Cultivation World - Underground Spring System
The crack in the ancient barrier widened, a spiderweb of fractures spreading through the luminous qi ward that had protected the Crimson Crater for millennia.
Xotl pressed his massive bulk against the weakening field. Through the fissures, he could sense the potent spiritual signatures waiting for him—the Crimson King and Queen in deep seclusion.
"I will extinguish their light personally," Xotl's thought pulsed through the dark water.
He turned his attention inward, locating a specific cluster of his own shadow essence. With a wet, tearing sound that echoed through the caverns, Xotl ripped a portion of his own body away.
The separated mass writhed in the water, coalescing into a humanoid shape made of condensed, vantablack shadow. It had no face, only a smooth surface that rippled with predatory intent.
It was a Golden Core level 4 avatar—a portion of his current power.
There was no need for words. The avatar was him. It knew what he knew. It felt his hunger.
It sensed the location of the wayward spawn on the girl's chest. It knew the mission: consume the traitor, retrieve the artifact, kill the vessel.
The avatar dissolved into the surrounding darkness, shooting upward through the rock fissures like a black arrow.
Behind it, Xotl's will expanded over the waiting army of thousands. He didn't issue a command; he simply opened the door.
He extended his shadow essence through the cracks in the barrier, connecting the underground caverns to every shadow cast in the stadium above.
The shadows under the spectator seats, the shadows of the flags, the shadow of the arena walls—they all became open gateways.
"Feed," Xotl thought, and the army surged forward, phasing into the darkness to emerge in the world above.
Cultivation World - Grand Tournament Stadium
"BEGIN!" Marcus's voice boomed, signaling the start of the match between Lia and Long Chen.
Lia stood frozen for a fraction of a second too long. Her mind was a chaotic storm of dual-world panic.
In her head, she was running down a stairwell in an apartment building on Earth, her heart pounding with the terror of a life-draining formation killing millions.
In the arena, she was facing a level 7 Foundation Establishment prodigy who was watching her with calculating eyes.
Long Chen frowned, his dragon-shaped qi coiling tighter around him. He saw the glaze in her eyes, the way her stance wavered.
"You are distracted," he stated, his voice cutting through the arena noise. "Do you mock me?"
Lia blinked, trying to pull her consciousness back to the fight, but a scream from the stands shattered her concentration completely.
The shadow cast by the royal box suddenly elongated, stretching out like a pool of spilled ink.
From that darkness, a massive, corrupted wolf-beast leaped out, its jaws snapping shut around a guard's throat.
Chaos erupted instantly.
All around the stadium, shadows boiled. Beneath the feet of spectators, behind the concession stands, under the VIP boxes—the darkness birthed monsters.
Thousands of qi beasts poured out of the shadows simultaneously, their roars drowning out the panic of the crowd.
"What is this?!" Marcus shouted, drawing his weapon as a saber-toothed shadow cat lunged at Elena.
On the arena floor, the shadows of the stadium walls writhed.
A Foundation Establishment level 9 shadow beast—a massive, six-legged lizard constructed of darkness and hate—burst from the ground directly behind Lia.
She didn't see it. Her attention was split, her senses overwhelmed by the dual crisis.
Tim's mind on Earth was distracted speeding through traffic, he sent more concentration to Lia but it was too late. The beast lunged, its maw gaping wide to tear her head off.
"Look out!"
Blue light exploded across Lia's vision.
Long Chen didn't attack her. He blurred past her, moving faster than her eyes could track.
"Azure Dragon Claw!"
His hand, wreathed in solidified blue qi that formed massive dragon scales, swept over her shoulder.
With a sound like a thunderclap, Long Chen's claw met the shadow lizard in mid-air.
He didn't just strike it; he sheared through it.
The Golden Core beast was torn cleanly in half, its shadow form dissipating into black mist that rained down around them.
Lia stumbled back, staring up at Long Chen. He stood protectively in front of her, his back to her, facing the chaotic stadium.
"Focus, Ice Queen," Long Chen said, his voice calm amidst the screaming. He shook the shadow residue off his glowing blue hand. "We have a new enemy."
From the center of the arena, the water in the decorative canals turned pitch black.
The Golden Core avatar of Xotl rose slowly from the inky depths, its faceless head turning unerringly toward Lia.
The shadow leech on her chest convulsed in rage at its progenitor.
Long Chen narrowed his eyes at the avatar. "And that one looks strong."
Earth En Route to Central Park
Tim yanked the steering wheel hard to the left, drifting his sedan around a stalled bus with a screech of tires that would have made a stunt driver proud.
"Watch the hydrant!" Riku yelled, clutching the "oh-shit" handle above the passenger door with white knuckles.
"I saw it!" Tim snapped back, though his eyes were darting between the road ahead and the horrific scene playing out in his mind's eye from the Crimson Crater Kingdom.
"Did you see that?" Riku asked, her voice tight. "In the arena? Those aren't just beasts. They're... they're literally leaking out of the floor."
"Shadows," Tim corrected, downshifting as they wove through a gridlocked intersection. "Lia says they're coming out of the shadows. The stands, the flags, the people. Everything that casts a shadow is a door."
"That's cheating!" Riku pounded the dashboard in frustration. "How are we supposed to fight enemies that can spawn from our own feet? Varek just barely dodged a claw that came out of his own saber's shadow!"
"Focus, Riku! We have problems here too!"
Tim slammed on the brakes to avoid a pedestrian who had collapsed in the crosswalk, their face pale and drained. He swerved around the fallen figure, his heart hammering against his ribs.
"Right, right," Riku muttered, shaking her head as if trying to clear water from her ears. "Shadow apocalypse there, life-sucking vampire guy here. Just a typical Tuesday."
"Do you think they're connected?" Tim asked, accelerating down a clear stretch of road. "The timing is too perfect. The tournament gets hit by a massive invasion at the exact same moment this guy decides to turn Tokyo into a juice box?"
"I don't know," Riku grimaced, her eyes glazing over for a second as Varek deflected a shadow-spike in the other world. "But if the Beast King Xotl and this death guy are coordinating across dimensions, I am going to be very pissed off. I didn't sign up for a multi-verse villain team-up."
"I don't think they're working together," Tim said, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. "I think it's just the universe hating us."
"Or balance," Riku suggested darkly. "Lia got too strong too fast. Varek broke through his Dao comprehension. Maybe the universe is just rubber-banding the difficulty level."
"Well, the universe can bite me," Tim growled.
He could feel the drain now—a physical tugging sensation in his chest, like a hook trying to pull his soul out through his ribs. It was getting stronger the closer they got to the park.
"How are we going to handle this?" Riku asked, looking at him. "We can't use flashy techniques. There are people everywhere, cameras..."
"Look around, Riku!" Tim gestured to the sidewalk where people were slumping against walls, too weak to stand. "The city is dying. I don't care about secrecy anymore. If we don't stop him, there won't be anyone left to watch the news."
"Fair point," Riku said, her expression hardening. She saw the stadium through Vareks eyes. Cultivators were surprised but quickly fighting back. "Long Chen is being a surprisingly helpful brooding hero". Riku said feeling some jealousy from Vareks side that someone else was saving Lia.
"We are here" Tim said, spotting the trees of Central Park ahead. The leaves were turning gray and crumbling to dust before their eyes.
He drifted the car sideways, hopping the curb and slamming to a halt right at the park entrance.
"Ready to be dangerous?" he asked, unbuckling his seatbelt.
Riku kicked her door open, the oversized hoodie she was wearing billowing in the unnatural wind sucking toward the park's center.
"I'm gonna kick his ass for ruining couch time," she snarled.
Cultivation World - Tournament Stands, Merchant Section
Kira sat perfectly still amidst the panicked merchants, her brown contact lenses masking the sharp, analytical gaze of a Golden Core assassin. While the traders around her screamed and scrambled over seats to escape the sudden appearance of the wolf-beast, she remained rooted, her eyes tracking the unnatural movement of the darkness itself.
She watched the shadows stretch and boil, defying the laws of physics. They weren't just reacting to the light; they were invading it.
"Shadow Dao," she whispered, recognizing the fundamental principles at play, though the scale was unlike anything she had ever seen.
Her eyes flicked to the arena floor where Lia was almost killed by a creature, Long Chen saving her at the last moment.
A grim smile touched Kira's lips beneath her disguise. The Corpse Cleansing Sect wanted Lia dead and the artifact retrieved.
If these shadow beasts tore the girl apart, half her job was done. She would just have to be quick enough to snatch the spatial pendant from the corpse before a monster ate it.
"Maybe I won't have to kill her myself," she mused, watching a massive six-legged lizard disintegrate under Long Chen's azure claw.
But then the water in the canals turned black, and the faceless avatar rose from the depths, radiating a Golden Core pressure that made the air heavy. There were other golden core monsters fighting in the arena and stadium but this one was different.
Kira's smile faded. This wasn't just a beast wave; it was a targeted extermination. If that avatar killed Lia it would take the artifact too and Kira would fail the retrieval clause of her contract.
"But this is shit timing," she thought, her hand slipping into her robe to grip a hidden dagger. "I hate working in a riot."
Earth - Himari
Simultaneously, on a gridlocked avenue three kilometers away, Himari was moving faster than any human had a right to.
The life-draining formation was making the city sluggish; drivers were passing out at the wheel, causing fender benders that clogged the arteries of the metropolis. But Himari didn't need roads.
She sprinted along the sidewalk, her Qi-enhanced legs eating up the distance.
Ahead, a delivery truck had swerved to avoid a stalled bus, creating a momentary ramp-like obstruction. A taxi, trying to panic-accelerate through the gap, was speeding alongside her.
"Need more speed," Himari calculated, her cheerful waitress persona completely submerged beneath Kira's cold tactical instincts.
She didn't slow down. Instead, she veered toward the moving taxi.
With a burst of Qi that cracked the pavement beneath her sneaker, she leaped.
She landed on the trunk of the moving taxi, her balance perfect despite the vehicle doing forty kilometers an hour. She didn't pause. She used the car's momentum as a springboard.
Himari launched herself off the taxi's roof, soaring over the stalled delivery truck and clearing the intersection in a single, gravity-defying bound.
She landed in a roll, coming up into a sprint without losing a fraction of her momentum.
Ahead, the trees of Central Park loomed, but they were wrong—gray, withered, and dying . And in the center, a pillar of red light pierced the sky.
Earth - Streets leading to Central Park -Takeshi
The wheels of the wheelchair clattered violently against the pavement as Takeshi's father sprinted, sweat soaking through his business shirt. He was a man in his fifties, soft around the middle from years of office work, but fear had given him a burst of hysterical strength.
He didn't understand. He didn't know why they were running toward Central Park. He only knew that for the first time in twenty years, his son wasn't looking at the world with dead eyes—he was looking at it with fire.
Then the wave hit him.
It wasn't exhaustion. It was something far worse. It felt as though a giant, invisible syringe had been plunged into his chest, drawing out his very essence. His knees buckled, and he stumbled, nearly overturning the wheelchair.
"Gah!" he gasped, clutching the handles to keep himself upright.
Around them, the world was ending in slow motion. A woman walking her dog twenty meters ahead simply folded in half, collapsing to the sidewalk. A delivery scooter veered off the road and crashed into a parked car.
"Dad!" Takeshi's voice was a ragged tear in the silence of the dying street. "Don't... stop! Every second... the city dies!"
"Takeshi, I..." His father's lungs burned. His legs felt like they were filled with concrete. "I can't... breathe..."
"The ridge," Takeshi begged, his voice cracking. "Dad... please. Just... to the top. I need... the hill."
His father looked at the incline ahead. It was steep. Under normal circumstances, it would be a hard push. With his life force being siphoned away, it looked like Mount Everest.
But then he looked at his son. Takeshi's jaw was tense eyes wide. He was fighting a battle his father couldn't see.
He's fighting, his father thought, a spark of anger igniting in his chest against the invisible force draining him. My son is fighting. I will not be the one to fail him.
"Okay," his father wheezed. "Okay."
He dug his dress shoes into the pavement and pushed. Step by agonizing step. The formation pulled at him, trying to drag him down into the sleep of death.
"Dad," Takeshi rasped, turning his head slightly as they neared the crest. "Listen to me."
"I'm listening," his father panted.
"When we get to the top... push me."
His father stumbled. "What?"
"Push me... down the hill," Takeshi commanded, his voice filled with a terrifying certainty. "Towards the park. Don't... hold back. Launch me."
"Takeshi, that's suicide! The speed—"
"Gravity... is faster than you," Takeshi cut him off. "I need... speed. I need to get to the center... before it's too late."
They hit the crest.
His father collapsed to his knees, his lungs heaving, the last of his strength failing as the life-draining formation sapped him dry. He slumped against the back of the wheelchair, unable to take another step.
Takeshi didn't check on him. He couldn't.
The second-to-last stitch slammed home.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Takeshi screamed, his back arching violently off the wheelchair as the soul thread pierced his lumbar vertebrae, fusing spirit to bone in a gross violation of natural law.
CRACK.
Thunder exploded directly overhead—a dry, ear-splitting snap that shook the asphalt, though there wasn't a single cloud in the sky.
Then came the sound.
A deep, inhumane screech tore across the sky, vibrating through the atmosphere of the entire planet. It sounded like the firmament itself was being ripped open by invisible claws, a noise of pure, cosmic outrage. The air grew heavy, pressing down on Takeshi with a suffocating weight.
It was a warning. A divine mandate. Stop.
Takeshi froze, his eyes wide, staring up at the empty blue that suddenly felt heavy with crushing judgment. He felt it in his marrow—the universe rejecting his actions. He wasn't just healing himself; he was rewriting the script of his existence, and the Heavens were screaming in protest.
Takeshi's jaw tensed, his knuckles turning white on the armrests as he bared his teeth at the sky.
For twenty years, the Heavens had been silent. They had watched him wither in a chair, a prisoner in his own flesh, while the world moved on without him. They had watched him beg for death in the silence of his room.
And now they dared to scream at him?
A dark, cold fury rose in his chest, merging with Zulu's indomitable will. He drew a breath—a real, deep breath that expanded ribs he was reclaiming with every second of agony.
"You scream at me?" he hissed, his voice raspy but gaining volume, trembling with a lifetime of unvoiced rage. "You wait until now to speak?"
He looked down at his useless legs, then at the red pillar of death consuming the city below. He felt the phantom sensation of toes wiggling—a sensation he had bought with blood and madness.
He threw his head back, his eyes blazing with a terrifying light.
"YOU CAN SCREAM, BUT FUCK YOU, I CAN SCREAM TOO!"
His roar tore from his throat, raw and bloody, challenging the thunder itself. It was the sound of a man shattering his chains.
"I am the pawn of fate no longer!" he bellowed at the sky, his voice cracking with the sheer force of his will. "If you want to stop me, come down here and do it yourself!"
The pressure from above seemed to hesitate, stunned by the ant that dared to bite back.
Takeshi looked down. He looked at the steep road leading into hell. He looked at his father, who was gasping on the asphalt, barely conscious, staring up at his son with a mixture of terror and awe.
Takeshi's expression hardened into diamond.
"Push me, Father," he said, his voice dropping to a whisper of absolute fury. "Push me."