“It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots, Tegan.” The middle-aged man wore the most dazzling sect uniform of any that Nolan had seen since he’d landed on the Grand Isle of Weston, with resplendent raindrops of teal and gold. “Their cultivations are all much higher than what was reported. They obviously know some sort of method that allowed them to harvest all of this floor’s energies over the past eight days.”

“I’m curious as to what this method is,” said the dangerous woman. “Why don’t we—”

Nyla summoned a talisman from her spatial bag as May began to draw out two new diagrams. As had happened before, May’s movements were disrupted by Great Elder Tegan, this time by a simple attack arrayment that sent sharp swords of cyan energy flying toward her. She had no choice but to strike out at the oncoming projectiles. The moment after she neutralized the oncoming blades, the talisman activated and created a dome-like barrier of golden energy around the group. Nyla had spent three days making that talisman, yet it was shattered in a single instant, for the white-haired woman appeared before the barrier wearing a devil’s smile and lashed out with a strong fist.

Before he knew it, Nolan was falling. He landed on his feet, slightly disoriented but aware that Nyla had gathered everyone close with some expelled spiritual energy and directed her treasured painting to swallow up the group.

They were in a vaguely familiar field, a few kilometres away from a small group of twinkling lights. It was nighttime, and Nolan could see other groups of lights off in the distance. They were in a fairly populated region of the countryside that was rife with villages and towns, ones that they must have bypassed about a year ago in relative time.

Where on the island are we?

Based on the way that Nyla’s painting worked, they could only have been teleported to a place where she had already been to. Since they had followed the rest of the contestants from the seaside town of Elmer to the Desolate Spirit Tower, this placed them somewhere along the route that they had originally travelled. The question was, just how far were they from Elmer, and in which direction did the unique little town reside?

It had only been a couple of seconds since Nolan had stood up, and the others were still in the midst of finding their feet. Everything had happened too quickly, and Nolan was too focused on determining their location to notice that something seemed off. Sharp as her senses were, it was Nyla that first spotted the danger.

“Ian!”

The barrier arrayment that she hastily threw together was instantly shattered like a thin sheet of newly-formed glass. In that same instant, Ian was pulled up into the sky where he struggled violently in an effort to escape the merciless grip of the white-haired woman. She grasped him by the neck with her left hand, suspending him over a hundred metres above the ground at arm’s length.

Uncle Grey! Uncle Grey, come on!

The white-haired woman must have snuck through the picture frame at the very last moment. Noticing May’s absence, Nolan called out for her to do something but received an instant warning from their enemy.

“If you want your friend here to die before your eyes, then go ahead and try something.”

The group had no choice but to remain still and keep quiet, staring up at the aggressor with mixed expressions.

“That’s an interesting little painting you’ve got there,” she continued, looking Nyla over with a judgmental smirk. “I think I’ll ta—”

A powerful windstorm announced May’s abrupt reappearance, the fabric of her new uniform torn in several spots.

“Where were you?” asked Nolan. “What happened?”

“I think she was thrown,” said Nyla. “It seems that this woman hid her presence as soon as we appeared here, and got the jump on her.”

“I knew I recognized you,” spat May, ignoring Nolan’s questions as unexpected hatred seeped into her voice. “Ten years ago, you were there. You were the one that lured the spirit of the lake to my village. You…”

The white-haired woman blinked a couple of times and then let out a hysterical peel of laughter. “You saw what happened, survived it, and Tems still allowed you to join his sect? He even made you a great elder! That man’s got to be one of the most foolish ones that Venara’s ever seen.”

“That was a long time ago.” Cold determination filled May’s hazel eyes as a tremendous pressure suddenly bore down upon everyone present. “Release that boy, and I’ll kill you quickly.”

“What, do you think just because your cultivation is a level above mine that you can beat me?” The woman tore off a silver necklace that she was wearing and stowed it away in a hidden spatial bag, which caused an opposing pressure to bear down upon everybody present as it began to clash with May’s. “As if my cultivation would stay the same after all these years.”

“I’ll return your words to you. So what if you’re at the sixth level of Genesis? You think you can beat me just because you’re two levels higher?”

“Calm down!” yelled Lyra, though her voice was muffled by the gale that May’s volatile aura had generated. “You’ll only make it worse!”

It was hard to see both May and her adversary, as most of the night sky was obscured by a dense blanket of cloud cover that was rapidly darkening.

Ian had begun to drift away as his captor put some distance between herself and May. Nolan caught glimpses of them as a light show was kicked off by an earth-shaking bellow from the skies above, which began to light up the grim landscape in intermittent intervals. A strong pelting of rain accompanied the worsening weather, Nolan’s heart hammering away as he was battered by warm winds.

He needed to think of a way to free his friend before the woman’s companions arrived, which would probably happen in the coming seconds.

Goddamn it, Uncle Grey! Why’d you have to duck out at the worst possible time?

As the lightning became more frequent, Nolan regarded the floating woman with guarded eyes. Ridgerock was thousands of kilometres away from here, so she had to have had a reason to follow them this far north.

“Did you chase us here because you want something of ours? Just tell me and I’ll give it to you.”

“I’ll be taking all of your belongings,” said the woman, who frowned as a red-faced Ian smacked her arm as hard as he possibly could, a last-ditch bid in his fight for a breath.

“Hmm, the others are just a few moments away, so I don’t really need to hold you anymore, do I?”

Everybody winced as she stabbed a hand into Ian’s stomach, and watched on in horror as he thrashed around a bit before abruptly losing consciousness.

“Ian!” called his sister, who pulled out her halmite great sword and charged forward to save her sibling. She had only taken a few steps when she was suddenly surrounded by a barrier of spiritual energy and pulled back toward the group. Struggling to break free of the energy, she turned her head with hatred in her eyes. “Leave off, Nyla, or it’s you I’ll be coming for!”

Nolan decided to activate the Tranquil Void Step and attempt to catch the woman off guard with a sudden burst of unexpected speed, but he knew that it was hopeless. Still, he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing as his friend was killed right in front of him.

He didn’t need to act in the end, for it turned out that Ian wasn’t actually unconscious. Just as the white-haired woman was about to stab her bloody hand into him for a second time, a great bolt of golden lightning suddenly bore down from the giant cumulonimbus that dominated most of the sky, and directly struck Ian and the young woman.

Nolan could hear his friend’s screams in the midst of the violent weather, could see him falling to the earth alongside the wounded woman while cloaked in a cloud of bright light. The screams quickly faded along with the many tendrils of electricity that seemed to shock the air around where Ian had landed.

The woman seemed slightly paralyzed by the lightning, her limbs shaking rapidly as she struggled to get back on her feet. May didn’t miss the opportunity and appeared above her with a delayed gust of wind. May’s expression was the face of retribution as she locked the woman in place with some spiritual energy and punched her square between the eyes with strength that superseded her cultivation level.