Chapter 501: A Flicker of a Greater World

A needle through the neck would have been lethal for most cultivators, but Xir Xan Khan proved tougher than most. The strength he gained from the immortality elixir wasn't any kind of transcendent perfection, it was more like an unnatural extension of his life. He drew on a large part of it, burning away the power permanently to wrench away from her and close the hole in his neck.

Her next needle went through his eye.

Omilaena danced around him, enacting her anger by tearing him apart piece by piece. When he overextended with that coiling black menace of his, she blew a cloud of poison around it, and in his current state he was unable to dodge. The more he burned his life, the more his body deteriorated. His precious jade skin began to turn dark and decay, one arm hung limply, and his eyes went dull.

Yet he still kept fighting. If he hadn't been such an asshole to Zin Nim, Omilaena would have been impressed by his sheer will to keep living. But she didn't let up in the slightest, mercilessly pressing her advantage as he died, over and over and over.

When at last his soul vanished, Omilaena was panting for breath. Even with her advantage, it had taken more of her stamina than she had expected to finish him off. Now that he was dead, however, that left them free to move together and things were looking up.

That was the moment when the cloud giant appeared over the city and Omilaena realized that their plan hadn't succeeded yet.

Apparently Zae Clen Ban was capable of the same trick, drawing on so much power that it began eroding his soul. But he had been a true immortal before he took the elixir, so he could suffer the drain and keep going. As more and more power concentrated into the giant form, his secondary immortal power was weakening, but that loss wasn't going to matter compared to the sheer amount of destructive force he was bringing down on the city.

For once, she had absolutely no ideas for plans. The most she could do was escape the center of the impact, get behind the largest shield she could find, and hope it didn't annihilate her anyway.

As the apocalyptic palm rumbled down toward the city, making the heavens tremble, a beam of dark smoke erupted from one of the higher towers. It exploded with such fury that the earth shook and the beam crossed the distance in an instant, meeting the palm directly. For several seconds the two raged, then they burst apart.

In the aftermath, the very sky seemed broken: the brilliant white giant had been scattered into light clouds, which intermixed with dark smoke. Wails went up throughout the city as the people wondered if this was the end of the world.

Omilaena had no such thoughts, she just began leaping toward the source of the beam. She knew it had come from Kai, but she had absolutely no idea how. When she arrived, what she saw left her speechless.

.

..

.

Every time she reached another puppet, Zae Zin Nim destroyed it with a single palm strike. Jackal Thirteen tried to attack her with various types of threads, but if they got through her wind aura they burned up in the Coldfire Corona. Though his puppets could deploy physical force greater than his own, her Pure Yin Shroud made her even stronger and she dismantled his forces one after another.

He really was weaker than Omilaena, now that she got a good look at his soul. The only reason he had given her wife trouble was that his puppets were so well-suited to resisting poison. Now that he was fighting an opponent better matched to him, he no longer looked so confident.

If he had been willing to stay and fight to the death, he might have actually troubled her for longer and drained more of her strength. But in the end, the mercenary realized that he was outmatched and planned to flee, raising a talisman to begin a teleportation.

Zae Zin Nim leapt for him immediately, and he was prepared for that: a puppet of Feida jerked into her path. But if he believed that a familiar face would slow her down, he was sorely mistaken. Zae Zin Nim grabbed the puppet's arm when it tried to attack and swung the entire body, using the man's own puppet as a club against him. The blow knocked the talisman from his hands and he staggered.

And then she was in range. He raised his hands and threads, ready to deflect her martial arts, but she didn't use any fancy techniques: she just slammed her fist into his neck.

It was enough. He crumpled and the rest of his puppets fell after him.

Just as Zae Zin Nim was about to feel satisfaction, the incredible true power of her father's technique made the air tremble, then she gaped as she felt Kai somehow equal it. Yet in the aftermath, she couldn't feel either of them... what had happened?

Since she could roughly calculate Kai's location from the trajectory of the beam, Zae Zin Nim flew to find him. Once she got into the air, there was no question about the location.

A section of the city was simply... dead. There was destruction everywhere, between all the cultivators and the falling pieces of the ship, but this was utterly different. In a large circle of the city, walls had been reduced to rubble and plants shriveled up. Every single drop of qi was gone... not only that, as she got closer she realized there was no chakra or mana, either. The level of energy throughout the entire region seemed to have dropped, but the circle was even emptier than Deadwaste.

And there, at the center, lay Kai.

He was back in his human form, without any monstrous traits, all his clothing annihilated except for the Beggar King's Robes that lay limp around his waist. She didn't see any injuries, but he seemed almost as devoid of energy as the space around them.

Zae Zin Nim instinctively started to move toward him, hesitating only when she saw someone else in the corner of her vision. But it was just Omilaena - the two of them were the only ones who would go toward the source of all that destruction.

As soon as they arrived, Zae Zin Nim touched his stomach, feeling that his dantian was intact, and Omilaena checked his pulse. He was still alive, but where normally his massive chest made his breaths obvious, he was breathing so shallowly that he'd looked almost dead at first.

"What was that?" Zae Zin Nim asked.

"I'm not sure, but I think it was just... too much." Omilaena gestured around to the drained region. "Not just for him, too much for the world to handle. We'd better not count on him doing that again."

"Would it be something like how monsters leave areas drained?"

"That's a great idea to consider later, but we have a bigger problem now: do you think that took out your father?"

"I..." Zae Zin Nim wanted to believe he was gone, but he had been shielded within his cloud giant and draining his very longevity. Instead of answering, she rose and looked out, searching for familiar qi just the way his followers had once searched for hers.

And unfortunately, she found it. Some distance outside the city, there was a Brightwind ship that was helping him up. Whether it had teleported in afterward or laid in wait, there were multiple Earth Souls there, assisting her father. Even from such a distance, she could tell that they were feeding him pills, trying to restore him... and not running. Even if they'd tried to run, she couldn't allow that.

"This is bad," Zae Zin Nim said. She looked back and found her wife injecting something into Kai's veins. "How fast do you think we can get him back?"

"No idea, but throw me some of those medicinal pills. I think he needs whatever kind of energy we have."

They threw in qi, chakra, mana... even qi crystals left over from the Krysali. Kai's body absorbed it all and he seemed to grow stronger, stirring slightly, but didn't wake.

"I'll take care of him here," Omilaena said, "but you need to stop your father from recovering. We have to end this now, and we'll be behind you, but you need to hold them."

"Right."

Much as it hurt to leave her spouses, Zae Zin Nim threw herself into the air, flashing over the city toward the Brightwind ship. They were so close to severing the bonds that had imprisoned her to her past, she couldn't allow them to stretch further into her future.

But before she could arrive, she saw a surprising figure: the matriarch they had fought over the Verdant River sect. It seemed that she had survived Omilaena's poison... and now she was preparing one of her immense lightning attacks, targeting her and Kai.

Zae Zin Nim threw herself into its path and cloaked herself in the Coldfire Corona, just before the lightning hit. Her flames protected her, but she felt the immense power as it coursed around her. When she flew toward the matriarch, the other woman retreated in the air, even while preparing another burst of lightning. Damn it, there was no time for this.

"Go!" The male voice surprised her, and Zae Zin Nim looked down to the see the patriarch of the Deepriver sect standing atop a nearby building. He waved her on, then leapt at the matriarch.

She released her lightning prematurely in a long arc, but he absorbed it and resisted with pure Physique. He flew on, robes burning, and closed the distance, so the two of them began sparring.

Flying onward, Zae Zin Nim shook her head, surprised that Kai's tendencies had actually worked out in their favor. Unfortunately, while the matriarch was the strongest opponent to act, she was far from the only one. All over the city, cultivators who had been cowering due to the jade ship and the clash of titans in the sky now crept out to steal treasures or pursue vendettas before order was restored.

By moving at top speed, Zae Zin Nim was able to avoid most of the trouble in Floodisle City, but as she reached the edge of the island, she saw Brightwind cultivators move toward her. They had Earth Souls covered in sect treasures and Nascent Foundation stage cultivators in formations, so they could well slow her down, even at the cost of their lives. Behind them, she could see others still helping to restore her father.

When the first group attacked, Zae Zin Nim spun in between them, hurling qi bolts in all directions. She wasn't as skilled as Omilaena, but she had learned a few tricks from her wife. Once a group of Nascent Foundation cultivators had been enough to terrify her, using their power to drag her back to her father, but now she killed the entire squadron in seconds.

But those seconds slowed her down, and the Brightwind ship was starting to retreat over the lake, leaving Floodisle City...

And it was met by bursts of green mana. Zae Zin Nim gasped as she saw Inafay and Orotaisin burst out of the water, attacking wildly. She almost cried out for them to stop, that they were in too much danger... then she saw that they had changed.

There was no time to examine their souls thoroughly, not while she was still rushing forward, but Inafay had apparently broken through to D-rank Physique and Orotaisin had reached the Body Refinement stage. With those boosts to their power, combined with their superior mobility and unfamiliar skills, they were capable of threatening the Earth Souls and driving the ship to a halt.

If her father recovered, however... Zae Zin Nim pushed herself even harder, watching the distance between them shrinking and hoping-

She struck a wall of green qi and reeled back in pain. Six Earth Souls wearing Brightwind robes emerged from hiding, standing in a hexagonal formation that summoned a great wall of qi in her path. She recognized the Eastern Wind Formation and knew they could easily move the wall to intercept her, whether she tried to attack them directly or slip around it. This was a delaying tactic, and an effective one.

Her palm struck the wall and several of the Earth Souls coughed up blood, but the damage was spread across all of them. Zae Zin Nim struck a second time, then a third, searching her mind for some way to pierce the technique. But it was made to stop cultivators, to buy time in just such an occasion as this, so there was no easy solution.

Suddenly there was a cry of pain and one of the Earth Souls went limp. A long crystal and wood spear pierced his chest... Cragrila stood behind the man, briefly glancing at her before she turned her spear on the rest of the formation.

"You helped fight my battle," Cragrila called. "Go finish yours!"

Zae Zin Nim shattered the weakened wall and flew on, wondering how this could have happened. She had been a lone cultivator, eccentric at best and anathema at worst, so how did she have allies willing to fight for her? Allies who could stand up against the Brightwind sect, no less.

At last she reached the jade ship and struck out, sweeping a Coldfire Palm over the remaining cluster. But though many of the other cultivators died, she could feel that her father survived... he drifted back, surrounded by a sphere of wind. Hardly at full strength, but he had a Sky Soul's power and more immortality to burn.

Soon he would open his eyes and their duel would resume. Fatigued as she was, Zae Zin Nim wasn't confident in her victory, and her new allies couldn't help her in a fight like this. But instead of giving up, she reached into her spatial bracelet, searching for an answer...

Chapter 502: The Terrifying Younger Generation

Wan Fei had always wondered who would come out on top, if he actually fought the matriarch of the Dark Crown sect. Her lightning technique was formidable, but required significant time to prepare in its strongest form. He ended up singed and aching, but his Physique had carried him through the day until she lay broken at his feet. It should have been a great victory.

Instead, he stared out from the city and wondered if he had signed the death warrant of his own sect.

Impossible as it seemed, his young allies had actually broken the Brightwind patriarch in his Transcendent Brightwind Visage form. Yet they had failed to kill him, and now one of the most powerful patriarchs on the continent was recovering. If he did survive, he would enact terrible vengeance on everyone who had stood against him, likely down to slaughtering the entire Deepriver sect.

There was nothing Wan Fei could do, not anymore. His own battle had drained his reserves and carried him to one of the undamaged portions of the city, too far away to assist even if he was fresh.

When Zae Clen Ban rose again, he fought alone with terrible ferocity. Only one opposed him: Zae Zin Nim, his own daughter. Once Wan Fei would have been disgusted by her turning her hand against her own flesh and blood, but now he wondered just how poorly the patriarch had failed his own duties as a father.

Seeing the two of them whirling together, exchanging technique after technique, was truly remarkable. The young woman fought with the skill and refinement of a cultivator many years her senior, nearly keeping up with an immortal's skills. Her darkened skin, which had been so strange to him, now seemed to glow with a power unlike anything he had ever seen before, a Physique greater than his own.

In the end, she actually forced her father back: Zae Clen Ban rose into the sky and began to form the Transcendent Brightwind Visage again. Zae Zin Nim didn't give him enough time, bracing her feet on a surviving remnant of the Brightwind ship and flying it up to attack before he could fully prepare.

The two collided, and one great arm exploded, but the patriarch was truly desperate. Draining his own cultivation base, he managed to finish the technique in his other hand. Once more, a terrible palm descended from the heavens, but this time he wasn't trying to destroy a city, only a single young woman.

Zae Zin Nim set her feet, narrowed her eyes, and copied his gestures. When her palms touched and slid apart, they glowed with not wind, but blue fire. She faced the vast cloud form and thrust her own palm skyward, lighting up a great palm of flame.

Immense hands clashed overhead, one blue and one white, and strained against one another. Unlike many qi techniques, these remained intact as both cultivators poured their qi into their palm techniques and tried to overwhelm the other. Wan Fei stared in awe as it became a contest of pure willpower and neither was willing to give way.

Gradually the patriarch's superior strength, and willingness to burn his long term potential, began to overcome. The heavenly palm lowered, grinding down and producing such a rushing wind that it was almost impossible to see Zae Zin Nim. She was using the piece of the ship to anchor herself, but Brightwind corpses were blown over the sides as the palm descended on her.

Just when it seemed like she would be crushed, the blue flames blazed with new strength. As the palm rose again, pushing the white technique back, even the heavenly visage of Zae Clen Ban appeared to be shocked. Inch by inch, he was losing ground.

As the winds dissipated underneath, Zae Zin Nim could be seen below, palm still raised to the heavens... and there were two people at her side. A large man and a slender woman, each gripping her arm. They slumped against her as if they were half-dead, clearly pouring all their strength into the technique, but their combined might pushed the palm upward.

"This is absurd..." Zae Clen Ban spoke with a voice like thunder, yet he sounded uncertain. "You cannot... rely on..."

"I can." Zae Zin Nim said nothing else, only continued her struggle.

Just when it seemed like the blue flames might consume the heavens, the Brightwind patriarch paid a terrible price. Striking into his own dantian, he drew up some of his own immortal blood, permanently reducing his strength and immortality for the sake of a single moment of overwhelming power.

Even the united technique could not stand against that. The heavens thundered down, crushing the blue flames and slamming into the earth.

The impact dissipated the clouds, destroying the great white arm as well. As they faded, it was clear that the Brightwind ship had been utterly crushed, and the young woman with it... a feeble blue flame flickered in the wreckage around her body. Her technique had protected her, but she had almost nothing left, while the clouds overhead still glowed brightly.

Two corpses lay scorched beside her.

"It is finished!" Zae Clen Ban announced triumphantly. "Now you perish along with them!"

Almost all eyes were on him as he drew back his massive hand, but Wan Fei instead looked to the wreckage. He noticed that the two smoking bodies lying beside Zae Zin Nim were wearing Brightwind robes.

Suddenly a dark beast leapt onto the patriarch's arm. It opened a terrible maw that seemed to contain the abyss itself and began to absorb the clouds, draining their light. Wan Fei realized with shock that it was Kai... he had begun weakened, but as he consumed the clouds, his strength seemed to restore itself.

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Roaring in alarm, Zae Clen Ban struck out at the monster with his other arm - and froze. The clouds began to dissipate and Wan Fei saw with shock that there were several needles piercing the patriarch's chest. It was the blue-haired woman, slicing through the clouds to strike him with something else. Zen Clae Ban knocked her aside, but his blows were no longer so overwhelming. On his next strike, Kai intercepted him from behind, grabbing his arm and sinking his teeth into his flesh. Omilaena thrust her strange weapon into his chest and forced even more poison into his body.

Without warning the false immortality in his body went wild, burning and trying to take down his true immortality with it. The patriarch's flesh, which should have been inviolable, twisted wildly, barely holding itself together.

Even then the patriarch refused to admit defeat, burning ever more of his own soul to try to fight them. But his power was waning, and more importantly... the three were united again. Zae Zin Nim rose into the air, unsteadily at first, and joined them in the assault. All three attacked with unspoken coordination, fighting together with a level of trust and discipline that left Wan Fei speechless.

In the end one of his arms had been bitten off and he had many more needles studding his body. He hung limply in the sky, staring at the young woman who floated in front of him.

"They weren't with... then how did you?" For the first time he seemed to ignore all the others, just staring at his daughter.

"That was just me," Zae Zin Nim said. "I'm not afraid of you anymore."

Then her palm struck Zae Clen Ban's chest and qi rang out with the sound of the clearest bell. Every survivor in Floodisle City watched as the patriarch of the great Brightwind sect fell to earth.

Chapter 503: An Unquiet Meal

One day after the battle, Kai still struggled to believe it. So much had led up to this point, so much had been on the line... and they had triumphed. It was over.

The three of them sat in the number one most prestigious restaurant in Floodisle City, being served the finest foods offered by very nervous local sects. That didn't matter to him so much as the fact that not a single young master would show up to attack them. The city had offered to raise them all to rank 25, an unprecedented honor, and Kai had growled at the officials until they fled.

If anyone had planned to take vengeance on them, they would have needed to do it quickly, before the three of them recovered and the new orthodoxy took over. Aside from some tense moments in the night, that time had passed. Everyone in the city had seen the titanic battles overhead, after all, and rumors abounded about the three and their bizarre foreign allies.

Instead, as it became clear just what had happened, they were being showered with gifts of all kinds. They scorned nearly all of them, but they still had mountains of qi pills as well as numerous scrolls. Zae Zin Nim had spent years collecting Physique manuals to prepare herself, and now that she no longer needed any, she could have slept in a pile of them. Omilaena had exploited things by making her desire for poisons known, which also served to deter anyone who might make a subtle attempt on them.

As far as Kai was concerned, only a few gifts had value: the crowns of the Grand Crown clan. The top of the patriarch's throne had been retrieved and offered as a trophy, along with several other crowns he hadn't known existed. Grandpa Wan Fei had even revealed that he held the gemstone-laden crown that had protected Yul Wei Ren, at least until he got himself killed.

All of those were tokens of victory... but they paled in comparison to the women eating with him.

Zae Zin Nim sat on one side, the perfect picture of contentment. She had been releasing many heartfelt sighs lately and cuddling up against them on the slightest pretext. The Brightwind sect had embodied a lifetime of fear and anxiety after all, and now she was finally free.

By contrast, Omilaena was all unconstrained energy. One of her legs wrapped around his under the table, teasing at his thigh - they had needed to be entirely cautious up to this point and she was clearly feeling frisky. Above the table, though, she grinned at them with real pleasure.

"I tried the Savage Form again," Kai said during a lull. "Nothing. If I give up human consciousness, I can gain a little more strength, like we saw before, but nothing even approaching what happened during the battle."

"It makes sense you could only do such a thing when fighting for a good cause." Zae Zin Nim stroked his arm as she spoke.

"I think it's more than that," Omilaena said. "You drained absolutely everything from that area, just using that technique a brief moment. You were in the middle of a sect and you left their vaults nothing but broken pills and dead treasures. I was going to say I'd never seen the like... but I realized the soil around you was almost the same as the Loam of the Gods. I think that level of power just can't be sustained here."

"What does 'here' mean?" Kai asked.

"I'm not sure. If the drain was so damaging to Cloudspire, it would be the same on Rosemount... maybe that's something that could only be unlocked on the hypothetical far-off continent where the gods come from."

"The one we're going to someday, you mean?"

Zae Zin Nim laughed softly. "I think you can be a little less ambitious, for at least one day."

They continued to eat and talk, but Kai's gaze wandered around the restaurant. For this meal, they'd forbidden all the cultivators who were trying to win their favor, allowing in only allies.

Closest to them sat Patriarch Wan Fei, one of the new powers of the Southern Rivers. Because he had kept his Deepriver sect out of so much of the fighting, he was one of the stronger surviving forces, though he'd be challenged in the future as the other regions tried to take advantage of the Southern Rivers. Still, he sat with his back straight and his head held high. In the aftermath Omilaena had finally given him the last antidote he needed to the manticore poison.

Hul Ping sat at a smaller table but raised a toast to them. He had appeared as a surprising leader in the aftermath, as one of the few survivors of the circle of young masters that had once ruled over the Masterful Crown clan. Yes, he had been a servant, but so many were dead and he had clearly drunk so much immortality elixir... who was to say otherwise?

Cragrila had been persuaded to join them, even though she'd spent most of her time avoiding cultivators. She had caught up to the Clanless and confirmed that it and its inhabitants were intact, but none of the others had come. When she met Kai's gaze, she gave the old nod of one warrior to another, like the revolution had never ended.

Inafay and Orotaisin sat in a little booth on their own, smiling, but less joyously than the others. When they met his gaze, they were all silent for a time, then they nodded.

This was a human victory, yes, but the incursion cared nothing for human conflicts.

All told, seven months remained, in effect only six given travel time. That was assuming there were no surprises, no divergences from the usual, and no gods descending to destroy everything.

Just when Kai was beginning to hope they could have a lovely meal without interruptions, guests arrived on the exterior balcony. The restaurant's guards shifted nervously until Kai waved the visitors in, and to his surprise he saw a mix of Brightwind robes... and the white of the Pureflower sect, who he hadn't thought about in ages.

The Brightwind cultivator approached first, kowtowing over and over.

"Matriarch Zae..." The man trembled as her dark eyes turned on him. "You... you must be the matriarch now, yes? Traditionally our leader must be a Sky Soul, but given how you seized power..."

"Return and begin reorganizing," Zae Zin Nim told him flatly. "The old days are gone, and the new will not be the same. We will speak more later."

"But... will you be there to shield us? We have made a great many enemies, and-"

"Enough. I am not my father, but do not anger me."

As the Brightwind cultivator scurried back, the elegant woman from the Pureflower sect swayed forward more confidently. She made an inquisitive gesture and Omilaena responded, somehow communicating that she could approach. After a frown at Kai, the woman spoke up.

"I know there have been more dramatic events, but I must ask... do you think the Purple River sect could have been responsible for poisoning our matriarch?"

"Almost no chance," Omilaena said. "I got a good feeling for all their poisons and they aren't even in the same category. I hope the other groups had better luck."

"I don't know if luck is the word." The elegant woman shifted uncomfortably. "It seems that the poisoning was... unrelated to anything else we had known. There is unrest in the Heavenly Mountains and Lakes, many old sects and clans feuding for reasons unknown. This was the reason that the Coiling Island sect was reaching out to other regions, and why they fought so fiercely here."

"Bet they're not happy about losing their heir."

"No, but..." The Pureflower cultivator clasped her hands together. "We still have not unraveled the mystery, either of the poison or of the struggle at the Heavenly Lakes and Rivers. Clearly, you have taken a different path in life, but we would be indebted if you c-"

"No." Omilaena leaned forward and made a brushing motion with her hand. "Maybe we'll get over there to help, but I wouldn't count on it. We have business to take care of." And it seemed like that was it, she simply waved away the Pureflower representative.

With the guests being escorted out, the restaurant returned to at least a fraction of its former cheer. Some other cultivators tried to enter too, bearing more gifts to try to earn favor, and were thankfully turned away. Kai didn't want to bother with any of that... no, he was beyond sick of Cloudspire by now.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked. "Those are powerful sects, and they could offer real advantages."

Omilaena slouched back in her seat and grinned at him. "Nah, they can fend for themselves. At this stage, we set the rules, not them."

"And you have helped us very faithfully," Zae Zin Nim said with a serious nod. "It would be completely inappropriate if we did not help you now."

"Yeah, I'm eager to see the incursion up close and personal this time."

Kai couldn't help but smile. He wanted to thank them, couldn't find the words, and then realized he didn't need any. Instead he just wrapped his arms around his wives and for a time the three were content.

For now, the battle was over... but when they returned to Deadwaste, something much worse would begin.

Chapter 504: Interludes Delta

The visitors were leaving the Southern Reach when Yriliuna finally got a peek at one of them. How odd... the handsome young man looked familiar to her. Like someone she had seen in a different place and time. It was only after they departed that it connected for her.

"Who was that Goralian man?" Yriliuna asked her grove. "Was he related to all those troubles?"

"You didn't hear?" Her sister looked incredulous. "He was the one fighting the cultivators!"

"Oh, was he?"

"How could you have missed that? Never mind, why do you care, anyway?"

"I think I saw him years ago," Yriliuna mused. "You remember when I went to Goralia to help out with their trials? He was a nice boy, and he let me finish my job faster."

Her sister goggled at her. "Wait, you were there when a hero was having his first trial and you didn't say anything?"

"I didn't realize until now. He grew bigger, I think. Humans don't usually do that." Yriliuna shifted back against her tree and yawned. "I would have said hello if I'd seen him earlier, but I don't know what we'd really talk about."

.

..

.

Technically, the most important thing was training for the incursion. Bonto told himself that, but he didn't really believe it.

Leaving the continent was insane enough on its own, much less visiting some mysterious magic island. The place was filled with a deeper power that still astonished him, and danger as well. Kai Clanless had told them that there were no dangerous monsters, but when they'd first run into one, some of them had nearly died. Everything about this place screamed important.

And yet he just found himself wishing that he could strike the right note with the others.

After he finished his training, he wandered into one of the sparring courtyards. Kifaela the naiad was there, balanced on her hands and doing push-ups. She was smoking hot despite all the scars across her body, which was kind of ironic for a naiad - was there a joke there? Since she was usually so serious, Bonto went to try to join her, struggling just to balance on his hands.

By the time Kifaela had finished her training, Bonto had fallen down a few times. She gave him an odd glance as she went rightside-up and began fixing her hair, so he shrugged sheepishly.

"That's harder than it looks," Bonto said. "Give me some tips later?"

"I suppose I could," she said as she combed her blue hair down over one side of her face.

"Thanks. I feel we get a bit left out, you know? Everyone else is from the Frontier nations, so they're used to this incursion stuff."

"You aren't?" Kifaela asked, colder than he'd hoped.

"Nah, I'm from Birtaegal. That and the Southern Reach are the only two areas that don't border the Frontier, so we're the odd ones out, huh?"

She grunted and it seemed like she was about to finish combing her hair, so he only had seconds left.

"Hey," Bonto said with a chuckled, "how can you see anything like that? Or are you self-conscious about your eye or something? It's a nice eye."

She gave him a strange glance and departed, leaving Bonto to fall back and groan. A woman in Birtaegal would definitely have laughed at that, but naiads - or maybe just Kifaela - were apparently too serious. He'd tried to play up them both being outsiders, but the truth was that she seemed to get along fine with the others. Kifaela ate dinner together with Mariyay and Tori, and trained with the tougher men like Ankrastor. She was getting along fine.

Bonto suspected that the problem was that he was Birtaegali, and his people didn't have the best reputation on the continent because they stood apart from incursions. And, he had to admit, there were more than a few Birtaegali mercenaries who didn't always behave the best. But he'd abandoned Birtaegal, so they shouldn't hold that against him.

He groaned and pushed to his feet, looking for someone else. On his way out, he passed Tori, who was working on her sword forms. When he gave her an Irunian bow, she mirrored the gesture, but it was difficult to tell if that meant anything. Bonto had worked with some Irunians in his time, and they were all polite, but Tori was absurdly polite with everyone.

Obviously he knew better than to try to tease an Irunian. Even in his wildest dreams he didn't imagine he'd ever joke around with someone like Tori.

Back in the mansion, Mariyay and Ankrastor were sitting at one of the kitchen tables, talking while they ate a quick meal. Bonto thought about asking why the two of them were so sweaty, then immediately realized that'd be a bone-headed move. Neither would find it funny, Mariyay would glare at him for the innuendo, and Ankrastor would probably just explain that they had been training in a somber voice.

"Hey!" Bonto grabbed some food and sat down beside them. "Gotta say, you two kicked my ass in sparring. How do you do it, Ankrastor?"

"I would help if I could," the Waterborn man said, "but I don't think my methods would be applicable to you."

"No doubt, we're made of different stuff. But you, Mariyay, you're always making things... that was an impressive hammer the other day. Any way I could convince you to make me a weapon?"

"No." Mariyay stood up and walked out, just like that.

Getting rejected like that after putting himself out there stung Bonto, he had to admit. He hadn't even tried to make any jokes, he'd just asked them for help. Wasn't that supposed to be what the Frontier nations were all about?

"Geez," he said to Ankrastor, "what set her off? Think it's that time of the month?"

"That is not an appropriate thing to say about a fellow warrior," Ankrastor told him sternly.

Even though that sounded like a line he'd exit on, Ankrastor didn't leave the table, which just made things more awkward. Bonto wanted to slip straight down into the floor, but he'd got together all this food, so it would look stupid not to eat it.

Before he could finish, Untariin stepped into the kitchen as well. Now there was a man that Bonto didn't even try to be friendly with. Untariin was a former Krysali noble and clearly thought he was better than the rest of them, and unfortunately he was, half the time. He and Ankrastor seemed to absolutely hate one another, so Bonto edged back and waited for sparks to fly.

"Feel free to sit," Ankrastor said.

"Oh, I need your permission?" Untariin asked sharply.

"Yes, this table has been reserved for the worst crystallier in the world."

"Well, how can I resist an invitation from the worst Waterborn in the world?"

Then, bizarrely, Untariin's face cracked a smile and, shockingly, Ankrastor chuckled. They dropped their hostility as if it had been a game, even though just two days ago Bonto had seen them at each others throats for real. They shifted to sit together, talking like old friends, leaving him isolated on his side of the table.

Darkmist Island was filled with deadly monsters, but that wasn't the worst of it. Bonto hoped that Kai Clanless would come back soon, or he'd die of awkwardness.

.

..

.

There had been a time when the great powers of Rosemount never met, too concerned about their own reputations and vulnerabilities, obsessed with the balance of power. After the disastrous years of demon rule in the Commonwealth, they had met on occasion, to discuss matters that could not go through the channels of state.

Still, it was rare for the Windlord, Elder Graveylin, and the Empress of the Coiled Empire to be standing in one room.

"Some of the demons still remain," Elder Graveylin was saying. "The signs are clear, but we cannot pin down their exact locations."

"A broken few," the lamia Empress said with a snort. "They are no longer any threat to us."

"Perhaps not now, but if any of them choose new prey, begin to hunt elves or lamias..."

"Let them try. Rosemount has exhausted its patience for such predators."

They went silent, not pushing the point that obviously would not reach any solution. For all that Rosemount prided itself on having a superior form of civilization to Cloudspire, their factions could be just as prideful. All of them remembered that they had ignored Matiavel until three others, who should have been much weaker than the great powers, got involved with the war.

It seemed that the Windlord was thinking similar thoughts. Their ambiguous form sat at the end of the table, looking out, not toward the garden but the skies above. After the pause stretched, the Windlord turned just slightly and spoke to the elven elder.

"Has there been any word from the foreigners you so disavow?"

"We know they reached a hidden location," Elder Graveylin said, "but after that, it seems that they went to Cloudspire."

"Went and caused trouble." The Empress shook her head sourly. "We have more trade with Cloudspire than either of you, and the tales have been coming in for months. Apparently those three overthrew multiple sects of cultivators and practically conquered their southern region."

The Windlord's wrapped head shifted in what might have been surprise. "And now?"

"Fortunately, they appear to have remained in order to enjoy their spoils."

"I see." Elder Graveylin gave an odd sigh. "I must admit, politics in Rosemount are easier without such reckless agents getting involved."

"We can thank them for their assistance while also being grateful they are far from us."

The Windlord said nothing, still staring toward the empty sky.

.

..

.

Sometimes Kojajix thought that some god must have cursed him. As a kid he'd had all kinds of dreams, but he'd ended up working on a boat just like his pop, already aching and wheezing before middle age. He pulled on the ropes along with the others, getting the sails up for all the good it did on this cursed lake.

As a kid he'd hoped to awaken some legendary power, but by the time he was a teenager it was clear his soul was mediocre. After a very awkward adolescence, where he trained but didn't make much progress, he got the fool idea of becoming a mercenary and earning his way to power.

Well, it turned out that even the shittiest mercenary companies had a minimum 1000 Power requirement to join up. So Kojajix had ended up like a lot of other failures, sailing on the Deadlake taking jobs that no one else wanted.

They all had swords and a few scars, sometimes they even talked like they were hard men, but they knew they were nothing. There were maybe five men on the ship who had ever had any shot at all, and they'd dropped out of the academy or otherwise been failures - they even had one foreigner who'd been rejected from a cultivation sect. All they had from those experiences was some less-shit equipment and a stupid gimmick or two.

"Koja, back here," the captain called. Kojajix hastened to obey Captain Yurajix's command, even though it was likely just to be given more work.

If anyone on the boat had even an ounce of talent, it was Captain Yurajix. He didn't seem to have any special abilities, but he could slap aside qi or beat down that one ass who had an "iron body" technique. For whatever reason, he chose to gather hard men and take on desperate jobs.

"Get the oars," Captain Yurajix ordered. "I mislike the Deadlake today."

"You sure, Captain?" Kojajix looked toward the sail, still full in the breeze.

"You'll learn, boy, get 'em. There's nothing dangerous in the Deadlake except the water... but there are all kinds of currents flowing inward."

"Why inward?" One of the good things about the captain was that he didn't shout a man down just for asking questions.

"Hell if I know, it doesn't make a lick of sense. What I do know is that if you get caught in one, and the wind becalms at the same time, you're shit out of luck. So get the oars!"

Nodding, Kojajix shuffled to the back of the ship to pull the extra oars out of storage. Their ship was a simple two deck affair, with barely any room for them below with their cargo. He thought it was a stupid errand, but the thought of getting stranded out there on the endless placid water kept him moving.

When Kojajix reached the oars, he looked up and saw an entirely gray man.

"The fate barrier really is more notable than expected."

"Whuh?" Kojajix stared at the man, trying to figure out who the hell he could be. His clothes lacked color, but they looked finer than anything he'd seen before.

"An emergent phenomenon, I think, but a powerful one. Pity I can't handle things directly."

The man had started to walk forward, not even looking at him, but strangers couldn't just go around the ship like that, so Kojajix went after him. "Sir, what are you doing?"

"Oh, but the P3 has a cycle... I can send in something during the weakening. This must be what led me here, to-"

"Hey, stop!" Kojajix ran in front of the gray man and was about to grab his robes when those eyes finally looked at him.

They were nothing. Gray holes into a gray landscape that seemed like it didn't exist and yet yawned before him. When Kojajix managed to pull himself out of the trance, he realized that the man's face held an expression of mild disgust, like someone who found that their food stores had gone buggy. Except this man stared at him like he'd seen a million stores go buggy and was tired of it.

"I suppose you will be my agents," the gray man said. "Tedious agents, and this brute method is not worthy of me, but it's all this loose end deserves. Almost certainly nothing, of course, but better to eradicate anomalies early, and this is the time."

None of that made any damn sense, but Kojajix didn't dare say anything. He wasn't even sure how he had gotten out of the man's way, yet he was walking onward.

"What the fuck?" Another sailor saw him and started forward more aggressively. "Stowaways get-"

Then he stopped. The man wasn't walking, wasn't breathing, it was like he was a picture in the air. Kojajix stared, sure that the gray man had done it without knowing what had happened: the man hadn't waved a hand or so much looked aside, it had just happened. Of course, Kojajix had never managed to awaken any spiritual sight, so there must have been an invisible trick.

"Very well." The gray man's next step took him into the air, as if there were invisible stairs beneath him. "This group will do. All of you are headed into the Deadlake to eliminate a little problem for me."

"And just who are you?" Captain Yurajix asked as the entire crew turned to look at the floating man.

"I'm not really sure what will happen to you, but you should have the strength to squash a little bug. A little personality manipulation should point out the right bug - that's easy enough, for an anomaly. Then we should get you moving so you break the fate barrier at the right point of the cycle, of course."

Something gripped the bottom of the ship, more powerfully than any tide Kojajix had ever felt. Many fell over as the ship began flying over the water faster than it ever had - when he looked back, he saw the shoreline and safety disappearing rapidly behind them.

"Are there any other details? Oh yes, you're all still at that miserable stage of existence where you need to eat and drink, aren't you?" The gray man waved a hand in the direction of their hold. "Such tiresome details are easy to handle at least. That should let you survive... once you get to that old relic, you shouldn't be challenged, of course."

"Sir, whatever you're doing..." Captain Yurajix started to move forward, and he never finished his step, freezing like the first attacker. But this time, the gray man's head swiveled to face him.

"Hmm, you're a bit too strong, aren't you? This fate barrier really does keep out everyone... very well." He waved a hand and the captain disappeared in a blink. "It's difficult to even tell the difference at this stage, but I think everyone else is just barely weak enough to get through the barrier. This is likely the strongest force that can be deployed there."

Even though Kojajix had no idea what was going on, it seemed like the gray man was going to go away and leave them on the Deadlake. And if he knew one thing, he knew that was death. Not daring to get in the man's way, Kojajix just dropped to his knees near him.

"Please, sir," he begged, "what are you doing? What do you want us to do?"

"I'm sending you to eliminate a little anomaly, a monster in the form of a man." The gray man looked at him briefly and the smallest of smiles appeared on his lips. "You'll know him when you see him."