“I can see you, you know,” Rieren said.

She had walked over to the very edge of the Dreadflood. There were no monsters nearby. Nothing had come out of the dark flood to greet her. Rieren had reached the S-Grade Abyssal’s body with no obstacles whatsoever.

There was no reply at first. She considered if her words were wasted. After all, if Elder Olg’s consciousness had devolved into that of a mindless Abyssal, then there was no point in her trying to converse with him. If he was driven by base instinct like an animal, if he had finally succumbed to the corrupted Essence he had taken in, then she might as well talk to a grave.

But something told her it wasn’t all lost. Yet. Some sense of belief in her mentor, some integral faith, had rooted her to her spot.

The flood started moving. Rieren’s hand jumped to her sword’s hilt, but after a moment, she realized that the dark liquid’s motion was rather… strange. It wasn’t truly moving. No, it was reforming. Reshaping itself from a spread-out flood of darkness into a stream of liquid winding over the ground.

At the very base of the stream in the distance, the liquid was bubbling as though a cauldron was burning within its depths. It was from this boiling patch that Elder Olg finally came out.

Rieren smiled when she saw him, though it quickly faded to a frown of concern when she took note of him properly. The Elder had changed a lot.

He looked even more… corrupted—she had no other word for it—than she had seen him last time. The body wasn’t his, of course. Elder Olg had taken over the former Ordorian Clanmaster’s body, simply replacing the head with his own. But more than that, the corpse had undergone some brutal transformations in the time since they had last met.

Elder Olg’s form had blackened to the consistency of inky tar under the influence of all his corrupted Essence. The figure that had been recognizably humanoid before now barely resembled the shape of a man. It looked more like someone had created a haphazard caricature of a man out of pitch-black snow, which had then melted in the heat.

It was only Elder Olg’s head that remained, as ever, the same.

“I can see you too, Rieren,” he said.

She had almost forgotten her original comment. Or rather, it was the Elder’s sudden appearance that had driven it from her mind, since it no longer applied.

“Elder,” she said, bowing shortly before straightening. “Can you please explain what in the Abyss is going on?”

Rieren tried to find some trace of the Elder she cherished in the creature standing before her. His face had transformed the moment she had rescued him from the Banishedborn. Pustules and pockmarks covered his entire head. His silver hair had turned completely dark, like strands of charcoal. Even his eyes were pitch black now, unlike the light gray they’d used to be.

Nevertheless, despite the unfathomability of his current looks, she got the impression that he was looking at her a little too critically. “Oh, that’s quite brilliant of you, Rieren.”

“What?”

“You mapped an extra layer of artificial meridians over the natural ones in your head.” He grinned. “The natural ones that are corrupted. I supposed I might be to blame for that, yes?”

Oh. So that was what he was speaking of. “One of my achievements gave a good deal of extra Spirit, so I thought I could use that to mask the corrupted Essence I couldn’t remove. For which, you are to blame, yes. Although, I might not have survived against the Banishedborn without your assistance, so we can call it even.”

“Mm, I might have considered attempting that. You know, back when I was just a corrupted head instead of an entire S-Grade Abyssal. I wonder how much Essence I would need to do the same trick. I assume it works well, yes? No one has caught a whiff of your corruption?”

“No one… except you.”

He laughed. “Brilliant, brilliant. One day, you need to show me how in the world you even created an extra layer of meridians, Rieren.”

Rieren shook her head and slashed her hand. This was not the conversation she had come here to have. “Elder, I repeat my original question—what in the world is going on here?”

“What do you mean? Though, I suppose I should be asking you what you’re doing here as well.”

“There are monsters invading. Hordes of Abyssals taking over the tournament grounds. Where did they come from? And why are you here? I thought you were headed towards Vanharron. I recall you mentioning something along those lines.”

Elder Olg got a pondering look on his face, rubbing his chin with two fingers. “I’m not sure I said Vanharron so much as the Celestial Realm. You see, when I set my direction, I was aiming for a powerful source of Divine Essence within the Elderlands. This might have been at Vanharron once. Apparently, it is now here.”

“What? Please, Elder, could you try to make some sense?”

It was almost surreal to be speaking with him in this manner. Rieren had left behind a devastating battle, had forgone trying to find her true target—the woman with the stolen tokens—and had even given up on her friends, albeit at their forceful request to do so. She was supposed to be progressing through a tournament, not doing whatever this was.

To stand here, talking to a powerful Abyssal, while whatever madness was going on behind her, made her skin itch with the need to do something.

Elder Olg sighed. “I do not guide my Dreadflood body in the same way a mortal would be in complete, conscious control at every moment of their waking life. Our connection is… different. I set a target or a goal, and then I descend into the flood itself. When I return, I find that some time has passed and the flood has made some progress towards the goal I originally set.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Descend into the flood?”

“Yes. The Dreadflood’s body forms an extraplanar dimension that is connected to several worlds but is a part of no world in truth.”

Ah. That explained how he had transported those Aetherian meteors into the Abyss through the liquid darkness. “So you set your target as this powerful source of Divine Essence? This was originally at Vanharron, so I assume, but now it appears it has shifted over here?”

“So it would appear.”

“Then why do I not sense it? If it—”

Rieren bit her lip as the realization hit her. Of course. The Elder wasn’t talking about the kind of Divine Essence that made its physical presence felt, the kind that could be used against others in a battle against cultivators.

No, he was speaking of the connection between the gods and the imperial court. The hooks they had mired the Elderlands with, the claws they had sunk into the empire’s flesh. The bits of their presence, their consciousness, their very beings, that had fallen to the Mortal Realm to affect things as directly as they could while alerting as few people as possible.

“That doesn’t explain the rest of the Abyssals,” Rieren said. “Do you know why they might be attacking? Is it simply because we have all gathered here at this one, specific location?”

Elder Olg considered some more. “That could be it. Though, I have also learned that there are higher hands that guide the ultimate direction of the Abyss and the Aether, and their intentions are more difficult to fathom.”

“Of course there are. The gods are making the monsters act out their various wills.”

“Correct. But do we know how they are doing so? After all, this isn’t some mortal chain of command, going down from chief commander to captain to—”

“There is a god for each.”

“Pardon?”

“They are gods, yes.” It felt strange explaining things to the Elder, but at the same time, it was satisfying to pull on the trove of information she had gathered over her years. “A god is a representation of a certain Aspect, usually an advanced Aspect that cannot be easily obtained, even by powerful cultivators. That cannot be easily channelled for battle like normal ones.”

“Ah, yes. What were you the goddess of again? A Thousand Blades?”

“Bladed goddess, yes. An Aspect embodying the art of swordplay.” She paused. “Something I must focus on, once I have some time again. But that is besides the point.” Rieren frowned. “You keep distracting me, Elder.”

“No, no, I was getting to my point once you concluded yours.”

“Consider mine concluded, then. What does the Abyssals being here have to do with their godly control? I understand you are insinuating that the gods are directing them here, but it doesn’t explain why.” She realized she was biting the inside of her mouth and stopped. “I had almost begun to believe they wanted this tournament to succeed…”

“Tournament? Actually, now that I recall, you never said what you were doing here, Rieren.”

Elder Olg sounded genuinely puzzled. Well, it wasn’t surprising. Lying dormant in the extradimensional belly of some Abyssal didn’t exactly keep one apprised of current ongoings.

Rieren sighed, then quickly and briefly explained her current circumstances. There was a lot going on, but she kept it strictly to the tournament, the supposed reasons behind it occurring in the first place, and the rules around it that made the arrival of the Abyssals a terrible twist in proceedings.

“Those are… quite the developments,” Elder Olg said.

“Yes. But you were saying about the gods and their monsters…?”

“Ah, yes. What I meant to say is that I have learned that they can be quite dysfunctional. The left hand does not speak to the right.”

Rieren blinked. She’d known that too but… Rieren shook her head. It was true. Not everything that went against her initial beliefs needed to be something terrible. The gods didn’t always act as one. For all she knew, the deity responsible for the Abyssals’ actions hadn’t informed the one or more of his fellows who approved of the tournament.

“In the end, you have nothing to do with their interruption?” Rieren asked.

“Of course not,” Elder Olg said. “I just want my source of divinity.”

“Do you know what this source even is? The thing is Elder, with all due respect, I cannot have you interrupting the tournament in the same way the monsters are doing right now.”

Elder Olg looked like he wanted to sigh but was finding the physical process difficult. “I was afraid as much. With the Dreadflood’s target set, I don’t think I can fully prevent it from reaching its goal.”

Rieren swallowed. “You… cannot control yourself?”

“As I said, Rieren, this creature needs a certain, strong goal to proceed. It hungers for powerful sources of Essence. Why do you think it was moving towards Falstrom originally?”

“Because the city held the greatest concentration of people?”

“Of Essence. That is what the Dreadflood hungers. The strongest collection of Essence. Your summoning of the Banishedborn was a stroke of genius. Now, you have to do it again.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Unless you wish for me or the Dreadflood to enter farther into this tournament of yours?”

Rieren grumbled to herself. No, that wouldn’t do. The Abyssal interruptions so far were bad enough. An S-grade monster’s arrival deeper into the grounds would set off more chaos than she was prepared to handle.

It appeared Rieren herself would need to find Elder Olg’s source of Divine Essence and bring it over to him. Great. As if she didn’t have her hands full already.

Rieren looked back. There was no sign of any further commotion. All efforts by the Avatars to eradicate the forest and everything within it seemed to have stopped for now. She didn’t like it. There had to be something going on and her absence meant she was missing out on events.

She turned back to the Elder. “Will you promise to halt yourself here till I return, then?”

“I will remain here as long as can,” Elder Olg said. “But I cannot hold the Dreadflood back forever. It would be best if you could bring me the source of Divine Essence as soon as possible.”

Or, until Rieren had rushed through the entire tournament and secured herself one or more seats on the imperial court. She didn’t say it out loud, though.

“I will do my best,” she said.

“I know you will.” Elder Olg smiled at her. There was nothing but pride and warmth in it. “Now, I suggest you hurry back in case you miss anything truly important. Something tells me there is something interesting about to happen.”

His senses had turned preternaturally sharp after his transformation. There was more he hadn’t told her, but Rieren had no time to quiz him about all the changes an S-Grade Abyssal had enacted to his senses and powers. She did indeed need to return.

“Then farewell for now, Elder,” she said, turning her back to him.

Elder Olg tutted, slowly sinking back into the flood of darkness around his feet. “Despite you failing to say it, I will reciprocate regardless. May fortune favour your steps, Rieren.”

Rieren paused for a second, then pushed it aside and hurried away. It was fine. Elder Olg had already disappeared under the surface. She didn’t have to wish him good fortune when she was doing his work for him.

It was a good thing Rieren had restarted her journey when she had. There was a brilliant flash in the distance. A part of her wondered if one of the Avatars had created another forest-destroying tree again, but that wasn’t the case. This channelling of Essence was far more virulent, not a single burst of a technique carried out by a lone cultivator.

This was a monster, one channeling Divine Essence. It had come down like a sunbeam descending from the heavens, slowly closing in on the earth. Rieren grimaced.

On top of all the invading Abyssals, an Aetherian had landed in the tournament grounds.