Artemis strode forward, exhilaration still coloring voice. “Summon every disciple. Front courtyard! Now!” ordered the nearest acolyte.
Moments later, more than three hundred women in snowy robes formed crisp ranks beneath the morning sky, pure spiritual currents dancing like silver mist around their figures. But the moment their gazes found Jared, martial composure shattered.
Desire raw, unguarded, flared in their eyes, hotter than the golden power they’d tasted during fusion. Each of them carried the memory of a breakthrough and bliss stitched into the fabric of soul, and that memory now pulled toward like iron filings to a lodestone.
Standing at their head, Artemis felt the heat of those stares burning back. A faint rose tint blossomed on cheeks, yet pride glimmered beneath the blush. She lifted chin, determined to harness this storm of loyalty and longing for the battle to come.
Artemis’s chest rose and fell with a hush no one heard. The memory of sharing blood and power with Jared still sang beneath skin, every heartbeat promising that impossible rush of strength, and the quiet thrill of feeling their souls threading into one.
That remembered brightness tugged at even now, whispering that one more union could push cultivation higher, could strip away every wall between them until the universe itself bent to their joined will.
Had Aurelius not been standing so politely to the side, might have abandoned every last shred of sect-leader composure, crossed the room, and folded herself into Jared’s waiting arms without a second thought.
Aurelius caught the unspoken storm in eyes. The corner of his mouth curled upward, a small, knowing smile that vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, like sunlight slipping through storm clouds.
“Artemis, Jared, my deepest thanks for the shelter you have offered,” Aurelius said, sweeping his hands together in a formal salute. “You not only saved my life, you allowed Jared’s cultivation to soar. Yet level six now trembles on the edge of ruin. We can linger here no longer. It’s time to find the others and stand against Soul Devourer together.”
“You’re right,” Artemis replied, tightening grip on the silver-tipped staff used as a badge of office. “This is no hour for private longing. I’ve ordered my disciples to load every healing herb and pill we possess. If we march beside you, our strength multiplies.”
Jared bowed so low that the tips of his hair brushed his boots. “I won’t forget this kindness. When we crush the demon revolt, peace will return to level six, and your generosity will be repaid, I swear it!”
The moment the last satchel was clnched and the gates of Herb Sect swung open, the small company stepped beyond the valley’s protective wards and onto a world they scarcely recognized.
A curtain of pitch-black miasma smothered what had once been an endless blue vault. No sunlight. No color. Only a dull, leaden twilight shivered across the ruined land.
Every breath tasted of rusted iron and rotted flesh. The air itself seemed to gag and retch inside their lungs.
Bodies, human and beast alike, were strewn across the cracked earth, some severed clean in two, others missing heads, all of them feeding narrow, dark-red rivulets that wound downhill like veins of sorrow.
“T-This is… A living hell!” one young woman from Herb Sect cried, both hands clamped over mouth as if the gesture alone could keep the horror from spilling inside. Her shoulders shook so violently that Jared feared bones might crack beneath the tremor.
Seeing this, Artemis’s face hardened. “To think Soul Devourer wrought this in barely half a month,” murmured, each word edged with cold resolve.
Aurelius’s fists clenched until his nails drew blood. Crimson drops slid between his fingers and pattered onto the dead soil.
“Soul Devourer…” growled, the name a vow of execution, “I will tear you apart piece by piece and repay every life you’ve stolen!”
Jared laid a steady hand on the king’s shoulder. “Vengeance comes later, Aurelius. First, we find Abbot Infinides and Yuliana. Only with every ally united do we stand a chance.”
Aurelius inhaled, forcing the rage down where it smoldered like banked coals. “You’re right. To the rendezvous! Now!”
