Elder Elias Voidmind opened his eyes with a sigh—he stood on the third floor of the colosseum and was gazing out at the chaotic marketplace in the grand square.
"Where are these Redclaw bastards?" Elias grumbled to himself as he reeled in his spiritual sight. He had probed the thousands of mortals desperately fleeing down the streets and couldn't find any traces of fire Qi. It was as if the Redclaws had all evacuated ahead of time.
Elias's fingers drummed on the stone windowsill as the calm, warm breeze went over his bald head. The Young Lord would not be happy with his performance if he returned without blood on his hands.
Sighing, he pushed himself away from the windowsill and strode down the now-empty hallway. There was nothing else to accompany his thoughts besides the whistling wind that rustled his black robes.
Do I really have to hunt for them within that ashen storm? It will deplete my entire reserves, and I may set back my cultivation by years. Why did I think answering the void's call would be a good idea? Benefits? From a tyrant like Dante? Not a chance.
Elias clicked his tongue in annoyance as he rounded a corner and was met with a faceful of wind and the burnt smell of ash. Through the glassless windows, he could see the violent storm swirling around. The idea of setting foot in that storm and burning hours of cultivation per minute to stay alive was aggravating, but what was he to do?
The will of the Young Lord was absolute, and he had no plans to return empty-handed. Deciding to take the stairs to a lower level rather than simply jumping into the ashen storm blindly, he continued his walk through the empty hallway until he felt a presence.
Cautiously prodding it with his spiritual sense, he could feel the faint waves of gravity that could only belong to someone in the Star Core Realm, and to make things even better, there was the presence of fire Qi.
Grinning, Elder Elias popped a Spiritual Nullification Pill to obscure his aura. They were expensive and didn't last for more than a few minutes, but it was a small price to guarantee he had the severed head of a powerful Redclaw to present to the Young Lord.
Feeling the pill rushing through his body, he observed as his natural aura reeled in. A slight pressure from his Star Core remained, but that was almost impossible to entirely hide.
Sticking close to the wall, Elder Elias snuck up to the dark tunnel. He was briefly surprised at how long it was, but that was no matter as he could see the backs of two men and a child at the end.
Two wore white robes and, from their metallic hair, were clearly members of House Silverspire. Besides these two was a man with crimson hair and dark red robes—the Redclaw Grand Elder.
Why is he standing beside the Silverspires? Is their relationship closer than we thought?
Elder Elias narrowed his eyes as he crept down the tunnel. The Redclaw Grand Elder's Star Core seemed active as his fists were still aflame with crimson soul fire. Had he just been fighting something?
It was getting more questionable and risky the more he looked into it, but Elder Elias had no plans to disobey his Young Lord. If Dante wanted the Redclaw Grand Elder's head on a silver platter, that's precisely what he would get.
A few tense moments passed as Elias got closer—his finger itched to summon a dagger and coat it in void Qi, but that would alert the two Star Core cultivators just a few meters away of his presence.
In honesty, he was surprised they hadn't noticed him already. What could they be so distracted by to have no interest in a mortal behind them? Curious, he became a little bold and spread out his spiritual sight and almost shouted out in surprise when he saw the corpse of Elder Lilian in the mouth of a spirit beast far stronger than him.
Does that spirit beast belong to the Silverspires? Is it what's causing this powerful ashen storm?
For a brief moment, Elder Elias wanted to turn back and report the findings to Dante, but he could already imagine his reaction. He would question why he was informing him of trivial things instead of eliminating them for him.
Prideful bastard, Elias cursed in his mind but then froze in his tracks. Glancing down, he saw a fluffy white squirrel looking up at him with eyes of liquid gold filled with adorable curiosity.
And then it smiled.
Elias blinked in confusion and became even more disorientated when he realized the walls, floor, and ceiling of the hallway he had been sneaking through were gone and replaced with the endless abyss.
There he was, floating in the endless expanse of the void with nothing but a grinning squirrel to keep him company. He didn't feel anything out of the ordinary about the squirrel, but its bizarre grin that seemed far too human was irking him.
"Hello?" Elder Elias questioned the squirrel, "Did you bring me here?"
No answer—had he really been expecting one? Squirrels couldn't speak, but there was something so odd about it that he wasn't even sure what to do.
"I was hungry," A voice spoke directly in his mind, and worse of all, the words carried with it the pain of endless hunger. It was so extreme that for a moment, Elias couldn't even blame the voice's owner for wanting to eat him.
"Was that you?" Elder Elias asked the squirrel with a shiver, but the furry creature was still eerily grinning at him and didn't reply. Feeling creeped out, Elias glanced away and tried to workshop a solution out of this place.
He was in the void, but not of his own free will. Something had pulled him from the physical realm and trapped him in here. He tried to mobilize his own void Qi to tear open a doorway to the physical realm, but the void refused to answer him.
There's something nearby with far more domain over the void than me. My only hope is if the Void Caller is still working, it should be able to pull me back to my original location in Slymere, so I just have to survive until then—
Elias felt a weird pressure, so he glanced back and saw the squirrel roll its head back and open its mouth impossibly wide.
Its body then ruptured and exploded—a squirming mass of black tentacles expanded in all directions forming an enormous body that dominated the endless void.
Elias hadn't even had time to register what happened when a single eye a thousand times his size glared down at him, and he could see the insatiable hunger in its gaze.
"A Worldwalker," Elias gulped as he closed his eyes.
He knew his death would be swift.
***
Ashlock had been listening in on the conversation between Dante Voidmind and the Elder beside him when something unexpected happened—the crystal in Dante's hand cracked and then exploded.
It all happened instantly. The air twisted into a singularity as if a black hole had formed, and a moment later, the Star Core Elder was missing, and so was Dante's hand.
"What the hell?" Ashlock murmured in disbelief. One moment there had been a Star Core Elder that he had been wondering how to deal with, and the next, he was just... gone.
Recalling the Voidmind's conversation, the only plausible explanation for why the artifact had shattered like that was that the Elder sent to kill the Redclaws had died.
"If the other Voidmind Elder has really perished, it makes sense for the void crystal to shatter. The void's hunger must have become too much for it to contain, but that raises another question..." Ashlock glanced around, "Who the hell killed a Star Core Voidmind Elder?"
Everyone surrounding the demonic tree within the ashen storm seemed oblivious to the situation that had just occurred high in the sky. And Ashlock couldn't see any evidence of this Voidmind Elder's corpse.
"Did he really die?" Ashlock couldn't believe it, "All of my strongest sect members are here. The Grand Elder, Stella, Larry, and even Sebastian. Who could possibly..."
Ashlock paused as he saw a fluffy white squirrel emerge from the dark tunnel.
Maple jumped and skillfully landed on Stella's head.
"Oh, Maple!" Stella lovingly patted the mythical squirrel, "Where have you been? I could have used your help with this Elder that was hellbent on capturing me!"
Maple accepted the head rubs with glee and then laid on his back, letting out a satisfied burp.
"No way..." Ashlock let out a long sigh. This little rascal was always off doing his own thing and causing problems.
"You ate him, didn't you? You were the only person missing that's strong enough to pull off such a feat." Ashlock asked through their mental link, but Maple ignored him and slept.
"Bastard, those were valuable sacrificial credits," Ashlock seethed to himself, "And because that Elder died, the other one was also taken away!"
After a while of grumbling, Ashlock sighed. In truth, Maple had done him a favor by dealing with the Elder, and he should be satisfied that nobody on his side came out hurt or dead. But that wouldn't stop him from lamenting over the lost sacrificial credits.
"It's fine. I still have the two Skyrend corpses and one Voidmind Elder corpse," Ashlock mused, "I wonder if I should turn one of them into an Ent? Theron would make the strongest Ent due to his high cultivation stage, but what about a void element one from the Voidmind Elder's corpse?"
Ashlock's trail of thought was interrupted when he detected a flash of Qi in the sky. He focused on the source and saw Dante Voidmind talking into a glowing communication jade while staring at his stump.
The conversation was happening within a Qi bubble, so he couldn't listen in but judging by Dante's worsening expression, whatever he was being told wasn't good news for him.
While this was happening, Ashlock noticed the clear blue sky on the horizon darkening. A giant storm system began brewing out of nowhere and moving toward him.
"Oh shit," Ashlock cursed as he noticed a small humanoid-shaped dot at the forefront of the storm.
Ashlock quickly opened a portal leading to Red Vine Peak, "Larry, take Stella and go. Leave the Voidmind corpse here."
Larry acknowledged his orders and nudged Stella with Maple on her head toward the portal. The moment the giant spider left with Stella, the ashen storm began to settle down, and heaps of ash floated into the arena and covered the stands.
While keeping his eye on the fastly approaching tempest, Ashlock wrote on his trunk in lilac flames, "Grand Elder. He's here."
The Redclaw Grand Elder translated the message, and his expression turned grave as he looked at the sky, "It seems my prediction of him showing up has come to fruition. Time to try and reason with an arrogant self-proclaimed demi-god."
He then turned to Sebastian at his side, "Remember your promise Silverspire."
Sebastian patted Ryker on the shoulder and nodded to the Grand Elder, "Of course, we would smear the Silverspire name if we were to dishonor a contract. This tournament is under our Houses' protection."
"Then prepare the Voidmind corpse and get ready," The Grand Elder answered.
Ashlock was relieved to hear that everyone was on board as this was risky, but this was the pivotal moment of the grand plan to start a war between the Skyrend and Voidmind families to buy his Ashfallen sect time to scale up.
He would need to advance his own cultivation and give his sect members another few rounds in the Mystic Realm before he felt comfortable fully exposing the Ashfallen Sect's existence and going to war against the top families and the Patriarch.
And it all depended on convincing the gigantic floating man that resembled the reincarnation of Zeus at the forefront of the massive storm fast approaching that they hadn't been the ones to kill his son and daughter.
The distant rumbling of a thunderous storm became louder as the sky darkened and the day turned to dusk. For some reason, this reminded Ashlock of that time the Winterwrath Grand Elder came to attack the Ravenborne family atop a titan of ice and flanked by a cataclysmic blizzard.
"They sure do like dramatic entrances—" Ashlock was silenced by the world going white as if a nuclear bomb had gone off. The storm overhead lit up all at once at the command of the giant man floating in the sky, and a bolt of lightning the width of the arena descended.
The moment the bolt hit the ground, there was a thunderclap so loud everyone present was pushed back a few steps and had the soul flames flickering across their skin, briefly snuffed out. The Grand Elder had been expecting this and resisted the wave of superheated sand and ash thrown up by the attack with a wall of crimson flames.
Even with the wall of flames, if not for the spatial Qi drenching the demonic tree he was inhabiting with a fraction of his soul, the tree would have snapped in half and perished.
With color returning to the world as the lightning blast ceased, Ashlock witnessed a five-meter tall man coated in golden lightning with similar features to Theron slowly descend to the arena below. The lightning bolt had transformed the arena into a beautiful art piece of ashen glass.
The man's golden glowing eyes were focused on a section of the glass tinted red. He bent down, running his fingers over the still-hot glass, and whispered, "Who dares..."
There was a moment of pin-drop silence as the man closed his eyes, stood to his full height, and then bellowed to the heavens above with a thunderous roar, "Who dares slaughter my children? Where are their corpses?!?"
Dark clouds overhead crackled and flashed to mirror their summoner's rage. Yet the heavens did not have the answer he sought, so his furious gaze landed on the Redclaw Grand Elder.
Kicking against the ground, he shattered the glass underfoot as he rocketed toward the calm Grand Elder.
"Magnus Redclaw," The Skyrend Grand Elder snarled, "Did you extinguish the life of my beloved children?"
Ashlock was surprised. Only now did he realize the man had only ever been referred to as the Grand Elder of the Redclaw family and nothing else.
"Demetrios Skyrend, you know I hate that name," Magnus Redclaw narrowed his eyes at the towering man, "And no, I did not kill your children."
The two glared at one another for a moment.
Ashlock would believe Demetrios had titan blood in his veins. The man was so towering that he was almost the same height as the demonic tree he was inhabiting and was over twice the height of the already tall Redclaw Grand Elder.
"Magnus, I see the blood of my children smeared in the sand," Demetrios leaned in closer, his marble-like muscles swelling while containing his fury, "My children came to attend your tournament to show face, so tell me why the heavens speak of their demise?"
"We were attacked moments ago during the final event by the Voidmind family," Magnus Redclaw explained, "They must have died during the fight."
"The Voidmind family?" Demetrios narrowed his eyes.
"Everyone here can confirm my claim," Magnus said calmly as he gestured to Kane Azurecrest and Celeste Starweaver, that were still in the colosseum stands watching the events unfold.
"Nonsense!" Dante Voidmind shouted from atop his sword while hiding his stump behind his back.
Demetrios ignored Dante as if he were a bug and turned to glare at the two nobles, "Are Magnus Redclaw's words true?"
Celeste Starweaver exchanged a glance with Dante.
Eventually, she sighed and empowered her voice with Qi so it would carry across the colosseum without her putting in much effort, "Dante Voidmind announced his family was invading this city at the end of the tournament. However, I do not know how that involves your children."
"We would never target your children. Our family shares a long history—"
"Silence, scion." Demetrios bellowed at Dante, "Your Voidmind family has become far too suffocating to be around, and I will not be talked down to by a mere child."
Demetrios then flexed his cultivation, and as if the heavens had descended, an immense pressure crashed onto Dante, knocking him from his sword and forcing him down to the ground like a meteor.
The ashen glass shattered as Dante was floored by Demetrios's mere presence. The ghoulish-looking man groaned as he pushed himself out of a crater and tried to stand under pressure.
Demetrios ignored Dante and returned to Magnus, "Now, explain what happened."
Sebastian coughed from the side, "I can answer that. Upon the finals concluding, Dante Voidmind was allowed to deliver a victory speech. He utilized this opportunity to announce his family's plan to take over Darklight City. He then brought out a void-powered crystal and summoned multiple Voidmind Elders to assist his cause."
"And the ash?" Demetrios questioned.
"A defensive artifact provided to me by Ryker Silverspire's mother for his protection in case of an assassination attempt," Sebastian lied, "My Mistress purchased it from merchants, and it was kept on hand for a situation like this."
Sebastian then gestured to the corpse of the Voidmind Elder, "I was able to fend off one of the Voidmind Elders due to the artifact and because she was already injured."
Demetrios eyed the corpse and then leaned closer. He traced his finger over the hole through her skull that was coated in silver, "Metal Qi used to impale her head." His finger traced to her chest, "And residual lightning Qi that I recognize as my daughters in her chest."
He then closed his eyes, "And I can't detect my son or daughter's body anywhere nearby, so they must have been consumed by the accursed void."
"Impossible," Dante shouted through gritted teeth as he tried to stand, "I commanded my Elders to kill the Redclaw family and a woman called Roselyn. I never told them to do anything with your children! I swear under the heavens!"
Demetrios rose to his full height and slowly turned to glare down at Dante with his glowing eyes that were like floodgates to a god's fury. In a single step, he was down to the glass-coated arena below.
The glass cracked underfoot like ice as Demetrios walked toward the floored Dante, still struggling under his godlike pressure.
"Foolish child, you thought you were so sneaky," Demetrios bellowed, "Nobody here is strong enough to even touch a hair on my children's head—except someone that betrays the heavens and gives into the temptations of the void's whisper."
Demetrios raised one of his enormous arms, and golden lightning struck down. He caught the bolt and held it like a javelin.
"I didn't do it," Dante replied coldly, "This is all a setup to pitch our families against one another. Think logically, Demetrios, don't make a mistake you may regret."
"Then who slaughtered my children?" Demetrios' voice boomed, cracking the glass for a hundred meters, "You didn't move a finger while standing on your sword to save my children. Will you claim ignorance to their deaths?"
"That... I can't answer." Dante's eyes darted around as he took in everyone's faces, "I will remember all of you who did this to me."
"You can curse them in hell, you heretic," Demetrios brought his hand down with enough force to produce a sonic boom as he hurled the lightning bolt at Dante.
The world went white once more, and for a moment, Ashlock thought Dante would be executed.
However, as the bright white faded, Ashlock saw Dante half alive in the crater. His stump was gone as he sacrificed his arm to defend against the lightning. His face also appeared covered in void corruption that looked like a plague eating away at his face.
"If you hadn't taught my Uncle how to ascend, none of this would have happened," Dante shouted, "I watched as a void attack beyond even my father impaled your son. He didn't even have time to react as he perished!"
From his point of view in the sky, Ashlock could see ripples of void Qi around Dante. It was obvious he was trying to activate some sort of escape artifact and was trying to buy time.
"I would never help a heretic escape this realm," Demetrios said as he called down another javelin of heaven's wrath to his hand, "You are spouting nonsense!"
Dante grinned as half his face melted, "You can try and hide it for as long as you want, but we will find out the truth soon enough."
Demetrios' glowing eyes widened as he noticed the void Qi surrounding Dante. So without hesitation, he hurled the golden bolt, but Dante just manically laughed as he coated his remaining arm with void Qi and tanked the bolt.
"Get back here, you bastard," Demetrios roared as he dashed over and tried to grab at Dante, but he had already sunken into the floor and vanished into the void while screaming in agony.
Demetrios' entire body exploded with rage as he shot up into the sky and began to soar toward Slymere.
