One attack, one response, one gap opened and closed, in a rhythm that gave no one enough time to draw a full breath.Caelan took a cut to his left arm from Cirrus's slash—Cirrus having recovered his footing by then—not deep, but enough to add to the growing list. His shirt, already torn in several places, gained one more gash at the shoulder.But in every exchange, what Nova and Cirrus received was always heavier.The gash on Nova's shoulder had bled through his robes in a way that could no longer be hidden. On Cirrus's end, the wound on his right arm from earlier was now joined by two more—one on his left thigh from a kick he hadn't managed to dodge, one along his ribs from a slash that had slipped between two blocks that hadn't closed the gap in time.Both of their black robes could no longer be called intact. Torn in more than one place, the red stains already bleeding into the dark fabric beneath.Nova, who had always moved in a way that made every motion look like it had been pla

After explaining his idea to Caelan, Dorian, and Elara, and before actually carrying it out, Rex first approached the bodies of Nova and Cirrus still lying on the floor. The life energy inside both of them had already begun moving in a direction that could no longer be reversed. Rex understood that window all too well from the way energy shifted once whatever had been holding it in place was gone.He knelt between them.His hands touched both at the same time—one on Nova's wrist, one on Cirrus's—and the process he knew so well began. The remaining life energy inside both bodies was drawn out with practiced precision, faster than he had ever done it before.From the surface of their skin, something began to change—the same as what had happened to Elder Lu and Elder Xiao before, but this time on a different scale because the level was different. The color faded, then shrank, then broke apart into ash that fell to the warehouse floor already covered in rubble.What remained were only rob

The car pulled out of the Old West District, leaving the Kalvertin warehouse behind with everything that had happened inside it.Worth noting that the car came from Dorian, who had messaged one of his people to bring a vehicle to his location.In the driver's seat, Dorian drove in a way that was very different from how he drove when music was playing and there was nothing to think about. More careful this time, more focused, the way someone drives when they're still processing a night like this while doing something familiar enough to give their hands somewhere to be.In the back seat, Caelan sat in the middle between Rex and Elara."I need to explain something to you." His voice came out in a way that already knew what he was about to say wouldn't be easy to take in for people who had never heard any of it before. "About what happened tonight. About who those people actually were."Dorian kept his eyes on the road. "I'm listening, Doctor Voss."Elara turned toward him.Caelan started

The Draethos Mountains had no friendly roads.Not because no one had ever tried to make them, but because these mountains had long since decided that their existence wasn't meant to make things easy for anyone who had no business being there.Fuzi, Gao, and Arke emerged from the teleportation point on a slope far from anywhere comfortable to emerge, but as close as the artifact could manage after spending most of its capacity carrying three people who were not in their best condition.Ahead of them, the distance to the Eternal Black Dragon Sect's massive gate was visible from here—far, with a path that made it very clear this sect had never wanted to be easy to find.Fuzi looked left, then right."Let's go."---Ten hours later.The path leading to the sect's main entrance could no longer be called a path by any comfortable definition. Stone with no reasonable handholds on sides that had no flat surfaces, wind that was already very different from wind anywhere else, with temperatures

Fuzi nodded slowly after the silence had gone on long enough."And that's not the only mysterious thing, Supreme Leader."Every eye in the room turned back to him."He has a small child." Fuzi paused briefly, letting that sentence land first before continuing. "Around four years old."Lyris, the Grand Elder sitting two seats from Fuzi, furrowed her brow. The woman had spent more than fifty years of her life in the cultivation world, yet her appearance had never surpassed early thirties—clear skin, sharp features, with long black hair always neat even in the middle of tension like this."A toddler?" Her tone wasn't questioning Fuzi's ability to see straight. This was the tone of someone very accustomed to surprises, yet still unable to stop herself from sounding surprised. "He brought a toddler to a battlefield?""Not just brought." Arke was the one who answered this time. The woman leaned forward slightly toward the table, her expression showing she was recalling something she still h