Similar to an echo, the sound blasts continuously reverberated without stopping, exploding and from there generating multiple echoes but unlike an echo, each successive blast maintained its power and a storm appeared out of nowhere, destroying the castle, uprooting the ground, destroying all of the formations. The barrier still resisted but just barely, constantly rippling, filled with cracks, it too was on its last leg.

The debris still fell from the barely standing castle, the three main towers were still somehow standing though for how long was unknown while the sub-towers were razed to the ground. All of it had happened suddenly and then the next moment, another power appeared, fueled by anger, and then the calm returned as instantly as it had been shattered.

Lord Laycore looked at the crumbling castle, the formations just barely existing, the Qi circuits that circulated Qi throughout the castle torn and now of no use leaving the immense energy still present in the castle completely useless. The anger he felt at the moment could not be described and as he grited his teeth, his fingers quickly curled into a fist.

Countless bubbles filled the inside of the barrier, each containing an echo that exploded inside to create even more but now they started losing their powers, each successive echo becoming lesser than its predecessor. As the fingers curled, the bubbles quickly became smaller and smaller, until they were no larger than a fist.

The vibrations inside were so intense that it was possible to see them but despite their powers, they were unable to break free from their prisons which kept even smaller until, with rage filling his face, Lord Laycore, fully closed his fist. A popping sound filled the barrier and the bubbles were no more, neither what was inside them.

As he surveyed the surroundings, his eyes squinted even further, his senses enveloped the barrier, the castle, and his face becoming even more ugly. Most of his family was dead, killed by the intense vibrations before they even understood what had happened to them, then squashed under the broken debris, ensuring that even the few who survived were killed. A fraction of them were present at the moment, timely located by the few who were in the second State of Being, the only ones unscathed besides him.

He looked, lips moving to speak but he was not able to. Confusingly, he looked down, at his chest, where his heart was supposed to be, where his core was supposed to be, now a cylindrical device was there, somehow flushed with his heart and core. It was an alien object and his quickly dying body resisted but it was for naught and another exploding, even more massive than more filled the barrier, finally cracking it, and destroying it.

***

“Contact team ST 15 and ask for a detailed report.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Be quick.”

“At once, sir.”

Harlev read the incoming reports, a frown on his face at the sudden introduction of a variable. What had happened for such a massive explosion to take place? After thinking, he sent a request to his leader.

“Lord Laycore died, sir.”

“How?” Revensol’s voice asked as his hologram mimicked the movement of his lips.

“Unknown. Undger investigation. I thought to inform you beforehand.”

“Hum… this will make the battle exercise useless now, will it not? Handle it as you see fit, as long as the objectives are met,” immediately after saying that, the hologram disappeared only to come back the next moment. “Keep an eye out for that harvester Inero-ie. He was able to successfully infiltrate the Noyb castle and even got in such close proximity of the Vissbl, he may have a hand in this.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“But is that really possible, especially considering the difference? That harvester has not undergone even a single Shedding. There is too much of a difference in their State of Being.” Harlev’s eyes squinted even further, almost a line now.

It was one thing to fight against monsters in a higher State of Being while piloting the armor suits, that was the reason they were made. It was completely different to do that without any external enhancements. One was in the Intangible State, the other in the Liquid State. Two states higher. And though each state had its own uniqueness, considering pure combat powers, the difference was immense.

“It is not surety, just a possibility. Just yesterday we found the original Lift Supervisor who had been missing until now. Make sure to keep an eye open for any sighting but do not engage, just inform me.”

“As ordered,” Harlev said, still thinking.

This new variable had made this combat exercise completely useless and his frown worsened due to it. They could have done everything without needing to lift a finger but now that had become impossible. The three remaining Lords had surely sensed the disappearance of Lord Laycore’s aura, especially when he had just used his powers without any restraints a moment before.

“Gather up,” Harlev ordered, his voice reaching all of his subordinates in his vicinity.

***

“Haa..haaa.haa.haaa…”

Inero-ie laboriously took in breaths, exhaustion, and suffocation from the long jump that sent him outside the barrier making even breathing a difficult task. He lay there, a powerlessness that always appeared after extensive use of jumping, a suffocation as his Qi was sucked out, a feeling of hollowness, a feeling of blindness, all attacking him at the same time.

From a Refined Core, he slowly started absorbing the Qi until he could find the strength to move and then he could feel the Qi circulate through his body once again and the Threads rushed out again once again making him aware.

He took slow steps at first while he absorbed more and more Qi. The ever-present sounds of conflict no longer existed as the fighting had stopped. As he kept absorbing more and more Qi, his steps similarly became faster and faster until he arrived at another crumbling castle.

This one too he remembered, a single towering structure, filled with glass windows that did not allow one to look inwards. Surrounding it had been a circular line on the ground from where the barrier had emerged. It too was much battered, on its last legs.

The presence of his target was easily felt, no longer covered by the castle or hidden by the individual. Then there was the anger that enveloped the area with pressure, ready to lash out with power that only a handful of individuals within the settlement were capable of resisting.

Once again Inero-ie hid in darkness, stalking, waiting for the opportunity to present itself.

***

“How long for them to arrive?”

“A few minutes at most, sir.”

“Start assembling the weapons, we will take out all three of them simultaneously.”

“Yes sir.”

“Sir I have an objection. All this time we have never shown ourselves. What is the use of this? If it is this kind of revenge then I don’t want it. If they don’t even know about us until we kill them, what good is all that we have done? They won’t feel what we had.” Suddenly one of his men spoke, and all looked at him because he had dared ask what they all had not.

“You were promised revenge, we all were, and we will get it. But that does not mean we will be fighting them head-on. That we never will be able to. Just this settlement, the smallest of its kind, had five Liquid State humans, are all of you still naive enough to think the bigger settlements will be any lesser? Or have all of you started feeling confident after fighting those mindless monsters all this time? But that does not mean our cycles of wandering and living in cold wastelands will be meaningless, we will get revenge but for that, we will incapacitate them.

All of you have done a good job of controlling yourselves until now, of keeping those flames lit, don’t you dare let them burn you when the revenge is finally on hand. Even if you don’t believe me, just wait until we are done with this settlement. If you are still not satisfied, I will raise this problem with the master.”

“Yes sir!”