From the roof of the Sky’s Edge fortress, Lindon suddenly stumbled into a wide, dusty basement.

It was filled with chaotic clashes of spirit, and Lindon didn’t feel like he had gone through a portal. It felt like he alone had been drawn through.

Sure enough, there was no portal behind him. No exit.

And the Blood Sage was standing opposite a bleeding, grinning Eithan. Who was an Archlord.

Somehow, that was the least surprising part of all this.

Lindon cycled his madra to its limit and focused on the Blood Sage, but when he leaped, Eithan struck at him with his scissors.

The scissors inflated to ten times their size, trailing gray mist that felt almost like destruction aura.

The Sage flipped to avoid the attack, launching a Striker technique as he did, but Eithan swept it aside with the Hollow King’s Mantle.

“Stop,” the Blood Sage commanded, and Lindon froze.

For a moment. Then Eithan threw a Hollow Spear at the Sage, who took a glancing blow. His concentration had been shaken enough that Lindon could push his way free.

And up the stairs.

He could tell what was going on, and Eithan could take care of himself.

“Good work!” Eithan called. “I’ll just—”

His voice was cut off by an explosion of madra, but Lindon was already dashing upstairs.

There was a body on the stairs. Akura Courage, his swords spilled around him and mouth open in surprise.

A black-and-silver Remnant lurked on the next stair, staring at Lindon with wide, accusing eyes, but Lindon didn’t stop for it.

Lindon dashed past the spirit and into the wide, open room at the top of the staircase. There was more abandoned furniture here, covered in dust and many hidden behind sheets. The air was thick with dust, and most of the furniture had been crushed.

A Seishen Kingdom Underlord that Lindon had never seen before lay in several pieces on the floor, blood soaking the floor. His face was twisted around to face upward. A dead gray Remnant slowly dissolved around him.

Naru Saeya landed on the corpse, rolling over it, and she was so covered in injuries that Lindon couldn’t tell how much of the blood was hers and how much came from the corpse.

He ran over to her, sweeping his spiritual perception through her. She choked out a word, but he couldn’t tell what it was.

[She’ll live,] Dross said. [At least, I think she will. But we have a slightly bigger problem.]

Lindon knew what he was referring to.

The man who had beaten everyone on this floor was there with one eye in his mask glowing, pulling together shards of stone with earth madra into a destructive ball between his palms. He was preparing his technique to finish off Naru Saeya, and he wouldn’t mind if Lindon was caught up in it.

Brother Aekin, Uncrowned of Abyssal Palace, launched his Striker technique.

[Yes sir, our slightly bigger problem is waiting upstairs.]

Lindon had trained against Brother Aekin’s projection seventy-five times.

Information requested: destroying Brother Aekin in as little time as possible.

Beginning report…

In the blue light of the Hollow Domain, Brother Aekin’s technique falls apart. The Ruler component continues for a moment, spraying Lindon with pebbles.

Lindon dashes up with the Soul Cloak, carrying the Hollow Domain in an orb around him. When he gets close enough, even Aekin’s Enforcer technique falters.

They clash hand-to-hand for a moment, but Aekin is no match for Lindon.

Lindon drops his Hollow Domain and drives dragon’s breath through the cultist’s chest, continuing up the stairs at a sprint.

Report complete.

As Lindon saw the report, he acted.

Aekin was dead in seconds.

It was strangely easy to switch from pure madra to Blackflame and back. Easier than it ever had been before, as though he no longer had to cycle differently. As though the madra obeyed him directly.

That was a thought for later.

He intended to turn around and annihilate the Remnant with another Striker technique, but he saw something around the bear-like yellow monster that rose from Aekin’s body: a white ring.

Lindon stopped and ran back, grabbing the ring with his Remnant arm. It was hard to separate, but with a little touch of the Consume technique, he sucked away a measure of the Remnant’s strength.

The ring came off, and Lindon casually annihilated the spirit before examining the ring.

It unfolded into a white crown.

Lindon would love to examine the Broken Crown construct closer, but Overlords were clashing upstairs, so he opened his void key and tossed the Divine Treasure inside, summoning his flying sword as he did so.

Then he ran upwards.

He felt the situation before he saw it. Calan Archer’s dragon was feeding on a crackling purple lightning spirit. Akura Douji’s Remnant.

Another dead member of Lindon’s team.

The dragon was growing fat, but Calan had sensed Lindon coming. His seven Jadeclaw Rings were arranged in the sky above him, and the muscular blond man waited for Lindon with a stony expression. As soon as Lindon appeared at the top of the stairs, blue-gold light rained down, the storm dragon turned on him, and Calan Archer’s rings swarmed him.

Lindon had trained against Calan Archer’s projection thirty-eight times.

With a generous portion of soulfire, the Hollow Domain wiped everything out.

Wavedancer soared out from behind Lindon. Before Calan Archer recovered from his astonishment, the flying sword had pierced him all the way through.

He looked down at himself, eyes wide in surprise, but Lindon didn’t have time to waste waiting on a Remnant.

He seized the top of Calan’s head in his right hand, Consuming his power.

Energy flooded into Lindon, and he sorted it with the Heart of Twin Stars. Most he vented, some he added back to his pure core, and the rest went into his body. It wasn’t much to him now, but every bit helped. This was like receiving a little jolt of energy that fought his exhaustion.

Dross held onto any memories, but Lindon wrestled down Calan’s remaining willpower. He received one brief impression of Calan’s last moments.

He’d sensed the Hollow Domain. To him, it had felt like absolute emptiness. Like the death of the spirit.

In his case, he was correct.

Lindon stopped when there wasn’t enough structure to Calan’s madra left to form a Remnant, vented the rest of the storm madra, and hurried up.

He could feel Mercy.

Someone had come down from two floors above to stop him on the next floor, and he could already tell who it was: the Uncrowned of Redmoon Hall, Yan Shoumei.

When she summoned her Blood Shadow, Crusher, the entire tower shook.

Dross gasped in excitement.

It wasn’t the time, and Lindon knew that, but he couldn’t help a little excitement himself.

He activated the binding in his hunger arm, opening and closing his fingers as he emerged from the stairs and saw Crusher. The snarling monster of blood loomed over him, raising a claw.

It looked down to his white hand and hesitated.

Lindon had hoped to run into Crusher ever since he had realized what it was. Shoumei’s Shadow was essentially a mass of blood essence so ripe with physical power that it could still strengthen Lindon’s body.

Underlord blood essence didn’t do anything for him anymore, but Crusher was a different story.