Dalen stood with Leo and Melisia just behind the order’s forward guard as their final day of travel to the Fractured Path came to an end. Honestly, the area they arrived at looked much the same as the rest of the dense forest they had been traveling through for the last several days. But it was clear that the elders understood where they were.

Each of them had become suddenly on edge once they arrived and they carefully scanned the area.

Dalen leaned over his horse towards Melisia, “What’s going on? Is this the place?”

Melisia looked weary but she nodded, “I think so, I haven’t used the fractured path since I was a child but something about this place feels familiar.”

Dalen couldn’t feel anything different but that could be his crappy perception’s fault. Elder Jaliete moved from the gathering of elders and turned back to the assembled order, “We have arrived. In a moment the other elders and I will reveal the crossing and will inspect the path before we decide upon our journey’s next step,” she then focused on Melisia, “Melisia your assistance would be appreciated.”

Surprised at the request, Dalen turned to Melisia who nodded and started making her way to the gathered elders. Dalen wasn’t about to miss out on this part so he followed after her with Leo just behind.

The elders appeared to be standing in solemn silence but the moment Dalen got within ten feet of them he could suddenly hear a quite heated discussion, “Bloody silencing arrays, I really need a way to detect those,” he thought to himself before focusing on what was being said.

“What in pitts do you mean cloudy?! I thought your perception skill was better than that,” Elder Hedrik the white-haired elder said, eyeing Elder Jaliete.

“As I have said many times before Elder Hedrik, my ability to sense the fractured paths is due to my mana affinities and studies. Not a skill,” her tone was neutral but still piercing, “You are also quite aware that inspecting the fractured paths has always been a difficult endeavor, hence why it is fortunate that Melisia has returned to us.”

As one every elder turned to face Melisia. Dalen was sure he would have at least cringed if he was under such scrutiny but Melisia took it in her stride, stepping forward, “I assume you wish me to use my perception skill once you have revealed the crossing?”

“That is correct, your Discern the Astral Threads skill is quite well suited for this task, it is what you would have been tasked with if you had not left the order.” Elder Jaliete replied, obviously not able to help but bring up Melisia leaving the order.

It was painfully obvious to Dalen that there was tension between the two women. Dalen didn’t really see why though. Melisia had been the one to find the monster, chosen one, or whatever they wanted Kal to be for them.

Dalen, Melisia, and Leo had spoken of what they had learned about the factions moving within the order and they were still mostly split into two boats from Dalen’s understanding. Those who wanted to bring Kal back and worship him and or be led by him. The others were far more on the cautious side, if he is a monster why not leave him wherever he is? That was definitely the most sane position but unhelpful to Dalen’s plans if he wanted to get Kal back.

What worried him was that Melisia hadn’t been able to tell him what side Elder Jaliete was on. She was obviously trying to gather the order in one place so they could try and bring Kal back but at the same time, she showed almost none of the reverence the others who wanted the same showed.

“Fine but I need more information on how the fractured path works. I can sense that something strange is in this place but I see nothing.”

“That is reasonable. Accessing the fractured path is not as simple as stepping through a door, it is also only possible to truly enter a crossing under specific circumstances. Luckily this crossing requires only timing and the will to find it. Once the crossing is open you will quickly understand what you are to do.”

Melisia nodded, “What did you mean by cloudy? I heard you say it as I arrived.”

“It is a matter of my affinities. I can perceive traces of space mana leaking from the crossing but they appear cloudy as if they contain multiple mana affinities that I am unable to perceive,” Elder Jaliete replied.

Dalen’s eyebrows rose at that, he didn’t know a whole lot about mana affinities except for those that had been intertwined with his alchemical ingredients and essences but he knew space mana was powerful and stupidly dangerous.

“Is that cause for concern?” Melisia asked.

“Not on its own, I have experienced similar situations, and most other times it was simply due to elementals finding their way into the crossing.”

“Wait, so you're saying there could be bloody elementals inside?“Dalen didn’t like the sound of that at all, the last thing he wanted was to get blasted by some fire elemental the moment they stepped foot into the crossing, however, that was supposed to happen.

Elder Jaliete raised an eyebrow, “It’s possible but we are more than capable enough to deal with them if the need arises. Now, let us not waste any more time,” she gestured to one of the other elders who disabled the silencing array and announced to the rest of the order, “Prepare yourselves!”

Dalen had no idea what to expect but he placed a firm hand on his bomb pouch ready to start throwing if any happened.

Elder Jaliete turned and looked up into the sky just in time to see the subtle color change as the sun met the horizon. Then something changed, the slight wind and hustle of nearby grass, bushes, and leaves vanished, leaving only the sound of the anxious breathing and the snorts of horses. Then everything became suddenly pale as the color was sapped from their surroundings, the orange sky of the setting sun became a featureless gray, all of the clouds gone as if they were never there.

Then the world shuttered the forest around them twisted as if part of a whirlpool and the horses and many of the order’s younger members went mad with terror, openly beginning to scream in panic. Dalen was forced to let go of his bomb pouch so he could hang onto the pommel of his saddle or be thrown by his horse’s surprising strength.

The ground dropped beneath them slightly, as even the ground began to twist around them before they landed on smooth black stone. Disoriented and queasy from the experience Dalen struggled to regain control of his mount and pay attention to what was happening. But it was harder than he would have liked and without looking he could hear the rest of the animals had gone just as crazy as his but just as Dalen was about to lose his fight with his horse a voice sounded in his mind.

“Calm, we are safe…”

A sudden calm fell over Dalen and apparently, his horse as it immediately stopped trying to throw him into the next forest. The feeling vanished just as quickly and a sudden anger rose up in his chest when he realized what had just happened. He turned to face Jaliete but before spoke he noticed his surroundings.

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The forest was completely gone, replaced with a strange disorientating mist that seemed to make his eyes slide off of it as he tried to look through it but what stood out, dominating the area was a huge black monolith that reached hundreds of feet into the sky surrounded by a huge paved circle that they now stood on.

Behind the giant monolith was a large building made from the very same black stone. It reminded Dalen immediately of one of the entrances to the Seven Towers. Huge columns marked the entrance to the building. It was an impressive sight but even as he looked at it he found it hard to fully take it in, it was like looking at the world from the bottom of a pond during the rain.

Dalen turned to see Leo was in a similar state of confusion and disorientation but when he turned to Melisia he saw that her eyes were glowing pale blue and the expression on her face made his hair stand on end.

----------------------------------------

Kal’s latest marathon of garghound slaughter’s only saving grace was the tight tunnels it took place in. Keeping his wrath high was incredibly easy even after the numbers of the horde had thinned, each swing of his sword imbued with Edge of Malice easily slew enough to maintain Wrath Incarnate. He was mainly forced to channel wrath into the second core in the first few minutes of a fight when he had few injuries to heal and Wrath Incarnate was at its cheapest.

Two days of near-constant fighting brought him back to the first intersection he had come across where he fell into the butcher’s flesh maze. Finding his way back was easy enough, he just needed to follow the demons. They came from only one direction, no doubt having tracked him from his original entrance.

Despite his ability to start each engagement aggressively and not waste time avoiding certain kills in case, he went over his limit, the last two days had been tough. He was in a constant battle to maintain his health and stamina just like last time. It wasn’t a wrath issue, it was a time issue. He never got a break longer than a minute and the sheer number of nobles in the tunnels was enough to wear him down slowly.

Kal was getting suspicious. He hadn’t seen a single royal guard since this series of battles had started. The royal guard variant was definitely the most powerful and intelligent garghound he had seen, the one he had fought recently was smart enough to flee when it wasn’t sure it could get the kill. It was literally the only demon that had done that since he had ascended.

They had to be planning something and at this rate, Kal would be exhausted by the time he climbed out of the tunnels, and with his luck he would be climbing directly into a trap. At least he had managed to level up twice over the two days since he was killing so many demons with levels close to his.

He hadn’t noticed any issues with his will yet so he hadn’t spent any of his free points. Kal didn’t want to waste them if he didn’t have to. Hopefully, if he managed to get out of the trial he could hunt down whoever this Vorayx demon was and kill it. Kal was well aware he was probably being reckless especially since the butcher had warned him against it. But he wasn’t going to listen to the butcher when it came to his life, Kal was going to side with his soul this time.

Kalum Lesta

Status

Class:

Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]

Level:

52

Race:

Human?

Health:

1322/2490

Stamina:

892/5480

Wrath:

5421

Attributes

Strength:

504

Agility:

247

Endurance:

548

Vitality:

249

Intellect:

198

Perception:

235

Will:

566

Wisdom:

362

Available:

28

Titles

Ascendant, Core Bane, Core Smith, Defier of Dhinir, Planeswalker, Planar Appetite, Slayer of the Strong, Endurance Elite, Strength Elite, Will Elite, Demon Slayer, Paragon of Man, Planar Binding I, Soul Seer

Skills

Soul Forge [Rare], Wrathful Regeneration [Uncommon], Wrath Incarnate [Uncommon], Abyssal Consumption [Rare], Flames of Wrath[Uncommon] [Soul Forged], Slayer’s Intent [Rare] [Soul Forged], Slayer’s Apathy [Rare] [Soul Forged], Edge of Malice [Common] [Soul Forged]

Race

Birthright: Confined

Warning: You are attempting to form a second core within a shell already containing a core. If the second core is complete, shells below tier 5 will not survive the process unless the first core has been removed.

Anomalous Class Detected….

Normally such actions would be prevented but due to your Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous] class this action will not be overridden.

Error due to presence of a unique resource and the manual forging of a tier 1 core you must provide the necessary resources:

Wrath provided: 14002/256760

Every time he looked at his status the warning about his second core appeared, apparently either his status or the system didn’t appreciate his dodgy insurance policy but for now, it was working.

He couldn’t be too blase about how much he fed the second core since he would probably explode if he didn’t break his first core in time but he still had plenty to go before he was close enough to worry about it.

The hordes had stopped coming for now so Kal took a moment and sat down amongst the most recent bunch of dead demons. His stamina slowly ticked back upwards and he burned about half of his wrath to heal the majority of his wounds the cheap way, leaving his body covered in scars.

The sound of claws scraping on stone got Kal back to his feet and looked down the tunnels connected to the intersection and down each of them three large pairs of burning red eyes stared back.

[Garghound Royal Guard | Abyssal Spawn 63]

[Garghound Royal Guard | Abyssal Spawn 61]

[Garghound Royal Guard | Abyssal Spawn 60]

Kal sighed, “Maybe I should have climbed out of the hole first…”