Following the map that the village head gave us, the girls and I made our way to the different mountains in the area. There were three Fragments left we needed to collect, so to save time, we decided to split up. Feng Mian would go get one of the Fragments of Dark, Axilia would get the other one, while Qing Yue and I worked on getting the second Fragment of Light. Qing Yue was sticking with me because… well, she could hardly fight on her own, being someone who pretty much completely specced out into support and healing.

The reason we were split up in this way was because the Fragments of Dark were supposed to be found inside caves at the foot of the mountains, therefore Flight Magic wasn't needed. The Fragments of Light, on the other hand, poetically were basked in sunlight, found at the very top of mountains.

In any case, according to the village head's map, this Fragment of Light was to be found on the tallest mountain in this area. We stood on top of it right now—pretty easy to reach with some Flight Magic. This was the tallest mountain of this range, but still, it was nothing compared to the mountain I once climbed in Demihuman Territory a while back to retrieve the Earth Empyrean's power.

Speaking of… they've been quiet for quite a bit now. They've just been hanging out on the private island, though, so it should be fine.

What was not fine, however, was the Fragment of Light that was supposed to be up here.

"… Uh, where the hell is it?

" I asked, scratching my hair.

"Do you see anything, Qing Yue?

"

"Nope,

" she said, shaking her head.

"Did the village head lie to us…?

"

"No, I don't think so,

" I said, narrowing my eyes.

"He doesn't seem like the type to do that, and my lie detector didn't go off either…

"

"Hm… how interesting.

"

Then, an idea hit me, and I pulled out the Fragment of Light the village head gave me already, out of my pocket.

"… Aha. That's the secret.

"

"Hm?

" Qing Yue peeked over at what I was holding in my hand, and saw… nothing. Why? Because it was invisible.

I was holding it—but it was invisible due to the sunlight. That's why I couldn't see the Fragment of Light here either.

Well, that's of no problem to me.

Level Three Shadow Magic—Dome of Nightmares.

Immediately, surging and swirling black energy appeared all around us from the ground, elevating higher and higher until they converged and created the shape of a dome. The light from the outside could no longer be seen, and as a result, the only source of illumination inside the shadowy dome were two things:

The two Fragments of Light.

"Ohhh…

" Qing Yue blinked in awe.

The first was in my hand, of course, and the other was hovering high in the air, which makes sense why I couldn't feel it even when walking around.

With a jump, I snatched it out of the air easily, and stuffed it back into my pocket along with the other one.

"And that's that. Now…

"

I prepared to open up the comms channel and contact Feng Mian and Axilia, but just when I was about to do that, I heard some screeching coming our way.

"Um… Big brother Xuan Kai? There's birds coming our way. Big, big birds.

"

"Big birds? You serious?

"

I turned around and-

"… Holy **.

"

Indeed, she was right. Big, big ass birds. And there seemed to be about a dozen of them as well.

Suddenly, they spread their wings and cawed, as thousands of sharp white feathers shot out of them to attack us.

"Tch!

"

Instinctively, I raised my hand to absorb them, but they weren't magic-based. Chaos failed to work, and I was struck by a good few dozen of them.

"Ngh…

" The cuts all over my body were light, but they hurt. Still, it wasn't enough to do any lasting damage—though it did make me pissed.

"Now… it's my turn.

"

The birds suddenly froze as they realized what they'd done, a powerful energy born of hatred leaking from my body. Then, I opened my own wings, black and venomous. They used to be white, but since entering the Chaos Realm, my understanding of Chaos has grown deeper, and it has become to influence more of my body.

The runic markings on my two black wings glowed red as a deadly thunderstorm converged above us, and I flapped one of my wings towards them in a sideways cut movement.

A wide crescent-shaped strike of red energy shot out of my wings, enormous and undodgeable. The poor birds could only watch in fear as the strike cut and melted through their bodies like tofu, and they were incinerated to ashes in a moment. My attack did not end there, however, and flew all the way towards the mountain faintly in the distance where their nest was.

The mountain's entire top half was lopped off, wiping out their nests completely. Then, and only then, was I satisfied, and dissipated the energy from my attack before it accidentally cut through the entire world.

"… Hmph.

"

Landing back on the ground and retracting my wings, Qing Yue hurried over and applied her healing magic on me, easening the pain and getting rid of all the wounds in an instant. Even though I had vampiric regeneration, using that to heal still required usage of mana. Having Qing Yue here like this was far more efficient, effective, and as a side bonus—eye candy. Only thing she was missing was a cute nurse outfit, and she would be perfect here.

"Now then… like I was saying…

" I sighed and opened up my comms at last.

"How are you two doing?

"

"I just retrieved my Fragment of Dark,

" Feng Mian said via the earpiece.

"Come pick me up, please. I don't want to climb that mountain.

"

"Same~

" Axilia said.

"But wait off on the picking up for me~! I want to massacre some more of these monkeys!

"

Massacring monkeys…? What the hell is going on over there…

I decided not to think about it and just let her do what she wants.. Probably not a good idea overall, but for the sake of my mental health, I'm leaving it at that.