The storm of power surged around them as they drew ever closer to the monsters in the master’s realm, battling atop the very home of the Ape King. Veyra, sect leader and master of the Ashen Flame Sect, was a whirlwind of fire and ash, clashing against the stone-reinforced form of the Ape King, whose blows shook the ground of the rift for miles.

  Yet, it was clear—even to the lords observing from a distance—that the sect leader was losing. Not because he was weak—no master could be called that—but because the wrath and strength of the Ape King, bolstered by the rift that was his domain, were insurmountable. Tunde could only guess how long the Ape King had been simmering in the miasmic Ethra of the rift. His gaze sought the artificers' relic, the unseen force that had hastened the king’s and his kin’s rise to such immense power.

  Frustratingly, he found nothing. The raw power radiating from the masters blinded his Ethra Sight, and the aura surrounding them was enough to flay the skin of any lord. Tunde barely managed to shield himself, Rui, and Zhu, who stayed close to him. Only Ifa, now revealed as a master, could withstand the overwhelming force. Ifa stared down the battling masters as his spear materialized in his hand.

  “This is no battle for lords,” he warned gravely.

  Tunde nodded. “And yet, I sense your presence will be needed. Observe, try to find the relic, but do not think to interfere,” Ifa instructed before launching himself toward the masters.

  The Ape King sensed the elder’s approach. With a burst of power, he broke away from Veyra, floating backward as his injuries rapidly healed.

  “What is this?” the Ape King mocked in feigned outrage. “I thought you humans were honorable. Would you ambush me?” he added with a laugh.

  “Peace, Ape King. I believe we have been played against one another,” Ifa replied calmly.

  Tunde found it bitterly ironic. Here they were, on the verge of settling a fight between humans and true beasts—a term he constantly had to remind himself of. The Ape King was no mere rift monster. In fact, he and his people had cleared the rift of its original inhabitants. Drifting carefully below alongside Rui and Zhu, who held their breaths, Tunde watched the assembled masters converse tersely.

  “More lies!” the Ape King roared. “I trusted your kind once before. I helped you cleanse this rift, Veyra, and yet you took the one thing I treasured most in all existence.” The king’s fists clenched, and the ground beneath them began to heave with earth Ethra, roiling as though a giant beast stirred below the surface.

  “Again, I tell you, we were both betrayed!” Veyra snapped, irritation flaring in his eyes.

  The sect leader’s pitch-black blade ignited with gray flames as ash swirled around it. Ifa’s eyes widened.

  “Then you are a fool to seek forgiveness at my hands!” the Ape King retorted, surging forward. Ifa’s spear intercepted him, flashing through the air with a technique so fast that Tunde could barely follow it, even with his Ethra Sight.

  The raw power of the attack resonated within Tunde, awakening the force aspect of his frame. The false skies above the rift rumbled, drawing the Ape King’s attention. The king barely evaded Veyra’s retaliatory strike—a flame-wreathed blade—slapping it aside with an aura-covered fist before turning his gaze to Tunde.

  Tunde couldn’t explain the feeling that followed, nor would he wish it on anyone else. The full gaze of a master fell upon him, coupled with Heaven’s Crucible descending once more. The fury of it shook his very spirit. The Ape King’s eyes widened as Tunde’s instincts screamed at him.

  Without hesitation, he summoned the axe the Forgemaster had given him. Channeling the Crucible’s power into the weapon, he felt his relic siphon its share of the energy, feeding greedily. In the same moment, he swung the axe downward, pouring his most destructive technique into the strike.

  Empty silence clashed with the Ape King’s fist as the king closed the distance in a split second. The king’s aura overwhelmed Tunde’s, locking his body completely.

  “They took my child. Now I take theirs,” the Ape King snarled.

  Ifa was suddenly there, his spear driving into the king’s shoulder. The king grinned maliciously at the elder. Tunde would hardly remember the order of events that followed, but the power swelled and swelled, ripping through him. He poured his entire will into protecting his core, layering it under shields of aura.

  The air cracked behind him, bending inward until it shattered with an explosive sound. Tunde was hurled backward, the force tearing through the air. His axe shattered, unable to withstand the overwhelming power of the clash.

  Pain consumed him. His spirit screamed. Bones shattered in one fluid motion, puncturing something vital. Blood spilled from his lips as his sight faded, and darkness swallowed him.

  *******************************************************

  Ifa watched Tunde’s body tear through the air, propelled at blinding speed. Rage burned through him like molten fire as he gripped his spear tightly, channeling Ethra into it. The Ape King, undeterred, swatted Zhu aside. The Ethralite had charged him with a scream of pure fury, no doubt feeling the agony Tunde had endured in those fleeting seconds before being hurled away like a stone skipping across a pond.

  Tunde had to live. Ifa forced himself to believe it—the Dark Fist was alive. He had to be. Tunde was the last of his line, the only one who could carry on the Seekers’ legacy. He was chosen.

  Veyra shielded his daughter, stepping between her and the chaos. Ifa yanked his spear free, formations blossoming across the Ape King’s body as he drove them into place. The king’s aura lashed out in defiance, struggling to rip the bindings from his form—a futile effort against the elder’s mastery.

  “Heavy,” Ifa commanded, the single word resonating with authority as the Ape King’s body plummeted to the ground below, forced down by the power of the formations. Talisman after talisman appeared in Ifa’s hands as his fury burned through him, molten and unrelenting.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Above, Veyra unleashed his next technique, a massive feline-shaped construct blazing with the full force of his authority. It streaked through the air, slamming into the Ape King with unrelenting ferocity. Below, a wall of crystal and stone heaved into existence, shielding the king and absorbing much of the impact. Blood spilled from his mouth, yet the Ape King laughed, his voice echoing with malevolence.

  “Do you see how it feels?” he roared, spitting blood with every word.

  Mei. It had to be Mei, the vice sect leader. There was no one else who could have orchestrated such a betrayal. Blinding rage flared within Ifa as he realized the depths of her treachery, and his fury turned on Veyra. How could the sect leader have allowed this? How could he have been so powerless to stop the machinations of his would-be wife?

  Ifa grabbed Rui, who was gasping for breath, panic etched across her face. Zhu, his human guise cracking and leaking Ethra, hobbled toward them, his body barely holding together. Ifa pulled a Highlord healing elixir from his pouch, pressing it into Rui’s trembling hands.

  “Get to Tunde,” he ordered, voice sharp and unwavering. He swallowed his rage, forcing himself to focus. “See if he’s alive. He will be alive. Give him this and get to safety. Go!”

  Rui nodded, determination replacing the fear in her eyes as she turned to flee. Ifa turned to Zhu, nodding solemnly at the creature.

  “You did well, Zhu. Now go. He needs you more than I do,” he said firmly. Zhu nodded back, struggling but determined, as Rui helped him away from the battlefield.

  The landscape was a smoldering wasteland of charred bodies and cratered earth. Ifa landed beside Veyra; his gaze fixed on the Ape King. The king’s form was changing, his body entombing itself within a growing puppet of stone and crystal, each fragment bristling with deadly Ethra. The puppet expanded, towering above the ruined rift.

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” Veyra murmured, his domain pressing heavily on the Rift Domain of the Ape King.

  Ifa leveled his spear at the massive figure. “We kill it,” he declared, his voice cutting through the tension like a blade.

  He triggered a hidden array beneath his feet, the formation blazing to life with incomprehensible runes. The rift itself shuddered in response as Ifa’s technique turned the Rift’s Ethra against itself. Explosions ripped through the air, tearing across the battlefield in a chain reaction of destruction.

  “Agreed. This has gone on long enough,” Veyra replied grimly.

  Ethra and essence flames flared around Ifa’s spear, the inscriptions etched into the weapon glowing with searing intensity. Veyra’s blade ignited with equal fervor, the gray flames of his authority blazing brighter than ever. The two masters launched themselves toward the Ape King’s growing puppet form, their combined power trailing behind them like a comet.

  Above, the Ape King retaliated. Giant shards of rock and crystal rained down at terrifying speeds, his puppet body shedding the corpses of the dead as it moved. Each shard struck with devastating force, threatening to crush everything in their path. Ifa and Veyra surged forward, their weapons blazing, ready to end the battle once and for all.

  *********************************************

  Rui found Tunde’s body within the wreckage at the entrance of the rift itself, near the crackling line of power that served as the shifting pathway. The rift was consuming more and more of the dark forest, its edges expanding steadily. Even now, she realized it had grown larger, devouring entire swathes of what had once been the battlefield where they had fought the king’s forces.

  There he lay, a broken mess—limbs bent at unnatural angles. She choked back a sob. Zhu, the strange creature, landed next to her, grabbing the elixir from her trembling hand and moving closer to Tunde. As Rui stepped forward, she hissed at Zhu to be careful, but he ignored her. With deliberate movements, Zhu poured the entire Highlord elixir down Tunde’s bloodied face.

  Rui wanted to stop him, to tell him it was hopeless. Tunde might as well have been dead. No matter how powerful she’d known him to be, he had taken the full force of a master’s attack. The fact that his body was even intact was a miracle. But then she heard it—a faint, rattling breath. Her eyes widened in disbelief as Tunde’s broken bones began to snap and reset themselves audibly. Pressing a hand to his chest, she felt his heart pounding forcefully. The residual power of Heaven’s Crucible, she realized—it must have lingered within him after he drew the Ape King’s fury. It was restoring his body.

  She didn’t know what to call it. Luck? Fortune? It felt like both. The timing of his advancement, coinciding with the blow, had given him a slim chance to survive. And somehow, he’d seized it. Rui’s envy flickered briefly, but as she looked at his battered, bloodied form, her pity overpowered it.

  Tunde’s hands and legs straightened as his body repaired itself. His eyes snapped open, and he coughed violently, blood spilling from his lips. Then, a bloodcurdling scream tore from his throat. Zhu acted quickly, grabbing Tunde’s still-twitching body and dragging him out of the rift, with Rui close behind.

  The rift deposited them at the outskirts of the city, near the southern mountain. Rui stumbled to a halt, her eyes widening in shock. The city of Ashhaven lay before them, consumed by flames. Smoke billowed into the sky in thick, black columns, the inferno stretching as far as the eye could see.

  Her heart sank. She already knew what had happened. Her mother—Mei. She had escaped. And now, her wrath had fallen on Ashhaven itself.

  Tunde’s groans and labored, torturous breaths drew her attention. She turned to him as he fumbled with a waterskin, its contents radiating raw, potent energy. Rui wondered at its origins—what kind of power it held. As an emissary of the Talahan Clan, Tunde had access to immense resources. Surely, his master must have provided him with something to ensure his survival.

  Her father had always described the clan as pragmatic, even ruthless, but Rui refused to believe they would discard someone as capable as Tunde so easily. Watching him now, bloody yet determined, she felt a flicker of admiration.

  With Zhu’s help, Tunde struggled to his feet. He nodded his thanks to the creature, who steadied him.

  “You need to rest, brother,” Zhu said, his voice calm but firm.

  Rui’s gaze lingered on Zhu. Though he looked human, his crystalline skin, antennae-like appendages, and moss-green hair gave him an otherworldly appearance. He was something exotic, perhaps as close to a true beast as one could be.

  “I can’t rest. Not now,” Tunde coughed, spitting blood and rinsing his mouth. “I need to find the others.”

  “You survived a master’s blow. Not many lords can boast of that,” Rui remarked.

  “Mere luck,” Tunde replied curtly, though his eyes suggested he knew she didn’t believe him.

  “Still, I’m not sure you’re in any state to—” Rui began, but stopped as Tunde produced a staff with a blade at its tip.

  “My friends need me,” he said simply.

  “We’ll have to get through that first,” Zhu pointed out, gesturing toward the chaos of the burning city ahead.

  “The vice sect leader,” Tunde growled, pure rage dripping from his words.

  Rui flinched at the mention. It pained her to acknowledge the truth. This wasn’t the mother she had once known—though, in truth, she had hardly known Mei at all. Mei had always been the vice sect leader first, and a mother second.

  But the people of Ashhaven didn’t deserve this. No one deserved it.

  “I can feel them faintly,” Zhu said, his antennae twitching as he pointed toward the northern mountain. “That’s where they are.”

  Rui nodded. “If anywhere is remotely safe, it would be there.”

  “Except that’s exactly where she’ll be,” Tunde said, his voice low and bitter.

  Rui winced, her scythe appearing in her hand. “Indeed. And I fear my mother’s plan is far from over.”

  “What do you mean?” Tunde asked, his expression hardening. Rui hesitated, carefully choosing her words.

  “Father believed she had a more sinister plan—something he hadn’t fully uncovered. I think that’s what she’s gone to complete. Her ultimate goal for Ashhaven,” she explained.

  “And it involves the offspring of the Ape King, no doubt,” Zhu added grimly.

  Tunde straightened to his full height; his gaze resolute. “Then let us go discover what that plan is.”