Xeolze surged forward, not wanting to waste this window of opportunity when Tenyz's concentration was distracted. His pitch-black armor seemed to swallow the ambient twilight of the Inner Continent as he pushed his physical speed to its zenith. He became a streak of living shadow, slipping cleanly through the momentary gap in the young master's fractured golden domain.
Tenyz's eyes snapped wide. The threads of fate suddenly screamed a warning into his consciousness, but his physical body, still reeling from the shock of the Elyrian princess drawing his blood, was a fraction of a second too late to raise his elegant sword in defense.
SLASH!
Xeolze's twin daggers bit deeply into Tenyz's shoulders and arms. The dark, light-absorbing blades bypassed the Yiphraen's natural defenses, ripping through flesh and muscle. Bright, golden-tinged blood erupted from the wounds, spraying across the empty air as the shadow guard ripped his blades free with a twist of his wrists.
"You bastards!" Tenyz shrieked, his voice cracking with excruciating pain.
He kicked off the invisible floor of the sky, retreating backward through the air. He clutched his bleeding arms, his chest heaving as he stared at the red and golden blood staining his robes. The fear that had been paralyzing his heart, the dread that these winged slaves were the heralds of that terrifying, ancient monster, evaporated instantly, replaced by a blinding, venomous realization.
"If they were truly backed by that ancient entity, they wouldn't need to fight me like this!" Tenyz thought, his mind snapping back into place as he glared at Mariska and Xeolze. "That monster could have erased this entire spire with a single thought. No supreme existence would waste their time like this! The Elyrians are alone. This is exactly like that arrogant prince all over again!"
The realization washed away his panic, fueling a rage that burned away the pain in his shoulders. He sneered, a twisted, ugly expression that marred his features.
"You actually made me doubt myself for a second," Tenyz spat, "You actually made me think you pathetic livestock had found a god to hide behind. But you are nothing. You are just broken birds throwing yourselves against a storm."
He extended his bleeding arms, ignoring the pain as his golden domain flared with renewed intensity. The ninety percent authority of an Astral Stage sovereign pressed down upon the cityscape once more.
"Did you truly think you could bleed me and simply fly away?" Tenyz sneered, his eyes locking onto Mariska, who was hovering unsteadily in the air, her breathing ragged from the recoil of her own desperate attack. "There is no sky wide enough to hide you. There is no sanctuary deep enough to protect you. I am going to tear your wings off one by one, and I will make you watch as I drain this shadow guard's blood to feed my hounds!"
Immediately, a towering pillar of golden essence erupted from Tenyz's body, piercing the artificial sky like a beacon. It was a clear, unmistakable summons.
Within seconds, the ambient mana across the Inner Continents rippled violently. From four distinct directions surrounding the massive golden spire, four brilliant streaks of light shot up into the sky. They crossed the distance with terrifying velocity, folding space in their wake, until they hovered in the air surrounding Mariska and Xeolze.
The pressure in the atmosphere quadrupled.
Mariska and Xeolze looked at the newly emerged figures, their hearts sinking as despair washed over them.
The four individuals were clad in the ornate, violet robes of the Ethereal Providence Sect. Their auras expanded effortlessly, merging with one another in perfect harmony. Both Mariska and Xeolze could easily identify them; they were Astral Stage elders of the Major Sect.
"Catch the princess," Tenyz commanded, his tone brokering no argument as he raised his slim sword and pointed the bloodstained tip directly at Xeolze. "I will deal with this one."
"Understood, Young Master," one of the elders replied smoothly, his eyes already tracking Mariska with the dispassionate gaze of a butcher evaluating a piece of meat.
The battlefield split in an instant.
Tenyz blurred into motion, his golden domain surging forward to completely isolate Xeolze. The shadow guard immediately raised his twin daggers, his aura flaring as he relied on his first-stage consciousness mastery to anchor his mind against Tenyz's oppressive willforce.
But a strong mind alone could not completely bridge the gap of overwhelming technique.
"Let us see how long your little shadow dances can keep you alive!" Tenyz mocked.
Tenyz's eyes glowed with blinding light as he stared into the immediate future. Xeolze shifted into the void, attempting to strike from Tenyz's blind spot, but the Yiphraen simply tilted his head, bringing his sword up to perfectly parry the unseen strike before Xeolze even materialized.
CLANG!
Xeolze gritted his teeth as the impact rattled his bones. He disengaged, spinning into a rapid flurry of feints and thrusts, attempting to overload Tenyz's perception with sheer speed and volume. But it was entirely futile. Every feint was ignored; every genuine strike was met with a parry or a punishing counter-slash.
On the other side of the battlefield, the situation was far more desperate.
The four Astral Stage elders descended upon Mariska like a pack of starving wolves. Unlike Xeolze, Mariska had not reached the Chime of Consciousness. Her mind, though awakened to the Astral Stage, lacked the dense, refined fortification of true mastery. The four elders were in the same position regarding consciousness, but they didn't need mental supremacy to break her. They had overwhelming numbers, and they wielded their Fate-dominant divine concept.
The four elders expanded their golden domains simultaneously. The sheer weight of four overlapping Astral Stage domains, each fueled by ultimate-tier divine concepts, pressed down on Mariska from all sides. Her own Ultimate-tier divine concept groaned under the suffocating suppression. Her ninety percent authority was immediately fractured, contested, and drowned by the combined will of her enemies.
"Surrender, little bird," one of the elders mocked, casually sidestepping a spatial tear Mariska had desperately conjured. "Your struggles only waste good blood."
Mariska screamed in defiance, her magnificent wings flaring as she pushed her divine concept to its limit. She attempted to fold the space around her, initiating a localized teleportation to break out of their encirclement.
But the elders were already moving. They also possessed the same precognitive authority technique as Tenyz. With that, before Mariska could even fully manifest her exit point, two of the elders were already waiting there.
As she materialized, a heavy boot slammed directly into her chest, shattering her ribs.
Mariska coughed up a spray of vibrant blood, her body tumbling uncontrollably through the air. Before she could right herself, a second elder appeared above her, bringing the hilt of his weapon down in a crushing blow against her right wing. The sickening sound of snapping bone echoed in the sky.
Her divine concept immediately surged, emerald energy wrapping around her fractured ribs and broken wing, desperately attempting to knit the bone and tissue back together. But the elders did not give her the time to heal.
They struck in perfect synchronization. They read her defensive adjustments before she made them, dismantling her guard with precision. A blade slashed across her back; a concussive blast of golden essence struck her knees. She fought with the ferocity of a cornered sovereign, unleashing spatial distortions that tore at their robes, but it was like fighting the tide.
Severely wounded, her healing factor outpaced by the sheer volume of damage she was taking, Mariska's vision blurred. A final, devastating strike to her back sent her plummeting toward the cityscape below.
She crashed heavily onto the surface of a wide plaza within the Inner Continent, the impact cratering the pavement.
Before she could even attempt to push herself up from the rubble, one of the elders descended from the sky. He landed directly beside her and casually placed his heavy boot down on the center of her back, pinning her broken wings to the ground.
"A spirited attempt," the elder sneered, applying just enough pressure to make her gasp in pain. "But ultimately, pointless."
High above, Tenyz casually deflected another desperate strike from Xeolze. He glanced downward, taking in the sight of the Elyrian princess pinned to the plaza floor. A cruel, triumphant laugh escaped his lips as he swung his slim sword, forcing Xeolze to retreat with a shallow cut across his cheek.
"Look down," Tenyz laughed, gesturing lazily with his free hand. "Your dear princess is caught. Just surrender silently, or she'll die right now!"
Xeolze hovered in the air, his chest heaving and dripping with blood. He glanced down at Mariska, his heart twisting with grief, before his gaze snapped back to Tenyz.
"Don't take me for a fool." Xeolze spat, his voice laced with pure venom. "I know you Yiphraen bastards too well!"
Tenyz's mocking smile vanished, replaced by a twitch of irritation. The defiance of livestock always grated on his nerves.
He gripped his sword with both hands, his golden domain contracting tightly around his blade as he prepared to unleash a powerful strike, pushing his speed and precognition to their maximum.
But at that exact moment—
High above the artificial twilight of the Providence Hub, far beyond the towering golden spires and the lavish estates of the Inner Continents, the sky itself seemed to shatter.
From the direction of the Outer Commercial Continents, something tore through the atmosphere like a meteor crashing into a fragile world, leaving a burning trail of distorted space and shrieking wind in its wake.
The elder who was stepping upon Mariska's back paused, the arrogant smirk freezing on his face. He turned his head upward, his eyes widening as the screaming projectile closed the distance in a fraction of a second.
BOOM!
The impact was deafening. The elder standing over Mariska was thrown backward, his golden domain flickering erratically as he tumbled through the air.
Dust, shattered stone, and torn metal billowed into the sky like a localized storm.
High above, Tenyz abruptly halted his attack on Xeolze. He spun around, his eyes locking onto the massive crater that had just formed in the center of the plaza below. The other three Astral Stage elders also ceased their descent, hovering in the air with their weapons raised, their expressions tight with sudden, inexplicable dread.
As the dense cloud of dust began to settle, the source of the impact was revealed.
Embedded deep into the cracked, ruined center of the plaza was a simple energy sword. It was forged entirely of a mesmerizing white-grey essence that pulsed with a calm, indifferent rhythm.
The moment their eyes fell upon the embedded blade, Tenyz and the four Astral Stage elders felt something that was completely unexplainable.
Their ultimate-tier divine concept, forged from the agonizing fusion of high-tier divine concepts, polished and refined over millions of years, began to tremble. The golden light of their domains flickered and dimmed, shivering in the presence of the white-grey radiance.
"What... what is this?" one of the elders whispered, his voice shaking as he involuntarily took a step back in the air.
Suddenly, the ambient mana in the plaza stilled.
The dust cleared completely, revealing a figure in white-grey robes who had not been there a second before. He stood floating gracefully just inches above the hilt of the embedded white-grey sword, his hands resting behind his back.