The Obsidian Well Arena was no longer the neon-lit, cheering underground paradise it once was. Instead, it resembled the ripped-open belly of a colossal beast. Twisted steel bars, shattered glass and a purple, sulphurous mist gushed from the depths of the earth.
Aaryan knelt in the centre of the ruins, his right hand still trembling slightly. The forced construction of the 'Broken Fang' had almost exhausted his mental energy. The pendant had dimmed again, and the chilling aura it emitted pierced his chest like needles.
'Cough... cough... cough...'
From beneath the rubble not far away came Pau's weak cough. The usually quick-witted man was now struggling to crawl out, his mechanical prosthetic leg pinned down by a hydraulic cylinder.
"Hey kid… if you're still alive, pull me up," Pau yelled, his voice hoarse from the soot covering his mouth and throat. 'Those "underground landlords" have moved in. We have to get out of here before they start collecting rent!"
Aaryan staggered to his feet, but before he could reach Pau, a black shadow suddenly plummeted from the dust above and crashed down between them.
It was Balthazar.
The lord had lost his former elegance. His expensive silk robe was torn in many places, revealing countless ethereal interfaces on his spine that shimmered with an eerie red light. Even more chillingly, obsidian-like crystals had sprouted from the left side of his body and were spreading outwards with each breath. "Roar—!"
Three Demon Clan 'Bonebreakers' leapt out of the collapsed tunnel. They were incredibly fast, leaving scorched footprints in the ground with each leap. These monsters felt no pain, for they were creatures reconstructed from corrupted ether and resentment. "Balthazar! Are you insane? Your overload is over 80%!" Pau screamed in terror.
Balthazar ignored him, letting out a low, almost bestial laugh, before abruptly pulling a safety pin from his spine. Instantly, a thick, almost tangible black aether erupted from his body.
Instead of using ranged weapons, he charged directly at the three.
He didn't use any ranged weapons; he charged directly at the three 'Bonecrushers'.
It was the most primal and desperate form of combat that Aaryan had ever witnessed.
Balthazar was like a runaway comet. He plunged his crystalline left hand directly into the chest cavity of a Bonecrusher and let the monster's acidic blood scorch his skin. He didn't dodge its claws but traded blows. As a chunk of flesh was torn from his shoulder, he decapitated the monster with the black wave blade of his right hand.
"See that, Aaryan?" Balthazar laughed maniacally as he turned amidst the rain of blood, his eyes now completely crazed and crimson. 'This is the truth about the Demon Race! They aren't monsters; they are failures! Trash abandoned, trampled and crushed, and then forcibly glued back together by this damned Aetheric civilisation!'
Another Bonebreaker pounced on his back, its sharp teeth piercing the base of his mechanical wings. However, Balthazar grabbed the monster's jaw and tore it in two.
His fighting style was utterly chaotic, nothing but destruction. With each punch, the Aetheric circuits within him screamed as if on the verge of collapse. Aaryan stood frozen, sensing not power, but a bone-chilling silence in response to Balthazar's actions.
Through the resonance of his pendant, he seemed to hear broken words interspersed with the roars of the Demon Race: "Pain… Why… abandoned… light… so blinding…"
'These monsters are crying,' Aaryan murmured to himself. His vision blurred and he saw Balthazar's figure gradually merging with the monsters.
Balthazar was also seeking death; his suicidal fighting style seemed to be a way of confirming through pain that he was still 'human', and not a living dead being gradually being assimilated by the obsidian.
"Stop looking, kid!" Pau finally broke free from his restraints, limping over and grabbing Aaryan's arm. 'He's completely overloaded! Now all he sees is killing. If you don't leave, you'll be the next one torn apart.'
Just as the two were preparing to retreat, a demonic 'Devourer', three times the size of the Bonebreaker, emerged from the rubble. Its abdomen was covered in suckers and it was frantically absorbing the surrounding energy.
Having absorbed the pure ether that Aaryan had previously unleashed, patterns identical to those on Aaryan's pendant developed on the monster's surface.
It let out a piercing cry and spewed a purple etheric ray from its mouth that headed straight for Balthazar, who was slumped on the ground, panting heavily.
'Get out of the way!'
As if possessed, Aaryan rushed forward, his 'Constructor' instincts reactivated. Instead of attempting to retaliate, he pressed his hands to the ground and forcibly distorted the local flow of ether, creating a semi-transparent ether deflection shield in front of Balthazar. Purple rays struck the shield, erupting in blinding light.
'Who told you to meddle?' Balthazar stood up, his left eye completely covered by a crystal, his voice hoarse as sandpaper. "You hothouse flower don't understand the value of despair!"
He pushed Aaryan aside and gathered his last bit of black energy in his right hand, preparing for self-destruction.
'This isn't value; this is self-harm!' Aaryan stood in front of him, his gaze so resolute that Balthazar was momentarily stunned. 'If this is the "answer" you offer me, then I refuse to accept it!' Just as the three of them were locked in a chaotic battle, a golden beam of light suddenly cleaved through the thick clouds above the arena.
It was a purifying beam from the 'Holy Blood Council', high above the Maya District.
'Illegal ethereal resonance and demonic invasion detected. Activating Cleanup Protocol 7.'
An emotionless female voice echoed in the sky.
Aaryan looked up and saw several ornately painted airships bearing the winged insignia of the Celestial Demon Clan slowly descending. Below them hung 'Silver Crystal Capture Nets', which were specifically designed to capture members of the Demonic Race.
'Damn it! It's the Holy Blood Council's enforcement team.' Pau's face instantly paled. 'If they detect the Constructor's aura on you, we'll be instantly reduced to elementary particles!'
Directly in front of the airships, a white-haired girl stood silently on the bow of the lead ship, cradling a massive rune-wrapped greatsword. Her icy blue eyes were fixed on Aaryan below.
'Found you, remnant of the Primal Constructors.'
As the emotionless female voice faded, the 'Silver Crystal Capture Net', glowing like a spider's web, enveloped the entire arena with a deafening roar.
Woven from high-purity etheric suppression crystals, this capture net was a deadly poison to the Demon Race. The first 'Bone Crushers' to touch the silver net let out shrill screams and began to vaporise the moment they came into contact with the silver light, emitting thick black smoke.
'Clear the entire force, leave no survivors.'
Standing at the bow of the Silver Moon, the white-haired girl slowly drew her greatsword from her back. Named "Moon Phase", the sword flowed with a mercury-like texture and was a sacred artefact forged specifically for hunting illegal etheric carriers.
'Aaryan, quickly hide behind that obsidian slab!' Pau pulled Aaryan behind an obsidian slab and lunged towards a massive piece of architectural debris.
The edge of the Silver Crystal Net grazed Balthazar's body. The already overloaded lord let out a muffled groan. Under the silver light, dense cracks appeared on the newly formed obsidian crystals on his left side.
"The lackeys of the Holy Blood Council…" Balthazar spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with shattered crystals. His eyes were filled with madness. 'You still love performing saintly descents in the garbage heap.' Order's intervention did not calm the situation; instead, it stirred the Demon Clan's deepest ferocity.
The 'Devourer', which had been absorbing dissipated energy, sensed the threat of death. Its abdominal suckers suddenly reversed, ejecting all the unstable etheric energy it had absorbed at once.
Boom!
A purplish-black shockwave rippled through the air, tearing a gap in the silver crystal net. More roars erupted from the depths of the earth. Hundreds of Demon Clan larvae surged to the surface through the gap like a tide. No longer searching for food, they frantically attacked everything living within their sight, including the fully armed law enforcement officers.
'Due to excessive environmental complexity, protocol upgrade.'
Silver Moon remained expressionless as she leapt from the warship, her greatsword, Moon Phase, tracing a perfect arc in the air.
'Moonlight Slash!'
A near-liquid silver sword aura erupted, instantly slicing the demonic beings in front of her in two. However, as the sword aura passed the stone slab where Aaryan was hiding, it seemed to be drawn to something, abruptly changing direction and heading straight for Aaryan's heart. 'It's staring at me!' Aaryan felt an unprecedented sense of oppression.
The pendant burned hot with a yearning for the aura of its own kind and a repulsion of the aura of its natural enemy. Through his ethereal vision, Aaryan could see that Silver Moon's sword was not aimed at the monster, but at the 'Builder Core' within him.
At that moment, a fusion of Final Fantasy-like combat instincts and fantastical imagery flashed through his mind.
"If ether is water, I am the container; if ether is wind, I am the eye of the storm."
Aaryan closed his eyes and stopped suppressing the pendant's power. He extended his right hand and grabbed at the air. The previously chaotic purple energy of the demonic tribe was suddenly tamed by Aaryan. These resentful energies circled his arm at high speed, forming a constantly collapsing and reforming 'Shield of the Dead'.
The sword energy of 'Lunar Phase' struck the energy shield, producing a sound like shattering glass.
"Can it actually drive the demonic tribe's resentment directly?" Silver Moon's pupils contracted slightly. She landed lightly on the stone slab and looked down at Aaryan. 'This is no longer the skill of a builder; it is the mark of a fallen one.' 'He hasn't fallen yet because he hasn't experienced true darkness.'
Balthazar had appeared at Silver Moon's side at some point. His form was utterly terrifying: his entire left side had transformed into a black crystalline giant and the mechanical wings on his back were reduced to broken skeletons spewing sparks.
He charged towards the Silver Moon at near-self-destructive speed.
'Take this kid with you, Pau!' Balthazar's voice was broken and fragmented amidst the energy surge. "Go to Singularity '1969', find that old clock repairman and tell him that the creditor is dead but the interest hasn't been collected!"
Balthazar spread his arms, letting out a final roar. At that moment, the etheric engine within him exploded completely, black crystalline spikes radiating wildly outwards from him and creating a death zone between the massive demon race and the enforcement team.
"No!" Aaryan cried out, seeing Balthazar's life force fading rapidly.
"Go!" Pau dragged Aaryan into a hidden sewage pipe. The arena's dome finally gave way and, with repeated bombardment from the Holy Blood Council's airships, the entire obsidian structure began to collapse inwards.
In the billowing dust, Aaryan's last sight was of:
Silver Moon's greatsword was deeply embedded in Balthazar's crystalline chest. At that moment, Balthazar revealed a mocking smile. His right hand gripped the blade tightly and black crystals began to spread from the sword towards the girl's arm.
The last whisper of Balthazar resonated through the ether, lingering in Aaryan's ears. The sewage pipes were filled with a foul stench and stagnant water. Pau pulled the disoriented Aaryan through the narrow gaps in the pipes.
'We... we abandoned him.' Aaryan leaned against the damp pipe wall, panting heavily, his hands covered in fragments of Balthazar's black crystal.
'A man like him didn't want to live anymore.' Pau paused for a moment, his voice low. 'In the Maya district, when a person begins to shine, it's time for them to leave.'
Just as they were about to continue deeper into the pipe, a dim lantern suddenly lit up ahead.
An elderly man with a white beard, wearing greasy work clothes, was sitting on an abandoned etheric pressure tank, slowly repairing a huge bronze pendulum engraved with ancient Sanskrit.
'Has Balthazar, that renegade bastard, finally decided to send the key over?'
The old man looked up; his eyes had no irises, only two slowly turning gears.
The sewage pipes opened into an old-fashioned power room, which was concealed by a massive floodgate. The nauseating stench of rotting ether was replaced by the dry, musty smell of copper rust.
Cyrus, the old man, was still sitting beside the bronze pendulum. With each turn of the wrench in his hand, a low, timeless rhythm seemed to resonate through the air.
"Balthazar is dead, isn't he?" Cyrus didn't look up; his gear-shaped pupils reflected the dim light of the lantern. 'When that kid decided to crystallise that hand, he had already rehearsed this death countless times.'
'He... he forced himself to overload so we could leave.' Aaryan leaned against the cold cast-iron wall. The pendant on his chest was gradually settling, but the 'racial despair' he had sensed from Balthazar lingered like a persistent cloud.
'Tragedy is always a specialty of the Maya District.' Cyrus finally put down the wrench and stood up; his movements were as stiff as a machine without lubrication. 'But the debt he left you with isn't paid off yet. Take the pendant." Aaryan hesitated for a moment, then took off the pendant.
Cyrus placed it in the groove in the centre of the pendulum. Instantly, the lights in the power room went out and were replaced by thousands of blue light threads shooting out from the pendant. These threads intertwined and overlapped in the air to finally form a giant holographic structure that covered the entire underground space.
'This is...?' Pau was stunned, his mechanical eye darting around frantically. 'An underground etheric circuit map of the Maya District? No, what are these red dots?'
'They're pustules.' Cyrus's voice turned cold. 'To maintain the energy supply to the upper floating islands, the Holy Blood Council forcibly distorted the etheric flow in the lower levels. Those red dots are the 'critical points' where energy accumulates and compresses, ultimately leading to material mutation. The Demon Race is a curse that grew from these pustules."
Suddenly, the entire hologram began to fluctuate violently and a cold, red mark with a divine air of imposition appeared in the centre of the map.
'Warning: Unauthorised access to the 'Builder' has been detected. Lord Malakor's will has locked onto the target.' Just as the code was activated, the ceiling above the power room exploded.
The Demon Race 'Devourer', which had been shaken off, had tracked them here. Its bloodied and mangled body, scorched by the silver crystal net, emitted a terrifying purple light in the darkness. Countless tentacles climbed the walls, each frantically absorbing the pure energy overflowing from the hologram.
"It's evolving!" Pau cried out as he pulled out his short-circuit gun. However, the weak current felt like a mere tickle to the monster.
The 'Devourer' rapidly expanded and a pair of twisted wings made of bone and discarded cables sprouted from its back. It emitted a series of despairing polyphonic sounds — the combined cries of the thousands of slaves who had died in the mines.
"Aaryan! It wants the core code!' Cyrus tried to retrieve the pendant, but was struck by one of the monster's tentacles. Aaryan stared at the monster. In that moment, it was not fear that flashed through his mind, but the image of Balthazar's suicidal charge before his death.
If the Demon Race was born of despair, then the Constructors were there to put an end to it.
In that instant, the mystical energy within him and the science of ether were in perfect harmony. Instead of reaching for the pendant, he sat cross-legged in the void with his hands clasped together. All the etheric fluctuations transformed into visible waveforms in his sea of consciousness. He extended a finger and gently touched a point in the void — the 'zero point' where all energy circuits converged — but there was no explosion or bright light.
A ring of transparent ripples spread rapidly from the centre of Aaryan. Wherever they passed, all the violent etheric energy was instantly neutralised and returned to its original position. The roaring Devourer seemed to have been frozen in time. Its massive body disintegrated rapidly, like a sand painting, the instant the ripples touched it. It finally turned into a pool of withered ash, with no energy reaction.
The hall returned to deathly silence.
Aaryan opened his eyes. The purple-white light deep within his pupils had become even more intense, revealing a solemnity that made it difficult to look directly at him. 'You... what did you do?' Pau swallowed hard and took a step back instinctively. For a moment, he sensed an aura from Aaryan that was far more terrifying than Balthazar's.
'I just... turned off its noise.' Aaryan picked up the pendant wearily; the once scorching metal was now ice-cold.
Cyrus struggled to his feet and leaned against the wall. His eyes were filled with complex emotions as he looked at Aaryan.
"You opened Pandora's box, kid. From now on, you're not just a refugee in the Maya District anymore, but the Blood Council's number one enemy.'
'I don't care.' Aaryan looked at the ashes in his palm. 'I just want to know if my father detonated the core to destroy or save this place.'
'Then become stronger. Strong enough that Lord Malakor will tell you the answer himself.' Cyrus sat back down before the pendulum, his expression solemn. 'They're here.' The smoke from the arena ruins had not yet dissipated.
A colossal projection of Lord Malakor, leader of the Holy Blood Council and Iron-Blooded Judge of the Celestial Vein Demon Clan, descended upon the Maya District. The terrifying pressure, enough to halt even a Level 2 Aether Engine, forced all creatures within a ten-mile radius to their knees.
However, in the power room at the bottom of the abyss, Aaryan merely narrowed his eyes in the face of the soul-crushing search fluctuations.
Boom!
A purer, more domineering pressure emanating from ancient royalty surged upwards from the earth, tearing the sacred projection in the sky apart!
"Who?"
On the floating island, Malakor sat on his throne, his eyes snapping open. The ruby cup before him shattered instantly.
'Is an awakened dragon hidden in this filthy Maya District?'