Soilandor, groaning, lifted his head with difficulty.
Dust cracked off his chin and forehead, exposing the glowing hieroglyphs etched into his skeletal face. Yet despite his condition—his armor in shambles, his limbs twisted at odd angles—he grinned.
"How... did you do that?" Soilandor wheezed, voice thin and ancient, like wind whispering through a crypt.
Elius wiped a streak of blood off his chin and replied with an offhand shrug, "It’s a martial skill I learned inside this dinsional rift. The system assigned it to Monkaar."
Soilandor blinked. "System...? What—what are you talking about, mortal?"
Elius didn’t answer that.
There was no point explaining sothing Soilandor could never understand.
"You’ll pay for this... pay dearly..." Soilandor growled, trying to force his body to dematerialize, to retreat into the grains of sand.
But Elius stepped on his chest with enough weight to grind bones.
"Thinking of escaping?" he said coldly, pressing down harder. "You’re not slipping back into the desert, Soilandor."
The mummy spat sand.
"Fool! If you kill here, your friend will die too!"
Elius narrowed his eyes. "What friend?"
Soilandor chuckled, coughing dry sand, and then his voice turned low and malicious.
"Your sidekick. The first one to summon , Jiro!"
Elius froze.
Soilandor continued, grinning with withered teeth. "You really don’t understand the nature of this dinsional rift, do you? This wasn’t just a test of strength. It was a sealing chamber. Yes, when your sidekick Jiro summoned, this chamber now beca mine.
"Now and earlier, every creature who steps into my territory becos bound to . I did created the rule. This sand man—his vocal resonance excited the curse markings inside the entrance. That resonance connected to the dinsional rift’s ’spine.’ A spine I control."
He raised one twitching, sand-wrapped hand and motioned vaguely at the cracked landscape around them.
"Through the walls of this world, I spread my reach. Through his voice, he sang himself into my web. I tied his life thread to the veins of my soul connected to this place. So long as I live... he lives. But if I die... the thread collapses. His body will implode like crushed glass. You’ll return to find a pool of blood and burnt vocal cords."
Soilandor’s eyes glimred with malicious joy.
"I made it so... in case of intruders. So I’d always have a bargaining chip. You should feel honored. Your ally was strong enough to be tied as my failsafe."
Elius slowly absorbed the information, frowning slightly. "So his body is still at the entrance... unconscious."
Soilandor nodded proudly. "Still alive... for now."
Elius’ voice dropped low. "But not for long."
Soilandor’s smile vanished.
"You wouldn’t... you’d let him die?"
Inside Elius’ mind, a storm brewed. Killing Soilandor ant sacrificing Monkaar. It also ant ending a deadly threat that might return stronger soday. Sparing Soilandor was a gamble, but...
He took a step back and let his foot off the mummy’s chest.
"Don’t worry," Elius said, voice cold and flat. "I will spare your life."
Soilandor’s face twisted from pain to sudden glee.
"Oh-ho? So the fearless one has a soft spot after all?" he rasped. "I knew it. Underneath all that bravado... you’re weak where it counts. You couldn’t live with a sidekick’s death on your conscience. Mortals—always so emotional. You act like invincible, but deep down, you still think like n."
He coughed and laughed at the sa ti.
"Ha... ha... how poetic! You stand at the height of victory, yet hesitate because of feelings. I’ve seen it a thousand tis. Heroes pulling back the killing blow. Villains spared for sentint. You’re no different."
He turned his head and spat a chunk of blackened sand. "You think this is over? Spare , and I’ll return. I’ll rebuild. I’ll consu cities in sand and bone. You won’t even know it was until it’s too late. And you’ll always wonder... should I have killed him?"
Soilandor’s voice was rising now, arrogant and loud.
"Your rcy is your flaw, mortal! You showed your heart—and now I’ll carve it open next ti. I’ll rip that sentint out and—"
Elius laughed.
The suddenness of it made Soilandor choke on his next sentence.
It wasn’t a joyous laugh. It wasn’t friendly or proud. It was deep. Ominous. A laugh that seed to echo from sowhere beneath the earth.
"You’re right," Elius said, grinning.
But then the grin lted.
His gaze turned sharp. Cold. Murderous.
"But did I say I wouldn’t do anything to you?"
Soilandor’s face froze. "What?"
"I just said I would spare your life and you think I’ll let you go?" Elius said. "I spared your life because I want to try sothing."
He leaned down. His fingers glowing faintly, he pushed his hand into the sand-slick flesh of Soilandor’s abdon.
"Wait—what are you—!?"
Sothing wriggled.
Sothing alive.
Soilandor’s body jolted.
A cold squirming pain erupted in his gut, like a hundred tiny claws digging inward.
"What is this?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO !?" he scread, twisting violently, trying to shake the sensation off.
Elius leaned back up and dusted his hands.
"It’s called Earth Powering Gu," he said calmly.
The wind fell silent.
"It’s a martial skill I got from this dinsional rift that is made for, probably for Balkan..."
Soilandor started to convulse. His mouth opened in a silent scream.
"Do you want to know more about it?"
Soilandor’s scream shattered the silence like a jagged dagger to the eardrums.
His back arched. His limbs trembled violently. His hands clawed the air as if trying to pull sothing—anything—out of his own body. But there was nothing to pull. Nothing he could reach.
Sothing had been planted inside him. And it was growing.
Elius stood still, watching with a calm, almost clinical look in his eyes. His sweat-drenched clothes clung to his lean fra, but his posture was relaxed. His breathing steady. His eyes... glowing faintly with an inner power.
A slow, amused laugh rolled from his lips.
"Alright," he said, cracking his knuckles. "Looks like you really want to know more. Fine. I’ll explain."
Soilandor scread again, louder, shaking like a man on fire.
Elius took a step forward, eyes glinting with malicious mirth.
"The Earth Powering Gu—it’s not just so parasite," he began. "It’s a legacy. A cursed treasure. A creation born out of the deepest hatred a demonic cultivator ever had toward the Earth Elent."
He circled Soilandor slowly as he continued.
"You see, long ago, in a dark continent buried beneath ruins, a cultivator nad Sui-Zhen the Earth Butcher walked the world. He was once a great healer... until the Earth rejected him. Betrayed by a sect that used geomancy to entrap and nearly kill him. They said he was too dangerous. Too ambitious. Too demonic."
Elius crouched beside the twitching body of Soilandor, whose screams had turned to a raspy whimper.
"So Sui-Zhen crafted the Gu. Not an insect in the traditional sense, but a spiritual construct shaped through sacrificial blood rituals and forbidden soul-tempering techniques. It requires three ingredients: the soul of a living elental creature, the marrow of an Earth Dragon, and the seed of an Earth Vein—a living pulse of elental force beneath the world."
He raised a finger, tracing a glowing rune in the air.
"And then, when those three are refined into one, it becos the Earth Powering Gu. Its sole purpose?"
He tapped his own chest with a sinister smile.
"To store Earth energy from the host and funnel it... into ."
Soilandor cried out in agony, his limbs locking up.
"Who’s the host?" Elius asked mockingly, then pointed both thumbs toward himself. "You. It’s you, by the way. Lucky you."
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