As if on cue, Six Grains stepped out onto the highest part of the ramp around the Spire. The giant spike-like building had a ramp spiraling around it like a giant auger, or the horn of a narwhal. Further down the ramp, a group twelve of rank five Cultivators, the same as last time, walked out carrying a metallic dragon. The snake-like body was as thick around as their own waists, but they hugged it to their sides, stretching the Magical Tool out and readying to use it again just like the last time he was here. Of course, the ‘body’ was closer to a hose and the dragon’s head was merely a stylized part of the weapon. Above them, Six Grains feathery hair was blown about by the wind as he threw his arms out to his sides. From his wide wizard-like sleeves sand poured out like a river.

Only, it wasn’t sand. Just like before, they were actually tiny grains of rice, the strangest Magical Tool Sage had encountered so far. He was actually eager to try and steal a few more of those tiny bits of rice to study more of how they worked, but he wouldn’t get his wish this time. Six Grains didn’t use the rice to attack as before, instead they flowed down over the surface of the Spire, spreading out and changing its color. That wasn’t all they did. The Magical Tool became a vast net distributing Six Grain’s power over the Spire, law energy responding to his actions and being drawn in to empower the defenses of the building.

At the same time, the dozen Core Formation Cultivators on the lower level took aim with their dragon headed hose and released a torrent of water in Sage’s direction. Sage waved his hand and a large tendril swung up from the ground and intercepted the stream of water. His Law of Change collided against the dozen weaker laws swirling together in that jet of water. Sage suddenly realized how they were doing it. The innate properties of water, its flowing ever transformative nature was being used as a medium to integrate the other laws together. He also felt a will doing the work and recognized that the dragon hose was not just a Magical Tool but an Artifact. The Artifact Spirit must be doing the difficult job of combining the twelve different water laws together. Sage also felt that it wasn’t just water flowing through that hose, but Qi. It also felt very similar to the rest of the Spire.

So the dragon artifact and the Spire are tied together. Are they one and the same or is the Spire just a power source for it?

Six Grains was busy boosting the defenses of the Spire while the rank fives were combining their strength with the Artifact to attack him. The tendril from the water was joined by a second and then a third before the flow of energy was completely blocked. The first had been knocked aside and Sage dodged the beam-like stream of pressurized water. The second joined in, creating two obstacles for Sage to duck behind. With the third they formed a tripod in the air and stopped the water in its tracks. The huge tendrils could move just as quickly as the beam of water and the point it struck was ground rapidly away, but the three giant tendrils grew many smaller tentacles that bundled up to resist the force. They grew just as fast as they were ground away by the attacking water.

The attack wasn’t useless as three of the twelve main tendrils he was attacking with were now occupied. The twelve Core Formation Cultivators, with the help of an Artifact, were the equivalent of a Nascent Soul. It was hard to rank what Stage it was equal to. The raw power of the combined laws and the Artifact was pushed to the upper levels of the sixth rank, but their other qualities were lacking. With twelve people to coordinate, being tied into one spot, and their weaker perceptive ability, they would struggle against other Nascent Souls using trickery or speed.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The remaining seventy five percent of his strength was still focused upon the Spire, which was enough to cause the defensive barrier to rattle. The translucent layer of formation symbols sparked and flickered as the barrier they supported was damaged. More power flowed out from the Spire and into the barrier.

Which is exactly what he was going for.

With the battle starting into full swing, the people on the inside of the Spire were not sitting in silence. The power flowing out into the barrier didn’t come out of nowhere. Those within the Spire were busy transporting and installing Spirit Stones into the arrays on the inside of the Spire’s walls. This is the opening the Blacksilver Pawn had been waiting for. With vaults opening for power reserves to be brought out, it also created an opening for the Pawn on the inside to escape. It had ridden upon the apprentice of the Elder in charge of the vaults, so it was only a matter of time until that assistant entered the right vault. The ring flew out of the bracelet and hid itself among the other treasures. It collected what was needed and waited for an opportunity just like this. Falling into the pile of Spirit Stones so it could hide among them. It was picked up and carried out, falling from the box as soon as it was set down to be unloaded. It created a little spring-like piece of metal beneath itself and was thrown back out of the room. Falling into a crack, it was finally time to gather strength. The Blacksilver Pawn rebuilt itself, the Soul Fragment having a body of the oily Black Enhydros with bones made of the Blue Icesilver.

As soon as it showed itself, the tendrils assaulting the defensive barrier shifted, moving to wrap about the Spire so they could all strike at exactly the same point. Three waves of three, slapping against the same spot on the barrier and causing it to crack. Then they wrapped around the Spire, contracting like the coils of a snake to finally shatter a part of the barrier. Contrary to what might be expected, the Barrier from coils down fell apart, but the barrier going upwards was still at full strength. The power source was not down below the Spire, but at the top of it, and the barrier was one that should be shattered, not just slowly weakened over time. The tendrils were knocked back by a flare of energy from Six Grains. The sea of rice flowed down and pushed away the tendrils so the barrier could fall back down to the ground like drapery, so the barrier could restore itself back to its full strength again.

What Six Grains and the others of the Spire didn’t know was that there was a dark figure who’d leapt out from the Spire in time with the barrier shattering. This shadowy being hid itself among the folds of the huge tentacle, crawling downwards to get further away from the battle. The huge tendrils started a second round of attack upon the Spire, while Sage caught the dark creature that suddenly leapt towards him. It disappeared to the Inner World, the Blacksilver Pawn recovered as well as the tiny item it had retrieved from the Spire’s vault. With a third wave of attack, Sage turned and flew back up into the sky.

The huge tendrils moved to block the counter-offensive from the dragon headed Artifact, giving up their attack and effortlessly defending Sage’s retreat back up to the Shifting Jade Mountain. The graceful boat tilted to the side, angling away from the Spire to float away through the sky. In the distance behind him, Sage looked back to see the spiky hair of a familiar figure just arriving at the Spire. The Sea King’s response time was much faster than the first time he’d attacked, but it still hadn’t been fast enough to stop him. A huge wall of water smashed down against the tendrils surrounding the Spire and tore them to shreds. Sage was too far away to keep reinforcing them, so they had been running off the residual energy within them to harass the Spire. Unlike his first attack, there were no Soul Fragments inside these tendrils. The Sea King was helpless to catch up. Not only was the Shifting Jade Mountain faster than him, they also had a large head start.