Chapter 589: The Nation Destroyers

  After that initial impact of meeting, Kai had come to know his enemy. He and the nation-destroying monster clashed over the Frontier again, their blows making the ground tremble.

  The monster was heavily tainted, so it resisted his spiritual sight, but he'd come to think of it as a Deepclaw. Its body shape was roughly similar to a mole, but that was where the similarities ended: the beast had at least a dozen arms around its body ending in sharp claws. They could either hug close to the body as armor or claw forward to help it dig through the ground. Fighting it at melee range would be a nightmare, especially since it tried to grasp anything near and pull it into one of several mouths.

  It didn't have any particular special abilities, but it was tough and it hit like a mountain. Kai needed to focus not just on beating it, but on preventing it from reaching the Frontier wall or any major battle, since the collateral damage from their battle could easily wipe out defenders. Fortunately, the monster wasn't smart enough to exploit this, it just wanted to eat him.

  Which, he had to admit, was fair, since his plan was to eat it.

  When Kai and the monster struck one another, they both rocked backward. The thing was incredibly strong even by his standards: if he hadn't moved in Direboar's Strength alongside all his other supporting essence, it would have overwhelmed him. Even with that, it recovered from their clash with surprising speed, reaching for him with multiple claws.

  But, before they threw themselves at one another, Kai had prepared a Tyrant's Claw. He held back until this moment, even though it hurt him in the clash, to unleash the technique against his opponent at point blank range.

  The Deepclaw was thrown backward, one of its claws severed, and it smashed into the ground. He'd successfully knocked it back before, but it had always dug its way into the ground to attack him from a new angle. This time, Kai was ready.

  Before the monster could get up, Kai fixed it in place with Void Gaze. He reeled a moment later, surprised by the monster's resistance. The Deepclaw wasn't just physically strong, it had the spiritual pressure and distortion resistance of the worst monsters - he didn't think that a cultivator could have fought it effectively and it would have shrugged off presence techniques.

  Kai, however, had been testing Void Gaze against strong opponents for a long time. He still bound the monster in place and he managed to walk closer, one step at a time. So far, he'd been battering it with blunt, cutting, and piercing attacks, managing to cause injuries but never actually cripple it.

  Now he stared at the Deepclaw, especially the little eyes tucked under the front claws. Frozen in its current position, those eyes weren't shielded. Kai got closer and saw hunger flash in those eyes: the Deepclaw put out even more resistance, trying to lock him in place.

  Too late. It had stopped him from walking closer, but he could still make spines grow from his shoulders. He made sure they were intense, then launched two Manticore Spines from his body. They pierced deep into the monster's eyes and it spasmed backward in pain.

  He needed to drop back too, rubbing his aching eyes. The Deepclaw had definitely taken the worse of that exchange, though, having lost its vision. It thrashed blindly, practically causing an earthquake that proved that it still had plenty of raw power... but without the ability to apply that strength, it might have lost the battle.

  Just in case it had vibration-based senses, Kai hovered into the air, then began attacking from a distance. He launched Tyrant's Claws from one side, then flashed to the other and shot a Manticore's Spine into its undefended flank. Little by little, he would cut the monster down, then he could feast.

  It stopped trying to lash out and huddled up, closing the heavily armored hands over its weakest points. Kai had to admit, that was a good defensive tactic, and he couldn't afford to waste a lot of time when there were thousands of monsters across the continent. After landing some more blows from random angles, he leapt overhead and, completely silently, shot straight down for a finishing blow.

  Somehow the Deepclaw twisted and it was too late to dodge. Pain shot through Kai's entire body and he smashed across the wasteland, creating several craters before he came to a halt.

  When he pushed himself upright, he saw the Deepclaw charging... and it was staring at him with both eyes. Its face was covered in blood, but the eyes had regenerated. If the monster had healing abilities, no wonder it hadn't gone down despite all its wounds.

  Fuck. Kai took a deep breath and threw himself back into the battle.

  .

  ..

  .

  Anoqa Hiryla had survived one incursion, so she had thought she was prepared for another. Learning that she was wrong, especially as the mammoth beast thundered to crush her, was a colder sensation than she had expected.

  What she hadn't understood was that the previous incursion had been extremely well-managed in Irun. She had heard there was chaos in Krysal, and some issues in Goralia, but her home nation had followed its policy and weakened the hordes in phases. By the time she needed to do her part, the hordes had been thinned, the strongest defeated, and everything prepared for her and other young hunters to defend Irun.

  And so, even though she was far stronger than she had been seven years ago, Anoqa felt even weaker. There had been so many fast or armored monsters, ones that could evade or break out of her ice techniques. They could be injured by Irunian steel, but often if they got that close, they began taking out defenders.

  All of those battles led her here, standing in the shadow of a nightmare. It was an enormous squat thing, vaguely like a flippered toad except that the front of its body was composed almost entirely of a maw of ringed teeth. Some had been damaged, but far more of them had been covered in the blood of those it had consumed.

  "Buy time!" one of the commanders shouted from the fort behind her. "We'll contact the elites!"

  It didn't matter. The monster was going to trample the defenders and those jaws could probably eat the fortress whole. At best they could warn the others as it carved a path of destruction through Irun.

  Despite that, Anoqa automatically drew herself up to attack. She knew, without question, that she couldn't stop this thing, but she might be able to slow it down.

  The first thing she did was draw on her Goralian Class, producing the sharpest icicles she could and driving them down into the monster's flippers. She didn't even draw blood, and she saw fragments of ice already on it - a more powerful ice user than her had tried and failed to slow it down, so what chance did she have?

  But meanwhile, Anoqa channeled power into her spear. It was made of good Irunian steel by her superiors, and she occasionally used it to channel ice. Now she instead imparted as much mana as she could into it, forming a spear of ice around the metal, hoping that it would be enough.

  Only a few lumbering steps before the monster crushed her, if it didn't devour her whole. Anoqa let out a cry and hurled her spear.

  The monster's beady eyes along the sides of its maw had a moment to look surprised before her spear plunged into them. It didn't pierce far, but at least she saw blood. For a moment Anoqa thought it had only caused an injury... then the monster groaned and slumped to the side.

  "You did it!" One of the commanders was shouting at her, but Anoqa only stood in shock. The monster had outranked her by so much, surely it couldn't have such a weak point...

  Then something twitched inside the beast's corpse. Everyone turned and cried out, fearing that it was returning to life. Instead, something moved underneath its skin, growing stronger, then pierced out the side.

  Hit by shock after shock, Anoqa didn't think she could be surprised again, yet she was: the side of the monster had been pierced by a hand with immaculately done nails.

  That hand, covered in slime and gore, tore open a wider hole and then a woman emerged from the wound. She was so covered in the monster's viscera that it took Anoqa a moment to recognize Omilaena, the foreign woman who had revolutionized so much of Irun. When she climbed to her feet and leaned back, dangling a knife in one hand and a huge monster core in the other, she looked more like a savage goddess than the elegant woman of her reputation.

  "Any more like that?" Omilaena asked. It took Anoqa a moment to realize that the question was directed at her.

  "Umm, no," she answered. "That was the strongest on the Irunian front, as far as I know."

  "Well, good, because I don't have another one of those in me." Omilaena groaned and sat down on the side of the corpse - she'd dropped her knife, but she was still holding the monster core for some reason. "Listen, I need to rest a while. Can you put me in contact with Tusquo?"

  "Tusquo is at the wall. I don't have a way t-"

  "Fuck, we went further than I thought." Omilaena grimaced as she stared over the horizon. "Alright, then just tell your commander to contact Quinta or whoever is closest. This is getting serious."

  Chapter 590: Neverending Battle

  How many hours had it been? How many blows had they traded? Kai had been fighting the Deepclaw all across the Frontier, crushing many lesser monsters in the battle, and he wasn't sure whether or not they were at a stalemate.

  Their strength was about equally matched, but he was a lot more mobile and could always take to the air for a new angle. Now that he'd grown used to its thrashing movements, he could avoid any devastating hits and get the upper hand. But the Deepclaw was better at moving underground than he was, so it could retreat and punish him if he tried to follow.

  It couldn't continue like this. Or rather, it could, and every hour it did Kai wasn't able to help the others in their critical battles all across the Frontier. Yet so far, his attempts to break the balance and finish off the Deepclaw had only dealt temporary injuries at best.

  When it emerged again, claws gripping the earth to leap at him, Kai plunged straight down. Attacking the front, where it could deploy so many of its claws, was usually an error. But it had a small mouth of jagged teeth that he hadn't tried to target yet.

  When he collided with the Deepclaw, it immediately slashed at him, drawing several more lines of blood. Kai winced, unable to simply shrug off the blows, but he'd been prepared to take that damage. Instead of striking back, he put as much as he could into Void Gaze.

  That froze the Deepclaw, its claws halting around his body. The technique was getting less effective and its eyes burned angrily at him.

  But it lasted long enough: Kai exhaled Baleful Breath directly into the monster's mouth.

  He kept going, filling it with flames and darkness. The Deepclaw let out a screech as it burned from within and managed to break free of Void Gaze, striking him across the face and sending him tumbling. Kai had almost grown used to smashing against the ground and managed to skid to a halt, wisps of fire still escaping his mouth, as he looked to see the results.

  At first he thought that the Deepclaw had finally gone still, and smoke wafted from the body. But even as he limped toward it, the Deepclaw began to twitch, then pulled itself upright.

  Not enough. Not yet.

  .

  ..

  .

  Zae Zin Nim was pulling the head off a monster when she realized that the sun had gone down.

  She wasn't sure how long ago sunset had been, actually. Ever since she had reached Earth Soul, her cultivation had given her extraordinary senses, and her Pure Yin Shroud enhanced her body in many ways. So fighting in the dark was no difficulty for her, and the slow change in light had gone unnoticed.

  To buy herself a little time, Zae Zin Nim hurled the head and body in separate directions, knocking down more of the monsters. She noted that the stars had come out, hard and bright overhead. How many others were still fighting with her? There weren't very many fires along the wall anymore, and she remembered there being a lot more earlier in the day.

  Based on her sense of the souls, she didn't think that the defenders had been overrun. Presumably they required rest and even sleep, and she had to admit she couldn't fault them: even Zae Zin Nim had been worn down by the endless hordes.

  Only in the very beginning of the incursion had she unleashed her full power like she was fighting a short battle between cultivators. After that, she had switched to more cautious attacks, focusing primarily on the more dangerous monsters who the defenders couldn't defeat. There was a mix of acid cultivators, weak crystalliers, and ex-slaves on the wall, so they could handle a few, but they regularly needed her help.

  Then, with her reserves ebbing, Zae Zin Nim had waded in physically, which was what she was doing now. Even if her qi was limited, the Blackblood Physique combined with her Pure Yin Shroud made her extremely physically strong. She could take apart monsters like these with her bare hands, and did so.

  By now the monsters had recovered from her blows, which put them at mid-range, which was her strongest. She stepped in toward the first two who approached her, connecting with parallel palm strikes that sent both backwards as dead projectiles. Another monster leapt from the side and she spun underneath it, slapping the side of its head with one sleeve hard enough to kill. Others closed in from behind and she continued her turn, pushing off one head to throw her palms into more monsters.

  Whenever possible, she still fought with grace and dignity, avoiding the beasts throwing themselves at her. They were unlikely to actually harm her, but she didn't want them to damage her clothing. Kai might look very impressive coming out of a pile of monsters half-naked... the effect would not be the same with her.

  Perhaps she could have saved a little energy by moving less gracefully, but Zae Zin Nim stuck with her training and the patterns she had repeated most often. Besides, her body didn't feel weary at all, the exhaustion was solely her energy reserves. She thought she could fight this way for a very long time indeed.

  Not forever, however. Normally she could turn amid a mob of such weak monsters without taking a blow, but a crab-like creature attacked from behind, its claw clamping down around her waist.

  Zae Zin Nim stared at it in surprise: the claw couldn't harm her, but she had actually been taken off guard. That could only be explained by mental fatigue, from hours of continually controlling the melee around her.

  There were monsters rushing toward her now that her arms were bound, but they only rushed to their deaths. She pushed out her arms, breaking the crab monster's claws, and kicked in the chest of the first dog-like creature attacking her. The others died to her whirlwind of blows, which was really just buying her space to look around more properly.

  Soon enough Zae Zin Nim found what she had feared: in her fatigue, she had missed a larger monster that was now crawling up the side of the wall. The defenders who weren't asleep could hold off some, but this creature was moderately large, a toad-like beast that unleashed flames from its mouth to harass the defenders. This was a case acquiring her assistance.

  Given the problem of attrition, however, she couldn't simply annihilate it with raw power. As she returned to the wall, Zae Zin Nim considered an alternate strategy that would let her resolve things with minimal energy loss... the solution turned out to be surprisingly straightforward.

  When she charged the monstrous toad, it saw her and prepared to unleash another flame. Zae Zin Nim ran directly into it, forming a Coldfire Corona around her. Bursting directly through her attack let her reach the monster and finish it off with a single palm strike instead of engaging in a longer fight that would waste time and stamina.

  Her strike not only connected, it made the monster explode in a shower of fiery goop. She was extremely grateful that her Coldfire Corona protected her from this as well.

  Some of the Krysali defenders said things to her, but they weren't telling her about anything important or asking for help, so she barely acknowledged them. Truthfully, she did not like this part of the defense, always working alone near strangers. Combat along with her spouses could be enjoyable, but this quickly became an exhausting chore.

  A chore that, if left undone, could kill everyone who mattered in Krysal.

  When light appeared on the horizon, Zae Zin Nim stared at it for a time, trying to figure out what sort of attack it was, before she realized that it was the sun. She had fought until dawn. As she looked over the battlefield, she saw piles of bodies... most of them monsters, and the wall still intact behind her. That was victory, wasn't it?

  Of course, there were hundreds of sections of wall just like this, so her victory alone was insufficient. But the elites had said that they basically never succeeded in the defense of a portion, instead needing to retreat as the incursion continued. She had not only held a reconstructed section, she had drawn a disproportionate number of monsters toward her and eliminated them, drawing pressure off everyone else.

  There was something flying toward her, and again, it took her a little time to realize that it was a Krysali ship instead of some strange spiky monster. Who was that in the ship? An armored Krysali, though she recognized the armor's style as Aeglien of Torleen, and Yurwa behind him. Odd combination.

  "You've done well," Aeglien said as the ship hovered down beside her. He hurled a crystal shard to finish off a nearby monster, but there was little left to fight. "We didn't think you could hold the center."

  "What now?" Zae Zin Nim asked. She could still fight, but her head was oddly thick and talking sounded wrong.

  "I'm afraid we need to retreat. You held... but the other two damaged sections didn't. There are concentrated hordes pouring into Krysal to the north and south."

  She stared at her section of the wall, blinking slowly, trying to make her mind engage. "If we go," Zae Zin Nim said, "the monsters will break through here, too."

  "That's an acceptable loss," Aeglien explained. "The rebuilt sections didn't hold well against even fairly average monsters, so they aren't worth anything we can't rebuild later."

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  "Mm. I will stay and keep fighting."

  "Zae Zin Nim, please." It was Yurwa this time, as she moved to the edge of the ship to implore her. "You've been fighting for too long, you need to rest."

  "I..." She wanted her spouses, but Zae Zin Nim realized that the other woman was correct. The longer she went on like this, the less use she was to anyone, especially if a real monster showed up. "What... happens now?"

  "The evacuation bought us time," Aeglien explained as he offered a hand to pull her into the ship. "We have some squadrons and even elites in the abandoned cities, using them as fortresses to thin out the hordes. Your defense also means the central horde will be delayed, compared to the northern and southern ones."

  "And?" Zae Zin Nim meant to sit beside Yurwa and ended up leaning against the other woman, struggling with an odd heaviness in her eyelids.

  "We'll defend the other city-states as necessary. But to do that, we need you at your best..."

  He trailed off as he realized that Zae Zin Nim was falling asleep.

  Chapter 591: Brute Tactics

  Another clash, another smashing blow, another tumble over the wastelands.

  Fighting against the Deepclaw for so long had put Kai into a strange fugue state where he was more thoughtful than he would have expected. As if all the blood and brute force faded away into consideration. This battle, with all its blows and injuries, was ultimately an equation.

  The damage had taken its toll, leaving him with aches and pains that Behemoth's Heart couldn't keep up with. He was definitely exhausted, in a completely different way than just fighting normal monsters at length. His left leg was injured enough that he couldn't run properly, but flight would drain his reserves further, so he had to choose his movements carefully.

  In the process he'd also severely injured the Deepclaw, but that was the reason he couldn't retreat and had to keep pushing himself: given time, it would regenerate and all his progress would be undone. Even though he guessed that his recovery speed was faster, he wasn't willing to gamble that a rest would benefit him more, especially because the Deepclaw might try to evade him by tunneling deep.

  But what else could he do to finish things? He was getting tired and running out of tricks. Even after so long in his fugue state, Kai hadn't come up with new ideas.

  Again, their bodies smashed against one another, Kai's claws digging deep even as the Deepclaw raked his side. They both staggered back, the Deepclaw filled with endless hatred while Kai merely pondered what could be done.

  Raw power was a difficult force to overcome, a lesson he'd learned from many cultivators. Strategy had given him the upper hand up to this point, but perhaps he was reaching the limits of the advantages it could give him. He wasn't obviously stronger than the Deepclaw... but he was smarter and more flexible. If he could buy time...

  The battle was too intense for him to change his monstrous essence, which he had developed in order to fight the general incursion. Given just a little time, Kai thought he might be able to come up with a solution, but those paths were blocked to him so long as the fight persisted like this.

  Without warning, a silvery whip lashed out at the Deepclaw's side. Kai stared at it, his tunnel vision breaking as he realized that there was someone else here: Sheiri had arrived and was trying to help. Unfortunately, even her whip only dealt a shallow injury to the monster's tough hide. This was the sort of nation destroyer that the elites would need to band together in order to defeat.

  Still, her arrival bought him some time. The Deepclaw shifted uncertainly, trying to decide which opponent to attack, so Sheiri looked over at him.

  "I can try to help," she said, "but I don't know that I can do much good."

  "Don't try to kill the Deepclaw," Kai told her, "just keep it fighting. Can you do that?"

  Sheiri grimaced, which was answer enough. They were about to find out.

  Kai leapt at the Deepclaw for one more clash, managing to strike its side with his claws while it was distracted. He knocked it back and pushed off, leaping to a distance to let Sheiri move in with her whip. Hopefully that would hold it.

  As he bent down to focus on his monstrous essence, Kai kept one eye on the battle. Sheiri could use her whip to great effect, but the Deepclaw was immensely strong and shrugged off the wounds. Worse, it seemed to be trying to grasp her whip every time it struck. He wanted to call out a warning, but would have to trust that a veteran like Sheiri could handle herself.

  In fact, it was a mistake to be watching the battle instead of focusing on his own. Kai began to shift the monstrous essence within him, drawing forth abilities for a new strategy.

  What he needed to do was pierce to the core, dealing damage that it couldn't recover from. The heart of that strategy would be Isulfr's Bite, which had always been good at piercing through defenses. Kai kept all of his supporting essence, since that would be critical for meeting its raw force, but added Bloodtail's Armor to deal with its counter-attacks.

  That used five of his essence slots... was it fine to keep other abilities? Void Gaze or Baleful Breath might help, but Kai judged that he'd gotten the most benefit he could out of those. Instead he opted for an alternative strategy: Monstrous Tail would surprise the Deepclaw and counter more of its blows, giving him time to strike.

  For the last slot, Kai abruptly reached for the old Silver Demon essence, which he hadn't effectively used since killing Anaelina. He'd grown more used to using essence from people, and something about it felt right. Demons drained the power of their enemies, and that was exactly what he hoped to do. Adding this to his other abilities might help him pierce the Deepclaw's twisted essence.

  So he'd chosen his seven abilities:

  <

  Isulfr's Bite - X (kappa)

  Direboar's Strength - XV (omicron)

  Bloodtail's Armor - III (gamma)

  Behemoth's Heart - XII (mu)

  Thunderbird's Wings - XI (lambda)

  Silver Demon - II (beta)

  Monstrous Tail - III (gamma)

  >

  This was an unusual combination, optimized for a single purpose. If this didn't work, or they were attacked by other hordes, he was going to have to use some unusual strategies.

  But he was out of time: it looked as though Sheiri was struggling just to keep the Deepclaw from pinning her down. Kai growled and let himself begin to change, falling into the savagery...

  .

  ..

  .

  Sheiri Kagskan had mixed feelings about the word "elite". It felt pretentious to call yourself that, but the terminology was too firmly ingrained across the Frontier to be brushed aside. Within the actual organization, they tended to avoid terms altogether: they were just people doing a job.

  Beyond that, she was keenly aware of her own limitations, compared to both the others and the threat they faced, so she didn't feel personally elite. Irunian steel was effective at dealing damage even where other methods failed, but was too weak on its own for her to take part in some of the most dangerous operations. Even after developing her Windborn abilities, enabling her to get her steel into position more easily, she still felt like a second rate Irunian and a second rate Windborn instead of a proper hybrid.

  Her recent transformation had changed all that, and as she cut through monsters, Sheiri felt as though she truly deserved to be a member of the organization protecting the Frontier. At least until she ran into this one.

  The monster Kai Clanless had called the Deepclaw was durable and unbelievably strong, reminding her of just how dangerous nation-destroyers could be. Her whip blows, which had carved through so many other monsters, felt like splashing water against a rock. The brute force was the worst: it had only managed to catch her with one shockwave, not a direct blow, but even that had caused an injury. If not for her remade Physique, she might have been taken down.

  Ordinarily she would have needed to take this on with numerous other elites, desperately putting their lives on the line in order to stop a threat that could wreck the continent. This time, she did it solely to buy time. In theory, if they could trust in Kai, recovery time could let him handle it himself.

  Eventually the Deepclaw managed to grasp her whip, but Sheiri let the metal dissolve into shards that bit into the monster's body. She reformed the whip at her side and the Deepclaw roared, likely more in anger than in pain. It had been planning to grasp her whip and pull her in for a finishing blow.

  Now that it knew that wouldn't work... she wasn't sure what she was going to try next. There was a limit to how many times she could keep reforming her whip.

  A second growl, much lower, emanated from behind her. Even though she had been expecting it, Sheiri still flinched, turning to see another monster. Kai launched himself past her, no longer human, covered in dark plates that made him a suit of armor from a nightmare.

  When he collided with the Deepclaw, the shockwave knocked Sheiri back a pace. That was better than she could have done, but it didn't seem like Kai had the upper hand any more than before. Was he counting on her to join in? They were both maintaining a consistent speed phase, and though she could match it, she wasn't confident she could land a blow while the two monstrous bodies struck at one another.

  The sound of teeth snapping together cut through the chaos of the battle.

  Sheiri's eyes widened as she saw a huge portion of the Deepclaw disappear, leaving bite marks as if some monstrous mouth had carved through its flesh. Kai's head was distorted, but she could see definite signs of chewing. He drew back his head again, preparing for another bite...

  Of course the Deepclaw, which had somehow survived such a large bite being taken out of it, retaliated. It stretched all of those disturbing hands, aiming to slash at Kai from all sides. But something extended from his back, a long tail of armored plates ending in a wicked spike, and began lashing around him. Tail and claw clashed, neutralizing one another and letting Kai take another bite.

  This one went deeper, taking out part of the Deepclaw's head. Even that didn't stop the creature, and it thrashed with greater strength, but Sheiri realized that the fight was over. Kai had gained the upper hand now, finally overcoming his opponent's regeneration. Now, with every bite, he was increasing his advantage.

  And so he chewed his way into the nation-destroyer, bite by gruesome bite, and Sheiri only watched.

  In the beginning, there had been many who were antagonistic toward Kai, and some were still uncertain. There was the blunt fact that his soul looked like a human veneer over a monster, which was unsettling after years fighting against incursions. Others feared that he had been corrupted by the other continents, or accepted the rest but feared that tampering with such powers would ultimately lead to him losing control and becoming another monster.

  For a moment, watching one monster tearing into another, Sheiri had to admit that she could understand those fears. But as the Deepclaw finally went still, and Kai climbed out of the body, he sat down against the side.

  Even in that monstrous form, the posture of weariness was so recognizable that she couldn't see him as anything but human. This man, basically a child compared to so many elites, was one of them. He had crossed the world and seen the riches of other continents, yet he'd come back to help them. When faced with a monster that was his equal in strength, he had fought it for hours on end in order to fulfill their common mission.

  Instead of fear, Sheiri began to feel that they had their own nation-destroyer on their side now. She walked closer, still cautious in case the Deepclaw had some strength left, but its power seemed to be gone... now, its power had been consumed by Kai. That made the final decision for her.

  "Are you alright?" she asked.

  "Bit tired," he said. Kai hadn't reverted to human form and his voice was still unnaturally deep, but he lay back against the body wearily. "Are there more?"

  "Nation-destroyer tier monsters? I hope not, but I'm out of touch. I've been fighting on this front too." Sheiri touched the crystal on her belt to begin making contact, then focused on him. "For answers about the incursion overall, you'll need to talk to an organizer."

  "What next? I need a minute, but I can keep fighting."

  "And we're grateful for that, but I think it's time for us to thank you."

  Kai's eyes opened slightly, and they glowed in a not quite human way.

  "The initial flood is almost over," Sheiri told him with a smile. "Let's go investigate the central abyss before it ends."

  Chapter 592: Facing the Abyss Again

  With the battle against the Deepclaw over, Kai found himself strangely off balance. It was the next morning, somehow, and the incursion had been officially started for over a day. His mind was constantly seeing the Deepclaw under the ground or trying to come up with more strategies even though the fight was over.

  And it was over: he could feel the new essence within him. Simple but immensely powerful. He'd have to do something with it... once he had the presence of mind to use it properly.

  Fortunately, his disorientation wasn't harming anything, because for the first time since the start of the incursion, he wasn't urgently needed. What he needed to do most now was to recover so that he could be useful, and they needed to wait for a teleporter anyway. Sheiri was handling the details, and he was more grateful for that than for the role she'd played buying him time.

  Despite all his distractions, Kai had shifted back to the combination of essences he'd planned for the incursion. If things did go wrong, he'd be prepared.

  Even though he had yet to get the overall picture of the incursion, he felt reasonably positive. The elites he'd spoken to seemed to imply that they had come through relatively well, for the first day. Now they needed to deal with the surviving monsters, both individual strong ones and hordes. His sense for the timing of the incursion was distorted because he'd started so much earlier than normal, fighting with the elites at the Frontier instead of only seeing the horde that reached Monskon City, long after the true start.

  When he felt Gunjin arrive, first he checked for the Deepclaw teleporting, then ignored it... then realized that he was ignoring the person he was waiting for.

  "What's the situation?" Kai asked, leaping to his feet.

  "Take it easy," Gunjin told him. "You took a nation-destroyer out on your own, so don't push yourself."

  "So long as I'm not fighting, I'm recovering. What's the current situation?"

  "We can lay it out for you." Sheiri stepped up beside him in order to create her liquid metal map of the continent, but otherwise it seemed like she intended to support what Gunjin said. They had apparently talked about her proposal to go to the center before teleporting over, and that interested him as soon as he checked up on everyone.

  "This incursion has seen average numbers of hordes, but unusual activity among stronger monsters." As Gunjin spoke, the liquid metal map shifted to show representations of the monsters spreading out from the center across the Frontier. "We've seen higher numbers of strong ones, especially city destroyers, but there have been a total of three nation destroyers. That would normally be an apocalyptic result, the type that only appear as disasters in the records."

  Those three appeared as skulls on the map, in the south, east, and northwest. Based on the location, Kai recognized the southern one as the Deepclaw, which he'd taken out. That left two others, threatening Irun and potentially the border between the Elemental Nations and Krysal.

  "Omilaena took out the one in Irun," Gunjin explained. "She's in recovery now and stated that she intends to catch up with you for some reason. Your experiment at the abyss will have to come first due to limited resources."

  "And what about the last one?" Kai asked.

  "We took it on conventionally with a group of elites. Thanks to you three handling such large areas, and the Elemental Nations border being in good shape, we had more elites than usual. Three taken out of action due to heavy wounds, but no actual losses."

  "So... does that mean we've eliminated the biggest threats? The incursion is actually going well?"

  "It would be premature to declare victory, especially because of the holes in the wall." Gunjin grimaced and gestured to Sheiri, who made multiple points of the Frontier wall collapse. "As expected, our repaired walls weren't nearly as durable as the originals. The only one to survive was the Goralian wall that was only damaged, but all the others had new holes blown in the repaired sections."

  "The Irunian one is the most bitter loss," Sheiri put in. "Your wife went to great effort to stop the nation-destroyer from hitting the wall, but it only protected it for a few hours. While she was fighting it, normal monsters eventually took down the wall anyway."

  "Though with considerable losses. Irun is under control... the same cannot be said for Krysal. With three holes, the monsters are forming three massive hordes. As we recover and regroup, that will be our primary focus. We can't let the Krysali disaster spill over into Goralia, and the Elemental Nations can only send so much support."

  As he looked over the map, Kai knew that was an oversimplification. With so much area and so many monsters, there would be almost endless problems remaining. The behemoth he had fought last time, which could have destroyed Monskon City, would barely have rated on a continent-wide map like this.

  But that was why he had put so much work into building up the Frontier nations. He and the elites needed to focus on the biggest problems and trust that the others could save themselves. It sounded like, despite the surprises and damaged walls, the first day had been a success: they had blunted the hordes and spread them out.

  "How likely are more monsters to emerge?" Kai asked. "Major threats, I mean."

  "That varies year by year," Gunjin said, glancing toward the center instinctively. "Minor monsters are still crawling out of the pit, and we need our resources elsewhere. Normally, we would expect a few more city destroyers that we have to deal with in the aftermath. But it could get worse if people throw more energy at the center, as you intend to do."

  "I know there's a risk, but I've been waiting: I think this is the time to take that risk. You yourself said we can't win with the status quo, and part of overcoming that means understanding what we're facing. This might be the only time we can learn more about the incursions."

  Gunjin raised his hands as if in surrender. "I was only stating the risk, not arguing. We intend to go as soon as everyone is ready."

  That didn't take long - apparently they were only waiting for another elite to arrive and Gunjin to recover. He didn't intend to get anywhere near the abyss, so he was handing them off to another teleporter. While they waited, Kai considered his monstrous essence again, wondering if any of his skills would be relevant.

  It was possible that they'd trigger a response and he'd have to fight something like the Starvation Wraith again. Just in case, Kai returned Famished World to his soul. He thought they needed to take the risk, but if it did cause problems, he'd take care of them himself.

  Hopefully. Though Behemoth's Heart made normal movement comfortable, his deep reserves had absolutely not been replenished.

  The other elite to join them proved to be Plinkesa - he hadn't seen the lamia in a long time. She slithered closer, greeting Sheiri with a wave, and focused on him. "Hey there, Kai! I wish I could have seen your fight, but I was busy with the other nation destroyer."

  "Sounds like you had a hard time too," Kai said. "You have anything like this on Rosemount?"

  "No, not at all. Everyone thinks Deadwaste is weak, but the monsters that come out at the incursion... they're pretty bad. It's strange, because I'd say it feels like the incursion weakens everything else. Those are just my impressions, though, and Gunjin thinks I'm mistaken."

  It turned out that Plinkesa had her own curiosities about the pit, so she had volunteered to join his little trip to the center. Sheiri was sticking around, which meant it was the three of them plus the teleporter, a quiet Windborn woman who was speaking with Gunjin. Once they were done, she swept them all up in a wave of mana-rich wind and they arrived in the center.

  Immediately Kai felt the hunger surging within him, stronger than it had been since the battle of the gods last incursion. The abyss felt active in a way he couldn't explain. Just another reason they needed to go investigate, as far as he was concerned. There were monsters crawling out, but in far lower numbers, so Kai consumed them with Legion Bite as he walked forward.

  "Last time I was here, people looking into the pit died," he explained as they walked.

  "So you're telling us 'hey, go look'?" Plinkesa said with a chuckle.

  "Those were untrained civilians, so I'm just telling you to be cautious. When I looked in, I couldn't see anything. Whatever was going on, one of those strange alien beings thought it was interesting enough to investigate, so I think it's worth our time."

  They had walked closer to the edge now, drawing more attention from the monsters. Sheiri lashed out with her whip occasionally, and Plinkesa could toss monsters with a flip of her tail, but none of them really needed to act against monsters like these. Taking action was just a good way to relieve tension as they approached the unknown.

  When they reached the edge of the pit, Kai moved ahead of the others and looked down. Once more, he saw nothing but the gaping emptiness falling into darkness. Even though he'd explored deep into it, the circle of darkness remained a disturbing mystery to him... enough. Kai used a Tyrant's Claw to clear away all the nearby monsters and gestured to the others.

  "Alright, take a look."

  Sheiri and Plinkesa moved forward, looked down... and began to scream.

  Kai stared for a moment, helpless: whatever was happening to them felt disturbing to his senses, as if they were being assaulted on a soul-deep level. They didn't melt immediately like the civilians he had seen before, but he knew they were dying. Had he just brought two elites to pointless deaths?

  No, he couldn't allow it: acting on monstrous instincts, Kai unleashed Famished World around himself, trying to seize control of the area. As his power wrapped around the elites, he pulled them back from the edge of the abyss. They all staggered away and the tainted distortion of the world seemed to quiver and fade.

  Thankfully the two were both alive, though Sheiri was gasping on her knees and Plinkesa coiled herself limply. When they had the strength, they moved further away from the edge.

  "That was... a threat I've never felt before." Sheiri clutched the front of her robes, gripping her heart. "Like I was being... unmade. I've been here so many times, it's never... it was like it was radiating death... no, anti-life..."

  "I think there's something down there." Plinkesa glared toward the pit suspiciously. "It's not chakra, qi, or mana... it felt a lot more like a monster. But not an actual monster. I don't even know how to say it..."

  "Wait, you felt something?" Kai asked. "Something deeper?"

  "I'm surprised you didn't. Aren't you attuned to monsters?"

  "I don't... wait here and keep the others off. Let me look again."

  When he shifted to the edge, uncertain despite everything, Kai still saw only an empty pit. Other than an intensified distortion of the world, he didn't sense any of the anti-life that Sheiri had spoken about. Then again, given his monstrous nature, that was to be expected. It wasn't crazy to think that there was some sort of monstrous power causing the incursion that threatened others but wouldn't harm him.

  Instead he crouched and tried to seek lower, following what Plinkesa had said. His first instinct was to seek out monsters, by smell or by hunger, which turned up nothing. Well, if the effect was based on the soul, it might be more subtle... Kai tried to set aside all preconceived notions and just seek for anything...

  Then he felt it: a throbbing core of nothingness.

  The intensity of it, hidden until that moment, took his breath away. It reminded him of the fleshy core that he'd eaten deep within the pit, which was somehow tied to the monsters. He couldn't explain how he drew that connection, it just felt similar, except this one was a spiritual entity. Even if he flew all the way down, he didn't think there would be anything he could grasp. Kai considered going down anyway, in case he could end the incursion by destroying it, and decided that wasn't worth the risk when the incursion was already threatening so many.

  After they didn't uncover anything else, they retreated from the pit. Few other monsters were incited to attack, so the experiment seemed to have been harmless, even if they didn't get results. As they retreated, wiping out the new monsters, the others seemed a little disappointed.

  Kai wasn't so dissatisfied. It seemed obvious that there was a power here, something that emerged during incursions. Maybe it took seven years to build up and spilled over in an incursion, or maybe it was just connected to whatever third phenomenon caused the monster hordes. But it seemed likely to him that the power manifested at different strengths every incursion, following Gunjin's patterns.

  And so, seven years ago, it had manifested so intensely that it drew the attention of beings from incomprehensibly far away. They had been fighting over who would seize that power, and when the incursion ended, they had no more reason to fight.

  He didn't have proof, yet Kai felt certain he was on the right track. For the first time he had something like an answer about the event that had broken his world.

  Of course, it only lead to more questions. Why was there an abyss here and why did such things exist in the first place? He could theorize that the smaller pit on Rosemount was the same "technology" and that it wasn't large enough to cause devastating incursions or draw outside attention. But who would create such things? This incursion obviously wasn't worth their attention, but would all those greater powers return if there was another intense one?

  "We'll keep an eye on it from a distance," Plinkesa told him. "We need to do that anyway, in case other big monsters come through. But I'll also pay attention to... whatever it was. Maybe we can learn something after all."

  "I don't regret the experiment," Sheiri said, "but we can't take more time away. The Frontier nations need our help. Are you good to fight, Kai?"

  "Not quite," he said, and he began to smile as his mind shifted back to the broader war. "But I have an idea."