“Sanguis Fulmin!” Bunbun cried, crimson bolts of crackling death flashing in a jagged arc to strike and chain between the trio of now smoking wasps that had been a heartbeat away from striking them with their spear-like poison-tipped stingers.

  Only to rejoin their arachnid phalanx leader, seconds later.

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!”

  You have successfully raised 3 Level 50 Terror Wasps! - Modified revenant level = 88!

  “Nice shot, Bunz!”

  “You got tanks, I’ll handle air support!”

  Eric high-fived his familiar’s ear. Both of them truly reveling in the moment, happy to lose themselves deep in the thick of a wild jungle filled with predatory giant insects and arachnids, the air filled with the buzz of enormous locusts, blood sucking mosquitoes, and giant wasps with stingers like sabers.

  Eric laughed for sheerest joy that was both heartfelt and genuine.

  For they were now well and truly free.

  “Kicking ass, boss-man!”

  Eric scratched his purring bunny behind her ears. “Come on, Lilly. Let’s go do what we do best.”

  Lilly bobbed her dainty little head, crimson eyes as thirsty for carnage as the most gleeful revenant, yet content to stay in the periphery as Eric proceeded to chase down the deadliest, hottest blinking reds he could find in the entire territory, without dragging his very slowly growing army behind him. Of course Bunbun new why, as the air flashed with mithril, the roars of massive crabs, scorpions, and bus-sized tiger ants.

  Like the one that had just burst from the loamy ground after another half dozen giant wasps had fallen to Bunbun’s lightning.

  Eric’s heart roared in his ears, his entire body shivering with excitement as he lowered his center of balance, hand on the hilt of his dachi, Northern Star stance embraced as the massive behemoth showcased its massive steel-shredding pincers and charged forward.

  Charged so close that Eric could feel it’s killing aura wash over him like a wave.

  Moving with shocking speed for a creature in what had so recently been a Red-Tier territory… though it’s aura was that of a Bronze, and not a newly minted one, either.

  And suddenly it was as close to Eric as any of the vorpal-toothed oversized velociraptors that had come so close to killing his friends in Rising Sun Corp.

  Then there was no time at all.

  Death was assured with those snapping jaws for any overconfident foe that thought he could so easily best a Bronze-Tier—

  DOOMFLURRY!

  You have STRUCK YOUR FOE with 8-fold POWER BLOW enhanced BLOODFIRE STRIKE 1 Dozen times!

  30 Qi & 3 SR baseline cost = (30*2 (Power Blow) * 12 (Doomflurry dozen) = 720 Qi & (6x12+50)/3(Blood Orb) = 40.67 Soul Reserves spent!

  Your foe has suffered CATASTROPHIC Damage!

  You have successfully obliterated your blow with a PRISTINE strike!

  Eve approves of this battle… but feels you must forge yourself FURTHER to achieve a pristine ascension WORTHY of your pristine strike!

  Congratulations! You are 2/3rd of the way to Level 51 as Death’s Disciple! (Four Seasons Cultivator).

  Eric glared down at the smoking remains of the absolutely obliterated Boss-tier Tiger beetle that had definitely been a Bronze… and hardly wild fortune or misfortune to encounter it here, in a Red-Tier region, since he had been deliberately racing for over an hour to track down the biggest, baddest and most perilous baddies on his Dominion Interface Map for a singular reason.

  To face down Bronze tier bastards that he could obliterate like putting an egg in a blender with a single blow.

  A single perfect strike showing focus, mastery, and absolutely perfect timing. Timing such that his shearing blows had hit dead on, when anyone slower than him would have been ripped in two, despite channeling a good portion of his Strength and Quickness for eight times the heat and penetrating power that his already impressive Bloodfire strikes. A warped fusion of pristine fire and defensive ward-shredding blood magic that could normally cleave right through steel tanks, or the obsidian-hued scales of half-step Bronze Utah Raptors, or any Soul, Spirit or Arcane ward he had ever encountered when not dueling Bronze-Tier Contenders… without any extra enhancements needed at all.

  Hell, even his novice Fire Fist of multiple evolutions and skill ranks back could shatter high-level White-Tier Arcane wards, as he had proved so handedly to the very former Administrator Narri.

  And his deliciously evolved and shockingly deadly Bloodfire Strike was orders of magnitude beyond that most basic Fire Fist, in terms of both destructive and penetrative power.

  And it still hadn’t been enough.

  No matter what his cheerful hyper familiar thought, doing happy backflips on his shoulder, the foul-smelling gore instantly flicking off her glossy white fur.

  “That was FUCKING EPIC, Ernest Edgelord Awesome! Did you see what you did?”

  Eric flashed a tired smile. “Yeah, Bun. I saw.”

  “Twelve times! You got your 24-foot-long Hyper powered blazing hot bar of bloody fiery oblivion to cut through that fucker’s Tungsten-tier carapace a full dozen times in the LITERAL blink of an eye! Tell me you didn’t get a rank in Fast Draw, Swordsmanship, and Bloodfire Strike! Tell me you didn’t get a full sweet hot cultivation level with that epic kill!”

  Bunbun’s eyes widened with surprise, Looking at the smoking remains of the burnt shell of a Bronze-tier horror that had been completely flash-boiled from the inside out.

  “Oh shit. You didn’t get anything for that righteous kill, did you?”

  Eric sighed. “What I got was tapped 720 Qi and over 40 Soul reserves. For a single strike.” He gave a bitter laugh. “Which means that the massive incredible 5000+ epic Qi Pool I thought was so legendary... isn’t. Not if I’m going to Super Punch my way with a dozen greater intensity punches and sword swings. Ha!” He smirked. “I can get off a max of seven of those Doomflurry enhanced Bloodfire Power Blows before I’m crashing to the ground in exhaustion, easy prey for my foes until I get an hour’s rest or meditation. Now I’m feeling the bite of sacrificing a good chunk of my Spiritual Energy to my defenses.”

  Bunbun gave him a jaded look. “Oh. Right. The defenses that make you immune to mortal-tier artillery fire and saved you from at least one ugly bruise just a few minutes ago while you were pushing yourself so hard, forcing yourself to take ever greater risks with the ugliest creatures you can find here.”

  “Exactly!” Eric said with a bleak smile. “And I know damn well that I have no right to complain. What bother’s me was the System message I got.”

  Bunbun frowned. “Hmm… you mean the one where Eve said ‘nice job, but try harder, kid, you’re almost worthy!’ even though you just took on a fucking Bronze Boss in newly ascending Black-Tier territory?”

  Eric nodded, rubbing the bridge of his nose, irrespective of the gore his entire body was now covered with.

  Bunbun tilted her head thoughtfully, Eric’s eyes instinctively tracking the massive swarm of hornets that were now plunging for Eric’s mammalian flesh as fast as they could—

  “FRAGOR!” Eric snarled, Eyes flashing as the centralmost one exploded like a bomb, fragments of its rigid carapace now tearing through the buzzing wings of its compatriots.

  Psionic Rupture has catastrophically struck your target!

  You have OBLITERATED your target with an -unorthodox- Transcendent Attack!

  You sense no cords of fate pulled to confound you.

  BunBun applauded. “Brilliant! And your Psionic Shout is one you can use whenever you want, even outside of spicy hot areas like this one! Only problem is you’re paying 60 additional health with each shout you unleash until you reset with an hour’s rest. And even with your dense neurons… hmm… you’ll be leaking blood after your third shout. I’m sure of it!”

  Eric smirked, even as he winced internally, sensing his familiar’s concern even through her cheerful praise.

  “Yeah, I know, Bunbun. But our priorities just shifted. We’re no longer just cakewalking the oranges waiting for us. Now that this territory’s ascending, we need to clear this, the only Black-Tier region adjoining New Arcadia. Here’s to hoping we can do it without it eating too much of our time,” Eric conceded with a sigh.

  Bunbun nodded. “Kind of reminds you of something, doesn’t it?”

  Eric snorted coldly. “Sure does,” He said, thinking of the incredibly deadly flood of Utahraptors and giant monster wyrms that could have so easily flooded and utterly destroyed Freetown. Before Eric had transformed what could have so easily been Freetown and the adjoining territory’s utter doom and transformed it so utterly.

  “It has a certain degree of ‘malice’ all over it. So sure as fuck we’re going to cut the cords that bind and free it just as completely as we did New Arcadia.”

  “Damn right we are!” Bunbun enthused. “But we still want to claim all those Orange-Tiers before the start of the semester! Just to make sure that there’s absolutely no chance they morph from orange to red to black and monster surge while you’re a reborn low-level student living the slice-of-life school arc!”

  Eric frowned. “Well, the delves were cleared. And even if it sucks that I wasn’t the one doing the clearing, that should at least keep them stable… right?”

  “Lol. You sure about that, Fearless Leader?” Bunbun’s shrug turned to a stiffened frame, ears swiveling around. “Eric!”

  But he was already on it. Sensing death’s approach.

  Unified Perception check successful!

  He spun around, glaring at the dozen crippled Wasps that were still approaching with dogged determination.

  “Sanguis Fulmen!”

  Before collapsing at last, a pile of smoking corpses charred from the inside from twin bolts of Blood Lightning.

  Eric gazed up at the gentle crimson eyes of the familiar gazing down from the top of his mithril-covered head.

  “Any thoughts about the other reason why we’re here?”

  “You mean about leveling up as a peerless cultivator daring to walk Eve’s bad-ass path?”

  Eric grinned. “I like the sound of that.”

  Bunbun shrugged. “There’s a mellow gamer’s way of looking at your situaton, or the hyper retentive perpetually frustrated cultivator’s way of looking at it.”

  “Alright, tell me both.”

  “Sure! Look on the bright side, Fearless Leader! You have over 800 in multiple stats including a truly crazy Quickness in the quadruple digits! Check your stat equivalence lately? I invite you to put your hand against Caliban’s measuring orb in Blue Corp’s most discrete hiring hall. I don’t think you’ll be at all disappointed to find out how you measure up to both typical Bronze ascenders, and the elites who had all the perks that money and family connections could buy. It would be absolutely absurd for you to be able to cakewalk through monster encounters and earn a rank per unique kill or any Contender forever… as if you were actually just a fiftieth level cultivator and not the monster of a hybrid that you actually are, right?”

  Eric nodded, his tight features easing to a thoughtful nod. “Makes sense. And Eve isn’t giving me zero credit, just partial credit as I slowly evolve myself and push myself forward.”

  “Exactly!” Bunbun enthused. “You walk Evolution’s Path! Who cares if you’re unorthodox as fuck? So’s a snail or a leopard or a jellyfish. Or a squid! As different from one another as anything. And arguably they are, in their own way, shockingly smart! Or at least the squids are. And the leopards are very savvy when it comes to killing you when you’re not looking. And all of them survive and evolve in ways entirely different to the 9-5 wage slave or the wandering human Cultivator.”

  Bunbun nodded in satisfaction. “There are all sorts of ways to evolve. And if what you do is working for you... then you’re doing it right!”

  Eric grinned. “I like that outlook.”

  His familiar sighed and patted the top of his mithril helm. “Of course any normal cultivator would take one look at all the wild currents of power coursing through you and burst into tears, knowing it’s only because of massive System intervention and two classes forged with the help of Gold-tier monsters that allows you to channel so many chaotic energies from wildly opposing disciplines and paradigms and not be a smoking wreck of fried meridians and ruptured cores.”

  Eric winced. “Ouch.”

  “Look at it this way! A Cultivator who actually had a heritage library’s worth of information to draw upon would have known how to evolve their race and purify the impurities that are absolutely flooding you, from a cultivation perspective! And they wouldn’t dare mess with unorthodox arts at all! They’d also know Body Cultivation paths to emphasize their strengths, and all sorts of Soul Cultivation or Spiritual Pool wujen boosting techniques as well. But you know none of that! So, whereas a true cultivation prodigy would have their Water affinity, let’s say, flowing through their veins and meridian channels like pristine liquid death, YOU have a garbage dump’s worth of scrap steel that the Crucible of Peril is allowing you to pound into molten slag and FORCE through your meridians so you can STILL advance and evolve as Eve’s wildcard disciple, evolving to force that sludge to white hot magma roaring through your meridians, like the fires of the Phoenix would of course allow! But, um… yeah.”

  Bunbun tilted her head upside-down to look him in the eye. “There’s no fucking way you’re going to advance anywhere near as fast as say… Richard Li! Your frenemy nemesis who will TOTALLY HOOK UP with you-know-who! And by you-know-who, of course I mean your twin sister.”

  Eric glared. “Not funny, Lilly. Not even a little bit.”

  “Even though we can kinda guess who his parents… grandparents are?”

  Eric winced. “Shit.”

  “Yeah… funny how Eve is totally like ‘walk the path of peril, my wild disciple!’ for you, and ‘easy mode and a golden start for my lovely little grandbaby!”

  Eric sighed. “Not really, Bun. I know that I’ll do everything in my power to give my future children lives that are sweet, filled with happiness, and the promise of power great enough that no one will ever be able to hurt them. But more than anything else, I’d make sure that my kids never have to put their lives in constant peril to get to where I am. Even if they don’t end up quite as absurdly powerful as I have… at least they’ll get to live and enjoy happy lives when they finally become whatever they want to be.”

  Bunbun frowned at that, before slumping in despair. “You’re right. And look what we did to our baby Lilly?”

  Eric sighed, gently stroking her fur. “I know. And had we raised her from infancy, had she not slipped free of you as an adult with all her mother’s memories and love and some absolutely kickass army-melting spell evolutions… we would have tried to give her the perfect childhood.”

  Lilly hopped off his shoulder, gazing at Eric with soft amber eyes radiating a pain, a yearning, he understood all too well.

  “Eric…”

  Eric swallowed the lump in his throat. “We’ll enjoy these moments together, being the badass hellions that come so naturally to us, power-leveling like anything. But when the time comes… you damn well better believe I’m bringing you back, Lilly. 100%”

  His rabbit bowed her head, speechless, all too human tears dripping upon the ground as the air rang with eldritch words once more.

  “And the first step for that, Little Lilly, is my raising my Necromancer Class!

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!”

  Lightning flashed and thunder boomed. The ground turned to a swamp of mud as a howling thunderstorm drenched them all. But not before a dozen perfectly restored aerial scouts and one additional massive tank of a rhino beetle rose to its full gargantuan height, the air filled with the subsonic rumble of its limbs rubbing in salute of its new master.

  And seconds later a laughing Eric had summoned the entirety of his small coterie of exoskeleton-favoring enlistees.

  He nodded in satisfaction. The scouting mission was now officially over. He knew where his targets were, including one truly significant Bronze-tier foe worthy of ranking him up near the hot zone that could only be the delve in the southwestern corner of the territory, closest to New York’s extended Orange-Tier regions.

  And he had every intention of taking that final foe out.

  Once he’d cleared this wild jungle of prehistoric ferns and proto-flowering plants of all its juicy prizes.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Because as much as he had every intention of raiding and claiming a certain half dozen juicy territories, he would first unlock all the power and potency trapped within this deadly region so close to New Arcadia. Claim it and make it Elonia’s own.

  And he didn’t give two shits if any bloated asshole of an Administrator screamed foul. He’d be happy to show them all exactly what he thought of them in exquisite white-hot detail the instant a single one of them dared to cross his path, ever again.

  He had once given them his neck, for the sake of seventy thousand children sentenced to the steel pits of humanity’s enemies.

  And he ever saw another one of those bureaucratic sellouts ever again, the memory of their haughty countenances glaring down with such contempt at those sobbing children forever etched into Eric’s horrified psyche...all he’d give those Administrators was a quick and violent death.

  And if anyone objected too strenuously?

  He’d take their heads as well.

  Before enlisting them all in his eternal army… so they could serve out their sentence for all time.

  You have successfully raised an additional dozen Red-tier opponents from the dead!

  All have chosen your growing legion over oblivion.

  You have raised an additional 27 Fire Beetles from the dead!

  You have successfully slain 47 Death Wasps!

  Blood Lightning is now Rank 15!

  Psionic Rupture is now Rank 11!

  Bloodfire Strike is now Rank 22!

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!”

  You have raised an additional revenants to join your eternal army!

  Congratulations! You have leveled up!

  You are now a Level 39 Master Necromancer! (You are holding on to 1 Unspent Class Perk!)

  “Eric! To your left! Six oclock! Mantises are swarming us!”

  Bunbun’s alarm struck Eric as fast as thought, no matter that Battletime had slowed the spray of shattered insectoid carapaces to a frozen collage hanging in the air. Yet still, the half dozen Lightning Mantises were darting forward with sheering pincers far faster than any foe he had faced outside of the most elite contenders to face him on the killing fields.

  His lips stretched in a feral grin as he weaved passed sheering death before whipping his mithril blade around in a draw cut that sliced clean through half-step arthropod shells before ripping open the carapace of a second Lightning Mantis.

  Speed Racer and a growing sense of how to manipulate his own mass and inertia to twist and weave and dodge, springing off the ground and the very air as he danced about his targets like a cinematic kung fu master was all that kept his mithril armor from being indented from a dozen pincer strikes… and his lower legs and feet from suffering catastrophic injury, no matter his glorious 300 Physical Resistance.

  “Vorpal pincers! These fuckers are half-step Bronze! They’re attacks are vorpal! That’s supposed to be so fucking rare it’s—”

  Eric ignored his familiar’s panicked stream of thought, grateful that she had held off on crimson retribution even as Eric leaped away from his third kill. Shaking both from the discharge of lightning crackling through his frame… and the interface message he most wanted to see.

  Near Miss pincer strike ascended to Desperate Strike!

  Desperate Strike FAILS to pierce mithril armor!

  Note! You have been struck by retributive Lightning Blast!

  Catastrophic Damage and Crippling Injuries MITIGATED by 196 Elemental Resistance (Hyperion Blazer mitigator in effect!) To one Light Wound and superficially singed hair!

  Unified Restoration has repaired all damage!

  You have successfully slain 3 Half-step Bronze Lightning Mantises with VORPAL enhancements! (Ascended world anomalies in full effect! The gift that keeps on giving! (And cutting both ways, Contender!)

  Even FULLY approves of this battle! You have achieved Pristine Ascension!

  You are now a Level 51 Cultivator who has once more pushed through the PERFECTLY REASONABLE HYBRIDIZATION of multiple affinities and specializations that only a System-Approved Classer can fully appreciate!

  Bronze Lightning Mantises have been cut down (and additional mantises countered) with raw skill alone!

  Swordsmanship is now Rank 35!

  “Eric! You did it!” Bunbun mentally hooted, thoughts racing just as fast as Eric’s, before

  Jubilation turned to panic. “Fuck! Those were just the vanguard!”

  Perception Check made! You sense the threat behind—

  “Fragor!”

  Jubiliation turned to a jolt of alarm as Eric roared his ultimate equalizer, no matter that he felt the tiniest throb of a headache that not even Dense Neurons could completely mitigate.

  What mattered was that the massive, Silver-Hued Lightning Mantis who would have been a worthy target to duel all on its own, even were it not backed up by a full two score that had just burst from the burrow right behind Eric, had erupted in an explosion of gore preceded only by a mental scream that sounded almost sentient as desperate Wrath catalyzed an essence-fueled attack along a path of power normally forbidden to Eric’s kind.

  How glorious and twisted the path of a Contender truly was, he thought, even as a 24-foot long bar of crimson fire tore through half of the half-step Bronze foes before him.

  Which meant that a full score were airborne, vorpal saw-toothed limbs flashing like sabers for his—

  Quickness Check successful!

  You have dodged Deadly Surge!

  Unified Lightning Explosion does one Medium Wound (and destroys ? acre of jungle) to your retreating back!

  ERROR! - No retreat detected.

  Merely Tactical Repositioning!

  Eric twisted around in midair, fighting off the surge of currents wracking his body as his lips twisted in a desperate snarl, only to find that the mantises had not stopped, that these fuckers had sprung up over the lightning storm they themselves had wrought, chittering angrily as their vorpal limbs flashed and they—

  Bloodfire Strike!

  You have Critically struck one dozen of your opponents for catastrophic damage!

  Bronze-Tier Shadow Mantis Assassin has latched onto you from behind!

  Alarm bells screamed inside Eric’s head as powerful limbs clenched him tightly from the rear, utterly out of sight, or the reach of his blade. His 600+ Perception had been somehow rendered utterly irrelevant.

  Shadow Mantis Assassin successfully cleaves off left foot!

  Vampiric Drain has boosted Unified Restoration!

  You have saved versus Stunning Blow!

  “Eric!”

  His world was a sudden blinding flare of pain as he sensed just how close he was to dying to the massive mantis that had just teleported to his back.

  Clever. Tactical. Alien.

  Snipping off his foot.

  And about to do the same for his throat. And he couldn’t see his foe!

  He Couldn’t strike.

  Yet he could somehow feel Malice’s mocking laughter, even though he had cut that final infernal cord of fate!

  No. That bastard hadn’t cause it. He was just enjoying the show.

  Eric had.

  Being an overconfident foo,l as always.

  Too stupid to see the correlations between Utah Raptors with their vorpal teeth and Shadowy counterparts to fail to consider that such patterns and twisted themes would run through his world’s ascension when half-step Bronze mantises with sheering vorpal limbs swarmed out of nowhere, in a land that was now wild with the sharp tang of spice that could only mean one thing.

  There was no half-demonic vile sire to blame for his folly.

  Only himself to bear the blame.

  Or to set himself free

  With fists that had ruptured a half-step Silver Titan Wyrm utterly unable to pivot against the predator preparing to rip open his throat… he still had one attack left in his arsenal… and meridian channels blazing with the essence of flame.

  You have successfully elbowed your opponent!

  You are attempting an Unorthodox Alteration of your art!

  Peril’s Insights are now your own.

  All neurons are firing when your life is on the line!

  Eric ignored the System’s almost gleeful savoring of his final split seconds of existence as he focused every iota of his being on channeling the essence of Fire through the conduits it most needed to go through

  Because if he had been able to channel fire through untrained limbs when fighting Scar before he had even ascended a single class… there was no way he couldn’t shift fiery retribution just half a centimeter through his elbow when battling a Bronze-tier assassin eager for his head.

  Even if it was just a mantis defending its hive.

  FIRE FIST HAS EVOLVED!

  You have successfully saved versus limb damage!

  Power Strike has CATASTROPHICALLY STRUCK your target!

  You have Slain a Rank 5 Bronze-Tier Mantis Assassin (With serrated Vorpal pincers: FUN!)

  Eve approves of this battle!

  Fire Fist is now Rank 26!

  Congratulations! You are now a Rank 52 Death’s Disciple (Four Seasons) Cultivator!

  2nd Tier Core Saturation is now at 89%!!

  The air erupted with a massive explosion of shockingly brilliant flame, transforming the mantis that had come so close to killing Eric into a spray of superheated shrapnel blazing through the giant prehistoric ferns and scores upon scores of mantises erupting from the ground.

  But Eric wasn’t done yet, glaring and snarling at the ground that was now a blazing inferno as he pushed his SpeedRacer gifts to the utmost, standing right where he was in middair on foot and already hardened stump, glaring down at the swarm of winged mantises that were now flying in a storm as perilous as anything he had faced in the Black-Tier region that had been New Arcadia, just days ago.

  “FRAGOR!”

  “FRAGOR, MOTHERFUCKERS!”

  The air continued to thrum from essence attacks which a madly cackling Eric realized he could use freely.

  So long as he was willing to pay the price.

  He spat blood as his mouth filled with the taste of iron. Which was nothing compared to the agony of his missing foot.

  You have suffered a combined 74 points of damage from Psioinic Backlash.

  This damage cannot be healed without a full hour’s rest!

  With the final twisted cords of fate snipped free of his foe’s clutches, there was absolutely no way any foe would be able to sense such mild disturbances when the entire territory was now ascending to a Black-Tier death zone.

  Right next to his sister’s kingdom.

  “Fuck!”

  “Eric!”

  “I know.”

  Bunbun huddled on his shoulder as the air filled with the swarm of deadly mantises, and of course that’s when his exquisite hearing picked up the tinny hyper-speak screams that could only be power-armored mercenaries speaking on comms.

  “What do we do?”

  Eric flashed a manic smile as he poured every ounce of his focus into Unified Restoration, enduring the agony of a slowly growing foot even as he prepared to face the rapidly approaching swarm “Same thing we always do, Bunbun. We fight to win!”

  His familiar screamed defiance, the air crackling with crimson lightning that managed to crisp at least a few Bronze-tier wings.

  Eric’s heart pounded with wild exhilaration as he endured the agony of leaping through the air, pivoting himself away from the slowly closing triple pincer formation and toward the largest of the creatures, sensing Eric’s challenge, and charging right for him.

  And for just a split second, it was Eric against another fully ascended Bronze. Dual sheering vorpal blades reaching for Eric… a split second before the world erupted in Transcendant flame.

  *Sir! Anomaly reported! Power Surge has knocked my blaster off—help!*

  You have critically struck your target with Transcendant Strike!

  Note! ALL immunities and damage mitigators are NULLIFIED against Higher Order attacks! - Singular exception: Countermeasures involving similar or opposing ESSENCES!

  Eric howled with the Fires of his Wrath.

  No longer holding back. No longer giving a damn who or what could sense his most catastrophic attack. Several orders of magnitude beyond what Rank 26 Fire Fist would normally allow, because sure as hell, he was hitting for the fences. Cracking his fist like a bat against his enemy’s shell. Ground zero for a catastrophic explosive strike. And all of it Transcendent. All of it obliterating all mortal defenses, Eric and his familiar the only ones who were immune.

  It was an attack sufficient to strike down any foe he had ever faced.

  An attack sufficient to take down a Titan Wyrm.

  An attack that he feared would rupture any delve.

  An attack he normally wouldn’t dare unleash, save here and now, away from any allies as Terra’s ever more violent ascension forced another territory from Red to Black, it’s delves not cleared in time. Or perhaps the forced ascension had nothing to do with delves, and it was all thanks to the malice of outside forces.

  Not that it mattered at that moment, as Eric took ragged breaths of superheated air that caused him no harm at all, glaring at acres of primeval forest that had just been utterly incinerated, the ground below transformed to superheated glass. Right then, all he felt was fierce satisfaction.

  He howled to the heavens after unleashing a blow that had been more than enough to take out several scores of those mantises with the shockwave and resulting blast of essence-infused flame. Even as another two score spiraled to the superheated ground with their wings blown off, writhing and springing desperately to escape the blazing inferno that cooked so many of them alive. Yet monstrous still alone allowed full handful to escape immediate death, fleeing with warped chitin limbs and cracked shells.

  Yet before a snarling Eric, glaring down at his own reformed foot could think to give chase, he finally registered the hypersonic cries and desperate communications Unified Perception and 600+ Perception just barely allowed him to make out.

  From what he could tell… he was no longer alone. He wasn’t the only one now aware that a Red-Tier region had well and truly ascended to Black. There was at least one company of mercenaries taht were both panicked and disoriented. Worst of all, from there perspective, they had just woken up a very irate and exceptionally hungry mantis queen.

  His familiar caught his gaze. “You know higher order transcendent attacks are out of the picture if we’re even going to pretend that we care about the Global Council’s Feelingz… no matter how sweet and spicy the air’s gotten. Not with sapient purple-eyed peeps with their high-tech polymer powered armors now popping up as blinking pink on our interface—and shit! It’s not just pink, Eric!”

  Eric froze when he checked his DM Interface and immediately understood the implications.

  “Light blues, Eric! Friendlies! Shit, we know what that means.”

  Eric blinked as he put a very organic-looking Flesh-Sculptor made boot on his reformed foot. His heart did an unexpected flutter, struck by an odd frisson of wonder and dismay. Because the panicked, increasingly staticky chatter was now combined with voices he could make out with luminous clarity.

  It was clear that it was a mixed company of mercenaries that had entered this region. And one of those companies just happened to be Rising Sun.

  Eric’s gut clenched. “Elly’s here!”

  Bunbun nodded. “Okay, hero. We know what that means. So get moving! I think you’re almost girlfriend could use her almost boyfriend’s completely coincidental appearance right about now. Don’t you?”

  Of course that was the moment that the air vibrated with the roar of an enraged Boss-Tier monster or Contender, blaring white-hot on Eric’s interface map.

  Eric’s heart began to pound, ready to race away in the blink of an eye.

  “No. I already played the overconfident fool once, Bun. If we do this, we’re going to do it right.”

  Bunbun nodded animatedly. “Of course! So how do we keep from getting our back sliced open by a Bronze-tier teleporting mantis assassin, again?”

  “By recruiting a few for our team. How else?”

  Eric gazed down at the broken husks below, more steamed shells at this point than intact beings.

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!”

  The shells began to steam and smoke, grey ashen scraps of shell turning bright red as squirming sizzling corpses struggled to form up at ground zero of Eric’s transcendent attack.

  He frowned down at the remains, even as Bunbun tutted. “That’s a shame. They’re too far gone. And those mantises were some of the deadliest… Shit! It’s working!”

  A tightly focused Eric didn’t even bother cracking a smile, all his focus on bringing the broken frameworks of powerful bodies that he sensed so many souls were eager to claim. Powerful souls that he could only channel if he pushed himself, yet the husks disintegrated as quickly as they formed, under pressure of that terrible heat.

  Eric frowned, gritting his teeth as a normally free ability began roaring through his Mana. A visualized flash of those eager spirits undergoing the same pressure Eric had this day, the pressure of superheating his own ecclectic sludge of wildcard talents and disorganized powers into a fluid medium that could forge fresh peripheral meridians as effortlessly as Richard Li’s pristine cultivation base.

  All it required was the hideous pressure that only the crucible of bitter peril could catalyze, where death or the pristine perfection of survival were the only options there were.

  It was a pressure that the ever more frenzied revenant spirits equally felt, so desperate to rip free of oblivion’s grace that the sludge of their existence, the slag of their flawed mortality also transformed into a glorious fluid medium that was able to prosper and thrive where countless spirits with weaker wills and intents faded back to oblivion.

  And the reward for their efforts? The heat that had served them so well in reforging their bodies to pristine perfection also made them utterly immune to heat as well, Eric’s most powerful Sigil now blazing with the essence of Fire upon each of their shells.

  Warning! You are attempting to claim a Class Perk you are currently ineligible for!

  Restrictions Lifted! Master Class, Lord of the Dead II and 8 Combined Ranks of Fire and Ice Essences have allowed you to bypass ALL Strictures and Limitations!

  You have successfully infused your Revenants with the Mark of Pristine Flame!

  Resilience synergisms detected!

  Your revenants are now utterly immune to all expressions of cold and fire below Transcendant status (or essence infused attacks, such as Dragon Breath!)

  Your revenants additionally enjoy the Hyperion Blazer perk and Elemental Resistance Equal to your own!

  You have SUCCESSFULLY Raised:

  75 Level 140 Lightning Mantises

  1 Level 165 Shadow Mantis Assassin!

  (Note. Bronze Tier – Baseline Conversion occurring at 5 to 1 Ratio. Baseline Revenants do NOT have access to Greater Bronze powers, only physical alterations.)

  Eric glared at the interface message. He was almost certain that the mantises still had their vorpal-like forelimbs. He recalled his raptor revenants enjoying the same, but he would be very pissed if his being unwilling to waste an Underlord slot meant that his Shadow Mantis wouldn’t be the ultimate stealth camouflaging assassin he hoped for.

  His momentary ire faded a split-second later when his expression became one of sheerest ecstasy as the sweet rush of savoring a dozen forbidden fruit and exquisite vices shuddered through his powerful frame.

  Congratulations!

  Your insights and powers have grown by leaps and bounds as you spread your wings and stretch the boundaries of necromancy in ways that few others would dare!

  You are now a Level 40 Master Necromancer!

  “Wait! We’re now all fireproof?!? That’s insane! Hell yeah! You kick ass, Necromancer King!” Bunbun gave him a high five, before her gleeful expression turned solemn once more. “But um… if you’re going to have any more happy times with a certain elf who’s presently screaming in panic on her transceiver…”

  An alarmed Eric was already moving so fast that the air would have cracked behind him, had he allowed air resistance any hold on him at all.

  “Elly! Are you there? Accept my party link! Elly?”

  “Elly!”

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  Alex had sacrificed everything for the sake of his friends.

  He had traded his future for a chance to cripple a divine tyrant hell-bent on destroying everything he held dear, paying the ultimate price for the sake of everyone he loved.

  Now, he had a second chance.

  A chance to start over, free from the malice and machinations of all his foes.

  A chance to live out the isekai fantasy of a peaceful life that he had always yearned for, in the distant desert city he could just make out, across the desert sands.

  Or he could turn around and race to the aid of a doomed caravan just minutes away from being overrun by raiders, and charge into a fresh new adventure full of excitement, wonder, and peril, growing in ways he never had before.

  Either way, the choice was his.

  Eager for a fast-paced adventure filled with deadly adversaries, exotic adventures, and mighty cultivators fighting for the power to topple kingdoms?