Depthless Hunger

Chapters 633-636

Chapter 633: Negotiating for the Glorious Tree

Back to the Flaeren Dominion, back to the Windlord. Normally Omilaena hated retracing her steps like this, but she had to admit that the situation had changed. Her own power had exploded and she had Kai with her, both of which could be good bargaining tools. She'd left the demons behind to handle themselves, except for Troulon, who intended to take part in negotiations for unclear reasons - she decided to trust him on that.

They didn't arrive at the same plaza, instead moving much deeper into the Flaeren Dominion. This plaza sat atop a hill amid a forest of dead trees... or at least that was her first impression. They were leafless and dark, yet none of the trees showed any signs of decay, and the forest seemed to be thriving, creating a sea of waving spines around them.

No matter, there was no time for sight-seeing: the Windlord didn't make them wait this time.

When the Windlord arrived they were already using a speed phase, and this time Omilaena was more prepared. She saw that Kai adapted like it was second-nature, tracking the Windlord as they shifted to examine them. The way he did it so confidently was pretty hot, actually.

"Years ago, when I was fighting Matiavel..." The Windlord hovered in front of Kai, their nearly hidden eyes piercing. "You saw me across a battlefield."

"Thank you for not killing me then," Kai said amiably.

"I almost wish I had. The two of you have unreal..." The Windlord shook their head and drew back from their party, taking a cross-legged position in midair. "Irrelevant now. Unlike the invaders, you at least have a history of dealing fairly with us. We're open to treating with you. But now you demand the fruit of the Glorious Tree, and that is a bridge too far."

"What does it matter?" Omilaena asked. "You don't have anyone who can survive eating the fruit, can you?"

"No, but so far when you have been allowed near Insanities, the situation has worsened."

Ouch. As much as Omilaena wanted to make a joke about that, a high stakes negotiation didn't seem like the time. She had to admit, with the Colossus creating a trail of destruction across Rosemount, she didn't have the strongest position to bargain.

"Let us resolve the problem for good," Kai urged. "If the fruit lets us take care of the Colossus and the invaders, you'll have paid your debt and everyone will be grateful to you for restoring Rosemount."

"Presuming that you win." The Windlord folded their arms and shifted lower, almost a ball of robes floating in midair. "I admit your power is unprecedented, but so are the invaders, and there are a great many of them. There are some who think we should simply submit, or offer them the fruit to buy ourselves freedom. I see no guarantee that the fruit will be enough for you to win."

"Maybe not, but it definitely won't be enough to buy you anything. Have you seen how Jonijix behaves? He'll throw aside any alliance you make as soon as he sees something he wants - the fruit might even draw his attention to you."

Even though Omilaena understood what Kai was trying to do, she thought that was the wrong approach. The Windlord was ultimately a great power, desperately holding on to control and trying to eliminate rivals. They were likely all too willing to play their odds that Jonijix would attack the Elven Expanse first and potentially destroy it as a real political force in the future.

Reckless as it seemed, she understood the logic. The Windlord likely judged that their power was close to the invaders, so might be in favor of opponents fighting and wiping one another out. It was possible that the Flaeren Dominion thought it could endure until the anomalies passed and then expand over the ashes of Rosemount.

"Not all Insanities are the same." Troulon spoke up quietly, but drew the Windlord's attention. "The invaders have brute force and nothing else. The ultimate proof is the First Crest."

"Oh?" The Windlord's head rose slightly.

"While in Traeton, they attempted to take the Crest for themselves, but none of them were able to move it. They pretended otherwise and killed some who saw, but you cannot question that Traeton is still alight and they have stolen everything they can. The invaders only pretend to be transcendent. They are not equal to Insanities such as the First Crest, or the Colossus... or the Glorious Tree."

"If you give them a fruit," Omilaena butted in, "there's a good chance that one of them might die and they'd take it out on the Flaeren Dominion. This could happen even if you don't give one, if they come this way. So you're taking a risk either way, but we're offering you a controlled risk."

Omilaena went silent, watching the Windlord consider this. She had an even more aggressive tactic in hand: she could threaten to lead the invaders directly east into the Flaeren Dominion, if it came to that. Fortunately, after several seconds the Windlord sighed and shifted to standing position again.

"Very well. You cannot blame us if you, as well, are not equal to the fruit of the Glorious Tree. I tell you now, contradictory to the propaganda of all our lords, no one has tasted it and survived."

"Thank you," Kai said with a smile. "You won't regret trusting us."

As they spoke, Omilaena glanced over her shoulder at Troulon, favoring him with a smile. He gave a thin smile back, but kept his distance from the rest of the negotiation. A little further back, Ceryyn beamed at her and made encouraging gestures.

When they took the next step, they didn't use the elves, instead letting the Windlord teleport them deeper into the Flaeren Dominion. Omilaena wasn't sure if that was supposed to keep the location of the Glorious Tree a secret, because it seemed useless: the valley where they arrived was utterly choking with the razor sharp trees.

"It is said that, generations ago, one of our ancestors planted an extraordinary seed." The Windlord gestured across the valley. "It produced the fruit of deadly power, yes, but it also dropped seeds of its own. None of them were equal to the original tree, but they were still dangerous. At first they were allowed to grow, since some of their divine fruit could be survived... and the forest continued to expand."

"You mean it's not actually under control?" Kai asked.

"That's correct. On some fronts we can halt its spread, but in others it is all out war. A past Flamelord attempted to burn down entire swaths of the forest and ultimately failed. So the Glorious Tree is our legacy, but it is also a threat that chokes out all else."

Fascinating. Omilaena kept her mouth shut, but it was surreal to realize that the "Glorious Tree" was basically a weed. Most likely a plant that came from the outside world that was capable of surviving here, easily out-competing everything local. Most other nations were dealing with an Insanity that was drying up, but the Flaeren Dominion was struggling to keep theirs under control.

"Where is the actual tree?" Kai asked. "I would have expected to see it."

"You might expect the Glorious Tree to be larger than all others, but it's actually smaller. This is the original valley, where the Tree was first planted, and few dare to venture now. Unlike my predecessors, I have not tampered with this power, only sought to control the outer forests, so we will need to speak to the caretakers."

It was hard to see where such caretakers might be, given how the scraggly trees strangled everything. Now that she was looking for them, Omilaena spotted several rectangular lumps that were probably all that remained of buildings, and a tower that was standing only because of the branches that had torn through it from all sides.

Before they could set off to find the caretakers or the tree itself, they were interrupted by one of the Windlord's aides arriving. The two spoke in indecipherable whispers, then the Windlord turned back to face them with a grim expression.

"It seems that our problems have separated," the Windlord said. "The Slumbering Colossus continues to crawl south, currently perhaps a week from Traeton. But the greater problem is that Jonijix and his men suddenly turned east, getting distance from the Colossus."

Omilaena exchanged a glance with Kai and they both acknowledged the likely reason: the invaders were subconsciously pushed to pursue Kai, so when he had moved east, they had followed. That alone didn't need to be a problem, but the Windlord looked more grim than the news alone required.

"Jonijix has taken over a city and changed tactics," the Windlord continued. "Now he is demanding that others bring him elves, or he will begin killing citizens. He's in the Commonwealth, and not our concern, but... I thought you would want to know."

Of course that cut right to Kai's heart, and he instinctively began looking west, so Omilaena moved to cut him off. "This is something that only you can do," she told him. "Go, take care of the Glorious Tree. I'll find some way to distract Jonijix."

"Alright." Kai squared his shoulders and she could practically see the thoughts falling into place as he prepared himself to set off the cascade of requirements they needed to save Rosemount. "I'll leave the rest to you."

Such a shame to be so close to another Insanity and turn back, but they were running out of time. Omilaena joined the others with confidence as they returned west, but the truth was that she still didn't have a plan.

Chapter 634: The Fruit of the Glorious Tree

It looked as though there had been a great cost to create the small clearing, both in the form of raw fire burning a circle, and the tattered fragments of armor hanging from some of the branches. Kai had been skeptical about the threat of the trees, but he saw some of the branches were razor sharp and moved against the wind, as if they sought to strike anyone who got too close.

Kai was fairly certain that none of this was a threat to him, but given that the entire forest was related to an Insanity, he didn't want to take it lightly. He had left most of the others behind to their serious politics, so he just needed to find a caretaker at the last bastion outside the wild forests.

Soon enough he spotted him: a man about his age wearing battered wooden armor. He had scars across his face that looked as though they had been torn by branches and one of his arms was missing from the elbow, replaced with a hook. Though he only had a few hundred Power, the fact that caretakers here had that much spoke to how dangerous the forests could be.

"My name is Jaminob," the man told him. "You're trying to get all the way to the Glorious Tree?"

"That's right." Kai stepped closer to the edge of the forest, trying to peer within. "I just need enough of a cue that I can find it quickly instead of wasting time searching the forest."

"It won't be that easy. I know you're strong under that shroud, but these forests are like nothing you've ever faced before. The trees themselves are filled with malice, and that's the normal ones. There are chakra-bearing trees that move, even hunt people. If we want to make the journey safely, it will take us at least three days to reach the Glorious Tree."

"Rosemount doesn't have that much time. Excuse me." Kai grasped the man's armor and then leapt into the air until he was high over the forest. "Can you point out the Glorious Tree's rough location to me?"

"It... the trees will try to fight anyone who flies."

"That's my problem. Can you give me the general location?"

After some more anxious hesitation, Jaminob identified a small hollow near the center of the valley, or at least Kai thought that was what he was pointing out. When he dropped the caretaker back in the clearing, the man seemed grateful not to venture into the forests again. As for Kai, he simply built up his monstrous armor and then plunged straight in.

As he had been warned, the trees rose to try to stop him, hundreds of razor-sharp branches forming a wall to catch him. Kai tore directly through them, feeling nothing but the wood scraping over his armor. He hit the forest floor hard, shattering one of the trees, and then sought his goal.

His leap hadn't been precise enough to land directly in front of the Glorious Tree, but he could sense it: for the first time he remembered, he felt monstrous hunger for a plant. Some of the trees had enough chakra that they were more like sacred beasts, but though he'd have been happy to eat them, none of those were strong enough to produce meaningful essence.

Following the scent, Kai began searching for the central hollow where the Insanity had been planted. He was operating almost entirely by instinct, so he didn't notice when an enormous tree shifted nearby until it melted through the ground, shifting into his path and raising claw-like branches.

Kai held nothing back, exhaling a cloud of Baleful Breath before the tree could touch him. If this thing was produced by the Insanity, there was a chance that it could punch above its weight... but the living tree burned immediately, crumbling down into the dark cloud and dissolving away.

As he looked past it, Kai finally saw a hint of his goal: a pale tree amid all of the dark branches. It was hidden a moment later as two more living trees shifted into his path as if to block him.

An explosion from Thunderbird's Wings sent a shockwave through all the trees and Kai tore directly through the trees to reach his destination. He was surprised to land in another clearing, one that was invisible from the air: the claw-like trees arched into a canopy overhead, but their trunks stayed far away from the center, where he stood in front of what could only be the Glorious Tree.

It was only about his height, tiny compared to the giants all around him. Unlike the rest of the forest, the Glorious Tree had slender branches and thin silvery bark. There was no question that it had a power more intense than the rest of the forest, however, immediately sending a shiver of hunger through him.

The tree itself wasn't so glorious, but three curved pieces of fruit hung from its branches, almost moon-shaped. Each glistened with a rainbow sheen and they were even more extraordinary on a spiritual level, absolutely packed with chakra at a density he'd never seen before. He'd been impressed by the All-Tongue Fruit, but this was on another level, and now he thought he understood: the fruit itself was phased, compressed over time by the tree.

For the most part, the clearing was a peaceful place, almost holy. But the space around the tree was so clear that it had to be unnatural, and Kai couldn't help but look at the surrounding trees. He noticed that several of them had disturbingly human shapes, and one had a skeleton pierced by its trunk, as if the tree had grown up from within the skeleton... or corpse.

Kai extended his hand carefully, alert for some final attack or trap. Nothing stopped him from grasping one of the fruits, and it felt only cool in his claws. Of course, no one had said the tree itself was dangerous: the threat came from eating the fruit.

All he needed was one... but Kai plucked the other two fruit anyway and placed them in his spatial ring. It might be premature for them now, but maybe one day Omilaena and Zae Zin Nim could try them as well. There was a fourth bud, still being saturated with chakra, and he left that one alone for the future.

Now that he had what he needed, he burst out of the forest through the canopy. Kai arced back to the first clearing, waving to Jaminob.

"Got it, thanks!"

The man stared at him in shock, but there was no more time for that, not when Omilaena was buying time outside. He had spent some time just on the search and didn't know how long the absorption would take, if it was even possible for him to pull it off. As confident as Kai was in his strength and stamina, this fruit really was on a different level than anything he'd tried before.

When he arrived at the meeting point, he was surprised to see that only Ceryyn was waiting for him. She was sitting with her head on her hands, but perked up when he arrived.

"Oh, Kai! Did you get it?"

"I did, but I figured it was better to test at a safe location." He glanced around the clearing. "Everyone else is gone?"

"Omilaena took everyone for her plan, even Yonto." Ceryyn sighed, but then patted his shoulder. "I'm happy to help you, though, since you have a lot of work ahead of you. You want to go back to the Elven Expanse?"

They ended up in a desolate expanse of desert, with nothing but dunes on every side. Given their level of strength, the best defense was distance, and he didn't know what the secondary effects might be, so that was probably for the best.

Kai glanced at Ceryyn, who made encouraging gestures, then brought out the largest of the fruit. Part of him wanted to form jaws and swallow it whole, but he wasn't that crazy. Instead he formed a razor claw and cut out a small piece of its flesh. Unlike other phased materials, it cut effortlessly, as if it wanted to be eaten. He couldn't help but think back to the trees and corpses around the Glorious Tree - not only had they been overwhelmed by the power, the tree might have used them as fodder to grow.

He carefully placed the fragment in his mouth and it was shockingly sweet, delicious unlike anything he'd tasted before. It was definitely filled with chakra, which he felt resonating through him, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. Well, the Insanities did range significantly in strength...

"I'm not feeling anyth-" Kai cut off with a pained choke as the power surged within him.

The armor covering one of his arms exploded in both directions: it hardened and formed a new spike extending from his elbow, but the interior of the armor became spiked as well, piercing into his flesh. It was his own power harming him, so he was unprepared to defend against it.

For a while his head spun and he realized that he had staggered a step, clutching his arm. Kai forced his breathing to slow, getting the rushing new chakra under control. His Savage Heart had tried to absorb it and, though the ability had grown more powerful, it hadn't been able to keep up, leading to the wild growth. That could be fatal for anyone, but given his abilities, it could be especially dangerous for him.

"Kai... are you alright?" Ceryyn hovered some distance away, caution preventing her from following her instincts to get closer.

"I'll live." Kai shook his arm as he finished forcing the armor back to normal. "It would probably be best to absorb the power in one rush, but that's going to be brutal on me. Can I count on you while I go through it?"

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from novelhall. Please report it.

"You might try to stab me, but..." Ceryyn gave him a cheerful salute. "If anyone shows up, I'll try to fight them off, and if I can't, I'll teleport you to another location. That's some crazy chakra, though, so I think that's the limit of what I can do."

"That's enough. Glad to have you at my back."

Preparing his mind for an ordeal, Kai sat down cross-legged and made sure that his Savage Heart form was completely stable before he took any further actions. Once he was completely ready, he opened his jaws and swallowed the fruit whole.

It tasted sweet at first, then he tasted only pain.

Chapter 635: Distractions Growing Thin

Despite telling herself that her role was critical, Omilaena shifted restlessly as they planned the assault. Kai was trying to consume the fruit of an Insanity, taking on a threat like only she had attempted and undergoing an unprecedented chakra experiment at the same time. She wanted to see it, and - she could be honest in her own mind - she worried about him. He had an injection from her for support, but otherwise he was on his own.

Meanwhile, she was putting together a team she hadn't expected: Gorutiel and a squad of demons alongside Yonto and some elves. If they were going to attack Jonijix, they needed to be careful that it was obviously an attack from Rosemount so that he didn't call on the other invaders to start killing.

Of course, in the back of her mind she couldn't help but think that playing by the invaders' rules might come back to bite them in the end. The invaders didn't want to trigger the genocide clause, because it would mean the end of all their privileges, but nothing forced them to follow the rules. If someone became desperate or paranoid enough, they could set off the others for no reason.

That was why their plan was a limited strike on one of the weaker invaders, not Jonijix himself. Omilaena would make one more appearance, hopefully distracting them and protecting any unfortunate elves in the region, then the rest would be up to the team from Rosemount. If Jonijix stopped thinking with his dick enough to recognize her from Deadwaste, she would have a clear alibi that she hadn't been part of the attack.

Before she left, Omilaena had one last critical role to play: she walked up to Yonto and held out her hand. He pulled one of the Thunderbird arrows from his quiver and handed it to her wordlessly. She gripped the arrowhead and used her Heart of Poison to create a fully phased liquid that not only coated the arrow but sank deep into the metal.

Once she was done, the arrowhead glowed with poisonous energy. "Will that do?" she asked as she handed it back.

"Aye, that'll do." Yonto took the arrow extremely cautiously.

She'd planned to say more than that, but if Yonto was being so laconic, she'd do the same. Omilaena glanced over to the demons and Gorutiel grinned savagely at her, his eyes burning with demonic light. As far as he was concerned, they were about to get their feast of ultimate power - whether or not that would work was uncertain, but it would be a good enough distraction.

Hopefully. The timeline was getting increasingly messy due to all the unknown variables moving in different directions, so she wasn't sure how things would come together. There was a chance that she'd need to flaunt herself to Jonijix to keep him occupied while Kai handled the rest, but she hoped that she'd be able to join Kai and fight the Colossus.

Of course, she also wanted to fuck on top of the Slumbering Colossus afterward, and they didn't have time for that. The world was a cruel place for dreams.

Instead, she nodded to Yonto one last time, then went with one of the other elves to teleport to the eastern Commonwealth. She nodded farewell and began repositioning her dress for maximum seduction. It didn't make her feel dirty, but it was getting a bit tedious. Simple men like Jonijix were irritating to deal with because so few levers worked on them.

She found him pacing across a leveled palace, ranting at assembled invaders and locals. When he saw her, she saw him catch his breath and then turn purple.

"You teasing bitch!" Jonijix was rushing toward her with a full speed phase, eating up the ground with troubling speed.

"Aww, you know you love it." Omilaena ran backwards for a brief time, long enough to give him a wink, then had to turn and actually sprint away.

"Get back here! I'll kill everyone in the city if you don't!"

"Nah, you won't." Omilaena grinned over her shoulder and wiggled her ass at him, prompting a howl of rage.

The grin felt even more false than before. She'd out-bluffed him this time, but if Jonijix was making threats like that, he was becoming increasingly irrational. This wouldn't work forever and she could only hope that everything fell into place in time.

.

..

.

The deeper she fell into meditation, Zae Zin Nim felt as though she had returned to her roots: pure meditation, pursuing truth instead of the power of cultivation. She delved deep into herself, facing every part of her own being, from privileged young mistress to broken wreck to pure cultivator to wife to matriarch.

Each of those stages of her life held truth, carried a piece of herself, but none of them were the truth alone. The final layer would peel back soon enough and she would cast aside being a matriarch. She sought to be a pure cultivator, but that didn't mean she was unable to be a wife.

As she meditated, the cultivation happened almost unnaturally. Her dantian should have been overflowing, cracking from the pressure, yet she discovered that she could absorb even more qi within her body, enlarge her dantian further, condense qi even more. She used what she'd learned from mastering phases, yes, but more than that, she felt as though she grasped the truth of her own soul instead of the structures that a child had been given in order to help her understand.

"Matriarch?"

The interruption awakened a fury in her that might have been a shadow of her father's, but Zae Zin Nim was not her father. Besides, the Brightwind Sect members had been very good about not distracting her up to this point, so they would not have interrupted her for no reason.

"What is it?" She remained seated, hoping that it would be only a brief interruption, but judging from the nervous looks of the cultivators, she was not so lucky.

"Matriarch, this is very disrespectful, but you asked us t-"

"Out with it." Zae Zin Nim glared at the cringing group.

"It seems that... Yangix has become aware of your presence. He suggested that... you fought on Deadwaste?" The aide saw that Zae Zin Nim hadn't flown into a fury yet and continued with more confidence. "He has demanded that you join him in the Heavenly Mountains and Lakes. There have been no direct threats yet, but all the factions under the Yangix Sect have begun pressuring us..."

"I see."

She remained silent for a time, considering this outcome from the peace borne of her meditation. It had always been inevitable that Yangix would hear about her eventually - there was only one matriarch on the continent with gray skin, after all. This development was unquestionably negative, because he could begin destroying things that she cared about.

Worse, she couldn't fight him yet. There was the threat of the other invaders attacking, of course, but even if it was the two of them in a straight fight...

<

Name: Zae Zin Nim

Total Power: 1864

Cultivation: Earth Soul 109% (536)

*Heavenly Sash: Cultivation +10% (53)

Coldfire Corona: 46 (438)

Pure Yin Shroud: Spinel Rank (285)

True Blackblood Physique: E-12 (472)

Soul Level: 9 (81)

>

After so long meditating without even considering her soul in numerical terms, she was pleased to see that she had reached 109% of Earth Soul. She knew that she could break through to Sky Soul at any moment, as in fact it had been challenging to maintain her dantian lately, since it threatened to explode to new power.

"Begin taking delaying actions," Zae Zin Nim ordered her subordinates. "I am not yet prepared to fight Yangix, but I intend to defeat him utterly. Until then, do whatever is necessary for the Brightwind Sect to survive."

"Are you sure, Matriarch?" Those were strange words for a sect leader to say, contrary to the usual ethos of Cloudspire... but she had killed her father and taken over with overwhelming power, so she thought they would obey.

"Start with promises. They may eventually invade the Eastern Plains, but I will depart from here in time, drawing their attention. Retreat is acceptable if it buys time - by the time I am done, the Yangix Sect will be crushed."

As the others left, it looked like they might actually believe her. That was probably easier because they hadn't seen the raw power of the invaders yet, but if all went well, they never would. Zae Zin Nim was confident in herself... if she could take the final step.

First she considered simply rising to Sky Soul, but that felt wrong to her new instincts. The numbers seen via spiritual sight might seem artificial, but they represented truths of the world. Orders of magnitude frequently mattered, as seen in the 99 and 999 Power barriers. In the same way, she felt certain that 110% meant something on a deeper level, and she needed to obtain it.

But as she cultivated over several days, Zae Zin Nim realized that she wouldn't reach it soon enough. Even if she reattained her perfect meditation, the minions of the Yangix Sect were pushing into the Eastern Plains.

It was tempting to remain in her chamber cultivating, even if she knew that her presence was causing trouble for the Brightwind Sect. What finally interrupted her wasn't an attack or a tragedy, it was an arrival that she never would have imagined in a thousand years.

"Matriarch? There is a strange crystal woman who says she knows you..."

Zae Zin Nim blinked in surprise, then rose to her feet. And, as little sense as it made, she discovered that Cragrila was waiting for her. It was so strange to see the Krysali woman here that Zae Zin Nim just stared at her in silence.

"I'm here to ask for your help," Cragrila said. "The situation is worse in the Southern Rivers than you know."

"What are you doing on the continent?" Zae Zin Nim asked.

"It's been over five months since the invaders attacked, do you realize that?" Cragrila frowned at this distraction, then shook her head. "I was focused on phase training at first, but when they split up, I realized that I needed more power. Well, I've cured myself of the delusion that I will ever be able to take on the strongest invaders, but I can help."

"I see. And you went to the Southern Rivers because they were familiar."

"Yangix is sending his weaker allies out to conquer the continent for him, and he has such a reputation that no one challenges him. That is... until Wan Fei. His qi phase is intense enough that he was able to fight the weaker ones, so the invasion of the south has stalled."

"Ah." Zae Zin Nim folded her hands as she considered this new information, imagining how these events would proceed in the future. She had been handed a distraction for Yangix, but it was one that came with unpleasant new consequences. "Does Yangix know?"

"At the moment his subordinate is embarrassed, trying to win on his own." Cragrila gripped her spear tighter. "If the invaders retaliate, the cost in lives will be terrible. Wan Fei is strong, but Yangix would slaughter him, and I'd do even worse. But if we had one person with us strong enough to fight him, I think our allies across the Southern Rivers could fight their allies..."

"I understand your concern. But how are you so confident in knowledge of their inner court?"

"Oh, Hul Ping rolled over for the invaders to welcome them. He's feeding us information and trying to pacify them while Wan Fei leads the resistance from among the rivers. That's another risk - the longer he stays there, the higher the chance they get angry and start killing people."

With the Brightwind Sect it was easy to revert to the role of matriarch, but with Cragrila, Zae Zin Nim felt like she was back in the revolution again. There were no commands to be given here, only strategies to defeat their enemy.

"Thank you for telling me," Zae Zin Nim said. "I will be honest with you: I need to retreat to finish my cultivation, but I'm not sure where I'll go."

"Doesn't the continent have enough abandoned places?" Cragrila asked.

"Not that have massive sources of qi, not with the Yangix Sect spreading everywhere. Give me time to search for a location. Then we can go and fight them together."

There was another problem: Wan Fei and the other locals could fight the invaders without triggering their threat, but could Zae Zin Nim? It seemed like the rules should be different for her, given that Yangix had invited her by name, but she couldn't be sure. There were four other men with him, little more than thugs, and any one of them could panic and set off the other invaders.

However, that problem faded to the back of her mind as Zae Zin Nim sent out secret messages to other sects and clans, searching for anywhere that would shield her. She didn't expect any Brightwind allies in the Eastern Plains to provide support - fair weather friends all. But other factions returned negative messages and no doubt informed Yangix about what she was doing. Even when she got desperate and contacted the Manticore Tribe and the Bloodcoral Sect, they refused to respond.

Just when she began to wonder if there was no answer, she received a pale white letter. Not what she would have chosen, but it would have to do.

Chapter 636: The Monstrous Savage Heart

Over the course of his life, Kai had become familiar with pain, even friends with it. He'd experienced countless agonies, from overwhelming blows to spiritual burning to the distortions of transformations. Those experiences had built up an unbreakable willpower, and with Behemoth's Heart preventing damage, he could take on anything.

The fruit of the Glorious Tree was different.

His own power was running rampant, breaking apart his body from within. This was nothing like the painful transformations he had experienced before, where pain was the price of rebuilding his body. Chakra flooded through him without rhyme or reason, threatening to destroy him unless he mastered it, yet control alone wasn't enough because no matter how he diverted the chakra, it still tore apart his body.

Armor continued to grow in all directions, stabbing deep into his body, but the worst was the teeth. His jaws grew larger and then his teeth would spike randomly, tearing through his own mouth. Even with his regeneration, his mouth was a bloody mess, a nightmare of teeth piercing flesh in all directions.

He had no idea how long it had been - hours, he was sure, long enough that everything felt unreal. The exterior pain began to numb, even as his body continued to shake violently, but the interior pain was worse. His organs were changing now, in ways he couldn't fully understand - the most he could do was prevent the chakra from destroying him and channel it into a useful route.

Normally his human and monstrous characteristics were in harmony, since despite the Savage Heart transformation changing his appearance, he only had one body: a monstrous one. His heart had permanently changed into monstrous tissue, and now it changed further, growing larger and stronger in his chest. Spikes seemed to be growing from all his blood vessels, tearing through his body, and all he could do was keep it under control. If he hadn't absorbed the Twisted Immortal Carnal Seed he wasn't sure he could have kept up.

Focusing on one part of himself at a time seemed to be the best way to keep his sanity through the rush of chakra and pain. There was an entire hour where he couldn't breathe as his lungs expanded aggressively, Behemoth's Heart desperately keeping the rest of his body alive until they found a new form. Piece by piece, he rebuilt himself.

Finally he lay on the sand, grasping for breath, unable to comprehend a world that wasn't filled with pain. Every twinge of his body felt wrong, triggered instincts that he needed to suppress the reaction. But the rush of chakra... the rush was over and he was alive.

The outside world had been irrelevant for so long, he was surprised to see that it was night - most of a day had passed. Ceryyn sat nearby, watching him with a sorrowful expression... though she perked up when they made eye contact.

"Kai? Are you alright?"

"I... don't know." Just not being in pain was a rush of elation, but he didn't know if he'd obtained the results he wanted. It was entirely possible that he'd made his body into a mangled abomination, and it took him a second to work up the nerve to look.

His body was whole. Covered in blood, but the Beggar King's Robes regenerated around his waist. And he still looked human, though that felt like a false skin over the surface. When Kai flexed an arm, he could feel the monstrous muscles underneath. They took strange and unnatural forms... but effective ones.

When he sat up, his body moved even easier than before. Kai gazed at his hand, shifting the fingers to claws one at a time, marveling at how easy it was. He barely even needed to use the Savage Heart now, or perhaps it was more accurate to say that the transformative power of the Savage Heart had thoroughly saturated his body.

"I made it," he said as he pulled to his feet and smiled at Ceryyn. "Unless you notice something wrong?"

"Open your mouth." She stepped closer and peered up at him until he obeyed. "Huh, all your teeth are pointy now. And your tongue is a bit weird."

"That happens sometimes when I transform." Kai felt at his teeth, then shrugged it off - some of those temporary changes might be permanent now, but that wouldn't get in the way of his normal life. Most importantly, he could feel the new power surging within him.

"Are we going to the Colossus now?" Ceryyn asked. "I've been out of touch with everyone, since I was watching you, so I'm worried about... well, everything."

"No, not yet. This is just one step in the process."

Kai sat back down on the sands and reached within his soul. The transformation had caused an enormous leap in the Savage Heart, bringing it to an even 500 Power, but that had always been just a means to an end. Now that his human soul had expanded, he could create the monstrous fusion that had been impossible before.

When he searched the monstrous essences within him, for a moment he was afraid they would have been somehow distorted, but soon he found all four.

<

Isulfr's Bite - XIII (nu)

Voidmaw's Bite - X (kappa)

Deathmaw Essence - X (kappa)

Silver Demon - X (kappa)

>

Not only were they intact, it felt even easier than usual to fuse them together. Kai reflected on Isulfr's Bite one last time, but he didn't descend into sentiment: he fed together all of his biting and consuming abilities, forging a new ability that would be worthy of the rest.

In a shockingly short time, compared to the agony of the transformation, he had his new essence.

<

Abyss Maw - I (alpha)

>

His new Abyss Maw was powerful... but above all, it felt hungry. Kai's appetite had been increasing ever since his transformation, but now he felt like he could eat the world. He didn't think anything about his appearance changed, but when he glanced at Ceryyn, her eyes widened in surprise.

"Uh..." She managed to brighten again. "Seems like whatever you did worked. Are you ready now?"

Instead of answering, Kai slowly got to his feet, reflecting on his soul as he did.

<

Name: Kai Clanless

Total Power: 1398

Monstrous Hunger - XVII (rho)

Cultivation: Nascent Foundation 99.9% (267)

Savage Heart: 50 (500)

Physique Level: B-7 (535)

Beggar King's Robes: +3 (15)

Soul Level: 9 (81)

Dragon's Might - V (epsilon)

Behemoth's Heart - XIII (nu)

Thunderbird's Wings - XII (mu)

Tyrant's Claw - XIII (nu)

Manticore's Spine - VII (eta)

Baleful Breath - IX (iota)

Abyss Maw - I (alpha)

-

Void Gaze - X (kappa)

Famished World - VII (eta)

Mutefang's Stealth - XVI (pi)

Sahagin's Soul - XV (omicron)

Greatshark's Presence - III (gamma)

Monstrous Tail - VIII (theta)

Legion Bite - VI (zeta)

Wallcrawler's Feet - V (epsilon)

Abominalgum - III (gamma)

Slime's Immortality - II (beta)

Bloodtail's Armor - V (epsilon)

Voidshell Essence - III (gamma)

Sacred Dragon's Qi - III (gamma)

Coiling Island Qi - III (gamma)

>

With nearly 1400 Power and a brand new ability, he felt ready to take on anything, but the Colossus was an Insanity. Under normal circumstances, he would have wanted to experiment with his new bite before using it in such a dangerous situation.

Unfortunately, they didn't have that kind of time. Omilaena, the elves, and even the demons were out there trying to buy time, so he couldn't relax and leave them waiting.

"Yeah," Kai said. "I'm ready."

Ceryyn took him back to the Commonwealth, to an empty hill a safe distance from the Colossus. That space no longer seemed significant, so Kai burst into the air. Thunderbird's Wings extended from his back faster than before and the armored transformation was almost instantaneous, as if the armor was less being formed than emerging from his body.

In the distance, the Colossus was a hulking darkness blotting out stars. It turned slowly, its eyes glowing like emerald moons in the night.

It began to rise to its feet, more slowly than Kai had expected. Something had changed... those eyes were ominous in the dark, but they flickered weakly. Perhaps Omilaena was right and the Colossus had struggled to gain the energy it needed to fight. That made him strangely sad, but there was no time for sentiment.

He shifted his path and shot low, intending to take out one of the Colossus's legs and bring it to the ground. To his surprise, the leg shifted in a surprisingly sharp movement, one knee smashing into him. Kai hurtled in the opposite direction, struggling to regain control of his flight.

The impact had been jarring, but not devastating. It seemed as though the Colossus was also off balance, only slowly turning to face his new position. Still, it was a reminder that this thing was an Insanity, not something for him to play around with. If Kai tried to go toe-to-toe with the Colossus as a monster, he wasn't sure who would come out on top.

But this was where the human side was more important: he wasn't here to fight the Insanity, just eat it.

Kai marshaled himself and flew directly at the monster's head, using Void Gaze. The Colossus stared back, eyes staring unblinkingly, their souls clashing. He couldn't overcome it, but it couldn't overcome him either and they remained locked in a battle of soul and will.

As they did so, Kai's momentum kept him sailing forward. At the last second, just as the Colossus raised a hand to smash him, he broke away. Completely blind, Kai used Thunderbird's Wings to redirect his path and instead slammed into the enormous chest.

His impact knocked it a step back, but he knew that he only had a moment to strike before it would try to grab and drain him like before. Kai didn't hesitate, drawing fully on Abyss Maw. As he opened his jaws, they seemed to open unnaturally far, a void emerging within them.

Then, with the stone hand swinging toward him, his teeth snapped closed.

A bite larger than a house disappeared from the Colossus's chest, but Kai's mouth wasn't filled with stone: he still felt ravenous. His spiritual teeth had cleaved through the stone and bit deep, cutting into something critical: when he opened his eyes, he saw an emerald sphere larger than his body, part of it shaved away by his teeth.

The Colossus began to fall backward, its eyes fading out. When it hit the ground, an earthquake rumbled in all directions, but Kai barely noticed: he was too busy taking a second bite.

By the time Kai had finished consuming the core, the Colossus was truly just a giant of stone, sprawled across the landscape. Even though he had tried to throw everything into that assault, he was brimming with power again. The rush of essence might have overwhelmed him before his transformation, but now he could feel it settling into his soul, filled with the raw potential of an Insanity.

Kai rose to his feet and realized that he was hungry for more.

.

..

.

Normally Inafay spent her time training instead of working with the scouts, but this was different: Fodajix was on the move and no one understood what he was doing. It was too dangerous for someone without a strong grasp of phases to try to follow him - even though he couldn't fly, he might prove resourceful enough to target someone in the air.

As her difficult chase had proved, even with a speed phase it was tough to keep up with him. She was fairly sure that Fodajix didn't know she was following, he was just moving north with unclear purpose. Somehow he had gotten over the Frontier wall, thankfully not damaging it, and now he headed deeper into the wasteland.

Even now, despite her boosts in strength, Inafay knew that she couldn't win the fight. Not that it mattered, because if she somehow beat him, it would just cause the other invaders to begin killing. She wanted to be optimistic, but even she had to admit that the situation was pretty bad.

And, as she understood where they were going, she realized that things could become even worse.

For a brief time she hoped that Fodajix wasn't moving toward the great sealed dome that surrounded the Abhorroid, but that proved a false hope. The only reason for his shifting paths was that he wasn't sure exactly where it had stopped. As soon as he spotted the dome, he started running.

Even if she had wanted to stop him, Inafay wasn't sure that she could have. With startling speed he reached the side and hurled one of the invaders' swords, which flew like a missile. It punched through the side of the shell, piercing deep into the darkness within.

Deadly mist began to waft from the hole... then the entire shell rumbled as it began to crack and the Abhorroid woke.