The Veridian Wilds were suffocatingly dense, choked with toxic vines and the rotting stench of the deep swamp.Dver stopped walking. He dropped the thousand-pound Void-crystal coffin into the ankle-deep muck. It landed with a heavy, wet thud, sinking slightly into the mud.He looked down through the pitch-black crystal at Ren's perfectly preserved, sleeping face.Inside his Dantian, the Void God watched him, its billions of burning, red eyes waiting in the dark to see if the vessel would succumb to the human rot again.Dver touched the healing scar on his shoulder where the holy light had burned him. He calculated the variables. He had run from a fight. He had bled. He had compromised his absolute superiority because he was dragging a piece of dead meat across a holy chessboard."Attachment is a glitch," Dver whispered, his voice completely devoid of the tremor it held on the bell tower. It was flat, clinical, and absolute. "A predator does not drag a corpse to a hunt."Dver didn't di

For two weeks, the Blood Lotus Sect had never been more devout.The fear of the Devourer was gone, replaced by the absolute, blinding zeal of serving the Sovereign of Light. Under the command of the newly arrived "prophet," the disciples trained harder, chanted louder, and purged any lingering demonic texts from their archives.They thought they were preparing for a holy crusade. They didn't realize they were just marinating.Grand Elder Vane stood before the ten thousand disciples in the grand courtyard. His golden aura pulsed brightly, but his face was gaunt, his eyes hollow. Every time he spoke, he felt the microscopic, hyper-dense thread of the Void wrapped tightly around his soul, vibrating with cold amusement."The Architects demand perfection!" Vane’s voice boomed, artificially loud. "The Stain still hides in the Veridian Wilds! To lead the hunt, the Sovereign has decreed the opening of the Crucible of Genesis!"A murmur of absolute reverence swept through the white-clad ranks.

The Grand Banquet Hall was a monument to stolen light.Thousands of Genesis-crystals lined the vaulted ceilings, casting a warm, flawless illumination over the long jade tables. The hundred Paladins of the Sun-Forged Dynasty sat comfortably, their heavy golden armor left in the guest quarters just as the Sovereign had requested. Clad only in their pristine white tunics, they drank deep from cups of spirit-wine, laughing and exchanging tales of the holy wars they had fought in the Emperor’s name.They felt entirely secure. The overwhelming, ancient holy resonance radiating from the figure seated at the head table was thicker than any warding array. To them, the Blood Lotus Sect was not a den of monsters; it was a sanctuary of the Architects.Only Lord Ignis did not drink.The Emissary sat to the immediate right of the Sovereign. He stared at his silver goblet, his jaw tight. Every time he glanced at Dver’s serene, flawless face, his mind flashed back to that microsecond of contact on t