Will was a bit late to the party, having had to dodge the pursuit of several thousand Peace sigil-holders who had suddenly lost their primary leader.

Caiyeri: You left us with your entire mess to clean up, you dick.

Will: My bad. It’ll be good practice, right? You get a relatively safe space to practice your gold-rank upgrades in.

Caiyeri: Stop trying to make it sound like you’re doing us a service. Sending however many thousand silvers and golds after one group? Back on Arcadia, we could call that a war. Or an execution, I suppose.

Will: Oh, come on. Arcadia had no idea what they were doing. You solo right now versus your entire nation one year ago? I know who I’d have my money on.

Caiyeri: True.

Will: Your nation, of course. They wouldn’t have complained as much about having to kill a whole bunch of humans.

Caiyeri: Fuck you too. See you in a few hours?

Will: If nothing goes wrong, an hour. Since something is definitely going to go wrong, let’s call it three. Good hunting.

Caiyeri: To you as well.

Well, he was fortunate to be able to foster all of his problems off to a very capable group of… friends? Friends sounded like the wrong word for alliances that had been forged through blood and battle, but “brothers-in-arms” sounded like it belonged in a period movie and “comrade” made him imagine his parents telling him off for invoking communism.

He hadn’t thought of his parents in some time. With his knowledge of the multiverse expanded as it was now, he imagined they were working in some labor camp in a planet far away alongside the rest of Earth.

Ayla had been in something like that once, though Will was pretty certain hers had been punitive labor, not voluntary.

There was still so much he didn’t know about the worlds, so many injustices and universe-wide problems that needed to be corrected.

None of that was going to matter if he didn’t survive the next few months, which wouldn’t happen if he remained a silver. Will focused on that fact, setting aside his nebulous worries for the future in favor of a concrete goal.

Fan Laozi’s venue of choice was atop the palm of one of his titans. It was transparently a power play, even if said hand was able to create a pretty neat meeting room from a rather unique viewpoint. The palm was larger than Will’s dorm had been in college, decorated by a traditional-looking tea table. Someone had even set out a fresh pot and cups on the table, though only one person was partaking.

As Will glided to a stop at the tip of the palm, he saw that there was already an argument ongoing. Nathan was standing with an unconscious and handcuffed Xie-ren at his feet some distance away from the table, his arms raised in a position that Will knew meant he was ready .

He recognized Lu Jie from his previous encounters with the Portal Mage, standing next to a seat at the head of a table that looked suspiciously like a throne with its gilded frame and red cushions.

At that seat, chin resting on one hand while the other gently brought a teacup to his lips, was a man straight out of one of the Chinese TV dramas his mom had always loved—the ones where a bunch of long-haired masters of the sword fought each other and spat such pithy phrases as “you dare?” or “you court death!”

Fan Laozi. Gold 6 Titan Driver.

Leaderboard Rank: 4 (+1 in the last 24 hours)

He didn’t look much older than Will himself did, and his demeanor was calm, but Will instantly realized that he was more of a threat than many of the others he’d seen on the leaderboard.

They had last been in the same area during the first human summit, but Fan Laozi and Will had never actually met. Will had fought off a ton of Peace sigil-holders and decided to beeline it out of a summit that had proved itself useful for little other than beating down stupid assassination attempts just before the Chinese ranker had made it in.

Lu Jie’s attempt on his life and his blood grudge at the time had also made Will hesitant of approaching their faction to scope them out, but now he was actually getting an idea of who this Titan Driver was. With their auras both casually radiating out into the air around them, he instantly understood how this man had been almost single-handedly controlling two massive cities as far apart as Shanghai and Chengdu.

Fan Laozi exuded power in a way that few others did. That was nothing particularly worrying on its own—Will had faced plenty of abnormally strong people.

What worried him was that this abnormality was a very familiar one. Even restrained, this aura was concentrated and particularly sharp in the same way Will’s was.

He wasn’t the only one who had shattered his soul.

Will’s arrival alerted everyone at the meeting room, his Outcast title imbuing his aura with a particular malice that none of them could ignore. Nathan flinched as Will landed, half-forming a skill in his right hand before letting it dissipate.

“I’m never going to get used to that,” Nathan muttered.

Fan Laozi was the only one who didn’t noticeably react—well, unless you counted Xie-ren, who was still suffering the aftereffects of Wail of the Forgotten. Will was honestly impressed by how good the skill was at knocking someone out. He’d rarely left a target alive after using Wail of the Forgotten on them, so this had actually been his first time using it on a gold-ranker he wasn’t planning on immediately killing.

“Li,” the gold-ranker said simply, his aura serene but quietly threatening, infusing the area and preventing Will’s from overpowering them all. “It’s a pleasure to meet you properly.”

“I wish I could say the same,” Will said drily.

He opened a chat window to Nathan.

Will: I take it there’s been a problem?

Nathan: Yeah. I didn’t want to alarm you, but there’s a decent shot he doesn’t intend on me getting out of here alive.

Will: Why would I be alarmed? If I thought he had a real shot at killing you, I wouldn’t have had you come along.

Nathan: Appreciate the vote of confidence, but if I took that attitude towards every fight, I would’ve been six feet under a long time ago.

Will: Have you tried being better?

Nathan: Shut up.

“I appreciate you taking the pains to spend a portion of your power to support a defense that you did not need to,” Fan Laozi said. “The terror you inflict upon enemies is a thing of glory. I have been studying it.”

Will frowned at that, but refrained on immediately commenting.

Will: So what’s the issue?

Even if the gold-ranker’s aura strength was immense, he didn’t have quite the right amount of control over his soul to hide everything. Though he projected serenity, Will could sense burning, angry hatred underneath that exterior. That was a murderous kind of emotion.

As Nathan composed a response, Will answered Fan Laozi. “That’s a little creepy, dude. And not in the horror-monster all-your-friends-are-dead vibe I think you want. That’s just the kind of weird you get from a guy following you at night.”

Nathan: He’s not very fond of traitors. Or anyone who’s not his own, really.

The Titan Driver laughed, an unnatural sound from his throat. “True, that. I suppose the kind of terror you wield is only effective from a man of your talents. There are elements of your style that I seek to incorporate in my own, I must admit.”

Will: Okay. I’m going to try diplomacy first.

Nathan: That never works. Also, didn’t you come here to kill him anyway?

Will: I’m waiting for him to give me a reason to. Or a convincing enough one not to.

Nathan: Judge, jury, and executioner, huh? Who gave you that power?

Will: I did.

“I find that it’s harder to copy me than most people think,” Will said with his second favorite shit-eating smirk, patent pending—the first one was reserved for people and entities that were indisputably stronger than him, like gods and sponsors.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“I assure you, I know just how difficult imitating you is. Now, if you would excuse me for a second, I have a quick matter to tend to before I speak with you more.”

“Would said matter perhaps involve this fine young gentleman and this less fine, less young woman?” Will asked, pointing at Nathan and the still-stunned Xie-ren in succession.

“Perceptive,” Fan Laozi said, smiling in a way that bared his teeth more than it showed any sign of pleasure.

“Wow, seeing that smile really makes me wonder if I should be doing that whole arrogant smirk thing,” Will said. “That’s some real Hannibal Lecter shit you got going on there, man. Also, I’m with this guy, so… can’t really just let you deal with him, if you know what I mean.”

“He means trying to murder me,” Nathan added unhelpfully. “And I do mean try. You wouldn’t get very far.”

Will rolled his eyes. “Nathan, I have a thing going on here.”

“Do you think you invented being a smartass? You’re not the only unfunny defiant leaderboarder in town, you know.”

Fan Laozi laughed, though there was no humor in the sound. “You are an interesting one indeed, master Li. I have no quarrel with your friend. Though he is not of a good bloodline, he is powerful and an ally of yours. That is enough to let him live.”

Nathan: Isn’t that good enough?

Will: We already knew he was a blood purist kind of ethnic cleanser going into this.

Nathan: Surely that’s a trigger to attack him, isn’t it? Didn’t Han Solo shoot first? You’re, like, at least twice as evil as him.

Will: It feels like I get reminded that the world is in the process of fully ending every time I wake up. Let me have a moment of fun, will you?

Nathan: Fiiiiine. Just give me a signal when you decide to commit.

“I’m not even of a good bloodline,” Will said, frowning. “Assuming by ‘good’ you mean Han Chinese, that is, which I’m assuming is right because Nathan is whiter than the most flavorful bread he can handle.”

“What’s that even supposed to mean?” Nathan protested.

“Your parentage shows in your strength,” the Titan Driver said, his aura growing ever so slightly strained. “This is not the most important issue at the moment.”

“I dunno, seems important to me,” Will said. “Enough for you to found your nation on, at least.”

Fan Laozi’s aura shifted, and one of the other arms of the titan they stood on moved in accordance, an open palm aiming towards the hand they were standing on. Gold-rank mana began to gather at a cannon built within it.

“Maybe we can talk about family trees and racial fundamentalism later,” Will conceded. “Something bothering you?”

Fan Laozi was getting irked, but he was either hiding the extent of that well or he had strong control over his emotions, because his aura wasn’t shifting that badly.

“Blood is one thing,” the Titan Driver said. “Betrayal is another. This woman your friend brought me is a shame to the Han Chinese. She gave up our country for a false goddess.”

Will looked up to the sky at that, then huffed out a complaint when nothing happened. “Oh, come on. Am I the only person that warrants getting smited for shit-talking a god?”

To be honest, he couldn’t entirely fault that chain of logic. Especially given what Peace ended up doing to most of her sigil-holders, it was generally safer to just kill a Peace sigilholder. Will wouldn’t have been particularly happy if one of his allies had turned tail and switched sides either, though obviously he would have made an effort to turn them back before making a further decision.

When it came to Xie-ren, even Will was unsure of what to do. Nynn had helpfully provided suppression devices from his inventory, explaining that they were occasionally used by Dread Executors when simply killing everyone wouldn’t do. The ones Nathan had slapped on Xie-ren were gold-rank so as to not violate plausibility, so they would do the job in preventing her from attacking any of them, but Will couldn’t tell how much of her was still affected by her time under Peace. He wondered if Lu Jie would make any inroads on trying to deprogram her.

Well, whatever. That wasn’t his problem to deal with. Will’s motive here was to get Lu Jie on his side. The Portal Mage was no longer as high up on the leaderboard as he had been, but his skills were incredibly useful for utility and damage in a way that Will just couldn’t quite mention yet. While he could be a terror to people, he couldn’t demolish a city in the way that Lu Jie could with his constantly accelerating kinetic weapons.

“Master Laozi, please,” Lu Jie said, sounding more pathetic than Will had ever heard him. “She is no longer a threat to you. Xie-ren is all I have.”

“Quiet, old man,” the Titan Driver said serenely, his aura pulsing with a burst of rage that silenced the Portal Mage. “You were not asked to speak. Sister or no, she is a traitor. There is only one sentence for those.”

Will felt Lu Jie gather mana before he cast the spell. It was a strange sensation, having senses that strong. As Will slammed on Time in the Bottle, he realized that even at the trial of the champion, he wouldn’t have been able to do this. He had built upon his own power and hijacked others, and it had paid off.

Crimson lines flashed into focus. They were always there, of course, but Will had gotten good at ignoring them. When he let himself see them, they were angrier than they had once been. Their intensity was vastly greater than they once had been, and the lines of death had never looked more like blood.

Just like Will, Fan Laozi had also detected the skill activating. Even in the accelerated time, Will could sense the killing intent spreading from the other’s aura. He rarely got to see an aura like his own in action, and seeing it from the outside… yeah, he could see why so many people were terrified of him. Laozi’s aura was one of the few pieces of magic in the area that wasn’t criss-crossed with those lines of death, though they did start extending outwards when he started casting a skill.

Will didn’t need to be a genius to tell where that line was going. Magic speared straight outwards towards the charging outstretched titan hand.

To gain a better idea of what he was dealing with, Will activated his own Pages of the Past, expending extra mana to quickly cast it while his perception was accelerated.

Skill: [Mass Driver]

- Spell (enchantment on first cast, trigger on others).

- Cost: high mana + varying gold credits (enchant). Low mana (trigger).

- Cooldown: 1 hour (enchant). 5 minutes (trigger).

Gold

This is an evolved skill. Previous iterations: [Railgun], [Enhance Ranged Weapon].

In other civilizations, this skill can be substituted with technology. Humans never learned to fight among the stars, so you will make do with magic.

On the first cast, this spell creates an enchantment on a sufficiently large weapons platform, allowing it to initiate the active segments of this skill. Subsequent casts activate the weapon.

Upon activation, this skill fires up to 10 projectiles with a total mass not exceeding 1,000 kg at 10,000 meters per second.

That wasn’t the only skill he was using, of course. The other ones were less critical, though—those were the ones he was using to direct the bullets and minimize damage to his own titan.

No wonder the gold-ranker was willing to antagonize Lu Jie so directly. Will’s physics had rusted in favor of knowing how to properly take down boss monsters and dangerous Users with powers beyond human comprehension, but he was pretty sure that a thousand kilograms at ten kilometers a second—what was that, thirty-six thousand an hour? That kind of force could obliterate cities.

And he was using all of it to target three people.

Unfortunately for Laozi, who must have been keeping this as a trump card up his sleeve, Will had more sleeves and more cards.

Sure, he could have tried summoning Aza, but with an impact this large, the familiar was certain to expend all of its power, which Will preferred not to do if he could help it.

The platinum-rank demon his eye was containing ranked somewhere in the top three threats to the Earth-Arcadia conglomerate, and it wasn’t third. While that meant that Will had a terrifying responsibility and a frankly ridiculous duty to uphold, it also came with benefits.

[Visualize] (bronze) - You sense death. With this eye, you see the weakest points of an object or being.

Will focused his vision on a specific set of lines, feeling his way through the impenetrable wall that was Laozi’s aura.

[Envision] (gold) - You now also see the weakest points of a magical skill.

Using the Pages of the Past he’d activated, Will had a direction to follow, and he lasered in on the correct line. Magical lines had a different edge to them than physical ones did, and this one was strong.

[Sever] (platinum) - With sufficient force, hitting the weakest point of a magical skill will cut magical bonds.

This was a powerful skill, so he needed to respond in kind, but Will was well versed in delivering strong single hits.

One of Sen’s eyes was in the area, hunger phantasm already gathered on it, so Will shaped it into a weapon and swung out with Eclipse, the midnight-black sword he’d scammed out of the Lord of Loss.

Instead of teleporting to the weapon like he normally would have, he activated a subskill of Weapons Free he hadn’t used in a while.

[Warp Strike] (silver): When making an attack, you can use this skill to make your attack originate from any weapon within a 120 foot radius.

To take down a skill that accelerated matter, Will decided to use one that slowed it down.

[Eclipse] has spent the echo of [Henry]. Skill selected: [Absolute Zero].

The British Blizzard Arcanist had been a disappointing fight, but his skills had held great potential. In death, he accomplished more than he had throughout his entire killing spree in life.

As time accelerated back to normal, Will’s sword swung out at a seemingly random spot about two hundred feet from him. Around it, the air froze, and even normal onlookers saw a brief red flash accompanied by a burst of corruption. When Will cut skills, it was like the world itself was bleeding.

It wasn’t enough to fully nullify it, but it weakened it greatly, so when Will used Ravenous Feast through Sen, the creeping darkness was able to contest Laozi’s Mass Driver. Their souls clashed for a brief moment, but it wasn’t long enough for Will to get much of an impression of Laozi except that he was strong. The damage he’d done to the skill was too great, though, and it collapsed, the cannon faltering before it could shoot.

Lu Jie, now uninterrupted slipped into a portal, taking Xie-ren with him.

Lu Jie: You have my thanks.

“Can’t get it up?” Will asked Fan Laozi, smirking as he looked pointedly in the direction of the failed attack. “It’s okay. I’m sure there’s a doctor around here somewhere. They might be able to prescribe you something.”

“Fucking finally,” Nathan said. “You took long enough.”

He rocketed into the air, twin missiles ejecting from his armor as he did. The titan’s defenses kicked in on the missiles, defusing them with anti-magic and vaporizing them shortly after.

“This is a shame,” Fan Laozi said, watching Nathan fly. “I had hoped to speak with you for longer, but I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“You saw this coming, huh,” Will said.

“Yes. Your aura control isn’t perfect either, my friend.”

The Chinese gold-ranker’s aura pulsed out like the world’s largest heartbeat, and crushing pressure rained down on Will. Up in the sky, Nathan froze, his skills puttering to a stop.

Will yawned.

“What?” Fan Laozi asked, taken off guard for the first time.

“Not used to people fighting back?” Will asked. “Alright. Let’s run this. Hopefully you’ll show me a better fight than—“

Nynn: WATCH OUT.

#

Nynn saw it coming too late.

He kicked himself for missing it the microsecond his perception caught it. Even after months without the power he had once wielded, Nynn was still too used to having access to the entire breadth of options he’d held as a proper Dread Executor.

Still, his passive senses were beyond anyone in this world, so he did finally notice when an alien skill activated in the lower atmosphere.

He sent a message to its likely target immediately, then sped up his perception.

What options did he have? The Beyond had been lost to him, cut off by the very person he needed to save now. All of his other quick movement skills tied into it or his weapon, which had expended all of its power now.

The only remaining source of strength he could draw on… was life.

Nynn looked at his Dreadscythe, a shadow of what it had once been. As he stood there, his mind raced at a million galaxies a second, running through what had been, what was, and what could be.

He made a decision.

William Li-Brown cannot die today. No matter the cost.

And he moved.