It sensed a great disturbance.

An aperture shattered violently within one of Its prime domains.

It was no surprise when the Chainmaiden herself soon appeared, requesting an audience.

It exercised Its Influence to manifest a portion of Its Will within the maiden’s domain.

Visions of opaque crystal, tinted a violet hue, filled its senses as It appeared.

The maiden was tethered hand and foot by chains, suspended within the center of the crystal void. It sensed that the chains caused the maiden immense pain, and It sampled the sweet savor of it.

“Exalted one…” The Chainmaiden bowed her head before It. “The foul Demon of the Cursed Flame hast returned. It violates thy realm and commits grave transgressions. And it has grown yet stronger still.”

It seethed inwardly.

The Husk had kept its promise.

It had arrived.

~The Foul Husk respects no boundaries. No sanctity, it knows.~

“What willest thou to be done, Exalted One?”

It contemplated.

It divined the course of Its Will.

~Endure yet the transgressions. The husk is yet far from its origin and thine. It can do ought but transgress and no true harm. Endure then, for I shall offer retribution in kind.~

“In what manner, Exalted One? Shall I assist Thee?”

~Yae, I shalt need but a fraction of thy strength. A portion of mine Influence shalt I bestow upon the firmament once more.~

“This One shall prepare an aperture for thee upon the domain it did violate.”

~Nae… the thralls have strength enough to defend our domain. I shall seek another firmament. One already well tilled.~

Hatred welled within It.

Disgust.

But in Its recesses, a sliver of Fear yet remained.

The Cursed Flame would pay for instilling such a thing within It.

~It is but a Husk. A Shadow. The Cursed Flames appears to burn within it brightly, but an image is all it be. It possesses the hubris to attack our domain. And for this great transgression, I shall assault its domain in kind.~

* * *

Sweat and blood ran freely down my brow as I crashed into the next wave of demons.

It was just as Chief Yora had described.

The demons were endless.

We never stopped fighting.

Ever.

We couldn’t.

The masses were just that numerous. A roiling sea of monsters just like I experienced on the Hell scape of the moon. Except these things were real in every sense.

Blood, guts, gore and all.

“Keep advancing!” I shouted. “We’re nearly to the next gate!”

I had split the platoon again, this time leaving half to defend the skiff and bringing the other half with me to assault the gates. There were still four in our vicinity and with the amount of demons spewing out of them each second, there was no way we could do any mining with them still active.

Not to mention, none of them could be there to let loose more tentacle-rays when the drop skiff finally returned. I kept a close watch on the level of Frenzy within my Dantian as I let loose [Lightning Arc Strikes] to thin out the bulk of the horde pressing down on us.

Thankfully my new Twin Dao supplied me with fresh Frenzy from my Flame, balancing the output as I performed not only techniques but had to keep a constant feed to my [Soul Shield] to protect my Flame from the ever-present Bloodmoon.

But that wasn’t the only thing we had to worry about.

Just the sight of these unworldly monsters was taxing everyone’s psyche to the limits. I could already see it in the faces of some of the less seasoned legionnaires I had left back at the skiff. Two of Dim Wei’s people were bordering on psychosis already, their eyes full of fear and terror.

I’d stayed with them as long as I could, allowing them to recover a little in the sanctuary of my extended [Soul Shield] barrier, but eventually I had to press on. Now, those who were along side me benefitted from it and with the types of demons spawning from the gates, they would need it.

I’d seen most of them before personally from studying the collections of drawings, but they hadn’t. Even with my shielding I could tell, that after this mission, even if they were blessed to survive, they would either forget the thing entirely, or return home the broken vessels I had seen countless times during the handover ceremonies back at Du Gok Bhong.

That spurred a second burst of Frenzy from my Flame, triggered by the other side of my Dao. The damn empire and their jacked-up policies when it came to abusing the lower castes of the dynasty. It was clear that mental fortitude and Qi mastery were not one in the same, else people like King Theos would be able to mop up a Hell World deployment with ease.

Either they didn’t want to subject themselves to the risk of going mad and turning into a demon, or they simply couldn’t. Either way made them elitist pricks in my mind. Using their immense power to slaughter helpless mortals while we, the scum of the empire, lowly prisoner tributes, were subjected to front lines of the true battle the empire faced for survival.

The imbalance and hypocrisy of it all filled me with rage and I let loose on the demons with even more fury. It took us another half hour but we finally reached the base of the second gate.

I turned to Juk Sui and Jin Po. “You guys know what to do. Protect me while I do my thing.”

My men formed a perimeter around me while I slipped into the spirit realm.

I performed the descent and when I crash landed on the Hell Scape of the moon, I saw a welcoming party had been assembled. There, amongst the horde of normal-sized demons was one of the gargantuan behemoths with tentacles for eyes.

The monster charged at me immediately and stomped the ground with its massive, clawed foot. I leapt into the air with [Lightning Walk], but somehow the technique failed. I was caught just on the edge of the impact and the spiritual damage of it crushing my leg left me hollering in pain.

I used it to cultivate more Frenzy as I bolstered myself with [Steel Core].

When I finally got from underneath it, I was reminded of my limitations in this realm. I still needed to remaster my techniques in a purely spiritual sense. And I supposed there was no time like the present to do it.

I cycled my Frenzy and repaired my injuries, clearing a space within the mass of normal sized demons with [Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls]. As the giant monster reared back for another sweeping attack with an enormous club, I calmed my senses and timed my evading of the hit with a rolling dodge to the side.

As the club came crashing down, I retaliated with a series of martial forms from my Axe and Glaive technique, lighting the giant creature up with sparks. I then used my [Lightning Walk] technique again, but more deliberately this time.

In the real world I had muscle memory to rely upon, but here it was like learning it all over again. Still, the base was there. It was more like familiarizing myself with the interior of a new car rather than learning how to drive from scratch.

I managed a few steps to bring myself equal with its head and then performed a [Lightning One Chop Cleave]. My Glaive spun and connected with the creature’s giant neck, severing it clean.

A wailing groan filled the air as the monster’s massive body crashed into the ground, killing many of its smaller siblings before they all vanished in a cloud of black ash. My Bloodlust triggered, despite there being no blood involved, but I didn’t complain.

I cultivated it eagerly, refilling my Dantian and even causing it to expand.

I approached the crystal and gave it a tap and then waited for the Chainmaiden to arrive.

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“Next time bring more,” I said to her as she finally appeared. “I could use the spiritual workout.”

She didn’t have time to utter a word in response before I laid into her with a series of axe and Glaive strikes. My movements were so quick that she was freed from her chains even before I had time to disarm her.

She fell to the ground and immediately began to screech, as if the chains provided not only protection for the obelisk but a lifeline for her as well.

“Foul beast…” she said with raspy breath. “Enjoy thy senseless slaughter while thou still can…”

I didn’t know what she meant and didn’t really care.

“Will do,” I said with [Indifference] and then ended her with a quick strike to the neck, severing her head.

I reappeared in the real world, just in time to brace myself against the detonation of the gate. We were all blown back and when we recovered, I was pleased to see the gate was not only destroyed but a fair number of the demons that were surrounding it as well.

That gave us time for a quick breather.

As I crouched down to sip a little water and have a chew of Jerky, my men immediately and near instinctively did the same.

Jin Po was staring at the destroyed gate, perplexed. “I still don’t understand how you are doing that, commander. What are you doing to destroy them so easily?”

I grinned at him. “Ancient Chinese Secret.”

He stared back at me, looking even more perplexed. “What?”

“Nevermind,” I said with a laugh. “Let’s go! To the next one.”

It took us another hour or more to fight our way to the next gate. Once there, I popped into the spiritual realm and not surprisingly, there were two giants waiting for me this time instead of just one. I dispatched them with relative ease, honing my spiritual techniques in the process and gobbled up the free frenzy afterwards.

I’xan’dra had less and less to say the more I encountered her.

It took another four hours, but by the time I destroyed the last gate, she had all but surrendered to me, not even bother to defend herself.

“What thou dost do, is all in vain,” she said. “It all shall be undone.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said. “But it still feels good doing it.”

As I left and destroyed the last gate, I eased back to look at what we had accomplished. The landscape of the Hell World was now transformed. Where before there were five gates surrounded by throngs of demons so thick, there was no space to even move, now the place was a barren desert, marked by five craters and dotted with stray demon hordes here and there.

It was a lot like what the exercise was like back at Du Gok Bhong now.

“This looks a lot more manageable,” I said, still catching my breath from the endless fighting.

“Damn right it does,” Juk Sui said, and then he shook his head with a laugh. “I can’t believe it. We might actually make it home.”

“Have you no faith?” Jin Po said grinning. “The Legendary Commander Chun is with us. Five gates destroyed already! That has to be a record.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, gents,” I said and then checked on the time. We’d spent just over seven hours thus far. “This is only half the job. Come on. It’s time to get to mining.”

* * *

With the horde thinned out, Dim Wei and her team got to work sourcing aetherite.

The harmonics of the crystal seemed less sensitive to Qi cultivators than it did to me, but Dim Wei had been practicing the art for a while. It took her only an hour to locate three spots in relatively close vicinity to the skiff.

“It could be fairly deep,” she said. “But I know its here.”

“I’ll take first crack at it,” I said and then using my Axe, I went at it the same way I had digging those tunnels back on Planet Hue Zen. It took about ten minutes, but finally I reached a patch of hard rock that shattered like ice when I struck it.

I instantly felt a pulse of Frenzied harmonics and when I examine the bottom of the tunnel, there at my feet was slab of pure aetherite the size of a small brick. I picked it up and instantly sensed [Everyone’s Pain] as visions of people being slaughtered flashed before my eyes.

I dropped it instantly and then called for Dim Wei.

“Dig up as much as you can find,” I said, once she arrived. “I’ll start the next one for you.”

I stayed with the mining team for more than just to speed up the process of digging. We were into the ninth hour now and I could see the telltale signs of Demonic Qi poisoning on Dim Wei’s team. Keeping them inside my [Soul Shield] technique, helped to preserve what little psyche they had left.

I prayed they would all make it to the end.

Juk Sui led a small unit tackling the stray hordes of demons while Ten Chui kept close watch overhead, feeding information to the perimeter guard we had set up around the skiff. Once I had dug out the tunnels, I rejoined the front lines, defending the drop zone from wave after wave of demons which seemed to be coming in ever increasing frequency.

We fell into a routine then and by the time we hit the twelfth hour, Dim Wei had managed to salvage what had to be half a skiff worth of aetherite. With the barrier the aetherite produced, the new source of protection from the Bloodmoon was helpful, allowing me to rotate legionnaires from the front lines to the skiff, to recover.

By the final hour, despite my Flame producing its own source of Frenzy from my Dao, my Dantian was nearly depleted. And as the early rays of predawn formed in the night sky, I immediately felt why.

Dark Frenzy like I had never experienced before trickled through the air.

It was sharp and acute.

It Dark Frenzy was like vinegar, then this felt like straight up industrial strength acid.

“Commander!” Ten Chui suddenly called from above. “We have incoming. A huge surge! Giants as well!”

I strained my eyes in the moonlight, searching in the direction he was pointing. There, spilling over the landscape like a black tar was a mass of demons the like I’d never seen before. They had to be twice the size of the ones we had fought thus far and dotted within them were behemoths that were at least three or four stories tall.

And then I saw something else. Something smaller and familiar but perhaps twice as deadly as the behemoths.

“D’Mjulthu,” I whispered, recalling their true name from the book and Juk Sui suddenly winced next to me.

“What was that?” he said.

“Mind Reapers… They look like brains with spider’s legs, but they have Demonic Qi auras than can cripple us. Especially now.”

I looked at the sky and could only imagine what the rays of the Cursed Star itself would feel like. We needed some kind of defensive barrier. No way could we fight against that kind of horde directly.

I thought quickly and an idea struck.

“Dim Wei!” I called to her. “Start offloading that aetherite and use it to make a perimeter around us, a hundred yards radius from the skiff. We need to keep these things out or they’ll destroy out ride home!”

“Understood!” Dim Wei shouted back and then she rallied her own troops. “You heard the commander! Move, move!”

Desperate minutes went by, as all together we moved as much aetherite as we could to form the perimeter. The pieces were small, fist and arm-sized chunks at best. I still wasn’t sure how effective they would be, but it was better than nothing.

As Dim Wei’s team laid the last of the aetherite in place, I ordered them back to the skiff.

“You are the rear guard now,” I said. “As soon as you see those tethers drop, get them attached. We’ll pull back as soon as you do and get the hell out of here.”

“Understood,” she said and saluted.

The rest of the platoon was spaced out in an arc along the perimeter to protect against the onslaught. The earth began to tremble beneath us as the horde drew near and I could sense the fear building within my team.

“Brace yourselves,” I said with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “We fight not for this aetherite. We fight for one another. Protect your brothers and sisters and we’ll all make it home.”

Their fear lessoned a little and I used the words to bolster my own determination and resolve.

Everyone would return home this day.

The howl and screeches of demons drew to a fever pitch and when they finally came into sight, even my cosmic-toughened mind did a double take. The creatures we now faced were like mutated forms of what we’d been fighting already. Centipedes crossed with spiders. Giant slugs that moved as fast as snakes. And some my mind could not register to describe at all.

All of them were hideous.

One of my legionnaires cried out in sheer terror and he turned to flee.

“Hold the line!” I shouted.

But it was too late.

Another of my men joined him, retreating to the center of the perimeter with Dim Wei.

Shit!

I charged all my defenses and prepared for the worst as the horde surged towards us.

The entire swarm slammed into an invisible wall in front of me with a colossal boom! and I breathed a sigh of relief that my plan had worked. Jaws and claws snapped, and the hisses of anger and hatred was palpable even if I couldn’t already feel them attacking my soul.

“Push them back through the barrier!” I shouted. “But keep behind it!”

With a battle cry we pressed forward, cutting down the monstrous creatures from beyond the stars. Acrid black blood burned and hiss as it splattered across my skin. But I endured the pain with [Indifference] to generate even more Frenzy to feed my quickly depleting core.

Another terrified yell came from one of my team and I looked just in time to see a Mind Reaper jumping straight through the barrier. The spider-like creature pounced on top of him, and his screams were quickly cut short as the creature stabbed its legs through his body, now frozen in fear.

Shit! No!

“Kill it!” I shouted. “Kill it quickly!”

But as two more of my team charged at it, they stopped short a few feet from it and dropped their weapons, clawing at their scalps instead and began screaming.

Damn it!

I left the perimeter to give them support and when my [Soul Shield] barrier reached them, they immediately stopped screaming. But from the Mind Reaper I could feel a powerful barrier of its own, one that rivaled mine and was clearly protecting it from the aetherite.

I leapt forward and hacked at it with my axe.

It was nimble but I was faster, and I split the creature in half with a single strike.

Instantly, the pressure of its aura subsided, but no sooner had I killed it than two more jumped through the barrier.

“Stay at the front!” I commanded the two legionnaires with me. “I’ll deal with these.”

My heart raced with endless adrenaline and cosmic induced fear as I faced off against two of the creatures at once. I utilized my Axe and Glaive technique to stay on my toes, spinning and twirling to keep the things from landing on me. I had just managed to dispatch one of them, when I saw something new that caused my heart to drop.

Breaking through the barrier with ease was one of the gargantuan monsters, its body crawling with three or four mind reapers. I barely had chance to understand what I was even seeing when it came to the monster itself. It walked on two legs, had a torso with a woman’s face imprinted upon it like a mask, no head and at least twelve arms, each of them wielding some kind of weapons.

It immediately began swinging and two of my men died instantly to the ferocity of its attacks. My mind broke at the sight and I threw caution to wind, engaging [Mark of the Giant] as I left the Mind Reapers behind and immediately went for the behemoth.

“[Lightning Splits the Towering Oak]!”

I spun in mid-air with my Axe and Glaive, hitting the monster with everything I had to take it out as quickly as possible. My weapons struck what felt like steel, but thankfully my power pushed through, and my blades cut down the length of its body, cutting half of its arms clean off.

A horrific screech filled the air and as I landed, I was immediately swarmed by two of the spider-like Mind Reapers that were crawling on the half of the body I had just cut off. I fended them off with my axe, but then out of nowhere, the body of the giant shifted with a speed unimaginable, and six sets of arms suddenly grabbed me and lifted me off the ground.

The world became a spin cycle as I was thrashed back and forth on the hard shale of the ground. I clenched my teeth with pain and tasted coppery blood in my mouth as my body was put through the ringer.

“Aid the commander!” I heard Juk Sui call out and from my haphazard vision I saw legionnaires begin cutting into the monster.

But no sooner had they attacked, did their war cries became screams of terror as the Mind Reapers swarmed on top of them. I dug down and released my inner rage to perform a blast of [Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls].

The creature roared and released me, and I fell to the ground still dazed.

As I struggled to get my bearings, my mind reeled with new panic as I saw two more giant creatures breaking through the barrier with the aid of the Mind Reapers.

This wasn’t good.

These things were strong as hell and getting stronger by the second in the growing predawn light of the Cursed Star. I was just about to throw caution to the wind and engage [Mark of the Beast] when a new voice caught me ear, filled with terror.

“Commander!”

Dim Wei?

I looked back to the skiff, expecting to see it overrun with spider-like Mind Reapers, but instead I saw something far worse. The skiff was lifting off the ground and standing atop it was Jei Su Long.