The Void Monsters' corpses were everywhere.
Five thousand bodies littered the island in various states of dissolution. Extracting them one by one would take hours—Aisha estimated three, which was time they couldn't afford during a seven-day event.
"Leave the corpses to the soldiers," Essim decided. "Our priority is repairs and towers. I want two hundred defence towers operational before the next wave."
"Brother," Aisha said, "three group members have already built teleportation portals. They're asking for our Portal ID."
"Set it up. Handle the connections."
She nodded and went to work, leaving Essim to investigate the Rock Island.
• • •
Up close, the Rock Island was deeply unsettling. Its surface was rough grey stone, devoid of soil or vegetation—nothing organic, nothing alive. Every twenty metres, a three-metre-wide hole gaped in the surface like a wound. Essim descended into the nearest one.
The passage was dark and slick. His torch—a simple energy-crystal-powered rod—illuminated walls of rough stone coated in viscous slime that stank of rotting fish. Torn cocoons hung from the walls and ceiling, each one large enough to hold a human, their membranes ripped open from the inside. Whatever had gestated in them was now dead on the city streets above.
He pressed deeper. The passages forked and merged, a labyrinth of tunnels all leading inward. Ten minutes of careful navigation brought him to the island's core.
The central chamber was small—perhaps fifteen metres across—and dominated by a single object: a cracked black orb, hovering half a metre above the stone floor. It pulsed with a slow, irregular light, like a dying heartbeat.
[Alpha Orb]
Remaining Energy: 92
No other information. No options to take control or absorb. Unlike a Ruler Orb, this one offered nothing but its energy reading.
As Essim watched, the number ticked down. 92 to 91.
It's draining. The Rock Island is drawing power from this orb. If I destroy it—
He didn't finish the thought. He swung the Divine Sword.
[Destroyed Alpha Orb: EXP +91]
The orb shattered. And the island screamed.
Not a sound—a vibration. The stone beneath his feet bucked violently, and a deep, grinding rumble filled the tunnels. Cracks raced along the walls. Chunks of ceiling collapsed in clouds of dust.
"Damn it—"
Essim sprinted. The passage behind him was collapsing, stone slabs crashing down in sequence like dominoes. He ran with every point of Agility he possessed, his Cloud Shoes gripping the slick floor, the Divine Sword casting golden light ahead of him.
He burst from the tunnel mouth just as the entrance collapsed. Behind him, the entire Rock Island groaned and began to disintegrate, its mass crumbling from the inside out, stones tumbling into the void below in a cascade of dust and thunder.
Essim stood on the edge of his own island, breathing hard, watching the Rock Island die.
Experience from destruction,
he thought, his mind already calculating. If an orb at 92 energy gave 91 experience, what would a full one give? And more importantly—could he reach the core faster next time?
"Brother!" Aisha's voice, sharp with alarm, reached him from the Main Hall's balcony. "What did you do?"
"Research," he called back. "I'll explain later."
He stared at the dissipating cloud of dust where the Rock Island had been. The event had six days and twenty-three hours remaining. More Rock Islands would come. And now he knew how to kill them faster.
The drop into the tunnel was steeper than expected — nearly vertical for the first three metres before levelling into a downward slope. The walls were slick with a viscous substance that resembled mucus, pale green and faintly luminescent. Every twenty metres, the passage widened into small chambers where torn cocoons hung from the ceiling, their membranes crusted with dried slime. Each cocoon was large enough to hold a human-sized creature. The smell was extraordinary — a wet, organic reek that lodged in the back of his throat.
He pressed deeper, navigating forks and merges, a labyrinth that seemed designed to disorient. But all paths led inward, and after ten minutes of careful navigation, he found the core.
The aftermath of the Rock Island's destruction was visible from the main island for hours — a slowly dissipating cloud of dust and stone fragments, drifting through the cloud sea like the ghost of the island it had been. Several of Essim's soldiers stood at the perimeter wall, watching the debris settle, their expressions a mix of awe and unease.
Aisha, when she finally got a full explanation, was equal parts impressed and exasperated.
"You could have been killed," she said.
"But I wasn't," Essim replied.
"That's not the reassurance you think it is."
She was right, of course. But the data he'd gathered was invaluable. Alpha Orbs were the heart of Rock Islands. Destroy the heart, and the body collapsed. The only question was whether the next orb would be worth the risk of what came before it.