Micro could feel the energy around him returning to a calmer state, but his anxiety left him powerless to control it. He dedicated all his effort to moving slowly toward his unconscious friends. It was clear that the being at the centre of the square was no longer the girl who summoned him, and her movements were nothing like those of a young girl who was innocently mingled among the non-cultivators moments ago.

  “I was told the vessel would be weak, but this… wow…” the girl who previous called herself a prophet grumbled as she looked down at her slender arms. She brought her hands to her chest, where a core steadily radiated its chaotic glow, and she shook her head slowly. “At least the energy is stable here…”

  She waved her hand through the air, her eyes glowing as she observed the energy, then closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. As she exhaled, her aura rapidly transformed, and Micro could tell at a glance that her core was now the same colour as his own. She took another breath, and it was just sapphire as Lena’s. She took another breath, and the energy in her body transformed again.

  “Emerald…?” Micro mumbled in awe, but the girl continued to circulate her energy without pause.

  Her emerald aura flashed with red, and her core was soon at the ruby level. She drew another deep breath, and her core advanced yet again to the cerulean stage. Though her aura was vicious in nature, Micro recognized the power of the Imperial Envoy he’d met recently. Micro wondered if she would soon appear to challenge the monster in front of him, but there was no sign of Yahari. The only two things he could sense in the world were the core of the summoned being near him, and his own growing fear of her. The girl took a final breath, straining her energy as she altered her core one last time before relaxing.

  “Silver, huh…?” the girl said, opening her eyes. “That’s embarrassing, but it’ll do for now.”

  Micro continued moving steadily toward Kolt and Kira, who had been flung against the wall of a small building and lay atop a pile of debris. Blue and Trill were nearby, and Lena was starting to wake up slowly.

  “Seems like nobody died this time either…” Micro whispered to himself. “That’s good…”

  The girl with a silver core stood quietly at the centre of the square, continuing to look around at the world curiously, apparently uninterested in Micro or his friends. However, her eyes eventually fell upon Blue as her wings began to twitch.

  “I haven’t eaten in ages…” she said with hungry eyes. “That looks rather delicious…!”

  Micro scooped up the children in both arms and jumped toward Blue as the girl began walking toward her. He dropped the children near the slowly waking pixie and erected a flimsy shield around them before turning to face the mysterious being. He kept his good eye closed and looked into the eyes of the girl, but the chaos energy radiating from them made him dizzy.

  “Don’t eat my friend…” Micro pleaded, his strained voice barely audible to his own ears.

  “Oh?” the girl replied. “I assumed you were wild beasts.”

  “I…” Micro struggled to speak.

  “Are such weak creatures sentient on this world?” The girl wondered. “Curious…”

  “Please…” Micro said softly, turning his eyes down. His mind was unclear as the increasingly powerful aura of the possessed girl approached him, but he knew there was nothing he could do but beg.

  “Do you recognize my kind?” the girl suddenly asked with a relaxed tone. Look at me and tell me what you see.”

  “I know you’re from another world, like me…” Micro replied. He looked up again, but all he could see was the strength and chaos of the soul which had inhabited the girl. “And I know you’re strong… very strong…”

  “Hmph!” the girl scoffed, then shook her head. “This really is the middle of nowhere.”

  “Please don’t harm my friends…” Micro continued.

  “I already told that lady who plucked me out of the abyss I’d be obliged to do her a favour…” the girl said. “But I owe you nothing.”

  “Nora…” Micro replied. “She asked you to help magicians, right? Fighting the cultivators…”

  “That sounds about right,” the girl said with a nod. “But whoever the magicians are, if they can’t handle cultivators like this… They’re beyond saving. Are they livestock? It’s difficult to understand the scale of such trivial things.”

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  “There are some nice ones…” Micro answered. “Some smart ones too, I guess…”

  “Whatever. I haven’t stretched my legs in an eternity,” the girl sighed, stretching her body slowly. “I don’t even remember the last time I had legs. I guess I’ll have some fun for now.”

  “Fun…?” Micro asked, unsure what the girl meant.

  “I told Nora I’d kill some of the stronger cultivators on this world in return for a physical form. I really was desperate, to rely on such a being… She even calls herself a goddess,” the girl sighed with a look of shame. “I don’t mind cleaning up a few troublemakers for her, but I only sense a handful of people on this world worth picking a fight with.”

  “People here… do like fighting…” Micro managed to whisper in reply.

  “What an oddly ordinary situation to find myself in at this point in my existence…” the girl explained casually, then laughed. “Oh, having a voice again seems to have made me quite talkative! How nostalgic it is to take a physical form…”

  “So you…” Micro mumbled.

  “Thank you for the warm welcome,” the girl continued. “I may destroy this world soon, but I’m not a bully. Go about your petty affairs.”

  “What… Who…?” Micro stuttered as the girl began channelling her vast energy stores in a way he couldn’t understand. The force of her energy forced the non-cultivators and cultivators alike farther and farther away, as if they were leaves being swept away by a strong breeze.

  “To think I’d hear somebody ask who I was again…” The girl laughed heartily for a while, though each sound she made felt like thunder in the air around her. “You will know me as Cerena, of the betrayed.”

  “Cerena… the betrayed?” Micro repeated. “That’s an interesting name—”

  “Hah!” Cerena suddenly laughed. “What is this feeling?!”

  “Do you feel sick?” Micro asked.

  “Haha!” Cerena laughed again. She brought her hands to her stomach as she leaned over, apparently unable to control her jovial outburst. “There it is again!”

  “If you need a doctor…” Micro began, stepping back quietly.

  “No, no, I’ll be fine,” Cerena replied, waving her hand at him as she finally calmed down. “I think I might like you! I couldn’t say why, though…”

  Micro’s anxiety had waned for a moment at the sound of Cerena’s genuine laughter, but the air around him grew cold and heavy all at once before he could reply to her strange words. Her smile faded, and she nodded at him once before walking toward him, only stopping once her face was so close to his own that he could feel the warmth of her breath.

  “I’ll give you the best advice you’ll ever hear, mortal,” Cerena whispered with a friendly tone that made Micro’s mind go blank. “No matter how many realms you may come to rule, nothing is eternal. But if you’re going to kill a god…”

  “If I kill a god?” Micro gasped.

  “You’ll regret not making sure they’re dead.” Cerena grinned, though her chaos-filled eyes conveyed and endless torrent of resentment and bitterness that make Micro shiver. Her last words echoed like thunder as she gradually lifted off the ground, then she vanished into the sky without a sound.

  An eerie calm descended upon the square, as dust settled and the disgruntled voices of weakened cultivators began to fill the air. Micro felt numb despite the fact that the terrifying creature had left him unharmed, but he was soon snapped out of his state of shock by a twinge of pain in his chest. He looked around and soon located the sect leader he’d come to meet, feebly lifting herself to her knees while breathing heavily. With her core damaged and her energy depleted, she looked much older than she had only hours before, but Micro was relieved to see that she and her disciples were healthy enough to move at all.

  “Excuse me, sect leader…” Micro said with an apologetic bow. “I can see you have your hands full here, so if you could point me in the direction of Lo, I’d be very grateful…”

  “You…” she wheezed, looking up at him with fatigue clouding her expression. “You are unaffected… by the chaos…”

  “The dog in my core ate it before it could do any damage,” Micro replied. “I’m worried about where it’s planning to relieve itself though…”

  The sect leader stared at him for a while, but eventually closed her eyes and relaxed her posture, falling to her back and looking up at the sky. The clouds had parted as far as the horizon with the force of Cerena’s arrival, and a refreshing warmth bathed the troubled sect below.

  “The legend of Lo is much older than I am, but it speaks of a mountain to the north,” she said with her hand over her forehead. “There is a jade level sect near the fabled hill… None have bothered to confirm whether such a myth was fact in many generations, but I’m sure you’ll find what you seek with their assistance. They train there…”

  “Thank you very much,” Micro said, but he suddenly paused, looking around at the unpleasant scene of dust cultivators strewn about the damaged town square. The sect leader looked up at him, straining her tired ears to hear what news he seemed to desire to share. “Get well soon. Oh, and I don’t mean to be rude, but…”

  “But…?” Ling asked with an anxious tone.

  “If you’d had proper roads here, we might have might have been able to deal with the magician girl a bit faster.”

  “Ro—Roads…?” the sect leader stuttered, doubting her ears. However, Micro had already placed his two pixie companions in his pockets and lifted Kolt and Kira onto his shoulders. Lena was standing up straight, having endured the chaos energy more effectively than the amber level cultivators around her.

  “Let’s go,” Micro said to her, beginning to walk toward the sect temple’s gate.

  “I don’t know where I stand in this world after what I just witnessed…” Lena answered. “In the face of such uncertainty, I fear the empire’s response…”

  “Well, I don’t know where most people stand, but I know where we’re walking next, if you’d like to come,” Micro replied.

  “A fine plan…” Lena nodded, and the group departed the Amber Water Serpent Moon Sect with a new destination in mind.