Zane chomped down another chunk of yak leg and thought about it. He looked down at the lots of wide eyes staring up at him—they had all come to make something of a huddle around him, running around their Uncle Jawl's attempts to grab them like little fish through a net. Jawl gave up.

"Hmm," said Zane.

He looked over at the Stormfire lake just a few dozen strides away. The Stormfires there were the most fierce on all of planet Stormhaven—the peak of Tier 4. In theory, that should be the same as Zane's Heavenly Stormfire right now…

He figured this would make for a good test of his new strength.

He put up a finger and flicked up a single spark.

They all watched it make a wide arc before falling, at last, into the fires.

It was like throwing a lighter straight into a vein of oil—the entire surface, dozens of miles across, exploded in new color. Its Stormfire consumed by a new, more ravenous flame, a flame so destructive it was hard to believe they shared a name—

Zane exerted his will with Emperor's Might and caged it in. Made an invisible box of intent around the explosion—it skied so high it threatened to swallow his floating manor.

For a moment they just stared at it: a massive perfect cube of shining purple-white, fighting ferociously to break the bonds—yet Zane held it firm until it subsided, melting away…

The color of the lake had changed.

Now it was edged the white of Destruction.

"Huh," said Zane.

He thought it'd be stronger. But even Zane was a little surprised by just how much.

Something about his new flame… it had a relentless soul. When it took to something, it went for the kill—and it felt like it could burn on anything. Even other flame.

It was that quality of Destruction. It could not be resisted. He wondered how it would fare against higher Laws.

"Woahhh!" cried the many little voices around him. "Again, again!"

That was how Zane came to know the princes & princesses of Stormhaven.

It also helped him come to a decision.

***

After he finished up with his meal and said goodbye to the kids, he went up to Jawl.

"I need you to send a letter."

"Right away, m'Lord!" said Jawl, who was still faintly embarrassed. "Err—to who?"

"Actually. Ten letters."

Jawl blinked. "Do you mean…"

Zane took out his Incentive List and pointed to #2 and #3.

#2: Complete the Ten-Man Challenge within three months of your arrival—and receive a Plasma Phoenix Core. Which would grant your channels a supreme affinity to Stormfire. Permanently boosting you to a level equivalent to the Plasma Phoenix itself.

#3: Defeat Kakorax, the Third Prince of True Dragons, #1 Outer-Faction Disciple. And receive a Skyfire Lotus. Which would burn out every last mortal impurity in your body, significantly enhancing your physique, and setting a perfect foundation for future body cultivation.

Jawl sucked in a quick breath. "That'll be a tall order. Some of those folks—like Throck—are half-step Minor Gods. And if you mean to challenge Kakorax too—why, it's rumored he's breaking through to Minor God as we speak! You take care of yourself, eh, my Lord?"

Zane nodded.

With that little spark, he'd gotten a sense of how strong he was now. This version of him could crush the Zane that had crushed the God Golem. He was certain of that.

It made his decision easy. He wanted a fight—a good one. Something that would let him go all-out and see just what he could do. The thought of it made him smile.

"So… which first?" said Jawl.

"No. Give them both to me. At once," said Zane. He took another look at the Stormfire lake. "I will fight them all."

***

Planet Dragon's Head

Path of Core Magma territory

The highest peak on Planet Dragon's Head erupted. Shot up into a super-volcano that spewed untold tons of magma deep into the clouds, sending waves of molten black rising to the skies—from a distance it looked like some demented flower blooming over the surface of the planet, dropping great petals of ash…

One man rose out of its peak.

Kakorax. Third Prince of True Dragons. The #1-ranked Outer Faction disciple.

He exuded the full aura of a Minor God.

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His Domain overwrote reality itself; it looked like he stood in his own little pocket-dimension, a circle of swirling hellfire cut out of the bleak backdrop of space…

This was not just any Minor God. Kakorax had taken his time. He'd made sure to collect every last Concept before he broke through. That was called making the 'Great Circle' of Ascension.

To make a Great Circle in a Path such as Core Magma, one of the four Ancient Paths of the Azure Flame Faction, was an accomplishment shared by very few…

Kakorax grinned. It would be big news across the Faction by the time night fell. He was sure of it. Soon his name would be plastered across the bulletins…

The Third Prince of True Dragons had left seclusion at last—in glorious fashion.

He waited there atop his lonely peak. It wasn't long before news came.

For once, he was happy to see that quivering imbecile Fraxus flapping up to him.

"So!" boomed Kakorax, grinning. "How's the Faction receiving the breakthrough?"

"They're stunned—just stunned, Master!" wailed Fraxus. "No one's quite sure the full extent of it, but—most are already saying it could be one of the strongest breakthroughs this Chaos Cycle. If not the strongest!"

Kakorax stroked his chin. "And what else?"

"He's also sent out a challenge!"

"He has, has he—hold on." Kakorax frowned. "Who exactly are you talking about?"

"Zane Walker, Master!"

Kakorax twitched. That name… every time Kakorax heard it, it grated him more. For a full century it'd been Kakorax who was #1 in the new generation, pride of the true dragons. Kakorax the Berserker Prince, thought to be a Grand Elder in a few millennia's time—

But these past months all everyone wanted to talk about was Zane Walker. Go into seclusion for just a few years, and they all fell for some uppity human—and a dumb lunk of a man, at that!

Then what Fraxus was saying really broke through. "That bastard broke through?!"

"It's all over the bulletins, Master—"

"And what of me?” demanded Kakorax. "What of my completing the Great Circle of Ascension? Of my breakthrough to Minor God?"

Fraxus opened his mouth. Then closed his mouth. Then opened it again, gulping—“It's just some unfortunate timing—it happened to coincide with Zane's…"

Kakorax bellowed; a plume of smoke left his mouth. Then he saw something in Fraxus's face.

"You're holding something back,” snarled Kakorax. "What is it? Spit it out!”

"Zane… he's—he's challenging you to a battle, Master…"

An angry purple vein bulged on Kakorax's head.

“So he wants to die today, does he?!”

Did that uppity brat not realize the gap between Ascendant and Minor God? Or was he just looking down on the might of true Dragon's blood—on Kakorax himself—that he thought he could beat him with even a hundred-Level difference?!

By then Kakorax with smoking so much—out of his ears, nose, mouth—he looked like a volcano himself, about to erupt.

"Good. Good!" he breathed, barely containing himself. "So you’d mock me, Zane Walker? Then I accept. But you ought to be careful what you've wished for. I will not only break you. I will humiliate you. I will beat you until you beg for mercy. Until you piss your fucking breeches before the whole Faction—until even your little World Tree lady-friend turns away from you! We'll see what your shitty little Rising Dragon Ranking's worth then…"

"There—there is just one more thing…" Fraxus gulped. Then he said something that made a high-pitched whine go through Kakorax's head. Something so outrageous, so infuriating, Kakorax couldn't believe what he’d heard.

"Did you just say," he breathed. "That he wants to fight me—as part of a Ten-Man Challenge?!"

"Err—"

Kakorax's Bloodline burned. Scales shimmered over his skin and an ear-piercing sound left his throat, a screech of raw fury. An immensity of light and heat leaped to his throat. Fraxus cowered for cover.

Kakorax spewed true dragon's breath. That fabled fire—nicknamed the King of All Fires, imbued with some of the most vicious heat in the universe—now at Great Circle of Tier 5 strength, searing with Laws of the Supervolcano.

An eruption of planetary scale poured out of Kakorax's throat. Something far more violent than the one that'd just come from below. It descended in such a fury it sliced the planet clean in two—a pillar of shining black-red crushing through thousands of tons of steel, splitting it right down the middle. Leaving two halves spinning away, smoldering to their cores…

“ZANE WALKER!!” roared Kakorax. He shook clawed fists to the heavens, as though imagining his hands were around Zane's throat.

Fraxus, for his part, just winced. It had been a good thing he'd done some quick thinking and sent out an evacuation order for the magma kingdoms below before coming.

You didn’t want to get in Kakorax’s way when he got on a warpath. The Third Prince might be a hothead, but he’d always had the firepower to back it up. Especially now he’d broken through…

Fraxus looked at the burning planet, and shivered.

That kind of raw power…

Unlike his master, Fraxus did believe this Zane was something special. But even still—there was no way any new Ascendant was standing up to that.

…Right?

***

The duel was set to take place on the Hub Planet, which was akin to the town square of the Azure Flame Faction. It was located conveniently between the systems of the various Ancient Paths, set between their stars so that it was always day.

You could see many a sun in the sky—each of a different Law Path. The molten black-red of Core Magma. The warbly pale yellow of Heat Wave, the blistering gray-reds of the Meteor. And there were the stars of the lesser paths too, farther in the distance…

It was, in a way, the center of the Azure Flame Faction's universe.

There was so much to do there you could spend lifetimes there without making it through even one of its continents. The biggest continent was the Market Continent—a cacophony of stalls sprawling across vast tracts of plains. The sellers went from lowly sub-Faction stalls all the way up to the gilded Merchant-Guild-run Auction Houses at the very center. They sold everything the heart desired—from elixirs to martial arts tomes to herbs.

Then there was the second-largest continent, set across a vast ocean—the Entertainment Continent. A gorgeous land of pink-flowered trees, a land of a thousand theaters, museums, and bands, and even brothels, with bars on every street and miniature kingdoms that served as playgrounds for the Azure Flame elite. It shimmered with pale smoke and gaudy lights.

But the grandest of the venues wasn't even on the continent proper.

The Eclipse Stadium.

It lay on a moon. A floating stadium that took up the entirety of that moon, which had been remodeled to slope inwards. It seated millions.

And today, every single one of those seats would be filled up. They were anticipating a packed house—not to mention the scrying streams that would beam out to the rest of the universe…

Sub-Factions teleported in from all over the Azure Flame Faction to pack the lower stands. The Upper Levels were reserved for just a few hundred elites, Azure Flame Disciples proper. It was even rumored that fully half the top boxes—only reserved for Grand Elders and Patriarchs—would be filled too…

The Eclipse Stadium had seen quite some action in recent months. Duels between some high rankers. Even one between Core Disciples. The Monster Waves were coming, after all, and like all the Nine Great Factions, the Azure Flame was putting a great deal of its resources into training.

But today's exhibition would be unrivaled.

It promised to be the most spectacular Eclipse Stadium had seen this century—if not this millennium…

Today was everyone’s first chance to see the mysterious #1 man on the Rising Dragon ranking live and in person. A man who’d just broken through in the most legendary and difficult path in the Azure Flame Faction—in even more mysterious circumstances…

A man who would attempt a challenge only done a handful of times in all of Azure Flame history. The Ten-Man Challenge. Against the most stacked field it had ever been done against—including a fully-fledged Minor God.

It was time for Zane's official Azure Flame Faction debut.