AI am Barbarian #009 The ancient gate

The trio ascended the steps to the fifth floor in silence, the weight of their previous trials pressing on their shoulders. Each of them had faced something personal… raw memories, mirrored pain… and now they stood at the threshold of something... different.

A massive gate loomed before them, ancient and glowing with shifting light. Two overlapping circles sat at its center, rotating in eerie synchronicity. The metal looked impossibly old, yet not a single speck of rust dulled its surface. Power radiated from it… heavy, uncomfortable, and somehow... aware.

Above the gate, a single sentence glowed with gentle light:

> "It's fine if you give up here. Not everyone is ready for this."

Throk stared up at the message, unmoving.

“Not everyone, huh?” he muttered.

His hand rested on the orb at his side… the pink-tinged mirror soul, silent now, but warm in his grip.

“Funny. After all that, now they say turn back.”

He stepped closer to the gate, his voice calm, but grounded with the strength of someone who had already bled for clarity.

“I’ve seen what pain did to them. Felt what it built in me. You don’t put up signs like that unless there’s something worth guarding.”

Behind him, Mike shifted uncomfortably.

“I guess we can always come back another time?” he offered, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean, we don’t lose progress if we leave, right? Pro tower climbers do that all the time.”

Whispy nodded, arms crossed. “Yeah, makes sense. We could just poke it, see what happens. No harm in that, right?”

Mike gave Throk a look. “Say... what do you think? Try a few tricks and then call it here if the big guy door doesn’t open?”

Throk didn’t answer right away. He stared into the rotating circles on the gate.

“Let’s try,” he finally said. “If it doesn’t budge, we walk. But not before we knock.”

He leaned casually on a nearby pillar… and the entire thing cracked under his weight.

Throk straightened, blinking. “...I barely leaned on it.”

The cracked pillar tipped into another. Then another. And another. One by one, the pillars toppled in perfect domino fashion around the circular chamber. The final pillar struck the gate with a loud metallic clang.

The gate began to glow red.

Whispy let out a sharp laugh. “I guess you got your poke.”

A low rumble echoed through the floor.

Mike’s eyes widened in horror.

“Oh no. Oh no no no… ANCIENT GUARDIAN! RUUUUN!!”

He turned on his heel and immediately sprinted for the stairs they’d come from, only to realize the fallen pillars now blocked their only exit.

Throk frowned. “Next time, yell ‘Ancient Guardian’ before I poke the gate.”

Before anyone could react further, the gate convulsed and split apart. Out of the glowing rings emerged a massive, towering figure, metal, magic, and menace fused into one.

The Ancient Guardian.

It was bigger than Throk. Taller than the tower’s floor should have allowed. Its arms were layered with thick metal plates, and its fists looked like anvils forged from the bones of titans.

Whispy dropped into a fighting stance. “That thing’s massive.”

Mike gasped, wheezing between panicked breaths. “I… THINK… WE… ARE… DOOMED!”

Throk raised his fists, voice steady.

“Alright, you rusted slab of bad ideas. Let’s dance.”

The golem didn’t charge. It didn’t lock onto anyone. Instead, it raised its massive arm and slowly aimed a punch at an empty space on the floor.

Throk tensed, confused.

But just as the punch came down, Mike running across the chamber unknowingly sprinted into the exact spot.

“MIKE!” Throk roared.

Mike, gasping for air, flung up his arms, and the ground around him surged upward a makeshift rock dome of earth manipulation. The golem’s fist smashed through it, and the moment it pulled back, Mike was gone. No scream. No body. Just rubble.

Throk froze.

Whispy stared, jaw clenched. “What the hell…?”

A text box popped up in front of Throk’s face:

> “Between you and me but you guys are in big trouble >_> ~SB”

Throk growled, squinting at the floating message. “Great. Such wisdom from flashy text.”

The Guardian turned again. Raised its arm. And this time, it punched into the far wall.

Whispy looked confused. “It’s not attacking us?”

“No,” Throk muttered. “It’s attacking positions. Not people.”

But before Whispy could reply, the golem’s fist suddenly shot sideways… aiming directly at her.

She tried to dodge, vaulting up and over the fist, but it followed her movement, grinding her into the wall.

Just like Mike…

She vanished.

Throk staggered back a step. “Whispy!”

Nothing. No trace. No blood. No remains. Just silence.

Another chatbox popped up, as if mocking him:

> “Wrong again big guy o_O ~SB”

Throk clenched his fists. “You wanna play games? Then give me rules!”

He looked back at the golem. Still unmoving. Then he turned slowly and stepped directly into its line of fire.

“I’m not going down until I know what happened to them.”

Another message appeared.

> “Hehehe... you don’t need rules in a place you weren’t meant to be in… yet :3 ~SB”

And with that, the Guardian tipped forward… massive body falling directly onto Throk like a collapsing temple.

He had no time to run. No time to defend.

BOOM.

A jolt of blinding energy surged through his body and then…

Black.

Throk awoke with a gasp.

Cool air. Familiar stone. He blinked.

He was back.

At the entrance of the tower.

Mike was standing nearby, hands on hips. Whispy leaned against a wall, helmet half-off, looking up as if she’d been waiting hours.

“Ahhh! Finally,” Mike said with a relieved smile. “Welcome back, big guy!”

Throk stood slowly, his body heavy… not from pain, but from disorientation.

“You two…” he said. “You died.”

Whispy scoffed. “Well, technically? Yeah. But then we didn’t.”

Mike rubbed the back of his head. “It was like being snapped out of a dream. One second I was pancaked, the next I was just… back here.”

Throk looked between them both. “Neither of you got messages? Floating text boxes?”

They exchanged glances, then shook their heads.

Whispy narrowed her eyes. “You did?”

Throk said nothing. Just stared at the tower’s entrance.

> We weren’t meant to be here… yet.

Whatever had happened beyond that gate wasn’t part of the normal path. They had triggered something ancient. Something watching.

Mike stretched, clearly shaken but trying to keep it light. “Well… if that was the warm-up, I’m terrified to see the main event.”

Whispy cracked her knuckles. “Round two?”

Throk grunted. His voice calm, focused.

> “We’ll be back.” “But next time... we knock harder.”

And with that the trio exited the tower… ready to face new challenges, surprises, hidden secrets and more… eventually the day of return to the soul shaking experience ever so slowly reaching towards them.

Say… what did you think of this chapter? Let me know! Thanks for reading :)

Writer:DM