The Black Spire was less of a building and more of an architectural insult to the sky. It rose from the center of the Shattered Peaks abyss like a needle made of obsidian and nightmares, piercing the cloud layer. It didn't reflect light; it swallowed it.
Around the Spire, a massive, swirling barrier of purple energy rotated—a Void Shield thick enough to stop a meteor.
"We can't ram that," Lin Fan said, his gauntlet reading the energy signatures. "That shield is pure condensed Void energy. If the Sky-Eater touches it, we'll bounce off. Or worse, we'll stick to it like a fly on tape."
Su Ye stood at the helm of the Twilight Stable, looking at the massive fortress.
"We don't need to break it," Su Ye said, checking the rear-view mirror (a shiny shield polished by Gao Ming). "We just need someone else to break it for us."
Behind them, a roar shattered the atmosphere.
The Storm Dragon, released from its humiliating servitude as a tow-truck and realizing it had been bullied by a cockroach, was coming back. And it was livid.
It flew at Mach 3, a streak of iron scales and lightning, screaming for vengeance.
"He's closing in!" Luo Bing cried. "Two minutes to impact! Master, if that Dragon hits us from behind while we're stalled at the shield, we'll be crushed!"
"Exactly," Su Ye gripped the wheel. "Gao Ming! Do you have the Flash-Bang Array ready?"
"Always!" Gao Ming stood by his mirror contraption.
"Good. Listen carefully. We are going to play Matador."
"Matador?"
"It's a dance with a bull," Su Ye explained. "Except the bull is a dragon, the cape is a mountain, and if we trip, we die."
Su Ye waited. The Dragon was a mile away. Half a mile. Its mouth was open, charging a beam of lightning that could vaporize a city.
"Hold..." Su Ye whispered.
The Dragon fired. The beam of lightning shot toward the rear of the Sky-Eater.
"NOW! DIVE!"
Su Ye slammed the wheel forward and pulled the Emergency Vent lever.
The Sky-Eater groaned. The massive vents on its dorsal ridge opened, dumping the remaining cloud-whale gas instantly. The mountain dropped like a stone.
It fell five hundred feet in a second.
The lightning beam missed the stable by inches, singing Su Ye's eyebrows. It sailed over their heads and slammed directly into the Black Spire's Void Shield.
BOOM.
The impact was cataclysmic. Tier-7 Lightning vs. Tier-7 Void Shield. The sky turned white.
The Storm Dragon, carried by its own momentum and unable to brake in time, followed its beam. It slammed face-first into the Spire's barrier.
CRASH.
The Dragon shrieked as it tangled with the Void energy. It clawed at the shield, thinking the Spire had attacked it. The Spire's automated defenses—massive gargoyles shooting dark beams—returned fire, blasting the Dragon.
"They're fighting!" Lin Fan cheered. "The Dragon thinks the Sect attacked it!"
"Never interrupt a family dispute," Su Ye grinned. "Senior Tortoise! While they're distracted! The Service Entrance!"
Su Ye pointed to a small, unguarded ventilation port halfway down the Spire, now exposed because the shield was flickering from the Dragon's assault.
The Sky-Eater drifted silently below the chaos of the battling behemoths. It hovered next to the ventilation port.
"Boarding party!" Su Ye shouted. "Zhu Zhu! Eat the grate!"
Zhu Zhu leaped from the stable onto the Spire's ledge. He bit the iron bars of the ventilation shaft. Crunch. He spit them out.
Su Ye, Luo Bing, Lin Fan, and Gao Ming jumped after him, landing on the cold obsidian ledge.
"Stay here, Senior," Su Ye patted the mountain's wall. "Keep the engine running. If we aren't back in an hour, eat the tower."
"Understood..." the mountain rumbled.
They crawled through the ventilation shaft. It was tight, dark, and smelled of sulfur and cheap cologne.
"Why does the villain's lair smell like lavender?" Gao Ming whispered, crawling in the rear.
"Masking agent," Su Ye said, his voice echoing in the duct. "They're hiding the smell of what they're doing."
They reached a grate looking down into a hallway. Su Ye kicked it open, and they dropped down.
They weren't in a dungeon. They were in a Lobby.
It looked like a corporate office, if the corporation was run by necromancers. The walls were black marble. There was a reception desk made of bone. And behind the desk sat a Skeleton wearing a receptionist's uniform.
The Skeleton looked up. Its eye sockets glowed with polite blue fire.
"Welcome to the Dark Beast Sect Headquarters," the Skeleton said, its jaw clicking. "Do you have an appointment?"
Su Ye blinked. He walked up to the desk.
"Yes," Su Ye said confidently. "We're the health inspectors. We had a report of a rat infestation."
"Rats?" The Skeleton checked a ledger. "We do not have rats. We have Crypt-Roaches, plague-rats, and soul-maggots, but no standard rats."
"That's the problem," Su Ye slammed his hand on the desk. "Lack of biodiversity. I need to speak to the manager. Patriarch Wraith."
The Skeleton stared at him. "The Patriarch is on the Top Floor, initiating the Grand Awakening. He is not to be disturbed unless the world is ending."
BOOM.
Outside, the Storm Dragon slammed into the tower again, shaking the entire building. Dust fell from the ceiling.
"The world is getting pretty loud," Su Ye pointed out. "I'd say that counts."
The Skeleton reached for an alarm button made of a red skull.
"Security!" the Skeleton screeched.
Moooo.
Little Sun hopped onto the desk. It looked at the shiny red skull button. It pecked it.
But it didn't push the button. It ate the button.
The Skeleton stared at the missing alarm. "You... you ate the panic button."
"And now he's going to eat you," Su Ye said. "Little Sun, calcium supplement."
Little Sun's eyes lit up. A walking bone? Delicious.
The Skeleton screamed as the golden chicken descended upon it.
"Move!" Su Ye vaulted over the reception desk. "Elevator!"
They ran to the back of the lobby. There were massive double doors made of gold. Above them, a dial indicated the floors: Lobby, Dungeon, Torture Chamber, Cafeteria, The Void Seal.
"The Void Seal," Su Ye pressed the button. "Top floor."
The doors opened. Inside was a spacious elevator. Elevator music was playing. It was a slow, jazz version of a funeral dirge.
They piled in. The doors closed just as a squad of armored Chimera Guards burst into the lobby.
"Going up," the automated voice said pleasantly.
"Master," Luo Bing drew her sword, watching the floor numbers tick up. "This is too easy. They rely on the shield outside. They have no internal security because no one has ever breached the Spire."
"Arrogance is the best key," Su Ye checked his shovel for dents.
Ding.
The elevator stopped. But not at the top floor. It stopped at the Cafeteria.
The doors opened.
Inside, hundreds of Dark Beast cultists were eating lunch. They paused, spoons halfway to their mouths. They looked at the elevator.
They saw: A stable warden with a shovel, a princess with a frozen sword, a boy in power armor, a dramatic cape-wearer, a pig, and a chicken.
Silence stretched for a long, awkward second.
"Is... is that the lunch delivery?" a cultist asked hopefully.
"Yes," Su Ye grinned. "I brought the Knuckle Sandwich."
"Gao Ming! Flashbang!"
Gao Ming threw a handful of glitter and magnesium powder into the cafeteria. FLASH.
"My eyes!"
"Close the door! Close the door!" Lin Fan slammed the 'Close' button frantically.
The cultists roared and charged, throwing trays of mystery meat. A wave of soup splashed against the closing doors just as they sealed.
"That was close," Lin Fan panted.
"I'm hungry," Zhu Zhu whined, sniffing the soup on the floor.
"Focus, Zhu Zhu," Su Ye scolded. "We are here for the main course."
Ding.
Top Floor: The Void Seal.
The elevator jolted to a halt. The air grew heavy. The jazz music stopped, replaced by a low, throbbing hum that vibrated in their chests.
"Get ready," Su Ye said, his voice dropping to a serious whisper. "Patriarch Wraith is a Tier-7 Warlock. He controls shadows. Do not let your shadow touch his."
The doors slid open.
They stepped out onto a platform suspended over a massive, cylindrical shaft that went down into the earth's core.
In the center of the shaft, floating in mid-air, was a Black Sphere. It was jagged, crackling with violet lightning. It looked like a hole in reality.
And standing on a walkway in front of it was Patriarch Wraith. He wore robes made of shifting smoke. He held Su Ye's Black Ring in one hand and a staff made of a spinal column in the other.
He didn't turn around.
"You have terrible timing, Warden," Wraith's voice echoed, coming from everywhere at once. "The Dragon outside is shaking the Spire. My concentration is slipping."
"Then stop," Su Ye stepped forward, shovel resting on his shoulder. "Put the Void down, step away from the edge, and nobody gets eaten by a pig."
Wraith turned. His face was hidden behind a veil of shadow, but two burning red eyes glared out.
"Put it down?" Wraith laughed softly. "I'm not holding it, boy. I'm feeding it."
He pointed to the Black Sphere.
"This is the Eye of the Void. It is hungry. And do you know what it eats?"
He gestured to the floor below—where the elevator shaft led down.
Su Ye looked down. His breath caught.
Below the platform, in a massive glass containment cell, was a beast.
It wasn't a monster. It was beautiful. It was a massive, silver-furred Nine-Tailed Fox. But it was emaciated, chained with void-shackles. Tubes were running from its body, draining a glowing, silver essence. That essence was being pumped up into the Black Sphere.
"A Moon-Silver Fox," Luo Bing gasped. "A Divine Beast! I thought they were extinct!"
"The last one," Wraith said. "We captured it ten years ago. We have been draining its blood to feed the Void. Once the Eye opens fully... the hunger will consume the world, and I will rule the ashes."
Su Ye looked at the suffering Fox. He felt a vibration in his head. A new connection.
Zzzzt.
It was weak. It was crying.
"Cold..." the Fox Ancestor wept in his mind. "My child... so cold..."
Su Ye's grip on his shovel tightened until his knuckles turned white. The humor vanished from his face. The zookeeper was gone. The Warden had arrived.
"You chained a Divine Beast," Su Ye said, his voice low and dangerous. "And you're bleeding it dry."
"It is livestock," Wraith scoffed. "Just like your pig."
"No," Su Ye looked up. "My pig is family. That Fox is family."
He raised his shovel.
"And you," Su Ye pointed at Wraith. "You are compost."
"Zhu Zhu," Su Ye whispered. "Look at that Black Sphere. The one eating the Fox's energy."
Zhu Zhu looked. His eyes turned violet.
"It's full of flavor, isn't it?"
Snort. (Delicious.)
"Go eat it."
"Little Sun," Su Ye looked at the chicken. "See the chains on the Fox?"
Moooo.
"Break them."
"Disciples," Su Ye roared. "Formation Alpha! We are shutting this slaughterhouse down!"
Patriarch Wraith laughed. "A pig? A chicken? Against the power of the Void? Come then, Warden. Let me show you true despair."
Wraith slammed his staff down. The shadows in the room stood up. They formed into soldiers—Shadow Warriors.
"Kill them," Wraith commanded.
Su Ye charged.
"Today," Su Ye yelled, "The Twilight Stable declares a code red! NO MERCY!"