Location: High Altitude – Above the Ruins of the Heavenly Sword Sect
Time: The Moment of Contact
The sky did not simply darken; it was deleted.
Aris stood atop the head of Qinglong, the Azure Dragon. The wind whipped at his Void-Walker's Mantle, but his feet remained planted as if rooted to the beast's scales.
Above them, the clouds parted in a massive, concentric ring.
Descending from the void of space was not a ship in the traditional sense. It was a Flying Pagoda.
It was a monstrosity of engineering and magic, constructed from Celestial Gold and Star-Iron. It was ten kilometers wide at the base, tapering up to a spire that pierced the exosphere. The hull was engraved with glowing blue runes that pulsed with the rhythm of a beating heart.
It was the size of a city.
As it descended, the atmospheric pressure multiplied. Birds fell from the sky, their wings crushed. Trees in the forests below snapped like twigs. The sheer displacement of air created hurricane-force winds that flattened the surrounding ruins.
[System Threat Assessment]
[Enemy: The Void-Ark 'Beast-Tamer'.]
[Class: Planetary Suppression Vessel.]
[Energy Signature: Divine-Tier.]
[Crew Estimate: 5,000 Cultivators (Minimum Level 40).]
[Commanders Detected: 3x Dao Severing (Level 80+).]
"Three of them," Aris whispered, his Abyssal Eye vibrating from the strain of scanning such a dense object. "Lady Yun was a level 65 errand girl. These guys are the real deal."
"THEY BRING CHAINS," the Azure Dragon rumbled beneath him. Its massive body coiled in the air, gathering lightning. "I CAN SMELL THE STENCH OF SLAVERY ON THEIR HULL."
"Hold your fire," Aris commanded. "If we attack the shield now, we waste energy. Let them make the first move."
The View from the Ants
Location: The Imperial Capital – 500 Miles Away
The arrival was visible from the capital.
Emperor Qin Long stood on the balcony of the palace, his hands gripping the railing until his knuckles turned white. He watched the golden star descend in the East.
"It is the end of days," he whimpered. "The prophecies were true."
Below him, in the main plaza, the citizens were in a panic. The Faith Farm project had been working; statues of Aris (The Abyssal Lord) were everywhere. Now, the people flocked to these statues, praying desperately.
"Save us! Lord of the Night, save us!"
Lin Chen stood by the main statue. He was dressed in the high-collared robes of the High Priest. He looked at the panic, then at the sky.
"Silence!" Lin Chen's voice, amplified by Solstice, boomed across the plaza.
The crowd froze.
"This is not the end," Lin Chen announced, his corrupted eyes burning with violet conviction. "This is the Test. The false gods of the sky have come to challenge our Lord. Do you think he will fall?"
"No!" a few zealots shouted.
"Then pray!" Lin Chen roared. "Your faith is his fuel!"
[System Notification: Faith Energy Spiking.]
[Source: The Capital.]
[Effect: Aris Thorne receives +5% All Stats buff.]
The Voice from Above
Location: The Eastern Sky
The Pagoda-Ship stopped its descent at 10,000 feet. It hovered there, casting a shadow that plunged the entire mountain range into twilight.
A projection appeared in the sky—a massive hologram of an elderly man with a long white beard, wearing robes adorned with hydra patterns.
[Target Identified: Elder Kong]
[Rank: Grand Elder of the Myriad Beasts Mountain.]
[Level: 88 (Dao Severing - Mid Stage).]
The hologram looked down at Aris and the Dragon. It didn't look angry. It looked bored.
"I am Elder Kong," the voice boomed, rattling the teeth of every living thing in the region. "We have received the distress signal from Emissary Yun. We have also detected the illegal activation of the Divine Beasts."
The hologram's eyes narrowed.
"Hand over the Dragon. Hand over the Emissary. Submit to the seal. If you resist, we will initiate Protocol: Glass Planet."
Aris stepped forward on the Dragon's snout. He activated the Seal of the East, amplifying his voice with the authority of the Dragon.
"Elder Kong," Aris replied, his voice calm and unyielding. "You are trespassing in Sector 994. According to inter-planar law, this is my territory."
"Law?" Elder Kong laughed. "There is no law for ants. There is only the boot."
The Elder waved his hand.
"Release the First Wave. Clear the airspace."
The Swarm
The bay doors of the Pagoda-Ship opened.
It wasn't a laser volley. It was worse.
Thousands of black specks poured out of the ship like a swarm of locusts. As they got closer, the System identified them.
[Enemy Unit: Void-Bats.]
[Level: 40.]
[Number: 10,000.]
[Ability: Sonic Screech / Flesh-Eating.]
A black cloud of winged nightmares descended upon Aris. They were fast, vicious, and hungry. Ten thousand Level 40 monsters were enough to wipe out the entire Imperial Army in an hour.
"VERMIN," the Azure Dragon hissed. "SHALL I BURN THEM?"
"No," Aris smiled. "You are the King. Kings don't fight foot soldiers."
Aris reached into his pocket. He pulled out the White Rune.
"I choose you," Aris whispered. "God of War."
He tossed the Seal of the West into the air.
"BAIHU! FEAST!"
The White Flash
The White Rune exploded in mid-air.
A tear in reality opened, and out stepped Baihu, the White Tiger.
The Tiger stood on the empty air as if it were solid ground. It looked at the swarm of ten thousand Void-Bats approaching.
The Tiger yawned.
Then, it grinned.
"PREY."
The Tiger didn't roar. It simply... blurred.
[Skill: The Thousand-Cut Dance.]
Baihu vanished.
Suddenly, the sky became a grid of white lines. The Tiger moved so fast it existed in multiple places at once. Every time a white line intersected a black bat, the bat simply fell apart.
SLASH. SLASH. SLASH.
It was a massacre. It was art.
Within thirty seconds, a rain of blood and severed bat wings began to fall on the mountains below. The swarm of ten thousand was reduced to five thousand. Then two thousand.
The Tiger was a blender made of fur and hate.
The Escalation
On the bridge of the Pagoda-Ship, Elder Kong frowned.
"A White Tiger?" he stroked his beard. "A pure-blood? That alone is worth more than this entire planet. Capture it!"
He pressed a rune on his command chair.
"Deploy the Spirit-Catcher Net."
From the underside of the ship, four massive pylons extended. They fired beams of blue energy that intersected, forming a glowing net of containment field. The net descended rapidly, aiming to trap the Tiger.
The Tiger roared, slashing at the energy beams, but its claws—capable of cutting physical matter—bounced off the energy field.
"ARIS!" the Tiger snarled telepathically. "IT IS STICKY! I CANNOT CUT LIGHT!"
"I know," Aris said. "That's why we have a Tank."
Aris pulled out the Blue Rune.
"Xuanwu! Shield!"
He threw the Seal of the North.
A massive splash of Heavy Spirit-Mercury erupted in the sky beneath the Tiger. From the liquid metal, the Black Tortoise emerged, its shell expanding to the size of a mountain.
"GET... BEHIND... ME."
The Tortoise positioned itself between the Tiger and the Ship.
The Spirit-Catcher Net hit the Tortoise's shell.
BZZZZZT.
The energy net tried to contract, but the Tortoise was simply too heavy, too dense, and too magically inert. The net sizzled and snapped under the strain of trying to contain a creature that was conceptually "Immovable."
The Main Cannon
Elder Kong's face turned red.
"They blocked the Net? Fine. If we can't capture them, we wound them."
He shouted to his crew. "Charge the Main Star-Cannon. Target the Tortoise. Crack that shell!"
The spire of the Pagoda began to glow with a blinding white light. The energy reading spiked off the charts.
[Warning: High-Yield Energy Attack Detected.]
[Type: Stellar Beam.]
[Damage Estimate: Continental Plate Destruction.]
Aris stood on the Dragon, watching the cannon charge.
"He's going to fire," Aris said calmly.
"THE TORTOISE CANNOT TANK THAT," the Dragon warned. "THAT IS A DAO-SEVERING STRIKE. IT WILL PIERCE HIM."
"I know," Aris said.
He reached into his inventory. He didn't pull out a weapon. He pulled out the Key to the Underworld.
"We aren't going to block it."
Aris flew up, leaving the safety of the Dragon. He positioned himself directly in front of the Tortoise, floating tiny and insignificant against the backdrop of the massive enemy ship.
The Star-Cannon fired.
A beam of pure white destruction, ten meters wide, shot toward Aris.
Aris held out the Key.
"System. Open Portal. Destination: The Abyss."
He twisted the key in the air.
A small, black rift opened in front of him. It wasn't the grey gate of the Underworld. It was a tear into the Void Between Dimensions—the place where Aris's soul came from.
The beam hit the rift.
It didn't explode. It didn't bounce.
It was eaten.
The massive energy beam poured into the tiny keyhole and vanished, sent to a dimension where physics didn't exist.
The Silence
The cannon stopped firing. The energy was gone.
Aris stood there, smoke rising from the key in his hand. He looked up at the giant hologram of Elder Kong.
"Is that all?" Aris asked, his voice amplified by the System.
Elder Kong stared. The crew of the Pagoda-Ship stared.
They had just fired a planet-cracking beam, and a mortal had pocketed it.
"Who... are you?" Elder Kong whispered.
Aris adjusted his mask. The Wings of the Moderator spread wide, glitching with violet static.
"I am the Administrator of this Server," Aris announced. "And your account has been flagged for spam."
He pointed the Key at the ship.
"Now... get off my lawn."