Chapter 601: A Gray Trap Closes

  For no comprehensible reason, Kyridnyiam's mind was seized by the presentiment of death.

  It made absolutely no sense: the group spotted on the ocean proved to be a group of refugees, miserable men who had been adrift on the ocean. They were absurdly grateful to finally land, filthy and bedraggled, and had welcomed the Water Union's hospitality. The incident shouldn't have been worth his time, compared to the incursion, yet he didn't leave.

  Even if they were hostile, there were only fifty of them at most. None of them seemed to have any particular abilities. They were awfully equipped, with rough clothing and swords that had been poorly cared-for. He should have left to focus on the remnants of the incursion, like so many others had.

  There were a few details that didn't make sense. The whole group had a wild energy that just put him on edge, for one. Even though they didn't look like any people he recognized from Deadwaste or Cloudspire, they understood everyone perfectly - the locals heard them in the local language, but Kyridnyiam heard his native dryad tongue.

  And there was the ultimate evidence: when Kyridnyiam looked at the sailors with his spiritual sight, what he saw didn't make any sense:

  <

  Name: ???

  Total Power: 830

  Human Essence: 500

  Brute Physique: E-4 (216)

  Soul Level: 4 (64)

  Iron Sword (+50)

  >

  The man he was looking at, just an average sailor, had an insane 830 Power. Yet the composition of it was also bizarre - his Physique and Soul Levels were wrong, his rusty sword was apparently worth 50 Power, and the majority came from something called "Human Essence" that Kyridnyiam had never seen before.

  Of course he was familiar with Dryad Essence, but humans shouldn't have the same thing, especially not in combination with Physique. Furthermore, the majority of the men had around 500 of it, which would be a dryad of extraordinary strength.

  This incomprehensible puzzle made Kyridnyiam stick around to watch, even as the sailors were assisted. After they were given baths and clothes that weren't filthy, they were going to be given a good meal. All of that seemed dull, yet Kyridnyiam kept watching them.

  There was something else wrong with them: their behavior was strangely aggressive and hierarchical with one another. By watching and listening closely, he realized that five men had a clear dominant position, even though they didn't claim to have any rank on the ship. The others used their names nervously: Yangix, Jonijix, Fodajix, Quorthix, and Budajix.

  All five of them had confused souls that couldn't possibly be as powerful as they felt to his gut. Two of them stuck out in particular: Jonijix looked similar to a Waterborn and seemed interested in all the water works around him, while Yangix dressed and behaved like a cultivator.

  It was that last part that made Kyridnyiam stay on edge. He had seen what cultivators could do, leading even to the attempted genocide of his entire village. This was just one man, who had none of the grace or wealth of the cultivators he knew, yet there was something about him...

  "Disgusting!" It was the elf-like one named Quorthix, who took a sip of the wine he was offered before hurling it down. "What is this piss?"

  "You don't like it?" One of the Water Union hosts apologetically pulled back the carafe of wine and offered pitchers of water and juice instead. "Here, maybe these will agree with your stomach more."

  But the men didn't look happy, and it was more than Quorthix. As they ate and drank, they behaved as though they were being served filth. Kyridnyiam took a glance at the table and saw that they were being served the Water Union's finest - one of the things he loved about the place was how generous they could be to guests. Yet the sailors looked truly repulsed, almost horrified, some choking down the food while others refusing.

  As they grew more surly, Kyridnyiam moved toward their ship that had run aground against the coast. Most of the others had ignored it, because it was an oversized wooden tub, looking embarrassingly simple compared to all the elegant Water Union craft. Yet there was something about it...

  When Kyridnyiam placed his hand against the wood, it felt strangely solid. His eyes told him that it was weather-damaged and half-rotted, yet his soul felt like he was touching some great vault door. On an impulse, Kyridnyiam slammed a fist against the side.

  And drew it back, shaking his hand in pain. He was strong now, with over 300 Power, and a simple physical blow from him should destroy most materials. Yet the wood from the ship didn't show so much as a single crack... with a growing ominous bafflement, Kyridnyiam looked deeper through the abandoned ship.

  Clearly the vessel was in rough shape, having taken structural damage during their journey. He discovered a door that had rusted off its hinges and picked it up - it even felt heavier than he expected, requiring him to use some real strength from his advanced Physique. Kyridnyiam frowned and tried to bend it over his knee, but it might as well have been a bar of Irunian steel.

  "What is this, bitch?" One of the sailors was shouting, complaining about something, and he pushed against the Water Union woman attempting to help him.

  Her body was flung across the beach and cracked against a rock with a sickening sound.

  "Stop right there!" The guards, already on edge due to the visitors' behavior, leapt into action. "You can't do things like that here!"

  They generated a rising puddle of water, a simple binding technique and gripped around the legs of a person to harmlessly bind them in place. But as Kyridnyiam watched in horror, the sailors shouted and burst through, drawing their rusty weapons.

  And in a flash, faster than Kyridnyiam can follow, they'd cut down the guards. It seemed like a planned ambush, yet the sailors look surprised, one even horrified at the bodies that have been spread cross the sand. The Water Union staff screamed and fled, and some of the sailors looked mortified... and then one of them laughed.

  "You see?" It was Budajix the muscle-bound one. "They're just like those cultivators. Everyone here is made of paper. Bloody paper."

  Kyridnyiam instinctively moved to the side of the ship, mindlessly carrying the door with him. He could only watch as the horrifying show continued: a Water Prince arrived, summoning a great wave technique. The man had over 500 Power and substantial skill, enough that Kyridnyiam idolized him, yet he knew what was going to happen before it did.

  Jonijix raised his hand and shot out a jet of water. It was simplistic, almost primitive, but the raw power pierced through the waves and the Prince's body, and he dropped to the ground.

  More were attacking, not understanding how outclassed they were. Even as he crept away, Kyridnyiam stared at Jonijix as he truly saw his soul for the first time.

  <

  Name: Jonijix

  Total Power: 2489

  Waterborn: Muddy Blood (1412)

  Human Essence: 300

  Brute Water Physique: D-2 (314)

  Soul Level: 6 (216)

  Stormblade (+150)

  >

  A total of almost 2500 Power... that shouldn't be possible. That was far more than anyone Kyridnyiam has ever heard of, even for the strongest Sky Souls. And yet, based on what he had seen, he had to assumed that it was actually true. When the Water Union guards attacked, their techniques splattered against even the weaker sailors like so much mist, and the counterattacks were absolutely deadly.

  Within the attack, Kyridnyiam finally spotted someone who might be able to do something: Kandajil was one of the Waterborn elites, a truly strong and noble man. He hid among the others as they approached the attacking sailors, then suddenly slid into action.

  It all took place faster than Kyridnyiam could possibly follow, in that blurring movement that only the elites could reach. Yet somehow the invaders could as well, and when Kyridnyiam could see anything again... Kandajil was slumping to the ground, staring at the enormous hole torn in his stomach.

  Beside him, two of the foreign sailors lay dead. That made things much worse: the invaders had been utterly arrogant before, but now they flew into a rage. Yangix the cultivator waved a hand and parts of the beach begin to explode, even as the others screamed as if they intended to destroy the entire Water Union, hurling projectiles that were uniformly lethal, piercing water and stone and other defenses.

  There was so little he could do... but Kyridnyiam rushed into action. He ran toward Kandajil, carrying the door as a shield. When the projectiles flew at him, they actually bounced off the wood. Kyridnyiam had barely considered his strategy, he just knew this was his only chance at survival. Somehow he scooped up Kandajil and carried him away, shielding their path with the door, desperate to escape.

  Kyridnyiam managed to escape the rampage, but when he reached safety, Kandajil was dead. The door, so very heavy, clattered to the ground.

  Chapter 602: A Grim Conclusion

  Even as her hands flew, doing what she could to save the lives of the elites in front of her, Omilaena felt certain that she was making a mistake.

  Not that helping them was inherently wrong, because they needed her help. Fornil was pressed to his absolute limits with the severe injuries coming in, phased injuries that required extensive healing. Without Omilaena's help, more elites would have died. Without potions on hand from Juray, more would have slipped past them both.

  But three had already passed, and the survivors told fractured stories of strange invaders. In the absence of a nation-destroyer, this was an unnatural occurrence, and they weren't properly reacting to it. The decentralized nature of the elites' organization was hurting them now, making them react with mixed plans where a single person could have seized control and prevented the disaster from spiraling further.

  Could that be her? If not her, then who?

  Omilaena finished her current surge of chakra and stood up, looking for a locus of organization that she could use to get a better handle on this. There was the Windborn teleporter arguing with Handelrey, Aeglien, and other elites, disagreeing about how to deal with the disaster. What got her attention was that Kyridnyiam was standing stunned nearby, clutching of all things a wooden door.

  "What's going on?" Omilaena demanded as she walked over. The elites looked at her, briefly hostile, but it was a mark of either the seriousness of the situation or her work that they eventually responded.

  "Powerful forces landed in the Elemental Nations," Aeglien said tersely. "Mixed reports on what exactly they are, but the reports suggest unprecedented strength."

  "We have policies for dealing with invasions," Handelrey added, "but it isn't usually at the same time as an incursion. And this feels strange."

  That matched Omilaena's intuition: the elites were acting like a great power had landed on the continent, but their usual methods weren't quite right for this. Several groups had gone out and there had already been three casualties, with a much higher number of serious injuries. Whatever opponent they were fighting had a lot of power, plus the ability to phase.

  Based on the reports, the enemy's strength was difficult to gauge yet they seemed to use phases almost constantly. That was serious enough on its own, but the disastrous results had the Windborn woman refusing to teleport out more groups. Without action, however, the invaders were apparently terrorizing the Water Union, so doing nothing wasn't an option.

  Glancing to the side, Omilaena watched Kyridnyiam with his door. Normally she might want to interrogate him, but he seemed too shocked to be useful. That clarified it all for her, though: what they fundamentally needed was military intelligence.

  "Let me go," Omilaena said abruptly, cutting through the discussion. "I have a better shot at fighting whoever this is, but more importantly, we'll plan to retreat. If Handelrey and Aeglien come along, we'll have multiple teleporters. We engage, gather information, and retreat as necessary."

  There was a little quibbling about whether to wait for others, but in the end the elites all wanted to defend Deadwaste, and they had to admit that Omilaena was the strongest they had available. As they prepared, however, she wasn't as confident as she'd projected. She'd trained all her phases further, but if this fight came down to constant phase use, she might not be as useful as her Power would suggest.

  They teleported to the Water Union, high in the air instead of at the targeted site so there was more time to observe. Even from above, the disturbance was obvious: there was a Water Union city on fire, which was not their usual aesthetic. It looked like large groups of people were fleeing in terror, while a concentrated force was heaping wreckage on a bonfire near the center.

  As they drifted down, as obscured as they could be, Omilaena observed the group more carefully. They looked like a group of ordinary men, but she was instantly sure they were from outside her known context: something about them was different from anyone she'd seen in her travels across Rosemount or Cloudspire. That was compounded by the fact that their average strength was absurdly high, close to a thousand based on primitive-seeming abilities, yet the symbols of their souls seemed to twist, as if their souls were fuzzy.

  Or, Omilaena realized grimly, it could well be that her spiritual sight wasn't prepared for what she was seeing.

  At the moment they were throwing wooden objects onto a great bonfire, not for any apparent purpose Omilaena could see. Others were tearing apart nearby stalls, smashing objects and hurling food, like savages except their expressions were filled with disgust. As she moved closer, they had yet to notice her, so Omilaena was able to pick out their words.

  "All of this tastes like shit," one of them howled, spitting out food. "Is there no good food here?"

  "Disgusting!" Another man kicked over a food stall, utterly demolishing it.

  "They weren't lying earlier." A potbellied man spoke almost to himself, not audible to many of the others, but Omilaena's ears could pick up the words. "This is really the best they have. They weren't insulting us, we just..."

  "Everything here is just shit," another said, picking at his clothes. "Even this silk is absolute garbage."

  While this was all merely interesting to Omilaena, she saw the elites beside her growing increasingly distraught. These were inexplicably powerful strangers devastating their home, after all, a truly existential threat that they had yet to understand. Because, fuzzy souls aside, none of these men seemed like they should be so dangerous.

  Handelrey glanced toward Omilaena, urging her forward, but she shook her head. Not yet. First she tried to examine the others, picking up on their social dynamics. They acted like they knew one another fairly well, but it wasn't a proper organization, they ruled by strength. The names of five men came up multiple times and Omilaena quickly spotted them. Though as rough as the others, their souls had a little more shape to them.

  And if her spiritual sight could be believed, they all had far above 2000 Power.

  Pulling out her goggles, Omilaena tried to examine them more deeply. She was increasingly convinced that her spiritual sight just needed to adjust to these souls, but this wasn't the time for deep secrets. Instead she focused all her attention on one of the men - the one called Budajix was a bit burly and kept throwing out a fist, using some sort of punching technique to demolish buildings.

  At last she caught a glimpse of his soul:

  <

  Name: Budajix

  Total Power: 2451

  Bloodpuncher: Level 13 (1300)

  Human Essence: 500

  Brute Physique: D-5 (335)

  Soul Level: 6 (216)

  Mana Circlet (+100)

  >

  It didn't make sense to her, but it seemed like he had an overwhelming amount of power in a Class-like ability. Omilaena restricted herself from futile speculations, because they had a crisis on her hands. Aeglien was talking to the others about the possibility of negotiating, but Omilaena felt certain that they weren't going to resolve this with words alone.

  Then, without warning, one of the five most dangerous invaders turned to spot her.

  <

  Name: Fodajix

  Total Power: 2283

  Ironeater: Feldspar Rank (1105)

  Human Essence: 300

  Brute Iron Physique: D-5 (335)

  Soul Level: 7 (343)

  Ring of Iron (+100)

  Trueiron Sword (+100)

  >

  It was the slim, rat-faced man they called Fodajix, and his eyes burned at her in rage. His soul included what appeared to be a chakra-based ability, plus a higher Soul Level than the others. Whatever the reason, he noticed first, pointing and shouting.

  "There's more of them, spying on us!"

  The group of invaders immediately began to hurl objects in their direction, the projectiles moving surprisingly fast. All of them dodged on instinct, but Omilaena noticed over her shoulder that one of the stones punched directly through a wall behind her.

  And then, a fraction of a second later, she had the invaders charging at her. Omilaena had grown used to instinctive speed phases, but she was still taken off guard: these men ran like untrained thugs, but it was like they were using perfect speed phases, crossing the distance in shockingly little time. Instantly the elites were fighting for their lives, using mobility techniques to retreat before the dozens of fighters could surround them, while Omilaena hesitated just a moment too long.

  When they got close her combat instincts took over and she whirled into motion: she kicked off the first attacker and spun, hurling needles in all directions. Despite her surprise, Omilaena was sure that she managed an offensive phase when she manifested the needles.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Instead of blowing through her opponents, her steel just sunk into their flesh like normal needles. And she had hurled one at the weaselly man called Fodajix, but her needle actually glanced off - did he have a strong ability on top of his defensive phase?

  "Well, you boys are fun." Omilaena swung her hips to one side and propped a fist on them, falling back to old habits after being shaken by the initial attack. And, to her surprise, it worked shockingly well, with the men actually halting their attack to ogle her.

  "Holy shit, look at that one!" one called.

  "I thought all the women here were hideous, but she's actually hot!"

  Omilaena kept a smile plastered on her face even as she winced internally: she saw a violent lust in their eyes and there was no question that, as they advanced, they intended to rape her. Given their impossible strength, that was more of a risk than it had been in a long time, and she didn't like feeling vulnerable.

  When Omilaena felt vulnerable, she got violent.

  Three of the men advanced on her, intending to pin her down instead of trying to kill her, and that was a fatal mistake. Even if they were somehow fighting with phases all the time, Omilaena still had twice their strength. Her fingernails tore across the face of the first, she drove a knife through the ear of the second, and she grappled the third, pinning his arm behind his back.

  He was shockingly strong... but not as strong as Kai when he was sparring with her. Omilaena kept the man pinned while she jammed a needle into his back, drawing as much blood as she could. She had taken out this group, but there were dozens more men, each of them a potentially lethal threat, and worse, the five...

  She saw the punch begin too late. Budajix, the one with the Class-like ability, was targeting her. Even as she tried to disengage, Omilaena felt the blow impact her with overwhelming force.

  Several buildings broke apart behind her before she slammed to a halt in a town square. Omilaena groaned as she forced herself up, realizing that her arm was broken. She still gripped a syringe of blood, though, so if they could just survive this and get away...

  "We retreat," Handelrey hissed as she landed beside them.

  "I'm trying," the Windborn teleporter said tersely. She was sweating, trying to extend her mana, but it wasn't working.

  Qi flooded from above, reminding Omilaena of the brute force version of a presence technique. The one with a cultivator's soul - Yangix - was advancing on them with an arrogant expression, flooding qi over the city. She wanted to get a better look at his strength, but her head was still spinning from the impact.

  "No more running away," he announced. "Most of the people here are pathetic, but a few of you are actually capable of hurting us. Just who are you?"

  "Limited range," Aeglien said.

  "Agreed." Handelrey nodded slightly.

  That was all they said - no more planning, no more negotiations. Aeglien stepped forward, his crystal armor flaring with light so bright that the advancing invaders were blinded. Handelrey moved beside him, her hair flying wildly as great vines of stone ripped from the ground, wrapping around the enemy.

  Before Omilaena could object, she realized that she was being dragged backward in a speed phase. The Windborn teleporter pulled her backward at top speed until they escaped the range of the qi, then she began to teleport.

  As they disappeared, Omilaena caught a glimpse of the stone vines exploding from within.

  Then they lay back on the Frontier base, with all the injured and dead elites. The teleporter slumped back, gasping for breath, her eyes wide. Omilaena simply lay on her back, strangely calm despite the grim situation.

  It was tempting to speculate about the origin of these invaders, that they might come from the hypothesized fifth continent or be related to the god-like beings that had fought over the last incursion. She brushed aside such considerations as irrelevant. All that mattered was that they faced an apocalyptic threat and that, if she couldn't figure it out, more than just Deadwaste was at risk.

  She marched over to Kyridnyiam, who was still clutching his door. "Why do you have this?" she asked.

  "It... it blocks," he mumbled. "Their attacks break through everything else. The door from their ship blocks them."

  "Let me see." Omilaena took the door from him, not ungently, and eased it against the wall before stabbing the surface with a needle.

  The first attempt was like stabbing stone, her needle actually bending at the impact. Omilaena summoned her weakened focus and managed an offensive phase: this time her needle punched through the wood. Already close to understanding, Omilaena began examining her other evidence. She had the blood in her syringe, of course, and when she'd torn across the face of another invader, she'd ended up with some hair under her fingernails.

  All of which led to the same conclusion.

  "What... what's happening?" Kyridnyiam asked. "What are you checking?"

  "Just a theory." Omilaena sighed and let the evidence drop. "The invaders aren't fighting with phases. All the physical matter that came with them is stronger than the strongest materials we have here. Their defenses are naturally as strong as the Empress of the Coiled Empire and they hit like Matiavel. Wherever they come from, everything is naturally phased."

  "Oh..." Kyridnyiam's eyes widened as he understood. "Oh, shit."

  Omilaena ignored him as well as the other elites who had heard her. She should be thinking of solutions, but she found herself wondering if Aeglien and Handelrey had gone to their deaths. They might have understood before she did and done it intentionally.

  Chapter 603: Beneath the Ground Floor

  Going from ending the incursion to hearing about disasters in the north gave Zae Zin Nim a sense of surreal disorientation. In Krysal, everyone had been cheering and thanking her. When she followed the elites to the Elemental Nations, she was immediately surrounded by death and despair. Tales of strange barbarians with impossible power... how could any of this be real?

  Then she saw Omilaena and she couldn't disbelieve anymore.

  Her wife slumped in a chair, cradling a broken arm with bruises covering half her body. She looked strangely beaten on a deeper level... though her eyes still flickered over the syringe she held in her good hand. Yet there was a manic energy to her expression, and Zae Zin Nim knew by now that this meant that Omilaena didn't have a good solution and was truly worried.

  "What happened?" Zae Zin Nim demanded as she rushed closer to take her wife's hand, even though she had heard on the way over.

  "Oh, you're here." Omilaena smiled wearily at her. "You might be able to save Handelrey and Aeglien, but... don't take the enemy lightly. They're all constantly phased, and there are five of them with real strength."

  This terse, informative Omilaena was horribly wrong - she should have been teasing, playful, and maybe even seductive. If the fight had left her like this, it really was serious. Zae Zin Nim listened to her suggestions somberly, wanting to comfort her wife but realizing there was nothing she could do.

  All she could offer now was vengeance.

  As she went to find a teleporter, Zae Zin Nim spotted Fornil the healer first. She grabbed him away from the elite he was currently healing, holding him by his shoulders.

  "Go help Omi!" she insisted. "She's more useful than anyone else here."

  "Yes, but she's also not critical." Fornil didn't even try to resist her grip, just stared back with dead eyes. "There are others who need immediate assistance, or..."

  Even though Omilaena seemed obviously most important to Zae Zin Nim, she reluctantly accepted that Fornil had likely just watched friends die, maybe even while he was unable to do anything. It was true that Omilaena was stable, and not likely to be fighting in her current state. Zae Zin Nim accepted this and continued on to find someone willing to take her to the invaders.

  One of the elites agreed, but only at a distance - apparently the invaders could suppress teleportation techniques within a certain range. That was acceptable, but it meant that Zae Zin Nim flew to find them on her own.

  The Water Union landscape was just as beautiful as she remembered, and would have been wonderful to soar above during normal circumstances. Instead, her attention was immediately seized by the raw power surging below her.

  A group of barbaric-looking men were charging over the landscape with a full speed phase - they would have been blurs if she wasn't phased herself, but with that, they were relatively slow. Just as the others had warned, they had the strength of a Frontier elite. And if they were truly fully phased, they would tear through Earth Souls and maybe even unprepared Sky Souls.

  The front edge of the fight was well ahead of them, several exceptionally powerful fighters chasing down two elites. She spotted Handelrey fleeing desperately, unable to do any more than keep her distance and evade ranged attacks. Her hair was half-burned, but the remaining pieces held up Aeglien, who hung limply with a massive hole through his armor. His soul was faintly detectable but he didn't stir.

  They had yet to notice Zae Zin Nim, so she gathered herself and prepared a Coldfire Palm. She thought that the one allegedly called Yangix, who was rumored to be a cultivator, noticed at the last second, but it was too late.

  Her house-sized palm slammed to the earth, striking all five of the enemy invaders. For all that they had been rumored to throw off attacks, they didn't throw off her technique: they were sent flying backward, some of them even tumbling wildly and crashing through hills.

  Zae Zin Nim landed beside the two elites, confirming that Aeglien was still alive. She smiled grimly at them as she shoved one of Juray's reserve potions toward Handelrey.

  "This time I get to save you," Zae Zin Nim said. "Wake Aeglien and get out of here."

  "Don't underestimate the weaker ones," Handelrey told her flatly. "Every part of them is phased."

  Then they rushed on past her, and Zae Zin Nim turned to face the enemy.

  She took inventory of the greatest threats, noting that they had taken less injury from her Coldfire Palm than she would have hoped. Yangix appeared to have shielded himself with a rough shroud of qi. The blue-haired man called Jonijix had raised a bubble of water around himself that now disappeared in steam. A short man, likely the one called Fodajix, had his elaborate robes burned away, but was wearing rougher robes underneath that survived. The one who looked like an elf - Quorthix - had landed on his feet some distance away.

  Only one had been struck head on - the muscular man called Budajix pushed to his feet, snarling in rage. He let out an inarticulate cry and thrust a fist forward.

  Zae Zin Nim shifted to the side and the force swept past her, flapping her robes violently. She had been warned by Omilaena, so she had been anticipating an attack like that. It was shockingly fast and powerful, but simple: just a fist of force projected through the air. Young Goralian men and women developed more sophisticated techniques within days of awakening their Classes.

  "Another one of these tough bitches," Quorthix snarled. "She's a bit fast."

  "Looks good under those robes." Jonijix licked his lips unpleasantly.

  That was repulsive, but some of the others worried her more: Fodajix didn't look lustful, he was just planning how to kill her. And Yangix had his arms calmly resting in his sleeves, a perverse mirror of her usual poses. His soul was bizarre... he clearly had a dantian of great power, based on his qi, but there was also more that she couldn't really understand.

  <

  Name: Yangix

  Total Power: 2407

  Cultivation: Body Purification 20% (1227)

  Human Essence: 400

  Brute Cultivator's Physique: D-0 (300)

  Soul Level: 6 (216)

  Cultivator's Robes (+100)

  Ring of Qi (+150)

  >

  With 2407 power, he was clearly a dangerous opponent, but she didn't understand how. What she read for his cultivation didn't make sense, and he had more power than should be possible for any cultivator.

  Then the five attacked and Zae Zin Nim had no more time for consideration.

  It began with another fist thrusting out, dodged equally easily. But this time it was followed instantly by a jet of water from Jonijix, which she barely ducked - a razor sharp bead of water cut a line across her cheek. Fodajix was charging at her, so she took to the air, but Quorthix was already there, shockingly fast and agile in the air, forcing her to retreat.

  As Zae Zin Nim defended herself against the five, she acknowledged with growing despair that she couldn't beat them. They were in some ways clumsy, but the huge gulf in power and their constant phased attacks... perhaps she could have used tactics to overcome one, but five at once was too much.

  She realized that she had been thinking about them as Sky Soul cultivators, who used partially phased qi. This was worse: instead of achieving a higher phase with their greatest attacks or at the peak of their power, for these invaders that was the floor, the constant standard. And even if she maintained her razor focus and remained fully phased herself, they could overpower her with raw strength.

  Now she understood why Omilaena had been beaten... and she wasn't sure how she could do any better. Especially since the normal invaders were catching up, carrying phased weapons that could threaten her, yelling to spread out...

  "Hold!" Yangix raised a hand to the others, expecting to be obeyed.

  "Who made you leader?" Jonijix turned on him, gathering water, but some of the others pulled him back. Zae Zin Nim watched tensely, catching her breath as the group struggled with itself and the strange cultivator finally turned to face her.

  "Everyone I've met here has been graceless," Yangix said, "but even though you're a bit weak, you look like an actual cultivator lady. That skin... a side effect of chasing power? Is that common here?"

  "Not common." Zae Zin Nim kept her eyes on the others, uncertain if he really intended to talk or if this was a prelude to treachery.

  "We have been insulted and attacked ever since we arrived here, but we don't need to fight. Indeed, I think we could build something great here, if we could take our proper places." Yangix smiled at her obsequiously. "Would you be willing to talk?"

  Zae Zin Nim stared back, uncertain what game he was playing. She was still phased, so her heartbeats passed agonizingly slowly. Perhaps he truly was as guileless as he appeared, actually wanting to talk, even faintly wanting her approval. For all that he was a foreigner with insane power, in some ways he was just a man... and her words might be more useful than her fists, here.

  "I'm happy to talk," Zae Zin Nim said. "Why are you doing this?"

  "We didn't intend for things to go this way, but let me ask the questions first. What is your cultivation stage?"

  "...Earth Soul."

  Yangix shook his head with an odd smile. "Baffling. And the stage after that is... Sky Soul?"

  "Yes."

  "Beyond that?"

  "Nothing." Even though she knew what he was likely to say, Zae Zin Nim stuck with the obvious and just tried not to glare too hard. This conversation was a better opportunity than continued battle, so she needed to take all she could from it.

  "Amazing." Yangix threw back his head and laughed. "My dear, I'm afraid that you have been misinformed your entire life. Maybe your ancestors drifted out onto the Deadlake with only a limited knowledge of cultivation? Or they might have known more and lost it, to the lake and inbreeding."

  "I don't understand." Zae Zin Nim's eyes flickered over the group - Jonijix's eyes wouldn't leave her body while Budajix was still furious and might attack her at any moment. "My home is a continent called Cloudspire. This one is called Deadwaste. I haven't heard of a Deadlake."

  "Continents?" It was Quorthix who spoke this time and she hated his arrogant chuckle. "I suppose you think this is the ocean? No, your world is a few islands in the middle of a miserable puddle called the Deadlake. We honestly didn't know there was anyone out here before we got blown out this way. How many people can there even be here, a few billion?"

  Yangix slapped Quorthix on the side of his head, enraged for some reason - most likely he didn't like the other man admitting that they hadn't come here on purpose. Zae Zin Nim was beginning to come to her own conclusion: these men were as rough as they looked, they just came from an outside location with much higher base power. Not as intentional conquerors, but via an accident.

  Though that left her with a huge question of cultivation.

  "Why haven't we ever been found before?" she asked.

  "The Deadlake is cursed," Fodajix said. "Qi, chakra, and mana dry up if you get far into it. I mean, you can feel it... the air in this place is just dead."

  "As I said, I fear you have been misinformed." Yangix took a step closer to her, smiling smugly. "Your cultivation... I'm guessing that you just continue packing qi into your dantian forever? In the real world, that is nothing but the first major step, the preparation before true cultivation. Maybe you don't know better... oh, don't glare like that. It may not be your fault - with so little qi, maybe you truly can't reach the second stage."

  Once she would have snarled at his accusations, which treated Cloudspire as a miserable land of barbarians, but Zae Zin Nim had seen too much of the world for that. Or, at least, her world. She had seen how talented and driven men and women on Deadwaste were weaker than fools on Cloudspire, simply because they were born in a weaker region. With her spouses she had even hypothesized about other lands that might begin at a higher tier.

  Now she faced the reality of that theory: these men came from outside her world, beginning with power beyond anything she'd seen.

  "What is the true path of cultivation, then?" she asked.

  "I fear it's more complex than you're used to," Yangix said with a shake of his head. "But if you work with me, perhaps we won't have to fight anymore. I can set up a proper sect, then a proper empire... we can teach the true paths of cultivation. Trust me, we'd be unstoppable here."

  She disliked the way he said that, but his implication paled in comparison to Jonijix still ogling her. Obviously real collaboration was impossible, so she focused on his soul as hard as she could, trying to discern his cultivation.

  "Your stage is... Body Purification?" she asked.

  Yangix nodded. "Yes, that is the second st-"

  "We call our second stage Body Refinement. Perhaps, if my ancestors did come here, they preserved some of their original cultivation arts, just in a distorted form."

  "Oh!" Yangix looked surprised, as if he hadn't put that together until the end, before he regained his smug attitude. "Well, it seems that being miseducated your entire life hasn't ruined you. And tell me, what do you call your 'third stage'?"

  "Nascent Foundation."

  "Hah! Yes, you may be right about your ancestors having a mangled and degraded version of real cultivation. Tell me, was Nascent Foundation just a process of intensifying your qi further? None of the true steps, except maybe a shadow of them... oh, my dear, I feel so sorry for you..."

  Perhaps once Zae Zin Nim would have fallen into despair, to learn that there was an entire larger world that considered her home continent nothing but trash. But now, after everything she had faced, she felt only a grim determination to continue fighting no matter what. She had seen god-like cultivators above the abyss, and these men were no gods.

  "Please tell me," Zae Zin Nim said, forcing herself to use the tone she had been taught as an obedient young girl, "what is the true path? How much should you intensify your qi before you achieve the second stage?"

  "Oh, it hardly matters." Yangix waved her question aside condescendingly. "You can improve your cultivation a little by such methods, but the strength is dwarfed by the benefits of achieving the true second stage."

  Her eyes narrowed and she considered her next question carefully. But before she could ask it, she heard a roar, then a familiar thunderclap. She felt a surge of hope as Kai landed beside her - he clearly wanted to attack, but he had seen her talking and decided against it. This would be delicate, depending on how the invaders reacted...

  Except they reacted by going still.

  Their motion slowed and their expressions went slack, completely unlike their coarse behavior up to that point. The men focused on Kai as one, their eyes began to glow an empty gray, and they all began to charge.

  Chapter 604: A Costly Retreat

  As soon as Gunjin told him about the mysterious invaders, Kai had intended to attack. After hearing about the disastrous first attempts, he managed to restrain himself - the elites said they likely would have performed worse without his training with them, but they were emphatic that these opponents were like nothing they'd faced before.

  Then he heard that Zae Zin Nim had gone alone, and the planning didn't matter, he forced Gunjin to take him to the Elemental Nations.

  From above, the invaders looked like thugs bloated on too much power, yet he couldn't deny that strength. They had Zae Zin Nim almost surrounded, with the weaker invaders circling around behind her position, so he couldn't wait longer, he dropped down to reinforce her.

  And the invaders had reacted by transforming.

  When they charged, Kai instinctively exhaled a wall of Baleful Breath, intending to halt their attack and give him a chance to regroup with Zae Zin Nim. Dull gray eyes not blinking, the invaders charged into the cloud... and out the other side.

  They weren't untouched: Baleful Breath had incinerated pieces of their clothing and left some of them with horrible burns. But they were the most powerful people that he'd ever tried to use the technique on, and now they seemed to be surrounded by a protective gray aura. Above all, they simply didn't seem to care that they were injured, all of them still focused on him.

  Their aura and the grayness in their eyes were vaguely similar, and Kai found himself stunned by it. He hadn't seen anything quite like it before, couldn't even pin it down, he just knew that it felt wrong in a way he couldn't explain. Not at all like the distortion of the Frontier, if anything, this was the opposite...

  The horror of that gray-eyed charge might have overwhelmed him, but Zae Zin Nim was more alert: she grabbed Kai and pulled him skyward at top speed. Their opponents continued pursuing them, some taking to the air and some keeping up on the ground. No matter how either side moved, their heads pivoted so that their eyes remained locked on him.

  "We need to go," Zae Zin Nim said tersely.

  "Do they do that normally?" he had to ask, even as he took over his own flight. How were the invaders keeping up so easily?

  "No. Who teleported you?"

  Unfortunately, at this speed Gunjin wasn't all that far away. Kai wanted to yell a warning to him, but it was too late: they were already coming up on his position. Gunjin had never mastered a speed phase, so he could only watch the chase in horror.

  They needed distance. Kai trusted Zae Zin Nim to keep up and arced down, grabbing a nearly frozen Gunjin around the chest and pulling him into the air. Then he pushed to the full speed of Thunderbird's Wings, trying to put some distance between himself and his pursuers. Zae Zin Nim kept pace, pointing out a southeastern direction that took them over several rivers and some small hills.

  When they landed, Kai dropped his phase enough to talk, though he kept it ready a moment's notice.

  "That bad?" Gunjin had been momentarily shocked by the abrupt movement, but recovered quickly.

  "We need to get out," Zae Zin Nim said. "Don't delay, just teleport."

  "I tried as soon as I recovered," he said grimly. "This whole area is locked down."

  Five pairs of gray eyes appeared... evenly spaced in a pentagon around them. Instead of chasing in a row as they had at first, their enemy had split up and - with apparent silent coordination - moved to surround them from all sides. Kai could feel the oppressive power choking the air, enough to require real power to punch through.

  He and Zae Zin Nim glanced at one another, wordlessly acknowledging the difficulty of their position as well as their only option. Their opponents fought with mechanical precision, but their monomaniacal focus left them with weaknesses, even given their overwhelming power.

  Kai leapt in one direction, unleashing a Tyrant's Claw at the cultivator. The man stopped it with startling ease, just pointing his finger and exploding the technique with a surge of qi. All of the others targeted Kai as well, their techniques converging with such speed that even the full use of Thunderbird's Wings barely kept him ahead of the overwhelming blows.

  But while they attacked him, Zae Zin Nim had prepared a Coldfire Palm and struck in the opposite direction. She hit one of the five, knocking him through the nearby hill and opening a hole in their encirclement. Kai reversed direction, grabbing Gunjin and fleeing through the opening while Zae Zin Nim followed and intercepted further attacks.

  Now that they had broken free, their opponents shifted into a line again, pursuing them. If anything, they seemed faster than before. Kai could have tried to use Baleful Breath again, see if they would keep running into it, but their aggression was too logical. If they had the intelligence to surround him, he shouldn't assume they would mindlessly fall into traps. But gaining ground on them was difficult, and they'd only be taking the invaders into populated areas of the Elemental Nations.

  Someone was in their path, fully phased. Kai braced himself for combat before he recognized Sheiri, standing atop a hill in their path and waiting for them.

  It could only have taken them a split second to pass one another, yet Kai felt almost as though he'd entered a second phase in that moment. He remembered Sheiri with surreal clarity, saw the determination in her eyes and the sad smile on her face. She knew exactly what she was doing, coming here to buy them time. As they passed, they had long enough to lock eyes and understand one another.

  Then he was past, far past, streaking over the earth. Kai could feel that Gunjin was recovering and knew that he was straining to teleport them as soon as they got out of range, but instead Kai turned back.

  He caught a glimpse of Sheiri uncoiling a second whip, bringing out her full power as five unstoppable opponents rushed down at her. Then the portal's mana engulfed him and Kai didn't see her again.

  .

  ..

  .

  Sheiri Kagskan lay on the ground, strangely cold and warm at the same time. She realized that the legs she was staring at were her own, lying severed not far away. So this was how it ended.

  Beating them had never been an option, but she had thought she might be able to escape, buy more time, or at least deal more injuries. In the beginning they had been incredibly focused on Kai, allowing her to land several effective strikes, but when they had turned on her with gray-eyed efficiency, it was all she could do to survive for a few seconds.

  Kai's departure had saved her, since the invaders had suddenly been disoriented. Sheiri hadn't hesitated, lashing her whip around the neck of the thin man called Fodajix, intending to kill him before he could recover. But even with Irunian steel, even with a full phase, she hadn't been able to finish him - he had a nasty cut all around his neck, but he lived.

  And that had been her last real chance. After that, Sheiri had been faced with five overwhelming opponents who used phases as easily as she breathed. They were still confused, but they turned all their anger on her, and it was only a matter of time before she lay dying.

  "What the fuck?" Fodajix clutched his throat, but his eyes were searching the heavens. "What was that? What happened to us?"

  "Where did they...?" The cultivator seemed the most disoriented of all, staring at her as if he was still confused about what had happened.

  "They're even uglier blown up." Jonijix knelt down beside her, looking her over with a hideous gaze. "I was gonna have some fun, but I might as well just put her out of her misery."

  Sheiri gave a bloody chuckle. It had been a very long time since anyone had looked at her lustfully, not since she had become an elite and dedicated herself to an endless war. Returning to such youthful immaturity at the end of her life could have been bitter, but she found it strangely funny.

  She wasn't going to let him touch her, of course, not even to kill her.

  As the hand reached down toward her, Sheiri thought about Kai and Zae Zin Nim, who she'd given her life to save. They'd be reuniting with Omilaena now, and hopefully the three of them could find a way to save Deadwaste. If they didn't, she wasn't sure who could. How strange that they, who had been so much of a headache, were now their only hope.

  But Sheiri didn't think about them for long. A few memories of home slipped through her mind, then she focused on her blood and she thought of steel.