Miranda sat on the small stairs leading up to the lodge. She watched the intricate patterns drawn on the ground by Neil as he worked to improve the magic circle—a massive formation covering tens of meters all around the lodge.Hank was working with Christen to make him a better axe. She was a blacksmith and was more than happy to help when he asked, though Miranda was pretty sure the young woman just felt terrible about the situation she had put him and his two kids in.Silas meditated as he did most of the time. He had managed to finally get rid of Christen’s cursed wound the day before and was now able to rest for the first time since she’d gotten the injury. Mark had chosen to accompany him, as he had been following the man around to learn how to be a better healer.Louise had spent most of her time making pits and overall warping the environment around them. She had a skill that allowed her to do some minor terraforming, but it was good enough to improve their natural defenses wit

Jake felt his vision practically turn red as he flew down. He was still accelerating as he pushed mana into his wings to fly even faster. At his top speed, he approached what was once the sound barrier. Hundreds of meters passed every second.The last time he’d felt this amount of anger was when he met William the second time in the tutorial, when he had felt the same surging bloodlust beckoning Jake to kill him.He didn’t think as he soared through the sky. It would only take him a few more minutes to get there. He would fly directly above the Pylon to make his landing more easily. To avoid the trees.Once over it, he stopped momentarily and stared down. The valley was a natural clearing with few trees covering it... so from several kilometers up, nothing was hidden from his gaze.He saw a transparent barrier surrounding a house. More than a hundred people were attacking it. Miranda sat on the porch of the lodge that hadn’t been there before. A man and young woman stood right in fron

Jake let go and looked at the corpse on the ground. Her bloodshot eyes were still wide open, staring back up at him, with black veins extending from her face and into her entire body.Sighing, he turned his attention to the stunned observers around him. Many of them were still getting back up from the blast Abby had released not long ago. Some would never get up again.In an oddly ironic series of events, Abby had ended up killing even more of her own men than Jake had. He had finished off thirty or so, while her blast had killed nearly fifty, which meant that around half of the people that had invaded the valley were now dead. Another third of the survivors had already run off once he started glaring people to death. He had only killed those who kept attacking, while he didn’t bother with those who ran.Jake dismissed his scales as he deposited Abby’s corpse into his spatial storage. She was bound to have had a lot of useful items. Next, he went and did the same to Donald’s. He didn’

The next few hours were relatively peaceful as everyone worked together to clean up the valley. Neil and his party were in the lodge scrubbing the floorboards like their lives depended on it, while all the others went around and gathered up the corpses of their former comrades.Nobody judged others for looting them either. All the equipment was sacked and, to Jake’s surprise, offered in a big pile to him and Miranda without any prompt—showing once more why both Donald and Abby had pretty good gear for their level. They had hoarded everything.Jake, of course, didn’t care for it and told Miranda to handle that too. Damn, it felt good just to delegate all his responsibilities away.He also found time to drag Hank to the side and hand him the stuff from Donald—which Hank, much to Jake’s surprise, rejected adamantly. Not because of the former owner, but because he didn’t see any need for it.During Jake’s absence, he and Miranda had had plenty of conversations about the future, and Hank h

The Malefic Viper exited the shattering realm, appearing in the void. A giant sphere that looked to be made of glass with a perennial inferno within was crumbling behind him. Vilastromoz had a relaxed smile as he savored the sensation of letting out a bit of power for the first time in forever.The Brimstone Hegemon was viewed as a powerful god from a multiversal point of view… but powerful wasn’t enough to face the Primordial. So while he did feel some enjoyment… it wasn’t enough. Luckily, it looked like it didn’t have to be.Loud claps echoed out within a void that should’ve been soundless as the clapping god made a mockery of the laws of reality.“Wonderful display!”Sitting in the middle of nowhere was a humanoid figure that one could easily mistake for a human at first glance.“Yip of Yore,” the Viper said as he looked toward the figure. The person looked vaguely human, but his limbs were slightly too long, and his features were a little… off.“For a Primordial to know my name… I