Damien gurgled as murky water rushed down his throat. He thrashed, kicking down on the thing curled around his leg, and kicked some more when instead of his feet finding solid purchase, it pressed down on something flexible.

  Oh, for crying out loud! Damien cursed inwardly as he gulped in more of the dirty water. What is this?!

  His next attempt, positioned so that it could slam closer to his captured leg, was halted as something else rose to curl around his free leg, pulling him further in.

  As Damien was forcefully dragged further into the murky water, two options came to him then: one, he could let himself get dragged down, eventually reaching the origin of whatever it was that was pulling him in. That had the fortunate effect of making it easy for him to kill whatever was dragging him in.

  Two, he could break free now and save himself from any more unforeseen issues that might crop up under the water. So far as he'd seen, this realm had come with multiple, unexplained surprises, and Damien didn't want to experience one more, especially as he was underwater. He was a spirit lord, sure, which meant he could breathe underwater for longer than the average person. But longer didn't mean indefinite, and Damien didn't want to fall into the unfortunate circumstances of having more of these things curl around him.

  Now or never, Damien, he thought. You either blast your way out of here right now or deal with worse later on.

  His decision hadn't even been fully finalized when he shaped and willed multiple stars into existence... Except instead of the greater number Damien was gunning for, he got a measly couple while the rest sputtered out like a wind-blown candle flame.

  Damien didn't have the time to wonder why that was; he simply directed the ones at his disposal downwards to where he could sense the things wrapped around him.

  Satisfied, he detonated them.

  The only good thing that came out of that was that the explosion didn't just tear apart whatever was holding him; it flung him up, too.

  Damien broke through the surface of the water with a wide-eyed look and a panicked flap of his hands like a bird losing flight.

  He plumped face first onto the sand with such force that his head pierced through the surface layer, digging deep and leaving his body sticking upright. He wiggled himself out a second later and then sighed. Keilan would have laughed at him till kingdom come had he witnessed that embarrassing fall.

  Damien stood up and took in his surroundings. Again, he was still surrounded by the mist, this time a darker purple. Somehow, silver lights managed to streak down despite there being no celestial body hovering above the proto-space. Or maybe it wasn't the moon that was shining down, Damien thought. He shrugged, at least he could see better now.

  The sudden beat, and whoosh—which was strange, given how silent the wind had been ever since he'd stepped into this hell hole—was the only warning he got, and this time, he reacted accordingly.

  Damien jumped into the air, like he'd been propelled by a spring, snatched his spear—from wherever he'd lost it— and in a smooth motion, he brought it down in one swift strike. All done within a fraction of a second.

  There was a heavy thump as something crashed onto the ground, and Damien turned to watch as his attacker was dragged across the ground, courtesy of their uncontrolled momentum, leaving a large, deep trench on the earth.

  Contrary to his expectation, the ant didn't stay down for long, nor did it suffer any injury, as far as Damien could tell. It was a Spirit lord, after all.

  It rose onto its feet, turned to face him, and then snapped its pincers hard enough that Damien could hear the cracking sound a half mile away.

  He narrowed his eyes at the creature. "Am I supposed to be scared?"

  The creature's left wing was already gone, courtesy of Damien's opening attack, which left the right wing which it still managed to flap, bursting forward with such speed that it made the normally still air thrum.

  He moved forward to meet it, swinging his spear in a crisscross motion as he slid under the creature.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Coming out from behind it, Damien was just fast enough to dodge the stinger that would have pierced into his skull, and then he slashed, tearing through one of its six legs, and then he was flung away as its wing finally caught him.

  Damien landed on the ground with an oomph, digging in his own trench —human sized—into the earth.

  With a groan, he rose back up. "This, is getting too embarrassing."

  In reply, the ant released a screech that caused his body to vibrate lightly.

  Damien gritted his teeth and glared at the creature. "I wasn't talking to you."

  And then they dove back into each other.

  But this time, Damien was done letting himself get beat up by creatures below his tier. He was supposed to be competing with peak-tier Spirit lords for crying out loud.

  Three Star constructs formed over him as he moved. Still in motion, he pointed his spear at the zipping monster before him and then channeled a breath of destruction.

  The bar of destruction essence appeared in a flash of gray light, and then blinked out, leaving a featherless ant in its wake. Damien came in a second later, reaching the chittering creature before it could finish recovering. He ignored the uncomfortable feeling the sound had on him, and in one fell swoop, he brought down his technique.

  The ant scattered into a dozen parts, bits and pieces flying in different directions, as well as fluids from its abdomen which had the unfortunate effect of spraying all over Damien.

  "Ewww," Damien gagged as he tried to remove the icky stuff from his face. "Gross."

  He looked down at the dozen pieces sprayed around. "If you weren't already dead, I'd kill you."

  [Why are you talking to yourself?] A voice said from behind, and Damien jumped with a high-pitched scream he dearly hoped no one heard.

  "Whaaa!!!" He said. "Stop doing that, Gray! You nearly tore my heart out."

  [Hmm mm,] Gray hummed with a knowing look, but he said nothing. Instead, he continued looking at Damien.

  Getting the memo, Damien coughed and scratched the back of his head. "Welllllll..." Damien said nervously. "I was simply bored, that's all."

  [I can see that,} Gray said and then turned around, seemingly taken in their environment. [Nice view.]

  Damien rewarded the little Gray man with a deadpan gaze and a dry reply. "Haha. Funny."

  [No, I'm serious. I love the beautiful sky. Can you see it? And the life filled grasslands. See how it stretches into the horizon.]

  "Do you have a reason for being here, Gray?" Damien said. "I'm busy at the moment and you're distracting me."

  [Oh,] Gray said lightly with a smile slowly spreading on his lips. [Busy, you say...]

  "Yes, busy." He pointed at the shattered remains of his latest opponent. "As you can see, I just finished dealing with this thing and I also have a brother to find. I don't have much time for pointless chitchat."

  [That... I won't argue against,] Gray nodded with the stupid smile still on his face. [In fact, I believe you're going to be very busy at the moment. Extremeeeely busy.]

  Damien's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

  The little gray figuring smiled. [Tell me, Damien. How often do you see an ant on its lonesome?]

  A chill swept down Damien's spine at that, and he raised his head sharply to the sky, ears primed to catch any odd sound.

  [Before I go. Damien,] Gray's voice brought Damien's attention down, and this time he took it seriously as the other being's voice turned serious. [I don't want to force you through something as important as what you're doing, but I'll advise you to hasten it. Something is about to happen... sometimes bad. And you definitely do not want to get stuck in this place when whatever it is comes to head.]

  Damien looked at Gray. This was the first time he had truly seen the grey man worried in an immediate sense. Sure, the Order Ascendant had made him worry, yes, but it hadn't been to the level of something like this, which clued Damien in that whatever was about to happen was not far from fruition.

  "Do you have anything on what it is?"

  [No,] Gray shook his head and then said quietly. [I'm not a Diviner, so my far-seeing abilities are somewhat restricted. I only have a vague feeling to go through.]

  When Damien met Gray's eyes, there was no mirth in them.

  [Good luck Damien,] he said, right at the time a faint droning sound reached Damien's ears. Many droning sounds, [You'll need it.]

  Damien didn't watch to see Gray disappear. He whipped out his spear, spinning it through the air into the dark mist. His eyes might be severely restricted at the moment, but his ears were not.

  And surely, there was a screech a second later, followed by a thump. Damien caught back his spear, returned with a bit of insect juice, and then ran towards his assailants.

  Estimating a number closer to a dozen, Damien knew it was time to stop holding back. Subtlety had never really been his strong suit anyway, and the many creatures that had attacked him in the short span he'd been in this place was evidence of that.

  A dozen stars manifested behind his head a second later, and unsurprisingly, he felt them begin to unravel, like something was actively trying to loose the threads of his technique.

  Damien pushed through it with his will, and grunted when he felt whatever it was push back. Still, he refused to give up, so he pushed back.

  Still, he felt two of the stars unravel, but the rest stayed. Damien wasn't going to give ground, this time.

  The stars vanished into the misty ambiance, and a second later, a loud explosion rang out, lighting the world in a bright flash and displacing a huge amount of mist. Through it, Damien watched as closer to a dozen monsters fell from the sky in scattered pieces. He didn't feel any better, though, as he'd greatly underestimated the number of ants heading his way.

  Alongside the flying variant Damien had earlier come across, wingless, landbound ones crawled forward in a swarm. Damien counted more than twenty, and that wasn't even adding the flying ones.

  "Alright then, let's make some noise."

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