The Fox woman’s eyes remained locked onto mine, the space around her still frozen under my control. For several long seconds she did not blink, and I began to consider whether the faint residue I had sensed was merely incidental contact rather than allegiance.
Then she blinked once. Her pupils did carry some fear but I observed a hint of smirk forming on her face.
"I will tell you about the Star," she said finally.
The moment the word left her mouth, a circle flared to life beneath my feet. I had not detected it during my initial scan, nor had there been any visible runes etched into the floor or lingering in the air. Reacting instantly, I expanded my perception again, this time probing deeper rather than wider. That was when I noticed them, three small Feran figurines placed casually around the shop, arranged in what had seemed like decorative symmetry.
They were not ornaments at all. Each of them was embedded with concealed spatial triggers, and together they formed a precise triangular anchor formation. The teleportation circle had not been carved into the ground; it had been projected and sustained through those three objects, perfectly masked until activation.
It ignited instantly, a layered spatial formation unfolding faster than even my Psynapse could dissect.
I did not waste time attempting to overpower it.
The circle activated. Space folded and the shop vanished from before my eyes.
I arrived standing on cracked earth.
Dry wind swept across a barren landscape, carrying dust that had long since lost the scent of life. The sky above was dim. The ground was fractured in jagged lines that stretched toward a horizon where nothing grew and nothing moved.
It was a dead planet and I stood on a dead battlefield.
Before me stood three figures.
They were already waiting.
A stone-bodied Elemental stood in the center, brown veins of energy pulsing steadily beneath his surface. To his right stood a Feran woman, feathers framing her shoulders. To his left stood a lightning Elemental, arcs of blue electricity flickering lazily around her arms.
The stone Elemental spoke first.
"We were beginning to wonder if you would take the bait," he said, his voice deep and steady.
"So this was Selara’s purpose," I replied calmly, scanning the area once more. "A trap."
The Feran woman tilted her head slightly. "A filtration net," she corrected. "You move unpredictably. It was only a matter of time before you searched for a thread. We simply made sure the thread led somewhere useful."
I extended my perception outward, searching for concealed presences, hidden domains, layered formations.
"Are you the only three here?" I asked.
The lightning Elemental smiled faintly. "Is that concern I hear?"
"No," I answered evenly. "It determines how much effort I will use."
The stone Elemental’s veins pulsed brighter.
"You have caused us measurable damage," he said. "A relay destroyed. Multiple Tier assets erased. Our envoy is displeased."
"And yet you are still aligning with the Eternals," I replied. "Why betray your own universe?"
The Feran woman’s expression hardened slightly.
"Betrayal implies obligation," she said. "We don’t believe in ours and theirs."
"The Eternals are not invaders," the lightning Elemental added. "They are evolution. They reshape stagnation."
I stared at them.
"You call erasure evolution?"
"We call it survival," the stone Elemental answered.
I exhaled slowly.
"Wrong answer. And by the way, who is this envoy you are talking about? Is it an Eternal, or one of our own?"
The stone Elemental let out a slow, rumbling chuckle, the sound grinding like shifting boulders.
"It does not matter," he replied evenly. "You will not leave this place alive."
I gave a low whistle, glancing between the three of them without the slightest hint of tension in my posture.
"What makes you so confident?" I asked calmly. "The three of you are nowhere near enough for this. I just want information, where is the Trunk Gate?"
They replied with action. The air shifted and they made the first move.
The lightning Elemental’s domain expanded instantly, arcs snapping outward in controlled grids. The stone Elemental stomped once, and the fractured earth beneath me hardened into reinforced pillars that shot upward to trap movement. The Feran woman blurred into the sky, wind currents twisting around her as razor-thin sonic blades formed in her wake.
I stood there and watched them prepare their attacks without moving from my position. All three of them were in the late four hundreds, hovering around Level 490, which meant they were seasoned Upper Transcendents with refined control over their major laws.
Under normal circumstances, eliminating them would not have required much effort. However, killing them would serve no purpose. They had gone through the trouble of preparing a trap specifically for me. If I wanted to find their true base and uncover the identity of this so-called envoy, I needed them conscious and capable of speaking.
So I decided to defeat them using their own elements.
Essence churned within my channels, surging outward as lightning answered my call. Violet arcs flared around my body, snapping sharply through the dry air of the dead planet. I raised my hand and pointed toward the lightning Elemental.
Lightning gathered instantly in front of my palm, compressing into a concentrated point before erupting forward with a thunderous crack. A bolt of violet lightning shot straight toward her at such speed that even with her level, she barely reacted in time. Her body dissolved into pure lightning, dispersing just as the bolt reached her, and reassembled several meters to her left.
The bolt continued forward and struck the cracked earth, detonating in a violent explosion that tore open the ground.
She did not get the chance to stabilize.
I fired two more bolts in rapid succession. This time, when she dispersed to avoid them, the bolts curved mid-flight and pursued her like living predators. Her expression tightened as she was forced to remain in elemental form longer than she intended, shifting repeatedly to avoid being cornered.
I turned my attention to the stone Elemental, who had been watching the lightning woman instead of me.
"You should pay attention here," I said calmly as I waved my hand.
The ground beneath my feet trembled violently before splitting apart. A massive palm formed from compacted earth and jagged rock, surging upward with explosive force before slamming down toward the pillars he had formed and his own towering body.
He reacted quickly, raising his hand to form a dense dome of reinforced stone around himself. The descending palm collided with it, cracking the dome instantly while the surrounding pillars shattered into rubble. He dropped to one knee under the impact but held firm.
"Good," I commented lightly.
I waved my hand again. Another enormous earthen hand erupted from beneath the first and came crashing down with even greater force.
BOOM!
The second impact overwhelmed his defense. The dome collapsed entirely, and the weight of both palms drove him deep into the fractured ground, burying him under layers of compressed stone.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the lightning Elemental still evading the pursuing bolts. I extended my hand toward her once more, and two additional violet bolts formed and streaked toward her position, tightening the pressure.
Only then did I raise my head to look at the Feran woman.
She had not yet engaged directly. She was observing, calculating, and the subtle shift in her posture told me exactly what she was considering.
Escape.
"No," I said flatly. "I won’t allow that."
Her eyes widened ever so slightly, confirming my suspicion.