We were all assembled in the main hangar bay of the Xing Long, kitted out in our legionnaires robes and armed with our weapons of choice for the mission that lay ahead.

As I stood at the head of the platoon, I could already feel the tingle of Dark Frenzy in the air. Or perhaps it was just my imagination, seeing as there was no atmosphere between us and the single planet that now lay in view dead ahead of us through the open hangar bay doors.

The Hell World of Fhae I’ung was finally within my sights.

We were facing it from the dark side, and while I could see no features on its surface, the planet was haloed by a fiery red aura that gave form to it, like a ring of fire in the blackness of space.

It was a sinister looking thing, like an eclipse of a Bloodmoon, but I knew what the planet was now eclipsing was something far worse than a moon. Somewhere at the center of this system, a Cursed Star was broiling the planet’s opposite side, filling it with horrors and nightmares from the Nine Planes of Hell.

Or so my imagination was filling in the gaps anyway.

Just the thought of it triggered the core of my Twin Dao and my Flame roared in anticipation of finally being able to do the bidding of its true master.

The Frenzied Flame itself.

It was a reminder that my power, as much as I needed to Struggle to advance it, was still a borrowed gift in the end. But today I was going to lay claim to it personally. I was going to pay my dues and give the Flame itself some long overdue payback.

I thought back to the aetherite crystal within the tower back at Du Gok Bhong and that spirit I had discovered inside it. Today I would make a difference in avenging all those lost souls. Even now, I felt as if I could sense [Everyone’s Pain] from across the stars.

“Listen in,” General Gong said as he arrived on deck, along with Captain Li Jeng and Governor Tai Su Long.

We all braced at attention and saluted.

“We have arrived at our destination,” he continued. “The preparations you have made at the Academy will finally be put to the test. I’ve ferried over a hundred Sorties to the Hell Worlds in my career and I can say with certainty that the strength you have demonstrated to me thus far, put you in a class far above any I’ve seen from the academy. But don’t let that go to your heads. I’ve never stepped on a Hell World and don’t intend to. Only you have an idea of what’s down there and what you need to do to survive. Your skiffs are prepared. I’ll turn it over now to Captain Li Jeng for the particulars of the drop.”

Li Jeng stepped forward and bowed. “I salute your bravery, one and all. Without your sacrifice, we would have no means to traverse the various realms of the empire. Our job is to get you down as safely as possible and return you home again. As you can see, we have approached Planet Fhae I’ung from the dark side. Even with the aetherite shielding of the Xing Long, we cannot endure direct exposure to the Cursed Star.

“The approach will not be dissimilar to what you experienced already during your assault on the planet Heu Zen. The Xing Long will make a sweeping pass by Fhae I’ung’s orbit, just long enough to deploy your skiff. You will need to deploy in your defense skiffs to provide protection on the way down. Tethered to the drop skiff, will be the cargo skiff that will be left with you on the surface. Our pilots cannot endure the rigors of the Hell World, as there is a Bloodmoon here as well of course. The cargo skiff will therefore be lowered by tether from four hundred feet above the surface. They will have no visibility from that high up and at night, so the protocol is run by timings.

“As soon as you reach the surface, it is paramount that you clear a landing zone for the cargo skiff and detach the tethers as quickly as possible. You will have fifteen minutes for this task. That is the maximum time our pilots can safely endure the Bloodmoon through the shielding of the skiff. After that time, they will have to depart. If the cargo skiff is still attached, it will be presumed that the entire team died on landing.”

That sent a shiver of fear to run through my platoon.

“In such an event, there will be no attempt at rescue. With a successful detethering, however, the drop skiff will return in 14 hours. The timing for tethering the cargo skiff will be even tighter as we will be facing the oncoming sunrise. Again, if there is no skiff at the end of the tether, the mission will be logged as having no survivors.”

More fear flowed throughout the team.

“But we need not worry about that,” Governor Tai Su Long cut in, smiling. “My brilliant nephew, and your Senior Commander, Jei Su Long, shall remain with the central command on board the Xing Long, as he should, but he will personally venture aboard the Drop skiff to oversee the tether windows and ensure Captain Li Jeng’s pilots do not depart a second earlier than they should.”

“That is right,” Jei Su Long said and then he looked at me. “It will be your job to keep them alive on the surface, Junior Commander, but it will be mine to ensure they come home.”

Ire built in my gut.

He was the last person I wanted overseeing anything.

“We’ll be sure to be on time,” I said, looking past Jei Su Long and to Captain Li Jeng, to ensure he knew exactly who was really in control of the process. “Your pilots will not have to risk any exposure from our tardiness. I guarantee it.”

“Very good,” Captain Li Jeng said. “The skiffs are prepared and the Xing Long is on final approach. Your deployment will be in five minutes.”

* * *

There wasn’t time to do much of anything besides prepare and pray.

As we packed into the skiff, I gave my men a final briefing with [Struggler’s Resolve].

“Remember,” I said. “We all passed an exam for this. The conditions are going to be like what we experienced before. Just another long night of killing demons and we’ll be back home as Full-fledged legionnaires before you know it. Stay together, watch each other’s backs and remember your training. We clear out any resistance first and then Dim Wei’s team will focus on mining as soon as possible. The faster we can get some aetherite into the cargo skiff, the sooner we can start using it as a base camp to give us a breather from the effects of the moon.”

“Yes, commander!” they all chimed.

I looked to the pilot next.

“We’re ready,” I said.

“My men are ready,” Jei Su Long instantly echoed me, speaking to the same pilot. “You may commence the drop.”

I stifled my eye-roll with [Indifference].

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

The skiff pitched and rolled as we were jettisoned from the Xing Long.

Thirty seconds later if felt as we’d slammed into a wall as the skiff hit the atmosphere of Fhae I’ung. Through my small viewport, I saw the fires of reentry flare around us and then a minute later they were gone.

The craft jostled and vibrated as we continued to fall. The pilot then pitched the nose of the skiff downward into a steep dive. The feeling of being out of control was unnerving, but my mind was focused on what we’d have to do as soon as the canopy peeled back.

“Thirty seconds!” the pilot said, and we all grabbed hold of the canoe-sized defense skiffs. I was again teamed with Juk Sui and Dim Wei. I cycled my Frenzy, preparing for what was to come.

“Good luck to you all,” Jei Su Long said. “Be certain to mine as much aetherite as possible. It’s what we are here for, remember. Its why prisoners like you are given a second chance.”

I was about to counteract his brilliant pep talk with something more positive, when the canopy suddenly rolled back and a hot wind hit us like the insides of a blast furnace. An acrid stench like ammonia burned my nostrils and we all coughed involuntarily.

Despite it all I gave the signal to deploy. “Go! Go!”

I leapt over the side with [Lightning Walk], Juk Sui and Dim Wei jumping with me.

We mounted the surfboard like skiff and as soon as we streaked across the red-hued sky, a force from above assaulted my Flame. Dark Frenzy, stronger than it had even been at Du Gok Bhong radiated from the planet-sized moon looming above us.

Instantly, I could see the strain on Juk Sui and Dim Wei’s faces as they cycled their Qi to put up a resistance. I did the same as with my Frenzy, saving my [Soul Shield] for when I might really need it later.

That alone was evidence of my internal growth.

Before, I would have to raise my [Soul Shield] to even have a chance at not turning into a Demon. But now, as a Sacred Soul Realm Cultivator, the density of my spiritual pressure alone was enough to push back against the Dark Frenzy just by cycling it.

But it wasn’t something I could keep up forever.

Especially when I had to start using my Frenzy to fight.

And fight we would from what I was seeing below us.

I almost couldn’t trust my eyes at first.

The landscape below us spanned endlessly like a vast desert, sand tinted red by the Bloodmoon. But when I looked closer, the sand was moving and I realized, just like I’d seen on the Hell Scape of the moon, the entire planet’s surface was covered in demons. Dotted in between the near endless sea of bodies, larger creatures towered over the others.

One of them looked like a demonic buddha, with eight arms and four faces on each side of its head. Dim Wei let out a little gasp as she saw it too, and I could sense her fear spike within her.

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But that wasn’t all.

I counted at least five enormous gates in our immediate vicinity alone.

The President had been right.

Whatever progress we had made here previously was now gone.

Shit… I thought. Making a landing zone wasn’t going to be easy now.

I pointed ahead for Dim Wei. “Head for that gate that’s furthest from the others. We’ll have to make a stand there.”

“You’re going to have us fight against a gate right away?” Juk Sui asked incredulously.

“It’s either that or fight all five of them,” I said as I engaged my [Soul Shield].

Immediately, I could see relief on their faces as my shield created a mini-barrier around us, protecting us from the Dark Frenzy.

“What is that?” Dim Wei said.

“It’s my core,” I explained as easily as I could. “I can make a small barrier of protection around me now. If you get battle weary from the effects of the Bloodmoon just fall back to me for a while.”

“Gods in heaven,” Juk Sui said. “No wonder you’re so damn confident. Okay! To destroying our first gate it is!”

As Dim Wei steered us towards the gate, I looked back to the flotilla of skiffs trailing behind us and pointed to our target, showing them the way. Just when I was about to look back ahead, something crashed violently into one of the skiffs.

It was moving so fast, I couldn’t tell what it was, other than it was nearly as big as the skiff itself. I looked in the direction it had come, and saw a sky filled with what looked like flying manta rays, with writhing tentacles in their mouths.

There had to be hundreds of them and when I looked further, they all seemed to be spilling out of the gate we were closing in on. Another skiff went down as one more of the monsters kamikazed into us.

I then looked upward to where the cargo skiff would be.

It’d be just a few hundred feet above us now, even though I couldn’t see it yet.

“Protect the cargo skiff!” I shouted. “If they destroy it we’re all getting left down here!”

The cultivators who were hit immediately went into aerial combat mode, using Qi techniques and hand to hand alike to cut into the near endless stream of rays. One of them flew at us and I sliced the air with a [Lightning Arc Strike] to send a shockwave of crackling energy into the mobs of creatures, killing over a dozen of them instantly.

They weren’t tough but they were numerous.

“We need to close that gate!” I said.

But we also needed to protect the skiffs, I realized.

“Ten Chui!” I called out to our best flyer. “Take command of half the platoon. I’ll take a small contingent down to make a hole in the enemy and take out the gate.”

“Yes sir!” he shouted back.

“Skiffs one through four with me!”

With that I gave Dim Wei the order to dive and when we drew close to the surface, the sea of demons came to life with snarls, hisses and screams. The Frenzy within my Dantian instantly began to flash evaporate as the eldritch nature of the beings triggered my cosmic fears of the unknown.

I recognized many of the creatures from the unearthly picture book my predecessor had created, but there were some I was seeing for the first time as well, like those manta rays for one. But there was no time to categorize anything right now.

All these things needed to die.

I leapt from the skiff, bolstering my body with all of my defenses and then crashed right into the midst of them with [Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls]. Demons shrieked and wailed as I cleared an area the size of a football field. But as soon as their brethren fell, the mass of the horde came pressing in.

It was just a few seconds, but it was enough time for Juk Sui and Dim Wei to join me, along with the rest of her mining team plus Jin Po, Li Hei and Ben Wu.

“Dim Wei, form a phalanx with your team to hold the perimeter,” I shouted above the chaos. “Juk Sui and Jin Po, with me!”

I pressed into the mass of demons, fighting against the claws and teeth raking against my [Lightning] charged skin. It was like trying to reverse the flow of a river. So many of them were coming at once, I barely had the free space to swing my weapons and clear a path.

Juk Sui and Jin Po flanked me at each side, setting off Qi techniques that blasted deeply into the horde, but like pushing against water, they simply filled in any gap that was made. Still, we pressed on. Every second had to count.

I understood now firsthand why so many of the first deployments on a new world failed.

If this was what it took to merely land, then no way could anyone make true progress.

But I wasn’t just anyone.

I was a follower of the [Frenzied Flame]!

As I evoked the thoughts in my mind, my Flame roared in response, filling my body with fresh Frenzy. I tapped into it to double my speed, hacking through the masses of tentacles and teeth with lightning-charged abandon.

We began to make head way and when we finally neared the gate, I jumped ahead and cleared the area around the base with another blast of [Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls]. Juk Sui and Jin Po quickly joined me and together we stared up at the massive thing in front of us.

It stood at least a hundred feet tall, an inverted triangle made of pulsating sinew and bone. Within the triangle was a familiar purple glow, an oppressive symbol of demonic hate. My Dantian burned Frenzy like crazy as I stared into it and my [Soul Shield] went into overdrive to protect my Flame.

“How are we not going mad?” Jin Po said perplexed as he stared into the purple void.

“It’s the commander’s core,” Juk Sui said. “It’s protecting us. But we need to hurry! Ten Chui is looking overwhelmed up there.”

I glanced upward to see the tentacle-rays—I’d decided to call them—still streaming out of the top of the inverted triangle. Ten Chui and his team had come to a standstill. Their backs were against the hull of the cargo skiff that was now slowly being lowered from the sky.

We didn’t have much time left.

“Break it down!” I shouted.

I slammed my axe into the gate and a huge piece broke off. One more slam and it cut clean through. The purple light faded, and I knew the connection had been severed. At least temporarily. But before I could even turn to try and help Dim Wei, the severed joint healed and the purple within the gate reappeared.

Shit!

Both Juk Sui and Jin Po stopped hacking at the gate then.

“There’s no use!” Juk Sui cried. “We need more people for this!”

I wondered for a moment how the teams did this before. They must have destroyed enough of it to make the regeneration take weeks.

But we didn’t have that kind of time or firepower.

My team was split three ways and each of us was on the edge.

Destroying this gate was the only thing that could balance the scales.

And there was only one way to do it quickly.

I had the pluck this thing out from the damn roots.

“I’m going to need you guys help,” I said and then took a deep breath, preparing myself. “I need you to protect my body while I slip into a state of meditation.”

“What?” they said shocked, in unison.

“Can’t explain now. Just keep the things off of me. I’ll try and help out as much as I can.”

I didn’t wait for them to ask for further explanation.

Withdrawing into myself, I immediately entered the [Spectral Body] of the Red-hued Struggler. I left a window open in my mind’s eye to see through my real eyes. I could even move to an extent, but it was hard, like trying to operate a remote-control car while driving a real one.

I leapt into the spectral void of the spirit realm and immediately sensed the Dark Frenzy in the ‘air’. It didn’t take long to find the gate. It was literally right in front of me, physically and spiritually, but I could sense the other gates as well.

I used my time compression technique and instantly I saw the world slow through my physical eyes. Now I could stretch seconds into minutes, and I would likely need it for what was to come next.

I paused a moment before the inverted triangle before me, tethered to some unseen point behind it with chains.

Last time I did this I had Kelsey’s Flame as a lifeline.

But there was no time to go looking for her now.

And there was no guarantee she was even in the Bloodmoon realm.

I’d have to do this run solo.

Bolstering my inner [Soul Shield], I jumped through the portal and began freefalling towards the purplish Hell Scape of the moon. The pressure of Dark Frenzy increased exponentially as I plummeted, but unlike on my first trip, my Dantian was handling it easily.

I wasn’t certain if it was the new-found strength of my technique or the density of the Frenzy now powering it, but either way, that was at least one complication off of my back. But I couldn’t let that lower my guard.

The [Odds were Against Me] in more ways than one.

That cargo skiff was going to hit the ground soon and if it was destroyed or left with those straps still tethered, sure as shit that asshole Jei Su Long would leave us all here to die without a second thought.

That tapped into the other side of my Twin Dao, and suddenly it felt like my Flame had just ignited a back up engine. Double streams of Frenzy flowed, filling me with even more strength.

Heck yeah! I thought and a grin spread across my face as I plummeted towards my second sea of demons for the day.

Just like in the real world, I engaged them with [Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls], clearing a path. The demons evaporated into ash and as I took a look at them, I saw a mixture of the Star Born demons and the human variety both.

But while they gave me a bit of a spiritual workout to enhance my Sacred Soul, I wasn’t after any of that today. I looked back to the purple sky where I had fallen from and followed the chains extending downwards.

They ended at a familiar inverted obelisk made out of rune etched crystal and bound by three golden rings. There were hundreds of them here, and I imagined each one was pointing back to another gate on the surface of Fhae I’ung.

I charged through another swarm of demons, cleaving them with my Axe and Glaive.

When I reached the obelisk, I cleared the area with another blast of [Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls] and then immediately went to town on the obelisk. I aimed for the golden rings, trying to break them, but as expected the things were invulnerable, protected by something unseen.

I sighed.

Guess there’s no quick way around this, I thought.

I slammed the obelisk itself with the flat of my blade, causing it to resonate like a tuning fork.

“Come on! Wake the hell up, bitch! I’m in a rush here!”

Purple tendrils of energy seeped from the golden rings, forming chains as they coalesced into shackles about the body of a blue skinned woman nearly twenty feet tall. She looked down at me surprised, but then anger marred her angelic face with a scowl.

“Foul Demon of the Cursed Flame! Thou hast returned!”

“Told you I would,” I said. “Told your master that too, but I got no time to chit-chat. Prepare to get buried, bitch!”

Before my words could even register, I launched forward with [Lightning Drill of Fury].

Or so I tried.

I ended up jumping straight at her and then falling flat on my face.

What the hell?

The realization of my failure came far too late as her scythe came crashing down on top of me, slicing right into my back. The pain was brilliant, cutting into my very soul.

“Braisen cur!” she shouted with venom. “Thou dost seek to mock me to mine face? The burial shall be your own!”

I fought back with [Steel Skin] and [Steel Lightning], deflecting her blade from my back. I then got to my feet, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. And then the words of the cultivation manual came to me. I needed to refine my sacred soul through the same process I used in the real world.

I’d only ever used [Lightning Drill of Fury] once or twice and perhaps needed to master it in both the real and spiritual realm to be able to use it here. But no matter. I was twenty times as strong as I was when I was here last, and the raw strength of my soul alone was enough to defeat this minor form of I’Xan’dra’s true self.

I glanced behind her and glimpsed a huge, inverted triangle that had to be the thing tethering the moon itself to whatever source I’xol’ukz spawn from.

“One day I’ll be powerful enough to kill the real you, I’Xan’dra,” I promised her with a pointing of my phalanx glaive. “But today I’ll settle for this minor avatar.”

“Thou speaks as if—”

She didn’t get the last word out as I advanced with a lightning quick Axe and Glaive form. I knocked her scythe aside with my axe and then followed through with a stab to her chest with my Glaive. I then flipped with a summersault, cutting straight up her throat and breaking the shackle about her neck. As she fell backwards grasping her gaping neck, I followed through with two more swipes of my axe, breaking the shackles about her wrists.

“You got lucky with that first hit,” I said as she began to dissolve into ash. “But that won’t happen again. Tell your boss I’m here and that I’m coming for him next.”

Her lips moved as if trying to speak, but she vanished into smoke before she could say anything else. I wasted no time, breaking off two of the golden rings that had now faded to lead. I grabbed hold of the chain before breaking the last one and then catapulted myself into the violent purple sky.

I emerged back in the spiritual realm back on Fhae I’ung a second later and immediately spun at the gate with a [One Chop Cleave]. The triangle shattered with an explosion of Dark Frenzy and I was instantly thrust back into my actual body as the gate mirrored the action in the real world.

The massive gate exploded, and the shock wave took me off my feet.

I went sailing backwards, with Juk Sui and Jin Po flying and screaming beside me.

I must have flown back a good hundred feet or more before I finally rolled to a stop and stood. I was still in a bit of a daze, both from the explosion and the rapid ascent from the spiritual world. Where the gate once stood was now a crater that spanned a good three hundred feet all around.

Every demon inside of it was dead.

I heard shouts and cries, and I looked behind me to see the Cargo skiff now just a few feet from being lowered to the ground. Dim Wei and her team were holding back the last of the resistance and Ten Chui fought back the last of the tentacle-rays to join them.

A moment of relief filled me as Ten Chui landed atop the skiff and quickly released the tethers.

Thank God, I thought.

Juk Sui slowly rose to his feet next to me. “W-what just happened?”

He then looked to where the gate once was.

“Did…did you just do that? All by yourself?”

“Yeah,” I said, honestly. “But don’t break your mind trying to figure out how.”

“But how did you?” Jin Po said, standing as well.

“Maybe one day I’ll tell you,” I said. “But for now we got work to do.”

I looked up at the Bloodmoon in the sky.

“We got 14 hours before Captain Li Jeng circles back, and we need to take down four more gates and fill that cargo skiff with aetherite before he does.”