank five of those before he was in any real danger.
Levi didn’t retreat. He just swung his scythe again, carving the starlight blade into the golem’s other leg.
[-250,000 True Damage]
[+100,077 HP]