The sound of blood dripping on the stony ground was all that could be heard as the air in the room froze. The blurry image of the creature before them stood there for another few moments, and then it vanished. By the time it did, the woman was already gone.

“Fuck!” Neave yelled. “Heavens fucking damn it! I wish I had realized it's an illusion sooner! Damn, that was convincing.”

“Hahaha…” Dukean’s dad chuckled. Then, he started cackling like a lunatic. “I can’t believe it! Everyone I knew—ack!” he choked as Neave appeared before him and grabbed his neck.

“Dukean!” he commanded, and the young master whipped his chain sword, restraining the emperor, who, surprisingly, didn’t resist.

“Now then,” he said, turning to the man whose neck he was gripping so tightly it bled. “Time to see whether this one has any ties to the demons.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Dukean said. “My old man is clean, I know for a fact.”

He decided to trust his companion’s words, so he let the man fall to the ground.

“You’re… Kingean, right?” he asked, vaguely recollecting hearing the man’s name somewhere.

The man nodded slightly, his expression vacant.

“Okay. Wait here,” he commanded as he teleported before the emperor. “So… Nice to meet you, Your Highness,” he said snarkily. “Care for another lil’ spirit oath?” he said as he offered a hand.

The emperor stood, unable to move due to the restraints, but Neave just stretched his arm and grasped the man’s hand.

“I have no ties to the demons,” Jeevian declared regally, not a single hint of hesitation in his voice. “And I have no intention of harming any of you…” he declared.

None of that strange weirdness was present in this man’s spirit oath, and it went through cleanly. So he was calm because he knew he was innocent. Neat. But that didn’t mean that the man would be released.

“So then,” he started. “Care to explain why you and your gang came after us?”

The man scoffed. “It was a command by Hosolar. There were promises of rewards, but we did it because of the implied consequences of disobeying.”

“Because he would have killed you if you refused?” he asked, nodding. “Makes enough sense, I suppose. Do you care to explain why—?”

“Child,” the man interrupted. “I need to ask you a question in turn,” he declared, raising his eyes to stare Neave down without a single hint of fear or reluctance. “What is it that you and your allies are aiming to accomplish?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” he answered. “We are gonna kill the heavenly messenger.”

“Hmmm,” the man hummed. “I see,” he said, sighing heavily. “I have been an utter fool for a long time, it seems. I’ve been delusional, unaware that there are powers still beyond my reach, even in this tiny place. Say, child… Do you wish to hear my tale?”

“Sounds like spirit oath time to me,” he said, grinning at the tied emperor.

“Very well.”

***

After a short talk between Kingean and Dukean, the father and son settled and sat right beside everyone else. The emperor had been untied as he had sworn that he had no intent of getting violent, and then, he told them his story.

It was quite shocking, to say the least. Apparently, the glorious emperor they knew was little more than a young master of a sect from a higher realm. Well, he wasn’t young, not anymore, but he was stuck at the same level of power he had been at since he was twenty.

What followed was a long tale of what had happened to him and how he got there. Apparently, he got stuck in a crumbling mystical realm and had to use a life-preserving treasure to seal himself away until the shard of space carrying him reattached itself to another realm. Unluckily for him, that small shard of space floated far from where he expected to end up.

“The omnirealms, as they’re called,” the man said. “Are a collection of interconnected universes that remain clumped together. You can think of it as numerous boats in the ocean, all tethered to one another with ropes. Sometimes, when a ship is set on fire or when the crew suffers a plague, the other ships cut it off, allowing it to float far into the ocean.

“That ship is basically where we find ourselves now. This is one such lost realm. And the plague—the fire that caused it to be cut off—is the monster apocalypse.”

The man continued his story, explaining everything he could to them. But he didn’t know much. He had no clue how this monster apocalypse started, nor did he know what had caused it. All he knew was that the cores could provide something that should absolutely be out of reach for a lower realm like this.

Spirit powers, apparently, weren’t something that should be possible to acquire before at least the diamond path. And even then, the special procedure that allowed people to acquire them just couldn’t be done within this realm. But although these cores were special, they were also apparently tainted—which was something that nobody there was happy to learn.

“You need not worry,” he said, chuckling slightly at their displeased reactions. “This taint isn’t harmful to you. Well, not directly. It does hurt the gods, however. They sap their power from those following their paths—every time someone progresses along the path of the sword, for example, the twenty-nine sword gods split a small shard of power between them. But these cores have hints of demonic essence within.

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“It is the power that is the polar opposite of the path of the stone. And, as such, anyone tainted with monster cores provides no value to the gods, losing their alignment to both the demonic and the sacred paths.”

All of these were realm-shaking revelations. Kingean looked stricken hearing all of this, and he clearly still hadn’t gotten over the fact that his allies weren’t who he thought they were.

“You said you wish to kill Hosolar?” the emperor asked.

Neave nodded.

“Well, then you should know exactly what you’re dealing with,” the man said with a frown, leaning forward slightly. “When it comes to cultivation, Hosolar is at what you would know as the tenth step of the diamond path.”

Neave gaped at that, his jaw stretching and literally falling to the ground. He sucked it back up, nodded with a smile, and said. “Hell fucking no, dog, we running. Pack your bags, guys, because we’re getting the fuck out of here!”

“Wait a moment!” the emperor called. “The situation isn’t as dire as you might believe.”

“He’s in a temporary avatar, right?” Neave asked.

The emperor seemed shocked that he already knew this and nodded. “That is correct.”

“Tell me, how limited is his power, then?”

That made the man wince. “I do not know. Given that he claims to be capable of helping someone grasp a true strand, he should still have at least the power of the sixth step.”

“Hell no!” Neave said again. “What the fuck, man!?”

“Just hear me out,” the emperor said. “Like I said, things might not be as bad as they seem. The power he holds is limited in several ways. First, any shred of power he uses is temporary—meaning that his cultivation will drop with every qi technique he uses.”

That calmed Neave down slightly. “Go on.”

“Also, he is rumored to have numerous spirit powers, but due to the nature of the avatar, he is restricted to only one. It will be powerful, though.”

“So what you’re saying is… If we can wear him down…?”

The man nodded.

Neave sighed. “Okay, things aren’t as bad as they seem; you’re right.”

But the emperor winced anyway. “Still… your companions are all at the peak of platinum. Their help, while surely great with the power they hold, will not be enough with just this.”

“Oh, don’t worry, they’ll all get up to the diamond path before the fight.”

The emperor gaped at them and then chuckled. “I see. May I suggest a course of action, then?”

“Depends,” Neave offered. “What’s in it for you?”

The emperor grinned. “I’d much prefer having you as an ally. I know much about the Heavenly Pantheon and their ilk. They treat everyone below them as being lesser than ants.” Then, he turned to face Marven and grinned wryly, “You, on the other hand, have managed to reconcile with your family, and you’ve even spared my life. It is clear who among the two of you showed more humanity.”

Neave didn't buy it. It was a convenient excuse to make, but for the time being, he needed the help more than he needed to be cautious.

"Very well," he said, nodding hesitantly. Then, he placed an arm on the emperor's body. "Please do not resist."

"What are you...?" the emperor tried asking, but his eyes suddenly shot open as he realized what Neave was trying to do.

The man's lifeforce was wrestled into a peculiar form, wrapping around the shape of his spirit as it fully isolated it from the outside.

"There," Neave grinned. "With that, Hosolar should no longer be able to sense your location."

***

Down the caves, the party of eight went. Kingean trodded slowly, unable to wrap his mind around all that happened. First, it turned out that all his allies had been keeping great secrets from him, and most of them weren’t even his allies at all. And now Carfen was dead. Xondir was dead. Beanna was related to the demons. And then Dukean suddenly became many times more powerful than himself?

It felt like he was losing his mind. The emperor had accepted everything easily. Too easily. That was how he always was. No matter how dire things became, his first reaction was to adapt and find a way to survive. Kingean felt that the man was downplaying the sheer magnitude of what he’d done. As if surviving a crumbling mystical realm could be done so easily. Even with stasis, it would take immense willpower, patience, and determination to wait such a long time to be released. And for that, he truly admired the man, even his admiration conflicted with a myriad of other emotions fighting for prevalence.

“You seem distressed, Kingean,” the emperor said.

Kingean looked away. “Let me ask you something, Jeevian,” he said, unable to keep the hint of spite from entering his voice. “That time, back when you told me to grasp for that true strand… Is that really possible in this realm?”

Jeevian seemed sad at hearing that. “I do not know. But if I had to guess, then… probably not.”

“So you lied to me?”

“I did not lie to you,” the man said. “I told you the truth of what I’ve done under spirit oath. And I promise that I do not truly know whether it is possible.” Then, turning around, he said, “But I can tell you with honesty that I never wanted you to attain that degree of power.”

Kingean was shocked to hear those words. And even more shocked that he had no problem believing them. “I see,” he said, frowning. “So you prefer a loyal dog who will forever stay below you?”

“Yes,” the emperor said honestly. “Even now, your loyalty to me is waning. It has been ever since we lost against the myth golem. Because you learned that I am not invincible,” he declared, turning back to face the direction he was walking in. “I’ve seen many people like yourself, Kingean. Devoted with their lives… until those you are devoted to become mere peers, or even below you. I am not proud of deceiving you, but search your heart and tell me that my words aren’t true.”

As much as he hated to admit it… the man was right. Had Kingean ever reached Jeevian’s level, he wouldn’t have maintained the same degree of loyalty. He would have definitely sought to be treated equally, if not even…

All that had happened today had shaken him to his core. This whole time, his entire life, he had lived knowing that there were worlds above them… but to think that his power was so insignificant. To think that his work was so fruitless all this time. It made him bitter.

“Hey, Kingey boy,” a voice called. "Wow, you son and father really are similar!"

He was broken out of his stupor by the Lost Child. The boy stood below him, gazing up at him with a wide grin on his face. There was something creepy, deeply unhuman behind those eyes. Dukean had kept Neave’s secret hidden, so Kingean had no clue what precisely this thing before him even was.

“Can you list your spirit powers?” the child asked.

“Tch,” he clicked his tongue. “Kid, why would I tell you anything about my powers?” he dismissed him, narrowing his eyes. This child could kill him in mere moments without even the faintest hopes of him being able to resist it, but he would rather die than throw his pride away.

“Oh, I guess you don’t want these, then?” the kid asked, grinning widely at him.

Kingean’s eyes shot wide open at the four perfectly round cores. He gulped. Each of them was almost diamond-ranked in power.

“What…” he stuttered. “What do you want in return for that?”

The Lost Child Grinned. “I just need a wee bit of help dealing with a certain demigod.”