That Risen General was like a black colossus. Darian had actually sensed it before, but it had been way too far... and then, in just three seconds, it suddenly tore through space and bit into their mount.
Through the crack in the Wyvern’s lips, everyone saw it: a black head appeared and disappeared as the jaws snapped shut.
Next came a barrage of impacts—ferocious bites shaking the Wyvern. It was a terrifying monster, at least ten times bigger than their Wyvern. And it wasn’t just one head biting. It was the Nine-Headed Hydra!
"Don’t move!" Darian growled, stopping the young Summoners who were about to unleash their powers.
Niara snorted, her Bloodline pulsing. That made the Wyvern roar like crazy, and something even scarier deep inside it lowered its internal defenses.
From inside Darian’s inventory, he pulled out some insanely sharp blades he’d looted from the assassins. A rune glowed at the center of each one. Darian coated them with black power and, with a smooth motion, guided them up the Wyvern’s throat like flying weapons.
With a fast, spinning slash, using hundreds of them, the Wyvern’s head was cut off. But the Risen General didn’t care; his claws were already sunk deep into the Wyvern’s body, devouring the flesh with blind fury.
He seemed weirdly dumb... even though he was insanely strong. That was strange, but Darian could only be grateful for it.
The head didn’t matter. He just kept eating, ignoring the thing that had ’magically’ fallen. He definitely couldn’t think. After devouring almost all the Wyvern’s flesh, the Hydra turned toward other targets resting nearby.
On the ground, the group took the chance to escape from the fallen head. They scrambled to a corner and crouched there, all of them drenched in sweat.
Darian carefully sensed the surroundings, then finally let out a relieved breath. They’d fallen a bit farther from the next powerful enemy. He looked back—they were still way too close to the center.
"Let’s move," Darian ordered.
Niara laughed. "Just a little bit of excitement... it was starting to get boring."
The four of them stood up, still trembling a little, forcing themselves to walk. Excitement? For her... this whole thing had just been a casual stroll?
They moved with twice the caution now. After an hour, they finally arrived. In the distance, there was a gigantic crack in the air.
A miasma coming from it was so dense it twisted space-time. Freezing gusts of wind blew out, and a heavy aura of decay filled the air. The place looked like the entrance to hell. Everyone realized it immediately: that thing was some kind of seal, guarding something important inside.
Darian and Niara just stared at it for a few seconds, then kept moving without hesitation.
The others... as soon as they saw it, their legs simply wouldn’t move. The miasma pouring out of there was definitely coming from a Risen Lord. Just from that miasma alone, a Risen Lord could wipe out all life on a planet in seconds. There wouldn’t even be a fight. No chance to defend.
The twins were fine—they’d lived through what Darian went through on Earth and were a bit like him. They could feel fear, sure, but they wouldn’t back down. Their Summoners though... way too immature, and they’d never had any kind of real role model in life.
Darian and Niara turned to them and waited for a bit, patiently. Their eyes carried absolute confidence. The kind of confidence that said: if there’s a chance, we’ll see it... and we’ll break through any wall in front of us.
After a minute, the two young Summoners took deep breaths and looked at them. They looked unshakable, like they could pull off anything.
Right then, those Mannaz kids understood: to save that universe, only people like them would stand a chance. That moment burned itself into their minds forever. From now on, that pair would be the reference for their lives—and they’d chase strength at any cost to help them.
Darian pushed more black power into the cloak covering them. That way, the Risen Lord’s miasma wouldn’t affect them.
Darian’s black power was very similar to a Risen Lord’s. Even though Darian himself was weak, his power wasn’t. The two powers didn’t mix, creating a barrier against the miasma that stopped it from infecting them.
The crack touched the ground and stretched upward, reaching hundreds of meters into the sky. As they got closer, Darian made sure there wasn’t anyone watching or nearby. The miasma from the Risen Lord made all the lower Risen avoid that crack at all costs.
When they were less than twenty meters away, they felt a spatial force pushing them back. It was powerful and absolute. They all froze, unable to advance even a single centimeter.
Darian snorted and activated his rings.
That thing wasn’t being controlled directly by anyone. It was just a simple barrier left at the entrance by someone powerful. Without the owner there, he could break it. In seconds, the space around them started to tremble. Darian forced the space to open.
Everyone sprinted and crossed through.
Inside... everything was pitch black and completely silent.
Even though they couldn’t feel or see anything—thanks to being covered by Darian’s black power—he could still sense where they were and communicate with them. So they kept going, practically holding their breath, afraid that the slightest disturbance might trigger some terrifying Risen Lord.
The space ahead gradually started getting clearer. When they reached the top of a high mountain, they could vaguely make out a few scattered things.
At first, everyone was surprised. Then, Darian and the twins got really excited. In front of them stood the ruins of a gigantic castle.
They spotted a broken symbol among the ruins and recognized it, thanks to the info they’d read from the Jade Slips. That castle had definitely belonged to a Mannaz King.
In every universe that had Academies—whether in the past or now—the Mannaz were divided into four groups and had four Kings.
All the Kings lived on the most important and distant planets from the Academy. That symbol was the same and marked the King’s high status—since he guarded one of the four members of the galaxy’s protective inscription.
"We’re in a galaxy with an Academy... and we landed right on an important planet. Excellent," Darian muttered, taking a step forward.
He couldn’t sense any enemies inside, and Niara didn’t pick up on any danger either. The miasma in the area and the spatial rejection at the rift were designed specifically to kick out any lower Risen.
A Risen Lord would never imagine that someone could enter the galaxy, then the planet, and then reach that place... without causing any disturbance. So they accepted that the place might actually be empty.
Without delay, they crossed through a large opening in the wall. Inside...
There were no walls or ceilings separating the floors anymore. Everything had been destroyed, and the castle now looked more like a giant closed-off warehouse.
There was a huge pit. It wasn’t deep, but it was incredibly wide. And inside it... it was absolutely packed with metals and weapons.
’What the...’ Darian thought, and then his mind jumped, remembering something really important. ’Wait... this is the method the Risen use to create cores for their weapons!?’
Ever since he arrived in this universe, he’d learned that Risen weapons were especially powerful because they had cores. He’d made a lot of money purifying those weapons and selling them, turning them into treasures for the living.
He got excited, but...
He noticed Niara clenching her fists tightly, consumed by intense rage. He turned to her and followed her gaze upward.
High above, there were massive chains, blood-red in color. It looked like a scarlet spiderweb pulsing with something sinister. And in almost every corner of that web, Darian spotted small... bodies?
’I don’t feel any karma... they’re... wait?! I do feel something... faint... no way... they’re Spiritual Guardians!’
He was sure. Spiritual Guardians could sense each other’s rings. Even though he was really weak, after focusing, he felt it.
Right at that moment, the chains above started trembling, scaring everyone.
Within seconds... several colored lights began to flow out from the bodies and fall from above.
That was definitely the power of the rings.
The lights were drawn straight to the pit. The moment they touched the weapons, the metals glowed faintly. Then... everyone felt it—99% of the ring power was sucked down to a spot deeper underground and vanished.
At that instant, with the chains moving, Darian could feel it clearly:
"They... the Spiritual Guardians... they’re all alive..."
At the same time... without Darian noticing, a pair of red eyes had locked onto him, watching his every move.