Doubled over in gut-wrenching agony, a silent groan slipped past this Sovereign’s lips as his lungs emptied of air, and he cursed himself for leaving so obvious a weakness unguarded.

A grave miscalculation made in the heat of the moment, as his decision to include his sexual organ was a last-second addition and a deviation from his original vision of the flawless human form. Initially, he envisioned himself as a being who’d moved beyond the base needs of biological proliferation, but then he had an epiphany and realized that one must indulge a temptation in order to truly be free of it. Thus, without the means to indulge in sexual gratification, he worried that he would never truly be free of temptation, and therefore unable to reach True Balance. The logic was sound, but the hasty, last-second addition left a vulnerability in his otherwise impervious defenses, one even his Runic Robes were unable to wholly mitigate. A grievous oversight, but one this Sovereign could hardly be held culpable for given how he’d spent the last three centuries with his lower half affixed to a Transcendent in order to stymie the ravages of time upon his borrowed body. Then again, even if this Sovereign had considered the matter beforehand, he might well have left the weakness exposed. The vulnerability and sensitivity of a man’s sexual organ was part and parcel of the carnal reproductive process, one which was meant to be both physically and emotionally stimulating. Any attempt to strengthen and toughen the organ would likely render it less effective with regards to its primary purpose, thereby negating the point of including it in the first place. No, better to secure an external cod-piece to protect his sensitive nether regions, Runic Armour of the highest quality to ensure he would never have to experience this bitter and humiliating pain ever again.

To think, despite being a man himself, Falling Rain did not hesitate to target this Sovereign in so brutal and despicable a manner, a thought which filled him with rage and rancour aplenty. The strike almost brought him to his knees as his momentum played out, allowing the boy to slip out of this Sovereign’s grasp once they came to a stop and plummet down to the sands below. Fighting to draw breath into his deflated lungs, he fixed the boy with a look of pure fury and hatred as he landed lightly on the sands below, so full of determination and defiance without a hint of weakness or distress. This should not have been possible, for this Sovereign had personally crafted an illusion of bitter loss and harrowing despair that should have laid him low for hours, if not days, yet less than a handful of minutes had passed since they escaped from Shi Bei, and the boy seemed none the worse for wear.

Falling Rain’s sword, shield, and glaive arrived without warning, piercing through the air like hawks swooping after their prey from on high. Little more than silver flashes of polished steel, they came to a stop just within arms reach of the boy, his shield poised to defend while sword and glaive waited patiently to be taken in hand. An impressive feat in more ways than one, for though it appeared as if these weapons moved with minds of their own and could shift in any direction they so pleased, this Sovereign was more fascinated by the boy’s ingenuity in getting around the strict limits of Guiding. Rather than deal with the staggering energy required to move an object without physical propulsion and the complex forces involved, the boy instead Manifested his Domain around each weapon, creating an area separate from reality which contained the boy’s own Laws to supersede those of the world around them. From there, he was free to manipulate his weapons using a complex combination of external forces originating from within his Domain, forces which acted not on the weapons themselves, nor on the air or environment around them, but rather on the Domain, which was present in reality and the Void both.

In short, the weapons weren’t so much flying as they were being carried about by the boy’s Domain as it moved through the Void. Each one of his Spiritual Weapons was capable of Deploying its own Manifested Domain, and this largely negated the forces of gravity, inertia, friction, and pressure upon the weapon itself. The weapons were present in the physical world, as solid and real as mundane steel, yet they moved as if they were creations of pure Spirit traversing through the Void. The technique was not without its flaws, as the weapons were largely rooted in the physical world and still limited by natural law, albeit at a reduced effectiveness. This led their maximum velocity to fall short in comparison to the speeds a Divinity or Peak Expert could Cloud-Step, hence why the weapons arrived only after this Sovereign was incapacitated by the boy’s low blow. That being said, the theoretical applications of this the discrete presence in reality and the Void both were far reaching indeed, for there was an argument to be made that the weapons had no need to actually move through reality itself, meaning not only could the boy presumably summon his weapons to hand from anywhere in the world, he might also possess the ability to strike at his foes in reality from within the Void itself.

A terrifying prospect if used in combination with his deadly Sword Intent, one which had this Sovereign trembling in fear and fury both as he pieced together the clues to arrive at an irrefutable conclusion. The Void was a separate plane of existence only loosely tied to reality, one in which distance was little more than a suggestion. Within the Void, one could move to any point adjacent to reality and deploy their Chi from there, a feature this Sovereign used to great effect in coordinating his forces and maintaining his spy network from thousands of kilometres away. Given the unique duality of the boy’s Spiritual Weapons to traverse through reality, this Sovereign now understood how Falling Rain cut down the First Blade Junta from three-hundred paces away. The attack began in reality, but travelled through the Void before emerging to strike the formidable half-beast down, and knowing this, this Sovereign saw no reason why the boy couldn’t utilize the Void to strike at targets across the full breadth of the Empire itself. There was no applicable difference between delivering a Sending and Manifesting one’s Sword Intent in reality from within the Void, as both were a case of deploying Chi through the Void itself, with the only caveat being that attacking from a further physical distance might require more energy to deploy. Should Falling Rain ever master this Void Sword Intent, he would then have the means to kill from afar with nigh impunity so long as he had energy enough.

Not just Chi or Heavenly Energy, but a significant cost of Life Energy and perhaps even Immortal Energy as well, for this Sovereign suspected the answer to all the boy’s unfathomable achievements lay in his ability to tap into this higher-order energy, an ability in all likelihood earned not through hard work or comprehension, but due to his bond with the Elemental Spirit.

This was only an inkling however, a conjecture which was far from proven, which was why this Sovereign valued the boy’s life so, but also why he could not be given time to grow. Time slowed to a crawl as they locked eyes across the way, one contorted in the skies and the other ramrod straight upon the sands, a curious juxtaposition which this Sovereign loathed with all his heart, for though he towered over the savage runt, it was the boy who stood with head held high and seized the initiative to attack. Still cradling his rabbit close, he reached out and took his sword in hand before drawing back with a flourish. A sublime and ineffable Movement executed without deviation from his Dao, one which set into motion a tempestuous storm of Heavenly Energy swirling about him as his body continued to billow with Life Energy unchecked. Even after separating from the young Ancestral Hare and leaving her far behind in Shi Bei, the boy’s vitality continued to surge in defiance of logic and fact, eroding the debilitating effects of this Sovereign’s Death Energy and infusing Falling Rain with strength and vigour unmatched. Inconceivable is what this was, impossible even, for this Sovereign had long since determined that the sheer volume of Heavenly Energy required to create pure Life Energy should be far beyond even what a mere Divinity could mobilize, much less control. It was one thing to harness Life Energy as a weapon like the Brotherhood’s Abbot, or transfer one’s own Life Energy to another as with the young Ancestral Hare, but once spent, there was no way to recover that Life Energy without plundering it from another.

And yet here, the boy proved this Sovereign wrong by creating Life Energy seemingly out of thin air, and thus theoretically now possessed the ability to create life itself, a power which belonged in the realm of Gods.

So many inexplicable and incomprehensible achievements all originating from one individual, each one a mystery more enticing than the last. This Sovereign was loathe to kill so promising a research subject, but the boy might well leave him no choice given the lacking luxury of time. No longer restricted by his limited reserves of Life Energy, Falling Rain uttered, “Ban Kai,” and lashed out with his Void Sword Intent in an attempt to end this battle in a single blow, but this Sovereign was not caught unawares. Formidable and imperceptible as his overhead swing might be, the boy restricted its potential by linking it to his physical movements and rendering his otherwise indistinguishable attack all too easy to discern, especially since he felt the need to mutter some incomprehensible nonsense before hand. It mattered not what the words meant, but it was the height of foolishness to announce his attack before making it. The boy’s Void Sword Intent even travelled along the same trajectory as his swing, so despite arriving before this Sovereign instantaneously without delay, by then, he had long since moved aside to avoid the deadly blow with ease. So long as his reflexes remained faster than the speed of the boy’s arm, then it mattered not how deadly Falling Rain’s Void Sword Intent might be since there was no chance of his attacks ever connecting.

With the threat well in hand, this Sovereign’s mind cleared of rage and enmity both, allowing logic to take control once more. The Razor’s Edge, this was his Path to victory, a truth he reminded himself of once more as he took stock of the situation and weighed his options once more. To his delight, neither the Old Wolf nor Akanai took up pursuit, and they dispatched the Cloud Divinity and Ancestral Rabbit instead. Not without reason of course, for this Sovereign had not been so foolish as to run in a straight line towards his ultimate destination, but rather a roundabout route that should have left his pursuers long behind, yet the Ancestral Hare and Rabbit pair were somehow tracing his exact footsteps despite his half-minute head start. Most aggravating, as it meant they possessed the means to track him and he would have to deal with them both before absconding to his hidden lair. Not an issue, merely a bother, because powerful though the Cloud Divinity might be, his Blessing of Air and Water merely afforded him a superior control and mastery over key components of Heavenly Energy, rather than the ability to create a higher-order Energy surpassing the power of Creation and Destruction both. Though still a formidable foe, so long as the Cloud Divinity lacked an Intent, then his ability to threaten this Sovereign was minimal now that he’d Ascended to become a nascent immortal, and the Ancestral Rabbit even less so. Aside from the dazzling and brilliant ultimate attack the Cloud Divinity used to kill the Transcendent Divinity in a single blow, none of the other Chi skills he’d used since were capable of causing any significant harm to this Sovereign, not even the powerful explosions which ripped through the armoured hides of Ascended Transcendents like paper.

Erring on the side of caution regardless, this Sovereign decided to sacrifice two Transcendents to slow his pursuers' advance. Young Gen and the Bloody Confessor were both still Concealed by Shi Bei, where there were corpses and Death Energy enough to fuel their advancement to Divinity. Yesterday, this Sovereign would have been ignorant of how to induce so heaven-defying a transformation, but Vyakhya’s disgraceful downfall had revealed the Path clear as day. It merely required a full merger between the Transcendent Spirit and the host’s soul itself, a consolidation of Will and Intent, and tricking Gen and Goujian both into acquiescing to their captor’s demands was as easy as turning a hand. A whisper here, a threat there, a bite of carrot and application of stick, and they were both ready to give up their eternal souls for the mere promise of escape. Such malleable fools were only useful due to their Blessings, so even if he lost them both, as long as this Sovereign had Falling Rain in hand, then he will have more than made up for the cost.

For the power of a Blessing was nothing in comparison to a higher-level Intent, and Falling Rain was the key to unlock them.

The Ascension of the two Transcendents succeeded in the blink of an eye, after which they rushed westward to intercept the Ancestral Hare and Rabbit pair before they caught up to this Sovereign. So long as they proceeded with all haste, they would arrive ahead of their quarry due to this Sovereign’s circuitous route, but he had little faith Gen and Goujian would hold out for long. Powerful though a Transcendent Divinity might be, their minds were too primitive and crude to pose much of a threat to an actual Divinity in combat, for the Transcendent Spirits were merely an amalgam of Imbalanced soul matter, the cast-off emotions of humanity made manifest by the Energy of the Heavens. The Cloud Divinity took less than ten seconds in total to dispatch of Vyakhya in his Transcendent Divinity form, and this Sovereign suspected Gen and Goujian would not last too much longer in direct combat against even one of his pursuers. They simply lacked the aged monk’s lifetimes of accumulation and their Transcendent Divinity forms were made lesser for it, meaning that if this Sovereign wanted them to serve as effective deterrents, he was forced to divide his attention to control them and ensure the Ancestral Hare and Rabbit were distracted.

An infuriating task, herding Transcended Divinities like sheep, for they were too wild and intractable to be easily controlled. It was a struggle to even draw them away from Shi Bei once their Ascension was complete, for the death and bloodshed proved almost too tempting a treat for their primitive needs. A minor delay, all things considered, for even as the Cloud Divinity and his Rabbit partner arrived within striking distance of this waiting Sovereign, the Transcendent Divinities arrived only two breaths later. Fire, blood, and cloud erupted in the distance, less than a handful of kilometres away, too close for comfort yet far enough for this Sovereign to feel confident enough in his plans. Just to be sure, this Sovereign threw caution to the wind and triggered his remaining Transcendents in Shi Bei to Ascend as well, thereby ensuring the gathered Divinities in Shi Bei would remain there for as long as possible.

A waste of resources, all things considered, for these newly raised Transcendent Divinities would lack the requisite Death Energy to fully refine their newfangled forms, given how the previous two Transcendents consumed everything present upon the battlefield. In order to succeed, this Sovereign was forced to supplement the remaining Transcendents with his own reserves of Death Energy, pass onto them through the shards of soul he kept within his Natal Palace. Even then, these Transcendent Divinities would be sorely lacking, but they were still formidable enough to draw upon the Wrath of the Heavens. That was the greatest threat, the reckless abandon with which the Transcendent Divinities fought without care or concern for the Treaty, pushing the Cloud Divinity and Old Wolf to dire straits as they struggled to contain the wild Energies of the Heavens and keep them from turning their respective surroundings into little more than a blackened, uninhabitable crater.

The Treaty was no longer of any use to this Sovereign, so he was free to disregard it as he pleased, and exerting this freedom filled him with a heady rush of elation unlike any other as he cackled in unmitigated glee.

“Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu - Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki (flashing lights warning!).”

Another string of nonsense spilled out from the boy’s lips as he delivered a second strike with his Void Sword Intent, a sheath-less quick-draw attack which this Sovereign avoided as easily as the first. It took Falling Rain a full two seconds and more to recite his meaningless gibberish, but the length of his statement was enough to enlighten this Sovereign as to why the boy felt the need to announce his attacks in advance. The Energy of the Heavens surged in tempo with the measured cadence of his chant, something this Sovereign missed during his first chant, which was too short to study. This marked two more Dharmic Chants Falling Rain prepared in advance, all of which were utterly nonsensical. How was it possible for him to have so many? And why two staggeringly different Chants for more or less the same attack? The arm motion and arc of the swing differed, but if that mattered so much, why not swing his sword the same way and speak the same phrase instead of going to all the work of devising a second, longer Dharmic Chant? Questions aside, it was clear that the boy used these verbal chants to gather his strength and focus his Will to create his Void Sword Intent, a skill he quite obviously had yet to wholly master. Their battle in the Void and his use of “Unlimited Blade Works” in particular had led this Sovereign to over-estimate the boy’s strength and experience as a whole, for though Falling Rain had Dharmic Icons and Chants aplenty, his foundation without them was sorely lacking indeed.

As they should be, for he was merely twenty years young, was he not? Something this Sovereign kept forgetting in light of the boy’s nigh impossible achievements…

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Still unwilling to give up this prize and more determined than ever to secure it, this Sovereign swooped down and appeared before the boy could begin his third chant. A casual palm strike to the chest should have been enough to injure the boy gravely and render him unconscious, but his shield rose to block the attack with alarming speed while the boy’s surprisingly dense and complex Domain Plated defenses were enough to mitigate the remainder of the force which the shield failed to negate. Even then, the boy slid some twenty metres back through the sand, but this did nothing to stop him from screaming, “Ground-Shrinking Strike” to herald yet another burst of Void Sword Intent which this Sovereign side-stepped to dodge once more.

Only to recoil in alarm as the boy executed Balance on Windy Leaf and Pierce the Horizon in a near perfect replica of Akanai’s previously unmatched Movement, one which was delayed enough to target this Sovereign’s new location. It was one thing to pre-emptively side step an attack, but another to react and dodge a thrust from a Cloud-Stepping Warrior only twenty metres away, especially one delivered so masterfully. The sword passed through this Sovereign’s robes and Plated Domain both as if neither one existed. Cold steel plunged into pale flesh and pierced through rib and lung alike, but more devastating was the Sword Intent which wracked this Sovereign’s entire existence with boundless agony. Eternity compressed into a single moment as he suffered unlike he’d ever suffered before, his body, mind, and soul threatening to unravel as Sword Intent ran rampant throughout him and left countless invisible scars behind, scars so deep they were carved in the very essence of his existence itself.

And to add insult to injury? The boy was still cradling his damnable rabbit close, as if this Sovereign was not worth the effort of using both hands.

Awash in a haze of pain and humiliation, this Sovereign registered a resounding clang and an impact against his fist, only to realize after the fact that he’d lashed out in his anger. This was no measured strike meant to cripple and rehabilitate, but a killing blow with his full strength behind it, one which almost drew the Wrath of Heaven down upon him. A good thing this Sovereign knew enough to restrain himself even in his rage, but even though his blow had been met by the solid surface of the boy’s shield, there was no doubt in this Sovereign’s mind of the boy’s demise. His initial reaction was one of regret and contrition. To have come so far and sacrificed so much only to return with nothing in hand, he was not accustomed to failure so complete. Losing his army meant little in the long run, and while he’d benefitted by way of his Ascension to nascent immortal, without Falling Rain to study and exploit, this Sovereign was now in a race against time to unravel the full breadth of the boy’s secrets before anyone else. Though the odds were in his favour, this Sovereign stood alone while the Outer Provinces were more united than ever, or they would be once the survivors of Shi Bei returned to Central and deposed of the Imperial Clan’s chosen puppet, Shuai Jiao.

Then again, that might well be a source of chaos and conflict to come. The Sword Saint might continue to support the Imperial Clan, but whatever rewards they’d promised her likely paled in comparison to what Falling Rain had already freely given. What’s more, as one of the first human Divinities not beholden to the Imperial Clan, the Sword Saint was eminently poised to revise the power dynamic between the Emperor and the Outer Provinces, to say nothing of Akanai and Nian Zu who could very well lead the North to secede entirely from the Empire given how Shuai Jiao and the Imperial Clan abandoned them to their fate in Shi Bei. Should the survivors of Falling Rain’s faction raise their banners in rebellion, then even the Emperor himself would find it difficult to resolve this conflict in short order, and certainly not without a massive loss of life and infrastructure that would set the outer province back by hundreds of years and create a grievance in the populace that might linger for millennia more.

Yes, yes. How wonderful it would be if the outer provinces rebelled, and much more conducive towards this Sovereign’s goals. It was a mistake to unite the Defiled tribesman against the Empire, for in doing so, he’d given the outer provinces a common enemy to band together against. A better avenue forward would be to introduce economic strife and civil unrest, whispering secrets and lies to convince nobles of power and reputation to take up arms and overthrow the dog Emperor. This Sovereign could see it now, powerful factions laying siege to Imperial cities all across the province in a series of unaffiliated rebellions, leading to anarchy and disorder for decades if not centuries as the powers that be struggled to restore order only for a new rebellion to rise up. Throughout it all, this Sovereign would be free to research his Path and build up his forces anew, and in time, he might well have power enough to play both sides of the board as rebel and patriot both, much like he planned in Sanshu to secure the city for himself. Then, he could simply repeat his efforts elsewhere until he seized control of the entire province, with a Marshal and Colonel General both under his sway, and perhaps even a second or third province to boot. Oh how wonderful it would be to see the dog Emperor’s face when all the outer provinces rose up in coordinated rebellion against him, with this Sovereign pulling the strings as his puppets laid siege to the Forbidden City itself and razed the Imperial Palace to the ground…

A guttural growl interrupted this Sovereign’s musings, and he almost jumped in place to see Falling Rain sit up in the sand. Blood spilled from his lips as his body was wracked by coughs, his ribs broken but Healing with his customary yet still remarkable haste. The rabbit lay slack in his arms, unharmed by this Sovereign’s errant strike, as evidenced by how it continued to lick at the boy’s face in spite of the blood and sand smeared across it. Disgusting vermin, and the boy double so for allowing its tongue to touch his skin, a mark of his crude and barbaric upbringing, but this Sovereign was more concerned with how the boy survived his attack. Especially considering the fact that the attack might well have been powerful enough to call down Heaven’s Wrath, which was then mitigated by the boy’s Domain rather than avoided through this Sovereign’s restraint, a series of events he only recognized after the fact. A cursory study of the surroundings showed signs of Water Chi being used, but even adding a third layer to the boy’s admittedly respectable defenses should not have been enough to save him.

Yet save him it did, meaning Falling Rain had power enough to trade blow for blow against a nascent immortal of this Sovereign’s calibre.

Wholly unconcerned by this Sovereign’s looming presence, the boy pushed himself back to his feet before taking his stance once again. Bloodied but unbroken, he drew a shuddering breath which alluded to a punctured lung and winced as he raised his sword overhead, powering through the pain to make use of yet another Dharmic Chant. “For,” he articulated, drawing a deep, pained breath in order to shout, “DEMACIA!”

Rather than swing his sword, the boy dropped to one knee and drove it into the sands instead. For a brief, infinitesimal moment, this Sovereign almost thought the boy had collapsed from his injuries, but the coalescence of power overhead put an end to those wistful desires. An immense accumulation of Void Sword Energy plunged down towards him, so dense and substantial he could almost see it warping reality itself as it passed through the air. A giant, glowing sword of Materialized Domain and Sword Intent, one which tracked this Sovereign’s progress as he beat a hasty retreat across the sands. There was no time to think, barely enough time to even react, and this Sovereign gathered all the Death Energy left to him to form a ward against this unerring sword of certain demise.

The impact drove him off his feet and left his ears ringing in the deafening silence, and he knew not how long he laid buried in the sands, though it could not have been more than a single breath. The world heaved as he sat up all too quickly, but the pain and disorientation were nothing compared to the humiliation, for in his minds eye, he saw his perfect, Ascended form overlapping Falling Rain’s as the savage runt sat up in the same manner, a scene which played out mere seconds ago. The rage consumed this Sovereign until he knew nothing else, and he set upon the source of his shame and indignity with a howling fury unlike any other. The first blow hammered home into the boy’s shield once again and sent him hurtling away, but even in his rage, this Sovereign sensed the lacking impact of the blow, a tactile response which wasn’t quite right. Cloud-Stepping after his quarry, he delivered his knee into the runt’s stomach, and this time, the shield was unable to keep up as he struck cloth and hammered into flesh. Though the boy’s body doubled over, the attack still didn’t feel right, the collision too soft and the impact too gradual for a direct strike. Instead, it felt like punching water, with the vast majority of the force behind his attack dissipating before ever coming into contact with his target.

A superlative Domain Deflection imbued with the aspect of Water, a subtle and all too effective defense for even this Sovereign to weave, much less something he’d expect to see from a boy, even one as talented and miraculous as Falling Rain. This was a Chi working which required not just power and skill, but a comprehension of Water beyond anything this Sovereign had ever seen. Even if the boy infused his entire Domain with the Laws of Water, the end result should still be inferior to this unprecedented defense, for this Domain Deflection was as different from regular Domain Deflection as the boy’s Sword Intent differed from regular Honing. Seeing his efforts stymied once more served to further fuel this Sovereign’s frustration, raising his fury and ire to levels previously unknown, and he gave into emotion like a base maddened Defiled by unleashing blow after blow after blow. Fist, palm, elbow, kick, each attack pushed the boy further away as he flew dozens of metres at a time, but this Sovereign’s rage knew no bounds as he continued his brutal assault without a care for the consequences. The Heavens shook and promised all manner of bloody retribution, yet their Wrath was kept in check by the boy who still breathed yet, so this Sovereign struck again and again, aiming at head, neck, chest, groin, and anywhere else one might strike, yet still he failed to cause the boy any lasting harm.

How?! How was it possible for one boy, one mere mortal child, to possess so many attainments in the Dao? This was no long a matter of talent or even accumulation, for his abilities spanned too many subjects and reached too high an attainment for any three Divinities to match, much less one Falling Rain. It made no sense for this Sovereign’s lifetimes of study to be outshone in less than a single decade, to the point where even his full strength as an Ascended Divinity and nascent immortal was unable to take his dog life.

Gathering all his strength to deliver a two-handed overhead blow, he sent the boy crashing into the sands and watched as he bounced and slid off into the distance before coming to a sudden stop. A single step was enough to close the distance, and this Sovereign’s chest heaved with anger and exertion both as he loomed over the subject of all his hate and fury, fists clenched and body trembling as he watched Falling Rain push himself back up to his feet. Even the damn rabbit was unharmed and undaunted, though this Sovereign had not spared it any mercy, and despite still holding the overwhelming advantage, he felt the seeds of doubt taking root in his mind as he considered what to do next. Taking the boy prisoner no longer had the same appeal, for his potential was even higher than this Sovereign first suspected, because after collating everything Falling Rain had accomplished in the last twenty-four hours, one could only conclude that the boy might soon possess strength enough to stand unrivalled under Heaven. Even the Emperor himself might not possess so impenetrable a defense, nor did he have the ability to strike at anyone he pleased through the Void itself, leading this Sovereign to wonder once more just who or what Falling Rain might be, as the bloodied boy pushed himself back to his shaky feet while radiating a none-too-subtle air of menace warning this Sovereign away.

A second passed as they stared at each another, one a Sovereign with millennia of experience and accumulation behind him, the other a fresh-faced, tender-footed youth of twenty-one. The former untouched and unmarred, the latter beaten down and exhausted, yet it was the boy who smiled while this Sovereign grimaced in growing apprehension. “I didn’t hear no bell,” the boy uttered, taking his stance once more with sword in hand in what should have been a desperate and pathetic last act of defiance, yet instilled dread and dismay as he prepared to strike with Sword Intent. “Limit Break – Omnislash.”

The subsequent swing was so slow and feeble there was no need to even dodge it. Slapping the sword out of the boy’s hand before backhanding him across the face, this Sovereign drank in the satisfaction of disgracing his foe even as he studied the boy’s defenses yet again. Even in this controlled setting, he failed to see through the boy’s secrets, and he felt the air of intimidation grow stronger as if the Heavens themselves were warning him to cease his provocation. No, this was something even greater than Heaven’s Wrath, a promise of death and extermination without mercy or hesitation, which was odd to say the least. If the boy possessed the ability to harm this Sovereign, then why had he not used it yet?

Again, Falling Rain sat up and turned to push himself to his feet, but this Sovereign raised his foot and booted the boy back into the sands. Firmly pressing the heel of his foot against the boy’s face, he ground the hateful savage deeper into the sands before stomping him down flat. With no room to catapult away, the impact should have reduced him to a meat paste, yet Falling Rain endured the blow with little more than a grunt as the sand around him sprayed out in all directions. Frustrating, most frustrating, especially as the air of menace grew even stronger as it introduced an element of hatred into the mix. Strange to think that the source of this threat did not hate him before, for the boy clearly loathed this Sovereign with all his heart, which might well meant that this warning was emanating from someone else lurking nearby.

The Cloud Divinity? No, he was still embroiled in bitter battle against this Sovereign’s Ascended Transcendents, unable or unwilling to separate from the Rabbit Divinity who was the focus of Gen and Goujian’s attacks. This Sovereign had noticed this detail early on in the exchange, how the Cloud Divinity could have escaped at any time to continue his pursuit, yet he remained behind to help the Rabbit Divinity who was more than strong enough to defend herself. Strange, but this Sovereign would not question it so long as their poor decisions served his purposes, nor were they the source of this threat. Was it perhaps the dog Emperor himself, watching this from afar to warn this Sovereign from eliminating a promising seedling? No, there was no chance this Sovereign would ever fail to recognize the presence of his most hated foe, not even after so much time spent apart. The boy? Ha. A laughable notion now that this Sovereign had gone through the facts with a clear head, for despite his defiance, Falling Rain was on his last legs and merely putting up a token effort of resistance. Even he had no hope of victory, yet he continued to fight all the same, an unbreaking will this Sovereign almost admired if not for his boundless frustration.

Which left only the rabbit as the source of the threat, for there was no other life around them, and this Sovereign spent a full second studying the beast before dismissing the possibility as both ridiculous and preposterous. Spiritual Beasts had the potential for power unchecked, but this rabbit barely even counted as such, its Spiritual Heart merely a reinforced neck to keep it from killing itself with its signature headbutt attack. Stupid and weak, yet aggressive and exceedingly procreative, that was the bicorn rabbit in sum, and it was laughable to the extreme to think that this particular rabbit here could threaten this Sovereign in any way, shape, or form.

This was merely his anger and fear getting the best of him. It had to be. Putting aside his caution for now, he shifted his foot off the boy’s face and used it to pin his right hand in place. Materializing his Domain to form a flat and unyielding surface behind the boy’s arm, this Sovereign slowly but surely applied increasing pressure with his foot until the Domain Plated Defenses gave way and he was rewarded with the splinter and crack of breaking bones. To his credit, the boy didn’t scream or cry, and merely grit his teeth with a sharp exhale in spite of what was surely staggering pain. The Domain Deflection failed to do anything to stop this Sovereign’s might, for his power was now too fixed and focused to be shunted aside. Heaving a sigh of sweet relief, this Sovereign smiled as he set his foot on the boy’s left calf and repeated his efforts a second time, thoroughly enjoying the crackle of bone and grunts of agony that filled the silence of the desert sands.

Taking his time to savour each break, this Sovereign continued to torment his prey, knowing he had time enough to still make his escape. The right calf followed soon after, then the boy’s right shoulder and both thighs, but still there were no delicious screams to be had. How disappointing, but the boy was crippled enough save for his left hand, which this Sovereign left intact so the boy could continue cuddling his rabbit which was left for last. The boy knew it too, knew this Sovereign would make him watch as he tormented the little vermin, and his fear was delicious to behold as he tried his best to shield the rabbit from this Sovereign’s gaze. So bold and courageous when it came to his own pain, yet the mere prospect of his rabbit’s suffering was almost enough to unmake him. Little did the boy know that this Sovereign intended to keep the rabbit alive, make it endure a life of suffering just to put the boy in his place and keep him pliant for future study.

For this Sovereign’s moment of victory was close at hand, now that he’d secured his prize, Falling Rain.

“To think,” he began, taking great delight in lording his victory over the boy beneath his heel, “This Sovereign even warned little worm of the folly of his ways. Nature is a cruel and merciless existence where only the strong survive, yet still you burdened yourself with useless concepts like honour, justice, mercy, and integrity. If not for your foolish ideals, you, little worm, would be this Sovereign’s champion and Disciple, but instead you have become the filth beneath my feet.” Emanating an Aura of misery and despair, he set to work crippling the boy emotionally as thoroughly as he’d crippled him physically. “So brave in your ignorance, so courageous in your defiance, yet see what it has brought you? Unbearable pain and suffering, but this? This is only the beginning, little worm. Death will be denied you for centuries to come, even after this Sovereign unravels your secrets, with no possibility for escape even if you seek to expend your soul and Life Energy in hopes of nihility and oblivion. This Sovereign’s retribution will be long and arduous indeed, and this suffering only the beginning, and though you think yourself steeped in misery now, you will soo–”

A bark of laughter interrupted this Sovereign’s exclamations, one which bordered on madness and delusion, yet the boy’s amber eyes were as clear and defiant as ever. “You think this is misery?” he asked, laughing even harder at the dubious absurdity of his statement. “You think this pain unbearable? Ha.” A chill ran down this Sovereign’s spine as he took in Falling Rain’s statement, but it was not the words which disturbed him so, but what he saw in the boy’s unwavering gaze. Resolve unbroken and unwavering due to conviction bordering on insanity, for he truly believed what he was saying, that the pain and suffering from his current plight was little more than an inconvenience. “Broken bones? Punctured lungs? Torn muscles and ligaments? Psh. Nothing I haven’t suffered before. Life is suffering, but a wise woman once told me this; where there is life, there is hope, and I still have hope yet.” Grinning from ear to ear like a deranged madman, the boy let his statement hang for all of second before continuing. “As for misery? You know even less. You think misery your ally? But you merely adopted the misery.” The boy’s tone took on a disquieting cast, a pitchy, tonal quality laced with disdain and amusement which shook this Sovereign to the core. “I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t see the light until I was already a man, and by then, it was nothing to me but blinding.”

Despite his bloodied and broken figure lying helpless underfoot, this Sovereign almost recoiled as the boy’s presence surged with darkness and despair in an Aura so palpable one could almost see, hear, smell, feel, and taste it, a dizzying cornucopia of sensations that left him frozen in place. “Let’s take a trip down memory lane,” the boy declared as the darkness consumed him and this Sovereign both. “And I will show you true misery.”

The world faded away as this Sovereign fell into an endless pit of gloom and depression, and as the memories took shape around him, he recognized the ring of truth in the boy’s words, truth which this Sovereign would now experience firsthand.

Chapter Meme 1

Chapter Meme 2

Chapter Meme 3