I breathed in, steadying myself, then I cut downward, swinging my arm with qi enhanced force.

My blade didn’t even chip the wood of the door. I grunted as a shock reverberated through my arm at the impact. The tip of my sword rested against the flat wood paneling of the door, failing entirely to cut through it.

I grunted and stepped back. The sound of the distant waterfall was practically the only noise in the dead-city in the valley carved into the mountain.

The monsters and animals in the forest didn’t approach here. I frowned at the thought. It was… odd. There hadn’t been signs of combat or struggle or nests — in fact, there hadn’t even been much rubble here, like someone was still taking care of the city.

Littlebird chirped on my shoulder. I cast a paranoid glance backwards.

There was nothing there. Just an empty city, faded with time, every last piece of wood long since rotten away.

I channeled the Sword-Form of the Anti-Lightning Herald. Black lightning danced along my blade.

I swung again. My force was amplified far beyond the norms, the technique shaped in my arms driving the blade faster than any mortal could.

The force made my arms groan as I impacted the door again. I thought I failed to penetrate, but I noticed the tip of the sword just barely bit into the wood. Then the qi in my arms started to drain away.

I gasped as the lightning drained away from my sword and into the door in an arcing flash, but it wasn’t done. Qi continued to drain out of my core until my reserved plummeted to only 50%.

The door’s lock clicked, and it swung open.

I staggered forward. It felt like someone had poured ice-water into my meridians after the raw amount of void qi that had flowed through them.

The doors motion immediately kicked up dust. I hacked up dust, stopping at the entry way to recover. A long, thin hallway stretched out before me. Bars of light illuminated dust, piercing through the killing-slits built into the stone walls.

The air had a desolate aura. This was a place long forgotten; a place no one had touched in centuries. And it was just a memory of it; a place the titan had neared, never entering.

The hallway was separated by hanging doors. My eyes struggled to adjust, the rays of light blinding. I squinted, stepping into the hall. Each room was large enough for a bed. There was even a stone shelf that looked big enough to have fit one at some point. Now there was nothing more than a pile of dust.

I nearly tripped at the pile of rubble on the floor, my heart jumping when I saw the human face staring back at me. Littlebird chirped in alarm.

But it was made of stone.

“It’s just a statue.” I said calmingly. Then its eyes glowed, moving to lock with mine. Its mouth moved with the sound of grinding stone.

Its head was separated from its body, its neck shattered into pieces on the ground. Most of its body were in pieces.

[Degraded Archer Golem]

[Enchanted by the Anti-Light Order with an artificial spirit, this golem is nonfunctional, but remains conscious]

Conscious? They left a conscious construct here? I crouched low, looking at the golem. It wasn’t being driven by a formation, but by spirit enchanting — a rare field. I touched my hand to the stone face. It was cold.

The golem tried to snap its teeth at me, but it was unable to move its head. Its facial expression became crazed.

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Then the door to the next sealed chamber of the little fortress kicked open. The stone golem from the next room flashed through it, slamming me up and into the wall. I grunted, the air leaving my lungs and it held me up.

Littlebird chirped and flew off of me, heading toward the entrance. It stood in the doorway, chirping as if offended on my behalf.

[Degraded Defensive Golem]

[Enchanted by the Anti-Light Order with an artificial spirit. This golem is barely functional.]

My feet dangled from the ground. A second golem behind it raised a cracked, stone bow toward me.

Black lightning spilled across my blade as I reversed it and drove it down into the back of the enchanted golem. Its grip slipped, causing me to slide down the wall. There was a twang as an arrow fired.

Dust and stone bounced off my face. I blinked, trying to see in the dark. An arrow of black so deep it stood out from the darkness of the room loomed inches from me, pierced through the chest of the Defensive Golem that had attacked me. A crack spread through its body. Its left arm fell off.

It was weaker now, no longer pinning me, but I remained under it, using it as temporary cover for the archer. The moment I pushed it off, I would need to cross the room and try to kill the archer before it fired again. Its arrows were made of qi; I had no idea how long it took to gather one.

It could be gathering one now.

I shaped my movement technique before kicking the golem atop me backwards. Its body fell to two pieces, turning the crack that spread through its chest into a full split.

I kicked it backwards, the strike enhanced with qi, and the golem stumbled away. I dashed forward. [Danger Sense] activated, and I threw myself to the side.

Half way across the room, the golem I kicked broke into pieces, revealing the archer behind it.

A black arrow gathered on its bow string, the edges of it burning with green smoke. It ablated against the world itself, then loosed.

The wall exploded behind me, showering dust on my back as I flew forward, stabbing the sword up and into the archers head. It pierced through the stone with ease.

A fist rocked my face and I staggered backward, my sword ripped out of my hand. It was still embedded in the golem’s face.

The golem lifted its bow with one hand. A new arrow gathered on it. With its other hand, it ripped my own sword out of its face, staring at me as half of its head crumbled away. Its one remaining eye glowed.

I shaped the [Void Fist,] and dove forward, ducking before it even swung the sword. My punch landed on the raised arm of the golem, black lines spreading out across its surface as my qi bucketed away, again.

The golem exploded into dust. I grabbed my sword before it fell to the ground, then pressed myself low, back to the wall, and waited.

There was no noise. Dust and dirt choked the air in the tiny room. I panted until my breath recovered.

Littlebird walked up, jumping up on top of the body one of the golems. Then it cried out victoriously, pecking at the still glowing eye of the archer golem.

I shook my head, but continued down the hall. I checked each room carefully. Each one was designed for an archer golem to sit inside of. Broken and inert golems littered each and every one. Some of them were so degraded they were little more than piles of rubble on the ground.

The hallway built into the stone of the mountain curved until it opened into a wider chamber. There was a shut door, but light from outside poured in the grate in it. From the inside, I was able to simply pull the door open. A giant, circular room awaited me on the other side of the door.

There was a thin, short figure standing with their back to me in the center of it. Their robes were a deep black, like they were just a shadow.

[Identify Failed]

My heart thrummed in my chest with excitement. This was exactly what I was looking for. The last time [Identify] had failed, it was a Powerwell — a spark of Anti-Light that awarded me levels just for touching it.

Before walking out, I dragged a golem’s head to the door and used it as a prop to keep it open. The golem’s eyes followed me all the while.

With my sword at the ready, I stepped into a circular antechamber. It was built out of huge bricks of white stone, exposed to the open air by a metal grate that surrounded it. I could see the main road of the valley city within.

The entire fortress had pointed inward to this point, like it was designed to hold something here, rather than to hold people out of the city. The only way in was through the reinforced doors through the fortress.

Dozens of golems were collapsed around the walls, little more than piles of rubble.

It looked like a cage.

I approached the shilouette with a slow, deliberate caution, taking every step slowly. As I neared it, I realized that it didn’t have its back turned to me — it was like a three dimensional shadow. A hologram. The qi from the city’s formations was all being directed here. As I got closer, it warped the very air, the power so intense that a headache was building behind my eyes.

Then the silhouette snapped into form. A woman’s face stared at me. She had bags under her eyes from stress or a lack of sleep; her hair was a frayed mess. It black and frizzy, strands popping loose of her hairtie. Her robes were stained. A voice rang out, soft and melodious, but the woman’s mouth didn’t move.

[Anti-Light Herald detected. Formation activated. Begin Playback?]

[Y\N]

Her eyes locked onto mine.