Rivers of the Night

The Alpha's body flashed in a streak of crimson, appearing on the shore in a single instant of time. It felt like it was riding on the wind, its body even gliding across the surface of the Dark River as though it was solid land for a moment before vanishing inside within.

'Fascinating…' Theron thought.

The Dark River was incredibly dangerous. Unlike with normal rivers, walking on top of it with just a simple application of Mana wasn't possible.

Cultivators could often take advantage of surface tension, making their Mana and that of the surface of a body of water react with a repulsion to one another, ultimately allowing them to walk across the surface.

But Dark Mana was too amorphous. It lacked substance and density. Trying to walk across it was about as easy as trying to walk across air. If you could do that, you would be able to fly as well.

At least theoretically.

But what made this Dark Mana River even more difficult to walk across than air was the currents. Walking across it was akin to trying to fly in a hellish storm, not just a normal, day-to-day sky.

It could be said, then, if you could walk across the Dark Mana River, you weren't just capable of flying—you were amongst the most skilled of them.

Yet, the Alpha was already getting to the point under Theron's direction that this was possible.

'One more should be enough,' Theron thought to himself.

They sank into the ocean and came up again an hour later, slaughtering yet another group.

Theron noticed that they were moving further from the shore, as he expected. However, the Alpha was too fast.

In these short bursts, matching the speed of a Treading Cloud Realm expert wasn't a problem at all. Especially if Theron cooperated and used the [Entangling Blood Vein Pupils] to use the momentum of well-timed currents to send them flying out.

Then, if they matched that with [Entangling Silence] and [Entangling Clouds], they were faster than sight, as silent as air, and as flexible as the rays of the sun.

They were the perfect assassins.

'Now it should be about time…' Theron thought with a narrowed gaze.

He had observed things nearer the entrance, and he knew the Core Disciples by their faces now. They were, at the very least, far stronger than the others.

Just by their auras, Theron could tell that they stood in the higher tiers of Gold Mancy, and each one had a Runebound Resonance at worst.

On the continent, people of this strength would be a joke to Theron, but here, he wasn't so arrogant to believe that things would be the same. His experience in the Sect had made it clear enough to him that he should know better.

Now the next steps would hinge on this.

**

Blackmaul balanced his enormous club on a shoulder, grinning at Ilyssia and completely ignoring Serenya. The Resonate Eye Sect's number one Core Disciple had been completely ignoring him from the start, but that didn't seem to stop him from continuing to flirt.

Ilyssia had grown used to it, and her focus was entirely on keeping them alive. The golden line down her forehead was flickering with light from time to time, and she seemed to have completely tuned out what he had to say.

"SERENYA!"

Ilyssia's shout didn't even come from her lips. A wave of shocking Spirit Mana rippled out and her thoughts seemed to be projected right into their minds.

Serenya's body jolted as though muscle memory had been forcefully triggered within her.

This spell was one of compulsion, and it was one that they had agreed ahead of time to allow. No matter how fast and sharp Ilyssia's reactions were, if she had to relay her orders through speech and then wait for them to register what she wanted to say, it would take too long.

By then, whatever enemy they were facing could get the drop on them.

But instead, Ilyssia had used a spell on Serenya—a compulsion spell that triggered one of Serenya's own spells automatically.

The instant Ilyssia activated this spell, Serenya's eyes sharpened as her foot stomped down on the ground hard.

There was a surge of Earthen Mana as the chubby Core Disciple formed a triangle with her thumbs and both of her fore and middle fingers.

A bronzed wall shot up into the air in the direction of the Dark River, soaring into the skies so high that it seemed to manifest like a mountain itself.

…

Theron was moving quickly, dashing across the surface of the water with enough speed that he seemed like a blur himself. He also didn't expect such a quick reaction, but this wasn't enough to throw him off completely.

On the continent, even Gold Mancers couldn't manipulate so much earth so quickly. But it was likely that Serenya had long primed this region with her Resonance.

If Theron was correct, this Bronzed Earth Sect had a method of Mana manipulation that could influence a region over time, slowly morphing it into earth that they could more easily manipulate.

Not only this, but the trust between the three members seemed to have increased enough that they were even allowing such suggestions to be cast on one another.

Truly fascinating.

But not enough.

Theron tapped a foot and in a flicker, all of his forward momentum had shifted. He leapt into the air and his violet irises sparkled as he cast [Entangling Clouds].

BANG.

He stomped a single foot onto the air and, from moving forward like a speeding torpedo, he was suddenly flickering off to the side—and not a moment too soon.

That was because right at that instant, Blackmaul's howl filled the air. He too had instantly regained all of his focus, slamming down with his club from behind the wall.

However, despite swinging down at empty air and toward a huge wall of earth, the actual power of his club descended from a location that would have been just above Theron's head moments ago.

BOOM.