XXXVIII

  A Black Idol

  ‘Red sprites…’

  That must be the lightning effect. While the effect was strong (his presence was greater now than at the start of the fight), my attention turned to the implications of the trait.

  I raked a hand over his back and the summon purred. The sound gently rolled up my arm and into my skin. His presence was more solid, yes. But I could also feel him more clearly.

  “You were agitated, weren’t you?” I knelt and whispered in his ear.

  Perhaps even nervous, I thought as he leaned into my head pats. My cinderwings were already halfway towards peak, meanwhile I’d kept him sitting at early.

  “But my understanding doesn’t justify your behaviour!” I put my finger in his face. “No more attacking the others. Communicate better, next time.”

  Difficult when we didn’t have a common tongue, but still.

  He licked my face. Whether in apology for his deeds or in advance of his next transgression—who knew?

  I rose with a sigh. His trait mentioned empowered skills, but looking over them would have to wait.

  My gaze travelled towards the final guardian. The corpse hadn’t disappeared. Just like that of the wolves. Unlike for them, though, I had a tree crying for its body.

  The guardian had a core. Despite that, there was no message about the Balekin absorbing a skill—possibly because the tree hadn’t sprouted yet. But that time wasn’t far off now that it was gorging on the salamander.

  ‘King of animals, huh.’

  What would spawn from that tree didn’t belong in the natural order of the universe. Saber would have his work cut out for him…or maybe it was my job to make sure he stayed ahead.

  Inspecting my experience made me glad to notice my herald title counted all guardians as beasts. Pouring all of it into the cinderwings would maybe get their tree to peak. Doing so further increase the imbalance between Ashwing and Saber though. Also, I didn’t think upgrading Ashwing was a good idea at all. From what I’d seen, her line wasn’t about pure strength but advantages in numbers and buffing if her last skill was an indication.

  I looked over my shoulder at the entrance to the shrine. Saber had gotten a lot stronger, but we’d need more than this to face the monster on the other side.

  ‘I could go after the next Fang title.’

  The next tier was likely ten enemies and a shorter time frame.

  Tough. But doable, depending on the enemies. Pouring essence into the ashenblood would get him halfway to late.

  There was an argument for feeding the Balekin instead as whatever came out wouldn’t do much sitting at early stage. That said, given the number of drakes after my head and the lack of ashenblood sustenance, nurturing Saber was more important.

  The other option was levelling myself, but I had my reasons for why I didn’t want to do so immediately.

  “We should leave if you’re finished,” Raven called. “There’s about an hour before the formation activates again.”

  He and Rin were seated on the floor, playing a game of cards. Kayle, who’d conjured a table from her spatial storage, read a book while enjoying a steaming cup of some dark green liquid. Kiran was…nowhere to be seen.

  I sauntered towards the statue of the salamander before joining them. The front had popped open to reveal a chamber. An obsidian jade slip rested on a cushion.

  [Idol of the Black Temple]

  No description of rarity. That only happened when the item was either too high level for my identification or obfuscated through the system.

  “Find anything useful?” Kiran said.

  I jumped out of my skin and almost dropped the item.

  “Sorry,” Kiran chuckled.

  A deep exhale got my breathing under control.

  The thought to hide the slip flicked through my head. But what was the use when he’d already seen it? Besides, I needed all the information I could get.

  “An idol,” I said. “You know what it does?”

  “Can I see?”

  He turned the slip around in the light after I handed it to him.

  “I’m not certain,” he said. “But I think it could allow entry into another shrine. This ‘Black Temple’. That, or it starts a quest.”

  A quest…a system-supplied mission with special rewards at the end. Finding one was always a matter of luck as the requirements for activating one were mysterious to say the least.

  He handed me back the slip. “We should hurry.”

  I scrutinised the statue one last time in case I missed anything, then made my way towards the rest of the group.

  Kiran strolled beside me, hands behind his head, and whistled a tune I didn’t recognise.

  I blinked and tilted my head. “Aren’t you worried?”

  “About?”

  There was genuine confusion on his face.

  “Kiaya,” I said. “She’s out there by herself.”

  “She and the others joined up, actually.”

  Raising my brows, I turned to the locators to find he was right.

  “Happened while you were doing the shrine. Also, and this is just between you and me—” he leaned closer and whispered “—that girl is like a weed. She won’t die even if you kill her.”

  Given how he’d vanished into nothing, and how I was aware of another individual who didn’t die after killing her, I wasn’t quite sure if he was joking.

  His grin said he knew what I was thinking, too.

  “What about you, though?” he said.

  “Me?”

  He nodded. “I thought you and Duke were close. You think he’s going to be alright?”

  “I’ve only known him for a week…”

  But that one week had seemed like a lifetime already, hadn’t it?

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  “Duke is the last person who needs to be worried about,” Kayle said after finishing the last of her tea. “He is the true weed of the Dawnflame clan.”

  “What was his assassination count at again?” Raven asked nonchalant.

  “They failed twice last year so fifteen,” Kayle said.

  …

  “His mannerism make a lot more sense now,” I breathed out.

  To think I’d never even known…

  “We can chat while moving if the tea party’s over,” Rin said, hoisting her trident over her shoulder.

  Kayle huffed but drew her tea set back into her storage. Only after she removed the parasol of the table did I notice it was actually her umbrella.

  We approached the double-door exit. For a second, I feared complete darkness would await us on the other side, but blinding light forced me to shield my eyes.

  “Okay,” Rin said. “I did not expect that.”

  Raven pulled his shawl closer.

  The looming walls of the Tomb were no longer unadorned. Patches of ice crawled up the sides like wallpaper in different shapes, and spikes grew at intermittent intervals like stalactites.

  Behind us, the gate to the shrine closed. When I looked back, the entire structure was gone, leaving only a frozen wall.

  “We’re still inside the Maze, right?” Raven said.

  I glanced at the system.

  You have entered the Shrine of Eternity.

  Objective: Earn passage to the third floor.

  “Vague,” Kiran said, his head swivelling to study the walls. “But I guess they made the next steps easy for us.”

  Raven nodded. “Let’s go. I don’t want to find out if that shrine spits everyone out at the same location.”

  We hadn’t travelled for a minute when more system notifications popped up in front of me.

  Balekin Tree -> Balekin Tree - Early!

  Balekin skill slot unlocked.

  Balekin learns [Spirit Leech (Uncommon)]!

  Balekin Hidden skill slot unlocked.

  Balekin learns [Cone of Fire (Common, Locked)]

  Spirit Leech (Uncommon): The Balekin drains a nearby enemy of their spirit energy.

  My brows touched. ‘It gained skills immediately?’

  Its tree had not yet formed an egg, so how was that possible? And what was this about a hidden skill slot?

  Confusion only increased when another messaged appeared in my screen.

  …

  Innate Balekin trait The Half-formed recognised.

  The Half-formed: The Balekin, an infant soul that has found its way into the Sacred Ashen Garden. Its hunger for spirits knows no bounds. As the Half-formed draws in soul energy, their stats and skills are empowered.

  …that sounded pretty similar to Saber, didn’t it?

  The path ahead of our party was cold and desolate, so I took the time to head into my garden.

  None of my chicks chirped and rushed from the skies to peck me on my dome. No gale brushed across the garden. There were only the embers scattered through the air. The soft swaying of branches in the firelight pouring from the raging sea of flames beyond the land.

  And a wail rolling overhead like a wave.

  My heart entered my throat. The branches of the cindertree danced like they did in the dream; all they were missing were the bodies.

  I turned east. White clouds poured from the balekin tree and curled around the base. A head formed in the fog, and a pair of azure eyes stared through me.

  “Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Leila eyed the towering, frozen forest around them, then frowned at the girl leading their party of three. “Let me see the locator.”

  “Ask me again and I’ll rip your tongue out,” Kiaya said.

  Making sure they didn’t run into any of the undead was hard enough without the girl’s incessant bickering.

  ‘Why the hell did I have to end up with these two?’ she cursed inwardly.

  It was always her instead of Kiran that drew the short end of the stick.

  Leila’s face contorted as she opened her mouth.

  “Now, now, let’s not start fighting,” Duke patted Leila on the shoulder. “Kiaya is a competent individual.”

  Which thankfully shut Leila up.

  Kiaya huffed and turned her attention back on the forest. Her heart had skipped a beat when the others vanished from the maze, but she’d found their signal again after completing their shrine.

  ‘We were lucky it wasn’t a martial test.’

  Hers was not a pure combat class, so carrying these slouches on her back would proof for a long and tiring walk.

  She led the three of them between crystal pillars, inside which the frozen image of densely packed undergrowth flickered.

  The layer of frost coating everything was growing thicker with every step.

  ‘Where is all of this ice even coming from?’

  Physical manifestations of elements produced essence of that type. In an environment like this, that meant you wouldn’t be able to take a single step without breathing in ice essence.

  Kiaya licked her lips. Though the air was cold, the taste of it was nearly pure.

  ‘This place is even warmer than Everwinter.’

  Way she saw it, there were two options: Something was devouring the ice essence in this shrine faster than it could produce it, or whatever event had transformed this place had happened a long time ago and this world was thawing. The latter was probable—it’d been six centuries since the Tomb last opened. This was then also the explanation she preferred.

  She didn’t want to think about what kind of monstrosity could gulp up this much energy.

  She glanced at her locator to make sure they were still on the right path, when the tail ends of a voice reached her ears.

  “People ahead,” Kiaya whispered.

  Duke and Leila, who waltzed on without a care in the world, had their weapons in hand before her sentence finished.

  Kiaya snorted. They may not be strong but they were prepared, she’d give them that.

  The shadowfoot followed the sounds and crouched in the frozen undergrowth. There was a clearing ahead. Clear waters rippled around an island in the middle of the body of water.

  Kiaya’s gaze narrowed. She’d wondered why there was a flicker of water under her feet; the path they’d been using was actually a canal with its surface frozen.

  She threw the channel behind her though. A man in dark armour sat in the lotus on a boulder in the centre of the island. Disciples in deep azure layers adorned with silver sword emblems surrounded him.

  ‘Heavenly Weapon Empire.’

  Kiaya counted a little over ten, so they must be from separate parties.

  Duke and Leila joined her side.

  A single glance at the clearing made Leila go still like a rabbit spotting a predator. “That’s Vyke.”

  ‘Dammit.’

  Kiaya’s palms touched the two Dawnflames and cloaked all three of them in shadows. She would’ve done so from the start if she’d known it was him.

  ‘He’ll have sensed us already.’

  She guided them to the other side of the icy treeline with half a mind as she kept her attention on the gathering.

  A slender man in elaborate dress stood at the helm of the Heaven Weapon Empire party. His face was sharp. Just like his glasses, which ended in corners that could cut.

  This man Kiaya did recognise.

  [Lightbringer - lvl. 25]

  ‘Tirion the Dagger.’

  Unlike the Dawnflames, the Heavenly Weapon Empire didn’t have many contenders for the head position in the clan. But if there was one, it’d be Marshal Vaelen Draymoor, Ninth Wielder of the Heaven Blade. Like his namesake, he had nine disciples. Tirion was one of them.

  “You gave our Lady quite some trouble,” Tirion said.

  Clear laughter crossed the clearing. “Your Lady? Regrettably, I didn’t cross Caelia Vire’s path.”

  Tirion snorted. He produced a short but thick blade, then his face grew dark. “Did you think your request to Lady Everfrost wouldn’t reach our ears?”

  “You had some balls demanding her life!” Another of the Weapon Empire group brandished their weapon.

  Before long, their entire party was armed.

  The Vile didn’t draw an arm of his own. When he spoke, his tone was calm. “I was just offering her a challenge. Isn’t fighting through obstacles how you Weapon Empire disciples prefer to go through life?”

  His words fizzled out, leaving only the white clouds of breath pouring into the air.

  “Draw your weapon,” Tirion said.

  Vyke’s mirth came out as a rasp through his helmet. “Can’t attack me when I’m unarmed?”

  Tirion smiled. “I know that honour is lost on the likes of you. But even a worm has the right to defend itself.”

  “Honour…” Vyke chuckled and rose to his feet, coming to stand on the boulder and loom over the Weapon Empire. “Snakes always amuse me. They think themselves better than worms just because they choose to crawl through the mud in robes.” A mass of dark, writhing things drew from his palm and formed into a spear of screaming faces. Their wails shot through the treeline and rolled over Kiaya’s skin like a chill.

  All in Vyke’s presence took a step back. Except for Tirion.

  “Is that so?” the Dagger said.

  Light so bright Kiaya had to look away flared around his weapon. A soft hymn crept forward like an undertone and reduced the monstrous sound of the wails.

  The two cultivators disappeared and reappeared, and the clearing vibrated with the clash. Tirion backwards across the moat and into the cavern floor. Black wings tore through the air in an effort to chase him, but dozens of whirring spells stopped the Vile’s chase.

  Kiaya reaffirmed her grip on the other two and pushed them in the opposite direction. She couldn’t say for sure who’d win this fight—a simple headcount told her the Heaven Empire but her gut screamed the Vile—but she knew one thing for certain: she wouldn’t be around to confirm the victor.

  Erri’s serpents fell upon two creatures resembling a large dog and ripped them to shreds.

  Her eyes were glued to the open chamber inside the central statue. The chamber was empty. So was the column itself.

  ‘They started the trial a second time.’

  Which they wouldn’t need to do since they’d already completed the test.

  Her brows touched. The shrine matched the descriptions Father’s jade slip mentioned. That meant the degenerate’s party had just stolen her entry into the Black Temple.

  The knowledge should’ve made her bubble with rage. She found herself chuckling instead.

  “Now I have a legitimate reason to hunt her down, don’t I, Father?”

  She palmed her locator. Many of her faction had already transported into the Shrine of Eternity. The rest of the major clans would be filing in too.

  A bubbling heat coiled up Erri’s arms. Every heir, contender for strongest, and aspirant disciple would be filing into the prelim to the third ring—

  Her serpents snapped their jaws into smoke, their targets in the guardians dissolving as if in flight.

  —and her Dragonflight clan would be there to greet them all.

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