A Spirit Realm. Now? My head spun with all the ways this could go sideways—trapped between dimensions, eaten alive, or worse. The possibilities scrolled through my mind like a highlight reel of horrible deaths.

  The sun hammered down from a clear sky, roughly matching Ark's time. My armor turned into a personal oven, but taking it off seemed like asking to die faster. Cass stood nearby, jaw welded shut, clearly wrestling panic into submission. I knew that look. Hell, I was wearing it too.

  Winchester shifted back into staff form with a metallic whisper, and Ted materialized beside me like a pissed-off genie.

  "Both of you, calm the fuck down." He jabbed a finger toward the treeline. "Look."

  We followed his gesture and—

  "What the hell?"

  Reality looked like someone had taken a knife to it. Chunks of Sylvarus—pristine marble floors, alabaster walls, even pieces of domed buildings—bled through the jungle like a fever dream. Everything dripped with moisture, as if the realm itself was sweating.

  "What's happening?" I muttered, jogging toward a patch of moss with a perfect square of marble growing through it like some architectural cancer.

  Ted scanned our surroundings, his expression almost confused, like he could sense it. "This realm's unstable. Or pissed off about being here. Something's holding it in place against its nature." He crouched, patting the alabaster stone. "Spirit Realms don't stick around—they're nomads. But this?" His voice dropped. "Something's anchoring it to the physical realm. Which shouldn't be fucking possible."

  "So we can get out?" Cass's voice cracked slightly.

  Ted nodded. "If we wait long enough, the whole thing'll dissipate. Problem is—" He met my eyes. "I wouldn't want to be inside when that happens."

  Relief flooded through me. "Thanks, Ted. Seriously."

  He waved it off. "Watching you two panic was pissing me off."

  The guttural crooning grew louder, accompanied by trees snapping like toothpicks. I extended Valor cautiously, spreading my aura thin enough that maybe—hopefully—the local monsters wouldn't notice.

  Mistake. Huge mistake.

  Dozens of creatures surrounded us. But something massive to our left had just stopped moving when it felt my aura, and I didn't sense hostility. These felt like mana beasts, not monsters hungry for human flesh.

  I turned left and nearly shit myself.

  A Komodo dragon the size of a jumbo jet was shouldering through trees like they were tall grass. It swiveled its massive head, examining us with intelligent, car-sized eyes. Thankfully, not glowing red.

  "Where is Dara?" The voice boomed from its direction, shaking leaves from branches. It took my brain a second to process actual words instead of prehistoric roaring.

  "Dara?" I exchanged glances with Cass. "Are you from Sylvarus?"

  "I am." The colossal reptile's tone carried centuries of patience.

  Relief hit like a drug. We weren't trapped in some pocket dimension about to blink out of existence. This was a lobby, or something like it.

  "We aren't sure where she is," I called out. "My spirit guardian says something's wrong with this realm."

  The dragon nodded slowly, a motion that probably registered on seismographs. "Something has. This beast-king will show you." It began retreating through the trees with surprising grace for something that belonged in a monster movie. "Follow."

  We did, keeping a respectful distance as it moved through the jungle like a living earthquake.

  "I am Gu Li," the reptile rumbled as we trailed behind. "Students visit me when they find themselves drawn to concepts of light."

  Cass shot me a look that screamed

  "Ben Crawford," I said. "Hopefully I'll be one of those students after this tournament. This is Ted."

  "How ya doin'?" Ted piped up. "You're a big fucker, ain't ya?"

  I winced hard enough to pull a muscle.

  "If circumstances were different, this beast-king might comment on your aura, Ben Crawford. Though you do not know me, it promises to protect me. I look forward to exploring this." Gu Li's voice carried the weight of someone who'd seen everything twice. He completely ignored Ted's typical charm.

  "Cassandra Winters," Cass introduced herself, then hesitated. "You’re… a Beast King?"

  "Ah, a Winters." Gu Li craned his massive head back toward her. "I knew an Astrid Winters when I was young, long before monarchy."

  "That's my mother." Cass's entire face lit up.

  "Please tell her I miss our games of Go." The ancient warmth in Gu Li's voice could have melted glaciers. “She was… ruthless.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself; she sure as fuck was.

  "I will!" The tension in the air evaporated like morning mist.

  "Love of mana beasts runs in the family?" I asked.

  She nodded. "My brothers and I grew up around them. Mom has this gift—like you and Red, but with every single creature she meets."

  I smiled. Ted sighed dramatically and vanished into my soul space, the implied

  hanging in the air like his personal motto.

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  Gu Li continued forward, careful but unstoppable. Trees bent and creaked under his bulk, some snapping with sounds like gunshots.

  The Sylvarus bleed-through grew more bizarre as we walked. Domed roofs floated in mid-air, attached to nothing. An entire stone bridge hung suspended in the sky like someone had forgotten to finish erasing it.

  "This can't be good," Cass muttered.

  "It is not," Gu Li confirmed. "The realm isn't just collapsing—it's being dissolved. There."

  He'd stopped. We hurried past his massive form and gawked at what we saw.

  "Holy shit."

  A steep slope led into a gorge where jagged runes hung suspended in a perfect circle, glowing with eerie white and violet light. They were unlike anything I'd ever seen—alien, wrong, giving off no discernible concepts even this close.

  "Please be careful," Gu Li rumbled from above. "I cannot approach those symbols. They consume spirit energy."

  Cass and I nodded, then carefully slid down the loose scree. My boots sent small avalanches of stone clattering ahead of us.

  As we neared the floating runes, something visceral churned in my gut. Not nausea—deeper. Like my soul itself was recoiling, recognizing these markings as utterly foul. I grimaced, studying one closely without touching.

  "Do you feel that?" I asked.

  She shook her head, puzzled. "Feel what?"

  "Like the core of my soul is projectile vomiting. These runes are the most disgusting thing I've ever been near."

  "That's... specific." She frowned. "I'm getting major creeps, but nothing like that."

  "Look." I pointed toward the center of the circular formation. Several runic rods, similar to Alexander's monster lures, were planted in the ground. But these displayed the same unsettling white and violet glyphs—and they were active.

  "Monster lures?" Cass squinted. "I'd only seen one before the other day."

  The glyphs formed a shimmering wall around the lures, making them impossible to reach without passing through.

  "Kid, I'm not getting much on what those are, but that stink you're picking up? That's the energy these runes are made of. Nasty shit, whatever it is."

  "Ted says the energy itself is what I'm detecting. Something unnatural." I relayed, studying the impossible symbols. "Weird they're not giving off concepts, right?"

  We glanced back at Gu Li, who watched us with the intensity of a worried parent.

  "He said they consume spirit energy," I murmured, mostly to Ted. "Not even sure what that means."

  Valor wasn't screaming danger when I held my hand toward the rune wall. Finally, I decided. Storing my gauntlet, I reached out and poked one symbol.

  Instead of pain or dramatic consequences, the rune stretched around my finger like oil, reforming instantly when I pulled away.

  "That was dumb, wasn't it?"

  "No shit." "No shit.

  Cass and Ted spoke in perfect unison—one glaring at me like I was the world's biggest moron, the other echoing the sentiment in my head. Even Gu Li fixed me with a look of colossal judgment.

  I sighed. Valor wasn't flaring. I felt fine. Picking up a stone, I tossed it through the rotating wall. Nothing happened. A rune rippled as the stone passed through, landing with a soft thud near the lures.

  I looked at Cass. Her eyebrows were raised, clearly expecting an explosion or death.

  The thought slammed into my head, sharp and alien. That voice again—definitely not mine. Why now? Before I could process it, I was moving.

  Taking a running start, I leaped through the rune wall.

  I landed hard, heart hammering. Quick self-check—all limbs attached, no new holes. The air here felt thick, cloying, saturated with that soul-deep wrongness. But otherwise... nothing.

  Cass shrugged and walked through the barrier to join me. She grimaced immediately.

  "Okay, yeah. Now I get the soul-puking thing."

  We approached the rods set in a line. The center one was substantially larger and, unlike the others, appeared inactive.

  "Ideas?" I asked aloud.

  Both Cass and Ted effectively shrugged—shoulders and mental indifference, respectively.

  I turned toward Gu Li, about to call for advice, when Valor screamed a warning that nearly shattered my skull.

  I spun. Swirling around the central rod like angry hornets were sickly violet glyphs as it sparked violently to life. The air—or maybe mana itself—was being sucked toward it. The space above the rod twisted, darkened, then ripped open with a nauseating squelch.

  A muscular humanoid creature dragged itself through the tear. Neon purple skin, black ooze dripping from its form. Eyes of raw violet energy. A long blue tongue lolled from its mouth like some cosmic dog from hell.

  "Is that a fucking Glid?" Cass yelled.

  It looked like one, but hobgoblin-sized instead of regular goblin. The creature grinned through a ghastly rictus, tongue flapping, and let out a low, bassy rumble that vibrated through my bones.

  Then Valor shrieked in my mind.

  I barely reacted in time. The creature was already on me, massive fist swinging. I threw myself backward, bringing Winchester up as it pivoted into a brutal kick. The blow struck my staff with the force of a wrecking ball, sending me flying. This thing hit like that amped-up golem from the trial grounds.

  I landed hard, rolled to my feet. Cass was faster. Her Orichalcum Hullcracker sang through the air, embedding ten centimeters deep in the creature's shoulder with an explosion of black ichor—then stopped dead. No cleaving. No killing blow.

  Cass was thrown off balance by the failed strike. The Glid seized the opening, kicking her hard enough to send her tumbling from the rune circle.

  With a grunt, the creature reached up, tore the heavy blade from its shoulder, and tested its weight. Those violet eyes locked onto me with predatory intelligence.

  An explosion of force. I brought Winchester's glaive up instinctively to meet the stolen Hullcracker. My knees nearly buckled from the impact. Then its tongue shot out, wrapping around my neck and squeezing—tight.

  Cass was suddenly there. Her dual spirit-steel swords flashed like scissors, slicing the tongue apart. The Glid stumbled back, gurgling. She didn't let up, ramming both blades into its chest. It roared, spraying black ichor, but barely registered the hits. She put her full weight behind the push, forcing it to its knees, muscles straining against leather armor.

  I shoved light-aspected mana into Winchester's blade and swung for its neck. The glaive passed through like slicing butter, cleanly decapitating the monster in a flash of golden light.

  The body immediately melted into goo. We staggered back, panting.

  "Are you alright?" Gu Li called down. "What was that thing?"

  I was about to answer when several black tears ripped open around the central clearing, followed by a high-pitched chime that made my teeth ache. All the violet glyphs flashed, cycling rapidly through neon colors—blue, pink, orange, green, back to violet. The largest rod pulsed white-hot.

  "Cass, move!" I grabbed her arm. We dove out of the runic circle as a bolt of pure violet light erupted from the central rod, rocketing skyward at impossible speed.

  It collided with the spirit realm's pale sun with a deep, resonant boom that sent ripples through reality itself. A gaping dark hole tore open in the celestial body's center, bleeding purple and black darkness.

  "Oh shit, I've seen this before!" I yelled as we scrambled up. "Run!"

  I glanced at Gu Li. He stared, aghast, at the wounded sky, completely oblivious as the rune-wall expanded outward like a neon tsunami, consuming jungle as it grew.

  Gu Li bellowed, struggling to turn his massive body on the narrow ledge. He slipped, scrabbling for purchase as he plummeted downward.

  The kaleidoscopic rune-wall surged forward and washed over him.

  No time to mourn. Cass pointed toward a Sylvarus doorway bleeding through into the collapsing realm. We sprinted, diving headlong through the opening into pristine marble as chaotic violet energies slammed against the threshold behind us. An unseen vacuum violently pulled away the spirit realm's view, plunging us into absolute darkness.

  "What the fuck was that?" I gasped.

  Before Cass could answer, a bone-shaking explosion reverberated through the structure, showering us with dust.

  I channeled light-aspected mana into Winchester. Its glow pushed back the oppressive darkness as we threw open the door and stepped into Sylvarus.

  Rain still fell, but the world was bathed in ominous, flickering luminescence. A colossal multicolored orb pulsed in the sky above the academy, casting shifting neon hues across slick marble and rain-swept courtyards.

  Then, the air directly in front of us tore open with a sound like ripping canvas. Two enormous, muscular hands—glowing sickly orange like the creature in the gorge—clawed at the tear's edges, wrenching it wider, forcing a passage through.