Southern Skies

As soon as Lucian's wide and heavy greatsword made contact with the outermost part of the boulder, the large stone shattered and broke into many pieces, a pink and purple mass shooting out from it in the other direction.

Lucian gave chase and discovered that the stone was indeed not a monster, but something else had lived within it. An octopus-like creature with ten tentacles, half tipped with thin and long fingered claws, the rest ending with barbed pads.

The monster moved erratically as it launched itself towards Lucian, its flexible anatomy making for a hard to predict approach.

Echoing bangs ran out as the two battled through the woods, the octopus running from him before launching back, attacking, and running again. The process repeated, and Lucian learnt quickly that while the claws at the end of half its tentacles were hard like steel, the rest of its body was soft.

With one squelching chop, Lucian severed a tentacle, followed by a second, and then a third. The shortspears held by his third and fourth arm were hurled at the creature, piercing right through it and morphing shape to become lodged inside, draining life from the monster.

The battle did not last too long after that point, Lucian's pursuit outpacing the weakening monster before finally he ended its life with a horizontal cleave that split the creature in two.

Splattered with blood and gore, Lucian absorbed the blood and his spears back into himself while deep in thought.

'That was… disappointing.'

He looked down to his left hand, the greatsword held in his right, and clenched it to feel the power held within.

'I didn't realise it, but I've become strong. Since the battle with the planesfiend my strength has changed too drastically. I need to learn just how strong I am.'

Lucian smiled as he recognized his own progress. Indeed, his choice all those months ago had already begun to pay off.

Raising his head to look at nowhere in particular, he expanded his lifesense to cover a wide range as he tracked down other monsters and spirit beasts.

'I have one month left. I need to use this month to get a gauge of things.'

With a cracking sound, the ground beneath him broke as Lucian vanished, shooting off to his next target.

One month passed day by day with Lucian scouring the many wildlands within the Demia Kingdom, seeking out monsters of all kinds as he battled, learnt his strength, and then improved it. He worked on his martial training that had been neglected throughout the year, and continued to steal blood and life to train his Boundless Condensation and create Trueblood.

He found that Trueblood gave an exponentially greater control over lifeforce and deathfog when compared to the same amount of Lifeblood or Paleblood. Even considering that one Trueblood contained a drop of each Life and Pale, it was still much much more in tune with the forces of both, and Lucian was absorbing more and more of the sun's light every day.

He rarely visited towns or cities, though he did stop in villages occasionally. Most of his time was spent in the wilds, killing and hunting like a savage as he honed himself.

When finally the month did come to an end and he had to return to the estate, Lucian found himself near the western gate of Helbeck, a town he had visited once before.

He had grown taller in the past year, standing at 6'5" and now exhibited qualitative difference in his aura. Those with the sense for such things, like cultivators or warriors, eyes him warily, but normal people only sent him curious glances as he passed through the western gate, gold and platinum badges pinned to his left chest.

"Helbeck." he muttered. "It's been years already."

When he was here last, he had not visited the western districts, and so didn't recognize the sights surrounding him.

Walking through the streets, Lucian felt the air was strange. People moved quickly, and heated discussions could be heard everywhere, all of them carrying the tone of rumour and gossip.

He felt his ears perk at the sound of a man complaining to others as he walked by.

"Mr. Ross is still in a foul mood. Taking his losses in that defector state out on us. I only run one of the Demian stores, how is some foreign coup my fault?"

Lucian stopped to buy food from a street vendor as he listened, before turning the way he came and following the lamenting man, listening.

Apparently the Toubian Emperor had been replaced! He'd heard nothing about it in the villages he had visited. And this man's boss, some Mr. Ross, had business at the border of Toubia and Nalduri that was lost when the Toubian border duchy defected?

He had missed a lot indeed.

Picking up his pace, Lucian made his way to a nearby inn, eager to find out what had been happening in the south, when he felt chills running down his spine.

His head flicked southward, as he felt the chill grow, like an ominous premonition. His hairs stood on end and warning bells rang out in his mind.

"What on earth is happening?" He muttered.

He was not the only one to react. A few in the crowds of pedestrians, cultivators all of them, stopped to look southward in horror, every one of them filled with a sense of doom.

In the Valley Mist, Tess felt a daunting sensation that none of the ghosts haunting her could match.

South of Helbeck, Tyrius, who was on his way back from the border of Demia and Toubia also looked at the southern skies.

So too did Theo, returning from the hungry woods, and Delia in the center of the kingdom.

Even within the imperial capital, the cold and silent eyes of King Magnus looked southward for a moment, before turning back to the matters at hand.

Eudes Clarke stood stone faced, his smile nowhere to be seen as he studied the southern sky.

"Fools." He muttered.

Lucian saw the others in the crowd panic and flee north, a warning in his mind screaming to do the same.

The air turned oppressive as even the common folk began to feel that something was wrong, and Lucian's breathing turned ragged, his hands cold and shaking.

In an instant, the southern skies exploded. He could not comprehend how far away the event was, but the entire sky began changing colour, a wave of golden radiance and electric blue light racing from the southern skies towards their own.

Things began to shake as the eyes of the common people became glazed and stunned.

Then it hit.

A wave of spiritual force so intense that Lucian lost seconds of consciousness. It rocked everyone as it flew past them at impossible speeds, like a shockwave that spanned the entire continent. Only the imperial capital, defended by grand wards and arrays, remained unaffected.

When consciousness returned to Lucian, he found his entire body shaking and weak, covered in sweat. He realized with a sharp inhalation that he had not been breathing, and fell to his knees immediately, coughing and heaving violently as drool covered the ground beneath him.

By comparison, the common people were dazed but had begun to move again, most staring at the sky while some looked at him strangely. The other cultivators in the crowd were in a similar state to him, though not quite as severe.

When a stranger helped him to his feet, Lucian looked up with everyone else to witness skies dyed gold and blue, flashing and shifting unnaturally, like a sheet of lightning was battling a golden curtain.

Clutching his head, he tried to recover as quickly as possible, leaning his back on one of the shop walls.

'What the hell is going on?!' He roared inwardly as he looked up once more.

Far away from where Lucian recovered in Helbeck, at the border of Nalduri and Toubia, in the skies above the defector state of Duke Ludger, a giant cycloptic man shook in pain, a cloud of blue energy being sapped from him aggressively and dissipating in the air.

Across from him, Taedrial stood with a straight back, his brown skin in stark contrast to the white robes and gold eyes. Four large white feathered wings extended from his back, and a golden halo of two rings remained suspended above his head, the outer circle featuring small points at every quarter.

Though his expression remained still, Taedrial too had been wounded, his pure white blood spilling to the ground below, where it spread to purify all.

The two ascendents had exchanged blows only once. That was all that was needed to determine the victor, as any more would risk the world tearing them apart for their cultivation.

Beneath them, armies protected from the excessive shock of their exchange, warred against each other, unable to perceive the two men hovering in the skies far above them.

"You will regret it Taedrial." The cyclops' gigantic voice echoed. "Your armies will not push far. And your empire is in chaos. We will take it all before the ascendance is complete, and you will be left with scraps."

"No, old one. It is you who will regret. You are a sheep negotiating with wolves. At least I had reason to stand by your side. You think that Incarnant will care for your share of Prokos? You have built your own tomb."

The cyclops, Hinaclei, grinned.

"Perhaps–cough. But what is life without risk?"

Blood dirtied his grin, but the cyclops seemed unconcerned as he slammed a palm onto his own chest, and the blue energy being pulled from him ceased.

"Send your armies through then. Let us see how well your fledgling Emperor fairs."