Kane City

Rodney Kane looked at the ancient airplane with a happy smile on his face. While the other factions struggled to settle their land allotments, he would already be gone, searching for the Seven Seals. He had no qualms about leaving his city without him. Any one of the mythical weapons promised by the quest would be worth far more than a single city. He could always take it back later if there was any treachery or invasion.

One of the various crafters in his employ had enchanted the fuel tank of an old WW2 fighter plane from a museum with spatial magic, allowing it to hold many times more fuel than before. The weight was not decreased, meaning that the plane would be unable to hold any weaponry, but that was inconsequential. Rodney was the weapon.

He got into the plane, and sat in the front seat. He did not really know how to fly a plane, but his enhanced intelligence would make it easy enough. He had read through a guide for small aircraft flight the day before, and was ready to leave. Andrew Munro had proved to be utterly unreliable over the last few days, which was why Rodney was setting off on his own. In the end, only one could stand at the pinnacle of Earth, and if he had his way, it would be him.

He took off a moment later, the plane speeding up into the clouds like an arrow. With such a light load, it was easy to handle, and soon Rodney was flying towards his first destination. England, the resting place of Excalibur. It was the perfect weapon for him, a powerful sword that would blend well with his natural abilities. He laughed as he broke through the clouds, and gazed off into the distance and towards his destiny.

Versailles

After Reaper had gathered his army of skeletons in Paris, he had made his way towards Versailles, where he had created a headquarters for his army of the undead. The half ruined palace had been turned into a staging ground for thousands of skeletons, each of which had been created with the purpose of not draining anything out of Reaper himself. He had gained a Legendary skill upon forming his Dao, and it allowed him to create undead that would drain energy out of their surroundings rather than him. They were a lot weaker than a personally powered monster would be, but he could make a lot of them. The only problem was that they took a lot of Death energy to stay autonomous, meaning that small units of skeletons were sent out every few minutes to gather wildlife to devour.

Sitting in the middle of this web like a bloated spider, Reaper cultivated every moment of the day. His army spread and spread across the surrounding land, and funneled essence into him. Soon he would be on the cusp of F Rank, and then he would make his move, hopefully securing the assistance of the mysterious faction that he had sensed briefly during the tournament. He had no intention of joining it however and would make his own way afterwards. Reaper only wanted to make contact to see if there was anything that he could get out of them before he did so.

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He had started to morph and change to suit his Dao, with it taking over his being far more than anyone else on Earth. He was now cold, calculating, and utterly lacking in empathy. All that he cared about now was gathering power, and expanding the reach of Death. Many Death cultivators saw the element as a god above all else, the personification of endless decay. This was simply the result of madness, but there was a grain of truth in the notion. There was great power in any of the elements, divinity aside, and one who could use them was far above those who could not.

Another team of skeletons brought him a struggling monster which he dispatched instantly, breathing in the essence. Only a few more days were left until he was ready. Then the world would tremble.

Near the Canyon of the cyclops

A few hours after they had left the canyon, the party was met with an interesting sight. The land ahead was furrowed as if massive carts had been dragged along it, leaving miniature canyons in their wake. The canyons were barely ten or fifteen feet deep, but they stretched out as far as the eye could see. They seemed too perfectly aligned with each other to be a monster, unless it was one gigantic one. Sam looked at the closest one from afar as Pyotr jumped down into one to see what was going on.

“Hey! Come here, there’s something strange,” The man shouted moments later. Everyone crowded around the furrow, and Pyotr beckoned for them to jump in. Sam went first, and the other soon followed. “Look, bones,” Pyotr said, pointing at an almost invisible series of bones lining the furrow. They were worked deep into the earth, and when Sam tried to pull one out, he was met with a momentary resistance before it came free, pulling up a web of other bones around it. The ends of the bones broke off from the others, and a sudden malefic presence could be felt. A faint patch of darkness grew within the space where the bones had been, and the air started to become extremely cold. Sam backed away, and as the cloud of darkness grew larger, he leaped back up to the top, carrying Lao in his arms. The others were able to make their own ways out, and they did so just before a sudden eruption of darkness shot up into the sky. Jeffrey paled at this, and Sam shot a glance over at him.

“Jeffrey? What is it?”

“I think I recognize this now. It’s a ritual circle, only on a gigantic scale. I think we just disrupted it.”

“Any idea what it was for?” Eduardo asked a moment later.

Jeffrey reluctantly nodded.

“It was some sort of summoning circle. One keyed to the element of Death. Only, I fear to think about what kind of creature a circle of that size could summon.”

Sam frowned and raised a hand for Jeffrey to stop. “What is it?” The man asked, confused. Sam shook his head, and pointed towards the north.

“There’s something coming from that direction. By the sounds of it, something very large. You think this could be what made this summoning circle?”

“Maybe? I’m not sure that there are any monsters sapient enough to do such a thing here, unless your planet was seeded far beyond what it should have been. Perhaps the System stepped up the game after seeing how strong you Earthlings could become.”

A faint speck of darkness appeared on the horizon, and it slowly got larger and larger. For it to be visible from this distance, the thing must have been the size of a small mountain.

"We need to get out of here. Run!” Sam shouted, dashing off to the side, in the direction further from the coming monster.