The Hollows pouring into the undercity cavern were different from the ones Kaelen had fought before.These moved with purpose. Coordinated. Tactical. Council Enforcers stood behind them. Using specialized containment techniques. Chains of glowing runes that wrapped around the Hollows' necks like leashes. Directing them like attack dogs."Weapons up!" Rys roared. The Ashen Hand fighters snapped into formation. Two hundred people against at least fifty Hollows and thirty Enforcers.The Hollows charged.Kaelen didn't wait. His blood-armor fully manifested. The silver-crimson crystalline plates covering him in a heartbeat. He launched into the nearest cluster. His blood-blades extended. Slicing through the first Hollow's core. The creature disintegrated. Kaelen felt the familiar rush. Corruption absorbed. Purified. Converted to power.But there was no time to process it. Three more Hollows were already on him.~~~Lira positioned herself at the medical tent entrance. Protecting the wounde

Three days of trekking through the Eastern Wildlands ended at the base of a mountain that shouldn't exist.It rose from the forest floor like a fang piercing the sky. Sheer cliffs of blue-gray stone that seemed to glow with internal light. Clouds wrapped around its peak like a crown.Carved into the cliff face, visible even from miles away, was a massive symbol. A dragon coiled around a sword. Etched so deep the grooves were the size of houses. The craftsmanship was ancient. Weathered by millennia but still pristine."The Azure Dragon Sect." The Faceless Sage announced. "One of the Five Ancient Sects. They predate the Council by two thousand years. Their mastery of sword cultivation is unparalleled."At the mountain's base was a gate. Simple wooden posts with a rope barrier across it. No guards. No walls. Just a gate.And beyond it, stairs. Thousands of stairs carved into the mountainside. Ascending into the clouds."That's the entrance?" Lira asked incredulously."The First Trial." T

The decision was made in seconds. They had to split up.Team One, Bomb Squad. Kaelen. Lira. Lin Mei. Two Azure Dragon disciples. And Sarah, she knew Council bomb tech.Team Two, Defense Squad. Elder Yun. The Faceless Sage. Remaining Azure disciples. Positioned at the Vein Nexus to delay the Hollow King's full manifestation.Team Three, Evacuation. Darius and Shen coordinating with Ashen Hand remnants to evacuate civilians from ground zero."We have three hours." The Sage estimated. Watching the tear in reality widen. "Maybe less. That's how long until the Hollow King is fully manifested and mobile.""Plenty of time." Kaelen lied.Nobody believed him.~~~Sector Seven was deep. Further down than the Ashen Hand base. In tunnels so old they predated the modern city. The walls here were ancient stone. Not concrete. Carved with symbols from a lost age.And the qi was wrong. Corrupted. Thick enough to taste. Gray tendrils of it drifting through the air like smoke."Stay alert." Sarah warned

Dawn breaks over the makeshift command center—a reinforced bunker three levels below street level, hastily converted from an old civil defense shelter. The room is packed: Elder Yun, the Faceless Sage, Rys, Shen, Lira, Joren, Sarah, Rina, and two dozen other squad leaders.And Kaelen.Standing apart from everyone else, separated by ten feet of empty space that no one consciously created but everyone maintains. His gray skin and black eyes mark him as other, and despite knowing he's still himself, primitive instinct keeps people away.Elder Yun addresses the assembled leaders. "We have four days. That's ninety-six hours to evacuate three million civilians, fortify defensive positions, and prepare for an enemy that shouldn't exist. I'll be honest—our odds are not good.""So we make them better." Rys shifts his weight, hand pressed to his bandaged side. Despite his injuries, he's insisted on being present. "Break it down. What are our actual obstacles?"The Faceless Sage pulls up holog

The command center is packed. Every leader, every cultivator with strategic experience, every person who can contribute to the plan. Holographic displays show the city from multiple angles: evacuation routes, Hollow concentration zones, defensive positions, and most prominently, the tear in reality above city center.Through that tear, the Hollow King's massive hand continues to pull, widening the wound with each passing minute. Gray corruption pours from the opening like toxic rain. Anywhere it touches, vegetation withers, stone cracks, and people start showing early Hollow symptoms.Elder Yun addresses the assembled forces. "Twelve hours until full manifestation. That's seven hundred twenty minutes. Here's our situation:EVACUATION STATUS: Six hundred thousand civilians evacuated through undercity routes. Two million four hundred thousand remain. We will not save them all.DEFENSIVE READINESS: The Vein Nexus perimeter is fortified. We have three hundred Eastern cultivators, two hun