The instant Jared crossed the void passage, a maelstrom of spatial energy slammed into him, wilder, more chaotic than any dimensional tide he had ever dared to ride.
The passage leading toward Level Ten trembled like a dying vein in the universe. Instead of a calm night, Jared floated inside a whirlpool of chaotic void currents—angled ribbons of color that sliced and tore at his protective immortal aura with a sound like acid eating through bone.
Gritting his teeth, he poured every drop of celestial essence into layer after layer of shields, then bent the laws of time and space themselves, hunting for a single calm within the chaotic void currents.
In his right hand, he kept the Dragonslayer Sword poised, ready to hack apart any ragged seam that dared open before him. But the barrier between the Ninth and Tenth Levels proved thicker and more chaotic than anything his mind had ever sketched.
Without warning, a deep-purple void storm coiled into existence overhead, its shape that of an ancient dragon, its breath the promise of utter erasure.
“Oh no!” Jared’s pupils shrank to pinpoints.
He flooded his veins with power, drew Dragonslayer high, and brought it down in a blinding arc of silver flame aimed straight at the onrushing maelstrom.
Boom!
The collision rocked the tunnel. A brute force too huge for language slammed into Jared’s chest, drove copper into his throat, and spilled fresh blood across his lips.
He steadied himself, yet the tunnel shattered around him like black mirror glass—each fracture a doorway to nothing.
Crack… Crash!
His final shield screamed, tore apart, and an irresistible undertow hurled him out of the collapsing passage as though he were no more than driftwood. It felt at once like a lifetime and the beat of a heart.
Thud!
He hit solid ground like a meteor, punching a crater into sheer mountain rock. Darkness flickered at the edge of his vision while his organs seemed to shuffle inside him, and every bone complained beneath the weight of worlds.
At the pit’s bottom, he coughed, again and again, each spasm painting the stone with bright crimson.
Only after long, raw minutes did the dizziness retreat enough for breath to return.
With a grunt, he lifted his head and looked around. Nothing he saw belonged to memory.
Above stretched a vault of impossibly deep blue, and the air dripped with a richness of spiritual aura so thick it felt drinkable, laced with the sweetness of foliage and a faint, feral warning.
Jared lay atop the crown of a towering peak. Below, unbroken green rolled to every horizon, an ocean of forest breathing beneath him.
Ancient trees speared the sky, vines knotted their trunks, and flowers of unknown breed flared like lanterns, each radiating a pulse that hummed against Jared’s battle-battered skin.
The Heavenly Laws that ruled this place differed from those of Level Nine—older, heavier, and startlingly alive, as though the world itself were still waking from some primeval dream.
The world around him felt forged of tempered iron. Even light seemed to move stiffly, as though the sky itself had been riveted shut.
Jared sensed at once that rending this space would demand several times the strength required on Level Nine.
Is this… Level Ten?
A tremor of doubt slid through Jared, sharpening his vigilance. He braced against the shattered ground, tried to climb free of the crater, and fresh pain flared through muscle and bone. A stifled groan slipped past clenched teeth.
Mr. Vermilion… Where have we…
The plea died. His consciousness field lay vacant; only the Golden Tome and Beast-Subduing Tower hovered in silent twilight. The familiar ember of the Vermilion Demon Lord had vanished.
Loss washed over him like a dark tide. For so long, that sardonic voice had risen at every crisis, guiding him without fanfare. Its absence hollowed the vast sea of his mind.
The demon lord had regained a body and gone to search for Selene. For the first time, Jared understood what it meant to stand utterly alone.
