The moon hung high over the blackened peaks of the Shadowmaw Mountains, casting its pale light across jagged rocks and ancient ruins forgotten by the world. Deep within a ravine cloaked in perpetual mist, a lone figure crouched in silence—Kael.
His breathing was shallow, his body hidden behind a broken statue half-buried in moss and shadow. Across the ravine, nestled within the cavern walls, the flickering torches of the Ravenguard Sect's hidden camp glowed like angry fireflies.
Beside Kael, Thorne gritted his teeth, eyes locked on the camp's perimeter. "They outnumber us three to one," he whispered.
Kael nodded slowly. "Numbers won't matter. Not if we strike from within."
Behind them, Dalia emerged from the gloom, her cloak soaked in dew, and her hands faintly glowing with the aura of a peak Spiritual General. "The tunnels beneath the ridge are still open. We can reach the core without being seen."
Kael's eyes gleamed with resolve. "Then tonight, we bleed the serpent from the inside."
---
Earlier that day, word had reached Kael through his network of shadow messengers—Ravenguard Sect, one of the key supporters of the fallen Empire of Verragos, had begun regrouping under the banner of the exiled Lord Veylan. They had taken control of the Blackstone Ravine, a place once considered uninhabitable due to its cursed terrain.
But with a new cultivation technique called the Echo Pulse Vein, the Ravenguard elders had turned the area into a spiritual amplification zone. If left unchecked, it would become a strategic nightmare for the new Black Flame Dominion.
Kael couldn't allow that.
Now, with only six cultivators—including himself—he planned to cripple a faction that had once stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Empire's royal legions.
---
The group advanced through the hidden tunnels beneath the ridge. Dalia guided them with precision, her spiritual sense sweeping for traps. The walls pulsated faintly with spiritual residue, indicating recent movement.
"They've built something here," she murmured, pausing at a junction.
Kael touched the stone. It was warm.
"They're harvesting energy from the ravine," he muttered. "That's why the sect's presence hasn't alerted the natural beasts of the region. The terrain has been muted."
Suddenly, footsteps echoed down the corridor. Kael signaled, and all six vanished into shadow, activating their concealment techniques.
Two Ravenguard disciples entered the corridor, chatting lazily.
"I swear, if Elder Nykar doesn't stop with those sermons, I'll lose my mind."
"At least he feeds us well. Better than starving in the plains."
As they passed, Kael's eyes narrowed. He stepped from the wall, his movement ghostlike.
A swift palm strike, silent as breath, collapsed one disciple's windpipe. The second tried to scream, but Dalia's dagger slit his throat before the sound could escape.
Kael lowered the body to the floor. "We move."
They reached a central chamber moments later—a vast cavern lit with glowing red crystals. At its heart stood a circular altar surrounded by four high-level cultivators channeling spiritual energy into an obsidian obelisk.
Thorne's hand trembled. "That's a formation core. They're feeding the mountain."
Kael's expression hardened. "Break it."
Suddenly, the air shifted. One of the Ravenguard cultivators turned toward the tunnel.
"Intruders!" he shouted.
Kael burst forward like a black arrow, his movement technique—Phantom Step—shifting his body between shadows. He arrived in front of the man in a blink and unleashed a devastating Void Palm.
The attack smashed into the elder's chest, shattering ribs and throwing him into the obelisk. The other three erupted into action, drawing weapons glowing with spiritual runes.
Dalia spun into the chamber, her dual blades dancing with icy light. She met a spear-wielding opponent head-on, her Frost Bloom Slash exploding on contact, encasing the man in crystalline ice.
Thorne engaged two enemies at once, his massive sword channeling earth Qi into every swing. His technique—Mountain Breaker Form—made each strike heavy enough to crack stone. One opponent fell instantly, his body crushed under the weight of spiritual iron.
The fourth enemy, a tall woman in crimson robes, unleashed a barrage of fire talismans. The flames spiraled toward Kael like a storm.
Kael raised his hand. His core pulsed as he activated his innate ability—Ash Veil.
The flames struck, but instead of burning him, they were devoured by a dark mist that surrounded his body.
He leapt forward, now wreathed in smouldering grey aura, and struck the woman with a barrage of rapid Eclipse Strikes. She screamed as the dark energy tore through her defenses, rupturing her dantian and sending her collapsing to the floor.
Kael turned to the obelisk. It hummed ominously, drawing power from beneath the earth.
"Dalia! The runes!" he shouted.
She dashed to the altar, her fingers weaving complex arrays as she deactivated the energy flow. One by one, the veins of red light dimmed.
Kael placed both palms on the obelisk and infused it with Disruption Qi.
A low rumble echoed through the cavern.
With a final surge of spiritual force, the obelisk cracked—and shattered.
The ground trembled.
Kael turned to the others. "We're done here. Move out!"
But as they turned to flee, the ceiling began to collapse. Crystals shattered and rocks tumbled. Kael grabbed Dalia's arm, pulling her forward just as a massive slab fell where she'd been standing.
"Faster!"
They raced through the tunnels, dodging falling debris and flaming runes. The mountain itself seemed to be retaliating.
Just as they reached the exit, a final explosion threw them out onto the slope. The group rolled down the hillside, bruised and bloodied, but alive.
The entire ridge behind them began to collapse in on itself, swallowing the Ravenguard camp into the abyss.
Kael stood slowly, wiping blood from his lip. "That's one less snake."
Kael descended the tower and strode into the war chamber, where his core advisors waited around the massive obsidian table shaped like the Black Flame Continent itself. Dalia was already there, along with Commander Varek, Elder Solun, and two new figures—envoys from the Northern Wastes.
"I'm not used to being summoned with such urgency," Varek grumbled, arms crossed. His heavy iron pauldron creaked as he moved.
"I smell war," Solun said, his voice as dry as cracked stone. His eyes were shut, but Kael knew the old sage saw far more than most.
"Reports from the northern ridge," Dalia began. "Our patrols vanished. No trace. Not even blood. They were all peak Spiritual Warriors."
Kael's brow tightened. "That ridge was declared secure last month. What changed?"
One of the envoys stepped forward, a tall man cloaked in wolf pelts and etched bone armour. His face was partially covered by a mask made of beast ivory.
"We've seen signs of them," the envoy said. "Shadows that whisper and kill without mercy. They do not belong to this world."
Elder Solun snapped open his eyes. "Not invaders from the stars, surely."
"No," the envoy replied. "Worse. The Deep Ones."
Gasps echoed through the chamber.
"The Deep Ones are myths," Varek spat. "Tales told to scare young initiates."
"Tell that to the corpses in our borderlands," the other envoy—a woman with fiery hair and a third eye tattooed on her brow—answered coldly.
Kael's eyes narrowed. "Assuming this is true, we need to verify and prepare. Elder Solun, can your arrays track this threat?"
"With the right materials… and blood," Solun nodded.
Kael turned to the table, his hand landing near the carving of their region. "Then we move. I'll lead the vanguard north by dusk. I want scouts in formation, barriers activated, and mages ready. If the Deep Ones are real, then they've made a mistake coming here."
—
That night, a group of elite cultivators mounted their beasts and soared through the dusky skies. Kael led from the front, riding a black-plumed Windflame Eagle, his aura cloaked but pulsing with readiness.
Behind him flew Dalia, Varek, and a dozen peak-level Spiritual Generals. The air buzzed with suppressed energy, the night air cold and thick with unspoken dread.
They reached the northern ridge by midnight.
The land was quiet.
Too quiet.
No wind. No chirping insects. The trees stood still as if holding their breath.
Kael landed first. His boots hit the cracked stone path of an abandoned outpost.
"I smell rot," Varek growled.
Kael's hand went to his back, drawing the Voidfang—a blade etched with obsidian runes that absorbed spiritual energy on contact.
"Spread out," he ordered.
As the team moved into the ruins, they found the remains of the missing patrol.
What was left of them.
Twisted corpses lay in unnatural positions. Some had holes burned through their heads. Others looked as though their blood had evaporated, their skin pale and dry like old parchment.
Kael knelt near a soldier whose mouth was frozen open in a silent scream. His spiritual core had been drained—hollowed out.
"This is no ordinary enemy," Dalia said. "This… this is predatory cultivation."
Kael stood slowly, fury building behind his eyes. "Then we kill them before they kill more of ours."
Suddenly, the temperature dropped.
Kael's breath turned to mist. All cultivators instantly activated their defensive techniques.
From the shadows of the trees, dark figures stepped forward—humanoid but tall, with elongated limbs and faces obscured by writhing tendrils. Their skin shimmered like moonlight on oil.
The Deep Ones had arrived.
With a sharp cry, Kael slashed Voidfang through the air. A blade of black energy carved across the space, but one of the creatures twisted unnaturally, dodging midair.
Then the battle began.
Varek lunged forward, punching with his gauntlet that erupted in a wave of compressed force—"Titan Break!" The shockwave shattered stone and earth, sending two of the creatures flying. But they didn't stay down.
Dalia summoned her twin blades and vanished into a blur of afterimages—"Phantom Reap!" In seconds, she had sliced clean through one creature, yet it hissed and stitched itself back together with tendrils of smoke and flesh.
"Regenerative techniques!" Solun shouted from behind the front lines. "Their cores are not in their chests—aim for the spine!"
Kael surged forward, his cultivation rising. His core glowed with dark silver light—he was at the peak of Spiritual General, but with his mutated physique and supreme comprehension, his strikes hit like a Spiritual King.
"Void Sever!"
His sword pulsed with raw energy as he struck one of the creatures mid-torso. The blade passed through harmlessly… until it reversed directions and severed the monster's back in a crescent slash. It shrieked and collapsed, dissolving into black ash.
A second one lunged at him with arms stretched into spears, but Kael parried, twisted, and stabbed Voidfang upward into its spine. Another kill.
But there were still five more.
Varek roared as two surrounded him. His fists glowed with golden light—"Heaven Hammer!" He slammed both fists into the ground, unleashing an upward shock pillar that crushed one and staggered another.
Meanwhile, Dalia activated her bloodline technique—her irises turned crimson as flame-like wings burst from her back. "Phoenix Descent!" she shouted, diving through the sky and igniting the enemy in divine fire.
The last three Deep Ones hissed and leapt backward, then one raised its clawed hand and slashed across the air.
A spatial crack opened.
Kael's eyes widened. "They have spatial techniques?!"
From the rip, a dozen smaller creatures spilled out—slender, limbless things with jagged maws and eyes that glowed with madness.
"Wretches!" Solun screamed. "Protect the mages!"
Kael reacted instantly, hurling three spiritual seals into the air—dark symbols that exploded into barriers of shadow and flame. "Keep formation!"
But even with the team's strength, the numbers were getting overwhelming.
Kael clenched his jaw. "We need to end this."
Dalia flew beside him. "Then let's do it together."
The two cultivators focused their energy. Kael's sword began to pulse with spatial ripples, while Dalia's wings spread into full phoenix form. Together, they invoked a dual technique learned from ancient tomes.
"Eclipse Judgment!"
Kael slashed upward, creating a rift of void energy that swallowed all light in the area. At the same time, Dalia unleashed a solar flame that filled the void, igniting the space from within.
BOOM!
A sun ignited within a black hole, collapsing upon the remaining enemies in a storm of annihilation.
When the light faded, only scorched earth remained.
Kael fell to one knee, breathing hard. Dalia staggered beside him.
"They're dead," Varek confirmed, walking over with two broken gauntlets and several bruises.
"For now," Solun warned. "But we've just seen a glimpse of what hides in the deep."
Kael nodded grimly. "Then we dig deeper… before they come for us again."