Defiance of the Fall

ic environment, but he only needed one jump.

’

Unfortunately, things didn’t always go according to plan, and Zac felt resistance just as he was about to teleport right next to the original spot of the gateway.
He could only course-correct and quickly pick another tree before pushing off from its crumbling trunk with [Earthstrider].
His surroundings were fraught with spatial tears and purple crystal debris, but he pushed straight toward the epicenter as Oblivion was extracted from his soul.

Zac didn’t know the relation between monster and gateway, but he knew the window of opportunity was fast closing on the latter.
Chaotic energies ran rampant in the area, and space itself was exhausted to the limit of collapse.
But while his surroundings were dangerous, they weren’t impassable any longer.
He needed to use this chance to add to the damage.
That would hopefully be the straw that broke the camel’s back and closed the thing.

A pang of danger warned him of incoming calamity, but there was no time to respond.
The goblin was impossibly fast – it was like he was fighting the lake itself.
The moment Zac had entered the tree, the thing had turned into a stream of runes and caught up with him.
Zac could only urge on his Annihilation Sphere while he unleashed a storm of Fractal Leaves from [Nature’s Edge].

The Qriz’Ul was cut through dozens of times over, but Zac knew it was a failure.
He had hoped to cause some real damage with his Daos, but he didn’t even manage to delay it.
A few dozen runes had been destroyed, but what was that to a giant with tens of thousands of them? He could only make one final gambit, and most of his remaining Cosmic Energy was almost instantly absorbed by a shimmering talisman hidden within his sleeves.

A wave of starlight shot out from the Early D-grade talisman while a tennis-ball-sized Annihilation Sphere formed between Zac’s hands.
It was much smaller than Zac had hoped and not nearly the limits of his stockpiled energy, but he was out of time.
Zac felt [Empyrean Aegis] finally collapse from the clash between talisman and goblin, but his eyes never left the small flickering disk of a slightly darker purple.

It was almost invisible and just the size of a plate.
A small discoloration that could easily be mistaken for a shadow.
But his body could feel it.
The power that slumbered on the other side.
Infinite, incomprehensible power.
The Lost Plane.
But power or not, Zac wasn’t moved.
It wasn’t true.
At least not for him.

The Annihilation Sphere bit into the window, and a good chunk of it simply disappeared.
But Zac saw a shocking sight when he had managed to close just over half of the gate.
Somehow, the enormous goblin had appeared beneath him, and it stared at him hatefully with glowing eyes.

“NOTHING!” the voices screamed, and the whole lake exploded.

Zac groaned from the impact as his surroundings became a blur.
He hadn’t been thrown into the wall this time, but he found himself thrown straight into the air, far from the frayed gateway.
Things went from bad to worse when Zac sensed dozens of massive energy signatures above, proving the Kan’Tanu were already awake.

And that was still not the most immediate of his problems.
It felt like a volcano had erupted at the bottom of the lake, and a terrifying wave of energy was quickly catching up with him.
But instead of molten-hot magma, it was a geyser of corruption with the face of a goblin closing in.

Its advance was a calamity, and the smaller Qriz’Ul were shredded and absorbed by the monstrous force.
It almost felt like the whole lake was being pushed to the sky from the goblin’s furious pursuit.
And then, the world of purple was showered with a golden radiance as Zac was thrown into the air.

The world spun too fast to make sense of the situation, but a sudden appearance of a massive maw made Zac scream with surprise.
Zac knew he was out of cards – in this form, that is.
He had expended them all on the gateway, yet both the gate and his enemies remained.
He would have to take the risk.

The final charges of [Earthstrider] were rapidly expended to create some distance, at which point his body was flooded with the sweet kiss of Death.

’

—————-

For minutes, nothing happened, yet every second seemed to stretch longer than the one before it.
The lake was only so big.
Even if treading carefully, it could only take so long until Zachary reached the bottom, where the gateway was supposed to be.

Then it came.
A weak pulse of spatial Dao made the surface of the lake shudder.
Just a moment later, it looked like the whole lake had been set to a boil, and even the demon could sense the enormous eruption of power beneath the surface.

The change had not gone unnoticed to the stoic cultivators sitting at the shores, and it looked like someone had kicked up a hornet’s nest as they all sprung to action at once.

“Well, I guess that’s me,” Ogras sighed before shadows consumed him.

Iz could sense how he was rapidly moving toward two Hegemons whose energy was already churning.
But he wouldn’t be enough.
There were nearly 30 Hegemons altogether, supported by over a thousand E-grade fodder.
Those foot soldiers were inconsequential when it came to individual strength, but they would together be able to forge barriers powerful enough to slow down any opposition.

Even then, the real problem was the Hegemons.
One of them was seemingly at the very peak of what this Mystic Realm could contain.
Another eight could be considered elites in the frontier.
And that wasn’t even considering the twisted energy creatures, some of which also emitted D-grade energy signatures.

Not even Iz was certain she’d be able to deal with such an army before reaching her limits and having one of her fatewarding treasures whisk her away.
For Ogras Azh’Rezak to contain them all was hopeless.
Yet he rushed forward as a storm of shadows swallowed the southern shores.
When push came to shove, he showed up, putting his life on the line.

“Follow my heart,” Iz whispered as she looked to the sky.

She didn’t want to be a betrayer, a person that couldn’t be counted on.
She hated the thought of the demon describing her actions in the future like he described those of that Verana woman.
Her help was needed, and she would show up.
And if someone had a problem with that in the future, she would just test their fate.

The slumbering ember in her chest erupted into a roaring fire, making Iz look inward with surprise.
It raged with greater ferocity than ever before, and she suddenly remembered her grandfather’s words – that any flame needed fuel to burn, no matter if it was the fires of life or the Empyrean Flames of her bloodline.
A fuel named purpose.

A smile spread across her face as six false wings sprung from her back.
It felt like she had been given the blessing of her ancestors as she rose to the air, and the sky greeted her ascent by gaining a golden hue.

“[World’s End], how fitting,” she smiled as she sacrificed a third of her Cosmic Energy.
“Come.”

The world cried as a 100-meter orb of purest flames appeared beneath her feet, and her Fatebound guardian appeared behind her back.

’

Hundreds of fiery motes broke off from the nine flames hovering in her soul aperture, and streaks of truth were left in their wake.
Their dance rapidly formed one sigil after another, until three sets of 243 runes formed her family’s exclusive Dao Array – [Empyrean Flame].

The Branches of Primal Starlight, Scorching Abyss, and Golden Sun were filtered and amplified through its intricate network as her guardian formed multiple sigils with her hands.
Her veins were fire, her blood was flames, and she carried the apocalypse in her heart.

And with a nudge, Iz released the gates.

Nine streams of realm-breaking heat shot out from the prepared arrays, all fueled by the truths exclusive to the Tayns.
The settlement and its lingering occupants were erased, their fate unable to withstand the proximity.
The streams spread out, each one targeting one of the nine superlative Hegemons before they could unleash their strikes against the lake.

But it failed.

“Hm?” Iz muttered, her mind blanking out by the unexpected scene.

She wasn’t surprised that the leader managed to survive her attack, but five of them? Odd barriers had blocked out her spells, and Iz sensed an anomalous resonance completely unfamiliar to her.

“They’re connected somehow! With each other and the lake!” a pained scream echoed from the shadows, but Iz had no time to react before things changed again.

A distant wail echoed through the area as a familiar figure was flung into the air like a ragdoll, and Iz couldn’t help herself as she started to laugh at the scene.
That guy really couldn’t stop himself from creating a spectacle.

Where had Mr.
Bug found himself a mountain-sized goblin to fight?