Defiance of the Fall

A powerful, opalescent beam painted the bridge in hues of deadly beauty. The blast carried tremendous force, blowing away the isolating shroud as it rushed toward its distant target. The engines needed another 40 minutes before they could be deployed, so Zac had opted to creep closer to their target while hidden by the Yphelion's shroud, hoping it would catch their prey unaware.

They'd even found a dense pocket of ambient energy to add to their disguise. Everything was perfect except the location. Zac grimaced upon seeing the weblike cracks that spread out from the beam. The leakage was bad even in the unusually calm region they'd stopped in, and only a third of the energy remained when it reached its target.

The Kan'Tanu Destroyer's purple barrier lit up like a sun to block the ambush. Zac looked on with rapt attention, waiting for the second stage. The next second, the laser transformed, its colors shifting darker. It was now a literal Death Ray, a unique feature the System had added to the Iliex schematics. The alternation between Life- and Death-attuned beams followed the pendulum concepts he'd read about in [Book of Duality], creating an effect greater than the sum of its parts.

The damaged shielding was unable to endure the sudden shift. It popped like a soap bubble, prompting an explosion near the ship's aft. The damage was immediately overshadowed when the laser dug into the ship. A ripple of explosions spread along the breach as the destroyer's engine was ripped apart, spewing out all its fuel.

Streaks of chaotic energy mixed with rapidly propagating spatial tears. Zac could only imagine the mayhem taking place within the ship. The destruction quickly reached critical mass, and the oblong ship blew apart in the middle. Half the ship immediately fell into another dimension, but it wasn't enough to make Zac relax just yet. The Yphelion's subsidiary cannons unleashed a second salvo after the main cannon had paved a path, straining the ship's energy circuits further.

These smaller armaments would normally be useless against a ship like the Kan'Tanu destroyer. They were designed to deal with small, fast-moving targets or intercept raiders. They found another use now that they were dealing with an exposed wreckage without any protection. Their gunner shot a dozen streaks of smaller projectiles against any energy-dense spot. It would either be a strong cultivator who'd survived the initial blast or a piece of the Cosmic Vessel to blow up.

Zac almost dared hope they could deal with the threat without a fight. However, a huge, fleshy tendril appeared from a rift to dash those hopes. The thorn was almost as large as the destroyer, allowing it to form a resilient wall against the bombardment. The next moment, a stream of cultists came pouring out of the wreckage.

"What in the blazes is that!" Bubbur swore.

"And how much is hiding beneath the surface?" Kruta said, glancing at a pale-faced Jaol.

Zac couldn't fault his scout for the unexpected appearance. The hidden Heart Curse was clearly something specially bred for the Imperial Graveyard. It was covered in runes that rippled with Spatial Energy and emitted a foul aura of Resentment indistinguishable from its surroundings. It was a perfect stalker, hiding in subspace. Or rather, the Void, judging by the familiar air that seeped from its spatial crack.

Protecting the ship had exposed the monstrosity early, potentially preventing a disaster. With its deactivated engine and drained shields, the Yphelion would have been in big trouble if it appeared before them instead of by the destroyer. The tendril didn't show any inclination to pursue them either, nor did the Kan'Tanu opt to stay under its protective umbrella.

The survivors sped toward the Yphelion to seize a final chance at survival. Specialized cultivators in the vanguard activated identical skills that resembled swarms of red fireflies. They rapidly expanded to cover the whole army, and the frayed environment solidified long enough to pass through.

'We can't fire again!' Galau shouted, seemingly reading Zac's thoughts through the communicator.

"The graveyard is helping us out, at least," Ogras muttered. "Those shrouds aren't enough to fully defend against the spatial damage."

"Then let's them enjoy it some more. Retreat and activate the blockers," Zac said.

Six large vats stored throughout the Cosmic Vessel began releasing waves that solidified the dimensional barrier. They were Zac's backup in case Ibtep's grubs didn't live up to their task. Their drawback was significant: They prevented the subspace engines from running. With them down for repairs, it didn't matter much, and they would make it harder for another tendril to pop out of nowhere.

Outrunning the Kan'Tanu with the subsidiary engines was futile with the pace they kept. They had to use a special tool designed to traverse the graveyard. Even then, every second added to the pursuit would drain them a bit more.

"I found it. It's actually a parasitized Void Beast!" Jaol exclaimed. "It should have a hard time finding the right spot to strike without the Kan'Tanu ship acting as a beacon."

Zac took the news in stride, already suspecting the unique Heart Curse was related to the creatures he'd seen in the Technocrat Research Base.

"That crest! Not good!"

It was Kator who'd spoken this time, his aura fluctuating like he'd suffered a great setback.

"What now?"

"The ones wearing black robes aren't Kan'Tanu," the Reaver spat, and Zac could even hear a slight tremor in his voice. "They're members of the Black Heart Cult."

Kruta blanched at the declaration. Zac didn't feel any better when he saw there were eight such people among the survivors on the screen. The situation was almost as bad as could be, considering the Half-step Monarch and one of the Peak Hegemons were among them.

"I knew they wouldn't be content with staying on the sidelines," Ogras spat.

The Kan'Tanu's origins weren't a secret among Zecia's leaders. The news had long since spread from the outsiders, along with the assurance that the Black Heart Cult had already been forced to give up on Ultom and the intersection war. Their claim was corroborated by the fact that they hadn't seen their shadow in all this time.

Zac remained skeptical throughout, and his suspicions had proven true with the worst possible timing. He wasn't sure if they'd snuck into the sector recently or if they'd lurked in the Imperial Graveyard throughout. In either case, their tough but certain victory had turned into a calamity. He glanced at Ogras and Kruta, both of whom shook their heads.

'Peak Hegemons from one of the Seven Chapters is beyond our capabilities, not to mention the black-robed one. We should be able to hold up the Kan'Tanu, but that would require three of our strongest. And then the rest would be overrun.'

Zac sighed, knowing there was only one option. "Can you take the Captain if I occupy the two Peak Hegemons?"

"I'm not sure," Kator frankly admitted.

"You're acting up now after boasting you could take out all three yourself? You fought off a Monarch from the Sangha before! He was way stronger!" Joanna growled, looking ready to deal with Kator before the cultists.

"Girl, that was different. The Arhat wasn't fighting with his life on the line, and I only needed to stall until backup arrived," Kator said, his voice incredibly solemn. "I've fought a Half-step Kan'Tanu before. Let me tell you, they're no easy prey. Almost all of them are Reincarnators, and their Heart Curses have undergone a metamorphosis. They've grown hundreds of times larger by filling up their nascent Inner Worlds. I don't want to know what's hiding within that man's chest."

After over two years of constant fighting, Zac could count his encounters with true Reincarnators on his hand. The first was the Hexmaster, just before the Centurion Lighthouse. The last was a Late D-grade madman from the Chapter of Warborn half a year ago. The Middle D-grade Hexmaster had given Zac a huge headache while the psychotic claw-wielder put up one of the fiercest struggles since Zac faced Yselio.

These elites were only a pale mimicry of the real monsters raised in the Black Heart Cult. The bloody winner-takes-all rituals that raised Kan'Tanu Remoulded and Reincarnators had 1,000 participants. The Black Heart Sect used ten times that number. With the higher-quality Heart Curses and their A-grade Heritage, the Reincarnators would be in another league than their frontier cousins.

The Black Heart Sect even held a terrifying third round of carnage, where ten thousand Reincarnators fought to the death to elect the generation's leader. Zac could barely compute the loss of life, callously sacrificing a trillion cultivators to nurture one peak warrior. Or what kind of Heart Curse would be born after consuming so many of its brethren.

The odds of the black-robed cultivators being one of these existences were extremely low, even if the cult very well may have sent one to fight for the inheritance. Someone like that wouldn't travel aboard a normal Kan'Tanu vessel. Zac still expected that at least one or two of their opponents were Black Heart Reincarnators, with the rest being Remoulded.

Should they run? The untested modules were still there, their use ready to be explored. No, that was even riskier. They'd bet the farm by using the main cannon, so they had no shield to protect the Yphelion from the forces, even if the modules worked. And them working was definitely not a given, considering they had to draw energy from somewhere. Zac's jaw set with determination. They could only fight.

"Send out the drones; it doesn't matter if they're sacrificed. Push them together and blast them with the cannon again. Galau, you have one minute to make sure the Yphelion doesn't blow up."

"Our shielding won't be more than a decoration afterward, and it might alert the creature to our location!" Jaol exclaimed while a string of curses answered from the communicator.

"We have no choice. Half of us will die unless we exhaust them further."

Ready or not, their opponents wouldn't give them any more time to figure things out. They'd crossed half the distance already. If they waited much longer, they'd be forced to fight with the Yphelion too close for comfort.

"Go! Zac roared, teleporting his warriors just as he saw the Yphelion's drones appear on the screen.

Their tight squad of Sealbearers appeared below the Yphelion just in time to see over a hundred drones perform a suicidal dive toward the approaching Kan'Tanu. Even more attacks rose to meet them, and the drones were completely outmatched. Most were blown up before they could launch an attack of their own.

That was exactly what Zac expected to see, and his eyes gleamed with ruthlessness when the first booby-trapped drone exploded. It was packed to the gills with explosives, and its destruction tore apart space. It was too late for the Kan'Tanu to stop their retaliation at that point. More drones were destroyed, and a second explosion was followed by a third.

The explosions forced the Kan'tanu to clump together for protection, and Zac knew it was time. He raised his axe and shot forward, feeling a surge of power when Emily's tomahawk entered his back. [Love's Bond]'s chest plate was already releasing its protective shroud to ward off the deadly environment. Leaving the Yphelion's protective domain still felt like passing through a steel bath. The good news was that the enemy should be even worse off, having been forced to travel much further while lacking his racial and acquired layers of defense.

A second streak of opalescent destruction appeared overhead, piercing right into the incoming swarm of cultists. Zac made a mental note to give Galau a raise after seeing how he'd worked another miracle with the ship. The sanguine fireflies were utterly incapable of holding up before its fury, and space was suddenly working against the Kan'Tanu. Spreading out again meant little when the focused beam splintered into thousands of deadly branches.

An enormous six-finger hand holding a tuft of hair suddenly stopped the beam's advance. A huge shockwave billowed outward, and the beam died down the next moment. The cannon couldn't even last until the alignment switch before it ran out of energy. A scream of danger warned of a threat hidden in the blinding light, prompting Zac to move urgently before his sealbearers.

Axe and chains were already in motion, and [Death's Duality] slammed into an almost invisible strand of hair that stretched all the way from within the group of cultists a dozen miles away. The clash felt like striking a wall of C-grade iron, and Zac's wrist bones groaned in complaint. The recoil threw Zac away, though that was partly intentional.

It put him within range of another strand of hair, and he used the momentum to add even greater force to his second swing. Sharp screeches pierced his ears when his chains similarly targeted invisible attacks, where [Inexorable Subjugation] slowed them down enough for their intended targets to hurry out of the way.

The cultists had already emerged through the spatial mayhem at that point. The Kan'Tanu Peak Hegemon had activated a huge domain that exposed him as a rare Spatial Cultivator. Zac inwardly swore, knowing his job had become even harder. Dealing with the Black Heart Cultist would already be difficult enough. Adding a Peak D-grade Spatial Cultivator in this environment was a huge added handicap.

Kator glanced at Joanna, giving her a look that said, 'See?' before his body exploded with power. He'd activated three of his Miracle Bones, turning into a deadly asura reeking of mayhem. He shot forth like a meteor, flying right toward the Half-Step Monarch, who had singlehandedly blocked the Yphelion's final attack. It looked like Reaver wanted to bring the fight to his enemy, embroiling the hundreds of weaker cultists.

Zac was already on the move, having the same idea as Kator. Around two hundred cultists had died from the drones and cannon, but there were still over three hundred enemies to deal with. If they could each annihilate just 50 of the weaker ones before being locked down, the pressure on the others would lessen drastically.

He unleashed his aura, becoming the spearhead of a billowing wave of Killing Intent as he rushed toward his targets. Six chains wove through the vacuum by his side, reeking of death and bloodlust like a pack of deathly dragons on the hunt. Small spatial fractures formed a trail behind him, and their shape twisted into gleaming edges from the undisputable truth of his Earthly Dao of Defiant War.

A flurry of ranged attacks tried to slow down his approach. Zac wouldn't have it. The four pygmy skeletons of [Profane Exponents] appeared behind him, adding an impregnable layer of defense that rebuffed the hastily activated skills and talismans. His eyes never left the few targets who could actually harm him.

Noticing the obscured fluctuations gave the early warning needed to avoid disaster. An odd portal opened by his side without making a sound. From it, a fist emerged with enough force to blow a hole in the sky. The pygmies wouldn't be enough, so Zac disappeared in a puff of darkness, finally activating [Abyssal Drive].

The world slowed down, but not enough to stop the punch. It released a cascading wave of destruction like a nuclear bomb, creating a blast wave that rippled forward for miles. It was filled with nightmares and slaughter—Daos from the Peaks of Conflict, Dream, and Chaos. There was a hint of the Dao of Death in the mix, along with the tell-tale malevolence of a Heart Curse.

The energy was profoundly evil, to the point Zac felt its mere existence should trigger another Heavenly Punishment. The attacker was clearly the Peak D-grade Black Heart cultist. As expected, their methods were a notch above the Kan'Tanu's. Zac grunted in pain from being caught in the skill's edge, where a strong pull tried to drag him into the epicenter. He fought back, holding onto his movement skill despite the pain it brought.

Zac managed to tear himself free, only to be greeted with a spatial blade. He veered again and found space resisting. It was the Spatial Cultivator adding insult to injury. Zac had no choice but to deactivate [Abyssal Drive] early to block the blade with a herculean swing. Conflict fought with space, and neither came out ahead. The opponent also had an Earthly Dao, countering Zac's latest advantage.

The clashing forces created a deadly storm with Zac caught in the middle. Zac shot forth without missing a beat, leaving the storm eye's comparative safety to enter the dangerous winds outside. Grisly wounds and pieces of flesh were the price of punching through the storm at record speed. His determination saved his life, as the Spatial Cultivator used the storm as fuel to create a black hole.

Zac disappeared again through a Void-activated [Abyssal Drive], crossing the final stretch to reach the enemy lines. However, his targets were gone, and Zac felt an incredibly powerful spatial pull before he could target the weaker Kan'Tanu before him. The Void could have stopped him from being dragged away. Zac didn't use it.

He left a deadly gift for the cultists in the form of a Void-activated [Deathmark] before allowing himself to be whisked away. There was no point in resisting, and not just because Zac could tell it was futile without relying on his bloodline. The Spatial Cultivator was pulling him into a dimensionally reinforced pocket where his enemies would tear him apart.

And a cage match was exactly what Zac wanted.