The silence that settled over the field, broken only by the sharp blaring of alarms, pressed in heavily around me. I could not immediately tell what had unsettled them more, the sudden appearance of a stranger in their midst, the three bound Upper Transcendents hovering behind me, or the fact that I stood there unmoved while their defenses activated. It was also possible that my name had already reached this world before I did.
Before I could analyze further, a dome shield rose around me.
It formed instantly from the ground up, a dense grey barrier woven entirely from stabilized deathmist. The moment it sealed above me, the mounted weapons locked their targeting arrays onto its surface instead of directly onto me.
I remained standing where I was, my perception continuing to expand outward beyond the dome’s confines. The more I observed, the more serious my expression became.
This was not a hidden forward outpost.
It was not a temporary occupation.
It was a functioning civilization. Phantoms walked openly through the streets, their forms saturated with deathmist. I sensed Eternals as well, their auras unmistakable even when subdued.
If anything, this world appeared prosperous.
And so I waited.
"Is this your base?" I asked the Feran.
She let out a faint, strained chuckle despite the injuries and restraints.
"Yes," she replied, her words slipping out through gritted teeth. "Surprised, aren’t you? You can forget about getting out of here."
Anger burned plainly in her eyes, but beneath it I sensed something else, a certainty that I would die here.
I did not respond to her further. Instead, I lifted my gaze.
Several figures had taken position above the grey dome, hovering just beyond its surface. They observed me without haste.
At the center was an elderly Naga man. Age showed in the lines around his eyes and the muted tone of his scales, which ran thickly across his face and down his neck, yet nothing about him suggested weakness. His level was 499.
To his right floated a Naga woman wearing a smooth, featureless mask that concealed everything but her eyes. Her posture was straight, disciplined.
Near them stood a tall insectoid being, its chitinous limbs folded neatly, multiple eyes fixed on me without blinking.
On the other side hovered a woman of the Aqua race, her lower body forming a sleek mermaid tail that moved fluidly even in open air, sustained by subtle law manipulation.
Beside them stood three Eternals.
But my attention shifted immediately to the masked Naga woman.
Her aura.
I had felt it before.
"Igza Nag," I said, allowing a faint smile to form. "Who would have thought I would find you here."
She was the same Naga woman who had introduced herself to me at the Feran gathering. Back then she had appeared insignificant, a low-level presence lost among larger names. Now she stood among Upper Transcendents, her level brushing the high four hundreds, her bearing completely different from what I remembered.
For a few seconds, no one spoke.
Then she lifted her hand. The blaring alarms cut off instantly. She reached up calmly and removed the mask from her face.
It was Igza.
"We meet again, Billion Ironhart," she said, her voice steady, carrying faint amusement. "I believe I told you our paths would cross again."
I inclined my head slightly.
"Yes, you did," I replied. "My apologies for not taking you seriously at the time."
"I see that you have injured our people quite severely," Igza said calmly, though her eyes briefly flicked toward the three bound figures behind me. "That is not very appropriate conduct, considering the position you hold. Is the Order of Absolute declaring war on Hollow Star?"
"War?" I repeated, rubbing my chin as though genuinely considering the idea. "With you? No. You are not yet large enough for my organization to bother with a formal declaration. I came alone."
Her smile thinned. She did not respond immediately. Instead, the elderly Naga man beside her stepped forward slightly. He wore black robes that hung heavily from his frame, and a black sword rested at his side.
"Mr. Billion," he began in a measured tone, "you disappoint me. You possess considerable potential, yet you have chosen a path that opposes us." His eyes remained fixed on mine. "I will extend this offer only once. Align yourself with Hollow Star."
"No," I answered without hesitation.
He did not react outwardly, but something in his gaze sharpened.
"Are you certain?" he asked. "We have conducted our research. We know more about you than you might expect. Does the name Vaythos mean anything to you?"
My eyes narrowed slightly.
I had always known that sooner or later someone would trace back to my origin. I simply had not expected it to happen this quickly.
He continued, voice steady, almost conversational.
"At present, that world remains intact, peaceful and thriving." His eyes hardened subtly. "But that can change. Whether it does depends entirely on the choice you make here."
"Well, I don’t see how threatening me would make me follow you, but whatever," I said lightly. "I was looking for your base, and I suppose this is it. So let’s begin."
I lifted my foot and tapped it once against the ground.
Every figure hovering above the dome tensed instantly, their attention sharpening as they waited for the first strike.
I simply smiled.
In the next moment, the land beneath us trembled.
This was not a deathmist-saturated wasteland where every movement required careful filtration. This was a living world, dense with natural Essence flowing through its soil, its atmosphere, its ley lines. It pulsed quietly beneath the surface, unnoticed by most.
Essence had always responded to will. And it responded to mine more readily than most. I did not tear at the dome shield directly. I did not target the hovering figures first.
Instead, I extended my will into the ground itself.
Cracks spread outward from where my foot had touched, racing through the grass and soil in widening rings. They did not stop at the edge of the grey dome. The deathmist barrier shimmered as the fractures passed beneath it, because I was not attacking the shield. I was commanding the foundation it stood upon.
The Essence embedded in the land shifted.
Subtle at first.
Then undeniable. The ground buckled slightly. Energy lines beneath the city trembled as the natural flow of Essence reoriented under my command.
I gave a simple directive.
Respond.
And the world answered.
From those fissures, green Essence began to rise.
It surged upward in thick waves, dense and luminous, like a tidal force pushing out of the planet’s veins. Near me, the ground split open and towering columns of emerald light erupted into the air, rolling and folding like living tides. The dome shield flickered violently as the Essence gathered beneath it, pressing against its base from every direction.
Outside the dome, the phenomenon expanded.
Across the open fields, green currents burst upward in successive waves. Farther out, beyond the immediate perimeter, the same surge rippled through the city itself. Essence flooded upward between buildings, through streets, along infrastructure lines.
The air grew heavy as the density climbed. Even civilians who had retreated to safe distances froze in disbelief as the very world they stood on responded to a will that was not their own.
The old Naga’s composure finally cracked.
"How is that possible..." he muttered under his breath, scales tightening along his jaw.
His gaze snapped toward the others.
"Attack now!"
The machines that had been locked onto me were the first to respond. Their cores flared brightly as Essence flooded into their firing chambers, the hum rising sharply before discharge.
The stone Elemental floating behind me shouted in alarm.
"No!"
But Hollow Star did not hesitate for their sake. The weapons did not adjust their trajectory to spare their own.
Fourteen beams fired simultaneously from every direction, converging toward the center of the dome where I stood along with the three bound Upper Transcendents.