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nDyon stood. ‘All of the spatial distortions are connected. It seems that I was wrong. It wasn’t a one or the other case, it’s both.’

nWhat Dyon meant was simple. It wasn’t that the spatial tears weren’t spatial will, or that it just wasn’t the main source of spatial will. It was both.

nThere was a main source of void will was around the Epistemic Tower, and all of the spatial tears around it were just the resultant consequences. However, those ‘consequences’, seemed purposeful because of the fact that if connected in the right way, it was possible to bypass the void barrier around the Epistemic Tower.

nDyon chuckled to himself. ‘If my little feu glace was here, this would have been a million times easier. She’s probably one of the few that could use brute strength to get through this place.’

nAlthough Dyon had figured it out, he still needed to wait for the right moment… a moment where it all aligned and things would fit into place.

nAlidor was actually quite cautious. He hadn’t found evidence that Dyon was watching him, but, he still acted as though someone was. Walking around the Epistemic Tower was a complete bluff, that was necessary.

nThe second trick was that he drew the array with his hand, but the source of void will was in the ground. You weren’t meant to write the array in the air. You were meant to do it into the ground!

nWith the constant shifting of the spatial tears in the air, it seemed as though that where the originated from… But, wasn’t it also true that the reason for the spatial tears could be a power emitting from the ground? A power that was constantly shifting out of view?

n‘Nice tricks… To think you made me memorize a useless array while you drew it with your feet. No wonder it looked like nonsense. I was right about it being a key, but I was wrong about which of your limbs was drawing the key.’

nDyon’s eyes flashed with a dense purple gold as his aurora was pushed to its limit.

nThe Tree of Life and Death appeared behind him, immediately piercing into the ground and creating a map of energy in Dyon’s mind.

n‘I can’t map out the whole 50km radius at once… This’ll take some time…’

nThis was exactly like a game. The void will was constantly shifting beneath the ground, but, it was doing so on a set pattern. When Alidor walked around the tower, he was waiting for the pattern he recognized to appear.

nAll Dyon had to do was take his time to analyze the grounds at specific and set times. Then, he could grow the map of just 1 pattern in his mind. Then, by drawing that pattern at the right time, he’d be able to enter! .

nAnd just like that, another half a day past before Dyon finally stood. A look of determination colored his features as he feet flashed with an elaborate array he didn’t bother hiding as much as Alidor had.

nThe ground lit, stars and swirls spreading along the ground as Dyon’s array bounced from power source to power source.

nSoon, a foggy door appeared before him.

nSmiling, Dyon stepped forward, disappearing into a new world.

n**

nAway from Dyon and at Lotus Tower, Ri’s transformation had changed everything.

nThe army of four hundred thousand had been cut down to half its numbers over the past few days, and Ri didn’t seem like she was done yet. This was only made better by the fact the elves were stepping up as well. 𝘪.𝘤𝑜𝘮

nAkash was without a doubt a veteran. Her double-sided spears sliced down opponents with ease as she took advantage of her essence gathering cultivation to take out weaker opponents along with her younger brother, Zaltarish.

nAeson remained silent, but his spear was fierce. He was using this battle to temper his will to an all new level. Much like the demon generals, he hadn’t taken a single rest.

nDelia was a source of inspiration for many of the stronger members of the nine hundred elves who watched from within the Gorilla’s Den formation. She wasn’t as strong, but she still tried her best. Her kill count was near non-existent and she often spent a lot of time fighting one opponent at a time, but she still tried. In fact, the demon generals held smiles on their faces because of her and Ri, so, to help, they helped facilitate Delia’s 1on1 battles, stopping people from ganging up on her.

nThe enemies these hundred or so couldn’t stop hit the wall of the Gorillas Den formation. But, the problem was that, as meridian formation warriors, the effort it took to break peak practitioner arrays was too much for most of them. And even when they managed to break through together, they’d face spatial spear grenades as the Elvin orphans hid behind their protections.

nThe worst part was that even when the odd warrior managed to truly enter the maze, they’d face an attack from pockets of elves and Niveus sect members that were grouped in hundreds. They stood no chance.

nBas and Liska watched all of this from the sky, gritting their teeth. They had realized that waiting for Ri to weaken was useless, especially with the hundred demon generals there. This was not going well.

nWhen they came here, their plan was to use rules given to them by Alidor to flip the death qi against the Lotus alliance, but, for some inexplicable reason, all of the death qi was gone! How could they know that Dyon had absorbed the core? And even if they had known, they wouldn’t have believed it!

nBas grit his teeth, but finally said words he should have said long ago. “We can’t do this without out Essence Gathering experts. Call them here so we can end this farce. We’ve lost almost eight hundred thousand of our kin. Eight hundred thousand!” Bas shook violently. Promiscuous or not didn’t matter. Their high population didn’t mean they were okay with literal genocide.

nLiska nodded silently. They knew they needed thousands of essence gathering experts. Tying down Ri was no longer the problem… Those demon generals… They were something else.

n“Let them keep fighting. Don’t let them have rest or time to plan something else. Call over the elite troop from the gate entrance. The ones who didn’t go attack Rod or Looming tower.

n“We’ll see how they deal with being outdone in number and strength.” The anger in Bas’ heart lit as he looked forward to the slaughtering of this petty alliance.

n**

nAway from the heating battle, Dyon was standing in a room that made his brain spin with so many questions that he felt dizzy.

nThe space was circular and lit brightly by a strange golden statue that say in the middle. Sometimes it had one head, sometimes it had three, sometimes it had six, and yet still, sometimes it had hundreds. Even more odd was the fact this was true for its arms and legs too. In fact, even the facial expressions on the statue were in a perpetual state of change. Dyon just couldn’t put his finger on was going on.

nHowever, the oddities didn’t end there. Below Dyon’s feet was an odd dark gold fog that looked almost olive in color… An energy that was an exact match for the one Kaeghan used and Alidor attacked him with!

nJust standing in it gave Dyon such an odd ever-changing feeling that he felt as though he was getting motion sickness.

nThis was exactly how he had felt when Alidor attacked him for the first time! He just couldn’t understand the strange dichotomy of the energy. It was as ever changing as the statue…

nAll of this said… There was still a single thing that made Dyon shake to his very core…

nAround him were ten identical fog filled doorways. The fog was so dense that see past and into the door was impossible. But, this wasn’t the most important point…

nAbove each door, were symbols that somehow breathed their meaning into Dyon’s mind.

nScanning the symbols, Dyon’s shock only increased as he trained on two particular doorways. The world seemed to freeze and his mind whipped into overdrive trying to understand just what it meant for these two things to appear here.

n‘Aurora…’

nAnd…

n‘True Empath.’

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