Rieren was once again the first to flash forward. She slammed into the press of monsters at the rear, swinging in like a bladed whirlwind tearing every enemy in front of her apart. While Gale Blade’s use might have been more limited against undying cultivators, there were too many in the gaggle of monsters she was now intent on killing for them to run out.

Unfortunately, the Shatterlands defenders ahead of her didn’t get to appreciate how well they were being reinforced. Not that Rieren could really blame them. The Dreadflood was drawing up ever more powerful and dangerous enemies against their charge to its centre.

Rieren spotted an enormous Life Stifler, complete with a skeleton that towered over the entire area, an undead Blightmane that had to be at least B-Grade with the way it was tearing through the area, and even several Shifters constantly changing their forms.

“We can use my spears to keep the monsters trapped,” Rollo said. “But not for too far.”

Rieren glanced back to see him trapping more of the monstrous corpses with his summoned spears of light. They were wriggling ferociously despite being hacked into pieces by Rieren. If they got free, they would no doubt rejoin their former chunks to become whole again.

Which was the danger that Rollo was warning them about. If they kept going forward too far, they would eventually run out of the edge of his Domain, thus freeing the trapped monstrous pieces to go where they wished. That would put their little plan in jeopardy far too easily.

“We’ll just have to keep an eye out about how far we go,” Amalyse said. “They’ll have to make do with what reinforcement we can provide, not make us run all the way to their rear.”

“Besides.” Rieren briefly pointed at their rear guard. “We have him.”

The stringy cultivator who had informed them of the plan was doing well to take care of the Dreadflood’s summons around him. While his enormous, winged monkey continued firing beams of overwhelming power at the larger monsters, he himself was using misty techniques similar to what had been displayed by Oromin to keep the undead cultivators trapped.

They refocused back on the fight at hand. The pattern almost turned rote. While Rieren killed the monsters, Amalyse and Rollo were busy keeping them trapped.

The monsters weren’t too difficult to deal with. Rieren slashed and sliced them apart with ease. A testament to how far she had climbed through the ranks of cultivation—she was almost at the Exalted Realm now. Though, this was helped by the fact that the Dreadflood’s strongest summons were locked on the main thrust heading towards the Abyssal’s centre.

Though, Rieren still had to deal with cultivators. It helped that they weren’t in any shape to attack her or her friends.

Most of them had been eviscerated to pieces by the Shatterlands’ defenders. This ensured Rieren didn’t even have to fight most of them, at least not much. The great share of responsibility lay upon Amalyse and Rollo to trap the cultivators just as they had done to the undead monsters.

The only difference was that the cultivators were wilier in their attempts to escape. Not only did they try to pry off the light spears despite their hands incinerating away at the contact, they also had various techniques at their disposal.

It was imperative, therefore, to keep them really chopped up. Rieren was forced to slice off hands, decapitate a few men and women, and otherwise ensure that the former people were no more than pieces of flesh and organs, with some bones jutting out here and there. Grisly work, overall, but it was better than fighting the cultivators head-on.

Though, all the blood now drenching Rieren’s robes and exposed skin was starting to make her feel like she was wearing another layer over everything else. A long bath was in order when all this was done.

Up ahead, the main thrust heading had been stymied a little. The Dreadflood had flung its most powerful summons at the ones who sought to attack its very centre. Aside from the overlarge Life Stifler and other monsters, there were some stronger cultivators in there as well.

For a second, Rieren entertained the rather horrifying idea of seeing old Clanmaster Yonvig rise out of the depths. Thankfully, his body had been recovered by the defenders before it could be swallowed by the Dreadflood. Had that been the case, they would all have had much more significant trouble than they’d dealt with so far.

“What’s happening to the flood?” Amalyse asked.

The alarm rising in her voice made Rieren look around. As they had hurried after the forward thrust, Rieren had been the one to clear the path with her Domain. Even the trace amounts of Divine-Aspected Essence in her stormy water had destroyed enough of the dark flood to carve out a wide enough path behind their allies.

But now, the dark flood was retreating. Rieren and her companions all froze together as the black liquid returned closer to the centre, leaving behind unmoving pieces of both monstrous and human corpses.

Rieren swallowed. “We have seen this before.”

“The Life Stifler at the Sect,” Rollo said.

It seemed he remembered as well as Rieren did what had happened back there. Back in the Sect, when the Life Stifler had possessed a poor disciple, it had forced its physical smoky form inside the dead man before resurrecting him fully. The undead disciple had possessed great powers and abilities, channelling the Life Stifler’s full might.

Considering that the Dreadflood was simply an overpowered Life Stifler, they were likely about to deal with something quite similar.

Except, instead of a lowly disciple, its main possession was the Ordorian Clanmaster. And instead of a C-Grade monster Rieren could have fought and defeated alone, this was an S-Grade Abyssal capable of holding dozens upon dozens of summons within it.

The ones at the head of the procession came to the same realization in moments. Their charge ground to a sudden halt.

At the centre of the Dreadflood’s liquid mass, the undead figure of Merolk Ordorian was climbing out of the darkness. He was mostly naked now, his skin pockmarked with the dark corruption of the Abyss. When he opened his eyes, Rieren noticed they had gone entirely black.

Despite his shambling, halting gait, incredible power radiated off his entire form. What remained of the dark liquid outside his body was swirling around him with the strength and speed of a whirlpool, while lightning and thunder were flashing and striking with rising frequency. A maelstrom of darkness grew more powerful the longer they all watched.

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Which… no one wanted to continue, of course.

“What are we waiting for?” the large man yelled, rocks rising around him. “Attack that thing!”

Rieren supposed they had been at least a little shocked and unwilling to fight directly against their former Clanmaster. Even for those who weren’t directly under the Ordorian clan, most of them knew Merolk well enough. One didn’t become an Archnoble Clanmaster and remain unknown.

Thankfully, they had planned for when such an event occurred. The defenders, whether they were seasoned cultivators or new warriors making progress through their class, were all prepared to do what was needed.

The cultivators led the charge. Rocks went flying into their undead adversary’s face, thanks to the large man twisting gravity around him. Green fire flashed to life from the viridian-robed woman. Others joined in on the onslaught with their various techniques and abilities as well, refusing to give Merolk a single moment of breathing room.

That was the best way they could ensure victory. Overwhelm their incredibly powerful opponent with relentless pressure.

Rieren just wished it had gone as well as they had planned.

None of the attacks the defenders slugged at their opponent hit their mark. Merolk had simply disappeared.

Apparently, on top of channelling so much Essence that it was starting to appear tangibly in the Mortal Realm, Merolk could also teleport. So it was that all the defenders’ various powers struck together at the location he had just been. The combination was ferocious, and the resulting detonation made the entire land shake.

Amalyse cursed. “Get back!”

She had sent her warning to Rieren and Rollo. The undead Clanmaster had appeared far too close to them, though his attention seemed fixed entirely on the group who had attacked him directly. Nevertheless, Rieren didn’t hesitate to fall back while she could.

That proved unnecessary when Merolk attacked. His lightning capered off his body and blitzed into the Shatterlands’ defenders.

They had their defences prepared, of course. The gravity-wielder had raised more rocks to act as a bulwark against the lightning. Meanwhile, the others had done their best to disperse before the lightning struck them all at once.

It wasn’t enough. Merolk had apparently decided to use their own strategy of overwhelming force against them. He kept moving, refusing to give them a chance to land any of their blows against him. Not only was he a far more powerful cultivator at the Mid-Ascendant realm from all Rieren had heard, his power was also buoyed up by the S-Grade Abyssal as well.

Even with Batcat’s Call of the Past active, Rieren would have failed to match that level of prowess. It would take her to Mid-Ascendant realm, which suggested she would be a match for the corrupted Clanmaster, but that wasn’t true.

The real level of his power matched that of the S-Grade monster possessing him. Even the weakest of those could only be defeated by those in the Fated realm or higher.

Maybe the kitten had recognized that Rieren getting more power just then wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the fight for long. So, it had scampered off, probably to investigate some other curiosity. Rieren couldn’t exactly blame it for doing so.

The battle was already turning disastrous. Rieren and her fellow former Lionshard disciples had all fallen back enough that they could observe away from immediate danger.

None of the large man’s rocks even came close to catching the corrupted Clanmaster. All the fires sputtered out as he dashed past. A few summons got in his way, but they weren’t effective when the Dreadflood’s liquid darkness attacked them like a storm and dissolved them to nothing.

That was another source of potent danger. The Dreadflood’s dark liquid would immediately begin corrupting anyone and anything it came in contact with.

Merolk was fast enough that not only could he evade the various abilities flung in his general direction, he could find spaces to counterattack as well. One bolt of pure black lightning caught a man with spiky armour square in the chest. He was sent flying several dozen paces.

Another blow caught the green-robed woman by surprise. In fact, it caught them all off-guard. She had been pursuing the undead Clanmaster in an attempt to hit him physically with long whip-swords in each hand, but then, lightning had exploded out of the ground. Apparently, Merolk had injected some of his Essence along his trail. Only instinctive evasion and some timely flames prevented the pursuing woman from being burned to ash.

And then Merolk found the opportunity to unleash true devastation. In the pandemonium of the fight, the undead Clanmaster somehow managed to carve for himself several breaths of free time.

Which he used to leap straight into the air and summon two, enormous bolts of dark lightning.

They were gigantic. Rieren could only stare as the lightning grew to impossible proportions. Each bolt towered in Merolk’s hand like a jagged spear seemingly half as tall as a mountain. She was certain most of them were staring just like her at the sheer scale of his power.

A normal Ascendant-realm cultivator wouldn’t have been able to do that. Not even an Archnoble Clanmaster.

No, this was the strength of the Dreadflood incarnate.

“That’s going to kill us all,” Amalyse squeaked. Rieren doubted she had ever heard her friend talk like that.

“Hurry back, you idiots.” Rollo was already retreating. “Now!”

Rieren found her foot dragging along the ground as she quickly followed her friends backwards. Was there even a way to survive that impossible attack? She could focus on Earthfall Blade and try to deflect the shockwave. That had to be something her skill could handle, even if the initial impact would likely be well beyond its capabilities.

“Here it comes,” Amalyse shouted as Merolk rammed himself downwards, carrying his bolts with him. Rieren readied her sword, heart thundering in her chest. Wherever Batcat was, the kitten had better keep itself safe. “Brace for impact.”

A silver mist bloomed just before Merolk’s incredible power struck the earth. Rieren had a second to recognize that it was the stringy man’s ability, before the world shattered.

In a thunderstorm, one wouldn’t find it amiss to see jagged pillars of lightning crashing down from the heavens to smite the land itself. Bolts would come crashing in with terrific frequency, setting alight trees, leaving craters on the ground, and playing with the livelihoods of those who couldn’t find shelter.

The same happened here. Except, instead of the sky pelting blinding bolts, it was the earth heaving up a storm of spiky, black lightning right back at the heavens, like some sort of cosmic vengeance.

Rieren was sent flying off her feet along with her friends, their collective screams lost in the tumult of Merolk’s power. One good thing was that the way the earth itself was rent apart meant they didn’t have to deal with the shockwave of the enormous lightning bolts’ impacts. They were flying well off by the time it crashed through the area.

However, they still needed to land safely. This was going to be difficult since they were flying fast as though they’d been fired from the backs of cannons.

Rieren did her best to focus and summon her Domain. Water materialized behind her due to her speed. Thankfully, she had advanced far enough that she could summon it in a wide area. A quick use of steam allowed her to summon a wide geyser to cushion all of their fall, though it did leave Amalyse and Rollo spluttering and trying not to drown.

“A little warning next time, please,” Rollo said.

Amalyse spat out the water she had unwittingly swallowed. “Did you just say please?”

Rollo looked like he was too wet to be angry. “Slip of the tongue.”

Rieren didn’t pay attention to her companions. She was relieved that most of the defenders had survived that overwhelming blow from the possessed Clanmaster. Though, some of them were missing among those who were still standing to face down their enemy. Rieren noted that one of the missing ones was the large man. She could feel their morale taking a blow.

No, they weren’t going to survive this. She looked up. The sky was still a dark, overcast blanket that didn’t let them see anything of what might have been occurring past it. No sign that there were any meteor showers about to crash down upon them.

“How are we going to get away from here?” Rollo asked. “Do either of you have a Summons we can use?”

Amalyse scowled at him. “You want us to abandon our allies?”

“I want to not die, yes. That thing can’t be stopped by anyone alive. I don’t even know if the Emperor himself could win easily. Unless you’ve got a god or its Banishedborn handy, we might as well start evacuating.”

Amalyse continued staring at him, though her scowl had mollified into a strange wonder. “That’s the longest thing you’ve said in ages.”

Rollo stared back at her, mystified for a moment, then flushed all of a sudden. “You need to stop reading into things.”

Rieren wasn’t paying attention. What Rollo had said had ignited an idea, had returned a memory to the forefront of her mind. She pulled out the Banisher’s Brooch from her storage ring.

Amalyse caught her motion, and possibly the look in her eyes. “Rieren… what is that?”

“A summons,” Rieren said. “For a Banishedborn.”