The city of Blacken Soot received a peaceful morning. Crystal lights gently illuminated the streets, signalling another new day in the mountain’s heart.

Relestia has just woken up feeling strangely anxious. The battle with the chimera had drained her significantly but the peculiarity had woken her prematurely.

Worry crossed her face. It is not often that she will be infected by palpitations, much less when it is without rhyme or reason, but she dared not pass off the unease as nothing.

Cultivators, after a certain rank, learn to take heed of their gut feelings only because they sometimes receive eerily accurate premonitions. After all, the path of enlightenment, Dao, is to become attuned to the mysteries of the universe while searching for the truth. Cultivators will touch on many obscure laws and can sometimes see into the future. Whether it is through their instincts, the ability to sense the change of time, feel the threads of fate, or even measure the weight of karma, when a cultivator feels something is wrong, it usually is.

The princess got off the bed and went out into the courtyard. On the table is the breakfast that Kairos had prepared for her. But when Relestia saw the packed boxes, instead of the usual blissfulness, this time she felt an inexplicable sense of urgency. She is almost certain that Kairos is in danger.

Relestia turned back towards her room. There’s no time to eat, she must gather her friends, contact the dungeon administrators, and the local officials if something happened to Kairos.

No, the guys can contact everyone. She needs to get to the dungeon immediately.

“Leo, Leo, are you awake? Lulatia, Boink, Clef!”

Her voice like silvery bells sounded across the patio. This is the first time anyone heard her yell out like that. The urgency instantly aroused those who are in their rooms. But before anyone could move towards her, a frightening scream erupted. Even when the sound had not faded away, a foul cloud of darkness descended onto this place, seemingly enshrouding everyone with unspeakable horrors. Without looking, everyone could guess from the scream that the princess must have been kidnapped, but the looming presence locked down on them. They could feel that if they moved a muscle, an abomination will be facing them.

The next moment, Relestia found herself placed upon a throne and surrounded by strange people in what seems like a luxurious room of a grand inn. They looked at her with great interest but stood there silently like phantoms. The princess, on the other hand, is not as composed. These people around her, if they can still be called people, are not too unfamiliar. In fact, she fought with three of them before, the chimera, the bug man, and the tree person. They are three more that she had not seen before. A person who looks like he is made of water, another who is dripping acidic liquids, and one who seemed to be made of cold grey rocks. They smiled and welcomed her warmly before introducing themselves as the acid, the puddle, and the gargoyle.

“Princess, we warmly welcome you into our midst. We,” the gargoyle speaking, paused and gestured to the other monsters around, “have awaited your arrival with joyous trepidations.”

Looking at her face, the gargoyle did not hesitate to continue, “You must be wondering why would we be interested in you? Well, the chaos and the darkness had always been very good friends. And you, our princess, had been marked. The Devil Mark.”

Relestia drew a sharp breath. Though she was possessed, she remembered the curse that the devil muttered as Kairos vanquished it.

“With my last power, you will always be drawn to evil, to be curious about the darkness. It will seduce you, it will tempt you, and it will try to claim you. Struggle, sweat, but never let your guard down. In my eternal tomb I will await you.”

Recalling its words, the situation now suddenly seemed less ridiculous.

Still, it is unknown what does these monstrous beings see her as and she quickly looked around to gather herself.

It is fortunate that the royal members of Saint Empire are trained from young to survive situations like this. If their captor’s interest is curiosity, she must keep their intrigued to buy time. If they wanted money or any kind of treasure, she must convince them of a realistic exit in exchange for her safety. If they wanted to use her to threaten another, then wait patiently. The worse that could happen is to die, but be not afraid, because the Vestimore family will let the offenders off. Even if it takes many centuries, they will be rooted out, until none of their descendants are left. Such is the way that Relestia was raised.

Although her father is not here, she knows that Kairos would do the same for her. He would wipe them off from this world if these creatures dared to harm her.

Relestia composed herself, as her eyes fluttered over towards the throne she is sitting on. Her captors did not hide their amusement from her. The gargoyle, who is the obvious leader of the group explained, “The devil mark is an interesting curse. Formed by a devil’s last vestiges of power, it transfers the accursed being’s concept and identity to the victim. Though you may resist it now, but you will become our princess. The princess of darkness and chaos.”

As he spoke, the other abominations fell on one knee as though she really is their princess. Still, she could clearly tell that these creatures are merely going through the motion and do not have actual respect towards her. The chimera, tree person, and bug man, shown no care that they were hunting her down just a few hours ago.

Relestia asked steely, “What do you want to do with me?”

A bemused gargoyle chuckled.

“Well, well, well. You are such an enthusiastic young lady. Can’t wait to get started right away, aren’t we? Ah, I’m sure you’ll have fun losing your mind.”

Gritting her teeth, the princess simply said, “I despise roundabout answers.”

Using anger or another emotion to musk her fear is a negotiation technique she had learnt.

“Nothing difficult,” the creature smirked, his stone lips twisted upwards without cracking, “You are in for training to bring out your true devilish self. Everyday you just need to torture and kill something. You might resist, and in fact, we will greatly enjoy that, but struggle and sweat, you will never be embraced by the light anymore no matter how hard you try. For this is your fate for carrying the devil’s mark.”

As his voice trailed off, all six fiendish creatures disappeared, leaving Relestia alone in the room. She knows that this is only temporary. Soon, her first victim will be brought to her.

Relestia closed her eyes, trying to gather whatever courage that still exists within. She can only hope that Kairos is fine and her intuition was wrong, and that she can somehow escape here. The only solace is the blessings she received after being cursed.

The words lingered like sweet dew, washing away the looming despair, “Evil will always try to cling to her heels, but I shall make its days short and blessings long. Darkness will try to claim her, but I will come for her and snatch her away from your grasp. And you will regret your words, as all who tried to harm her shall.

For you were unwilling to grant her peace, you shall have no rest.”

These are words spoken to her when Kairos’ eyes blazed golden. She had heard it clearly, but the speaker himself was unaware of this event.

…..

A sudden strike came at Kairos’ small of his neck. If struck, the lightest consequence would be becoming paralysed. It is a tremendous mistake, but no man is perfect, much less for one who had never experienced such a betrayal before.

Kairos had let his guard down.

It was unexpected and sudden. Even with his reaction speed… no, if he had any kind of cat-like reflex, he wouldn’t have needed a battle-support magic like the Heavenly Eyes spell. In the end, the Origin Cultivation Method’s ability to improve a practitioner’s latent talent is incredible but not miraculous and Kairos’ starting point is far too low. Four years only turned him into a mediocre cultivator. Of course, everyone person has their own gifts, and Kairos is better with spells… but that only makes him slightly above average as a magus.

And neither is enough for him to avoid being clubbed.

Sometimes, people forget his age, especially when he had done numerous feats previously that would take others a lifetime to accomplish, but he is only a teenager. He did not expect to be attacked, not when the only person near enough to injure him is Sparrow. A cute dwarven girl who is only half his height, just her look alone is deceptive. Moreover, officially she is a City Guard who should uphold the laws, and privately the granddaughter of King Hogard who Kairos knows wanted to befriend him. Lastly, Kairos treated Sparrow as a friend.

Of all his merits he had never experienced the consequence of misplacing his trusts. Not even when he left everything to Alan in the Saint Cadets Academy and almost got kicked out, nor when he blindly believed that no one will rob a poor villager and placed the Origin Cultivation Manuscript unguarded in the dorm room.

It might sound unrealistic, granted that Kairos had faced plenty of adversaries before, in fact more than most at his age. Unfortunately, even a genius must learn from mistakes.

He knows the theories, and have read the cautionary tales, but the common men fail from ignorance whereas geniuses fail from wilfulness.

Kairos wanted to trust his friends, and this has become his greatest strength yet his greatest weakness.

At mace came swift and heavy, with nary an ounce of mercy.

Sparrow felt a heavy thud and heard the crack of bone and a radiant smile appeared on her lips.

No one will believe that this is the same naïve and carefree princess of the dwarves if they see her openly deride sneer.

Alas, Kairos’ years of experience on the battlefield wasn’t for naught. At the very last moment, he propelled himself forward to mitigate the blow and avoided being killed instantly. Given his physique that could shrug off a devil’s blow, getting struck should have done nothing. At least, his bones and muscles are of greater density than any person from Axis Mundi.

Yet, this is only during his prime. The consequence of his numerous battles and unhealed wounds bit back at him now. To lessen the amount of energy he needs, his muscles had shrunk terribly, and his body started eating into his bones. Without a dense layer of muscle, getting hit on the neck by the famous dwarven brute force will be deadly if he had not mitigated it in time.

*Crack*

Kairos only felt waves of pain wash over him as he fell heavily to the ground with a thud. He had lost all control of his body from neck down, but he did not know this yet because at this moment the searing pain had overtaken every sensation.

Sparrow laughed when she saw what happened to this young general. To think that such a formidable warrior who took down Exterminus and other great warriors had fallen at her hands, the dwarven girl felt overjoyed.

Kairos, now as good as being unconscious, could not see Sparrow’s smile, nor think about why she attacked him. Of course, this means that he also could not see the alerts from the Heavenly Eyes spell flashing in his visuals. As the spell recognised the danger, it started forcefully utilising Kairos’ brain, snatching the mental capacity away from the paralysing pain.

One of the failsafe that Kairos had added into this battle-assist magic is to cause himself to enter into the Selfless state should he be caught unaware by an attack. In that state, Kairos is cut off from all sensations, including pain, and therefore he can return to a combat ready status. Unlike the normal selfless state where all five senses are temporarily suspended, this spell-induced mode will select and adjust accordingly so right now he can still hear and see everything but can’t feel a thing. After all, the purpose is to free the mind from being overwhelmed.

All at once, the pain inhibiting Kairos faded but at the same time he faded into unconsciousness. The alerts in his visuals merged into a single screen that flooded everything that he can see. Of course, he cannot use his eyes, but strangely, the screen appeared in his dream.

Kairos, at this moment, is unconscious, but he had swiftly entered the rapid eye movement cycle where dreams are dreamt. Here, the giant image reflected everything that his remaining sensations could pick up.

Outside of his dreams, Kairos’ eyes fluttered open, but he only stared blankly at Sparrow before looking around. In his dream, he can see Sparrow, hear what she is saying and even smell the bloodied air around.

Then words started appearing.

Alert

Alert

Alert

Physical damage critical.

Cervical vertebra damaged.

Multiple Fractures detected.

Attempting repair.

Unable to direct Ki. Reason, Ki supply critical.

Activating healing magic. Spell circle established. Channelling mana. Mana core dynamic. Activation successful.

Repair failed. Reason, healing spell strength insufficient. Recommendation, raise magic level.

Failed. Reason, mana channels 70% damaged.

Attempting to repair mana channels.

Failed. Insufficient Ki.

Healing magic ineffective on mana channels.

Warning, danger detected. Source, hostile units inbound. Soldiers, dwarven race, numbers 18. Hostile unit, Sparrow, attempting to capture user.

Outside of his unconscious state, Sparrow had declined her guards’ suggestions to kill Kairos. The dwarves’ hatred for the lad have reached their peak because the way he fought was like toying with a bunch of fools, letting them hit each other.

“Our god prefers madness,” she simply said.

“However, you may do with his elf companion as you wish.”

The dwarves turned towards Von Von, crazed excitement openly showing on their faces.

Humiliation, torture, despair, and just the right amount of hope that will never be fulfilled. These are their ingredients for madness.

They approached Von Von with wickedness on their lips.

"Look what we have here, boys! A little elf all alone. What a perfect little plaything for us to enjoy!" said one of the dwarves, leering at Von Von.

“You're going to regret ever coming here, elf," growled another dwarf. "We have ways of making you suffer that you couldn't even imagine."

At the same time, other dwarves mumbled under their breaths repeatedly, "We are but humble servants of the Crawling Chaos. The coming of Nyarlathotep is nigh. The only true freedom lies in serving Nyarlathotep. Join us.”

“Join us.”

“Join us.”

“Join us.”

Their madness will suffocate all who witness, and it snapped Von Von out from her shock.

The guards, though beaten up, still poses significant threat and they approached quickly.

Soon, the elven blacksmith found herself surrounded. She fought back for her life with more strength than a dwarf and shocked everyone.

Her arms bulked up unreasonably with a spell and she took out two ball-peen hammers. These are tools for flattening steel and barely longer than a palm’s length. To use them as weapons is not much better than being unarmed. In fact, if the user is unfamiliar with wielding a hammer, it might be detrimental to limit one’s attacks to only swinging blows around.

The dwarves are easily forced back by the blacksmith’s incredible strength, and the forging magic thrown at them now and then.

However, they are all veteran soldiers that quickly adapted. Reforming their ranks, they pressed forward persistently until Von Von is completely contained.

In his state of unconsciousness, Kairos saw everything that is happening. A great sense of urgency rose in him, and the combat assist spell reacted.

Emergency status activated, attempting alternate resolution.

Yggdrasil Treasure contacted.

Anima Infinitus awakened. Now attempting to draw from all energy sources.

Heavenly Energies not found.

Origin energy transition failed. Reason, source critical.

Ambient Mana transition begin.

Potential cell energy transition begin. Muscle mass decreasing. Transition halted. Reason, Muscle mass critical.

Ki energy 2/12,000,000. Twelve million Ki units required to repair cervical vertebra damage. Restoration rate, two weeks.

Ki energy 2.1

Ki energy 2.2

Attempt failure.

Attempt failure.

Attempt Failure.

The Yggdrasil Treasure alone is unable to do anything. That artefact might be miraculous for generating energy from nothing, but the amount is pitiful. None of the other world trees have such a function. When the seedling became an artefact, it had an unexpected change that turned it into a perpetual engine, but because it left its original purpose, the efficiency… well, there is hardly any. Kairos will need to slowly hone the treasure and improve it. However, in an emergency, it can draw in any form of energy to boost the generation of another energy signature which is what the combat-assist spell is trying to achieve.

Kairos frowned. He can see and hear everything outside, but he does not have direct control. However, it is possible to achieve something similar to sleepwalking. Kairos immediately suggested, “Link Anima Infinitus to the Origin Cultivation cycle.”

The banner flashed violently for a few seconds, trying to pick up the signals that Kairos is giving off from his deep sleep.

The spell groaned with exertion but finally something clicked, and it picked up the intention from his subconscious.

Initiation linkage of Anima Infinitus with the Origin Cultivation Ki Cycle.

Attempting to activate Dantian. Ki energy insufficient. Low Ki pressure formed. Directing association to the Yggdrasil Treasure. Linkage formed.

Restarting cultivation cycle.

Activation success.

Warning, large alteration detected in the cultivation process.

Kairos, being the curious and ambitious cultivator that he was, decided to merge his Origin Cultivation Method with the World Tree Artefact. To his surprise, the artefact began to grow within his body, its branches and roots taking over some of his meridian channels.

At the same time, a sharp scream erupted from where the dwarves had cornered Von Von.