Caelus and Sylvia walked away from the battlefield, leaving behind the corpses of the Hollow Faction members.
They needed to get out of this area and find the others.
As they moved forward, the scenery around them shifted dramatically.
A path stretched endlessly before them.
There were many places around them, but all of them were glitched and fragmented.
Buildings floated in pieces, frozen in time as if someone had paused reality mid-explosion.
Landscapes overlapped with each other, forests merging with deserts and oceans hanging upside down in the sky.
It was disorienting and unsettling.
"This place is strange." Sylvia muttered while looking around.
"Yeah, it feels unstable." Caelus agreed.
Just then, a figure dropped down from above and landed in front of them.
[Skill Activated: Meteor Descent]
The impact created a small crater in the starlight path.
A man in golden armor rose from the crater, his eyes burning with anger.
"How dare you harm someone from the Hollow Faction!"
He pointed his spear at them accusingly.
"I am from the Hollow Faction as well! You will pay for what you did to my brothers!"
Caelus sighed.
"Another one?"
The man charged at them without waiting for a response.
[Skill Activated: Piercing Thrust]
His spear shot forward with blinding speed, aimed directly at Caelus’s heart.
Caelus sidestepped casually and grabbed the spear shaft.
[Skill Activated: Decay Touch]
The spear began to rot and crumble in his grip.
"What?! My weapon!"
The man tried to pull back, but Caelus was faster.
He yanked the man forward and drove his knee into his stomach.
"Gah!"
The man doubled over in pain.
Caelus grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground.
"What’s with this influx of Hollow Faction members in this place? Answer me and I might let you go."
The man struggled against his grip but couldn’t break free.
"We... we have a stronghold nearby..." He gasped. "The Hollow Faction has been expanding... into this region with the Darkspawns officially arriving at this world."
Caelus’s eyes narrowed hearing this.
They had seen the Hollow Darkspawns coming to this spot earlier.
But the entire faction being here was concerning.
"Where is your stronghold?"
"I... I won’t tell you..."
Caelus tightened his grip.
"I wasn’t asking."
The man’s face turned purple from lack of oxygen.
"East... three kilometers east... there’s a rift..."
That’s all he needed to know, Caelus dropped him unceremoniously.
The man collapsed to the ground, gasping for air.
"Let’s go, Sylvia." Caelus turned to his girlfriend. "For now, let’s find the others."
Sylvia nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, we should regroup first."
They left the Hollow Faction member wheezing on the ground and continued walking.
The path stretched on endlessly.
Hours passed as they traversed the strange landscape.
This place was incredibly unsettling, filled with things they couldn’t understand.
"Hubby, what exactly is Merit?" Sylvia asked while they walked. "We absorbed some earlier, but I still don’t understand how it works."
Caelus shook his head.
"We don’t know much about the Golden Pills either."
"The system just said it increases Combat Score."
"And how exactly do we make it to the Tier 2 World from here?" Sylvia continued.
"No idea." Caelus admitted.
They had no clue on their situation.
They just knew this place will help them reach Emperor-Rank Power.
As it stood, they knew nothing about this place.
They were walking blind in a world they didn’t understand.
Suddenly, a figure burst out from behind a floating rock formation.
[Skill Activated: Shadow Strike]
A blade wreathed in darkness slashed toward Caelus’s neck.
Caelus ducked under the attack and countered immediately.
[Skill Activated: Chaos Bolt]
A beam of Chaos energy shot from his palm and struck the attacker in the chest.
"Argh!"
The figure was sent flying backward but managed to land on his feet.
It was a young man with dark hair and sharp features, wearing leather armor designed for agility.
He glared at Caelus with hostility.
"Tch, you blocked my attack."
[Skill Activated: Phantom Step]
He vanished from sight and reappeared behind Sylvia.
[Skill Activated: Backstab]
His dagger aimed for her spine.
Sylvia didn’t even turn around.
[Skill Activated: Sanguine Genesis]
A barrier of hardened blood materialized behind her and blocked the attack completely.
"Nice try." She said coldly.
[Skill Activated: Hemotoxin Synthesis]
The blood shield transformed into acidic tendrils that lashed out at the attacker.
"Shit!"
[Skill Activated: Evasion]
He barely dodged the corrosive blood, but one tendril grazed his arm.
"AAAARGH!"
His sleeve dissolved instantly, and the acid began eating into his flesh.
Caelus appeared in front of him before he could recover.
[Skill Activated: Decay Touch]
He grabbed the man’s uninjured arm and pinned him to the ground.
"Who are you and what faction do you belong to?"
The man gritted his teeth and refused to answer.
Caelus increased the pressure on his arm.
The decay spread slowly, rotting his flesh inch by inch.
"I won’t ask again."
"Fuck you!" The man spat.
Caelus sighed and looked at Sylvia.
"Can you add some toxin to his wounds?"
"With pleasure."
Sylvia formed a small blood needle and jabbed it into the man’s leg.
The paralytic neurotoxin spread through his system immediately.
His muscles began to lock up one by one.
"What... what did you do to me?!"
"The toxin will reach your heart in about three minutes." Sylvia said calmly. "Unless you start talking."
The man’s face paled with fear.
"Fine! Fine! I’ll talk!"
Caelus released some of the pressure.
"Then talk."
"I’m from the Vanswara Stronghold in the Path to Worlds!"
Caelus raised an eyebrow.
"The Vanswara Stronghold? What is that?"
The man looked at him with confusion.
"You don’t know? Are you a new player here?"
Caelus nodded.
"We just arrived."
The man’s expression shifted from fear to something resembling pity.
"Well, strongholds are inner worlds in the Path to Worlds." He explained while wincing from the pain. "They’re safe zones where players can rest and resupply."
"Inner worlds?" Sylvia asked.
"Yeah, the Path to Worlds is too dangerous to stay in for long periods." The man continued. "The strongholds are pockets of stable space where factions have established bases."
Caelus processed this information.
"Why is it dangerous to stay here?"
The man laughed bitterly.
"You really don’t know anything, do you?"
"Just answer the question."
"There’s some sort of corruption going on here due to the Darkspawns." The man said. "No one knows why it’s happening, but if you stay in the open path for too long, the corruption starts affecting you."
Caelus remembered the Darkspawns they had seen earlier.
The portals spewing them out endlessly.
The terrifying entity that had noticed him through the dimensional gap.
"How do we get to a stronghold?"
"There are portals scattered throughout the path." The man replied. "Each one leads to a different stronghold, some are friendly to newcomers and some are not."
Caelus looked at Sylvia, then back at the man.
"Take us to the Vanswara Stronghold."
The man hesitated.
"Why should I help you? You almost killed me."
Caelus smiled coldly.
"Because if you don’t, I will actually kill you."
The man swallowed hard hearing him. He didn’t take any chances.
"Fine, I’ll take you there."
Sylvia removed the neurotoxin from his system with a wave of her hand.
The man stumbled to his feet, still clutching his injured arm.
"By the way, my name is Ruvian."
"I don’t care." Caelus replied flatly.
Ruvian’s expression twitched, but he didn’t say anything.
He led them through the twisted landscape, navigating the fragmented terrain with practiced ease.
After what felt like another hour of walking, they arrived at a swirling portal of blue energy.
"This is it." Ruvian said. "The portal to Vanswara Stronghold."
Caelus examined the portal carefully.
It seemed stable enough.
"You first." He said to Ruvian.
Ruvian rolled his eyes but stepped through the portal without complaint.
His body was consumed by the blue light and vanished.
Seeing this, they stepped through the portal together.
The sensation was disorienting, like being pulled through a tunnel of light at impossible speeds.
When they emerged on the other side, Caelus’s eyes widened.
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