Chapter 614: Branching Paths Against Monstrosity

After venturing through Lostwreck, going back over the oceans was frustrating for Zae Zin Nim. She wasn't really losing time, since she could continue cultivating while they traveled, but the wait dug under her skin. There was so much she needed to do to uncover the deepest secrets of cultivation and yet she still needed to slowly move around this small world trapped in the middle of a lake.

At first she had been more tense, since Omilaena was still carrying the Whispering Death, but it had proved completely under control within its multiple layers of protection. Omilaena herself was always occupied - she had the ingredient she needed to unlock new power, just not a path to it. Whereas Zae Zin Nim had an obvious path set before her and was no longer certain whether she should walk it.

In her musing, Zae Zin Nim realized that it was unusual to see Omilaena without the Prana Jewels. Strangely, her wife looked more alluring like this, fresh and different. She seemed so focused, yet Zae Zin Nim wondered if she couldn't lure her out with justifications for dual cultivation...

And then the world trembled and all thoughts of intimacy vanished.

She couldn't see Deadwaste yet, so it was just a mass of undistinguished mana, and then something emerged. It was a titanic power, like a Sky Soul revealing their cultivation, yet this was worse. Like the twisted distortion at the Frontier, concentrated into a single point. All hope that it could somehow be new power from Kai faded, because she knew his monstrous essence, and this was something else.

"What the fuck?" Omilaena had leapt to her feet at the same time Zae Zin Nim noticed, and was now muttering to herself. "It's like the incursion, but it's so concentrated..."

"It must be a single monster." Zae Zin Nim didn't like that conclusion, but she didn't see another one. "One of unprecedented strength: the elites speak of nation destroyers, so this can only be..."

"A continent destroyer. Well, that's less than ideal. It's tempting to theorize about how it happened, maybe the invaders triggered it somehow, but more importantly: what do we do?"

"It makes the most sense to go to Deadwaste, of course. We can confer with the others and maybe find Kai again."

"As much as we might want to... not a good idea." Omilaena rubbed her forehead with both hands. "Deadwaste contains dozens of fighters who are lethal, five we can't take on, and now this thing. I can't believe this changes the tactical situation enough for our overall strategy to change: we still need more power."

Zae Zin Nim took a slow breath as she accepted this conclusion. "Then... you suggest that we don't get involved. We stay the course."

"If anything, we accelerate it. All this cultivation stuff you're working on... can you do it here, or would it be easier in Cloudspire?"

"It would be easier in Cloudspire. I don't want to leave you t-"

"Go." Omilaena caught her in a fierce kiss and then pulled back. "I need to head north to Rosemount, so I'll check in with Deadwaste and find Kai if possible. Just focus on Sky Soul, or whatever answer you find. We need to return with enough power to end this."

Still a bit breathless from the kiss, Zae Zin Nim wanted to respond, but she knew her wife was right. They were facing unprecedented threats, and this new monster proved that the situation could get even worse. Just based on the raw impression of power, Zae Zin Nim wasn't sure how much she could help even if she went right at that moment.

So she reached into her spatial bracelet and removed one of her last ships, a Rosemount vessel. She gave it to Omilaena and watched forlornly as her wife headed toward Deadwaste, which was still filled with terrible invaders and now this abomination of a monster.

But soon she needed to turn west, to return to Cloudspire. All she could do was trust the battle to her spouses and allies.

In a strange way, Zae Zin Nim realized that this was the ultimate foundation built by so much work helping others. She had assisted Kai's students and the elites to maximize their strength, to deal with these problems while she took the necessary steps for her own cultivation. Somehow the apparently altruistic actions paved the way for her path to a final breakthrough.

She just needed to make sure it was worth it.

.

..

.

Kai had been glad to see Deadwaste again after so long in the Blood Current, and his speed increased further as he investigated the Elemental Nations. With Behemoth's Heart and Dragon's Might working together, he felt like he could fly for days.

Seeing the continent from so far overhead, he wasn't sure what he could determine. Clearly the entire place wasn't on fire, but the invaders could be wreaking a great deal more human misery that he couldn't see. Because he had yet to find them, even though he was getting deep into the Elemental Nations. Stopping to talk to someone might be better than searching blindly, but random people might not actually have good information and that would waste his time.

It was absurd to be worrying about minutes when he'd spent a month gaining new power, but now that he was back on Deadwaste, Kai couldn't help it. He had to justify that time he'd invested and the longer he went without finding any invaders, he more his imagination got away from him.

When he reached the Earth Union he started seeing more signs of violence, so the invaders must have gone south. Yet what he saw now were communities rebuilding in their wake, not any invaders acting as tyrants. For some reason they were still traveling, but could they really have gone to the Frontier? It didn't make sense for them to head out into the wilderness, since it wouldn't have anything they wanted.

As he left civilization and came into sight of the Frontier wall, Kai shifted to hovering in midair and tried to expand his senses. Most likely they had gone either east or west, which meant Krysal or Irun were the next to be in danger. He couldn't be sure which direction, so perhaps it would be better to find some elites and teleport to the right location. Yet the closer he came, the greater the risk that he triggered all the invaders to begin hunting him again, so he couldn't move recklessly.

Then his heart tried to tear itself from his body.

Kai clutched his chest, feeling as though his entire body was resonating like a gong. It wasn't pain, just a sensation so intense that he could barely tell the difference. Similar to what he'd felt at the beginning of the incursion, but this was more intense, more specific...

South. He realized that there was something dangerous emerging from the center of the Frontier, like an incursion unto itself. His monstrous instincts responded with hunger, but the sacred beast within him wanted to run in terror, and his human instincts were stupefied.

Somehow he ended up flying south anyway. Had the invaders triggered something at the abyss, or could this actually be unrelated? He remembered how the god-like beings had incited the abyss to send out more dangerous monsters, so the possibility of phased people bringing forth something terrible was all too real.

Even at his speed, Kai couldn't reach the center of the continent instantly. That monstrous presence was so intense he couldn't sense anything else, other than flickerings of powers moving in different directions. When he felt something in the sky ahead of him, Kai growled and prepared a claw, intending to cut it down...

At the last second he held back and Inafay collided with him. They spun end over end in the sky, the impact stunning her, and Kai had to keep a grip on her arm before they could stabilize.

"Kai, wait!" She had to pant for breath as she reordered the wind mana around her. "If you go now... you'll throw things off..."

"What happened?" he demanded. "You can feel the monster, right?"

"We don't know everything, but that's why you need to be careful." Inafay gripped his shoulder. "Whatever happened, it's made the invaders split up. Yangix got on a ship and is fleeing straight west. There are more fleeing north and if you get too close now, you might pull them back, and that's the last thing we need right now."

His frustration emerged in a growl, but Kai accepted her logic. They headed south together at a more controlled pace, so he asked, "What do we know?"

"Raghi went undercover with the invaders. If he's alive, he might be able to tell us everything, so keep your eyes open. We've needed to keep our distance, so it's hard to know why they decided to go south."

As they flew, Inafay told him how the invaders had been acting in the Elemental Nations. It was a grim comfort that they weren't slaughtering people wantonly, but they were still acting as tyrants and their presence was spreading chaos across the continent.

And now they had somehow summoned an unprecedented monster. At first Kai thought it must be his imagination, then he realized that he was actually seeing it: a sphere silhouetted on the horizon, so large that it could be seen even from leagues away. From such a distance all he could tell was that it was immensely powerful... it was difficult to tell how quickly it was moving due to size, but it seemed to hang in the air like an artificial moon.

"Wait, down there!" Inafay pointed below and began diving.

Kai had been so focused on the monstrous presence that he hadn't noticed, but when he looked down he took in the scene in an instant. Raghi was piloting a steel ship north, fleeing from one of the ordinary invaders. Even though the ship was fast, the invader was moving with phased speed that let him catch up even on foot. It looked as though he would already have caught them, if Tusquo hadn't been standing on the back of the ship, hurling arcs of mana downward.

Even as he understood what he saw, Kai was bursting down, flashing past Inafay's own dive. Raghi was severely injured and Tusquo looked exhausted, so they couldn't keep that up for long. It was a miracle they had lasted this long.

Fast as he was, Kai couldn't arrive immediately. On his way down, he understood a little more: Tusquo had partially mastered phases, so his cutting technique sent out mana arcs that had both speed and power phases. But his opponent was fully phased and stronger overall, so they only caused minor cuts and slowed him down.

When Kai arrived, he wanted to slaughter the invader who was threatening his friends, but he held back. Instead he slammed into the man and grabbed his neck with one hand - a normal person would have been blown apart, but the invader was only stunned.

"You never learn, do you?" The invader sneered and drew his sword. "You can't-"

Kai tore off the man's arm. He had just intended to stop the attack, but it was over before he knew it. The invader let out a scream that Kai had to admit a dark part of him found satisfying - the man was so used to being invincible, he was completely unprepared for Kai's superior power channeled through Dragon's Might.

"Do we need him alive?" Kai asked over his shoulder as Inafay caught up.

"Maybe," she panted. "Raghi is more important."

That had been the plan... but the invader's eyes went gray and his mouth closed. His remaining hand reached out to grip Kai's arm, and despite the difference in strength, Kai felt the fingers digging into his skin. Worse, the man's spirit seemed to be welling up, overflowing with a strange gray light...

Before he could think about it, Kai had unleashed Baleful Breath. When it was done, the invader was nothing but ash, yet Kai still felt like he could see a hint of gray.

Raghi and Tusquo were fleeing north, so Kai and Inafay caught up with them. They looked incredibly relieved, but Kai noticed two other things. First, the Prince of Pebbles was standing in the ship as well - Kai hadn't seen the old man in years.

Second, they had a pile of objects that were more than just random garbage. Kai recognized the unfamiliar clothes, weapons, and even potions of the invaders.

"Thank you." Tusquo dropped into a seated position, clearly exhausted. "I could not have managed that much longer."

"Wait, are these from the invaders?" Inafay was picking up the items with a grin on her face. "We can use these against them! And they're splitting up, so we can isolate and-"

"No!" Raghi turned from the controls sharply. His face was lined with exhaustion, but now there was a panic in his eyes as well. "I need to get to the elites, tell them everything. It's worse than we thought."