The words weren't spoken; they were a cold, clean thought dropped directly into Kael's mind, wrapped in the quiet, condescending amusement of his rival.
"Your little gamble was quite entertaining, Kael, but it was also quite… predictable, and I was waiting for you."
The voice echoed inside his skull, a perfect replica of Julian Ardyn's. It was not a recording or a simple spiritual message. It was live, direct, and terrifyingly intimate. Julian wasn't just a regressor; he was a master of reality itself, a being who could bend the very fabric of timelines to his will.
Kael ignored the voice for a moment, his mind focused on survival. The air was rich with a dense, living energy, far purer than the mana of his homeworld. It hummed in the air like a living symphony. Overhead, a half-moon cast a silver light through a canopy of impossible, luminescent leaves. Scattered between the ancient trees, he saw them the shattered remains of a drone, a rusted data hub, and a faded emblem he recognized from a future corporation. This was a place where myth and technology had collided and merged.
Julian's voice returned, a cruel purr. "You are the unpredictable element, Kael. An anomaly in my perfect script. But even an anomaly has a finite number of choices. And I've already seen them all."
A screen flickered into life before Kael's eyes, not from the Ledger, but from Julian's power. It showed a map of the forest. On it, Kael's position was a glowing red dot. Ten miles away, a smaller, golden dot pulsed.
"Your first test is at the end of the forest. My personal trove, a reward I prepared just for you. Get there, and you might learn the true rules of our game."
Julian's voice vanished, leaving a ringing emptiness behind. The threat was clear. Kael could run, or he could walk into the trap. There was no third option. This wasn't a rivalry anymore. It was a play, and Julian was the director, the stage manager, and the puppeteer.
Kael closed his eyes, centering himself. He couldn't sever the connection; he had to disrupt it. He reached out to the unique energy of the world, this Mythic Mana, and began to pull it into his body, not through his meridians, but directly into his consciousness. It felt like drinking liquid starlight. The mana was chaotic, ancient, with a primal, wild core that resisted control. It was the antithesis of the precise, sterile energy Julian was using to communicate.
The ringing in his head lessened, Julian's voice becoming a faint, distant echo a temporary solution, but a solution nonetheless. He had found his counter-play.
With his mind fortified, Kael began to run. He didn't follow the map Julian had shown him. That was too predictable. He went in the opposite direction, toward a small, shimmering spring he remembered from a fragment of his past life's knowledge a spring Julian hadn't thought to mention. In his old timeline, it had been a key point in a quest that led to an ancient relic.
His path wasn't empty. Julian's traps were already active. A small, seemingly harmless patch of glowing moss suddenly rose up, its tendrils lashing out like whips of light. They weren't plants, but creatures made of solidified Mythic Mana, summoned to block his path. Their attacks were fast and precise, but Kael remembered a simple trick to deal with them: a specific cultivation technique that would cause them to overload and dissipate.
He executed the technique flawlessly, his fists punching through the glowing tendrils. He was forced to fight, but it was a predictable fight. A simple test.
As he was about to cross a chasm using a vine-bridge, a Sylvan Guardian, a creature made of earth and wood, lumbered out of the darkness. It was a low-level threat, a minor obstacle Julian had set up. Kael readied a spell from his memory. But as he began to cast it, Julian's voice returned, stronger this time, laced with a triumphant sneer.
"You're going to use the Void-Severing Rune, aren't you? I saw that timeline too. It won't work on this type of Guardian."
Kael's spell faltered. He stared at the Guardian, a cold fear gripping him. Julian wasn't just a prophet; he was a psychic. He didn't just know the future, he knew Kael's intentions.
Kael changed his spell at the last moment, a different cultivation technique. It was less efficient but completely unexpected. It caught the Guardian by surprise, allowing Kael to slip past. He had outwitted Julian, but it was an exhausting, split-second triumph.
He ran for another hour until he reached the spring he remembered: a pool of pure, luminescent water flowing over smooth, white stones. A single, small, floating orb of golden light pulsed in the centre. A Primal Seed of the World Tree. In his past life, this was an ancient, powerful resource, a divine item capable of growing a cultivator's mana capacity a hundredfold. He had finally found his prize.
He reached out to take it. But as his fingers brushed its surface, Julian's voice returned, no longer a whisper but a laugh. A full, booming, triumphant laugh.
"You truly are predictable, Kael. The desire for power, the need for a shortcut. The first time, it led you to your death. This time, it led you here. You just picked up the very thing I left behind. The very thing I knew you'd take."
How does this version feel to you? Do you have any other sections you'd like me to look at?