## Liam's Perspective
"You failed." Phoebe's words hung in the air like a death sentence.
I stood there, my body still trembling from the failed breakthrough attempt. The Ice Heart's power had not been enough. So close, yet ultimately unreachable.
"I'm sorry," I said, the admission burning my throat. "The Military Marquis realm... I couldn't break through."
Phoebe's face fell. The hope that had been there monts ago vanished like morning dew under a harsh sun.
A slow clap echoed through the chamber.
"How utterly pathetic," Josiah Hale's voice dripped with mockery as he stepped forward. "The great Liam Knight, failing when it matters most."
His eyes glead with cruel satisfaction. I could feel his aura now—overwhelming and suffocating. A true Military Marquis, worlds apart from my Military General realm.
"I wondered why you seed weaker than reported," Josiah continued, circling like a predator. "Now I know. All that bravado, and you couldn't even break through when your life depended on it."
I straightened my back, refusing to cower. "I don't need your realm to defeat you."
"Bold words from a dead man." Josiah's smile was cold. "Mr. Ashworth has withdrawn his protection. Your ti is up."
My heart skipped a beat. Michael Ashworth had been shielding ?
Before I could process this revelation, Josiah attacked. His palm thrust forward, trailing golden energy.
I activated the Absolute Beginning Sacred Fist technique, eting his attack head-on. Our energies collided with a thunderous boom.
Pain shot up my arm. I skidded backward, my feet carving trenches in the stone floor.
"Is that all?" Josiah laughed. "The famous technique of the Heavenly Sect?"
I wiped blood from my mouth. "I'm just warming up."
I launched myself at him, fists glowing with concentrated spiritual energy. My punches were perfect—each one aid at vital points, each delivered with maximum power.
None of them landed.
Josiah moved like water, effortlessly flowing around my attacks. His counterattack ca without warning—a single finger strike to my chest.
The impact felt like being hit by a mountain. I crashed through a pillar, stone fragnts raining down around .
"Liam!" Phoebe cried out.
I forced myself up, ignoring the stabbing pain in my ribs. "Stay back!"
Josiah approached slowly. "I could have killed you with that strike. But where's the fun in that?"
I spat blood. "You talk too much."
His eyes narrowed. "Then let speak with my fists."
What followed wasn't a fight—it was a slaughter. Each of my techniques was countered before I could complete it. Every defense was shattered like glass.
I unleashed the Nine Dragons Palm Strike. Josiah dispersed it with a casual wave.
I activated the Mountain Crushing Fist. He caught it with two fingers.
I even risked the forbidden Venerable Fifth Mountain technique, draining my reserves for a desperate attack.
Josiah simply sidestepped it, then drove his palm into my back.
"ARGH!" I scread as I felt sothing crack inside .
I collapsed to my knees, struggling to breathe.
"Get up," Josiah commanded. "Show this strength everyone fears."
I staggered to my feet, summoning every ounce of willpower. Blood stread from my nose and mouth. My vision blurred.
I threw myself at him one more ti.
This ti, his palm strike hit directly in the chest.
The world went white with pain. I felt myself flying through the air, then crashing through a wall. Stone and timber collapsed around .
"How disappointing," Josiah's voice reached through the haze of pain. "I expected more from the man who's been causing such trouble." Need character sheets and glossaries? Visit *.
I tried to stand but couldn't. My body wouldn't respond.
"Stay down, Liam!" Phoebe shouted from sowhere distant. "Please!"
But I couldn't. I crawled from the rubble, every movent agony. Blood dripped from a dozen wounds.
Josiah raised an eyebrow. "Impressive resilience, at least."
With what felt like my last strength, I rose to my feet.
"You should be dead," Josiah observed, genuine surprise in his voice.
"Not... yet..." I gasped.
Anger flashed across his face. "Then I'll redy that."
He moved faster than my eyes could track. His palm ca straight for my heart—a killing blow.
At the last possible mont, I twisted, activating the Venerable Fifth Mountain technique one final ti. The blow glanced off my shoulder instead of piercing my heart.
My collarbone shattered on impact.
Josiah's eyes widened. "You dodged that?"
I couldn't answer. The pain was too great.
His surprise quickly turned to rage. "Enough gas!"
He grabbed by the throat and slamd into the ground. The impact cracked the stone beneath us.
"Now you die," he snarled, his fingers forming a claw.
Blood-red light gathered at his fingertips. He struck with precision, jabbing at specific acupoints across my body.
Each strike felt like a burning needle being driven into my core. I couldn't even scream.
"I'm sealing your spiritual power," Josiah explained calmly. "Every pathway, every ridian. You'll die as you lived before your awakening—powerless and pathetic."
The red light spread through my body like poison. I felt my connection to my spiritual energy weaken, then vanish entirely.
Defenseless. Helpless. Just as I'd been before all of this began.
Josiah stepped back, admiring his work. "How does it feel, Liam Knight? To have everything stripped away again?"
I couldn't answer. My mouth filled with blood.
"No clever retort?" He kicked in the ribs, flipping onto my back. "No miraculous technique to save you now?"
Another kick. Then another. Each impact sent fresh waves of agony through my broken body.
Through swollen eyes, I saw Phoebe being restrained by two of Josiah's disciples. Her face streaked with tears.
"I'm sorry," I thought, unable to speak the words. "I'm sorry I failed you all."
Josiah grabbed my hair, lifting my head. "Any last words for Isabelle Ashworth? I'll be sure to tell her how pathetically you died."
Isabelle. Her na brought a fresh surge of despair. I'd failed her most of all.
"Nothing?" Josiah dropped my head back to the stone. "Disappointing to the end."
He raised his foot above my chest. "This will crush your heart. A rciful end, all things considered."
As consciousness began to fade, sothing strange happened. In the darkness of my mind, I saw patterns forming. Energy pathways I'd never noticed before. The barrier to the Military Marquis realm appeared not as an obstacle to overco, but as a transition to embrace.
All this ti, I'd been trying to break through the barrier. But that wasn't the way.
"I get it," I thought, clarity washing over like a wave. "I know how to step into the Military Marquis realm...!"
Josiah's foot descended toward my chest.
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